Lux activated teleportation and vanished instantly. At the same moment, Boruto and Kawaki, shocked, were freed from the binding jutsu, regaining their freedom.
"Hah—" Boruto and Kawaki gasped, asking in surprise, "Sensei, who was that guy?"
"Wait a moment. Both of you, prepare yourselves and don't resist my genjutsu…"
To avoid the enemy's Senrigan surveillance, Sasuke activated genjutsu, pulling Boruto and Kawaki's consciousness into a spiritual space to communicate there.
Arriving in the gray spiritual space, Boruto and Kawaki were shocked again but quickly calmed down.
"From now on, all our strategic discussions must take place in the spiritual space to avoid surveillance, understood?"
"Got it! I'll remember."
"I'll do it." Both nodded, and Sasuke continued, "As for that Lord…"
"Boruto, did Naruto ever tell you about Rikudo Sennin?"
"Dad mentioned him. Wait, was that guy Rikudo Sennin? The legendary god?!?"
"No, not Rikudo Sennin, but a true god, and he's on our side…" Sasuke briefly explained Tenshou Sennin's identity.
Though he'd only met him three times, Sasuke could still distinguish friend from foe and weigh basic pros and cons.
After listening, Boruto instantly felt more confident. He didn't care who the person was now. As long as they could help defeat the enemy, save his father, and avenge his mother, Boruto was willing to work with anyone—even a demon from hell.
Though Kawaki didn't fully grasp the meaning of gods and sennin, he at least understood the other party was an ally, not an enemy, and he was thrilled, feeling their chances of saving Naruto had greatly increased.
"Since he's a god and not afraid of Otsutsuki Isshiki at all, why not ask him to directly save the Seventh Hokage?" Kawaki asked Sasuke directly, with Naruto still his top priority.
"There's no help without a price. The Lord's support comes with a cost. You heard him earlier—only by destroying other villages can we save Naruto as soon as possible."
"Then let's do it!" Kawaki didn't hesitate, completely unconcerned with the fate of other forces.
Boruto wasn't as ruthless as Kawaki, but he also desperately wanted to save his father. So he asked, "Sensei, is there a way to work with other villages? Like, pretending to destroy them?"
"Boruto, do you think deceiving a god is easy?"
"…"
"Give it up! Even if you could, there's no chance now. Don't forget, the entire world sees us as Otsutsuki enemies—no village will cooperate with us…"
"I understand."
"Besides, your father is friends with the other four Kage. He wouldn't agree to us harming other villages for our own."
"Huh? Then what do we do?"
Boruto fell silent. Thinking it over, with his father's character, he indeed wouldn't agree.
"Naruto's not willing—did I say I'm not willing?"
"Sensei, you—"
"No more talk. We have a lot to do next, and the sins we'll bear will be heavy. We'll suffer greatly and spill much innocent blood. If you're not ready, you can refuse now. I won't force you." Sasuke asked seriously, his tone icy.
If Boruto and Kawaki chose to refuse, Sasuke wouldn't force them—he'd simply kill them both! This would prevent Isshiki from using Kawaki as a vessel and stop Boruto from becoming nourishment for the Divine Tree.
Sasuke had already decided that, when this was over, he'd sacrifice himself to use Rinne Tensei no Jutsu to revive Hinata and others, then leave everything to Naruto. If so, it was better for him to kill a weak-willed Boruto and Kawaki than let them fall into enemy hands.
"I'll never give up on the Seventh Hokage. To save Naruto, I'm willing to do anything!"
"Sensei! Don't underestimate me. The old me is dead. The me now won't fear any hardship!"
Kawaki and Boruto exchanged glances, both giving resolute agreement. They were now more determined than ever. Let alone committing crimes—even if asked to become demons, they wouldn't flinch.
"Good. Then let's begin!" Sasuke was very pleased.
He needed two assistants to help unify the ninja world and reclaim Naruto. If they couldn't even pass the first hurdle—resolve—it was better not to carry two burdens.
Now, it seemed the resolve of these two brats had at least passed, worthy of his intense training and honing!
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Meanwhile, in the inner secret base of the Kara Organization, Amado and Kashin Koji, who had narrowly escaped Konoha Village, quickly returned to Kara's headquarters.
Amado, still shaken, sat at the stone roundtable of the inner members, sipping strong tea and thinking with a furrowed brow.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Some subtle doubts."
"Why come back here to think? The fact that we betrayed the organization is already exposed. Returning to the headquarters now—isn't that just asking for death?" Koji questioned Amado.
He didn't understand why, in such a dangerous time, Amado insisted on returning to Kara's headquarters.
"I've found some issues and need to come back here to verify them."
"What issues?"
Amado lit a cigarette, asking softly, "Why did we go to Konoha Village?"
"To seek the Hokage's help, of course, to find a way to kill that Otsutsuki Sasuke together!"
"Which Hokage?"
"The Eighth Hokage, Uzumaki Code, obviously. Have you forgotten? The former Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Jigen, was killed by Otsutsuki Sasuke and Otsutsuki Naruto."
"Of course I remember. Uzumaki Code is Uzumaki Jigen's son, a pure-blooded Konoha ninja, right?"
"Correct."
"If so, why does the Eighth Hokage Uzumaki Code have a Kama seal, which only Otsutsuki vessels possess?" Amado pushed up his glasses, asking in a low voice.
"What? How do you know?"
"I discovered it through the modified frog contact you left in Konoha Village. You know, it can directly transmit images to my glasses."
After escaping Konoha, Amado used Koji's frog contact to observe the new Hokage, Uzumaki Code, and noticed something odd.
"Maybe Hokage Code was captured before, and Sasuke left a Kama on him?"
"Do you have any memory of that?"
"No… maybe he was captured secretly?"
"Then why is the Kama on Code a White Kama that can't reincarnate or revive?"
"This…" Kashin shook his head, saying he wasn't a detective and had no time to analyze these minor doubts.
"This is just one of my strange doubts. There's another—for example, who is the vessel of our leader, Otsutsuki Sasuke?"
"That's obvious—Otsutsuki Boruto!"
"Then why does Boruto have the Otsutsuki Momoshiki's Kama, not Otsutsuki Sasuke's?"
"This… what are you getting at?" Kashin frowned, feeling a bit confused by these doubts.
Amado shook his head, answering, "I'm not sure yet. But I feel my memories seem to have strange contradictions and conflicts with some real-world situations. I can't yet confirm whether it's my memories or reality that's the issue. So I need to come back to verify!"
"How do you plan to verify?"
"I need to meet Boro again. More precisely, I want to see some artificial humans I created that were supposed to be destroyed but were hidden by him…"
"Boro? Isn't he in another dimension belonging to Otsutsuki Sasuke?"
"As long as he's not dead, he'll definitely return."
"But what if Otsutsuki Sasuke and the others return to the headquarters first?"
"Isn't that why you're here? Even if we meet him, he won't kill us immediately. That's enough time for you to activate a summoning jutsu to get us out."
"No! That Otsutsuki Sasuke gave me a very strange feeling earlier, like he's far stronger than before! If we meet again, I'm really not confident I can escape him…" Koji replied warily.
His memories were also muddled, mistakenly equating Six Paths Sasuke with the former Jigen, making the difference between them seem unnaturally vast.
"No need to worry too much. By my estimation, he won't return this soon. He still needs to…" Amado took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling slowly after it passed through his lungs, answering confidently.
But before he could finish, a dark purple dimensional portal suddenly opened in the hall. The next second, Six Paths Sasuke, leading Boruto and Kawaki, stepped into the hall together.
"Leader? How could…?" Koji was shocked, immediately grabbing Amado beside him, preparing to retreat and flee.
But in front of Sasuke, he had no time to activate a summoning jutsu!
With a single Amenotejikara activated in a split second, Sasuke and Koji swapped places in less than the blink of an eye.
Sasuke appeared beside Amado, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Amado shuddered, nervously extinguishing his cigarette butt, and said submissively, fawning, "Leader, you…"
"Call me Lord Otsutsuki Sasuke!"
"Lord Otsutsuki Sasuke, you're back so soon?"
Sasuke glanced at Amado nearby, asking with a slightly manic grin, "Can't I come back? Isn't this Kara Organization my creation? I'm the leader of Kara, right?"