Gazing at Boruto and Kawaki, who stood in confrontation with Code, Naruto slowly walked away, leaving the alternate dimension that housed the Ten-Tails seedling.
Sensing his movement, Code let out a derisive laugh, his gaze, filled with killing intent, fixed deadly upon the two youths before him.
He had only one thought now—Kill Kawaki and Boruto!
In a base covered by pristine white snow.
Naruto looked down at Amado's corpse, which Code had bisected.
"Clearly, your backup plan was a little lacking."
With his strength, saving Amado wouldn't have been difficult, even if Code had already removed his limiter at that time. But regrettably, he didn't trust Amado, especially after learning that Code, Eida, and the others were his creations. This distrust had reached its peak. Even if, according to Amado's explanation, the reason Code and the others possessed such formidable abilities was entirely due to components extracted from the corpse of some unknown, yet ridiculously powerful, Otsutsuki.
Naruto pieced together the severed corpse on the ground and performed a simple suture.
Of the Six Paths, he currently only had the Deva Path (Sekiro), Animal Path (Yomi), and Naraka Path (Obito). The Human Path, Asura Path, and Preta Path positions were still vacant.
A living Amado would be impossible for him to control. Thus, a dead Amado, refined into the Asura Path, would be an excellent tool. Amado's combat strength was secondary; the knowledge within his head was what Naruto truly valued. The Land of Dragon was still lacking a Chief Science Executive Officer.
Originally, his target had been Orochimaru, but getting Orochimaru to wholeheartedly provide technological support for the Land of Dragon's development would involve many complications. A particularly important point was that his goals were contrary to the mainstream ideology of the shinobi world. Allowing an outsider to know too many core secrets could easily lead to problems. Especially since this person was Orochimaru.
Amado, refined into the Asura Path, would be much more useful. Supported by Yin-Yang Release, the knowledge in Amado's head wouldn't be lost too significantly. Coupled with the basic technology he had traded for with this world's Konohagakure, it would be enough to support a technological revolution in the Land of Dragon.
In his plans, the shinobi world was destined for unification. The strife among the Five Great Nations, the distorted "one nation, one village" political system, the malformed development of productivity—only after unification could these problems be better and more quickly resolved.
Half an hour later.
Naruto stopped his work. The simple repair of the corpse was complete. The next step was to place chakra receivers—creations of Yin-Yang Release, black rods—into Amado's body. After completing this, it would be the final step: using the dōjutsu of his Rinnegan to transform him into the Asura Path.
Meanwhile, the battle between Boruto, Kawaki, and Code had reached a fever pitch.
Code, after removing his limiter, had experienced a qualitative leap in both his spatial abilities and physical strength. Furthermore, a large number of White Zetsu-like puppets were wearing them down from the sidelines. Even though Boruto and Kawaki had both mastered the power of Karma, this battle was exceptionally difficult.
Kawaki thrust out a black rod, pinning a Zetsu-like puppet firmly to the ground. Before the other puppets could surround him, he quickly used his Karma to absorb all the chakra from its body. After half an hour of intense fighting, his and Boruto's chakra reserves had reached their limits. What they needed to do now was to find a way to absorb enough chakra from these puppets.
But Code wasn't blind. How could he let them absorb chakra? Claw marks spread out, and a sharp claw shot out from the mark on a puppet's chest, slashing towards Kawaki's neck.
Boruto seized the opportunity. The Karma pattern covering half his body emitted a faint blue glow, and his figure appeared beside Code at terrifying speed.
Through their earlier battle, the two had also discovered a flaw—or rather, not quite a flaw—in Code's fighting style: when Code used his limbs for long-range attacks, he himself couldn't make large-scale movements. The reason it wasn't considered a true flaw was entirely because—Code could retract his limbs in an instant.
POW!
Their shins collided heavily. The terrifying force directly cracked the ground beneath them. Boruto's expression remained unchanged. Using their clashing shins as a pivot, he launched a roundhouse kick towards Code's face.
The high-intensity battle, the pressure of life and death, allowed them to gradually unleash the "foundations" they had accumulated during their recent training. In terms of learning knowledge, their intelligence could only be described as average, but when it came to combat intelligence, they were maxed out.
Code's expression darkened slightly. He leaned back, narrowly dodging Boruto's sweeping kick. If at the beginning, he had been absolutely confident in slaughtering the two of them, as the battle progressed, the scales had begun to tip. These two bastards were familiarizing themselves with Otsutsuki combat methods at a terrifying speed.
Kawaki, after shaking off the surrounding puppets, quickly locked onto Code's position. Seizing the moment, he activated Daikokuten, and a heavy cube plummeted directly towards Code.
Atop a five-meter-tall, burly puppet, Code climbed out from a claw mark, gasping for breath. His chakra had also reached its limit. He stared at the two with hatred, his heart filled with unwillingness. The current scene was completely different from the glorious future he had envisioned. He had thought that after removing his limiter, apart from Eida and her brother, he could effortlessly crush anyone in the shinobi world with terrifying power, replant the God Tree, devour the "Fruit," and become a new Otsutsuki. And finally, he would put Eida in her place.
"You just wait!" he said coldly. As his voice fell, his figure vanished from the spot.
Kawaki walked over to Boruto's side, looking sideways at his brother from another mother. "You alright?"
Boruto pulled his hand out from the body of a large Zetsu-like puppet. Feeling the chakra replenishing within him, he didn't speak, merely offering his fist.
The baptism of life and death. The naivety and ignorance that had once filled their youthful faces were now replaced by resolve and courage.
Their two fists bumped. The power of Karma intertwined, and a space-time tunnel appeared before them.
Following Code's traces, the two pursued him.
The mission objective their teacher had given them was—Kill Code!
If they couldn't kill Code, neither of them needed to return to Konoha.
"They're chasing me?" Having just appeared in a desolate hilly area, Code sensed Boruto and Kawaki's presence, and his expression darkened. But he didn't panic too much. Instead, he quickly sensed the claw mark he had left in Sunagakure and vanished again.
As the three began their chase, Naruto's work was also nearing its end.
The corpse lying on the ground slowly opened its eyes, revealing one golden and one black eye. The golden pupil, patterned with concentric circles, emanated an air of nobility and sublimity.
The Asura Path remained dazed for a moment. After processing the residual information from its original body, it looked towards its creator nearby.
"What do we do next?"
"After confirming Code's death, we return to our original world." Naruto walked over to a nearby wine cabinet and took out a bottle of red wine. The gains from this trip to this world had already exceeded his expectations; staying longer would just be a waste of time.