The moonlight was diffused, making the moon's glow hazy and the path indistinct.
Boruto slipped back into the village for a moment, climbing through a window and recalling his shadow clone. Lacking enough information, he left one clone behind to keep the story moving before he left again.
Konoha was quiet under the night lights. In the neon-touched moonlight, a lone shadow stretched long toward the village wall.
Deserting the village would brand him a missing-nin, but Boruto knew this trip would change many things.
He stepped up and easily vaulted the wall. A cool breeze brushed past, sharp and invigorating.
According to the movie version of the story, the passage to the moon ran through a cave where a glowing spring flowed — the bridge between the ninja world and the moon.
Fortunately, the ninja world had convenient thunder chariots; otherwise, traveling at his own pace would have taken until dawn and back again.
The thunder chariot's roar faded as Boruto leapt from its roof and pushed into a primeval forest.
Just as he was puzzling over the cave's entrance, a cloaked figure detached itself from the trees. Boruto tensed. Could it be…?
The cloaked person lifted their hood, revealing a head of pure white hair.
…One of Toneri's attendants.
"Since you wished to meet me, I have no choice but to come and welcome you, Chosen One!" the attendant said.
"In person?" Boruto asked, making Toneri hesitate for a moment.
"We were discovered," the attendant admitted with a wry laugh. "Given our limited chakra, we dare not appear in our true forms in the ninja world."
"All right. Take me to the spring in the passage. The village isn't a place to talk." Boruto said.
"Very well." The attendant accepted and took Boruto's hand, and they flew off together.
There was no other way; with Naruto's powerful sensory network, if he discovered the figure remaining in the village was only a clone, he'd search everywhere. It would be embarrassing if anyone thought Boruto had been kidnapped.
At the outer edge of the cave, Toneri peered at the passage entrance framed by wasteland and frowned. It would be risky to use wide-range techniques here — they could be detected by strong senses.
"Toneri, lend me a little chakra, just enough to open the Jōgan," Boruto asked.
"Hm?" The attendant sounded surprised, but did as requested.
In the movie, the Pure Eye could resonate with the spring water and open the dimensional passage to the moon. If Boruto's eye could link with the spring, it should form the key.
"You seem familiar with your own eye. Didn't you only awaken it recently?" Toneri remarked.
"Oh? You arrived early, too," Boruto thought.
Boruto's clear eye glowed like a key. It resonated with the golden spring water, and the space between worlds blurred. Bubbles rose in the spring, and in a shimmering golden light, the two coordinates joined.
Outside the towering palace on the moon, life still clung to the ruins of ancient craftsmanship.
Toneri paused, closing his eyes as if recalling past glory. He still had that same head of white hair and wore a neat blue kimono; his skin was pale, almost albino, and his lips curved faintly even with his eyes closed.
Even in the desolate moon, the arrival of living people was something like sunshine.
"Welcome, Boruto," Toneri said softly.
"Hello, Senior Toneri," Boruto replied.
"To be frank, I foresaw turmoil in the ninja world. The future will be overturned, and plunderers from the stars will come to take everything," Boruto said plainly.
Toneri appeared surprised. "Oh?"
"I need power — the power to change things." Boruto's tone turned heavy. Toneri's body stiffened as if he felt the weight of that resolve. "I can feel your determination."
"You should know more about awakening the Tenseigan. Will you help me?" Boruto asked.
"Your physique may not be sufficient to bear a full Tenseigan," Toneri warned, frowning. "How much resolve do you truly have? How much will you sacrifice for the future of the ninja world?"
Boruto smiled easily, an edge of steel under the calm: "I call myself a mortal, yet I slay gods."
"Then show me," Toneri said.
Toneri took Boruto's hand, then casually tossed him aside as if discarding trash. Boruto's body rose uncontrollably, soaring high until he brushed the moon's outer membrane. From that height, ht he could see much of the moon and its ruined beauty.
The palace area itself was lush — flowers, splendid halls — but beyond that lay only desolation. The Ōtsutsuki stronghold had once flourished, then declined into ruin.
"Do you see this?" Toneri's voice echoed, laced with sorrow. "All of it."
His tone carried grief and loneliness. "I once sought to change everything, but I did so without knowing the truth. I tried to destroy the ninja world and rebuild the Ōtsutsuki order."
In the en,d, he was stopped. Tou-san — Naruto Uzumaki — awoke and prevented that future, saving Toneri's life and opening his eyes.
Boruto already knew the outline of that story, but hearing Toneri recount it still made his hands sweat.
Given Toneripowers er then combined with an artificial Tenseigan, Boruto thought even Tou-san would have struggled to stop him.
"The ninja world holds our ancestors' hopes. Naruto and the others made me realize the ninja world has not failed, and the Sage of Six Paths was right," Toneri said. "There before will help you."
As if deciding something, Boruto returned to the ground and stood beside Toneri.
Toneri's eyes — empty in places, flickering in others — reflected a sorrow Boruto could read like a book.
"I will entrust you with my chakra. You are Naruto Uzumaki's son. I believe in him, and I believe in the hope of the ninja world," Toneri said.
"A portion of my chakra will help you awaken the Tenseigan; another portion will modify your body," he continued. "This is all I can offer now."
A ball of deep-blue chakra floated like a calm flame and drifted into Boruto's body.
At first, the sensation was overwhelming power and vitality. A small portion poured into his right eye; it opened slowly. More flowed into his left eye, which shone dimly beneath its lid like a faint star.
The majority circulated through his body, cleansing and reshaping meridians and tenketsu. His physique changed — like bamboo after spring rain, vigor pushing through. Boruto's latent bloodline stirred; dormant strength awakened.
—A pseudo-Six Paths body.
"My modified physique should withstand a single Tenseigan," Toneri said. "The Jōgan is still mysterious; I cannot help with that."
Toneri's own body showed its limits. Through his vision, Boruto perceived hollowness within — the once blazing spirit reduced to a few flickers.
"Your body…" Boruto began.
"Honestly, I can't offer more. Power can mislead. Your path will be long and hard." Toneri's voice softened. "Still—I will help."
Toneri's expression shifted. "I once sensed resonance from another Tenseigan in the ninja world, as if one had been taken from a descendant of Kaguya on Earth."
"Hm?" Boruto frowned.
"If you find a chance, seek out the truth for me," Toneri requested.
"Understood," Boruto agreed solemnly.
"All right. Go now. There is still much to do. I look forward to seeing the ninja world flourish under your leadership."
Touched, Boruto warned, "Beware the Ōtsutsuki in the starry sky."
"They are likely the powerful clan Kaguya feared. I will be cautious," Toneri promised. They exchanged a brief, reluctant smile.
—
Author's note:
Toneri did not take Boruto to the moon directly because he lacked the power. The palace puppets drew their power from an artificial Tenseigan, which Naruto and his allies had already shattered.
As for Boruto's pseudo-Sage Paths body: Boruto already possesses a Sage-like physique, and his bloodline traces back to the Sage of Six Paths; coupled with Hinata's genes, he is arguably the human closest to Kaguya.