Introducing Them

Boruto stared in disbelief at the Kusanagi Blade lodged in his abdomen.

Overwhelming terror swallowed him whole.

I...

I've been stabbed?

I've been stabbed!?

No! I must be under a genjutsu!

Boruto endured the fear in his heart and the searing pain in his abdomen.

"Release!"

But there was no genjutsu. He had truly been stabbed, the blade piercing straight through him from front to back.

Boruto's face was full of disbelief as he slowly sank to the ground.

Am I... going to die?

When Future Sasuke saw Boruto get stabbed at the side of the field, his heart lurched, and he wanted to rush over to help.

But Shamu pressed a hand onto his shoulder.

"Don't panic. Take a closer look."

Future Sasuke carefully examined where the blade had entered Boruto's abdomen and relaxed slightly.

"Current Sasuke's control is already this precise?"

Shamu clicked his tongue. "Itachi gives Sasuke extra lessons every day."

Although Future Sasuke was already over thirty, he still felt a sourness well up in his heart.

Back then, he had wanted to learn, but there had been no one to teach him.

He had no choice but to defect from the village and follow Orochimaru.

But Orochimaru's teaching methods were not something ordinary people could endure.

Future Sasuke's swordsmanship had been completely self-taught, let alone anything particularly refined.

It was only after the battle at the Valley of the End, when he lost an arm, that he properly devoted himself to studying swordsmanship.

Even then, his progress had not been all that great.

Feeling the pain in his body, Boruto shakily reached out, wanting to pull out the blade.

Sasuke reached over and pulled it out in one motion.

If Boruto had pulled it out himself and shifted it even slightly, he would have been seriously injured.

With a sharp hiss.

Amid a burst of agony, Boruto felt a warm stream flow out from his wound.

Am I going to die?

For the first time, Boruto felt the terror of death. He lay on the ground, his mind a complete mess.

Shamu stepped forward, light from the Mystical Palm Technique glowing in his hand.

He pressed it directly onto Boruto's wound.

Boruto was already seeing his life flash before his eyes.

But a few minutes later, Shamu knocked him on the head.

"Why are you still lying there? Get up."

Boruto jolted awake as if from a dream.

He touched the wound on his abdomen.

I'm healed?

I don't have to die?

Boruto immediately sat up.

He looked left and right.

The pool of red blood on his abdomen told him that what had just happened was not a genjutsu. It was real.

"Lord Shamu, why am I all right?"

Having gone through a brush with death, Boruto spoke much more obediently now.

Before Shamu could answer, Sasuke held the Kusanagi Blade in his arms and said proudly, "That strike precisely avoided your internal organs. As long as you didn't move around, you wouldn't even have bled this much."

Boruto's face was full of disbelief. "How is that possible?"

Sasuke snorted.

"What's so impressive about that? I've practiced swordsmanship for years."

"Your disappearing Rasengan just now was pretty good, but it was too stiff."

"If you can't even control your own abilities, what are you going to fight with?"

Before Boruto could reply, Sasuke's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurried toward the edge of the training ground.

Fugaku and Mikoto had arrived.

Sasuke ran over, held his head high, puffed out his chest, and said something to them.

Shamu did not need to guess what Sasuke was doing.

"Get up already. Why are you still sitting on the ground?"

Shamu casually pulled Boruto to his feet, leaving Boruto somewhat flattered.

After all, Shamu had not seemed to like him much before.

Of course, Shamu had not suddenly come to like Boruto. It was only because Boruto was the son of Naruto, who had accompanied Shamu for many years.

That was why Shamu was willing to try teaching Boruto. If he were an outsider, Shamu would have thrown him into a cesspit to drown long ago.

For now, if he could be taught well, then great.

If not, then so be it.

Naruto from that world could worry about Boruto's future himself.

Seeing Boruto's expression, Shamu asked again.

"Little rookie, do you admit that you're not strong enough now?"

Boruto lowered his head. He had fought Naruto and lost.

He had fought Sasuke, and it had not merely been a loss. He had practically died outright.

Boruto looked dejected. "I really am not strong enough."

But Shamu said nothing more and simply patted Boruto on the shoulder.

"As long as you understand. Let's eat first."

Boruto did not understand why Shamu insisted on doing all this.

But he also understood that he truly had grown too little.

When his dad and Mr. Sasuke had been his age, they could have easily defeated him.

He used to think fighting was just fighting.

But he had just learned a lesson: if you lost a fight, you might very well die.

Boruto's thoughts churned, and he quieted down for once.

Shamu saw Fugaku and Mikoto speaking softly with Sasuke.

Sasuke gazed at Fugaku and Mikoto with a face full of happiness.

Future Sasuke stood nearby, silently taking in everything.

There seemed to be a ripple in his eyes.

"Has Tsunade come back yet?"

Shamu asked Itachi.

Itachi shook his head. "Lady Tsunade seems to be having quite a good time today. She probably won't be back for dinner tonight."

Shamu thought for a moment.

"Then leave her be. After dinner, go to the casino and bring her to Orochimaru's Lab."

"Understood, Shamu."

Shamu clapped his hands.

"All right, let's eat first. We still have other things to do after dinner."

Once Shamu spoke, everyone headed toward the dining hall together.

Everyone else was already used to Chinese food, but Boruto and Future Sasuke had never had it before.

There was a hint of wonder in their eyes.

After everyone had taken their seats, Mikoto picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and placed it in young Sasuke's bowl.

Then she picked up another piece and placed it in Future Sasuke's bowl.

Future Sasuke said softly, "Thank you."

Only then did young Sasuke notice that Future Sasuke was missing an arm. He thought his mother had given Future Sasuke food because of that.

But why were these two eating at the same table as them?

Sasuke truly did not know.

But before Shamu spoke, Sasuke did not ask.

Shamu scooped a spoonful of Mapo Tofu into his bowl.

"I haven't introduced the two of them to you yet."

"It's because their identities are rather special."

Among everyone present, only Naruto and Sasuke did not know.

Naruto raised his head from his rice bowl.

"Shamu, why are their identities special?"

Young Sasuke said nothing, merely waiting for Shamu to continue.

Shamu did not introduce the two directly.

Instead, he said, "The ability to foresee the future is a very wondrous thing."

"If future events are interfered with repeatedly on a large scale,"

"causing many people's original fates to change,"

"then this world will split into two different paths."

"The two paths will divide the world into two spacetime continuums. For example, in the first continuum, you might be a genin."

"But in the second continuum, because you found a good teacher, you might already have become a chunin."

Shamu spoke slowly, and Sasuke and Naruto listened intently.

"There are treasures in this world that can travel through time and space."

"They can return to the past from decades ago."

"But the past they return to may not be the past of their own continuum. It may be the continuum of another path."

"Do you two understand what I mean?"

Naruto and Sasuke both nodded solemnly.

They knew that what Shamu was about to say was the important part.

Shamu said to Naruto and Sasuke, "Now let me introduce them to you."

"This is Uchiha Sasuke."

"And this is Boruto Uzumaki."