Isshiki's Memories

"What's going on?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not sure," Boruto said, but his senses had already reached out and picked up some information. "Someone's injured. Their chakra is fluctuating wildly, like there are... traces of erosion."

"Erosion?" Yamada stood up too, his expression changing. "We're dozens of kilometers from the core. How is that possible—"

"Let's go take a look," Naruto decided.

They pushed through the crowd and saw the injured person surrounded by people. She was a young woman, around twenty, wearing ordinary country clothes. But now her clothes were torn, and her skin was covered in black markings, as if something were crawling through her veins.

"When did it start?" Boruto crouched down to examine her condition.

"Yesterday... last night..." an old man said, trembling. "She said she was going into the mountains to gather herbs. When she came back, she was like this..."

Boruto held his hand above the woman's forehead, closed his eyes, and extended his senses deep into her body. The feeling of erosion was familiar, much like Isshiki's power had been back then, but there were some differences—it was rougher, more violent, like an untamed beast.

"It's not the core's influence." He opened his eyes. "This is... residue. Leftover Ōtsutsuki power, scattered across the surrounding land. She must have come into contact with it by accident."

"Can you save her?" Sarada asked.

Boruto didn't answer right away. Deep in his consciousness, he roused Bridge and shared the situation with it.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Wild erosion," Bridge replied, its voice professionally calm. "When the Ōtsutsuki Clan travel between stars, some of their energy inevitably leaks out. In a suitable environment, this energy takes root and forms structures like seeds, waiting for a host. She isn't the first, and she won't be the last."

"Is