Dual Awakening

Voices rang out simultaneously from every corner of the conference hall. Boruto realized he had moved without even noticing, leaving afterimages of Light Patterns in the air. When he gathered himself back together, he stood in the middle of the conference table, while the representatives of the Five Great Nations sat frozen in shock.

"You want answers," he said, his voice carrying a faint Resonance that formed a strange harmony beneath the wooden dome. "I can give them to you. But not through surveillance, not through militarization, but through understanding."

He raised a hand, and Light Patterns wove a complex three-dimensional image in the air: a map of the global distribution of Purifiers, as perceived through the planetary network. Forty-seven thousand Light Spots glimmered, each representing a life undergoing transformation.

"Selection isn't destruction," Boruto said. "At least, not entirely. The planet is searching for intelligent life forms that can live in Symbiosis with it. Purifiers are candidates, but they aren't the only possibility."

"What do you mean?" Chojuro asked.

Boruto was about to answer when every screen in the conference center suddenly flickered at once, switching to an emergency call. The Kirigakure emblem appeared amid static, and a drenched shinobi appeared on-screen, with churning, ink-black seawater behind him.

"Emergency report! One hundred and twenty nautical miles east of Kirigakure, a massive Chakra void has appeared! It's over three kilometers in diameter and expanding at a rate of fifteen kilometers per hour! All living things that come into contact with the area have their life force instantly drained, including—" The image shook violently. "Including the Tailed Beast! The Three-Tails' Jinchuriki tried to approach, and the Tailed Beast Chakra inside him was forcibly stripped away!"

Silence fell over the conference hall. Boruto felt the planet's "whisper" suddenly turn sharp. It wasn't fear,