The Swordsman of Sunagakure

"No," Boruto said. "That was their choice. All we can do is... stay with them."

He began to "wander." Not by projecting his consciousness through the network, but by moving his physical body—something he had learned from the old man, from Okita, and from every being who had chosen the "third path." Some truths could only be reached... by walking.

He went to Sunagakure first.

The young kunoichi was still working in the medical tent, but her Light Pattern had undergone a transformation. It no longer flickered faintly; now it pulsed with a kind of... steadiness, like a heartbeat, like breathing. When she saw Boruto, she wasn't surprised. She only smiled.

"I knew you'd come," she said. "Not because I foresaw it, but because... I waited."

"Your answer," Boruto asked directly. "What did it change?"

She thought for a long time, so long that Boruto thought she wouldn't answer. Then she pointed outside the tent—at a child playing, missing one leg but laughing brightly.

"Him," she said. "Three days ago, he asked me, 'Big sister, am I going to die?' I said, 'Yes.' He asked, 'Then why should I laugh?' I said, 'Because you're still alive right now.'"

She turned to Boruto. There was no dazzling Mangekyo in her eyes, no sharpness of the Byakugan, only a kind of... transparent calm.

"My answer didn't change anything," she said. "It just lets me... be there. When he asks, when he laughs, when he... dies."

Boruto felt the Light Spot tremble in his palm. It had been following him all along, like some loyal pet, and like something... watching him. At that moment, it seemed to... approve.

"Would you be willing to go somewhere deeper?" Boruto asked. "Not as a source of power, just as... a witness. Some Nodes in the network