The hundredth year after Naruto's death.
Leaf was no longer the ninja village it had once been, but a city of peace infused with the aura of the omni-dimensions. There were no forehead protectors, no ninjutsu exams, no concept of war. People were born with the gentleness of the Seed of Transmitted Thoughts, and Chakra was used only to nourish plants, light lamps, and connect one another.
Because of the power of the omni-dimensional rhythm, Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki had endured, their appearances fixed in middle age as they watched over this overly peaceful world.
Until that day, in the soil on the outskirts of Leaf, the first thin black root emerged.
It was not like a plant, nor was it Chakra. It was cold, dry, and rejected all symbiotic aura. Every blade of grass and tree it touched withered instantly, and the faint light of the Water-Drop Beings went out the moment it came near.
Boruto sensed the abnormality at once. His Jōgan opened, yet even it could not see through the true nature of this black root—it did not belong to the omni-dimensions, nor to the Shinobi World. It had grown out of "nothing."
"Not an outside enemy. Not a living being." Boruto crouched before the withered grass. The moment his fingertips drew near, a cold force knocked them away. "This thing... is devouring 'symbiosis' itself."
On the seventh day after the black roots appeared, oblivion began spreading through Leaf.
A child suddenly forgot his own name;
A woman forgot the faces of her family;
A young ninja forgot what Chakra was.
It was not amnesia. Their bonds were being erased.
They became indifferent and solitary. They no longer smiled when they saw their companions, no longer felt close when they saw their families, and only found the