"Not sure," Boruto also lowered his voice, but there was a reluctant arc at the corner of his mouth, "But I have to do it."
Naruto took a step back, the golden light around him converged, and the pressure on the edge of the platform weakened. He walked towards the exit, stopped at the threshold, and did not look back.
"Seventy minutes," his voice was as steady as a mountain, "Boruto, I'm counting outside. It won't miss one second."
After saying that, he disappeared into the darkness outside the door.
There were only three people left in the room. The light of the container became more and more dazzling, and the counterclockwise rotation brought a nauseating dizziness. Boruto felt an invisible pressure spreading from the center of the container, squeezing every inch of space.
Sarada walked to him and lowered his voice. "Boruto, have you thought about it?"
"Not yet," Boruto closed his eyes, "Give me three minutes."
"Okay. I'm going to keep an eye on Yamada, and you go and say goodbye to Shi."
Boruto walked to the edge of the platform, turned his back to the other two people, completely cut off his perception of the outside world, and sank all his mind into the sea of consciousness.
"Shiki," he said in his mind, "Time is running out. Just tell me--are you willing?"
Shi was silent for a moment deep in his consciousness. It was not hesitation, but more like sorting out a lifetime of memories.
"I do," he replied, "But I have a condition."
Boruto didn't expect there would be conditions. "Say."
"After the process is over, no matter what form I become, no matter what traces remain in the core, don't look for it. It is no longer me. Promise me, Boruto."
Boruto's throat seemed to be blocked by something, and it was unbearably sour. But he nodded hard. "I promise you."
"Also," Shi paused, "Before I start, I want to leave part of the information I know in your body in the form of Chakra imprint. It is not my consciousness, but some data about the logic of divine operation. You will need these things in the future."
Boruto was stunned for a moment, then nodded. "Okay."
A warm current surged into his neural circuits instantly, and a huge and ancient flow of information washed away his cognition like a flood.
Boruto When I opened my eyes, I felt a slight dizziness.
It was not pain, but a brief downtime when the brain processed excessive information. The imprint left by the style was still beating on the nerve endings, like a long unfinished poem, each word of which was precise, but the meaning was still incomplete.
He stood firm and turned to Yamada, his eyes clear.
"Let's get started."
Yamada took a deep look at him, the look in his eyes was complicated and difficult to distinguish, there was admiration, guilt, and more of a kind of numbness after the dust had settled.
"Stand to the center of the platform. Chakra output remains stable without fluctuations. If you feel your consciousness being pulled, don't resist, don't take the initiative to cater to it, let it flow naturally."
"That's all?"
"That's all."
Boruto looked at Sarada.
Sarada moved to the left, Sharingan locked every Node in the container, and his voice was terrifyingly calm. "Start. The seventy-minute hourglass has leaked to the bottom."
She didn't look at Yamada, but Yamada subconsciously took half a step back. Under the gaze of those eyes, no lies or changes could be hidden.
Boruto stepped onto the platform.
There was a subtle tremor from the stone patterns under his feet, as if the earth was holding its breath. As he approached, the blue-gold light in the container suddenly lit up, and the counterclockwise speed suddenly accelerated, and then was forcibly suppressed back to its original frequency.
Deep in his consciousness, Shi was heartbreakingly quiet. He didn't speak, didn't move, he just existed, like a candle at the last moment before burning out, bright and decisive.
Boruto mobilizes Chakra to transport outwards smoothly.
The moment Chakra touched the edge of the container, the light wrapped around his arm like a living thing. The counterclockwise vortex stopped for a moment, and then reversed.
First there was stillness, deathly silence.
Then, clockwise.
A little, a little, faster and faster.
The style moved.
It does not collide outward, but sinks downward. Like water droplets flowing into the sea, like a wanderer returning home, it is natural and smooth, without any hindrance.
Boruto clearly felt the flow. He neither resisted nor followed. He was just like a ferryman, standing steadily on the river bank and watching the ship sail to the other side.
For a moment, he felt a huge emptiness.
It is not the pain of loss, but that a corner that has always been filled suddenly becomes empty, and the cold wind pours in, which is strange and biting.
But the emptiness only lasted for a moment.
The light in the container has completely reversed. The clockwise blue and gold Light Pattern has been rearranged, and the originally dense and chaotic river has been sorted out in order, and everyone has returned to their place.
The low-frequency roar disappeared.
The shaking of the platform stopped.
The world was so quiet that only the sound of spinning light was left.
Boruto walked off the platform. Chakra had exhausted a lot and his legs were a little weak, but he did not fall down. He just found a place to sit down by the platform and gasped for air.
Sarada walked over and stood next to him. She did not check the injury, but just took a deep look at him to confirm that he was still "here".
"Is it over?" Boruto asked Yamada, his voice a little hoarse.
Yamada was concentrating on scanning the container, and the veins on Byakugan popped out. After a full minute, he slowly exhaled. "The consciousness has returned to its original position. The rotation is stable, the dissipation has stopped, and the core state... is normal."
"That's the end."
"... Yes."
Sarada sat down next to him, and the two of them were silent in front of the calmly rotating light.
"Are you okay?" She broke the silence, with a unique kind of awkward concern in her tone.
"It's okay," Boruto touched his chest, "I just feel like... there's something missing in my head."
"If something is missing and you can accurately describe "something is missing," it means it's not missing much." Sarada snorted, "It's still within the normal range."
Boruto was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly. Although this logic is strange, it is inexplicably reassuring.
"Yamada," he spoke again, "Last question. You said evolution, how will evolution happen after the consciousness of God returns?"
Yamada was silent for a long time, so long that Boruto thought he was making up some theory again.
"... I don't know." Yamada finally said, with an unprecedented level of exhaustion in his voice, "I have deduced countless possibilities, but there is not enough data to support any of them. This is an event that exceeds all documented records. All I can do now is wait and observe."
This may be the most human-like sentence Yamada said today. There is no theory, no ambition, only honesty when facing the unknown. For a person who has gambled his whole life, the three words "I don't know" are harder than admitting failure.
Boruto accepted this answer and stood up with his support on the ground.
"Let's go," he said, "Sarada, you're keeping Yamada, let's go find Naruto."
""Escorted"?" Sarada raised an eyebrow and repeated, "You mean escorted?"
"You can call me whatever you want, but he can't run away."