"What's going on?" Naruto asked.
"Not sure." Boruto said, but his perception had extended and captured some information, "Someone was injured. Chakra Wave moved very chaotically, like... traces of erosion."
"Erosion?" Yamada also stood up, his face changed, "This is dozens of kilometers away from the core, how is it possible--"
"Go down and have a look." Naruto decided.
They squeezed through the crowd and saw the injured person surrounded by them. She was a young woman, about twenty years old, wearing ordinary peasant clothes, but now her clothes had been torn, and her skin was covered with black lines, as if something was crawling in her blood vessels.
"When did it start?" Boruto squatted down and checked her condition.
"Yesterday... last night..." an old man said tremblingly, "She said she was going to the mountains to collect medicine, but when she came back it turned out like this..."
Boruto's hand hovered above the woman's forehead, she closed her eyes, and felt deep into her body. The feeling of erosion was very familiar, very similar to the power of the original style, but there were some differences - rougher, more violent, like an untamed beast.
"It's not the influence of the core." He opened his eyes, "This is... the remnant. The remnant of Otsutsuki's power, scattered on the surrounding land, was accidentally touched by her."
"Can it be saved?" Sarada asked.
Boruto didn't answer immediately. He awakened the bridge deep in his consciousness and shared this situation with it.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Wild erosion." Qiao responded, with a professional calmness in his voice, "Ōtsutsuki Clan will inevitably leak some energy when traveling through the stars. Under the right environment, this energy will take root and form a seed-like structure, waiting for a host. She is not the first, and she will not be the last."
"Is there any way to clear it?"
"Yes. But it requires precise operation. If it is forcibly peeled off, it will damage her nervous system. If left unchecked, the erosion will consume her consciousness within three days."
"Teach me."
Qiao didn't hesitate and immediately passed on the relevant knowledge. It was a complex set of Chakra operating techniques that involved precise stimulation of multiple acupoints and a special resonance frequency. Boruto had never been exposed to this technique before, but under Qiao's guidance, he felt as if he had been practicing it for many years.
"I need a quiet environment." He raised his head and said to the people around him, "Carry her to the inn, and then everyone gets out."
"Are you a doctor?" someone questioned.
"No." Boruto said, "But I am the only one who can save her."
Naruto stood up, and Hokage's majesty silenced everyone. "Do as he said. I am Hokage of Konoha, and I guarantee it in my name."
The crowd became commotion, but finally obeyed. The woman was carried into the inn and placed on the tatami in Boruto's room. Boruto asked everyone to go out, including Naruto and Sarada, leaving only Qiao to guide him in his consciousness.
"The first step is to find the eroded Node." Qiao said, "In your perception, they should appear as black masses, attached to the neural network."
Boruto closed his eyes and injected Chakra into the woman's body. His perception was sharper than usual, as if it was magnified by the bridge. Soon, he saw those black masses - three, located at the heart, liver and the base of the spine.
"Found. Three Node."
"Very good. The second step is to establish a resonance channel. Adjust the frequency of your Chakra to be synchronized with mine, and then pass it through the contact point."
Boruto did as he was told. He felt the bridge's Chakra merged with his own, forming a new, more complex wave. That wave was transmitted into the woman's body through his palm, like a warm stream of water, wrapping those black masses.
"The third step is also the most difficult step." Qiao's voice became serious, "You need to convince those corrosive energies to leave voluntarily. You cannot force or deceive them, you must make them believe that leaving is the best choice for them."
"Persuasion? Are they conscious?"
"Weak consciousness. On an instinctual level. They want to survive, they want to expand, but they also fear death. You need to exploit that fear."
Boruto took a deep breath and focused his attention on those black masses. He did not use words, but used a more direct way to convey information to them.
"This is not suitable for you." He said in his mind, "This host is too weak to support your growth. If you continue to stay here, you will only be destroyed together. But there is a place for you to survive, a stronger and more stable container. Come with me, I will take you there."
He didn't know why he was saying this, and he didn't know if these energies could understand it. But Qiao told him that this was the right way, and he did it.
Silence. A long silence.
Then, the first mass moved. It slowly peeled off from the heart and flowed into his body along the Boruto Chakra channel.
"It's entering me!" Boruto exclaimed.
"Don't resist," Bridge said, "I'll handle it. Trust me."
Boruto forced himself to relax and let the black energy flow into his body. As soon as it entered, it was immediately wrapped in the light of the bridge, like ice and snow meeting the sun, quickly melting and transforming, and finally turned into a pure, attributeless Chakra.
"This is..."
"Purification." There was a sense of exhaustion in Qiao's voice, but more of a sense of satisfaction, "I can convert erosion energy into ordinary Chakra, but this process consumes a lot of money. I can still handle two. The third... I need your help."
"How can I help?"
"Share. I will introduce the purified Chakra into your meridian system, and you will store and release it. This will make you feel tired, but there will be no permanent damage."
"Come on."
The second lump also peeled off, and then the third. Each time, Boruto felt a heavy burden on his shoulders, like carrying an increasingly heavier stone. But when the pure energy flowed into his body, he felt a strange enrichment, like dry land encountering rain.
Finally, the last lump was removed. The black lines on the woman's skin gradually faded, and her breathing became steady and deep. She fell asleep, not in a coma, but in a real, healthy sleep.
Boruto collapsed on the floor, his body soaked in sweat. He felt more tired than ever before, but at the same time he felt unprecedentedly clear. The total amount of his Chakra remained unchanged, but the texture became purer, as if it had been thoroughly filtered.
"You did a great job," the bridge said, its voice weaker than usual, but with sincere appreciation. "Better than I imagined."
"Is this the meaning of your existence?" Boruto asked, "Purify the erosion and save the infected people?"
"This is one of them." Qiao said, "Ōtsutsuki Clan's original design was to act as a 'scavenger' to clean up the out-of-control energy Node during interstellar travel. But later, this function was Oblivion replaced by more direct conquest and plunder."