Boruto understands. The planet is afraid of being alone, and this fear makes it tend to choose the "safe" option, even if that means killing possibilities. Zeroth Generation Node was sealed, not because of failure, but because of being too "successful".
"What do you need from me?" he asked.
"It's not about doing, it's about not doing," Zeroth Generation Node's form began to shrink, directing the remaining energy to Boruto, "Reject my guidance, reject the 'shortcut' provided by the planet. Tell it that you are willing to take the risk of failure in exchange for a real future. This seal -" its voice gradually faded, "- is my last gift. Keep it closed until you are ready to face your own destiny instead of inheriting ours."
Energy poured into Boruto's body, not as a plunder, but as a gift. He felt that his Light Pattern had undergone some kind of qualitative change, becoming more stable and more autonomous. Zeroth Generation Node injected his last independence into him, ensuring that he would not become a pure extension of the planet.
"Also," before falling completely silent, the ancient existence left the last message, "Be careful of the 'gardeners'. They are not the survivors of the previous generation, but the embodiment of the screening mechanism itself. The 'help' they provide are all carefully designed traps."
Boruto suddenly opened his eyes and found that he had returned to the sea water, and the sealing interface was closed behind him. The hole stopped expanding, and the Runes array stabilized again, but the arrangement changed subtly - from imprisonment to... commemoration?
He went upstream, and Light Pattern drew a lonely track in the deep sea. Five Great Nations was waiting for his report, his father was waiting for his return, and Sarada was waiting to share with him the discovery of the man in black robe.
But he knew that the real battle had just begun. Not with the planet, not with the screening mechanism, but with that tempting, safe, and perfect fate.
In the process of rising, Boruto made a decision. He would not tell Five Great Nations the whole truth, at least not now. Zeroth Generation Node's warning was too important to be reduced to a bargaining chip in political games. He would build an alliance, not based on strength, but on the courage to face the unknown together.
The first member, he thought, should be Kurotsuchi who dared to question whether he was still a "human". Because the sharpest questions often come from the deepest concerns.
The sea shimmers above, like the entrance to another world.
When Boruto broke out of the water, the setting sun was dyeing the sea surface blood red. Waiting for him was not only Kirigakure's search and rescue team, but also Sarada - she was standing on the speedboat at the front, Sharingan burning in the twilight.
"You've changed," she said, not as a question, but as a statement.
Boruto looked down at his hands, Light Pattern now showed a more stable golden color instead of the previous faint blue. "I accepted the gift, but rejected the inheritance."
"Explanation."
"Get aboard," Boruto smiled, with a newfound heaviness in his smile, "We need to talk about 'The Gardener'. And, I need you to do me a favor--"
"What?"
"Contact Kurotsuchi. Tell her that I agree to be monitored, but the condition is that she must perform it in person. Some things require face-to-face lies to convey."
Sarada raised her eyebrows, but did not ask. She knew Boruto too well, or in other words, she knew too well the existence that used to be Boruto. If he said he needed a lie, then the truth must be too heavy to bear directly.
The speedboat sailed in the direction of Kirigakure. The Chakra hole on the sea was no longer visible. Only Boruto could feel its pulsation underwater - slow, steady, and waiting.
Above their heads, the first star lit up. Boruto looked up and realized that it was not a star, but some anti-Light Spot. Raikage satellite in low-Earth orbit, or something else.
The planet is whispering, the gardener is observing, Zeroth Generation Node is sleeping in the seal.
A new game has begun, and the rules are being written in real time by the choices of each participant.
Boruto continued to dive, surpassing the death limit of three thousand meters, four thousand meters, and five thousand meters. Seawater is no longer a liquid here, but is shaped by extreme pressure into some strange medium between solid and fluid. His Light Pattern automatically adjusts and extracts the energy required to maintain its form from the surrounding environment - not Chakra, but the more basic quantum fluctuations that constitute the substance itself.
At a depth of 6,400 meters, the seafloor suddenly disappeared.
It was not an abyss, but the outline of a city rising from the darkness. Boruto's perception was violently dizzy the moment it touched it - the scale of this city exceeded any known architectural scope. It was not built on the seabed, but in a "hollowed out" space on the seabed, a spherical cavity with a diameter of more than fifty kilometers, and the seawater was excluded from the dome by some kind of force field.
Ōtsutsuki Clan's first stronghold.
Boruto passed through the force field interface and entered this ruin that has sunk for more than ten thousand years. There is no water here, only a thin atmosphere, with the smell of metal and ozone. His Light Pattern drew a bright trajectory in the air, lighting up the surrounding scene--
Architecture. But not architecture designed for humans.
All structures present some kind of fusion of biology and machinery. The walls are like solidified blood vessels, the ground is covered with textures similar to synapses, and the ceiling... Boruto looked up and saw countless crystals inlaid on the dome, each of which contained a miniature ecosystem, like frozen amber.
This is Laboratory. A planetary scale Laboratory.
Boruto moves along the main passage, and every step he takes activates the sleeping system. Light Pattern and the nerve texture on the ground produce Resonance. The ancient energy veins flow again, and the bioluminescence on the wall lights up one after another, as if to welcome - or warn - this uninvited guest.
At the end of the passage is a spherical space, the core of the city. Here, Boruto saw the "seed".
It is suspended in the center of the space, about three meters in diameter, and its surface is covered with Light Pattern, which is similar to the skin of Boruto, but is older and more complex. The seed is pulsing slowly, and every contraction is accompanied by a slight distortion of the surrounding space, and every expansion releases some kind of... scanning wave.
Boruto felt that his consciousness was touched. It was not an invasion, but an inquiry. The seeds were detecting him, evaluating him, and the standards of evaluation frightened him - that was the logic with the "bridge" Common Origin, the algorithm of the reaper.
But the response was unexpected.
Not an aggressive red, but something close to... a golden color of joy. Boruto felt that an ancient recognition mechanism was activated, and the seeds classified him, and the result of the classification made him feel cold all over.
"Nursery Administrator candidate. Status: early development. Priority: highest."
"What?" Boruto asked in consciousness, "I am not the administrator, I am--"
"Gene sequence confirmation. Otsutsuki Hamura descendant of bloodline dilution. Planetary neural network junior Node. Meets the basic qualifications of an administrator." The seed responded with a certain mechanical tenderness, like a teacher evaluating a student's homework, "Abnormal: Autonomous awakening. Standard implantation procedures were not accepted. Recommendation: Complete the transformation immediately and take over the management authority of this Node."
Boruto took a step back, Light Pattern turned defensive blue due to alertness. "What if I refuse?"
The seed was silent for a moment. In this short gap, Boruto felt that some more ancient existence was awakened - not the seed itself, but the "memory" sealed in the seed.
That was a fragment of the "Bridge". It was not the young, chaotic, fearful and curious planetary consciousness he was with Symbiosis now, but the older and colder "Bridge" - a harvesting network across the stars, a cosmic-level mechanism that converted countless planets into energy sources.
Memories come flooding back.