"Where are you going?"
"I'm not going anywhere... I just don't have much time left."
Soji gently shook his head. The motion was slight, but like every plan he had devised before, it brooked no doubt.
As though confirming his words, a layer of white light spread over the young man's body, making him seem suspended between reality and illusion.
His face, haggard and thin from years of illness, became ever more perfect beneath that filter, even gaining a touch of divine radiance... and gods could not walk freely among mortals.
Nyunaicho?
The Spirit Body Transfer Technique?
Or some other secret medical ninjutsu that had never been passed down?
"Omnipotent" ninja always squandered their abilities without restraint, creating all manner of shortcuts that defied fate! Yet when Erina met Soji's eyes, the countless possibilities that had flashed through her mind instantly vanished...
—If any of those methods could truly work, how could it possibly be her turn to remind him?
When perhaps the greatest medical ninja of this era had already written the final note beneath his own fate, who could reverse the tide of destiny and steer the future in an entirely different direction?
Erina could find no answer.
Standing at the crossroads of fate, she said nothing...
But had the hardships of the past years truly been endured in vain?
Compared with the confused second-generation Shadow she had been on the Riverside Market front line years ago, Erina now fully understood the rules by which the real world operated—and she refused to accept fate's arrangements!
Thus, the Sarutobi Clan's princess buried all her sorrow and despair deep within her heart.
Looking at the man before her, who could easily turn the entire world upside down, she silently swore to herself, making a promise that would never fade.
[*This