Shadow Game

Night deepened, but the lights of Iwagakure, now serving as Battle City, still shone brilliantly as the bustling crowds began their nightlife.

Yet Boruto Uzumaki, walking among them, was in a foul mood. The humiliation of being utterly crushed by Haimā mingled with his father's uncomprehending reprimand, leaving him wanting nothing more than to wander alone through the noise and numb his feelings.

After wandering aimlessly to the end of a relatively quiet shopping street, he was about to turn back toward the hotel when a figure abruptly blocked his path.

The stranger was shrouded in a loose black cloak that concealed his face, giving off only a faint, chilling aura.

"You're Boruto Uzumaki from Konoha, aren't you?" A slightly raspy, teasing voice came from beneath the cloak. "You don't look very happy."

"Well? Interested in a duel? It might help you forget your troubles."

Irritated and unwilling to accept defeat, Boruto barely gave it a thought. He needed a victory to vent his anger, and he immediately accepted. "A duel? Sure! Just what I wanted!"

The cloaked stranger chuckled. "Come with me. This isn't a convenient place." He turned and headed deeper into a more secluded alley, where there was almost no light.

Suspecting nothing, Boruto followed him straight in.

They stood facing each other in a small, abandoned clearing at the end of the alley.

"Duel!!!" ×2

Both raised their Duel Disks at the same time. Yet the instant they declared the duel, something changed!

Boruto suddenly felt the air around him turn thick and cold. The faint voices and music drifting in from the main street vanished in an instant, as though something had swallowed them whole.

More frightening still, ink-black mist poured wildly from cracks in the ground and walls, spreading rapidly until it enveloped the