[The Red-Eyes Black Dragon answered with a low whimper. Then thick white smoke engulfed his enormous body.]
[When the smoke cleared, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon was gone.]
[Boruto felt a faint warmth in his breast pocket. He reached in and took out the Red-Eyes Black Dragon card once more.]
[The card's glow had faded, but the black dragon pictured on it remained lifelike, as though it held boundless power and an unbreakable bond.]
[Boruto gripped it tightly, then tucked it back against his chest with utmost care, as close to his heart as he could.]
[He took one last look at the valley where they had fought a bloody battle and which was now beginning to recover. In the distance, the people of Kirigakure had begun working in orderly fashion. Boruto turned and followed Chojuro, Uncle, and Jade toward the Mizukage Building.]
The Canopy Screen's vision ended there.
An unprecedented silence settled over the Mizukage Office.
The Canopy Screen had long since dimmed, but its final image remained: Ao, his body ravaged until barely half of it remained, resolutely detonating his last Chakra and the mechanisms within him to take a powerful enemy down with him and protect Kirigakure's gate.
And then there were the words he had spoken to the Kirigakure Three Shinobi beside him as he lay dying, his voice faint but unmistakably clear: "Support Chojuro. Protect Kirigakure..."
Those words were branded into Mei Terumi's and Chojuro's hearts.
Chojuro was already sobbing uncontrollably. Tears blurred his glasses, and his shoulders shook.
Senior Ao had always worn a stern face, judged Chojuro with the harshest eye, and scolded him now and then for being too indecisive. Yet at the end of his life, Ao would entrust him with such a heavy responsibility and such profound faith.
Mei Terumi stood