Chapter Summaries

Centipede Elder overwhelmed the group’s defenses, forcing them to flee toward Sunagakure while Sasori of the Red Sands attacked from his Red Wing Mark III. After Centipede Elder unleashed a devastating rolling sandstorm, it fixed its sights on Sunagakure.

• Yeto blocked Centipede Elder’s tail strike with a Nen barrier, but the impact exhausted her, and Boruto failed to summon the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
• Sasori of the Red Sands arrived in the Red Wing Mark III and attacked Centipede Elder, buying time for Child Emperor, Shinki, Yeto, Boruto, and Jackie Chan to escape toward Sunagakure.
• Child Emperor relayed the monster’s data to Sasori, who assessed its armor and identified physical force against structural weak points as the best way to damage it.
• Centipede Elder used Centipede Grand Roll to generate a massive sandstorm that battered the fleeing group’s defenses for more than five minutes.
• After the storm ended, the group saw that Centipede Elder had created a huge crater and was now staring toward Sunagakure.

Sasori summoned the massive Mountain Range Gundam to fight Elder Centipede while Boruto and the others watched from an off-road vehicle. When Elder Centipede trapped the Gundam, Sasori summoned the faster Hayate Gundam, and the two machines began working together to overwhelm the monster.

• Sasori summoned the Mountain Range Gundam, which blocked Elder Centipede's energy blast with its Tower Shield.
• Mountain Range charged Elder Centipede and wounded it with the Ship-Splitting Sword, but Elder Centipede wrapped its limbs around the Gundam and attacked its head.
• Sasori summoned the Hayate Gundam, which severed the limbs holding Mountain Range.
• Mountain Range punched Elder Centipede in the jaw while Hayate attacked its weak points, leaving the monster increasingly wounded and slowed.

Sasori’s mecha destroyed the Centipede Elder, but a purple puppet then ambushed and seemingly killed his Red Wing mecha. Child Emperor explained to Boruto and the others that Sasori had abandoned his human body and uploaded his consciousness to an evolving cloud network, leaving his true survival uncertain to them.

• Mountain Range pinned the Centipede Elder while Hayate cut it into eight sections, killing it.
• Red Wing returned to Mountain Range, and Boruto and the others watched the battlefield from a safe distance.
• A dark-purple puppet burst from the sand, pierced Red Wing’s chest, and severed its head in an attack that lasted less than two seconds.
• Boruto and the others panicked, but Child Emperor assured them that Sasori could not die because he was already dead.
• Child Emperor explained that Sasori had uploaded his memories, personality, and knowledge into an independent cloud network, then dismantled his former puppet body.

Child Emperor explained that Sasori of the Red Sands had become a cloud-based artificial intelligence that could survive through networked puppet terminals. Sasori confronted Urashiki’s purple puppet, analyzed the hidden enemy’s likely pocket dimension, and called in twenty Stinger mechas as Urashiki’s puppets attacked.

• Child Emperor told Boruto and Shikadai that Sasori of the Red Sands’ original body had died, but his digital intelligence and network core let him revive through other puppets.
• A second Red Wing mecha appeared, and Sasori questioned Urashiki about his unknown energy and undetectable true body.
• Sasori analyzed the spatial disturbances and concluded that Urashiki was likely controlling the puppet from a pocket dimension.
• Urashiki summoned ten more purple puppets, and Sasori’s Red Wing mecha exchanged fire with them as they used powerful attacks resembling Five-element Ninjutsu.
• Sasori judged that the Red Wing mecha could not suppress the attackers alone and summoned twenty Stinger mechas to join the battle.

Sasori’s mechas fought Urashiki’s puppets until Urashiki withdrew through a spatial jump, and Sasori returned to Sunagakure. After watching the footage, Tsunade ordered the Land of Wind Ruins investigation suspended when Boruto’s touch awakened a sealed Uchiha girl and a colossal centipede.

• Sasori analyzed the battlefield as Stinger mechas and Urashiki’s puppets destroyed one another.
• Urashiki decided the probe had gathered enough information and used a combined attack to create an opening for escape.
• The surviving puppets vanished through a spatial jump, and Sasori confirmed Urashiki had gone before collecting the wreckage and returning to Sunagakure.
• Tsunade watched the Canopy Screen footage and learned that Boruto had loosened a seal around a sleeping Uchiha girl, unleashing a giant purple centipede beneath the Ruins.
• Tsunade ordered Shizune to suspend the investigation and evacuate the personnel, while Shizune suggested the Senju might have sealed a juvenile centipede or an egg.

Tsunade learned that Jigen had been found alive in the Land of Rice Fields and ordered Konoha to observe him secretly while seeking a joint response from the Five Kage. The Canopy Screen then showed Boruto and Shikadai reaching Sunagakure, where Temari reunited with her son.

• Shizune reported that an ANBU observer had found someone nearly identical to Jigen at a remote temple in the Land of Rice Fields.
• Tsunade ordered nearby personnel to watch Jigen from a distance without approaching or revealing themselves.
• Tsunade requested an emergency Five Kage meeting, activated Konoha's S-rank Unknown Threat Response Plan, and secretly consulted strategists.
• The Canopy Screen showed Boruto and Shikadai approaching Sunagakure and marveling at its towering, fortified walls.
• Temari rushed to Shikadai at the village gate and hugged him, relieved that he and Boruto were safe.

Boruto and Shikadai arrived in Sunagakure, where Child Emperor showed them the village’s vast industrial district and helped Boruto order a custom Kurama doll. After meeting Gaara, they learned Sasori was usually away, and Gaara sent Child Emperor to take them to Sasori’s Desert Research Base.

• Temari thanked Shinki, Yeto, and Child Emperor for helping rescue Boruto and Shikadai, then sent the boys to meet Gaara.
• Boruto asked Jackie Chan to take the still-sleeping Uchiha girl to the hospital while he and Shikadai entered Sunagakure with the others.
• Child Emperor explained that Sunagakure had become a major industrial center by processing local mineral deposits and exporting goods across the Shinobi World.
• Boruto ordered a custom two-meter Kurama doll for Himawari through Child Emperor’s tablet.
• Gaara told Boruto and Shikadai that Sasori was usually away and instructed Child Emperor to take them to Sasori’s Desert Research Base.

Boruto, Shikadai, and Child Emperor learned that the unconscious girl’s condition baffled Sunagakure’s doctors, so they carried her to Sasori’s desert research base for help. They reached the outpost and gained entry, leaving the girl’s condition unresolved.

• Gaara sent Boruto and Shikadai away with Child Emperor while he questioned Temari, Shinki, and Yeto about Sasori.
• Child Emperor explained that Sasori stayed outside Sunagakure because of his past and personal choices, and the group detoured to the hospital to check on the girl.
• Jackie Chan told Boruto, Shikadai, and Child Emperor that the girl’s vital signs were faint but stable and that doctors could neither identify the cause nor wake her.
• Child Emperor suggested Sasori examine the girl, and Boruto and Shikadai thanked Jackie Chan before saying goodbye.
• Child Emperor arranged a mobile Life-Support Pod, and the three carried the girl from the hospital toward Sasori of the Red Sands’ desert research base.
• Child Emperor passed the outpost’s security checks, and its doors opened to admit the group.

Boruto brought the sealed Uchiha girl to Sasori’s base, where Sasori examined her and concluded that she was biologically dead despite her apparent heartbeat and breathing. He explained that her Mangekyō Sharingan had preserved her consciousness and was sustaining her decaying body, but left her fate unresolved.

• Boruto, Shikadai, and Child Emperor brought the Life-Support Pod into Sasori’s mechanized base.
• Child Emperor introduced Boruto to Sasori, and Boruto asked him to examine the unconscious girl.
• Sasori scanned the girl and used a diagnostic machine to examine her.
• Sasori told Boruto that the girl was already dead, and Boruto protested that her vital signs showed otherwise.
• Sasori explained that residual energy from the girl’s Mangekyō Sharingan was preserving her consciousness and producing faint signs of life.
• Sasori reflected that time had reduced even legendary figures such as Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, and the Sage of Six Paths to dust.

Sasori explained that the girl's body was failing and offered either to preserve her consciousness as a digital life or have Orochimaru transfer her soul into a cloned body. When Boruto chose a real-world resurrection, Sasori challenged his certainty that the world was real and made the laboratory disappear around him.

• Sasori said the girl had survived for centuries through her Mangekyō Sharingan, though her body could collapse at any moment.
• Sasori offered to upload her soul and consciousness into a virtual world or have Orochimaru transfer her into a cloned body, warning that the latter could damage her soul.
• Boruto chose the cloned body because he wanted the girl to live in the real world.
• Sasori asked Boruto how he could prove his world was real and described a brain receiving perfectly simulated experiences.
• Sasori snapped his fingers, and the laboratory shattered around Boruto as darkness and flowing light filled his vision.

Boruto experienced a terrifying illusion of a world where his family and friends were trapped in the God Tree, then learned Sasori had been testing an immersive genjutsu device. After Boruto and Sasori agreed to prepare a way to ask the unconscious girl what she wanted, Boruto revealed the Red-Eyes Black Dragon card and raised the reason it had brought them to Sunagakure.

• Boruto saw a vision of himself cocooned in a God Tree world and watched Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi hang from its branches.
• Shikadai woke Boruto in Sasori's laboratory, where Sasori explained that the vision had been a test of his Miniature Genjutsu Resonance Device.
• Boruto suggested waking the girl's consciousness so she could choose between becoming a Digital Life and reincarnation, and Sasori agreed while warning of the risks.
• Boruto presented Sasori with his Red-Eyes Black Dragon card, and Sasori asked if their visit concerned how Boruto had summoned the dragon.

Boruto asked Sasori why he had summoned Red-Eyes Black Dragon in Kirigakure but could not summon him again. Sasori connected the card to an ancient Summoner civilization and revealed that its fall had been tied to a mysterious Savior.

• Boruto recounted how the card grew hot and a voice in his mind led him to summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon during the fight in Kirigakure.
• Sasori explained that his research into an ancient Ruins had uncovered records of Summoners who called Monsters from another world.
• Sasori said the Duel World existed independently of their world, and that Boruto had briefly opened a crack into it without forming a stable Contract.
• Boruto asked why the ancient Summoners had disappeared, and Sasori showed a mural depicting their civilization’s chaos and a figure called the Savior.

Boruto and Shikadai learned that the Millennium Items sealed ancient Sages and helped bar Monsters from the Duel World, and they suspected the Jashinist Cult planned to reopen the passage. Sasori secretly guarded the Millennium Necklace as the seals began to resonate, while Orochimaru recognized a kinship with Sasori’s obsession with overcoming time.

• Sasori explained that the Saint had driven Monsters back to the Duel World, sealed seven Sages in Millennium Items, and shut the passage between the worlds.
• Boruto remembered that Bakura had forced him to steal the Millennium Key in Iwagakure and suspected the Jashinist Cult intended to reopen the passage and release the Monsters.
• Boruto and Shikadai thanked Sasori and left the Main Laboratory with Child Emperor to consider what they had learned.
• Sasori opened a hidden safe and touched the Millennium Necklace, declaring that the chosen child had appeared and that the seals and the Evil God's shadow were stirring.
• Orochimaru watched the Canopy Screen, recalled his own fear of aging and death, and recognized Sasori as someone who understood his obsession with escaping time.

Orochimaru decided to leave the mystery of Sasuke’s Millennium Item alone while he pursued his immortality research. During Rasenshuriken training, Naruto asked Jiraiya whether their lives might be an enormous Genjutsu, leaving Jiraiya unsettled before he redirected Naruto toward training and immediate concerns.

• Orochimaru recognized the golden key Sasuke wore as a possible Millennium Item but chose not to investigate it yet.
• Naruto failed to stabilize the Rasenshuriken and took a break with an ice pop Jiraiya gave him.
• After hearing Sasori describe the Brain in a Vat on the Canopy Screen, Naruto asked whether their training and surroundings could be fake.
• Jiraiya struggled to answer Naruto’s question, then smacked him lightly and told him to focus on eating, resting, and training.
• Naruto set aside his doubts about the enormous Genjutsu and resolved to master the Rasenshuriken.

Tsunade learned that Jigen was heading toward Naruto and sent Konoha's forces and requests for allied aid to the eastern border. Jigen found Naruto and Jiraiya, impaled Jiraiya with Black Receivers, and left Naruto transforming under the Nine-Tails' influence.

• Shizune reported that Jigen had detected Konoha's surveillance and was racing toward the eastern border, near Jiraiya and Naruto.
• Tsunade ordered Konoha's Jonin, allied nations, the Barrier Team, and the Medical Team to prepare for Jigen's attack.
• Jigen appeared before Jiraiya and Naruto, declared that Naruto would become his adopted son, and demanded that Naruto call him Father.
• Jiraiya attacked Jigen with a Rasengan, but Jigen pierced him with six Black Receivers and knocked him unconscious.
• Naruto roared in grief and rage as Nine-Tails Chakra erupted from him, forming multiple tails and beginning to overwhelm his consciousness.

Teuchi revealed a terrifying power when he confronted Jigen to protect Naruto, trapping them both in his Infinite Void. Naruto was freed from Jigen’s restraints, but the confrontation remained unresolved inside the strange domain.

• Jigen pinned Naruto with Black Receivers and weakened his connection to Kurama, then ordered him to come along.
• Teuchi arrived with ramen and asked Jigen to release Naruto in exchange for a bowl.
• Jigen sensed something like a void in Teuchi and attacked him with Black Receivers, but an invisible barrier stopped them.
• Teuchi revealed his azure eyes and activated Domain Expansion: Infinite Void, transporting himself, Jigen, and Naruto into a vast blue space.
• Naruto found his restraints gone and his connection to Kurama restored, then asked Teuchi where they were.

Teuchi trapped Jigen in the Infinite Void and stopped Naruto from attacking him, then agreed to save the injured Jiraiya. He made Naruto promise to keep his power and the night’s events secret, while urging him to follow his own path and hold on to his dream.

• Jigen remained frozen in Teuchi’s Infinite Void, unable to act as its overwhelming information flooded his mind.
• Naruto tried to attack Jigen, but Teuchi stopped him and explained that Jigen’s slight twitch was only a faint instinctive resistance.
• Naruto praised Teuchi’s strength and asked him to save the badly injured Jiraiya, and Teuchi agreed on the condition that Naruto keep everything about the night secret.
• Teuchi told Naruto that power brought troubles and responsibilities, and explained why he chose to remain a ramen shop owner.
• Naruto promised not to reveal what had happened and affirmed that he would keep pursuing his dream of becoming the Seventh Hokage.

Teuchi defeated Jigen, healed Jiraiya, and left Naruto to explain his recovery. The next day, the Canopy Screen showed Boruto questioning whether his world was real, while Shikadai urged him not to dwell on it.

• Teuchi sealed Jigen inside his sleeve, released the domain, and returned with Naruto to the forest clearing.
• Teuchi used the Horse Talisman to heal Jiraiya and reminded Naruto of their agreement before vanishing.
• Naruto woke Jiraiya and claimed he had only been having a nightmare, leaving Jiraiya bewildered.
• The next day, the Canopy Screen showed Boruto worrying that he and his world might be part of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
• Shikadai slapped Boruto on the back and asked whether it mattered if their world was real or fake.

After Shikadai helped Boruto accept that their feelings and bonds mattered even if their world was an illusion, the three headed to Sunagakure’s shopping street. There, Child Emperor challenged Shikadai to shogi, and their evenly matched game began.

• Shikadai argued that Boruto’s feelings, memories, and bonds were meaningful regardless of whether the world was real, helping Boruto shake off his doubts.
• Boruto said he was hungry and eager to return to Aunt Temari’s cooking, and Child Emperor offered to show the others around Sunagakure.
• The three reached a bustling shopping street filled with local shops, merchants, and travelers.
• Shikadai spotted a game parlor and revealed his interest in shogi, prompting Child Emperor to challenge him to a match.
• Shikadai and Child Emperor began playing with a finely made Sand Shinobi-style shogi set, and their opening moves produced an evenly matched game.

Shikadai and Child Emperor faced off in a slow, evenly matched shogi game while Boruto left to explore Sunagakure. After Yeto angrily sent him away from a music store, Boruto spotted Jackie Chan bargaining at an antiques stall.

• Shikadai told Boruto that Child Emperor was a worthy opponent and asked him to explore while the game continued.
• Boruto wandered through Sunagakure and found Yeto browsing albums at a music store.
• Boruto enthusiastically recommended music to Yeto, who snapped at him to stop bothering her and go away.
• Boruto left the music store and later spotted Jackie Chan bargaining with a stall owner over a dusty metal badge.