Naruto: Boruto Returns to Shippuden

Chapter 168 Consciousness

Despite being tightly bound by Shinja, Naruto's power remained undiminished. He twisted his body frantically, trying to break free from Shinja's control.

Seven arms formed from chakra extended from his tailed beast cloak. These arms, as solid as physical objects, gripped Shinya's snake body tightly and began to forcefully pry Shinya's body apart.

Although Shinja was enormous and incredibly strong, its coiled body began to slowly open up with a sizable gap under the pull of Naruto's chakra arm.

As Shinya struggled against the Seven-Tails Naruto, it began to feel its strength waning and soon could no longer control him. Shinya couldn't help but shout, "Behave yourself, you bastard!"

Immediately afterwards, Shinya opened his huge mouth, gathered the energy in his body, and sprayed a powerful petrifying liquid at Seven-Tails Naruto, intending to petrify him.

The petrifying liquid sprayed by Shinja covered the Seven-Tails Naruto's body, causing the bones on the Tailed Beast Cloak covering Naruto's body to immediately begin to petrify under the splash of this liquid, turning their surfaces grayish-white.

When the petrification process attempted to spread further to Naruto's body, it encountered an obstacle: the tailed beast cloak on Naruto's body prevented the petrifying liquid from further eroding and completely penetrating it.

Naruto immediately began to condense a Tailed Beast Ball in his mouth. Seeing that his petrification ability was not very useful to him, Shinja directly bit Naruto, increasing his binding force on Naruto.

Shinya's gaze fell on Boruto, and he shouted, "This guy is too strong, I can't hold on much longer." He sensed that his stamina was rapidly depleting, and that he would soon be freed by the Seven-Tails Naruto.

At the same time, Boruto quickly threw out a Flying Thunder God Shuriken, using the Flying Thunder God Technique's instantaneous teleportation ability to instantly appear in front of Seven-Tails Naruto.

Boruto held the sealing talisman that Jiraiya had given him and, without hesitation, stuck it on the forehead of Seven-Tails Naruto.

As Naruto was affected by the sealing talisman, his chakra began to become disordered, and the Tailed Beast Ball that was originally gathered in his mouth gradually dissipated.

He let out a series of unwilling roars, his voice filled with anger. As his consciousness was about to dissipate, Naruto's eyes widened, staring straight at Boruto in front of him.

Suddenly, Boruto felt his consciousness being pulled by an invisible force and drawn into the consciousness of Naruto the Seven-Tails.

......

When Boruto opened his eyes again, everything around him had changed. He was no longer on the battlefield, but in a familiar room.

This is Naruto's room. Everything looks so real. Boruto sees Naruto sitting at the table, rubbing his hands excitedly. There is a cup of instant noodles on the table in front of him.

Boruto stepped forward, only to find that Naruto seemed completely oblivious to him, showing no reaction whatsoever to his presence. Naruto continued rubbing his hands excitedly, then picked up a cup of instant noodles from the table.

......

Naruto formed hand seals, and then two plumes of smoke suddenly appeared around his body.

After the smoke cleared, two shadow clones that looked exactly like Naruto appeared beside him, both of them wearing excited expressions.

"Look! What's this?"

"Wow! Isn't this a limited-edition, super rare ramen?"

"It's sold out at every store, a limited-edition ramen that you can't buy even if you have the money!"

"Would you like to try this limited-edition ramen?"

"Want to eat!"

"Now, let's begin the Ramen Battle for the Super Poker Tournament!"

"Oh!"

Immediately afterwards, Naruto and his shadow clones began to entertain themselves, filling the room with laughter.

When Naruto and his shadow clones finished their self-amusement, the shadow clones gradually dissipated, turning into smoke and eventually disappearing completely. The room became silent again, leaving only Naruto alone.

When Boruto saw this, he knew that when the shadow clones dissipated, the emotions and memories they carried would be returned to the original body.

The combined emotions of the three shadow clones amplified Naruto's loneliness to three times its usual level.

Naruto was left alone in the empty room, curled up with his head buried between his legs, as if that would offer him some comfort.

Boruto felt a surge of heartache when he saw Naruto curled up. He stepped forward and reached out his hand, but just as his fingers were about to touch Naruto's shoulder, the scene before him suddenly changed.

Boruto finds himself outside a dark, damp cell, the entire space creating a sense of oppression.

Boruto looked around and noticed a figure sitting quietly on the ground in a corner of the dark cell.

The figure's outline was blurry in the dim light, but Boruto could still recognize it as Naruto's consciousness.

As Boruto stared into Naruto's consciousness, a deep voice rang out from the shadows of the cell, causing Boruto to turn his head toward the source of the voice.

Do you know why he was the first to learn the Shadow Clone Technique and the most proficient at it?

The Nine-Tails' voice echoed in the cell: "Because Shadow Clone Jutsu is the ninjutsu he uses to cover up his loneliness. How can you brats who have never experienced pain understand our hatred?"

Boruto responded, "Everyone is making peace with the world in their own way. If you dwell on the past, you may be trapped by old traumas and find it difficult to break free." Although Boruto said this, how difficult is it to heal the wounds in one's heart?

Nine-Tails' gaze pierced through the shadows as it looked at the eyesore before it and continued, "What happened just now was only a part of the pain deep within his heart. I've been inside him for over a decade, and you could say I understand him better than he understands himself. His heart is already riddled with holes, so why make him suffer any more?"

“Memories are just memories. I’m not alone anymore. I have many companions around me.” Naruto, who was standing next to Boruto, suddenly looked up at the Nine-Tails in front of him. At this moment, his consciousness had been restored due to the influence of the sealing talisman.

Naruto's words seemed to be telling Kurama that he was no longer the lonely boy he used to be, no longer needing to rely on shadow clones to cover up his loneliness, and that he had things he had to do and things he had to protect.

The Nine-Tails' tone was tinged with disdain. It chuckled and continued, "Including that Uchiha brat who abandoned the village back then?"