Chapter 134: The Bane of the Ōtsutsuki Clan
With Momoshiki's power gone, Boruto fell heavily to the ground.
At the same time, without Momoshiki, Boruto regained control of his own body.
But this was not what he wanted.
Just moments ago, he had voluntarily handed his body over to Momoshiki in order to stop Shiromo from changing the future and to save his family and friends.
Momoshiki had even taken the initiative to give up his chance at resurrection, solely to repair Boruto's grievously injured body and secure victory in this silent war.
He had even decided to use the power of Time Stop to launch a fatal attack on Shiromo.
This was a move Momoshiki had never used even on his own father or master. He only chose to use it at the most critical moment, which meant the price had to be enormous.
It was very likely that what came next would be something like, '[Baryon Mode doesn't consume your life, it consumes mine]'.
But none of that happened.
Everything came to an abrupt halt.
Momoshiki was pulled out by the opponent.
Boruto lay on the ground, dazed, raising his hand to look at the vanished Kāma on his palm.
Lowering his hand, he then looked up at the "ultimate villain," Shiromo, slowly descending from the sky.
Without Momoshiki, he no longer had any power to oppose Shiromo. He could only choose to give up.
Shiromo landed on the ground and put away Momoshiki's disc.
By this time, he had already released the previous "Sun-F***ing Sage" mode.
As mentioned before, this mode was essentially Shiromo's own version of Sage Mode, and it came with a time limit.
In theory, although this ability only temporarily absorbed stellar energy, as long as it was paired with Crazy Diamond's continuous repairs, it could be maintained permanently.
The problem was that Shiromo was human.
He could rely on extreme speed to smash Hanabi's skull with a single punch, remove the Caged Bird seal, and have her repaired before she even felt pain.
But in "Sun-F***ing Sage" mode, he couldn't do that.
During this period, Crazy Diamond wasn't performing instantaneous repairs, but continuous ones. He could no longer rely on speed to bypass the sensation of pain.
In other words, Shiromo was enduring the pain of being flayed alive at every single moment.
This pain was so intense that even Shiromo felt he could rename himself "Pain."
Yes, this mode's duration depended entirely on how long Shiromo could endure and remain conscious.
Prolonged, intense pain would inevitably blur a person's consciousness.
Trying to gradually adapt to constant, severe pain was simply impossible.
And before this, Shiromo hadn't had Kurotsuchi step on him, hadn't had Terumī Mei whip him with water, and hadn't had Konan wrap him in paper to suffocate him, so his resistance to pain was practically zero.
That was why, even though Shiromo had said this move was meant to be saved for Isshiki, he still used it in advance to test it.
Without getting used to it beforehand, he'd probably collapse even faster than after Baryon Mode ended.
So earlier, after controlling natural energy to hit Momoshiki twice and force him to use Time Stop, Shiromo immediately ended "Sun-F***ing Sage" mode.
With asymmetric information, Momoshiki not knowing Shiromo's abilities, while Shiromo knew Momoshiki's, Momoshiki had used Time Stop completely unguarded.
As for Shiromo, the reason his natural energy was nearly depleted at the time was because he had just acquired two new abilities.
One was obtained when Momoshiki used Time Stop to appear beside Urashiki, then used Time Stop again to prevent Sasuke from secretly swapping the "crap."
This ability was extremely simple.
It was Time Stop itself, corresponding directly to Momoshiki's.
The difference was that Shiromo's time-stop duration depended entirely on his own natural energy, physical condition, and mental strength. Unlike Momoshiki, he didn't need to worry about other costs.
Shiromo named this ability [The World]. At present, its maximum duration was about ten seconds.
If one had to mention an additional derived effect, it was: If the opponent was also a user of Time Stop, Shiromo could maintain consciousness within the opponent's stopped-time world without consuming his own time-stop duration.
The other ability was obtained when Urashiki tried to hook his chakra away with the fishing rod.
Its effect was to extract one of the target's abilities from their body in the form of a disc.
Shiromo named it [White Snake].
In some respects, this ability was slightly weaker than the original White Snake.
For example, at present Shiromo could only extract one disc at a time.
And in the ninja world, things like ninjutsu and kekkei genkai didn't count as a single "ability."
The most suitable targets for [White Snake] were bloodline-inherited kekkei genkai.
However, for the Ōtsutsuki clan, [White Snake] was fatal.
Because the Ōtsutsuki's Kāma was, in essence, a compressed package containing all of their abilities, information, and even consciousness.
To [White Snake], that was effectively a complete ability, allowing it to directly turn the Kāma into a disc and extract it.
The compressed file was instantly turned into a disc.
This move was the bane of the Ōtsutsuki clan, a perfectly lethal counter.
If Shiromo were a villain, this would be the moment he'd start delivering lines like, "The bloodline of the Ōtsutsuki is what carries me to heaven."
"Sasuke-san… why?"
Boruto looked weakly at his master Sasuke as he approached and asked.
He had never imagined that his master Sasuke wouldn't help him fight Shiromo, instead, he had stood on Shiromo's side.
"There's no 'why,' Boruto. This is the necessary path to oppose the Ōtsutsuki clan."
Sasuke let out a soft sigh.
"But Sarada, she disappears. Does that not matter to you, Sasuke-san?"
Boruto clenched his fists.
"...Only the Sarada that exists in our memories disappears. In the new world, Sarada will have an even better life."
"Even if she truly disappears as a result, that is a necessary sacrifice."
"She didn't die. She never existed in the first place, so how could you call it 'death'?"
Sasuke spoke his true thoughts to Boruto.
As for the deeper layer of meaning, the matter of Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke didn't mention it.
Boruto wouldn't be able to understand it anyway.
"Sasuke-san, you…?!"
Boruto was completely stunned.
What kind of twisted logic was this?
How could Sasuke-san be this kind of person?
Ah, sorry. Your Sasuke-san really is this kind of person. He just accidentally "Naruto'd" for a while.
"If you're going to kill Boruto, then go ahead."
Sasuke turned his back on them.
"Killing him would be too much of a waste. It's just that what I'm about to do next is something only a villain would do, and once you know, Sasuke, you definitely will… heh."
Shiromo waved his hand.
"What is it?"
"I've devised many new plans for the Akatsuki. One of their objectives is, reviving Ōtsutsuki Kaguya."
"Do you even know what you're saying?"
Sasuke stared at Shiromo in shock.
The intelligence he'd gathered over these past days only covered what was visible on the surface. He truly didn't know about this.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya?
He and Naruto had gone all out, nearly being trapped forever in an endless desert, hovering on the brink of death countless times just to seal Kaguya away.
And now Shiromo wanted to bring Kaguya back?
(End of this chapter)