This alternate dimension was colorless—dry, gray, and lifeless.
White, vein-like roots twisted through the air, tangling over each other like the underside of a monstrous tree. They stretched in every direction, with no horizon and no end.
Boruto stepped in quietly, his Sage Mode senses opening at once. The chakra here was thin but steady. And among it—
He felt Nue.
And Sumire.
At a raised platform of roots, Sumire stood on a cleanly cut stump. Her chakra was linked to another source—the faint, ghost-like current that had been haunting people in Konoha. Nue gathered at the other end.
Here, it wasn't towering like it had been outside; its shape was shrunken, closer to a large beast than a calamity.
The creature shrank back at Boruto's arrival, eyes narrowed. It remembered. Out there, it hadn't won a single exchange, and if the fight had continued, it would've been finished.
Boruto didn't try speaking to it.
He wasn't here to negotiate.
He lifted a hand, gathering chakra.
"Sage Art: Water Release — Water Prison."
Water climbed upward from his feet as though the air itself had liquefied. It swirled like soft clay, folding over Nue's body and locking it into a crushing sphere of pressurized water, holding it immobile.
Then Boruto rose into the air, moving through the dimension calmly. One by one, he placed seals—stabilizing, concealing, suppressing. He was isolating this space completely, cutting off any trace of coordinates that could leak into the starry sky.
After a while, he drifted back toward Sumire. Their eyes met in silence.
She watched, tense, as Boruto continued marking seals across the space.
"Sumire… Nue is more dangerous than you realize," Boruto finally said.
"I know its self-destruction can match Pain's Shinra Tensei," Sumire replied, chin slightly lifted—pride in her voice.
"No," Boruto said. "The danger isn't Konoha."
Sumire blinked. "What…?"
Boruto pressed another seal into the air as he explained.
"This place beneath your feet—it isn't part of the ninja world. It's an unnatural dimension somewhere in the starry sky."
Sumire's brows furrowed. She listened closely, absorbing every word.
"Root forced contact with this place, thinking they could use Nue to destroy Konoha. But they never understood this dimension. They didn't realize the real threat that comes with it."
The dimension shuddered faintly, as if acknowledging his words.
"The Nue itself isn't that strong. You saw what happened when I fought it."
"That's only because you're absurdly strong," Sumire muttered.
Boruto didn't smile.
"No. You don't understand the scale of this problem."
Sumire crossed her arms. "What does that have to do with me? I'm Nue's master. Not the master of this place. My mission is just revenge. Destroying Konoha. That's all."
Still stubborn.
Boruto sighed, lifted a hand—and space warped around Sumire, pulling her toward him as though gravity itself obeyed his fingers.
She glared at him, unflinching. "So? You're finally going to kill me? It makes sense. We're enemies now."
Boruto frowned, but it wasn't anger.
She didn't know. She couldn't.
"The danger behind Nue is bigger than revenge," he said quietly. "If I wanted to, I could force it to mature. I could let it grow freely. I could make it far stronger than the tailed beasts."
Sumire's expression darkened. "You look down on it too much. Nue nearly destroyed Konoha."
"Sumire," Boruto said, eyes sharpening, "if it couldn't threaten me, why would I waste time explaining anything?"
Her breath caught.
She had no answer.
And she noticed something—Boruto wasn't sealing her out.
He wasn't trapping her here.
He was sealing the dimension.
She'd believed he wanted to exile her, to condemn her to this lonely world. Instead—
He was protecting it.
"…why?" she whispered.
Boruto looked back at her, his expression somber.
"Because this dimension is connected to real enemies. Gods. The same kind as Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."
Sumire froze.
"This world—this space—is a bridge. If the Ōtsutsuki trace it, they'll find the ninja world." His voice grew cold. "If even one comes… Konoha won't survive. And definitely not you."
Sumire trembled.
Her mission suddenly felt unbearably small.
"But… if not revenge, then… what meaning is left for me…?"
"There's no 'but,' Sumire." Boruto stepped closer. "Forget Root. Forget their mission. Forget the revenge of people who have already died."
He lowered his voice.
"You're a Konoha ninja. My classmate. You have friends waiting for you back home. You have teammates. You have a life."
He held her gaze.
"You were free the moment they died."
Something cracked inside her.
Her lips trembled. Then tears—hot, overwhelming—spilled down her cheeks, pouring freely.
She finally cried like a child who had been alone far too long.
Boruto said nothing.
He continued inscribing seals while she cried beside him in the empty dimension—no masks, no lies, no expectations. Just a girl who wanted to belong.
By the time she stopped, her sleeves were soaked.
Boruto wiped her tears with his thumb.
"Come back to Konoha. You're still our classmate."
Sumire swallowed hard. "But… I summoned Nue. I tried to destroy the village. I… I can't go back."
"You completed everything you were trained for," Boruto said bluntly. "And I stopped you."
"…"
"So trust me. I'll protect you."
"But… I know your secret," she whispered.
Boruto shrugged. "Then it's our shared secret now. I'll hide what you did, and you pretend you don't know anything about the leader of Moon. You'll just know Boruto."
Sumire stared at him, bewildered.
"…why help me? You could've killed me."
"Would you betray me?"
"No!" Her answer was immediate.
"Then that's enough. Cooperation needs trust. And you're someone I can trust."
Sumire lowered her eyes. A dull sadness flickered there—a quiet, painful thought that she wasn't valuable enough to stand beside him.
Boruto sighed internally.
Do all girls overthink like this?
"Relax, class monitor. Come back with me. We've got school tomorrow."
Sumire hesitated. "…what about the mark on my back?"
"Leave it to me."
Boruto moved behind her, his Jōgan glowing softly. His palm pressed gently against her back, a cool blue light spreading through her chakra network.
Sumire shivered—the touch was warm, soothing, and startling all at once.
"Pure eyes… pure spirit," Boruto murmured.
The bull-head emblem dissolved in an instant, melting like frost in sunlight. Along with it, the bitter tether of revenge that had bound her heart since childhood broke apart.
Sumire gasped. "How… how did you do that? The connection with Nue—it's almost gone…"
"Believe in yourself," Boruto said. "You think things are impossible without trying them. But sometimes, they're not that complicated."
"…you're incredible," she whispered.
"You can still use Nue," Boruto added, pointing at the creature still trapped in the water sphere. "Just make a proper summoning contract."
"O-oh…"
And so—
With the dimension sealed, the coordinates buried, and Sumire freed from her curse—
The two of them left the silent world together.
As if nothing had ever happened.
The story of Nue has ended.