But there were two risks. The first was that chances of success were low. The technique was composed of two separate actions: generating contained bolts of electricity and throwing a kunai. Sasuke was able to pull it all off by himself, but Sarada and her teammates had a long way to go before they could manage the same feat. They’d made it work a few times during training by splitting the technique into its component parts, with Mitsuki providing the electric charge and Sarada throwing the kunai. But they still hadn’t gotten to the point where they could precisely target a given location and actually hit it.
The other risk was the fact that they would undoubtedly be exposed as genin. They’d definitely be censured for having let the two assassins die, but if they were exposed to the crowd, that would be the end of the live show Lily so desperately wanted.
“We can’t just sit here and do nothing,” Mitsuki said crisply in the face of Sarada’s hesitation.
“You’re right. I guess we’ve just gotta do it.” Sarada gripped a kunai, and Mitsuki stretched out his hands, ready to generate the required current.
“Sarada, if the Lorentz Gun succeeds, leave the venue right away. We’ll tell them it was just me and Boruto who accepted this mission.”
“What? No way. Absolutely not.” She shook her head.
Mitsuki sighed. “I figured you’d say that.” He steadied his hands and plasma crackled on his fingertips.
Sarada had a sudden thought. If bolts were going to stand out in the darkness of a blackout, then they would just have to make sure it wasn’t dark.
“Wait! I just had a good idea!” Sarada checked Mitsuki and turned her shuriken toward the stage.
Following her eyes, Mitsuki guessed her strategy and nodded. “A momentary opening, hm?”
“It’s almost too easy compared with Dad’s training.”
The spotlight on top of the stage. If she could turn it toward the audience, she could dazzle the eyes of everyone in the place for a second or two.
She threw two shuriken in quick succession. They spun through the air. Four ropes held the massive spotlight in place at precisely the height of the second-floor seats. Her blades neatly severed the two ropes in front. The light lurched forward to shine on the crowd below.
“Huh? What’s going on?!”
“It’s so bright!”
The audience turned their faces away, dazzled.
In that opening, Mitsuki stretched out his arms toward the man on top of the dome. “Here we go, Sarada!”
The current shot forward from his hands, blending in with the light of the spotlight. Aiming for the center of these two parallel bolts, Sarada threw a kunai with everything she had.
Please! With a feeling like a prayer, she watched the blade race through the air. The brown tip headed for the space between the two currents as if sucked in by them.
Skweenk!
The force of the magnetic field sent the kunai streaking up into the roof to knock the sniper’s rifle flying. The sniper lost his balance and toppled over.
“We got him.”
It was a sink-or-swim strategy, but it had worked! Sarada and Mitsuki slapped their hands together in a high five.
Meanwhile, on stage, stagehands raced up onto the catwalk to frantically retie the ropes that had inexplicably snapped in the middle of the show.
Even during this series of accidents, Boruto kept dancing, a true professional. The current song was a ballad, and he pretended to sing passionately, making great use of his fists. He guessed that Sarada and Mitsuki were responsible for the light. What are they even doing? Of all times, right when I’m in the middle of the best part of the song…
The people in the audience had also gotten used to the dazzling light at this point and listened quietly to the moving song, shielding their eyes with their hands.
Love is sweet chocolate ♪
If it’s love, you and sweetie ♪
The lyrics, as always, described curious and whimsical worlds, but set to the gentle melody, they started to sound strangely ballad-like in their own special way.
“Boruto, that’s great! Please keep it up. Walk gently to the front of the stage!”
Boruto moved toward the front just as Lily instructed, and the front row shrieked and waved their hands at him. Countless pink lightsticks flickered and shone in the crowd. The song was coming to its end. Once this ballad was over, they’d do a one-eighty and bring out a big dance number.
Snap.
He suddenly heard a pop in his ear, and then something very weird happened: his arms began to move on their own.
What the—?!
His arms steadily moved up toward the ceiling despite the fact that he wanted them to do something entirely different. The microphone fell to the ground with a dull thud, causing a burst of ear-splitting feedback.
If the audience found out he wasn’t the real Lily, they would riot, and the TV cameras would catch the moment for posterity. He focused everything he had on pushing his arms back down. His muscles trembled from the strain.
What’s going on? Some kind of genjutsu?!
Lily’s voice continued to sing at the same loud volume despite the fact that he had dropped the mic. The fans began to murmur worriedly.
As Boruto started to panic, the pink nails on his fingertips shimmered.
No! He refocused the chakra in his body, and his hand temporarily turned back into Lily’s. A moment later, the costume disappeared again. What is even happening?!
His body was trying to undo his transformation technique despite his own intentions. The chakra that was giving the order to undo the jutsu and the chakra that was giving the order to continue it—these two contradictory forces appeared to be fighting in the same arm. His hand changed back and forth from Lily’s to his, blinking like a signal light.
“What? Huh? What’s happening to Lily?”
“Hey, is this maybe a hologram performance?”
You gotta calm down and get this jutsu under control, Boruto told himself desperately. He tried to move his inexplicably restrained body.
His ankles gave out under him. The heels fell off and Boruto collapsed onto the stage. His feet were also turning back. The color drained from his face. He’d lost his balance because his feet had gotten smaller and the stiletto heels had come off.
Finally, in front of fifty thousand fans, his face began to spasm. It had only been an hour since he’d turned into Lily. Normally, it was easy for him to maintain a transformation for that length of time—longer, even. And yet her face shuddered and was replaced with his own. His entire body began to shrink.
It was all over. The jutsu was fading.
Ponk! His body was wrapped in smoke, and the transformation jutsu was released. He was Boruto once more.
“Huh? What happened to Lily?” The audience strained their eyes to get a better look at the stage.
All at once, something enveloped the area around him—a wall of water, as high as he was tall, surrounding Boruto like a cage.
What is this? What’s going on?
He realized that his body was his to move again. He didn’t get it, but he wasn’t about to waste this chance. Hurriedly, he wove the signs to restore his Lily form.
The blasting music stopped abruptly and the dome fell silent. He could see a human shadow on the other side of the water wall. The shadow squatted down and picked something up. And then Boruto heard the thunk of the mic being turned on, and he realized the shadow had picked up the microphone.
“Show’s over.” The voice was emotionless and carried well, nothing like Lily’s high-pitched voice. “All of you, leave immediately. Anyone acting suspiciously will be arrested.”
“What is…Old Man Sasuke doing here?” Boruto shuddered, staring at the blurry shadow on the other side of his water prison.
Naturally, the audience revolted at this order.
“What the hell?! You gotta be kidding!”
“You a ninja?! Let Lily go!”
“Keep the show going!”
Boruto heard Sasuke sigh in annoyance.
Suddenly, Boruto felt a frightening amount of chakra surge forth, and a chill ran up his spine. A hair-raising purple giant sprouted up to block out the dome’s ceiling. The warrior, clad in a traditional battle surcoat, held a massive bow. Its stern, golden eyes glittered fiercely, demonically.
“If you don’t want to die, you will leave the dome. Right now. Every last one of you.”
A terrified silence descended on the crowd. In the next instant, the members of the audience scrambled from the venue, screaming.
After chasing out fifty thousand unarmed civilians by threatening them with Susano’o, Sasuke whirled around, thrust a hand through the water wall, and grabbed Boruto’s shoulder. “About time for you to go back to your usual self, Boruto.”
Poof!
The transformation jutsu was released the instant Sasuke’s fingers touched him. He should have still looked like Himeno Lily, but in the blink of an eye, he was Boruto again.
The wall of water fell away, and Boruto stared in utter confusion, unable to absorb even the first detail about what was happening.
“Where’s the real Himeno Lily?” Sasuke asked him, his face expressionless.
“Oh! She’s just over—huh?” Boruto pointed into the wings, but there was no sign of Lily there. He craned his neck searching for her, while beside him, Sasuke activated his Sharingan.
“Escaped up, hm?” he muttered, before turning toward the catwalk above the stage and throwing a shuriken.
“Aaaah!” Lily came falling down and Sasuke caught her midair by the arm. “Hey, what’re you doing?! You could’ve for real hurt me, you know?!”
“So that was you then.” Sasuke nodded
Huh? Boruto blinked rapidly and looked from Sasuke and back to Lily again. Do they…know each other?