Itachi Uchiha's son Shinra Uchiha

The night pressed heavy against Ash Gate, the ancient stone arch draped in ivy and charred chakra seals. Its silent grandeur loomed over a battlefield bathed in moonlight and tension. Boruto stood before it, sword sheathed, intuition thrumming. Shinra, silent and steely-eyed, mirrored him—a guardian poised for war.

From the shadows beyond the gate, Code emerged. Not with a single beast, but with legions: Claw Grime husks, each a fragment of the Ten-Tails shattered by his Claw Marks and bound to his will—living shards of chakra and instinct . These fission beings advanced in grim rows, every step a silent echo of that monstrous power.

Code himself stepped forward, unnervingly calm. "You thought you could hide," he murmured, voice low and edged. "I shattered the Ten-Tails to harvest power from its pieces—to grow the Divine Tree. Tonight, Boruto, you are the seed."

Boruto's fists clenched. The husks closed in, crystalline chakra pulsing beneath cracked chakra veins. Their movements were blind, driven by singular purpose.

Shinra's cloak snapped behind him. He took one deliberate step forward. Then the earth around him trembled as roots erupted—thick wooden barricades forming instant barriers that halted the husks' advance. Bark armor grew into walls, root tendrils strangling the nearest ones into immobile forms.

Boruto channeled chakra and unleashed a Vanishing Rasengan at a husk's chest. It **disintegrated into ash and chakra fragments, vanishing like smoke on wind.** Sparks rained on the wooden barricades, but more husks advanced beyond them, relentless as a tide.

Code's lips twisted into a grin. He pointed to the broken trees. "Not enough roots."

Vines slithered from the ground, deeper and more strangling, tearing through husk after husk. Wood chakra constricted them like steel, their energy bleeding away until the husks collapsed into nothing.

Code laughed, a jagged sound in the night. He struck the ground with clawed fingertips—rune symbols flared beneath him, cracking stone and bone of wood alike. The barricade splintered outward, sending husks into the courtyard in wild torrents.

Shinra's eyes glimmered. He didn't speak. He didn't blink. With every heartbeat, he moved—and the battlefield bent to his command. The **Mangekyō Sharingan** ignited, and time itself seemed to fracture. Code's attacks slowed, chakra waves drifting like molten glass. Shinra stepped through them, an unerring ghost.

He danced across the courtyard, severing husks in silent precision. Bark-heavy blades lashed limbs apart. Every step was calculated. Every strike a judgment.

Code staggered back, blood-chakra staining his palms. His voice cracked with grudging respect: "Stronger than Sasuke." He narrowed his eyes. "But you carry more than power. You wear history."

Shinra stepped closer, cloak billowing like living shadow. "I carry purpose."

Code's gaze shifted to Boruto. "Your village… your friends… They're seeds that will grow the roots of my Divine Tree." His whisper carried chill: "And I will prune them all."

Boruto's chest jerked with emotion. He planted chakra and charged. A Vanishing Rasengan slammed into Code's chest. The impact exploded across the courtyard, flinging dust and root fragments into the night sky. Code stumbled, crimson chakra ebbing through his fingers.

Before he could recover, shinobi claws carved at Shinra's back in a lightning-fast strike. Roots split around the wound, but time slowed. The **Mangekyō activated** again, threads of slowed reality unraveling. Shinra moved like water in reverse—swift and unfathomable. He countered with a single, devastating strike that pinned Code against the stone arch. The courtyard fell into uneasy quiet.

Shinra's blade pressed against Code's throat. Every husk paused, every chakra seal glowed in stilled tension.

Then a wall of ember and flame roared to life behind them. **Kashin Koji walked into the blaze**, aura flaring with ethereal calm. His ice-blue eyes cut through the night.

"Stop," he said simply.

Shinra halted. His gaze flickered back to Boruto.

Koji added, voice steady: "Do not kill the seed yet."

Shinra's blade lowered. Boruto blinked.

"Why?" Shinra asked, voice calm as the flame.

Koji's gaze held unwavering. "Some mistakes must live—in order to be understood. To teach."

Boruto's voice trembled. "But he tried to kill us!"

Koji's nod was slow. "Yes. But today we learn more from his breath than his body."

Shinra exhaled. The husks behind them crumbled into motifs of root and wood. Under the chakra stir, they dissolved—as if strike and will reconciled them into dust.

Code, trembling, knelt on the chakra-littered ground. His breath was harsh and bleeding. He looked at Shinra and Boruto, his voice ragged but defiant: "Next time, I carve the world to bone."

He touched the ground and traced a claw mark symbol. Reality shuddered as he vanished in a pulse of chakra.

Boruto knelt at the silent stone. "He's gone."

Shinra stood, still as midnight. He placed a hand on Boruto's bowed shoulder. "Well done."

Boruto looked up as Koji approached, embers tracing his steps. He met Macedonian's gaze. "Who are you?"

Koji's eyes reflected fire and frost. "A watcher. A lesson masked in flame." He met Shinra's eyes. "Let him live. Learn from what he tried to be."

Boruto's forehead creased as he stared at the empty courtyard. "He tried to wipe us out."

Koji's voice was quiet, certain: "We'll stop him—without becoming what he begins." He turned away and glided back into the firelight. His silhouette dissolved into dawn, leaving a charged promise in fading embers.

Boruto looked to Shinra. "What now?"

Shinra's lips curved, his gaze unwavering. "We prepare."

Boruto nodded, resolve steel-gray in his eyes. They turned from Ash Gate, stepping side by side into the glow of dawn.

In the distance, Code's breath echoed faintly—as though already disappearing into future ruins. The world felt heavy—but not defeated.