The Path Lit by the Full Moon

While Sarada gripes about Boruto's tardiness derailing her goals, she asks Mitsuki whether he ever acts on his own wishes rather than simply following Boruto. He insists the choice was his and sinks into memory. He recalls stirring awake under Orochimaru's care with no sense of who he was, dropping a cup of medicine as Suigetsu was assigned to guard him. Orochimaru remarks to a hooded figure that this marks the sixth such attempt. Suigetsu tests the boy with a sudden attack, which Mitsuki reflexively counters, proving his body still remembers being a shinobi even as his memories were stripped away.

Orochimaru presents himself as Mitsuki's parent and sets him after a rogue shinobi named Log, who supposedly stole memories and intel that must be recovered alive. When they confront him, Log paralyses only Mitsuki, then trades blows with Orochimaru, whose slipped-in venomous snake finally downs him. Left to watch the captive, Mitsuki removes Log's mask and finds an older version of himself. Log reveals both are synthetic humans grown by Orochimaru, and that he means to destroy the original source they were cultured from, blaming their creator's vanity. Orochimaru returns and argues the manner of their making does not matter, since he loves them equally.

Pressured from both sides, Mitsuki snaps into his Sage Transformation, declaring that as a child he cares nothing for what the adults believe, and he leaves with the container and its key. Inside it he discovers a photograph of Boruto. Orochimaru, pleased that the sixth attempt finally produced a self-made decision, decides against another wipe, and Log is revealed as the hooded listener from earlier. Orochimaru hopes that once a sun shows Mitsuki the light, the boy can become a moon lighting the dark. In the present, Boruto arrives and the trio depart on a mission. A trivia note records that Log's smoking was censored in the original broadcast and restored for the DVD release.