Ao

Konohamaru pulls data from a hidden compartment inside the wrecked blimp just as his partner is set upon and tells him to flee. Back in the village, Sasuke warns Boruto that foes on the level of the Otsutsuki are moving unseen, and Mitsuki wonders aloud whether this ties into Boruto's seal. Naruto confirms Sasuke has told him what little they know about the mark and the group behind it, and uses the moment to explain why the village invests in scientific ninja tools. When Katasuke turns up praising the absorption feature for limiting collateral damage, Boruto's old grudge over the man's cheating at the Chunin Exams flares back up. Naruto insists such technology exists to back up the Hokage, and that what matters is how it gets used, before assigning the trio to escort Katasuke and a prosthetic hand to a research site.

Boruto refuses outright and walks off, so Sarada and Mitsuki commit to the job anyway, Mitsuki reminding Boruto that he once swore to support Sarada's bid for Hokage and that the tools guard everyone in the village, his family included. Won over just as Sasuke predicted, Boruto joins them. The team meets Katasuke at the station and settles into seats beside Ao, one of the scientist's patients, whose lost limbs date to the last great war. As the friends debate whether the tools are excessive, Katasuke reveals that Ao once served as a shinobi of Kirigakure, and that scientific ninja tools are the only reason he is still alive.

Curious now, Boruto mentions his own field trip to the Land of Water, and Ao reflects on how much his home has changed. When Ao presses whether the boy still resents such technology, Boruto says he no longer does, at which point Ao snatches Katasuke's screwdriver and puts it to Boruto's throat, showing how easily an enemy could have killed him and echoing Naruto's warning about the tools. They part at their stop with Boruto eager to meet again. Once the group is gone, Koji Kashin makes contact with Ao, startling him with the reach of an Inner, reports the loss of the vessel, and entrusts its recovery to Ao's still-sharp genjutsu, handing over a crate of weapons before leaving. Ao muses that it will be his first return to combat in sixteen years.

Konohamaru copies data from the downed blimp before his partner is attacked. Naruto assigns Team 7 to escort Katasuke and a prosthetic hand, and Boruto only accepts after Mitsuki and Sarada shame him into it. On the train the team befriends Ao, a former Kirigakure shinobi kept alive by scientific ninja tools, who drives home Naruto's point by holding a screwdriver to Boruto's neck. Afterward Koji Kashin recruits Ao as an Inner to retrieve the lost vessel, ending Ao's sixteen-year absence from the battlefield.

This chapter opens the Ao Arc and was collected in volume 5 of the Boruto manga.