Scientific Ninja Tools (chapter)

Konohamaru tries to talk Ao out of a fight, but the plea goes unheeded, and as Ao opens fire he orders everyone to take cover behind the cave's rocks. Sarada recognises the incoming rounds as the same Fire Release bullets the rogue puppets had used. Katasuke charges in, his suit absorbing the barrage, and the opening lets Konohamaru shatter Ao's weapon with a Rasengan before demanding to know what the blimp was carrying. Met with silence, Konohamaru pivots to asking about Kara, only for Ao to tag him across the face with shots from prosthetics hidden on his body, noting that the situation is knottier than he anticipated. He then rushes Katasuke, tears away one of the suit's gloves, and turns it against Boruto by soaking up his Rasengan before kicking him aside.

While Ao admires the stolen glove, Sarada considers a Smoke-Flash Bomb but holds off, since her allies share no signal to read her plan. Mugino grabs hold of Ao to buy the others time to flee, and Ao drives a scientific ninja tool from his left forearm through Mugino's chest. In response, Mugino sets off an Earth Release jutsu that collapses part of the cave onto them both, hoping to bury Ao and open an escape. Konohamaru honours the act and, as Ao begins dragging himself from the rubble, urges everyone not to let the sacrifice be wasted, overriding Boruto's wish to fight and calling a retreat.

Once clear, Sarada treats Konohamaru's face with healing foam while Katasuke admits he had leaked information about the scientific ninja tools under a genjutsu near the time of the Chūnin Exams. Konohamaru brands that knowledge strictly classified and offers himself as a decoy so the rest can deliver the recovered blimp data, though Katasuke volunteers instead, feeling accountable for the technology now in Ao's hands. Boruto tells him to drop the guilt, recalling that he too once scorned such tools until the research institute shifted his view, and that what truly counts is the manner in which they are wielded. Furious that Ao, who owes his own survival to that research, would bend the tools toward killing, Boruto pulls on Katasuke's second glove and triggers its chakra katana, determined to demonstrate the right way to use them.

Taken from the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations manga, the chapter appears in Volume 6 within the Ao Arc. True to its title, the clash doubles as a debate over scientific ninja tools, setting Ao's lethal application of the technology against Boruto's conviction that its value rests on the intent behind it.