Starts In Konoha: Unlocking Shadow Clone

Seeing the guilt on Boruto's face, Naruto felt a surge of satisfaction.

'Let's see you flaunt your superiority now, kid!'

Every time Boruto showed off, Naruto would knock him down a peg.

Despite their short time together, Naruto had gotten a pretty good read on Boruto's personality. Boruto excelled in many ways compared to his peers, but he had a tendency to be arrogant and complacent, a classic case of needing to be humbled.

For kids like Boruto, Naruto knew that too much leniency or strictness wouldn't work, and a balance of praise and reprimand would shape Boruto's character best. After all, Boruto was his son, so even if Naruto had no experience to draw on, he was committed to playing the role of a father properly.

Now that Boruto had learned his lesson, it was time to ease up a bit.

After dinner, it was already late into the night. Naruto lay in his bed, while Boruto lay on a futon, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Seeing the opportunity, Naruto turned to look down from the bed, "Still awake?"

Boruto nodded and hummed softly.

Naruto's eyes sparkled with curiosity as he asked, "So, that uncle from earlier… is he your father?"

"No, he is my master." Boruto replied, staring up at the ceiling.

"No wonder you two don't look alike." Naruto said with a chuckle, "So, what kind of person is your father?"

Although his tone sounded casual, he was still very nervous inside.

He had no idea what his future self was like as a family man, so he hoped to get a glimpse from Boruto's perspective.

If there were areas where he'd fallen short, he wanted to know so he could make improvements early on.

"My father..."

Boruto thought for a moment, then replied: "He is very amazing. Everyone depends on him. But he's always working and hardly ever home."

'As expected.' Naruto thought, nodding in satisfaction. He was proud of himself for being so widely admired, he was Uzumaki Naruto, after all!

But then Boruto's tone shifted, and he continued, "But when he's at home, my father is a loser. Maybe he just lets himself relax too much."

"Huh? Loser? How so?"

Naruto's brow furrowed slightly. With his personality, Naruto couldn't imagine being a loser in any setting.

Boruto got more excited as he spoke, "One time, he was supposed to bring a cake for my sister's birthday, but he was so exhausted that he dropped the whole thing on the floor before we even started eating. Haha, don't you think he's a loser?"

"Haha, sounds like a pretty pathetic dad, alright."

Naruto scratched his head and chuckled.

'I actually scolded myself and laughed at myself,'

But of course, it wasn't because Naruto had lost his mind.

He was laughing both at his own blunders and at the fact that, somehow, he had ended up with a daughter.

Having a son and a daughter had always been one of his dreams, and he never expected that it would actually come true in the future.

Looking at Boruto's expression, Naruto spoke again, "After all those complaints, you seem pretty happy talking about your family. Deep down, you don't really dislike your 'loser' of a dad, do you?"

Boruto looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment before a warm smile appeared on his face.

With his head resting on his hands, he replied, "Yeah… I don't dislike him!"

Hearing this, Naruto stopped talking. In his opinion, these small mistakes and quirks that didn't cross any lines were the spice of life, the mark of a truly happy family.

As he thought about this, Naruto's mind drifted to his own parents from his previous life. He wondered how they were doing, if they were well and in good health. A wave of nostalgia swept over him, and a tear slipped down his cheek?

In fact, if he was given a choice, he wouldn't have wanted to end up in another world. Even if he was not powerful, being able to stay by his parents' side and care for them would have made him more than content.

But sadly, there was no way to go back now. The only path forward was to train even harder, striving for the day he could use his abilities to freely travel through different worlds.

At that time, if he wanted to go back to Earth to see his parents, it would be a simple matter of thought.

Speaking of the system, Naruto suddenly remembered that earlier, it had assigned him a task to capture a lower-level system.

'But systems are intangible things, even a lower-level one, so how was I supposed to capture it?'

He asked the system inwardly, hoping it would clarify.

[Friendly Reminder: This low-level system is a biological system, and it is in Boruto's bag now. You have a chance to capture it right now.]

Hearing this, Naruto fell into deep thought. After considering it for a while, he decided not to act hastily.

It wasn't that he didn't want the system's reward, but he knew this low-level system must be crucial for Boruto. It was likely what enabled Boruto and Sasuke to travel back to the past. If he took it, Boruto and Sasuke might not be able to return to the future.

The system seemed to have detected Naruto's hesitation and the system prompt sounded again.

[Friendly Reminder: After absorbing the low-level system, this system will gain all its abilities. To thank you, there will be a time-travel item included in the reward package.]

Naruto's eyes brightened at this. He didn't expect the system to be so considerate. Clearly, his system was determined to obtain this low-level system.

'Well, if that's the case, then I'm relieved.'

After waiting a bit and hearing Boruto's soft snores, Naruto quietly got out of bed and opened Boruto's backpack.

'Huh? Why is there a turtle in here?'

Naruto set the turtle aside and didn't pay it much attention, then continued searching through the bag.

But aside from some Ninja Tools, the bag seemed to contain nothing else.

"System, you just said that the low-level system was in this bag. So where is it now?"

Naruto asked in his heart.

[Friendly Reminder: The turtle you just took out is the low-level system. It's a biological system.]

'Oh, so it's the turtle, huh? You could've mentioned that earlier!'

Naruto muttered, feeling a bit exasperated, then he reached over and picked up the turtle.

He doesn't know if it's because the turtle had run out of energy, but it was sleeping very soundly without any resistance.

After holding it in his hand for a while, Naruto heard the system prompt sound again in his mind.

[Congratulations to the host for capturing the low-level system. System absorption is complete. The host is rewarded with a special gift pack!]

As the message concluded, the turtle in Naruto's hand vanished into thin air.

Naruto wasn't concerned about the turtle. He was more interested in the special gift pack the system had promised.

This was his first time helping the system acquire something it genuinely desired, and it was even a fellow system, so he figured the reward would be worthwhile.

Naruto rubbed his hands excitedly and took out a large, golden box from his system backpack.

It was a cube, one meter in length, width, and height. Just the hefty weight of the box made Naruto feel even more satisfied.

He hurriedly opened the box, and on the top of the box was a turtle, which looked exactly the same as the turtle that Naruto had just taken out of Boruto's backpack.

After checking the system panel, he discovered something interesting.

[Karasuki (Imitation): One-time use item. Allows for a single instance of time travel.]

'So, it had swapped out the real one with an imitation...'

'But that wasn't too bad… at least Boruto won't find out about this.'

After stuffing the imitation into Boruto's backpack, Naruto began to look through the other items in the gift pack.

The more he looked, the more excited he became, nearly grinning from ear to ear, with his heart rate soaring close to 200!

It can't be helped. This wasn't his usual reaction, but the system's rewards were just too abundant!