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Naruto woke to pale morning light filtering through his curtains and the uncomfortable realization that his arm had fallen asleep. He blinked groggily, lowering his hand from where it had been raised toward... nothing.
The ceiling stared back at him, cracked and ordinary, showing no trace of the impossible blue glow he remembered from the night before. No floating text. No mysterious system asking for his acceptance.
*Was it all a dream?*
He sat up slowly, rubbing his numb fingers and trying to shake off the lingering disorientation. Everything felt too normal, too mundane after the surreal events of the previous night. His orange tracksuit was wrinkled from sleeping in it. His apartment smelled like instant ramen and loneliness, same as always. Even his new forehead protector sat exactly where he'd left it on the nightstand, catching the morning sun like any ordinary piece of metal.
For a moment, disappointment settled in his chest like a stone. Of course it had been a dream. Of course there was no magical solution to his problems, no mysterious power that would help him become stronger. There was just him, alone in his apartment, trying to figure out how to live with what he'd done in that forest clearing.
Then he heard it.
*Chime.*
The sound was soft and musical, like a bell made of crystal and starlight. It resonated through the air in a way that had nothing to do with his ears and everything to do with something deeper, something that lived in the space between his chakra and his soul.
Blue text materialized in front of him, glowing gently against the morning air:
**[Cosmic Ninja System: Welcome, Uzumaki Naruto]**
**[Daily Login Reward: +1 System Currency, +1 Skill Point]**
**[Total System Currency: 1]**
**[Total Skill Points: 1]**
Naruto stared at the floating words, his mouth falling open. "Holy shit," he breathed, then immediately looked around as if someone might scold him for the language. "It's real. It's actually real."
He reached out tentatively, his fingers passing through the translucent text without disturbing it. The letters remained steady and clear, patient as morning sunlight.
"Okay," he said aloud, his voice gaining confidence. "So you're really here. And you gave me... currency? And skill points?" A grin started to spread across his face. "This is so cool."
**[System Menu Unlocked]**
**[Available Categories: Inventory, Skills, Lineage Traits, Equipment, Dungeon]**
Naruto's eyes went wide as the new options appeared, arranged in a neat list that somehow managed to look both alien and familiar at the same time. It reminded him of the video games he'd seen in shop windows, the ones he could never afford but had always wanted to try.
"Dungeons?" His voice cracked with excitement. "There are dungeons? Like, secret missions? Boss fights? Hidden treasures?" He bounced slightly on his bed, suddenly feeling more like the twelve-year-old he actually was instead of the battle-scarred ninja he'd become overnight. "Open dungeon menu!"
**[Main Menu Updated: Dungeon Access Currently Unavailable]**
**[Insufficient Synchronization Level]**
The words hit him like a bucket of cold water, and his shoulders slumped. "Aw, come on. Really?"
But even as disappointment flickered through him, another part of his mind—the part that had learned hard lessons about earning what you wanted—nodded in understanding. "Guess I'm not ready anyway," he muttered. "Probably need to figure out the basics first."
He studied the remaining options, his natural curiosity overriding his momentary frustration. "Lineage Traits sounds important. Let's try that one."
**[Lineage Traits: Uzumaki Bloodline]**
**[Healer's Body] – Partially Unlocked**
*Enhanced recovery rate and chakra endurance. Your body naturally repairs damage and recovers energy faster than normal.*
**[Chakra Chains] – Locked**
*Manifest physical chains of pure chakra. Requires deeper bloodline awakening.*
**[Mind's Eye] – Locked**
*Enhanced sensory perception and chakra detection. Requires system synchronization level 3.*
Naruto read through the list twice, his excitement building with each word. "These are... mine?" He pressed a hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat strong and steady beneath his palm. "Like, actually part of me?"
It made sense, in a way that was both thrilling and slightly overwhelming. He'd always healed faster than other kids, always bounced back from injuries that should have kept him down longer. And his chakra reserves had always been massive, even if his control was terrible. He'd just thought he was naturally resilient.
But this... this was something more. This was heritage. Legacy. A connection to a family he'd never known but whose blood ran in his veins.
"Chakra chains," he whispered, trying to imagine what that might look like. "That sounds awesome. And Mind's Eye... like super senses?" His grin returned, brighter than before. "Okay, system. You've got my attention."
Curious now about what else he might discover, he navigated to the Skills tab.
**[Skills]**
**[Kage Bunshin no Jutsu] – Rank B**
*Create solid shadow clones that share your memories and experiences.*
**[Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu] – Rank S**
*Create hundreds of solid shadow clones. Warning: Extreme chakra drain.*
**[Henge no Jutsu] – Rank E**
*Basic transformation technique.*
**[Kawarimi no Jutsu] – Rank E**
*Body substitution technique.*
**[Bunshin no Jutsu] – Rank E**
*Create illusory copies. Note: Host shows persistent difficulty with this technique.*
**[Oiroke no Jutsu] – Rank ?**
*Specialized transformation technique. Classification pending review.*
Naruto snorted with laughter at the last entry. "Even the cosmic ninja system doesn't know how to rank the Sexy Jutsu. That's hilarious."
But as he looked at the rest of the list, a more serious realization settled over him. These weren't just techniques anymore—they were quantified abilities, measured and ranked by some cosmic standard. The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu was S-rank, the same level as legendary techniques used by the most powerful ninja in history.
And he'd used it to kill a man.
The thought sobered him, but not in the crushing way it had the night before. Instead, it felt like... acknowledgment. Recognition of what he'd done and what it meant, but also acceptance that he couldn't change it. Could only move forward.
"I'll figure it out," he said quietly, addressing the system as much as himself. "If you can help me get strong enough to protect the people I care about... if you can help me prove that I'm more than what they think I am... then yeah. We'll figure it out together."
He felt lighter somehow, like a weight he'd been carrying without realizing it had shifted to a more manageable position. The guilt and trauma were still there—probably always would be—but they no longer felt like they might crush him.
*Chime.*
**[Starter Gift Pack Available]**
**[Would you like to open your Starter Gift Pack?]**
**[Yes / No]**
"A gift pack?" Naruto's mood brightened instantly. "Like a welcome present? Yes! Definitely yes!"
**[Starter Gift Pack Opened]**
**[Received: Basic Ninja Outfit (Black)]**
**[Received: Spider Totem Power]**
**[Received: Unknown Dungeon Key]**
Three items materialized in the air before him, solid and real in a way that made his breath catch. The ninja outfit was sleek and practical—black fabric with subtle armor plating and more pockets than he could count. The Spider Totem was a small carved figure that seemed to pulse with its own inner warmth.
But it was the third item that immediately captured his attention.
The Unknown Dungeon Key was unlike anything he'd ever seen. It looked like it was made of crystallized starlight, translucent and shimmering with colors that shifted when he moved his head. Strange symbols were etched into its surface, writing that felt familiar even though he couldn't read it.
"Unknown Dungeon Key," he murmured, reaching out to touch it.
The moment his fingers made contact with the crystal surface, the system blazed to life.
**[Unknown Dungeon Key Activated]**
**[Analyzing Host's Emotional State...]**
**[Current Trauma Level: High]**
**[Recent Loss: Detected]**
**[Survival Instinct: Enhanced]**
**[Luck Factor: ???]**
**[Dungeon Generation Complete]**
The temperature in his apartment suddenly dropped. Not gradually, but all at once, like someone had opened a door to winter itself. Naruto's breath misted in front of his face, and frost began to form on his windows in delicate, impossible patterns.
A low hum filled the air, resonating through the floorboards and into his bones. The lights flickered once, twice, then steadied into a strange blue-white glow that had nothing to do with the bulb in his ceiling.
And then, in the middle of his apartment floor, reality... tore.
It started as a shimmer, like heat waves rising from summer pavement. But instead of warmth, it radiated cold that made his teeth chatter. The shimmer expanded, widening into a rift that showed not the apartment below his, but something else entirely.
Blue light poured through the opening, along with something that made Naruto's eyes widen in wonder: snowflakes. Real, crystalline snowflakes that drifted through the portal and melted on his floor, leaving tiny puddles of impossibly cold water.
Through the rift, he could see a landscape that belonged in dreams or nightmares: towering ice formations that caught and reflected light like prisms, snow-covered ground that stretched to a horizon painted in shades of blue and white, and in the distance, structures that looked like they'd been carved from glaciers by the hands of giants.
**[Dungeon Created: ??? – Entry Now Available]**
**[Warning: This dungeon has been tailored to your current psychological state]**
**[Recommended Party Size: 1]**
**[Estimated Difficulty: Variable]**
**[Time Limit: None]**
**[Failure Consequence: Unknown]**
Naruto stared at the impossible portal, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. A dungeon. A real, actual dungeon, created just for him by a cosmic system that somehow understood his emotional state better than he did himself.
The Basic Ninja Outfit and Spider Totem lay forgotten on his bed. Whatever power they might hold, whatever advantages they might provide, suddenly seemed secondary to the call of the unknown world beyond the rift.
He could feel something pulling at him from beyond the portal—not physically, but emotionally. Like there was something in that frozen landscape that he needed to face, needed to understand. Something that would help him make sense of the trauma and guilt and desperate need for strength that had been eating at him since the forest clearing.
"Okay," he said softly, his voice steady despite the way his hands were shaking. "I guess we're doing this."
He stood up from his bed, taking one last look around his small, ordinary apartment. Whatever waited for him beyond that portal would change him. He could feel it in his bones, in the way his chakra responded to the cold air flowing through the rift.
But he'd already been changed. Last night had seen to that. This was just... the next step. The next transformation in a life that had suddenly become very, very interesting.
Naruto Uzumaki, jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, graduate of Konoha's Academy, and now bearer of a cosmic system he didn't understand, took a deep breath of the frigid air.
And stepped into the unknown.
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