Implanted with Karma himself?
The question had barely surfaced in his mind before Naruto Shadow Clone #2 dismissed it. After all, his own "Karma-like" markings were a product of mastering Sage Mode; they had existed long before Otsutsuki Urashiki appeared.
"This thing is the 'face paint' of my Sage Mode." As he spoke, he deactivated Sage Mode, and the markings on his arm vanished. He held out his empty palm for the little rascal to see.
"It really is different from mine." Boruto also deactivated his Karma, but the diamond-shaped mark remained on his palm.
"My original body is here." The moment his voice fell, the original Naruto also appeared in the room.
"I'll transmit the details to you." Shadow Clone #2 dispersed into a puff of white smoke, and their earlier conversation appeared in Naruto's mind.
"I understand the situation now. Give me a few minutes to take care of some things."
Boruto nodded vigorously, like a chick pecking at grain.
"Deva Path (Sekiro), you take over matters in Konoha. Animal Path (Yomi), you're responsible for things in the Land of Dragon; Haku will coordinate with you..." Naruto assigned the tasks at hand one by one. When creating the Animal Path, he hadn't modified its appearance to resemble his own, unlike with the Deva Path. Also, Haku hadn't met the Animal Path yet, so an identity verification would be needed. The Naraka Path - Uchiha Obito was currently busy extracting Tailed Beast chakra, so no tasks could be assigned to it for the time being.
"...Kurama, notify all shadow clones to suspend all missions. I'm going to dispel them." Naruto let out a light breath. He needed to face Otsutsuki Isshiki in his optimal state; the chakra from his shadow clones had to be recalled.
"Already notified them."
Ten minutes later.
Naruto felt the long-absent sensation of his chakra overflowing within him. He turned his head to look at Boruto. "Open the space-time passage."
Boruto took out the space-time ninja tool—Karasuki—and set the spatiotemporal coordinates. The small pink turtle pulled the two of them into a kaleidoscope of colors in an alternate dimension and said, "Space-time transit will commence in ten seconds. Please prepare yourselves."
"Ten, nine... three, two, one!"
As the last word was spoken, Naruto felt a wave of dizziness wash over his mind. It was similar to the sensation of using the Flying Thunder God Technique, but more intense, likely due to the greater distance being traversed. He didn't know how much time had passed—it could have been a second, a few minutes, or even a few hours.
A sliver of light suddenly broke through.
Naruto instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes. Through the gaps between his fingers, a two-story house with a garden slowly came into full view.
Just then, a faint sense of danger emerged.
On the lawn, a long, narrow black shadow, like a venomous snake, shot towards him with lightning speed.
Naruto instinctively unleashed his powerful aura.
BOOM!
With him at the center, countless cracks spiderwebbed across the ground. The windows of the small house shattered one after another under the terrifying pressure. The black shadow on the ground was sent recoiling even faster than it had approached.
"Pfft!" In a corner, a man with a pineapple-style haircut turned pale and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Wait!" Boruto finally reacted. "Little Dad! He's one of us! Uncle Shikamaru, he's on our side!"
Naruto paused, retracting his aura, and turned to look at the man in the corner. The adult Shikamaru, much like his father, had a somewhat "greasy" air about him.
"Boruto, who is he?" At the doorway of the small house, several youngsters about Boruto's age looked at Naruto nervously.
"Is that little girl with glasses Uchiha Sarada?" Naruto leaned closer to Boruto and whispered.
"That's her," Boruto first whispered back, then puffed out his chest, hands on his hips, and tilted his head arrogantly. "He's the Little Dad I told you all about. What do you think? Pretty strong, huh?"
The youngsters exchanged glances. They weren't blind. To be able to unleash such terrifying pressure, how could he not be strong?
"The grown-up you has completely lost that lazy, 'whatever' attitude from your childhood," Naruto said to Shikamaru as he walked over. "But you've become more responsible." To rashly attack without first ascertaining the enemy's strength was not the act of a wise man. Yet, Shikamaru had done so.
"You're very different from the Naruto I remember," Shikamaru said with a wry, pained smile.
Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder. Shikamaru instinctively tried to dodge but found he couldn't escape. When he felt the Yang Release energy being transmitted from Naruto's hand, he stopped struggling. After healing the injuries Naruto had inadvertently caused, Naruto withdrew his hand.
"Where are Konohamaru-nii chan and the others?" Boruto asked, looking at the several bloodstains on the ground.
"Sensei and the others have already been taken to the hospital for treatment," Sarada replied, a trace of lingering fear in her eyes. Their bodies had been pierced by sharp objects; Konohamaru-sensei had truly walked the line between life and death.
Naruto strolled over to the young girl, looking at her curiously.
Sarada was startled by his movement and instinctively flinched back, but then immediately felt it was a bit rude.
"What do you think of Boruto?" Naruto suddenly asked.
This question stunned everyone present.
"He's... not bad, I guess," Sarada stammered. The Seventh Hokage from another world is so strange!
"Has Boruto ever confessed his feelings to you?"
"Huh?!"
Outside the small courtyard, a cry of surprise. Everyone turned to look. A woman and a young girl, carrying some groceries, were staring at him in astonishment.
"Mom!" Boruto's exclamation let Naruto know their identities.
"Naruto?" The adult version of Hinata looked uncertainly at the man in the courtyard. His ronin-like attire, the long sword at his waist, his hair tied back in a wolf-tail style popular among samurai, his long bangs covering his left eye... His effortlessly cool aura made her beautiful eyes shine. The Naruto she remembered had been scruffy as a child, and even after becoming Hokage, he was always busy with work, neglecting his appearance.
"What happened here?" But this Hinata had also experienced the Fourth Great Shinobi War; she quickly composed herself.
Boruto gave a rough explanation of what had happened, including Naruto's origins.
"Young Daddy!" Uzumaki Himawari exclaimed.
Naruto walked over to the little girl, squatted down, smiled, and patted her head. He remembered, a long time ago, fantasizing about having such an adorable daughter.
Opening a spatial rift with Yomotsu Hirasaka, he took out a jade necklace with his left hand and placed it around the little cutie's neck.
"This is too valuable," Hinata quickly tried to dissuade him. With her discernment, she could naturally see the value of this necklace. To put it bluntly, selling their entire house might not even fetch the price of this single piece of jewelry.
"It's just a small gift," Naruto waved his hand. For him now, money was the most useless thing, including such jewels.
"It's okay, Mom, relax. To Little Dad, this really isn't much," Boruto said nonchalantly. He had trained with Little Dad for a while and knew just how powerful Little Dad's organization was.
"Oh, you child," Hinata sighed helplessly.
"Thank you, Little Dad," Uzumaki Himawari said, taking off the necklace and offering it back to him with both hands.
"So well-behaved." Seeing this, Naruto liked this little cutie even more and put the necklace back on for her. "When I have time, I'll get you something even better. Your good-for-nothing older brother walks around with hundreds of millions of ryo worth of stuff on him all day and doesn't even look embarrassed."
Everyone looked at Boruto in astonishment.
"This stone?" Boruto scratched his head and pulled out the Gelel Stone from around his neck.
"Accept it." Meeting her daughter's gaze, Hinata nodded slightly.