Chapter 2

Chapter 2 — I Can’t Tell! I Really Can’t Tell!

Three years later.

Konoha Orphanage.

“Menma, this is your dinner for tonight. No picky eating, alright?” Yakushi Nono was distributing food to the children one by one. Several older kids were helping nearby, including Yakushi Kabuto, who wore glasses.

“Okay.”

Three-year-old Menma, dressed in slightly oversized clothes, accepted the tray expressionlessly.

“You should say thank you. Be polite,” Nono scolded gently, sounding a little annoyed but still warm.

“Thank you, Director.” Menma sighed softly and gave a slight bow.

After all, she was the foster mother providing him food and shelter. Even if her care felt nagging, it still warmed his heart.

Kabuto, helping beside her, smiled as well. “Go eat, Menma.”

Three years had passed, yet Uzumaki Menma still hadn’t fully adjusted after leaving the “Inifinite Tsukuyomi world.” He constantly feared that this world might also be fake.

That lingering aftereffect continued to torment him.

He stared at Kabuto, who was treating the younger children of the orphanage with gentle kindness. The boy before him felt completely different from the spy Yakushi Kabuto he remembered.

I spent fifteen years in the Inifinite Tsukuyomi world… and I’ve already forgotten so much. When exactly was Kabuto taken away by Danzō? When did Nono die?

Those fifteen years didn’t feel like a dream. They felt undeniably real, leaving Menma slightly paranoid even now.

Meanwhile, Kabuto felt uneasy under Menma’s gaze, unsure what this usually quiet younger brother was thinking.

Compared to the other orphans, Menma had always been unusually calm. He never cried as a baby, and while other children still wet their beds, Menma was already helping care for younger kids.

The only issue was his withdrawn personality. He always looked at people with a strange expression.

Carrying his tray, Menma found an empty table and sat down. The surrounding children instinctively shifted away.

It wasn’t outright exclusion. Being near Menma simply made them uncomfortable. Some children had tried playing with him before, only to be rejected. After enough attempts, no one tried anymore.

Menma had long grown accustomed to solitude. Even in the Inifinite Tsukuyomi world, an instinctive sense of rejection had kept him distant from peers—and even from his parents there.

He also knew that Yakushi Nono and Kabuto would soon be transferred away by Root. Danzō might even select children from the orphanage for brutal training or human experimentation.

He needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible.

He had no intention of being chosen by that so-called “Pot Shadow,” Danzō, and dragged into Root.

“Menma.”

A soft voice sounded beside him.

Without turning around, Menma already knew it was Kabuto.

Kabuto sat next to him carrying a tray, naturally acting like an older brother. He picked up a piece of meat from his own plate and placed it onto Menma’s tray.

“Hm?” Menma turned, surprised.

“I noticed you always finish your food. You must get hungry quickly while growing, so I’ll share some,” Kabuto said gently, imitating the director’s tone and mannerisms.

Then he split half of his meat portion and gave it to Menma.

Looking at the extra pieces of meat, Menma felt a strong sense of unreality.

Back when he watched Naruto in his previous life, Kabuto had already become the cold, calculating “spy Kabuto,” skilled at deception.

Yet in the Inifinite Tsukuyomi world, there had been no trace of Kabuto—nor any mention of Yakushi Nono.

If that world had truly been a parallel world, as people once speculated, they should have existed there as well.

Another theory, however, suggested that the Inifinite Tsukuyomi created a reality based only on the knowledge of the caster and those trapped within it, meaning anything beyond their awareness simply would not exist.

That realization had driven Menma nearly insane inside that world.

He knew he was living in a false reality.

Kushina and Minato’s loving family, the reversed personalities of the Konoha Twelve—every sense told him the world was real.

But without Uchiha Madara or the Sage of Six Paths, that fake world had neither past nor future.

Uzumaki Menma couldn’t tell anymore. He truly couldn’t tell.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Menma lowered his head, his voice trembling slightly.

He was afraid this world might also be false.

In his memories, Kabuto was supposed to be a cunning, ruthless enemy skilled in disguise.

Yet now he cared about Menma like an older brother concerned for his growth.

“We’re brothers, aren’t we? Helping each other is normal,” Kabuto replied, puzzled in his childish voice.

Everyone in the orphanage was family. They were meant to support one another—that was the belief Nono had always taught them.

“If I had trouble, you’d help me too, right?” Kabuto added with a squinting smile.

Under Nono’s influence, Kabuto cared deeply for every child here. This place was his home.

“Trouble…” Menma thought about the future awaiting Nono and Kabuto.

In this world, he had lost his parents and been abandoned at the orphanage by Obito. Nono and the children here had become his only family.

No one had investigated the additional orphan from the Night of the Nine-Tails during these three years. That meant the Third Hokage likely never knew Kushina had given birth to twins.

He had deliberately remained distant so as not to interfere with the original storyline.

But Kabuto’s kindness loosened that cautious mindset.

At worst… I’ll just treat this as another fake world.

Relaxing slightly, Menma looked at Kabuto seriously.

“I’ll help solve whatever difficulties you face.”

During these three years inside the orphanage, Menma still lacked a clear understanding of the outside world.

But for the sake of Nono’s kindness in taking him in—and for this single shared meal—he didn’t mind changing the future of Nono and Kabuto.

Kabuto seemed briefly at a loss at Menma’s seriousness, then quickly smiled again.

“Director, Lord Danzō is looking for you.” A woman from the orphanage approached Nono, who had been watching the children eat.

The moment she heard that name, the gentle smile on Yakushi Nono’s face vanished.

“…Alright. Keep an eye on the children. After dinner, make sure they go to sleep early,” she instructed before turning and leaving the dining hall.

None of the dozens of children eating noticed anything unusual.

Only Kabuto and Menma sensed that something was wrong.

Kabuto put down his tray and quietly followed after her.

Watching Kabuto’s small figure leave, Menma picked up the pieces of meat with his chopsticks and began eating quickly.

He was still growing. Refining chakra consumed enormous energy.

Because Menma felt that something inside him was constantly absorbing the chakra he refined, preventing his efforts from producing results all these years.

Uzumaki Menma had a vague suspicion.

It seemed he had brought something back with him from the Inifinite Tsukuyomi world.