Chapter 3

Chapter 3 — The Little Nine-Tails

“Hey! Kabuto, you idiot!”

“You’re really going to abandon the years we spent together?!”

Late at night, at the entrance of the orphanage, more than twenty orphans stood with Director Yakushi Nono, watching Kabuto walk toward several figures dressed in black.

The one shouting was an orphan named Aki, a few years older than Kabuto. He possessed some talent in medical ninjutsu and had accompanied the director to the battlefield to treat Konoha’s wounded shinobi.

It was during the Battle of Kikyo Mountain that Yakushi Nono rescued an orphan and named him Kabuto.

After Kabuto displayed talent as a medical ninja, he joined Aki as the director’s assistant, heading to the front lines to provide battlefield treatment for Konoha’s ninja.

Because of that, Aki and Kabuto had grown very close.

Uzumaki Menma stood at the back of the crowd, watching Aki shout while Kabuto walked away.

Memories surfaced in his mind. After the Fourth Great Ninja War, when Kabuto returned to run the Konoha orphanage, the one standing beside him had been this very Aqi.

“Kabuto… why?” Yakushi Nono clasped her hands together in a praying gesture, unable to understand his decision, worry filling her eyes.

She knew too well how filthy Root was. She never wanted any of her children taken away by Danzō.

“I just want to become a ninja,” Kabuto said, concealing his true emotions. As he approached Danzō and Orochimaru, he turned slightly, casting one last look at his orphanage family.

Just as he seemed about to say more, a small figure suddenly pushed through the crowd and stepped forward.

“Kabuto, remember our promise!” Menma shouted.

“Menma?” Kabuto looked surprised.

He then smiled bitterly and shook his head. “Did everyone forget the orphanage rules? It’s bedtime.”

After speaking, Kabuto turned and walked toward Danzō.

Orochimaru, dressed in a black robe, narrowed his eyes while observing the children. His tongue flicked slightly as he sensed the chakra lingering in the air.

Aside from Yakushi Nono and the child who had shouted first, none of the others carried the scent of chakra.

Including the child who had just spoken about a promise with Kabuto.

Orochimaru felt disappointed. Aside from Kabuto, these orphans seemed to lack ninja talent.

Danzō nodded in satisfaction at Kabuto, then departed with Orochimaru and Aburame Ryōma.

Kabuto disappeared into the night alongside them.

The orphanage caretakers began guiding the children back inside, while Yakushi Nono remained where she stood, hands pressed to her chest, silently praying for Kabuto.

“Director.”

Menma walked behind her and gently tugged at the sleeve of his gentle foster mother.

“Menma, go to sleep,” Nono said softly, lowering her head to hide her grief.

Unlike the other children who called her “Mother,” the prematurely mature Menma troubled her slightly.

Not only did he seem out of place among the other orphans, he had never once called her mother—only “Director.”

“I’ll bring Kabuto back,” Menma said seriously.

Nono assumed he simply couldn’t accept losing family again.

Still, she felt comforted. Perhaps Menma wasn’t as isolated as he appeared; he did have someone he cared about.

“It’s alright. Kabuto will come back,” she said, kneeling and gently stroking Menma’s black hair.

She felt puzzled again. When she first found him, she distinctly remembered him having blond hair. Somehow, as he grew, it had turned black.

Late at night, after all the children had fallen asleep.

Lying in bed with his eyes closed, Uzumaki Menma listened to the steady breathing around him while continuously refining chakra within his body.

Yet around his abdomen, he felt something like a bottomless vortex greedily devouring all the chakra he produced.

Even with the vitality of an Uzumaki body, the vortex could not be filled.

Drip.

The sound of water echoed.

Menma’s eyes snapped open.

The orphanage ceiling was gone. The beds and sleeping children had vanished.

Instead, he stood barefoot in shallow water within a dark, damp space filled with moisture and restless energy.

Ahead of him stood a massive sealed iron gate.

Behind it, a dark crimson figure with nine tails slowly approached.

“Nine-Tails… long time no see,” Menma said softly, as if greeting an old acquaintance.

As it drew closer, he realized the creature imprisoned behind the gate was a tiny Nine-Tails—roughly his own size.

“Menma! Where is this place?!” the small Nine-Tails cried, gripping the iron bars with its claws.

Its crimson fur bristled, yet its voice differed greatly from Kurama’s rough tone. It sounded gentler—almost feminine.

“Tch… it really is you,” Menma muttered, holding his forehead as his thoughts trembled.

Was that world actually a real parallel world?

If it was real… why was I rejected from it?

Once again, Menma couldn’t tell.

But one thing was certain: the dark Nine-Tails before him had come with him from the Inifinite Tsukuyomi world—and it was female.

Completely opposite to Kurama’s proud, shut-in personality.

The dark Nine-Tails from that world had been gentle and extremely close to him.

“Menma! It’s so dark here. Hurry and let me out!” the small Nine-Tails complained, slapping the gate.

“If someone outside sees a Nine-Tails running around, it’ll cause me a lot of trouble,” Menma said while examining the seal on the gate, though his tone carried little real concern.

In the Infinite Tsukuyomi world, they had been true partners. During the final battle, Menma had controlled the Nine-Tails and faced eighty thousand allied shinobi, reenacting Madara’s famous “Would you like to dance?” moment.

“You really have strange tastes,” the little Nine-Tails muttered while forming hand seals.

“Transformation Jutsu!”

Poof!

Smoke burst outward.

The small Nine-Tails transformed into a tiny fox girl inside the gate.

Barefoot, wearing a crimson-patterned kimono, she had long dark-red hair, twitching fox ears, and nine tails swaying behind her.

“My chakra is too low. This is the best transformation I can manage. Full recovery will take at least three to five years,” she complained while examining her appearance.

“But I won’t need to absorb your chakra anymore. I can recover slowly—and even supply chakra to you.”

Looking at the eager little fox girl ready to support him, Menma raised his thumb in approval.

He was already imagining how shocked Naruto and Kurama would be when they met this dark Nine-Tails years later.