Chapter 2: I Can’t Tell! I Really Can’t Tell!
Three years later.
Konoha Orphanage.
“Menma, this is your food for tonight. No being picky.” Nono Yakushi was distributing food to the children one by one, with several older children helping nearby, including Kabuto Yakushi who was wearing glasses.
“Oh.” Three-year-old Menma was wearing somewhat ill-fitting clothes and expressionlessly took the tray.
“You child, remember to say thank you and be polite!” Nono Yakushi was a bit angry but still spoke gently to Menma in a lecturing tone.
“Thank you, Director.” Menma sighed and slightly bowed to Nono Yakushi.
After all, she was his foster mother who provided him with food and shelter. Though such care was nagging, Menma felt a bit warm inside.
Kabuto Yakushi, who was helping nearby, also smiled and said, “Go eat, Menma.”
Three years had passed, and Uzumaki Menma, who had come out of the Limited Tsukuyomi World, still felt somewhat unadapted, fearing that this world was also fake.
This kind of aftereffect had been tormenting Menma all along.
He stared at Kabuto Yakushi, who was being very gentle to the younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage at this time, always feeling that he was worlds apart from the spy Kabuto Yakushi in his memories.
‘I stayed in the Limited Tsukuyomi World for fifteen years, and I lost a lot of memories. When was Kabuto Yakushi taken away by Danzō? When did Nono Yakushi die?’
Uzumaki Menma felt that those fifteen years were not like a dream but truly experienced fifteen years, making him a bit erratic now.
Meanwhile, Kabuto Yakushi opposite him felt a bit uneasy being stared at by Menma’s eyes, not knowing what this usually silent younger brother was thinking again.
Compared to the other orphans in the orphanage, Menma had always been very quiet. During infancy, he neither cried nor fussed. When other children were still wetting the bed, Menma was already able to help take care of other children.
It was just that his personality was somewhat reclusive, always looking at everyone with a strange gaze.
Menma carried the tray and casually sat down at a table. The other orphans around saw Menma coming and all shifted their butts a bit.
It wasn’t isolating Menma; it was just that everyone felt uneasy around him. Previously, some children wanted to play with him but were refused, and after many times, no child was willing to play with Menma.
Menma had also grown accustomed to loneliness by himself. In the Limited Tsukuyomi World, due to instinctive rejection, he had estrangement even with peers and parents in that world.
Moreover, Menma knew that Nono Yakushi and Kabuto Yakushi would soon be transferred away by the Root Organization, and Danzō might even select some people from the orphanage to join the Root Organization for cruel training or even human experiments.
So he must improve his strength as soon as possible!
He didn’t want to be selected by Danzō, that Pot Shadow, into the Root Organization.
“Menma.” While he was pondering, a soft call sounded nearby.
Menma didn’t need to turn his head to know it was Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto Yakushi, carrying a tray, sat down beside Menma, very familiarly assuming the role of an older brother, picking up a piece of meat from his own tray with chopsticks and placing it on Menma’s tray.
“Hm?” Menma turned his head in some surprise.
“I see you always eat very cleanly every time. Are you growing fast and getting hungry quickly? I’ll share some with you.” Kabuto Yakushi, wearing glasses, imitated the director’s tone and manner, speaking gently to Menma.
Then, he divided half of the meat from his tray to Menma.
Looking at the extra pieces of meat on his tray, Menma felt somewhat unreal.
In his previous life watching Hokage, Kabuto Yakushi was already that spy Kabuto Yakushi who was good at disguise and coldly cunning.
And in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, there was no trace of Kabuto Yakushi, nor had he heard the name Nono Yakushi.
If the Limited Tsukuyomi World was a parallel world as netizens in his previous life guessed, they should all exist.
But there was another guess: the Limited Tsukuyomi World was a world constructed based on the cognition of the caster and the target, so things beyond their cognition would not appear.
This was also the reason why Menma had a mental breakdown in the Limited Tsukuyomi World.
Clearly knowing he was in a false Limited Tsukuyomi World.
Kushina and Minato’s gentle family, the Twelve Little Strong’s reversed personalities, made every one of his senses truly tell him that this world was real.
But without Uchiha Madara, without the Sage of Six Paths, it meant this false world had no past and no future!
Uzumaki Menma couldn’t distinguish; he really couldn’t distinguish!
“Why are you so good to me?” Menma lowered his head, his voice trembling a bit.
He was so afraid that this world was also a false world.
In his memory, Kabuto Yakushi should be a cunning, treacherous, disguise-expert cold enemy.
But now he was caring about his physical growth like a big brother.
“We are brothers, isn’t it natural to help each other?” Kabuto Yakushi’s childish voice held some confusion.
Everyone in the orphanage was family and should help each other; this was the ideology the director had always instilled in them.
“If I have difficulties, Menma would help me too, right?” Kabuto Yakushi squinted his eyes again and smiled at Menma.
Under the influence of Director Nono Yakushi, Kabuto Yakushi cared a lot about the children in the orphanage because this was his home.
“Difficulties…” Menma thought of Nono Yakushi and Kabuto Yakushi’s future and ending.
In this world, he had lost his family and was abandoned at the orphanage by Obito. Nono Yakushi and the orphanage children were Menma’s family in this world.
In these three years, no one had come to the orphanage to investigate the extra orphan from the Night of the Nine-Tails, indicating that the Third Hokage likely didn’t know Kushina had given birth to twins.
He had always maintained a reclusive personality and kept distance from others precisely because he didn’t want to affect the development of the original plot.
But this cautious mentality, fearing to cause a butterfly effect, loosened under Kabuto Yakushi’s kind actions.
‘At worst, just treat this as a second false world.’ Uzumaki Menma relaxed his mindset and looked up seriously at Kabuto Yakushi: “I will help solve the difficulties you encounter.”
These three years had been in the orphanage, so Uzumaki Menma was still uncertain about the outside world.
But for the director’s kindness in sheltering him these years and this meal from Kabuto Yakushi, he didn’t mind changing Nono Yakushi and Kabuto Yakushi’s future.
Kabuto Yakushi was made somewhat at a loss by Menma’s seriousness but soon laughed again.
“Director, Lord Danzō is looking for you.” A woman from the orphanage suddenly found Nono Yakushi, who was watching the children eat.
Upon hearing this name, Nono Yakushi’s originally gentle smiling face changed instantly.
“Mm, watch the children. After dinner, remember to have them sleep early.” After instructing some matters, Nono Yakushi turned and left the cafeteria.
The other dozens of children eating didn’t notice anything unusual, but only Kabuto Yakushi and Uzumaki Menma sensed something off.
Kabuto Yakushi put down his tray and secretly followed.
Uzumaki Menma watched Kabuto Yakushi’s small back leave the cafeteria, picked up those pieces of meat with chopsticks, and ate them in big bites.
He was growing now, and to refine more chakra, the energy consumption was very high.
Because Menma felt something was absorbing the chakra he refined, making his efforts over these years ineffective.
Uzumaki Menma had a vague guess.
He seemed to have brought something out from the Limited Tsukuyomi World.
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