Chapter 3: Little Nine-tails
“Hey! Kabuto, you guy!”
“Are you going to abandon the years we spent together!”
Late at night, at the entrance of the Konoha Orphanage, more than twenty orphans and Director Nonō Yakushi saw Kabuto Yakushi off together as he walked toward several people in black clothes on the opposite side.
The one who had just shouted was orphan Aqi, a few years older than Kabuto Yakushi, with some medical talent, who had gone to the front lines with the director to treat Konoha’s ninjas.
It was also during the Battle of Kikyo Pass that Nonō Yakushi saved an orphan and gave him the name Kabuto.
After Kabuto Yakushi showed medical ninja talent, he also went to the front lines with Aqi as the director’s deputy to provide field treatment to Konoha’s ninjas.
Therefore, Aqi and Kabuto Yakushi had a very good relationship.
Uzumaki Menma stood at the back of the crowd, watching the shouting Aqi and the departing Kabuto Yakushi.
His memories began to surge, vaguely remembering that after the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War in Naruto, when Kabuto Yakushi returned to the Konoha Orphanage to become the director, the one by his side was this Aqi.
“Kabuto, why?” Nonō Yakushi put her hands together in a prayer gesture, very uncomprehending of Kabuto’s active departure, with her eyes full of worry.
She knew too well how dirty the Root Organization was; she didn’t want any of her children to be taken away by Danzō.
“I just want to be a ninja.” Kabuto Yakushi hid his real emotions and thoughts, and when he walked in front of Danzō and Orochimaru, he turned slightly, taking one last look at the family in the orphanage.
When Kabuto Yakushi wanted to say something more, he suddenly saw the smallest figure squeeze through the crowd and walk to the front.
“Kabuto, remember our promise.” Uzumaki Menma shouted to Kabuto Yakushi.
“Menma?” Kabuto Yakushi was a bit surprised.
Then he smiled bitterly and shook his head: “Has everyone forgotten the orphanage rules? It’s time to sleep.”
After saying that, Kabuto Yakushi turned and walked to Danzō’s side.
Orochimaru, wearing a black robe, narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the children in the orphanage, while sticking out his tongue to sense the chakra in the air.
But except for Nonō Yakushi and the first child who shouted, there was no chakra scent on the others.
Including the child who just talked about some promise with Kabuto.
This disappointed Orochimaru a bit; it seemed that except for Kabuto, this group of orphans had no ninja talent.
Danzō looked at Kabuto Yakushi, nodded satisfiedly, then left with Orochimaru and Yuruma Aburame.
Kabuto Yakushi thus followed the three and disappeared into the night.
The other two caregivers in the orphanage began leading the children back, while Director Nonō Yakushi stood in place, looking in the direction Kabuto Yakushi left, hands clasped in front of her chest praying for Kabuto.
“Director.” Menma walked behind Nonō Yakushi and tugged at this gentle foster mother’s hand with his small hand.
“Menma, go to sleep quickly.” Nonō Yakushi lowered her head, trying to hide her sadness and pain, speaking gently to Menma.
Compared to other children calling her mother, Menma, this somewhat precocious child, gave Nonō Yakushi some headache.
Not only because this child didn’t fit in with the other orphans, but also because Menma never called her mother, just calling her director.
“I will bring Kabuto back.” Menma’s small face said very seriously.
And Nonō Yakushi just thought Menma couldn’t accept losing family.
She was also quite relieved; Menma didn’t seem so withdrawn after all, and still had good friends.
“It’s okay, Kabuto will come back.” Nonō Yakushi squatted down, affectionately stroking Menma’s black hair.
She was also a bit puzzled; she remembered when she first picked up this child, it seemed to be blond hair, how did it turn into black hair as he grew?
——————
Late at night, after all the children had fallen fast asleep.
Uzumaki Menma lay on the bed with his eyes closed, listening to the breathing sounds of the little children beside his ears, continuously refining the chakra in his body.
But he felt like there was a bottomless vortex around his stomach, greedily sucking up the chakra in his body.
Even with his Uzumaki Clan physique, the chakra he refined couldn’t fill this vortex.
Drip—
The sound of water droplets rang out, and Uzumaki Menma suddenly opened his eyes.
What appeared before him was not the ceiling of the orphanage, nor were there beds or those silly sleeping kids beside him.
Instead, it was a dim and damp environment, with the air filled with moisture and an restless aura.
Uzumaki Menma stepped barefoot into the shallow water, looking up at a tall iron gate sealed in front of him.
Behind the iron gate, a dark red figure with nine tails gradually approached.
“Nine-Tails, long time no see.” Uzumaki Menma called out the other’s name lightly, as if seeing an old acquaintance.
Only when it came closer did Menma see clearly that locked inside the iron gate was a little Nine-Tails about the same height as himself.
“Menma! Where the hell is this place!” The little Nine-Tails stretched out two claws, clawing at the two iron bars.
The dark red fox fur seemed about to explode, but the little Nine-Tails’ voice was very different from Kurama’s rough voice, somewhat feminine and gentle, with a soft tone.
“Tsk tsk, it really is you, Nine-Tails.” Menma held his forehead, looking at the dark red little Nine-Tails in front of him, his brain starting to tremble.
‘Could that world be a real existing parallel world?’
‘But if it’s a real world, why was I, born in that world, rejected from that world?’
Menma was a bit confused again.
But at least one thing was certain: the Dark Nine-Tails now in front of him was the one he brought out from the ‘Limited Tsukuyomi World’, and it was a girl.
Completely opposite to Kurama’s tsundere and dead fat otaku personality.
The Dark Nine-Tails in the ‘Limited Tsukuyomi World’ not only had a gentle personality, but also had a very close relationship with Menma.
“Menma! It’s so dark here, quickly let me out!” The little Nine-Tails patted the iron gate.
“If people outside see your Nine-Tails form, it will bring me a lot of trouble.” Uzumaki Menma looked up at the seal on the iron gate, but he was just saying it verbally.
He and the Dark Nine-Tails had a very close partner relationship in the ‘Infinite Tsukuyomi’ world; in the final battle, Menma manipulated the Nine-Tails to face the eighty thousand Shinobi Alliance, performing Uchiha Madara’s ‘Do you also want to dance?’
“You this person just have some strange fetishes.” The little Nine-Tails said with her mouth, but her hands began to form hand seals.
“Transformation Jutsu!”
Bang!
After a puff of smoke, the little Nine-Tails inside the iron gate turned into a little fox girl.
Barefoot in a kimono with fiery red patterns, with two fox ears twitching on the dark red long hair, and nine fox tails floating in the air.
“So little chakra, can only transform like this, at least three to five years to fully recover.” The little Nine-Tails looked down somewhat dissatisfied at her transformed appearance and said to Menma.
“But from now on, no need to suck your chakra, can slowly recover, and can even provide chakra to you.”
Looking at this little fox girl in front of him who was eager to provide chakra to him, Uzumaki Menma raised his hand and gave a thumbs up.
He was already secretly thinking about how shocked Naruto and Kurama would be when they saw the Dark Nine-Tails more than a dozen years later.
