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The massive drain of chakra and heavy blood loss, combined with absolute physical and mental exhaustion, had pushed Naruto to the brink of collapse. Even with Menma's rudimentary first aid, Naruto's face remained deathly pale.
"Let's go. Just like Mother said, you're going to sit quietly for the foreseeable future, Naruto. We'll talk again when this is all over."
Menma kept the Adamantine Sealing Chains wrapped tightly around his brother, his eyes flashing with an unreadable light.
"Huh? Yeah, I get it," Naruto nodded, seemingly compliant. But a distinct, stubborn gleam still flickered deep within his bright blue eyes.
That microscopic shift in demeanor naturally didn't escape Menma's notice. He had a pretty good idea of what Naruto was planning, but he didn't care. Barring some massive, unforeseen variable, there was absolutely no way Naruto was going to flip the board now.
Once they were back at the base, Menma had plenty of ways to keep him locked down. And if Naruto somehow managed to pull off some protagonist-level miracle and find a loophole to escape? Then Menma would just accept it.
You couldn't have a one-hundred-percent guarantee on anything in life. Achieving your goals meant taking risks. There was no point in obsessing over it.
Hum! The next second, Menma placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, drawing out his chakra. He began meticulously fine-tuning the jutsu's sensory input and chakra output.
The Flying Thunder God.
Menma had already achieved a stable mastery of the technique, but that was only for solo jumps. Teleporting another person along with him was a first. He wanted to use this opportunity to test it out, knowing that success would be a massive leap forward in his overall mastery of space-time ninjutsu.
And clearly, he had perfectly inherited Minato's monstrous, unparalleled talent for the technique.
He had grasped the basics of the jutsu in an absurdly short amount of time. Now, even with the significantly higher difficulty of carrying a passenger over a long distance, he didn't struggle.
In less than a few seconds, he found the necessary trick and the distinct spatial "feel."
Hum. The moment his mind cleared, he locked perfectly onto the spatial coordinates he had set earlier.
Right before the jump, Menma raised an eyebrow, glancing toward the southeast. A faint, icy sneer curled his lips.
The next second, Menma formed a single hand seal.
With a flash of crimson light, both brothers vanished completely from the spot.
---
A few minutes later.
Swish! Swish! Swish! From the exact direction Menma had been looking, several figures blurred into the clearing at top speed. The man at the front was Kakashi Hatake.
Arriving at the scene, they took in the devastated landscape—the undeniable scars of a brutal, high-tier battle—and the complete absence of anyone. Kakashi and the others grimaced, their expressions turning incredibly ugly.
Swish!
Moments later, another massive figure slammed into the clearing right behind them. Sporting his iconic "Oil" headband and bright red haori, Jiraiya arrived. After securing the main camp and leaving Shikaku Nara in charge, the profoundly worried Toad Sage had rushed out to find Naruto.
Jiraiya's current aura was suffocatingly heavy and terrifying. His face was drastically different from usual, marked by horizontal, bar-shaped pupils and distinct, toad-like features. He was already in Sage Mode.
Perched on his shoulders were Fukasaku and Shima, the two Great Toad Sages of Mount Myōboku who had assisted Naruto earlier. Jiraiya's squad had managed to track the location so quickly entirely because of the two toads, who had notified Jiraiya the moment they reverse-summoned back to their realm.
But they were still a step too late.
"Damn it!" Staring at the empty clearing—and especially the massive pools of blood staining the earth—Jiraiya's face twisted into a dark scowl.
In that instant, his mind jumped straight to the absolute worst-case scenario.
"We were still a step too late. I'm sorry, little Jiraiya. Ma and I never expected little Naruto to try and take on Menma Uzumaki entirely alone..." Fukasaku said from his left shoulder, guilt heavy in his voice.
"No, this isn't your fault, Fukasaku-sama. Ultimately, Naruto was just too reckless..." Jiraiya sighed heavily, shaking his head.
Truthfully, Jiraiya had a sinking premonition about this from the start. He knew exactly what kind of kid Naruto was. He was incredibly stubborn; once he locked onto an idea, wild horses couldn't drag him away from it.
Jiraiya hadn't originally planned to teach Naruto Sage Mode this early; he'd intended to push it back because of how insanely difficult the training was. He only changed his mind after seeing that deeply ingrained stubbornness, realizing he needed to make Naruto as strong as possible, as fast as possible.
Fortunately, Naruto's talent for Senjutsu was truly unparalleled. His sensitivity to Nature Energy was several times sharper and clearer than Jiraiya's. The first phase of training, which took Jiraiya a massive amount of time, Naruto conquered in mere days. It was pure, raw talent.
Yet, even after mastering Sage Mode, Naruto had apparently been utterly crushed by Menma.
And then there was the Flying Thunder God and the Adamantine Sealing Chains. Did that boy perfectly inherit both Minato and Kushina's talents? Combined with that bizarre Nine-Tails Chakra Mode? He's becoming terrifying... Jiraiya thought, a bitter taste filling his mouth.
The situation had spiraled completely out of control. Whether it was Naruto's reckless solo mission or Menma's continuously explosive, expectation-shattering growth, Jiraiya felt the future growing incredibly bleak.
"Lord Jiraiya, what do we do now?" Kakashi asked from the side, unable to hide the raw anxiety in his voice.
Kakashi held a deep sense of gratitude toward Minato and Kushina. As Minato's direct subordinate, he was essentially family—closer even than the Hokage Guard Platoon. He already felt like he had failed them regarding Menma. If Naruto was dead now too—especially in a brutal case of fratricide—Kakashi felt he would have no right to ever face his sensei in the afterlife.
He truly, desperately didn't want anything to happen to Naruto. Especially death.
"Relax. Ultimately, Menma and Naruto are still brothers. He shouldn't have dealt a killing blow. Let's head back. We'll deal with everything tomorrow," Jiraiya said, his mouth twitching slightly. He took a deep breath, violently suppressing his own chaotic emotions to project a facade of calm.
Did he actually believe Menma wouldn't deal a killing blow? Not even a little.
And neither did Kakashi. In Kakashi's eyes, Menma was already completely blinded by hatred. Kakashi had seen the sheer murderous intent at the Valley of the End with his own two eyes. Even though they hadn't found a body, Kakashi couldn't shake the suffocating feeling that they were already too late.
Jiraiya understood this perfectly well too. But what else could they do right now? Launch a suicide assault on the Waterfall base? Even if they were prepared for a siege, if Naruto was already dead, attacking prematurely would only ruin their entire strategic layout for nothing.
They had to stick to the plan. Ultimately, in Jiraiya's heart, the village always came first. Whether it was Orochimaru's defection, Minato and Kushina's deaths, or this... Jiraiya would always be the "Gallant Hero" the Hidden Leaf needed him to be.
"Yes, sir..." Kakashi replied softly, hearing the finality in the order.
"Let's go."
Led by Jiraiya, the squad turned and sprinted back toward the Leaf camp. As they moved through the trees, Jiraiya finalized his resolve.
This time, he would give absolutely everything to eliminate the threat of Menma Uzumaki. It was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of the village.
Minato, Kushina... I'm so sorry... A look of ironclad determination settled over Jiraiya's features.
---
Meanwhile.
Having successfully teleported Naruto back to the Waterfall base, Menma was completely unaware that Jiraiya had just discarded his final shred of hesitation. And even if he had known, Menma wouldn't have cared.
Menma never viewed Jiraiya through any kind of nostalgic, sentimental filter. Any fondness he had for the character belonged strictly to his past life.
In this world, Naruto was the only person Menma genuinely couldn't bring himself to kill outright. But anyone else? Sorry, but anyone standing in his way was going to die. Jiraiya's attitude was entirely irrelevant. Menma only needed to execute his plan.
He wasn't some bloodthirsty psychopath who slaughtered every single person who opposed him just for the sake of it. But if an enemy actively threatened his goals or his life, Menma would show absolute zero mercy. Letting a powerful tiger return to the mountain was equivalent to suicide. For a man utterly devoted to the Leaf like Jiraiya, Menma wouldn't hesitate for a microsecond.
Swish! After a few more short-range jumps, he arrived deep within his base.
"Who's there!?"
As a flash of crimson light bloomed inside the perimeter, a patrolling squad of Waterfall shinobi instantly tensed, instinctively drawing their weapons.
"Stand down. It's me."
A second later, Menma's calm voice echoed out. As his fiery red hair came into view, the Waterfall shinobi immediately dropped to one knee.
"Lord Menma!" they greeted in unison, bowing deeply.
Standing beside Menma, Naruto watched this display with a profoundly bizarre look in his eyes. He had heard the rumors that his brother had taken full control of the Hidden Waterfall, but actually seeing these shinobi drop to their knees in absolute reverence felt incredibly surreal.
His brother had defected from the Leaf barely over a year ago! And he was exactly the same age as Naruto! To completely subjugate an entire hidden village—especially one whose historical scale and foundation were second only to the Five Great Nations—was undeniably mind-blowing.
"Good work. Resume your patrol. Also, have Muku and Doran report to me immediately," Menma ordered, giving a slight nod.
"Yes, Lord Menma!"
After acknowledging the order, one shinobi immediately broke formation to deliver the message, while the rest seamlessly resumed their patrol routes. From start to finish, not a single one of them batted an eye or asked a single question about the blonde kid standing next to Menma, heavily bound in thick golden chains.
Satisfied, Menma nodded and led Naruto directly toward the largest building in the center of the base, his personal command quarters.
As the most critical frontline zone bordering the Land of Fire, previous generations of Waterfall leaders had constructed a formidable stronghold here. Initially built for defense, it had once even been considered a staging ground for an offensive.
In the early decades of the village's founding, the Waterfall's military strength had been nothing to scoff at. At its peak, it boasted over seven or eight thousand active shinobi. Even after their precipitous decline, possessing three or four thousand shinobi and a Tailed Beast still commanded enough deterrent force that the Five Great Nations usually avoided provoking them outright.
Since arriving at the Waterfall, and especially after integrating into its high command, Menma had systematically reinforced this base's defensive capabilities, even constructing interlocking secondary strongholds on the flanks.
He had done all of it specifically for today. To perfectly counter the Hidden Leaf's invasion.