"Hey! Kabuto, you bastard!"
"Are you really going to abandon the years we spent together?!"
Late at night, at the entrance of the orphanage, more than twenty children stood together with Director Yakushi Nonō, watching as Kabuto walked toward several black-clad figures across from them.
The one shouting just now was an orphan named Aqi. He was a few years older than Kabuto and had some talent in medical ninjutsu. He had even followed the director to the front lines before to help treat Konoha's wounded ninja.
It was during the Battle of Kikyo Pass that Yakushi Nonō had rescued a young orphan and given him the name "Kabuto."
After Kabuto displayed remarkable aptitude as a medical ninja, he began accompanying Aqi as the director's assistant on the battlefield, providing treatment to Konoha's forces.
Because of that, Aqi and Kabuto had grown very close.
Standing at the back of the crowd, Uzumaki Menma quietly watched Aqi yelling and Kabuto preparing to leave.
Fragments of memory began to surface in his mind. He vaguely recalled that after the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, when Kabuto returned to run the Konoha Orphanage, it was this very Aqi who stayed by his side.
"Kabuto… why?" Yakushi Nonō asked, her hands clasped together in a prayerful gesture. She couldn't understand Kabuto's decision to leave, and her eyes were filled with worry.
She knew better than anyone how filthy and cruel the Root organization was. She didn't want a single one of her children to be taken away by Danzo.
"I just want to become a ninja," Kabuto replied, hiding his true emotions and thoughts. When he reached Danzo and Orochimaru, he turned slightly and looked back one last time at his family in the orphanage.
Just as Kabuto seemed about to say something more, he suddenly noticed a small figure squeezing through the crowd and stepping forward.
"Kabuto! Don't forget our promise!" Uzumaki Menma shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Menma?" Kabuto looked surprised.
Then he gave a helpless smile and shook his head. "Has everyone forgotten the orphanage rules? It's bedtime."
With that, Kabuto turned and walked to Danzo's side.
Orochimaru, dressed in a black robe, narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the children of the orphanage. His tongue flicked out as he sensed the chakra in the air.
But aside from Yakushi Nonō and the child who had shouted first, none of the others carried any trace of chakra.
Including the child who had just called out to Kabuto about a "promise."
This left Orochimaru slightly disappointed. It seemed that, other than Kabuto, these orphans had no real ninja potential.
Danzo looked at Kabuto with satisfaction and nodded. Then, accompanied by Orochimaru and Aburame Ryōma, he turned and left.
Just like that, Kabuto disappeared into the night alongside the three of them.
The other two caretakers began ushering the children back inside. Yakushi Nonō remained standing where she was, staring in the direction Kabuto had gone, her hands clasped tightly as she prayed for his safety.
"Director."
Menma walked up behind her and tugged gently at her sleeve with his small hand.
"Menma, hurry and go to sleep," Nonō said softly, lowering her head to hide her sorrow and pain as best she could.
Unlike the other children, who all called her "Mom," this unusually mature child insisted on calling her "Director," which often left Nonō feeling a bit troubled.
It wasn't only because Menma seemed out of place among the other orphans—it was also because he never called her mother.
"I'll bring Kabuto back," Menma said with a serious expression on his small face.
Nonō simply assumed he was struggling to accept the loss of a family member.
At the same time, she felt relieved. It seemed Menma wasn't as lonely as she thought—he did have someone he cared about.
"It's okay. Kabuto will come back," she said gently, crouching down and affectionately stroking Menma's black hair.
Still, she felt a bit puzzled. When she first found him, she clearly remembered he had blond hair. How had it slowly turned black as he grew older?
———
Late at night, after all the children had fallen sound asleep.
Uzumaki Menma lay in bed with his eyes closed, listening to the steady breathing of the children around him while continuously refining chakra within his body.
Yet it felt as if there were a bottomless vortex near his abdomen, greedily devouring every bit of chakra he produced.
Even with the natural vitality of the Uzumaki clan, the chakra he refined was nowhere near enough to fill it.
Drip—drip—
The sound of water echoed.
Menma abruptly opened his eyes.
The sight before him was no longer the orphanage ceiling. The bed and sleeping children around him had vanished.
Instead, he found himself standing in a dim, damp space filled with humidity and an unsettling aura.
Barefoot, Menma stood in shallow water and looked up at a massive sealed iron gate in front of him.
Behind the gate, a dark-red figure with nine tails slowly approached.
"Nine-Tails… long time no see," Menma called out softly, as if greeting an old friend.
But when it came closer, he realized something unexpected.
The creature locked behind the bars was not the gigantic Nine-Tails he knew—but a small Nine-Tails roughly the same size as himself.
"Menma! Where is this place?!" the tiny Nine-Tails shouted, gripping the iron bars with both paws.
Its dark-red fur bristled in agitation, yet its voice was completely different from Kurama's deep, gruff tone. Instead, it carried a gentle, almost feminine warmth.
"Tch… so it really is you, Nine-Tails." Menma pressed a hand to his forehead as he stared at the tiny dark-red fox, his mind trembling.
'Could that world have truly been a real parallel world?'
'But if it was real… then why was I rejected and forced out of it?'
Once again, Menma felt lost and confused.
But at least one thing was certain—the dark Nine-Tails before him was something he had brought back from the "Limited Tsukuyomi World."
And apparently… she was female.
Completely different from Kurama's arrogant, grumpy, shut-in personality.
In the Limited Tsukuyomi World, this dark Nine-Tails had been gentle and kind, and she and Menma had shared an extremely close bond.
"Menma! It's so dark in here! Hurry up and let me out!" the tiny Nine-Tails cried, smacking the iron gate.
"If people outside see a Nine-Tails, it'll cause me endless trouble," Menma said as he glanced at the seal on the gate—though he didn't really mean it.
After all, in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, she had been his closest partner. In the final battle, Menma had ridden atop her into battle against the eighty-thousand-strong Shinobi Alliance, reenacting Madara's famous "Do you also wish to dance?" scene.
"You really have some weird tastes," the tiny Nine-Tails muttered—but her hands were already forming seals.
"Transformation Jutsu!"
Poof!
In a puff of smoke, the tiny Nine-Tails transformed into a small fox-girl.
Barefoot and dressed in a red-patterned kimono, with long dark-red hair, twitching fox ears, and nine fluffy tails swaying behind her.
"My chakra is still too low—I can only transform this much. It'll take at least three to five years to fully recover," she said with slight dissatisfaction as she examined her new form.
"But from now on, I won't need to absorb your chakra anymore. I can recover slowly on my own—and even provide chakra for you."
Seeing the eager little fox-girl so ready to support him, Uzumaki Menma raised his thumb in approval.
He was already imagining how shocked Naruto and Kurama would be when they eventually met this dark Nine-Tails years later.
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