While Menma's shadow clone was playing house with Naruto and Hinata-
Menma's real body had already left Orochimaru's hideout. Using the Flying Thunder God's mark he had previously left in a coastal area of southern Land of Hot Water, he instantly teleported to the Land of Hot Water.
This was a dock warehouse in a coastal city of Land of Hot Water. It was purchased and then sealed off by the Gato Company.
Menma checked the Flying Thunder God kunai in the warehouse's secret room, as well as the surveillance items left by his subordinates, confirming they hadn't been triggered before setting off along the coastline toward the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
Following the coastline, he quickly found the small island where the Land of Whirlpools had once been located.
In the ruins of Uzushiogakure, the faint glow of several campfires illuminated a corner of the wreckage.
When Menma, clad in a black robe and wearing a white three-eyed fox mask, arrived, he immediately drew the attention of the pirates and Rogue Ninjas occupying the area.
"Where'd this brat come from?" A few pirates stepped forward first, brandishing weapons like cleavers and spiked clubs.
The Land of Whirlpools was destroyed during the Second Great Ninja War, around Year 37 of Konoha Calendar, meaning it had been seventeen years since its fall. Overgrown greenery and young trees now sprouted among the ruins.
Under the glow of the campfire, weeds and shrubs filled the gaps between the wreckage, covering the remnants of buildings left behind from the destruction seventeen years ago.
It was likely that after the Land of Whirlpools was annihilated, most of Uzushiogakure's assets had been divided among other nations.
Even these ruins must have been guarded by Ninjas for a long time afterward, scoured thoroughly for the secret treasures of the Uzumaki Clan.
But seventeen years later, the place had now become a den for pirates and Rogue Ninjas.
"Hey, brat! I'm talking to you!" The pirates swaggered up to Menma, one of them spitting towards him.
Whoosh-
A gust of wind howled, and the pirate's head tumbled off like a ball.
Blood gushed from the severed neck like a fountain, splattering the surrounding pirates.
"Ahhhh!!!" The pirates, who had never seen such a horrifying sight, screamed and scrambled away in panic.
Seeing this, several other Rogue Ninjas realized that the newcomer was dangerous and quickly drew their weapons.
Shinigami, carrying a scythe on his shoulder, drifted down like a ghost from the darkness.
He swung his scythe, releasing countless wind blades that slaughtered every pirate attempting to flee.
"Who the hell are you?!" A man who appeared to be the leader of the Rogue Ninjas shouted.
But his hand holding the kunai was shaking slightly, betraying his inner fear.
"Missing-nin from Kirigakure?" Menma noticed the horizontal slash through Kirigakure's symbol on their forehead protectors.
However, these Missing-nin had pitifully low Chakra-levels… only the leader barely reached Chunin-level, while the rest were mere Genin.
Moreover, Menma had no interest in them, not even enough to consider recruiting them.
"Kill them." A cold voice issued from behind the white three-eyed fox mask.
Shinigami behind him suddenly lunged forward, swinging his scythe to harvest the lives of these Missing-nin.
The screams lasted only a brief moment.
Menma entered the hideout of the Missing-nin and pirates, conducting a quick search.
Sure enough, aside from a few meager ninja tools, there was only some food and money… nothing related to Uzushiogakure.
"Mind's Eye of the Kagura!" Menma closed his eyes and activated Mind's Eye of the Kagura, increasing the sensitivity of his Chakra sensing, and began to scan the entire island.
"..." Before long, Menma sensed a faint fluctuation of Chakra deep within the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
Even when he had used Mind's Eye of the Kagura to perceive the island from the sea earlier, he hadn't detected it.
Only after amplifying his Chakra sensitivity did he notice the anomaly.
He followed the direction sensed by Mind's Eye of the Kagura and soon arrived at a collapsed stone chamber.
The entire chamber was half-buried, and most of the characters on the walls had been destroyed. Some areas had even been dug out, as if someone had tried to check whether there was any hidden space behind them.
Menma walked up to the wall and examined the ruined text.
The faint Chakra he had sensed earlier was emanating from these very characters.
"Sealing Technique?" Menma stood before the wall, raising his hand to attempt deciphering the text.
But as soon as his Chakra tried to invade the characters, he felt both a gentle warmth and a sense of rejection.
"Countermeasures... but not outright hostile..." Menma was very familiar with this kind of resistance. Back in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, he had always felt a vague sense of rejection.
It wasn't until he instigated the Fourth Great Ninja War and wreaked havoc that he was completely expelled from that world.
But these characters didn't just carry rejection… there was also a trace of welcoming warmth.
"It must be a bloodline restriction." Menma guessed that only a pure-blooded Uzumaki could likely open this sealed chamber.
And what lay beyond might be the Uzumaki Clan's secret treasures, historical records, or even records of the sealing of Uchiha Hikari.
That's right… Menma had come to the ruins of Uzushiogakure specifically to find the records of Uchiha Hikari's sealing location.
Though he should be able to find Uchiha Hikari's sealing location by using Mind's Eye of the Kagura like radar to scan the coastline of the Land of Fire inch by inch, that would take far too much time.
"A pure-blooded Uzumaki..." Menma pondered, reaching up to touch his own hair.
'Damn Minato's overpowered genes… even Uzumaki Clan's iconic hair color had been overwritten.'
Among the surviving Uzumaki in the Ninja World, Nagato was likely a half-blood, and there was no way Menma would go to him for help.
As for Uzumaki Honoka from the Land of the Sea… Menma wasn't sure if she was pure-blooded or not, and at this time, she was probably still a child, possibly not even having learned how to refine Chakra yet.
'That left only Karin's mother...'
"I'll have to make a trip to Kusagakure." Having decided his next move, Menma didn't immediately set off for Kusagakure.
Instead, he rested at the pirates' camp.
Under the night sky, the ruins of Uzushiogakure crackled with the sound of the campfire, while his summoned beasts, Shinigami and Tennyo, stood guard.
Menma, having reverted to his child form, sat before the fire and pulled out a glass cultivation vial containing the Two-Tomoe Sharingan he had taken from Orochimaru.
Inside the pale green liquid, the eyeball swayed slightly.
Menma opened the vial, plucked out the Sharingan, then gouged out his own right eye and replaced it with this Sharingan.
His nearly omnipotent Chakra quickly linked with the transplanted Sharingan.
Though his body was only three years old, the eyes were one of the few organs that changed little in size… a three-year-old's eyes were already about 80% the size of an adult's, and the original owner of this Sharingan seemed to have been a teenager.
Menma closed his eyes to adapt to the Sharingan and began to use Yin Attribute Chakra to stimulate the transplanted eye.
After a while, Menma lowered the hand covering his right eye and opened it! The two tomoes spun slowly in his bloodied socket before turning into a Three-Tomoe Sharingan!
"Heh…" Menma let out a soft chuckle as he took in the world through his new Sharingan.
"Hahahahaha!" In the end, unable to contain himself, he burst into Uchiha-like laughter.