Three years later.
Konoha Orphanage.
"Menma, this is your dinner for tonight. No being picky, alright?" Yakushi Nonō said as she distributed food to the children one by one. Several older kids were helping beside her, including the bespectacled Yakushi Kabuto.
"Okay." Three-year-old Menma, wearing slightly oversized clothes, accepted the tray with an expressionless face.
"You child… remember to say thank you! You have to be polite," Nonō scolded gently, her tone still warm despite the reprimand.
"Thank you, Director." Menma let out a small sigh and gave a slight bow.
After all, she was the one who provided him food and shelter—his foster mother in this world. Even if her care came with nagging, Menma still felt a faint warmth in his heart.
Kabuto, helping beside her, smiled and said, "Go on and eat, Menma."
Three years had passed, yet Uzumaki Menma still hadn't fully adapted to this world after leaving the "Limited Tsukuyomi World." He constantly feared that this reality might also be fake.
That lingering trauma tormented him day after day.
He stared at Yakushi Kabuto, who was currently treating the younger children of the orphanage with gentle kindness, and couldn't help but feel that this Kabuto was completely different from the cold, scheming spy he remembered.
'Fifteen years in the Limited Tsukuyomi World… I've forgotten so much. When exactly was Kabuto taken away by Danzo? When did Yakushi Nonō die?'
Those fifteen years didn't feel like a dream at all—they felt real. So real that Menma sometimes felt like he was losing his mind.
Kabuto, meanwhile, felt a chill run down his spine under Menma's gaze, wondering what this usually silent younger boy was thinking about again.
Compared to the other orphans, Menma had always been quiet. Even as a baby, he rarely cried. While other children were still wetting their beds, Menma was already helping take care of the younger ones.
The only issue was his personality—he was a bit withdrawn and always looked at everyone with a strange expression.
Menma carried his tray to a random table and sat down. When the surrounding children saw him approach, they quietly scooted a little farther away.
It wasn't that they were deliberately isolating him. They just felt uneasy around Menma. In the past, some children had tried to play with him, only to be rejected. After enough times, no one bothered to invite him anymore.
Menma had long grown used to loneliness. Even in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, he had instinctively kept his distance from everyone—including his so-called parents.
He also knew that soon, Yakushi Nonō and Yakushi Kabuto would be taken away by Root. Danzo might even select other children from the orphanage for cruel training—or worse, human experiments.
So he had to grow stronger as soon as possible!
He absolutely did not want to be chosen by that so-called "Pot Shadow" Danzo and dragged into Root.
"Menma."
While he was lost in thought, a voice called softly from beside him.
Without turning around, Menma already knew who it was.
Kabuto sat down next to him with his own tray, acting familiarly like an older brother. He picked up a piece of meat from his plate and placed it onto Menma's.
"Hm?" Menma turned his head in surprise.
"I noticed you always finish everything you're given. You must be growing fast and getting hungry easily. I'll share some with you," Kabuto said gently, mimicking the director's tone and manner.
Then he transferred half the meat on his tray to Menma's.
Looking at the extra pieces of meat, Menma felt a strange sense of unreality.
In his memories from his previous life watching Naruto, Yakushi Kabuto was already the cold and cunning "Spy Kabuto," skilled at deception and ruthlessness.
And in the Limited Tsukuyomi World, he had never encountered Kabuto at all—nor even heard of Yakushi Nonō.
If that world truly was a parallel world like many fans theorized, then they should have existed there too.
But there was another theory—that the Limited Tsukuyomi World was constructed based on the knowledge of the caster and the target, meaning anything beyond their awareness simply wouldn't appear.
That was the very reason Menma had nearly suffered a mental breakdown back then.
He knew full well that he was inside a false "Limited Tsukuyomi World."
Yet the warmth of Kushina and Minato as parents, the inverted personalities of the Rookie Twelve—every single sense told him that world was real.
But without Uchiha Madara or the Sage of Six Paths, it meant that fake world had no true past—and no future!
Uzumaki Menma couldn't tell.
He really couldn't tell anymore.
"Why are you so nice to me?" Menma asked quietly, his head lowered, his voice trembling slightly.
He was afraid—terrified—that this world too might be another illusion.
In his memory, Yakushi Kabuto was supposed to be a sinister, calculating, cold-blooded enemy.
Yet here he was now, caring for him like a real older brother.
"We're brothers, aren't we? Helping each other is only natural," Kabuto replied in a puzzled, childish voice.
Everyone in the orphanage was family. They were supposed to help one another—that was the belief Director Nonō had always taught them.
"If I ever have trouble, Menma would help me too, right?" Kabuto added with a smile, his eyes narrowing kindly.
Under Yakushi Nonō's influence, Kabuto cared deeply for all the children of the orphanage—because this place was his home.
"Trouble, huh…" Menma murmured, thinking about the futures awaiting both Kabuto and Nonō.
In this world, he had lost his parents and been abandoned by Obito at the orphanage. Yakushi Nonō and the other children had become his only family.
Over the past three years, no one had ever come to investigate the extra orphan from the night of the Nine-Tails attack. That likely meant the Third Hokage didn't even know Kushina had given birth to twins.
Menma had deliberately kept his distance from everyone, afraid of influencing the original storyline.
But under Kabuto's simple act of kindness, that cautious mindset began to crack.
'Worst case… I'll just treat this as another false world.'
With that thought, Menma relaxed and looked up at Kabuto seriously.
"I'll help you solve any problems you face."
He still didn't fully understand the outside world after spending these three years confined to the orphanage.
But for the kindness Director Nonō had shown him—and for this single meal Kabuto shared—he didn't mind changing their fates.
Kabuto was a bit taken aback by Menma's sudden seriousness, but soon laughed it off.
"Director, Lord Danzo is looking for you."
A woman working at the orphanage suddenly approached Yakushi Nonō as she watched over the children eating.
The moment she heard that name, the gentle smile on Nonō's face froze.
"I see. Keep an eye on the children. After dinner, make sure they all go to bed early," she instructed before turning and leaving the dining hall.
None of the dozens of children noticed anything strange.
Only Kabuto and Menma sensed that something was wrong.
Kabuto quietly put down his tray and followed after her.
Menma watched Kabuto's small figure disappear from the cafeteria, then picked up the pieces of meat with his chopsticks and ate them in large bites.
He was still growing, after all. Extracting more chakra required enormous amounts of energy.
Yet despite all his efforts these past few years, he felt as if something inside him was constantly siphoning away the chakra he refined.
Menma had a vague suspicion.
It seemed that he might have brought something back with him… from the Limited Tsukuyomi World.
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