Back in the orphanage, when Uzumaki Menma opened his eyes again, he had returned from the mental landscape to reality. He felt the surge of chakra flowing ceaselessly through his pathways; his entire body was brimming with power.
With the physical constitution of the Uzumaki clan, it had taken him three long years to accumulate enough energy to manifest the Little Nine-Tails. But now that she had been born, his chakra was no longer being drained by a bottomless vortex.
In fact, he could now draw power from her.
'Little Jiu, give me some chakra,' Menma called out internally.
"I'll give you enough for a Tailed Beast Bomb for now. I don't have much left myself," the Little Nine-Tails replied, somewhat reluctantly parting with her meager reserves.
For a full-sized Tailed Beast, the chakra for a single Tailed Beast Bomb was a drop in the ocean. But for the current Little Nine-Tails, it was nearly half of her total essence. Even so, this amount already surpassed the total chakra capacity of most Jonin-level shinobi.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Menma wove the signs.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke cleared to reveal a clone standing by the bed. They exchanged a silent nod before the original Menma climbed out of bed, leaving the clone to take his place under the covers.
He moved to the window, but he didn't jump out immediately. Instead, he channeled the Little Nine-Tails' chakra to activate 'Negative Emotion Sensing.'
Coming from the "Limited Tsukuyomi," the Dark Nine-Tails was viewed as the embodiment of hatred, malice, and betrayal. Her ability to perceive intent was razor-sharp, and Menma was a master at utilizing it.
'Found you!'
Through the sensing web, he detected a surge of malicious chakra hidden within a large tree less than ten meters from the orphanage.
A White Zetsu was monitoring them.
To avoid waking the other children or his foster mother, Nonō, Menma slipped out and shut the window silently. He flickered forward with a Shunshin.
Purple lightning crackled in his palm, wrapping around his hand to form a blade-like shroud similar to a Chakra Scalpel. This was one of the many techniques he had perfected in the other world—a world where he had hunted Jinchuriki and hoarded forbidden scrolls to find a way home.
Chirp, chirp, chirp—
The lightning sang softly. Menma's hand punched straight through the massive trunk.
"AAAGH!"
A blood-curdling scream erupted from the tree.
"You..."
Menma dragged a pale, humanoid figure out of the wood. The creature's face was twisted in sheer terror. The Zetsu couldn't fathom how this brat, whom he had watched for two years, had suddenly detected him—much less possessed such lethal ninjutsu.
White Zetsu were weak in direct combat. Pierced through the vitals, it died instantly, leaving behind a cold, white corpse.
"A shame I don't have a storage scroll," Menma muttered. He hoisted the body onto his shoulder and sprinted toward the heart of Konoha.
As he leaped through the forest canopy, he wove a sign with his free hand.
Transformation!
He reverted to his appearance from the Limited Tsukuyomi.
Beneath short black hair, a white three-eyed fox mask concealed his face. He wore a dark high-collared robe with a white fur mantle, his arms and legs wrapped in red bandages. His hands were covered in fingerless sleeves.
The color palette was dark and somber—a sharp, obsidian contrast to Naruto's bright orange sunshine aesthetic.
"Menma, what is this thing?"
The Little Nine-Tails poked her small head out from the white fur collar on his shoulder. She looked at the white creature with instinctive disgust. She had never seen such a thing in her world.
"A White Zetsu. Just a tragic remnant of those whose chakra and life force were drained by the God Tree."
As they reached the village outskirts, his sensing picked up another one hiding near the main gates.
'Black Zetsu really has deployed quite a few spies,' Menma noted.
Ever since Uchiha Madara's death, the blackened Obito had likely been keeping a constant eye on the village. Aside from the Hyuga compound with its Byakugan, White Zetsu were probably crawling everywhere—especially near the Uchiha district.
Menma dashed to the hidden Zetsu's tree. With a single chakra-enhanced hand-blade, he cleaved both the tree and the spy in half.
He gathered the remains and kept moving.
He had to clear the perimeter of the orphanage to act freely. Being watched 24/7 was intolerable. However, he couldn't afford to alert Obito or Black Zetsu to his true identity yet.
He needed a scapegoat.
And in Konoha, there was one man whose back was broad enough to carry every "pot" of blame.
'The Lord of Root won't mind a few more scandals on his record.'
Konoha was peaceful and quiet in the night.
Menma emerged from a ninja tool shop and leaped onto a rooftop. From there, he looked toward the Hokage Rock, the night view of the village laid out before him.
The Zetsu corpses were gone, replaced by several storage scrolls in his pouch. He had also "borrowed" a significant amount of gear from the shop—probably enough to equal the bounty on Asuma's head.
'Was that Tenten's family shop?' he wondered, the location feeling familiar.
'Whatever. I'll pay them back when I'm older.'
He turned his gaze toward the stone faces of the Hokage.
'If I remember correctly, the Root base is right beneath the mountain.'
He began to move across the rooftops with practiced ease.
'I need to re-develop the "Nine Masked Beasts" (Kyuumen Soubu) as soon as possible.'
He missed the flight capability the "Tennyo" mask provided. The masks were essentially summons based on the Nine-Tails' chakra, meaning he needed the Little Nine-Tails' help to recreate those nine spiritual beasts.
Using his high mobility and sensing, he bypassed the village's elite patrols and cleared out two more Zetsu hidden near the base of the mountain. He didn't wipe them all out—just enough to create a "clear path" from the Hokage Rock to the orphanage.
By the time Obito and Black Zetsu realized their spies were missing, Menma would already be living his own life.
Feeling the hunger of a growing boy after his exertion, Menma dropped into a dark alley. He transformed into an ordinary black-haired youth and walked into Ichiraku Ramen.
"Hey, did you hear? The war is almost over. Peace is finally coming."
"The messengers from the Hidden Cloud arrived yesterday. Lord Third is hosting a banquet for them. It's about time this war ended."
Two shinobi nearby were chatting while slurping their noodles.
'Messengers from the Hidden Cloud?' Menma sat down at the counter.
That's right. It was currently the year 54 of Konoha. This was the year the conflict between the Cloud and the Leaf was set to end.
And with it, the Hyuga affair was about to begin.