While Menma's shadow clone was busy playing "house" with Naruto and Hinata, his original body had already departed from Orochimaru's base. Utilizing a Flying Raijin mark he had previously left along the southern coast of the Land of Hot Water, he teleported there in an instant.
He arrived inside a dock warehouse in a coastal city. The facility had been purchased and sealed off by the Gato Corporation.
After checking the Flying Raijin kunai in the secret room and ensuring his subordinates' warning seals remained untriggered, Menma set out along the coastline, heading toward the ruins of Uzushiogakure.
Following the shoreline, he soon located the small island that once housed the Land of Whirlpools.
In the heart of the ruins, the flickering light of several campfires illuminated a corner of the wreckage.
When Menma arrived—clad in a long black robe and wearing his white three-eyed fox mask—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, brandishing machetes and spiked clubs.
The Land of Whirlpools had been destroyed during the Second Great Ninja War, around the year Konoha 37. Seventeen years had passed since then; lush trees and thick vegetation now reclaimed the land.
Under the firelight, weeds choked the ruins, and overgrown shrubs buried the outlines of buildings that had survived the nation's fall.
Back then, major powers must have partitioned the village's assets, stationing ninjas to dig through the earth for the Uzumaki clan's secret treasures. Now, nearly two decades later, it had devolved into a nest for seafaring bandits and rogue shinobi.
"Hey! Kid, I'm talking to you!" One pirate swaggered up to Menma, spitting on the ground in a show of arrogance.
Shuu—!
A sharp whistle of wind cut through the air. The pirate's head popped off like a kicked ball.
Blood erupted from the severed neck like a fountain, drenching the surrounding bandits in a crimson spray.
"Aaaagh!!!" The pirates, having never witnessed such a terrifying sight, scrambled away in a panicked frenzy, their spirits broken instantly.
The rogue ninjas nearby, realizing the intruder was dangerous, drew their weapons.
The Reaper, draped in shadows like a ghost, descended slowly from the darkness. It swung its scythe, unleashing a barrage of wind blades that cut down the fleeing pirates before they could reach the treeline.
"Who are you!" a man shouted—presumably the leader. His voice was sharp, but the way his hand trembled around his kunai betrayed his soul-deep terror.
"Rogue ninjas from the Hidden Mist?" Menma noted the horizontal slash across the Mist symbol on their headbands.
Their chakra levels were pitiful. The leader barely scratched the surface of a Chunin, while the rest were mere Genin. Menma had zero interest in them—not even enough to consider recruitment.
"Finish them," a cold voice drifted from behind the white mask.
The Reaper lunged forward, its scythe reaping the lives of the traitors. The screams were cut short within seconds.
Menma entered the encampment and began a thorough search.
As expected, he found nothing but a few basic ninja tools, some food, and a modest amount of gold. There was not a single artifact related to the Uzumaki clan in sight.
"Mind's Eye of the Kagura!"
Menma closed his eyes, activating the technique and pushing his chakra sensory sensitivity to its limit to sweep the entire island.
"..."
Before long, he detected a faint, rhythmic chakra pulse deep within the ruins.
He hadn't noticed it earlier while sensing from the sea; it was only by magnifying his sensitivity that the anomaly surfaced.
He followed the signal to a half-collapsed stone chamber. The walls were covered in characters that had been mostly defaced, and several sections had been hollowed out by previous looters searching for hidden compartments.
Menma stood before the stone wall, staring at the ruined script. The faint chakra was emanating directly from these symbols.
"A sealing technique?"
He reached out, attempting to bypass the script with his own chakra. Upon contact, he was met with a bizarre sensation—a simultaneous feeling of warmth and rejection.
"Countermeasures... but not entirely hostile."
He knew this rejection well; it was the same vague resistance he felt during his time in the "Limited Tsukuyomi" world before he was eventually cast out entirely. But here, there was a layer of gentle acceptance beneath the cold exterior.
"It seems bloodline matters."
Menma surmised that only a pure-blooded Uzumaki could unlock this sealed chamber. Behind it might lie treasures, historical records, or—more importantly—the location where Uchiha Hikari was sealed.
Finding Hikari was his primary goal. While he could use his Mind's Eye to scan the Land of Fire's coastline like a radar, it was far too time-consuming.
"A pure-blooded Uzumaki..." Menma pondered, reaching up to touch his hair.
He blamed Minato Namikaze's powerful genes for washing out the signature red hair of his clan.
Among the surviving Uzumaki, Nagato was a half-blood and unreachable. Honoka in the Land of the Sea was a possibility, but she was likely still a child who hadn't even refined chakra.
That left only Karin's mother.
"I'll have to make a trip to the Grass Village."
Having decided on his next move, Menma didn't leave immediately. Instead, he rested at the cleared camp.
Under the night sky, the campfire crackled. His two summons, the Reaper and the Celestial Maiden, stood guard in the perimeter shadows.
Menma reverted to his child form and sat by the fire. He pulled out the glass vial he had swiped from Orochimaru, containing the two-tomoe Sharingan.
The eye swayed gently in the pale green liquid.
Menma unscrewed the cap, plucked the eye out, and—with a practiced, chilling efficiency—removed his own right eye and replaced it with the Sharingan.
His nearly omnipotent chakra immediately surged, knitting the nerves together.
Though his body was only three, the human eye is one of the few organs that changes least with age; a child's eye is already 80% of its adult size. And this eye's original host seemed to have been a young teenager.
Closing his eye to adjust, Menma began to drive his Yin chakra into the globe, stimulating the ocular nerves.
A moment later, he lowered his hand and snapped his eye open.
The two-tomoe swirled within the blood-slicked socket, spinning faster and faster until a third tomoe manifested.
"Hmph..." Menma gazed at the world through the crimson lens and let out a soft snort.
"Hah... Hahaha!"
Ultimately, he couldn't help himself. He threw his head back and let out a classic, maniacal Uchiha-style laugh that echoed through the hollow ruins.