Menmaverse.
Sorry that I added this chapter after I already wrote several others but I thought it would improve the story. Please review!
Chapter 0: Prologue
We find ourselves in the land of fire in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. The sun had already passed its highest point several hours ago and the ninja academy students started going home after hearing the bell that signaled the end of class.
One academy student stood out from all the others. A young boy at the age of 12 with black hair, dark blue eyes and three whiskers on each cheek. This is Menma Uzumaki and we can see him running away from the academy building with a large angry frown on his face.
Today was the last day of testing at the academy. Students go through the academy to become official ninja of the leaf to serve and protect their village. The students would be tested on several skills like hand-to-hand combat, ninjutsu, genjutsu, their use of shuriken and kunai, substitution and transformation and even their village history.
For Menma these weren't a problem, at least not enough to fail his exams and not be allowed to graduate. The thing that did cause a problem was his clone technique. Every clone he would make would simply fall to the ground like a deflated balloon and die.
This was the reason he didn't get to graduate, this was the reason he failed his test and this was the reason why he now stood before his teacher. One of his teachers.
Mizuki was one of Menma's teachers and had dropped in front of Menma as he was running, forcing him to come to a complete stand still.
"Mizuki-sensei? What do YOU want?" Menma asked as he recovered from his shock.
"Now now, Menma. Is that any way to address your teacher?" Mizuki asked with a smug tone. Menma merely stared at his teacher still the angry frown on his face waiting for a reply.
Mizuki saw that Menma wasn't amused and decided to get to the point. "Listen Menma, I think I can get you to graduate. What do you think? Interested?" he asked.
"I'm listening." Menma said as he glanced suspiciously at the man.
"There is a test that you can take. It was made especially for situations like this when an student fails to pass because of a single test." Mizuki explained. "You have the potential to become a shinobi even though you can't make a proper clone. That's why I can allow you to take this test."
"What is this test? What am I supposed to do to pass?" Menma asked still suspicious. He had never heard of such a thing, it kind of made sense but it seemed unlikely at the same time.
Mizuki then explained Menma what he had to do. He explained about the scroll in the Hokage office, that he had to learn a single jutsu from the scroll and about where he had to meet Mizuki outside the village.
Menma looked at Mizuki and pretended to think about it. 'Yeah right. This is obviously a scam. Better let the old man now about this!'
"If I do this… I can become a ninja?" Menma pretended to ask. "Of course! That's what the test is for."
"Ok I'll do it!" Menma pretended that he had made up his mind.
"You've made the right decision, you'll be a great shinobi one day!" Mizuki said and he made his way to the place he told the boy to meet him.
30 minutes later Mizuki stood face to face with a team of ANBU, was arrested and brought to Ibiki for interrogation. After his affiliation with Orochimaru was discovered Ibiki was replaced by Anko.
As Anko looked into the bloodied face of Mizuki she hoped to find the answers she wanted about that snake bastard! As her mind filled with the thought of a single pale faced man, she slightly lost her cool and anger took over which made her curse mark act up.
In the meantime Menma was being debriefed by the third hokage and was given a substantial amount of money for his loyalty and services to the village and was send home.
Menma looked at the small bag of money in his hands as he walked through the streets. This would allow him to buy some decent food for a change.
As he counted the money for the third time his eyes looked to the side. He was now right underneath the hokage monument, underneath the fourths head to be precise. His eyes fell on a group of bricks to his left which had a slightly darker tint than the others.
"How long will that be there…?" he thought out loud as he remembered several years ago when he was 6 years old.
*FLASHBACK*
Menma was standing on top of the fourth hokages head and looking out over the village. He liked to come here, it allowed him to see all of the people that would beat him up whenever they got the chance to.
Menma would sometimes imagine himself casting a jutsu from up here that would rain down thousands of shuriken on the people bellow.
Sometimes the shuriken were even on fire. The thought brought an evil grin to the boy's face.
As he watched the villagers bellow he didn't notice the chuunin that was stalking him from behind, not that a 6 year old would be able to detect a chuunin even if he wasn't distracted.
Slowly the unknown ninja crept closer towards the boy. The chuunin was just passing by and had noticed the demon child all alone and no one was around. The boy was standing near the edge of hokage monument. All it would take was a single push, one push and the village would be free from this monstrosity.
Could it really be that simple? Was this the will of kami? Did kami grant him this opportunity to rid the world of this demon? It was almost too good to be true.
Slowly the chuunin crept closer, now right behind the boy and still undetected. He was getting ready to push when he changed his mind and jumped back to hide in between the bushes.
'Better play it safe, just to be sure.' He thought. Inside the bushes the unknown chuunin made several handseals took a deep breath and said…
"wind style: sudden gust!"
Menma looked behind him as he heard a voice. The next thing a sudden wind hit him and made him stumble backwards. His arms up to protect his eyes from the wind. Menma took a step backwards putting his left foot exactly on the edge. The wind still blowing against his small body, Menma moved his right foot backwards to keep his balance only to lose his footing when he stepped over the edge.
The chuunin watched as the boy stepped too far and fell over the edge. He expected to hear a yell but no such thing was heard.
He waited four seconds until he decided that the demon must have found something to grab onto on the way down. He was just about to stand up and walk over when he heard it…
*CRACK* *SPLAT*
The chuunin now ran and peeked over the edge. There, quite the distance bellow him lay the broken and bloodied body of a child. "I did it…" he mumbled in disbelief. "I did it." he said again this time with more enthusiasm. "I DID IT!" now full with excitement he started laughing like a maniac "Haahahahaaaa! I really did it, I killed the demon child! Whoohooo!"
After celebrating his noble deed he suddenly realized that if he stayed here he'd be in big trouble. If the hokage found out he'd be executed. With that in mind he quickly made his escape from the crime scene. Not noticing the dark red chakra starting to leak out of the boy's body.
Menma was so scared as he fell down that he couldn't bring himself to shout. The only thing he could do was watch the ground get closer and closer, faster and faster. Then he hit the ground, he could hear his bones breaking from the impact. *CRACK* followed by his skin hitting the stones like a whip. *SPLAT*
Menma was in extreme pain but he couldn't move, he couldn't shout. The only thing he could do was cry and that is exactly what he did. Tears streamed down the boy's face but no sound could be heard.
His entire body felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of senbon needles all over. Slowly a pool of blood started flowing and growing underneath the boy. He didn't know how long he lay there but in his mind it was too long. He was certain that several people had walked by, he couldn't see them but he could hear their footsteps very close to him. By the time his ANBU guard found him the blood had mostly sank into the stone tiles underneath or had dried up.
*END FLASHBACK*
Now those tiles were forever marked with his blood as the place where he almost died, where he should have died but didn't. The place where he experienced immeasurable pain.
Menma looked up from the tiles and noticed the sun had already gone down. He had lost track of time and now hurried back home to his apartment, to his castle of solitude and shadows.
Menma arrived at his apartment, he unlocked the door and went inside. After putting everything in its right place he made himself some instant ramen for dinner. Several more hours passed by and he was just about to go to bed when he suddenly felt something pulling at his mind.
"Who is there?!" he said as he looked around.
Nothing but silence.
Again Menma felt the pull on his mind.
Now fully alert Menma quickly put his ninja gear on and walked around his room trying to find who or whatever was pulling at his mind.
Menma had just cleared his bathroom when he suddenly saw a mirror standing inside his room. But when he looked into the mirror he didn't see himself, rather a blond version of himself with bright blue eyes.
Menma felt himself drawn to the mirror and stepped closer. One step, and another and another when suddenly…
He was sucked in! the mirror went blank and the room remained silent for a couple of hours and several minutes.
then just as sudden, the mirror started blowing things into the room. The wind kept blowing then something big and limp fell into the room.
The mirror stopped and disappeared leaving a blond boy with blue eyes and an orange jumpsuit lying on the floor bleeding from a hole in his skull. But Menma was nowhere to be seen.
End chapter 0: Prologue
Hey I hoped this piqued your interest! I decided to rewrite the beginning of this story because I believe it gave people the wrong idea about where I wanted to go with this. So I needed to cut a certain scene out and rewrite it. But that happens in the next chapter!
Don't forget to review! To those that read the story before I added this, do you think this made the story better or worse?
