AN: Alright new chapter. I do not have much information for anyone this time but I have a few things I want to point out. Menma/Naruto's main weapon will be a crossbow. I am thinking of making his moves with the crossbow resemble Vayne and Twitch from League of Legends. I am also thinking of giving him Teemo's shrooms. The trolls that I could do with those kukuku. Anyway this chapter will finally be what everyone has been waiting for. The summoning contract will be in this chapter, I hope everyone enjoys my pick. Now time to answer some questions I saw in the comments

Batros940: Huh, didn't know there was another abandonment fic where Naruto goes med-nin, I'll be sure to read that.

Bladeofhell56: I agree with you that I took a little of Dumbledore's mentality. However the situation is a bit graver. One dark lord vs a primordial god that can destroy all of humanity with a flick of its tails. However when kyuubi is revealed he will hate him at least until they made up in Canon.

nNamikaze11252: Thank you for your constructive criticism. I will try to improve my grammar as well as my vocabulary. Thanks for pointing out this issue.

Ladysonics: All good points. However Lee and Yakumo just went through the emotional trauma of their first kill and weren't thinking straight. As for Anko, she was trying to keep Menma alive, if she had used her usual tricks he would have had an opening to kill him. As for the steroids, that is a last, last resort, he will rarely use that in fights. It's similar to his version of the Kyuubi cloak from the wave mission arc. I tried to make a similar scenario where Naruto will learn to grow strong to protect his comrades instead of just for revenge.

Anyway, on to the story!

Chapter 6:

The Truth and the Summoning Contract

(Qixiang – Land of Fire)(1 day after the battle)(Menma POV)

It was a bright morning when Menma slowly opened his eyes. He winced at the bright light hitting his eyes from the window as he sat up in bed, warily looking around him. He was in a modest but comfortable hotel room. Soon after he woke up Anko entered the room with a tray of breakfast. He saw the food and his stomach growled, he realized he was very hungry. Anko sat down near him and he asked through eating his eggs "What happened? Are Yakumo and Lee alright?"

Anko nodded "Yes Yakumo was lucky, she fell into some mud and it cushioned her fall a bit. As for Lee he woke up a few hours before you did, seeing how he is currently running around the village he appears to be fine. I woke up around 30 minutes of being unconscious, you shouldn't use your chakra so recklessly to heal me brat. You were suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. I'm surprised you're up already."

"But." Anko suddenly turns deadly serious making Menma gulp a bit. "What the hell was that poison you took, I found the needle sticking out of your arm and found Rogun looking as if an animal attacked him."

Menma looked away from Anko "It was a steroid that I created."

Anko looked a bit angry "Bullshit, I know what we have worked on together and that steroid was way to advance for a rookie genin to completely demolish one of the highest ranked A-rank missing Nin in the bingo book. The only reason that man was not S-rank is because he is only wanted in Konoha and Iwa." A little known fact about becoming S-rank in the bingo book is that you need to be wanted at A-rank by three different ninja villages.

Menma sighed a bit contemplating what to do. He knew this may make her hate him but he owed her the truth. He unzipped his trench coat and pulled down his shirt to show a seal on his heart and unsealed Orochimaru's Journal. He handed it to Anko.

Anko took the journal and started flipping through it, getting angrier as she continued to read the experiments that her former mentor conducted. She looked up, more angry than he had ever seen her "What the hell gaki, where did you find this?! This is one of Orochi-fucking-maru's personal journals!"

Menma winced a bit at her tone "When I was locked out of the Namikaze estate I found one of Orochimaru's hidden laboratories near a training ground I used. I had just decided to get revenge on my former family but I had no one to train me. I had no resources, no mentor, and no allies so I decided to learn from his journals."

Anko's angry expression softened a bit "Menma, you can't just live your life for revenge. I have seen people, including my former mentor walk that path. All of them either ended up dead or a worse monster than the person they wished revenge on."

Anko hugged Menma as a mother would "Menma..no Naruto, you do not need to become a monster like my former sensei. A good friend of mine once told me that in order to become truly strong, you need something precious to fight for. Revenge isn't something precious too you. It is just an empty emotion of hatred that will continue to corrupt you. When your revenge is complete you're left with nothing but more hatred." Mentally she was thanking the Third Hokage for telling her this after she was abandoned by Orochimaru or she would have no clue what to say to this kid.

For the first time since he was five Naruto felt tears running down his face as he was hugged for the first time in his memory. He thought back to all the times he was forgotten by his family and how they doted on Shio. He still felt the burning hatred for his former family. But he then thought of Lee, Yakumo, and Anko and he felt happy for the first time in a long time. He smiled, a true warm smile, he would be the best of both worlds, he would prove to his former family that he was better than Shio, but he would not do it Orochimaru's way, he would become powerful and protect his precious people.

He wrapped his arms around Anko and said softly, "Thank you, Kaa-san."

Anko smiled a bit "No problem brat."

(Exit of Qixiang – Land of Fire)(Menma's POV)

Team 9 was preparing to leave Qixiang when four Iwa shinobi jumped down in front of them. Team 9 quickly got into fighting stances but the leader raised his hand "Hold, we are not here to fight."

Anko didn't loosen her guard and spoke, "What are you doing here then."

The leader of the Iwa group stepped forward a bit, he was a tall man with a rather large nose. He was dressed in the formal Iwa jounin outfit. He stopped a good distance from their group "My name is Kitsuchi, jonin of Iwagakure with my genin team, Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, and Suzumebachi Kamizuro. We had heard that Rogan the Butcher was in the area and came to take him out, but it seems that we were too late."

Anko nodded and relaxed a bit "Yes my genin team and I defeated Rogan."

Kitsuchi looked a little impressed as he observed the three genin "Yes and I would like to thank you on behalf of Iwa for his death, however, we would like to request that you return the Hammer of the first Tsuchikage to us. Rogan had stolen it before he went rogue."

Anko looked surprised "The hammer of the first tsuchikage? The Diamondhelm? We did not know that he was carrying such a renowned weapon, I would have thought he would have used some of its abilities."

Kitsuchi nodded "The hammer has seals to prevent the unworthy of using it. You may keep the body of Rogan, he is rightfully yours to cash in the bounty."

Anko took out the scroll they had sealed the hammer in and handed it to Kitsuchi. The Iwa jonin unsealed the mace and inspected it a bit before nodding and sealing it back into the scroll. He looked at the group "The Tsuchikage will hear of this, It will definitely help ease some of the tensions after the peace treaty to hear that a Konoha team returned one of our greatest relics of the First Tsuchikage." Anko nodded.

The Iwa team departed but Menma noticed the girl Kurotsuchi look at him speculatively before jumping away with the rest of her team. Anko sighed in relief "That was Kitsuchi the Great Earth Shaker. He is an S-class ninja of Iwa and slated to become the next Tsuchikage. During the last war he was famous for remodeling an entire forest into an earthen terrain for his allies. We were lucky they weren't hostile or we would have stood no chance." The genins shivered, for their usually unflappable sensei to be wary spoke volumes of that man's skill.

Menma looked at the sun which was approaching Noon "Well, we need to report this to the Hokage so let's head back as quickly as possible." Everyone nodded and they jumped into the forest heading at full speed back to Konoha.

(Hokage's Office – Konoha)(3 days after the events at Qixiang)(Minato's POV)

Minato deadpanned at the report in his hands. How did a C rank turn into an encounter with a high A-rank missing nin and then an encounter with the S-class Iwa jonin Kitsuchi? He sighed "Well, I am glad that no one was injured during this mission. I am also proud that you three defeated Rogan the Butcher, the bounty on his head will be split among the four of you." He smiled a bit "I also want to thank you for returning that weapon back to Iwa. I have already been sent a message from the Tsuchikage with a thank you and the information that he is sending a genin team to the next Chunin exams in Konoha. This is the first time Iwa has participated in a chunin exam sponsored by the village since the system was made."

Anko grinned "All in a day's work Hokage-sama."

He deadpanned at the Jonin-Sensei "I hope it isn't a daily thing, you were very lucky this time. However due to the unforeseen variables in this mission I bumped it up to A-rank and you will earn the appropriate pay alongside the bounty of Rogan. Congratulations."

Yakumo and Lee cheered while Menma smirked, the pay of an A-rank mission would cover his living expenses for the next year.

(Konoha Streets)(Six Months Later)(Menma's POV)

The information that a genin team had killed the infamous Rogan the Butcher spread like wildfire throughout the village. Rogan was one of the most hated Iwa shinobi from the last war. To hear that a genin team managed to kill him made them pretty well known throughout the village.

Soon they got into the habbit of training with Anko, doing some D-ranks and the occasional C-rank. However, none of their C-ranks were as exciting as their first one.

They had skipped the Chunin exams in Kumo along with team 10. They heard that team 7 and 8 disbanded due to two deaths and some promotions, leaving the spots open for this year's graduating class.

Currently he was spying on this year's graduating class. He wanted to scout out the competition and potential allies of the next generation. He also wanted to see the progress of his former sister. He noticed a few potential threats in the class. Uchiha Sasuke was the Shinobi of the year at the moment while his sister, Uzumaki-Namikaze Shio was the Rookie and Kunoichi of the year. The dead last of their generation was an Inuzaka member named Kiba, the younger brother to the clan heiress.

Today for their class it seemed as if they were demonstrating nin-jutsu. Sasuke did a fireball jutsu (as expected of an Uchiha member, it was their calling card after all). Kiba did his clan jutsu fang over fang. Most of the academy students did simple henges or bushin no jutsus. When it was finally Shio's turn she went through some hand seals and bit her thumb and yelled "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" and she appeared standing on a large frog.

He froze, staring at the sight of the frog. He had known that Shio would eventually summon frogs. But he had figured that she would not be given the contract until she was chunin at least. He frowned angrily, he could not beat his sister if she had an entire clan of toads to back her up. Minato had held down the Kyuubi with the boss summon of the Toad clan, he would stand no chance.

He dashed to his hidden training grounds thinking deeply. He needed a summoning contract, that was for sure. However the only contracts that he knew of in Konoha were the Nara clan's deer summoning contract, the Akimichi's butterfly contract, the tortoise contract of the Maito clan, and the Toad contract belonging to his former family and Jiraiya of the Sannin.

He frowned again, trying to summon without a contract is incredibly dangerous. However if one managed to gain a summoning contract through this method their bound to get stronger. Many famous shinobi who had passed the test of their most naturally aligned clans became extremely famous ninjas. The best examples of this would be the three sannin, each now S-rank ninjas.

He knew he would not stand a chance against the Toad clan, even if he was more powerful than their summoner. Feeling a steely resolve settle over him he left to find his sensei.

(Anko's Apartment)

Knocking on the door Menma waited for Anko. His sensei opened the door and looked at him annoyed "What do you want gaki, there is no training for this week."

He nodded "I know sensei I just wanted to inform you I am going to do some solo survival training in the forest of death for the next week and I will not be in contact."

Anko nodded "Be careful gaki, the tigers are a bit frisky since it's close to mating season."

Menma nodded before running to the forest. When he was far enough in he breathed in a bit to calm himself. Summoning without a contract is not illegal but he would be the first unsponsored orphan to attempt this. All of the past people to summon animals without a contract either had special training from a clan or a high ranking jonin.

He went through the handseals he had memorized from Shio and bit his thumb before saying quietly "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" with that he disappeared in a plume of smoke.

(Unkown Forest)(Menma POV)

Menma crouched down on the ground as he arrived looking around the area cautiously. The area he had landed on seemed to be pretty similar to the forest of death. He assumed he had summoned himself into a land creature's domain so that removed sea creatures or any type of bird. The area also did not look like a swamp so that removed reptiles.

He looked around a bit more, expecting to see some overly large animal appear from the forest, but he could see nothing.

What he did not know is that he is being watched at the moment. All around the forest tiny eyes peered at him as they considered the latest potential summoner. They had not had a potential contract holder for centuries.

Menma continued to walk down the only path in the forest. He still did not see any potential summoning animal. He saw several insects, small animals, but none that seemed to be summonable. He pulled his larger crossbow from his back. He had bought this weapon from the latest shipment of weapons from the land of snow. The weapon ran on chakra and could reload arrows extremely quickly. He had made the weapon even more deadly by poisoning all of the arrows.

Eventually he reached a clearing with an extremely large spider web. The web was constructed to look like a small city and was crawling with hundreds upon hundreds of spiders in different sizes. Some were as large as trucks while others the size of his fingernail. He put on his gas mask and cautiously approached the nest, wary of any potential attack.

As he passed many of the spiders turned to look at him curiously, or at least he thought it was curiously. It was hard to tell their emotions. Soon he arrived the center of the nest where a large throne was erected. He was confused, why would a throne be here that was meant for a humanoid person. Before he could walk further hundreds of spiders converged on the throne, seemingly merging into a human.

Soon the blob of spiders gained color and the person was revealed. She was a tall women with flowing black hair, eyes that instead of a pupil had a classic spider web pattern. She wore a black dress with spider web pattern straps (Arachne – Soul Eater). The lady smiled motherly at Menma and put a black fan in front of her mouth as she spoke "It has been so long since a human has entered this realm. We have been waiting so long for a true summoner of our race."

He stared at the being in front of him "Who are you? I doubt you are human if you are here."

The women didn't seem offended "No I am not. My name is Arachne, the collective consciousness of all the spiders of this realm."

He felt his eyes widened, "So you are the hive mind of all of these spiders?"

Arache nodded "Yes, only a few of the spiders here have true awareness like other summoning creatures. However an advantage of this is that I can control any spider, not only of this realm. For example I know that your family abandoned you. I know where each member of your family is. I even know that your mentor, Anko, burnt her dinner last night and was forced to eat out."

He gapped at such an information gathering ability. If what she was saying is true she had the power to see through the eyes of every spider on earth. That would outstrip any sensing ability he had ever heard of from anyone. He gulped a bit before becoming serious "What is your challenge to becoming a summoner of the spider clan?"

The women tapped her chin in thought, the spider clan had never had a test for their summoner because no one had ever wanted her contract. She looked at the young man before her, she knew everything about him that she saw through her spiders. She knew he was a driven young man that would become very powerful in the future. She licked her lips a bit and spoke "I know almost your entire life Menma, or should I say Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. I know how powerful you can be in the future. Your fighting style is very similar to ours as well. I will give you the summoning contract."

I wanted to gape at how easy that was but I retained control over my emotions this time. "I thank you queen Arache, could you please explain the abilities of your contract?"

Arache nodded "The spider contract is not one of the most powerful contracts in terms of open combat, but in terms of subversion, intelligence gathering, and assassination we are unparalleled. We are able to locate and listen to any conversation where a spider can access. Finally, we can teach you our brand of senjutsu."

I couldn't help but widen my eyes at the last bit of information. Senjutsu was only from the most rare of contracts. Each clan had their own brand of senjutsu. From what he read from Minato's notes is that the toad clan boosts one's abilities by a factor of ten. He looked at Arache seriously "What is the purpose of your Senjutsu?"

Arache smiled her motherly smile and explained "Our last summoner, Elise, was able to turn into a rather impressively large black widow spider. She gained the ability to access the collective consciousness of the spiders like I am able to. Finally, she gained the ability to use acid based attacks. I believe she called it acid release."

He thought of the possibilities of those powers. By being able to turn into a large spider would be extremely useful in combat. By entering the consciousness of every spider his sensory ability would be unparalleled. However, the acid release drew his attention the most, that ability would go perfectly with his fighting style. He looked at Arachne "How does one learn your style of Senjutsu?"

Arache frowned a bit "Other clans require you to absorb the arrant nature chakra in the air. We use a special type of toxin to give you our abilities. However this toxin is extremely deadly and requires thorough training in resisting poisons."

He smirked a bit at that "I have trained myself for six years in resisting poisons. I will be able to handle it."

Arache smirked a bit, what a convenient summoner, Elise required years of poison resistance training before she was able to undergo the vilemaw toxin. She took out an ancient looking vile from a spider and approached Menma.

She cut herself with a knife and black blood flowed into a wooden goblet, filling it halfway. She then poured the crystal clear concoction from the vile into the cup, filling it to nearly the brim.

She handed the cup to Menma and spoke seriously "This will hurt you more than anything that has happened in your life. It will feel as if every cell in your body is melting and every nerve cell will hurt horribly. We will wrap you in one of our healing cocoons until the process is complete. The vilemaw toxin will take three days to fully integrate with your body. After that, if you live, it will take around a week for you to heal."

Menma nodded and mentally prepared himself as he drank deeply from the goblet. As soon as he finished the drink spiders immediately started wrapping him in a cocoon. He barely acknowledged the spider silk around him as he felt an enormous amount of pain spreading through his body. The pain was worse than the time he overdosed on black window venom to immunize himself. As he started to pass out he thought of his friends, Lee's encouraging thumbs up and a sunny smile. Yakumo's soft smile, hands clasped behind her back as she encouraged him on. Anko's smirk as she told him to survive or she would find a way to make his afterlife hell.

He smiled a bit in the cocoon. The pain seemed to dull a bit as he continued to think of his friends encouragements. His precious people were waiting for him to return.

Yeah.

He would not die here.

AN: And there it is, Menma now has the Spider contract. Now I know people will comment that He is learning senjutsu too early. However he has to train a long time to learn the three skills that come with the spiders. At most he will have acid release on a basic level during the chunin exams. He will not have the spider sense and spider transformation until shippuden. Arachne is based on the witch Arachne Gorgon from Soul eater. However, she is not the actual character. As I stated in the chapter she is the hive mind for all of the spiders, she is not the sister of medusa who leads arachnophobia. Anyway here is the result of the pollings for the second day:

Shio: 23

Yakumo: 28

Ino: 10

Other: 6

Currently Yakumo in the lead with Shio in second place. I am ending the pole after the next chapter so if you have not voted yet please vote now. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!