Amidst the Hate: Chapter 21

Mito was not having what you would call a 'good' morning. Ever since she woke up, she had a headache since one of the most annoying noises ever heard just had to rear it's ugly head. "Why did you set the alarm? Thanks to school, my body wakes me up at around five normally."

"I didn't touch it. You must have forgot to turn off that function before going to bed, so you can't blame me." defended her mother.

"Ugh...sorry, can't really think straight right now...but I swear I disabled it right after I got out of the Academy...I'm just going to get the headache medicine." She got up from her spot on the couch and left the living room in search of the pills.

Kushina looked at Sasuke, who had just been sitting next to the blonde. "You set it after she went to sleep, didn't you?"

"I wasn't going to have her sleep in passed the deadline. She may wake up at around the time the Academy starts, but sometimes she doesn't wake up until eight or ten, and we need to be at training ground three by eight, so I'm not taking any chances."

"It won't matter. Kakashi probably won't be there. He usually is late to everything unless Minato asks him to be on time."

"Hm...that reminds me. I was going to ask Mito this, but since you're right here...what's Kakashi like?"

The Uzumaki put a hand on her chin. "Um...he likes to joke, normally aloof and distant, blunt, and very devoted to his comrades. Is that what you were looking for?"

He nodded. "Yeah. He didn't tell us anything yesterday, and I'd rather know something about the man that could be leading us on dangerous missions."

"Seek info wherever available...you are on your way to being a competent shinobi. Your parents would be proud."

The Uchiha gained a sad look in his eyes as he looked at the ground, but smiled. "I'd like to think so. All I've been doing since that day is train, try to figure out Itachi's motives, and take care of the other survivors. I hope that I can one day avenge them...but I won't let it control me. Other people need me."

Mito walked back into the room, looking just a little bit better than before. "We're going to need another bottle soon. There's only a couple left."

"I'll get more later today when I go to the store, don't worry about it." Her daughter sank back onto the couch and continued to watch T.V. until it was time to go. As she followed them out the door, she gave one last piece of advice. "Okay you two, be prepared for anything. This is Kakashi we're talking about, the last remaining member of Minato's genin team. If it's the test I think it is...well, I probably shouldn't tell you, otherwise it might ruin what he has planned. Go get 'em!"

"Will do!" Both children said before taking off for the remote training ground.

"I knew it! I knew he wasn't going to be here waiting for us!" exclaimed the Namikaze as they looked around the clearing. Three poles near the water, she noticed, but no sign of their new teacher.

"We should have figured that when he made us wait, but of course we didn't listen to the voices in our heads…"

"I don't even see Menma!" Something dawned on her. "Hold on...do you think she even knows where this place is?"

"...oh crap. If the entire team isn't here...then what does that mean for the test?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it wouldn't be good. Do you think we should take the chance of him being a few hours late and visit the orphanage? I think she spends most of her time there, so maybe she's there right now."

"Hm...I…" before he could finish his thought, the sound of wood breaking filled the empty air. "...why do I have the feeling that's Menma?"

"Because she somehow turns up when we talk about her. Come on, let's go see what that was." Following the sounds of more breaking, they eventually got to the source...which was indeed the dark haired girl. Menma was repeatedly punching a rather large tree with surprising speed, which every now and then a new crack would appear in the impact zone.

She stopped the onslaught and brought her left leg back. "YAH!" When the side of her leg hit the side of the tree, pieces of bark flew off and large lines cascaded up and down, showing just how much force she put into the kick. "Hm...the trees here are strong. That actually hurt a bit. I think I found my new training ground..." She put her limb back down on the ground and rubbed her knuckles. "Are you two done enjoying the show?"

"Oh...right...you can sense people. Um...sorry?" apologized the other girl.

"Eh, don't worry about it. I suppose you're surprised that I found out where this place was?"

"Yeah, kinda. It's too obscure a place for you to just so happen to be here before we were."

"I got an active duty shinobi to tell me. When he saw my forehead protector, he gave up the information immediately." Menma walked closer to the duo, but stopped just short of five feet and crouched. "Good thing you didn't come any closer. It would have been a terrible experience for you if you did." Waving her hand across something, the kanji for 'trap' glowed and dispelled. "I deactivated the defensive perimeter I had set so I didn't have to worry about intruders. Care to join me in training?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Training? But we have a test to do whenever Kakashi gets here."

"And that's the point of the training. To kill time...and also to keep in shape. Don't want to get lazy now, do we?" Turning away, she approached a tree and began walking up on it to one of the branches, where she hung upside down with her legs wrapped around the top of it. "So? Are you going to or not?"

"No thanks. I want to keep my stamina up just in case he makes us do something physical."

"A respectable choice. Mito? How about you?"

"I'm going to have to decline as well. I may have a lot of stamina, but I'd rather keep the tank full." 'There's also the fact that someone won't shut up.'

"I know you must have felt it! Right when she kicked that tree, it was there! The same feeling as when she hit Mizuki! I'm not going mad!"

'And what did you feel?'

"I don't know, and it's irritating me! It feels familiar, but at the same time it just doesn't feel like what I think it should feel like."

'Okay, so what do you think you felt?'

"Biju chakra, but if that was true, I should be able to feel it all the time, and it wouldn't be so...strange. Wrong, even."

'Wait...she could be like me? A jinchuuriki?'

The Kyuubi was silent for a time, thinking through all the things that could be evidence to support it. "...no. If she was, whatever biju that would be inside her would have made contact with me by now, if only to yell at me for all the times I made them feel miserable. I'm sorry, Mito. I know you want to meet another jinchuuriki like yourself, but that probably won't happen anytime soon."

'I guess so...' She closed her connection to the fox and watched as Menma did upside down sit ups, but that was boring so she decided to ask something. "Hey, Menma?"

"Yes?"

"About yesterday...you mentioned a friend that you had before coming here."

"...and?"

"If you say what she looks like, maybe I can get dad or even Uncle Jiraiya to look out for her."

"No."

"No? Why not? It would help you find her quicker."

"I know that, but I don't know what your government will do when they find her. I'd rather keep her under my personal care, away from that mess."

"Is...is she a criminal?"

"No. I just don't trust the powers in charge. All they usually do is make life worse for people that desperately need help, forcing them to fight everyday for what scraps they can salvage, which in turn is seen as a criminal offense, so they either get locked up in a cell with terrible people, or executed. My friend won't go through that fate...not while I still breathe."

Sasuke decided to cut in. "She's important to you, isn't she?"

"Yes. She pretty much saved me from myself. I...once thought I was worthless and contemplated suicide, but when I saw her going through a similarly tough place yet was willing to fight for her life, it rejuvenated me. After that, we became friends, and later, sisters. If she's dead...the least I can do is find her body and give a proper burial. Anyway, if you two aren't going to do my training regimen, you might want to find something to do. Be too lax, and the test will be far harder." She did one last sit up, let herself fall to the ground without injury, and began doing push ups, all without a single ounce of sweat on her face.

-two hours later-

"Yo. I'm...what happened to the trees?" asked Kakashi upon finding his students. Mito and Sasuke were currently watching Menma beat up another piece of lumber, her fourth in a row.

"Menma's training regimen. She's done about two-hundred situps, one-hundred thirty-three push ups, and this is her...tenth tree, I believe." said the Uchiha, who had his Sharingan on.

"You counted them?"

"Had nothing better to do. By the way, you're late."

"Sorry, I helped an old lady across the road, then on my way here, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around."

The now rather sweaty girl gave one last punch to the tree before walking over to the rest of her possible team. "They're the cause of all life's problems, aren't they?"

The cyclops's lone eye widened just a bit. 'And here I thought she was always going to be deadly serious.' "They seem that way, don't they? Well, I guess we should get a move on. Follow me." The genin-in-training complied, and he led them back to the clearing with three wooden posts. Kakashi went up to the one in the middle, pulled out a miniature alarm, and put it on top of it. "Okay, when I set this, you'll have two hours to complete my test, which is a survival exercise. You see, I have two bells hanging off my belt, and you must get them."

Sasuke's crimson orbs narrowed. "But there's a catch, isn't there?"

He nodded. "Right you are. Since I only have two, that means only two of you will pass. The one without a bell goes back to the Academy for another long year." He pushed a button, which set it for twelve o'clock. "Now, come at me with…" he turned during his sentence, only to find them gone. "...the intent to kill. Hm...this may be interesting."

"Doesn't something seem odd to you?" asked Menma to both of her 'comrades' while they were in their hiding spot made of foliage.

"Yeah. All teams that come out of the Academy have been four man squads, with one jonin and three genin." said Mito.

"Which means either this 'test' is a fake, or we haven't been keeping up with the times." lightly joked the Sharingan user.

"Either way, we need a plan. None of us can take on a jonin alone...but I can make for a decent distraction."

"No, Menma. It would be best if we planned out our course of action, subtly lull Kakashi into a trap, and take the bells while he has no idea what's going on. I mean, you can put up that fuinjutsu thing again, right?"

"I could...but I think it would be easier if I just attack him alone while you two wait for an opportunity, take him by surprise and cut off the bells in the chaos. Besides, we don't have that much time to construct a good enough trap to fool a jonin."

Mito sighed, silently agree with her. "Are you sure you can do this?"

Menma gained a rather cocky smirk. "Trust me...he won't know what hit him." She shunshined away.

Now it was Sasuke's turn to sigh. "I hope we just didn't earn our way back to school…"

Kakashi felt a disturbance while he stood reading his book, so he looked up to see what was the cause. "You? You are going to take me on alone?" 'This...does not look good for them, if she won't team up with the others.'

"Of course."

"Why? You're short, dark, and quite mysterious. It would be best to be stealthy, but you would rather be suicidal?"

"...yeah. Before we fight, tell me something: do you know that I take painkillers, and the reason behind them?"

"Yes. You suffered an accident which broke your arm, but it didn't heal correctly, so you take them to dull the pain."

"You're...half right. You see...I take more than the recommended amount, which is one or two. I overdose on it daily by taking four, but that allows me to fight without inhibitions. If I can't feel the damage my enemy is causing me, I can do more to them. It also allows me to do…" She brought out a kunai in her left hand and cut right above the seal on her other arm, allowing a thick stream of blood to cover it. "...this without caring about how much blood I lose."

'So she's a reckless, unfeeling berzerker, more or less. Not necessarily good...' "And what was that to accomplish?" As if to answer his question, the mark behind the liquid started glowing blue before morphing into 'scythe' and little rivers of red water and kanji snaked their way onto her hand. She raised and held it out at chest level, and the blood and ink started jumping off her palm. The blood formed a thin line that was longer than she was, and the kanji used it as some sort of adhesive, overlapping each other until a holdable handle was created. As she touched it, the strange 'weapon' changed shape, gaining a slight curve, and continued to form, with a large circular head constructing itself at one end, and a dark red, almost black, curved blade oozed out of it. A symbol emblazoned itself behind the flowing edge...

The Uzumaki clan's swirl.

She brought her other hand on it, spun it a few times as a dark blur before planting the flat end onto the ground. "This...is why I decided to call myself 'Kuro Kama no Menma'. Meet Solitary Midnight, my trusty scythe of discord."

"The...the Uzumaki swirl?! Why is that on there?!"

"Let me tell you something. The Uzumakis were feared throughout the world for their fuinjutsu, yes, but sometimes it was a case of mistaken identity. What this seal on my arm is, in fact, one of their most well kept techniques based on the belief that fuinjutsu can do nearly everything. I call it the Blood Forming Seal, for obvious reasons. The best part?" The scythe had an arc of electricity run through the handle, and the blade erupted in sparks for a second. "Due to it being of my blood, I can charge it with my elemental affinity with ease. So...are you ready to begin?"

Kakashi put away his book. 'This...could be harder than I thought.' "Whenever you are." After saying that, the girl charged forward. He arched back to avoid a fast upward swing that, if he was slower, would have taken out his showing eye, and kicked her away. "Going for the one eyed man's eye. Not a cool move."

"All's fair in a battle to the death, which is what I thought you wanted."

"No it wasn't. It was 'come at me with the intent to kill', not to actually do so."

"Eh, it's all the same to me. You either beat me, or I will kill you. I will not have a weak sensei leading me."

'She means business...and she can do what she says, too. Why was she even in the Academy?' Menma charged again, but vanished before his eyes. 'A shunshin...up above me!' He rolled to the left to avoid the descending girl, and watched as her tool got stuck in the ground. "Seems as if you're in a bit of a bind."

"Not really. I'm not the real one." 'Menma' poofed into smoke.

'A Kage Bunshin. So...where is she?' He heard something leap off some bark, and hit the ground in time to see his opponent sail overhead, land on another tree, and go back for him. Getting up, he brought out two kunai and blocked the attack with minor effort. "Did you really think that I wouldn't stand back up in time?"

"No, I just prefer these close quarters battles...makes me feel alive!" Breaking contact, she backed up and jabbed the non-bladed end at him, but he moved to her right...just what she wanted. Since the blade was facing away from her at the moment, she took advantage of the lengthy, curved design of the dark weapon and followed through, slightly nicking Kakashi's arm.

'She got me. Not a deep cut, from the feel of it, but she still got me. I'm not too used to those kind of weapons...wait, is it longer?' Indeed, the bloodedge had grown just a few centimeters, but her self inflicted wound stopped bleeding awhile ago.

"Thanks for not reacting quick enough. The longer we fight, the stronger Solitary Midnight becomes. It feasts on blood. My blood, your blood, it doesn't matter, it takes it all. Too bad it reverts back to normal upon dispelling." Not wanting to stop, she went back into the fight, with the silver haired man being far more careful this time. With her weapon formed of liquid and words, large sweeping attacks or jabs of the blunt end were the only things it could do, but since she could charge it with lightning at any time and it had a lot of momentum, he had to make sure he deflected it without touching the blade. This back and forth showdown went on for awhile, but things got harder for the jonin.

A lone kunai whizzed in the air, all thanks to Sasuke Uchiha. 'All that shurikenjutsu training finally came in handy. I better get down there and help her out.' He unsheathed the tanto on his back and leaped off the branch.

Kakashi could hear it coming, but thanks to Menma's unrelenting and unforgiving onslaught, he couldn't exactly move freely. He tried positioning himself so that it would miss him and hit her if she didn't stop, but true to her word, she kept coming, not worrying about anything. 'Damn it! Does she truly not care about herself in battle?' Before it could hit, he replaced himself with a log, which got cut in half and impaled. "How nice of you too join us, Sasuke." Said boy appeared at Menma's side.

"Was really hoping that would have cut off the bells."

"It's going to take more than that to get them. Unluckily for you, you don't have much longer before the test ends."

"We don't need that much time. With the two of us working together, we can cut those off your belt."

'Good, good, their working together...now, if only Mito would just-'

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" a female voice said from behind him. He turned, and saw at least ten of the blonde jinchuuriki. "So...what do you say to one against fourteen?"

"That...is a lot of clones." 'Menma was a challenge, but now that all of them are here...I can't hold back, since I'm pretty sure she will kill me otherwise.'

"I know. CHARGE!" Everyone on the field went after the lone shinobi, who proved why he deserved his rank. The clone squadron came first, and he dispatched most of them rather easily, but then the well trained Uchiha and clanless wonder joined in, diluting his attention with sharp blades. Sasuke thrusted his sword, only for Kakashi to change the attacks course with one of his kunai into one of the remaining clones. The two new challengers backed off for a minute, leaving Menma as the sole combatant against him. Luckily, he figured out by now how to deal with the scythe...that was until she stopped attacking, twirled with her weapon in hand, and swung it like a bat at him.

'That will hurt quite a bit if it hits me, blade or no blade.' He couldn't jump back or he would be skewered, so he jumped straight up.

'Now, while he's distracted!' "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" shouted the boy on the sidelines, and now Kakashi had to deal with a large ball of fire midair.

'Nope.' He kawarimied with one of the surviving pieces of the log he used earlier, and found himself surrounded by more clones. 'She made more in advance...I don't think I need to test them anymore.' "STOP." The clones had started moving, but at the sound of his command, they didn't go any farther.

"But we need those bells." questioned one.

"No, you don't. The real you, dispel the clones, and the rest of you come here." Reluctantly, Mito did, and the three being tested stood in front of him. "Let me explain something. The test had nothing to do with the bells, it was, in fact, to test your ability to cooperate. At first, I thought you all failed miserably, with Menma pulling that lone man stunt, but it was all part of a plan, wasn't it?"

"...define 'plan'. I was just to distract you until the others felt that we could overwhelm you and take the bells." said the bandaged one.

"Hm...well, it worked, kind of. You were a surprisingly good opponent, forcing me to actually try until I learned how you moved. Anyway, onward with my evaluation. Then, while she was attacking, Sasuke joined the fray with a well thrown kunai that would have been very harmful had it hit. After you said that if you two work together you can get the bells, I started to believe that there was hope for this team afterall. Of course, the moment Mito stepped in pretty much solidified your pass, but I had to make sure, so I kept fighting. That last triad of attacks showed me just how well you can cooperate in a pinch. So...you all passed. Congratulations."

All but Menma sighed in relief. "I thought we were going back to the Academy for awhile there…" said the Namikaze.

"Should have figured the bells were just a front for the real test. Who would allow a three man genin team?" Sasuke asked to no one in particular.

"Does this mean we get to do missions tomorrow?"

"Yes, Menma. You will not go broke because of your drug issue."

"Who said I was going broke? I have a lot stockpiled thanks to the Hokage, I just want to have more. Speaking of money...I think I'm going to Ichiraku's. A nice, big bowl for my fight against a jonin. Any want to come with?"

"Ooh, me! I can have Ichiraku's any day of the week!" excitedly said Mito.

"Sure. Their food is good."

"Well, you are my students now, so I'll go with. I will not pay for all of it, though. I know how much Mito likes ramen, and I don't want to lose all my ryo blowing it on the stuff."

"Good call." said Menma, and the new Team Seven took off for the little stand for their first meal as comrades.

A.N.: Now things are rolling. So...let me know what you think on the Blood Forming Seal, and where I got the inspiration from. In a way, I'm kind of glad Kishimoto didn't go too far into the Uzumaki's techniques, since I was able to make something like that up for this. Now, the biggest question is, how did Menma learn it, when nearly the entire clan is dead? Oh, and tell me what you thought of the fight. I'm still new at this entire thing, but like always, I did my best. I'm going to add Sasuke as one of the major characters in the list, since at this point, if he isn't...then I don't know who could be.