I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
New Mission
Menma stared up at the moon in silence. It had been a while since he had simply sat outside. It was peaceful tonight. No clouds. No fighting. The village was silent, except for the chirping of insects. He named off the constellations he knew. Not an exceptionally long list. He had never cared enough to learn them. Menma lay back, only to find Jiraiya standing over him.
"Hello Naruto," Jiraiya greeted him.
"We're in the village Pervy Sage," Menma sighed, sitting up.
"Relax, everyone's asleep," Jiraiya said. "And anyway, I have a mission for you, straight from the Hokage herself."
"And what is it this time?" Menma asked. "Save an ostrich and fight the Tsuchikage?"
"Now now," Jiraiya chuckled. "Nothing so common for you. This time, we're skipping to the fight. We're being sent to investigate the Hidden Sound Village, which means we'll be up against Orochimaru."
Menma's eyes widened and he stood, a small grin spreading under his mask. If Orochimaru died, Sasuke could go home.
"Who're we taking?" Menma asked.
"Sakura and Hinata," Jiraiya said. "And we leave in twenty minutes."
"I'll get Hinata," Menma said. "And I'll send a clone to get Sakura."
"It sounds like you don't trust me," Jiraiya snorted. "They're a bit too young for me to try and conduct research on them anyway."
"Even so," Menma said. "You go and wait at the gate."
Jiraiya shrugged and left and Menma headed inside, quickly packing then putting his mask on and sending a clone to fetch Sakura while heading to the Hyuga Compound. The Hyuga that guarded the gate had all come to recognize Menma a while ago, back when he and Hinata trained together regularly, so they greeted Menma cheerily, despite the hour.
"Me and Hinata have a mission," Menma said. "Would you mind going to get her please?"
"Sure," one of the guards nodded.
He left and headed into the compound. While Menma waited, Neji walked out, leading Menma a short distance away.
"Menma," Neji said. "I'm going to say this as bluntly as I can. I'm not a fool. Hinata may be blinded by her emotions, but I'm not. You're Naruto. You've been hiding behind the alias Menma Uzumaki and a mask for reasons I don't know and don't care to. But you pretending to be a ghost and 'manifesting' so that you can be with Hinata has to stop. It's starting to hurt her. She's crying herself to sleep every night and refuses to talk about it. I understand you're trying to help by letting her talk to Naruto but you have to stop. More than that, you have to tell her the truth. You know her, Menma. You know that no matter what happens she'll still love Naruto and will forgive you completely."
Menma stared at the ground in silence.
"Look," Neji sighed. "It's up to you whether or not you tell her the truth, and I won't rat you out. That would only hurt her more. But you need to tell her. It's killing her thinking that the person she loves most is dead."
"I know," Menma sighed. "I can see it. I'm not a fool either. But...I can't tell her. I can't. I can't risk losing her. And...even if I did...I'd still be hiding something."
"You mean the Nine-tails?" Neji asked, Menma's eyes widening as he stared at Neji in shock.
"Yes, I know about that too," Neji said. "I don't know who else does, besides the adults that know who you are, but that chakra that you unleash when you're angry isn't human. I asked one of the adults of the Branch family once why Naruto was killed and, because he was drunk, he told me that Naruto had been the Jinchuriki of the Nine-tailed Demon Fox. That led me to understand what that red chakra you possess was, which led me to understand who you really were, which explained how you could 'manifest' Naruto, as Hinata claimed."
Menma stared at Neji before nodding.
"You realize that it's punishable by death to speak about what I am, right?" Menma asked.
"I don't care," Neji said. "I have to go. Hinata will be here soon. Take care of her, Naruto. And don't let her be hurt either."
And with that, Neji was gone. Menma sighed, turning around as Hinata stepped out the gate, looking around then smiling and walking over when she spotted him. They headed to the main gate where Sakura and Jiraiya were waiting. Then, they all headed out. As they travelled, the sky began to lighten. Then, as the sun began to peek over the horizon, they reached the border of the Land of Rice Patties.
"Somewhere ahead is the Sound Village," Jiraiya said. "Our mission is to find it."
"Alright," Menma nodded. "Where do we start?"
"Let's find a village," Jiraiya said. "Once there, we can search for leads."
"Meaning you can go out drinking and flirting with random women while we do nothing," Menma said. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with."
They continued until they found a village and stopped, Jiraiya turned to Menma who rolled his eyes, holding out his wallet. Sakura held hers out as well but Menma stopped her.
"Don't waste your money," Menma said. "He's got enough."
Jiraiya sighed, walking into the town and Menma led the other two around the town and away from it to a tall sign. Menma sat on top of it and Hinata sat on a rock beside it while Sakura stood beside them.
"What's taking so long?" Sakura asked after a while.
"He's probably drunk by now," Menma sighed.
"Already?" Hinata asked. "That was fast."
"You don't know the half of it," Menma snorted just as a high whistling reached his ears.
"Menma, look out!" Sakura gasped.
Menma closed his eyes, left hand snapping up and catching the three kunai flying at him. He dropped to the ground as a ninja wearing a full mask with only their eyes showing and with a ponytail of orange hair sticking out of the back.
"Who is that!?" Sakura gasped.
"You one of Orochimaru's goons?" Menma asked, eyes still closed. "Not an exceptionally powerful one, so, barring a Kekkei Genkai, I seriously doubt it."
The ninja stared at him for a moment before pulling out a smoke bomb and slamming it down, turning and fleeing.
"Should we chase them?" Hinata asked.
"Nah," Menma sighed. "If I know Jiraiya, he'll be here in a couple of minutes anyway. And there's no way in hell that ninja was working for Orochimaru. They weren't strong enough. If they were, they would have killed us."
Hinata nodded just as Jiraiya sprinted past. Menma sighed, picking up Jiraiya's pack and scroll then sprinted after him, the girls following.
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