Menma woke up and sat up. He stretched out his arm and he sat at the edge of his bed. He looked outside the window and looked at the bright orange sky that the rays of the sun created.

He suddenly felt cold and he covered himself with the blankets. 'What month is this?'-Menma. Menma looked at the calendar in his room and saw that it was October.

Menma sighed and was about to get ready for the day, but then he remembered something that happened a couple days before. "If you wanna talk to me again then sit in that same position at the exact same time another day."-Adonai.

Menma contemplated on if he wanted to talk to him again or not and decided that he would. He took a deep breath and sat in the same spot he did 2 days before. He looked outside the window up in the clouds and to him it almost looked like the sky opened as golden lights emitted from them.

Eventually the light became too bright and Menma had to cover his eyes. But after a few seconds the bright light faded and Menma could open his eyes again. Once he did he saw Adonai standing in the way of the window as the rising sun behind him shone on him like an angel.

"Hello again child, it's going to be snowing a lot pretty soon."-Adonai. "I guess, but besides that I have a few questions... first, Is there a way to control the seal you've given me?"-Menma.

Adonai shook his head and stated, "No, you can't rush such an unbeatable power. But in due time once you've reached your peak that seal will allow you to reach an even higher limit than what the sage of the 6 paths Hagaromo gave you. You won't just be able to destroy a star, you'll be able to... actually, we can save that talk for once you've killed Odin."-Adonai.

Menma raised a brow and asked, "When I kill him? Does that mean you already know what will happen in the future?"-Menma. Adonai smirked and said, "I won't spoil the ending of your journey."-Adonai.

Menma was left with mixed feelings from the answer but decided to move on to the next question. "Is there anything that you can tell me about Orochimaru to help me when I fight him?"-Menma.

Adonai thought about how much he should say and spoke, "Orochimaru isn't the same person he used to be. One of his goals use to be to learn every jutsu and gain immortality. But for such an objective that sounded impossible he has always been calm and collected... but now, he's changed." "How's that?"-Menma.

"After listening to Odin when he approached him he was offered infinite power along with immortality in the form of godhood. And as you know the only thing he would need to do to achieve that is steal your eyes. And after having a different person's eyes as his new objective he lost interest in the sharingan. And because of that he only lured Sasuke to his hideout just so that he would grab your attention. And well... you know everything that happens after that. But after your experience with him something just snapped inside of him. It's not like he's started drawing the same words over and over on walls or anything, but he has become even more sadistic than how he use to be... do you know who Kabuto is?"-Adonai.

Menma furrowed his brow and responded, "Yes, he is Orochimaru's servant, and probably the only one he actually cares about. Why?"-Menma. Adonai kept the same straight face and stated, "Orochimaru tried to kill him."-Adonai.

Menma remained silent until he exclaimed, "What?!! Why?!"-Menma. Adonai shook his fingers and said, "Deep down I'm sure you already know. You heard a small piece of it from some Hagetaka members the first time you went to that bar."-Adonai. Menma thought about the first time he sent to the bar and the only thing he remembered was something about a special power. Menma decided to elaborate on it later and said, "Continue."

Adonai cleared his throat and continued, "Kabuto isn't really dead, he managed to escape. But Orochimaru is convinced he died. I just want to tell you that when you face him, he will be both stronger because of his new power, and weaker because of his withering mental state due to Odin."-Adonai.

Menma was about to speak but Adonai walked towards him. While he was walking Menma found it strange that he made no sounds. One thing that Menma was most grateful for was his amplified senses given to him by Kurama. He had eyesight like a falcon, he could smell like a bear, and he could hear like a bat within a certain distance just to name a few. So Menma was perplexed by how he makes no sounds or vibrations when he walks.

Adonai continued to walk towards Menma until he was 3 feet away from him. "I will give you one last piece of advice. Orochimaru is someone who is considered unkillable because he always manages to slip away. If you cut off his head, his body will molt and he'll just come back, but you have the ability to go directly for the soul." Menma nodded.

Adonai continued, but even that's not enough, because Orochimaru can separate his soul into different pieces."-Adonai.

"What do you mean separate his soul into different pieces?"-Menma. "Well that's why the rinnegan wouldn't work, because if you absorbed his soul he would just emerge from a curse mark that he placed on someone, which is why you must find a way to stop him from doing something like that."-Adonai.

"Like what?"-Menma. "I'll give you a hint, before you plan on going after Orochimaru you should read all of those seal books from your father."-Adonai.

Menma nodded and felt like he's heard enough. He gained a serious expression and asked, "Before you leave I want to ask you what you meant when you told me that thing."-Menma.

Adonai returned the expression and didn't need to ask what he was talking about since he knew exactly what he meant. "I meant what I said. All I wish for you to do is listen to whatever she tells you to do."-Adonai.

"Just what are you trying to say?"-Menma. Before Adonai could respond a timer went off on his watch and he said, "Well, it's time for me to leave. I can't tell you what will happen, but all I want you to do is listen to what she says."-Adonai stated as he turned around.

He was about to leave but he turned back around and said, "This path you walk will lead to many more of your friends dying. But it will all be worth it in the end, just never give up. Also, don't try to stay home today, you have to go to the western hideout. Cause if you don't, you will be killed."-Adonai stated seriously before fading away.

"Hey wait, you still didn't answer me!"-Menma exclaimed. But it was too late and he was already gone. Menma sat back down on his bed and cooled off.

While sitting there he gained a cold sweat and thought, 'What the hell am I supposed to do?!?! With everything he's saying it sounds like she's gonna die! But I can't protect her because he said I would die!' Menma started sweating profusely and his breaths became troubled. His hands were shaking and he thought, 'Is this really gonna happen again!?!? It's been 2 years since the last time this has happened! What can I do? What can I do...'-Menma

Menma stopped shaking when he felt Minako's presence outside of his door. He took a deep breath and wiped his sweat off. 'Her aura has always felt so calming... I guess all I can try to do is protect her with shadow clones.'-Menma.

"Why were you yelling? Was that old guy here again or something?"-Minako.

Menma looked right into her scarlet eyes and walked towards her. He ignored her question and embraced her in a tight hug. Minako blushed and returned the hug. While looking at her Menma thought, 'Temari, if there ever was a woman other than you I would be with. It would be her.'-Menma.

Menma thought about what Adonai said and he tightened his hug with some tears coming out of his eyes. "Minako, could you do a couple things for me?"-Menma.

"Yes."-Minako. "I want you to stay home today, and please never change."-Menma. "Ok, but where are you gonna go?"-Minako.

Menma let go of her rested a hand on her shoulder. "I'm gonna go to the western hideout by myself. And everyone else is gonna stay home today."-Menma.

Minako was about to oppose what he said but was interrupted when Menma gave her a kiss. He let go of her and left out of his bedroom door. "When I was at the southern hideout I purposely held myself back because I wanted to do something like test out new abilities all the time, or just be stylish. But this is more than that, now no matter how strong or weak they are I'm gonna give it my all." Menma gave her his signature thumbs up with a foxy grin. He tried to hide his feelings but he still had a tear in his eye.

Minako was about to say something but Menma already teleported away, only leaving a couple wood clones clones behind with equal power to protect the place.

Hachi Statue

Menma rushed towards the statue through the fog and thought, 'Where did all this fog come from? It doesn't matter, but... Adonai... I don't know what you are, you may be a God yourself. But what you told me was to just listen to what she had to say and to go to the western hideout or else I would die. If I rush then there might be a chance that nothing will happen!'

Menma gained a determined look and had a fire in his eyes. Without him realizing, the God Seal formed the kanji Gods Determination. This was proof that absolutely nothing would be able to stand in the way of his goal.

Menma walked towards the statue that was made of Jade and other materials. The statue showed a dark skinned man who was about 7ft of pure muscle. He activated his God Seal and absorbed enough sage chakra to put him in his 6 paths sage mode.

He looked around and found a small chakra source and found it under the Hachi statue. He lifted up the statue and saw a tube under there. It looked like a tube you would use to send scrolls to different places in a building. But it was big enough to fit a human. Menma sighed and jumped inside of it without hesitation.

As soon as he jumped in the wind inside of the tube instantly started making him fly through the tube like a torpedo.

2 Minutes Later

The tube finally stopped blowing air and Menma got out of it. He felt dizzy so he shook his head a few times. After the dizziness faded he looked at his surroundings and found out that he was on a small island. He turned around and saw the building he needed to enter.

He tried to activated his EMS along with his sage mode at the same time. Which caused a cross mutation between the 2 that resulted in a golden sharingan. He had to stop running for a second to regain his composure because of blissful the 2 together felt.

Both the sharingan and sage mode compliment each other very well. "So this is what ultra instinct feels like? Wait that's the wrong anime, UGH I'm getting side tracked!"-Menma.

He ran straight into the front door. He noticed there was no security at the front and was surprised. He started sensing the entire hideout for chakra signatures and was surprised when he noticed how saturated this place was with Nature chakra.

Minako's House

Saburo, Sachi, and Sen stalked the house from a distance. "Right now the only people there who can defend the house is Suigetsu, Mina, and some shadow clones that Menma left behind."-Saburo.

"None of these will be a problem, let's get to work."-Sachi. "Hmmmm, but it seems that Menma is more dedicated than we thought. It's not like this will change the end result since we will kill him anyway, when he left this place I could tell that he somehow knew we were gonna come here. But he went to the Western Hideout anyway."-Sen.

Saburo looked at his brother and asked, "What do you mean he knew we would come here?"-Saburo. Sachi also looked at him and said, "Yes, how would he? Not even Karin was able to track our chakra signatures when we were right next to her."-Sachi.

"Hmmmm, I'm not sure. He definitely didn't sense our chakras, cause if he did he would have tried to kill us. I can tell that much because of the multiple expressions on his face. He felt desperation, determination, and sense of inevitability as if he was fighting against fate itself."-Sen.

The other 2 brothers thought about what he said and Saburo finally said, "He might have a 7th person with him. That's the only way that he could know about us."-Saburo. Sachi spoke up and stated, "Well that's not even possible, because when they were on their way to this village there was clearly only 3 of them. So you could have been wrong Sen."-Sachi.

Sen felt a blow to his pride from that. A gift that Sen had was being able to tell what was thinking from their facial expressions. But he decided to not say anything about now and they proceeded with their mission.

Western Hideout

Menma walked down another corridor aligned with cells and sighed. Menma was about to walk down another hall but then he heard footsteps come from a room and he hid inside the wall.

He peeked out of the wall and saw a red headed woman with glasses walk out of her office. The woman walked down one of the many corridors and disappeared.

Menma walked over to where her office was and walked through the door. He looked around for something that could be useful and his eyes eventually came upon the archive room.

He created 20 shadow clones and had them search the room. "You guys have to find something, like info about what they've been doing here and maybe some info on the next hideout."-Menma.

The clones nodded and Menma ran away towards where he thinks the woman ran.

Archive Room

All 20 of the clones searched feverishly with the goal of finding something useful. Eventually they searched all of the documents and realized there was no information on the eastern hideout.

"Damn, do you think Orochimaru has that place completely isolated?"-Clone1. "It's the only way, but are you sure that you guys had your sharingan active while you were reading?"-Clone2.

All of them nodded and one of them raised their hands. They all looked towards him and the clone stated, "I didn't find anything about the eastern hideout either, but I did find some documents about what Jugo's nature chakra does to people."-Clone3.

Everyone started paying attention to him and he cleared his throat. "Do you guys remember the sound 4?" Everyone nodded and he continued, "Well it turns out that that's where the curse mark comes from! They take the nature energy he absorbs and Orochimaru somehow transfers it to people through biting them. But it also seems like when the prisoners are exposed the raw nature energy it usually results in death within 24 hours due to things like heart attacks, blood clotting, and nature chakra overload. We gotta go back to Menma quick so that he knows what he can do what to do when he sees Jugo!"-Clone3. "Ok, all of you guys can leave but I'm gonna stay to see if we missed anything."-Clone4. They all nodded and puffed away.

Minako's House

Suigetsu looked outside of the window and looked for any movement. "Why has it been so quiet lately?"-Suigetsu. Mina backed away from a window and shrugged. She replied, "I'm not sure. But maybe it has to do with this overwhelming fog, I can't see anything anymore."-Mina.

Suigetsu walked up to one of Menma's clones and asked, "Hey, why don't you tell us why Menma left all of a sudden and told us to stay here?"-Suigetsu.

The clone shook his head and stated, "We can't tell you. This is the best way to keep you safe for now."-Menma1. Suigetsu shrugged and walked away.

They continued to search for a few more minutes until they heard a loud crash. They all ran into the kitchen towards the source of the sound.

Once they reached there they saw that the front door was completely gone. Suigetsu started sweating and he said, "What the hell? How'd they find out where we live!?!"-Suigetsu.

Mina thought for a second and replied, "Well yesterday afternoon everyone of us were out of the house doing something yesterday. So they must have sent some special henchman over us to find us."-Mina.

"Special enough to not be sensed by any of us?"-Suigetsu. The God seals on both of the Menma clones appeared and they absorbed nature chakra to enter sage mode. Once they did one of them said, "With Sage Mode our sensory abilities are so good that we can sense things that are on a different plane of reality. So if anything comes in here we'll sense them." The clone stated in a reassuring voice.

They all started to feel a little safer. After a few more seconds Minako came out of the safe room and asked them, "What was that sound just now?"-Minako.

"STAY IN YOUR ROOM! IT'S NOT SAFE OUT HERE!!" Minako stopped walking out of the door and they were all silent for a minute. The clone cleared it's breath and restarted, "I mean, the enemy could still be out here. So you should stay in the safe room so they can't reach you."-Menma. Minako nodded and walked back into her room.

Saburo Sachi and Sen looked at them from the corner of the room. "They definitely don't have a 7th person with them."-Saburo.

But those clones seem confident because of their sage mode."-Sachi. "They think that because they can track things in other planes of reality that it will catch us."-Sen. "But they fail to realize that our ability is something much different than that."-Saburo.

Western Hideout

Menma raced down the halls and finally caught up to Karin. He peaked at her from around the corner and tried to see what she was doing. At the moment she looked like she was typing into a keypad.

Karin stopped typing as her finger hovered over the enter button. She looked over her shoulders and looked directly at Menma. Menma's eyes opened and he bolted towards her. 'How the hell could she spot me? I thought that because of how much nature chakra is here she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my nature chakra and all the other ones. Is her sensory abilities so good she can differentiate between them? No... it must be because I'm in perfect sage mode, and because my nature energy is more refined than everyone else's my chakra easily stands out from all of the others who have leaking chakra. Damn how could I make that mistake?!'-Menma.

Menma was about to catch up to Karin but before he could she pressed the green button and ran through the door. Menma noticed that all of the cells opened. 'Before those cells open all the way I should be able to reach the door.' Menma shouted, "I'm not gonna let you run a"- Menma's words were cut off when he had to suddenly dodge a kick to his brain.

He darted to the floor and slid into a wall. He tried to stand up but the mysterious figure was on him again. The dark figure tried stomping down on him but Menma catapulted himself away with a wood pillar pushing him off of the wall.

Menma looked towards where the thing stomped and saw a huge 12ft crater, but he wasn't there anymore. 'What the hell is this thing?' Menma thought as his mind suddenly flooded with memories from the clones. 'Is this a curse mark user?!'-Menma.

Menma sensed someone behind him and had to use Kamui to dodge him. The figure started trying to attack him vigorously which didn't let him get in an attack. 'I'm starting to get pissed off by this.' Menma's eyes started bleeding and he yelled, "ENOUGH!" As his black Amaterasu flames spread all around him.

The monster finally backed up and Menma got a good look at it through the flames. Menma now realized that the reason he couldn't make out it's figure earlier was because it was a pure vanta black figure. But you could tell that it was a hulking humanoid figure that looked like it was 8ft tall. The only thing that wasn't completely black on it was it's eyes, which were white with no pupil.

Menma collected himself and thought, 'If I didn't have Sage mode or the sharingan active right now that kick earlier would have instantly killed me.'-Menma.

"What the hell are you?"-Menma. The figure didn't speak and it rushed at him again. Menma prepared himself for the next attack and was ready to retaliate. Menma thought he would be safe behind the flames but the monster somehow started absorbing the Amaterasu flames. Menma's eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell?!?! How can the everlasting flames be absorbed?!"-Menma.

The figure suddenly disappeared again and Menma sensed it behind him. The figure was going to attack but Menma was ready that time and quickly delivered a kick to his knee cap.

But while Menma was in the middle of kicking him he quickly had to pull back his kick because he realized the bottom of his sandals disintegrated when it came in contact with him.

'The hell? As soon as I made contact with him my sandal started to disintegrate'-Menma.

Menma's thoughts were interrupted when he was getting rushed at again and he thought, 'This is gonna take awhile.'-Menma.

Minako's House

Both of the Menma clones finished searching and they finally announced, "Ok, there is no one around here at all. So we're safe, they must have given up and left already." The clone announced as he leaned on a wall. Everyone else in the kitchen became less tense and sighed in relief.

The clone was getting ready to start doing basic protection for the house and he turned around. But when he turned around he noticed writing on the wall. He read it and it said, When you turn around, you will...

Menma's eyes widened and he started sweating. He moved his finger out of the way and looked at the last kanji. It read, You will die.

Menma slowly turned around and saw a black figure coming out of the ground with a vanta black blade. 'What the hell is that?!?! How could my sage mode not have sensed him?!?!'-Menma.

The person climbed all the way out of the shadow and was getting ready to kill Suigetsu and Mina. Both of the Menma's noticed him and pushed Suigetsu and Mina out of the way. "WATCH OUT!"-Menma.

As they did that they were both instantly eliminated. The blade cut straight through their arms and suddenly the entirety of their body that wasn't decapitated was engulfed by darkness and they disappeared.

Suigetsu looked at where he was pushed from and saw that the only thing left behind were the arms of the 2 clones which were slowly turning back into wood.

Both of them started sweating profusely and Suigetsu said, "Wha... what the hell just happened?!?! What happened to them?!?!" Suigetsu stood up and continued, "Is there an enemy here?! If there was then how did Menma not sense them?!?"-Suigetsu.

Mina remained on the ground with heavy heaving breaths almost like she was hyperventilating. Suigetsu pulled the executioner's blade off of his back and got in a ready position.

After a few seconds all 3 of the brothers somehow climbed out from under a chair. They were clearly visible now and their features consisted of small yet toned builds. Their outfits were all vantablack and the only visible body part on them showing were their eyes. Which somehow had naturally black sclera and green irises.

Sachi pulled out his matching vantablack blade and Sen stated, "We don't need to kill them. That was not the mission."-Sen. He complied and put his blade away.

Suigetsu rushed towards them before they could finish their conversation and slashed at them. They didn't react and let the blade cut right through them.

Suigetsu thought they would be cut for sure, but as soon as the blade made contact with their skin it passed right through them and the blade now had multiple bite marks on it that rendered the blade to a third of its size.

Suigetsu was left dumb founded, but before he could do anything he was knocked out. Mina finally got of her shock and was ready to fight, but it was already too late and they knocked her out.

2 of the brothers started walking off to find Minako but Saburo stayed behind and observed Mina's unconscious frame. He kneeled down next to her and slowly peeled back the part of her cloak that was covering her breast.

He put his head on her chest and listened for a heartbeat. He heard the thumps of her chest and stood back up. Sachi stopped walking and looked at him. "What are you doing?"-Sachi. Sen also stopped walking and was also curious.

"Something doesn't seem right about this woman. She is clearly alive, but it seems like she doesn't have a soul."-Saburo. Sachi walked up next to him and looked at her. "You do have a point. Have you also noticed how close of a resemblance she has to Menma? Do you think he somehow has a sister?"-Sachi.

Sen shook his head and stated, "That's not possible. Naruto Uzumaki was the last remaining relative of Menma, and he died 2 years ago."-Sen.

They all thought about it for a little while longer until Saburo stated, "Nevermind, it doesn't matter. We have a job to do."-Saburo.

The other 2 brothers agreed and they all walked toward the same direction. "This is where she is kept. They said this is her safe room."-Sachi. Sen opened the door to the room and looked inside.

They all were surprised when they saw that there was a hole in the wall and the room was empty. Saburo sighed and said, "Well this is just gonna prolong the inevitable."

Archive Room

The last shadow clone picked up another document and the description interested him. It said Project Oblivion. Menma opened the document and saw a picture of a 8ft hulking figure that was surrounded in vantablack all over his body. The paper said that his name was Saki and that he had 3 other brothers who also are associated with Orochimaru.

He has the exact same power as his 3 powers. But Orochimaru wanted to amplify the power of specifically only one of their 2 powers with the curse mark. But seems like the curse mark only partially worked but was ultimately abandoned because of the lost of sanity it caused for the unfortunate brother. The curse mark gave him an upgrade to his power. His original ability is to envelop his own body in a special chakra in the form of a shadow, it's main purpose is as a camouflage that blends in with literally anything perfectly. But this upgrade rewired the chakra cloak so that it could l atomize anything it comes in physical contact with, whether it's chakra or a physical object.

Menma paled at the thought of the power. 'Sounds like a "I win no matter what" kind of power. The real Menma is fighting him right now... so he might be a little too distracted depending on how powerful and fast he is.'-Menma.

Menma started thinking about if there was anything in his arsenal that could counter that. 'Genjutsu could possibly do something to him. But I don't want that to be the first thing we test out... Oh yeah! I could use the rinnegan! I could use the Preta path to absorb the chakra out of his vantablack cloak since it's made of chakra!'

Menma thought he came up with the solution until he thought, 'Wait, nevermind. To do that we would need to make physical contact. And that could either harm me or let him grab me, so there might be another way.'

Menma thought and thought. He thought about all of his powers until he eventually thought of the truth seeking orbs. 'The tso! Those are perfect, they can nullify and absorb any chakra it comes in contact with. And I can manipulate into any shape across any distance. This is the safest way to defeat this guy!' The clone thought as it ignored the rest of the document and puffed away

Western Hideout

Menma dropped onto the ground from his wounds. He looked up at the figure who still seemed unharmed and tried stabbing him with a branch, but it just incinerated on contact.

Menma took a deep breath and sighed. 'I think I've found out his ability. His ability has something to do with using his chakra to make a cloak of void that destroys anything it touches. But how can I counter that? There isn't any weak points on him.'-Menma.

Menma tried thinking of a way and as if on que he gained the memories of a shadow clone and learned everything. He smirked and thought, 'I still haven't mastered the rinnegan. So far I still haven't learned the Deva path, and I haven't tried out the Animal path yet. So using the Truth Seeking Orbs is perfect! And now can be a perfect opportunity to try out the animal path!' Menma deactivated his sage sharingan and activated the rinnegan. He stood up ignoring his wounds and gave Saki a confident smirk. "So, your name is Saki! Well my name is Menma, remember it for when I kill you!"-Menma.

Saki didn't respond and started running towards him again. Menma bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground and a huge smoke cloud appeared. 'Please work please work please work.'-Menma.

Menma looked at the smoke cloud as it started to dissipate. Eventually Menma could see the outline of the figure in the smoke and make out the shape of a dog.

He could hear the dog growl and it cleared the rest of the smoke with a loud roar. Menma smiled at the sight and took a deep breath. He manifested 2 tso in his hands and transformed one into a huge sword that was bigger than even the executioner's blade, and his normal sage blade in his other hand.

The dog charged at him first and started relentlessly attacking him. None of the attacks damaged Saki but they kept him in place because of the insane regenerative powers of the dog summon.

Menma started rushing towards Saki. 'I don't have time to drag this fight out, so I'm gonna kill you quickly so I can go back home as quick as possible.'-Menma.

Menma blitzed Saki and stabbed him with the sage blade first, which caused the part of the blade that was inside of him to turn into spikes and stab through him in dozens of different places.

Saki grunted in pain and the spikes wrapped around him like rope. Menma picked up the huge sword in his other hand and swung it clean through Saki's head.

Saki's body dropped down to the floor and Menma dropped both of his weapons. He started to catch his breath. The dog summon walked up to him and sat next to him. Menma looked at it and said, "Ya know. Even though you have a giant piercing in your nose and you always look like you're growling, you can be cute sometimes."

The dog didn't respond and Menma laughed to himself. "What am I doing?" Menma tried to stand up but fell back down to the ground. 'Damn you Saki, you cut off the tendons in my legs. My healing factor won't be able to heal them as fast as I like.' Menma thought.

The dog walked closer to him and nudged at him. Menma asked, "What do you wa"- Menma was interrupted when the dog suddenly flung him up in the air and he fell on his back.

Menma was confused for only a second but then he felt like he could hear the dogs thoughts. He instinctively grabbed it's fur as it jumped up through the ceiling. He smiled and thought, 'Does the rinnegan really make us this connected?'

He looked back down at the ground and noticed that the vantablack chakra cloak of the man started burning when it made contact with the sun.

He decided to ignore that for now and looked for Karin's chakra signature. He found it on the top floor and got off of the dog. Menma looked at the dog and said, "Uhhh, sit." The dog sit and Menma smiled. "Stay."

Menma deactivated his rinnegan and activated his EMS. He created a clone to make sure the dog stays and gazed through the floor.

He appeared in front of Karin. She turned around and aimed a gun at him and fired it at his chest. Menma stood still as the bullet penetrated him like he was paralyzed. But then his chakra network became erratic and he placed himself under a genjutsu.

After a few seconds the genjutsu disappeared and Menma was back to normal. 'Glad to know that works.' Karin was about to shoot the gun at him again but Menma used the Asura path to transform his finger into a gun barrel.

He shoot it at the gun in her hand and her gun went flying out of her hands. She tried to run away but Menma used Kotoamatsukami before she could turn around. He flew towards her and asked, "Where the switch to release all of your prisoners?"-Menma.

She pointed at a red button on the wall of the control room. Menma noted the info and used the kotoamatsukami in his other eye to ask, "Where is the Eastern Hideout?"-Menma.

Everything was silent for a little while until she eventually replied, "I do not know."-Karin. Menma was surprised by the response and thought, 'So not even one of the higher ups know?'-Menma.

Because the Kotoamatsukami didn't work Karin snapped back to normal. Menma grabbed her before she could do anything.

She looked away from him and he asked her, "How do you not know where the Eastern Hideout is?"-Menma.

Forest Near Minako's House

Saburo, Sachi, and Sen and if looked at from a distance would seem like they were sinking into the ground and rising up out of it somewhere else.

After a few minutes of the same movements they eventually caught up to Minako. They sunk into a shadow and reappeared behind Minako using her shadow.

Toshiro noticed that the 3 brothers were already behind them and he got into a fighting position. "This is a pleasant surprise."-Saburo.

"It seems like Toshiro has betrayed the boss."-Sachi. "We'll have to report this later."-Sen.

They quickly knocked out Toshiro without hesitation and grabbed Minako. They chopped her neck and knocked her unconscious.

"It seems like we have completed our mission."-Saburo announced. They were all about to leave but Sachi suddenly pointed at a little girl behind a tree.

The other 2 brothers looked at where he was pointing and Sen asked, "Is that Minako's daughter?"-Sen. Saburo waved her off and stated, "She is not part of our mission, we must take Minako to the royal army nearby as Orochimaru ordered us."-Saburo.

Western Hideout

Menma sighed and noticed he was getting nowhere, he was ready to kill her. He manifested a knife in his hand and had the point of it touch Karin's stomach.

She had a tear in her eye and looked at him. "Please don't."-Karin. For a split second they both made eye contact. And in that split second it felt like an a whole minute.

When Menma saw Karin's face clearly his eyes widened and he started seeing Minako face while at the same time remembering Karin's. 'She has the same matching red hair and eyes. And I'm sure I've seen her before... maybe in the Chunin Exams...' "Karin, tell me your full name."-Menma.

She was confused by the question but answered, "Karin Uzumaki."-Karin. Menma smiled at her and responded, "My name is Menma Uzumaki, you might remember me from that time I saved you from being eaten by a bear in the chunin exams a couple years ago."-Menma.

Karin's eyes widened as she also remembered the memory. Menma gained a serious face and stood straight up, "I'm sorry for making you feel scared... but horrible things are happening right now... I can tell that you don't feel entirely passionate about your job, and since you failed in your duty to protect this hideout he might want to get rid of you, so I'll make you an offer to come with me."-Menma.

Karin was astonished and left speechless by the open offer after they just met. But before she could say a word Menma stated, "I know this seems like a difficult decision, but right now I have to go back home quickly, so just stay here and I can come back." Menma stated as he released the prisoners and absorbed all of the nature energy in the area.

Menma climbed back up on top of the dog summon and told it, "Let's go buddy. I've already been gone too long, let's go before anything bad can happen!"-Menma.