Northern Hideout Main Chambers
Saburo walked into Orochimaru's room and started searching for him. He eventually spotted Orochimaru who was admiring his eyes in the mirror.
"So what was the result of your mission?"-Orochimaru. "Menma doesn't seem as fazed as we expecting. He seems to be taking her death quite well."-Saburo.
Orochimaru backed away from the mirror and turned towards Saburo and asked, "And why do you think that is?"-Orochimaru. "I think it has to do with something she told him before she died. Judging by the look in his eyes he seems sure of something, and he seems to be viewing the little girl in a new look."-Saburo.
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean a new look?"-Orochimaru. "It looks like he views her in a daughter kind of way now, he feels responsible for her."-Saburo.
Orochimaru gave a mixed grin in response and stated, "Well it's disappointing that Minako's death didn't work. But the worst feeling for a parent is if something horrible happens to their child."-Orochimaru.
Saburo's brow furrowed and he asked, "Do you wish for us to kill her?"-Saburo. Orochimaru waved a hand and replied, "No, that isn't necessary. Kidnap her and give her to Yurusarenai. He has an even sicker mind than me, so he can come up with something, but make sure you tell him not to kill her."-Orochimaru.
Saburo nodded and asked one last question, "When exactly do you want me to kidnap her?"-Saburo. Orochimaru thought for a second and responded, "Kidnap her sometime today or the next day."-Orochimaru. Saburo nodded and started leaving, but Orochimaru stopped him.
"And one last thing."-Orochimaru. Saburo turned around and waited for an order. "It's time that we make that delivery."-Orochimaru. Saburo simply nodded and started heading towards the storage room.
Minako's House
Menma walked through the front door and looked around. "Hello?"-Menma called out. Suigetsu came out of his room and saw Menma. "Where is everyone else?"-Menma.
Suigetsu replied, "Nozomi is with Mina and I'm hanging out with Toshiro right now."-Suigetsu. Menma nodded and stated, "Well when those 2 get back tell them that I'm searching for the Eastern Hideout."-Menma stated.
Menma was about to walk out but Suigetsu asked him, "Ya know since Hagetaka knows where we live shouldn't we move somewhere else instead of staying here? They could attack us at anytime."-Suigetsu.
Menma turned around and replied, "Orochimaru won't do that. He knows that any threat he sends after us won't be strong enough to stand a chance, and if he wanted us dead he would have already done it. Think about it, what's the point of kidnapping Min-... I mean, attacking us out of nowhere if he could have just slit our throats In the middle of the night? I don't know why, but he wants to take his time."-Menma.
Suigetsu nodded in acknowledgement and started walking back towards his room, but Menma asked him something. "By the way, I never asked who knocked you all out the other day."-Menma.
Suigetsu stopped walking and turned around. "It was 3 people. They all wore vanta black suits, and their eyes were completely white."-Suigetsu.
The description instantly reminded Menma of the Oblivion Project folder he read in the archive room of the Western Hideout. He asked a question to assure himself, "You said there were 3 of them right?" Suigetsu nodded and Menma asked, "What were their abilities?"-Menma.
Suigetsu stated, "All 3 of them seemed to have the same ability. They could seemingly hide inside shadows whenever they touched them, and they can travel to different shadows through that shadow. If I'm being honest I was a little scared when I met them. Somehow they managed to hide their chakra signatures from you while your 2 clones were in sage mode. From my experience your sage mode could sense anything even if it didn't have chakra."-Suigetsu.
Menma asked, "Did they have any other abilities?"-Menma. Suigetsu nodded and said, "When I took a swing at them with my sword it went right through them, and when it came out the other side it had bite marks on it that made it unusable."-Suigetsu.
Menma nodded and replied, "Thank you, that's all I need for now."-Menma stated as he was about to leave, but before he could Suigetsu asked, "There actually was one thing I wanted to discuss with you, do you have time?"-Suigetsu.
Menma replied, "Yeah" and Suigetsu asked, "Did you ever think that the timing that we've decided to come here was a bit too convenient?" Menma cocked his head and asked, "What do you mean?"
Suigetsu responded, "Orochimaru has dozens of hideouts hidden throughout the world, and yet he just happened to have so many important things going on in just 4 hideouts, and we've come at a convenient enough time that he intends on staying here, doesn't that seem weird?"-Suigetsu.
Menma thought about it for a second and replied, "Yeah, but I have a theory. I think that Orochimaru is in the middle of revolutionizing the way that normal people fight. I think he's moved most of the most important operations to this village with the purpose of using as many assets as he can to speed up the process of his inventions. That must be what this gun is a product of. If guns were made public they would be a good way for merchants to protect themselves from bandits. Judging by how fast they shoot anyone of chunin skill or below wouldn't be able to dodge it."-Menma.
Suigetsu nodded and replied, "So far this is the only invention we know about, there's a lot of other stuff he could be hiding somewhere we don't know about."-Suigetsu.
Menma looked outside the window and up at the sky. He stated, "I wanna start searching as early as possible so I gotta go now, but we can finish talking later.
Suigetsu nodded and they both went their separate ways. Menma walked outside and he thought, 'In the folder I read it stated that Saki lost his sanity after gaining a boost to his ability. The thing that caused Suigetsu's blade to have bite marks on it must be the base form of that ability. But why would it have bite marks?'-Menma.
Menma looked up at the sky and saw a murder of crows flying above. The crows reminded him of Itachi and a bell rung in his head. 'He said it passed through him, so it sounds similar to my Kamui ability. So that must mean'- Menma thoughts were interrupted when he a girl bump into him.
The girl said, "Sorry." and started walking away. Menma was about to continue walking when he realized who the voice belonged to. He turned around and replied, "Wait!"-Menma. The girl turned around in response and saw who it was. She took off the hood she was hiding under and walked towards him. "You're just the person I needed to see!"
The Bar
Menma took a sip of his water and asked Karin, "So I have a few questions for you. Can you answer them?"-Menma. Karin nodded and replied, "I should be able to answer almost any question."-Karin.
"How does King Crimson work?"-Menma. Karin raised a brow and asked, "What?" Menma shook his head and replied, "Sorry, wrong universe."-Menma.
Menma cleared his throat and got serious, "When I was invading the Western Hideout I found a folder in the Archive room talking about 4 brothers that had shadow like abilities, I killed Saki so can you tell me more about the other 3?"-Menma.
Karin gathered her thoughts and answered, "Saburo, Sachi, and Sen. They're the personal assassins and errand boys of lord Orochimaru. They've been working for him for a couple years now and they are his secret weapons. They don't have a last name and no one knows where they come from, but they have access to some kind of Kekkei Genkai that let's them merge their bodies into shadows to the point that their chakra and life force are concealed. I believe that at some point they could have beaten Lord Orochimaru, but in his current state even they couldn't beat him."-Karin.
Menma nodded and asked his next question, "Where is the Eastern Hideout?"-Menma. Karin shook her head and replied, "I don't know."-Karin. Menma's head cocked and he asked, "What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you one of the elites?"-Menma.
Karin nodded and responded, "I am, but for some reason the only people who are allowed to know where that place is is Orochimaru and Yurusarenai."-Karin. "Do you at least know what they do there?"-Menma.
Karin nodded and replied, "They do animal and human cross experimentation. Stuff like giving humans tails, putting human minds in animals, and replacing limbs with animal limbs. I've never seen it for myself and I don't want to either."-Karin.
Menma asked, "But wasn't the animal experimentation done at your hideout?"-Menma. "Yes, it was done there for awhile, but thankfully it was moved over to the other hideout before I was allowed to take charge."-Karin.
Menma accepted the answer and stated, "Well that's all I wanted to ask." Before standing up. He was about to leave but Karin poked him on the shoulder. Menma turned around and asked, "What?"-Menma.
"I also have a question."-Karin. Menma gave a face that expressed he was waiting and she asked, "So how is everyone dealing with Minako's death?"-Karin.
Menma lowered his head a little and there was an eerie silence between the 2 until Menma responded, "They're not dealing with it. I erased their memories of her using... some jutsu... I can't think of the name of it at the moment."-Menma.
Karin showed a surprised expression on her face and asked him, "Why would you do that? And if you did then what are their memories of Nozomi? Wouldn't there be a hole in their memory as to why they take care of her?"-Karin.
Menma replied, "I did it cause she asked me too. Nozomi wouldn't be able to deal with that pain and everyone else would be gloomy with her gone. She shined an angelic light on Kitsune and without her Nozomi needs as much positivity as possible... but I was prepared for that possibility when I wiped their memories, I planted fake memories in their heads as to why she resides with us."-Menma.
Karin accepted his answer and asked, "What will you do if she gets captured? I have no doubt that if you stayed home when Minako was there then they would have killed you."-Karin. Menma remained silent for a second until he replied, "I... I don't plan on letting something like that ever happen to her, there's nothing I want to do more than protect her, and if she was captured..." Menma looked at his hand as it started shaking, "I honestly don't know what I would do."-Menma.
Karin felt oppressed under the pressure that Menma was unconsciously releasing and she remained silent, along with everyone else in the bar. Menma eventually realized what he was doing and stopped.
He took a deep breath and asked, "Sorry about that, was there anything else you wanted to ask of me?"-Menma. Karin thought and asked, "Back at the Western Hideout you said you would help me. Can you still do that?"-Karin. Menma thought back to when he met her a day or 2 ago and said, "Yes of course, what do you need?"-Menma. "Could you take me somewhere safe? Now that I failed to protect the Western Hideout Orochimaru will surely want me dead."-Karin.
"Ok, hold onto me."-Menma. Karin's head cocked in confusion and she asked, "What?"-Karin. "Just do it, it's the only way I can take you to the place."-Menma. Karin sighed and blushed. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him.
The bartender ran over and yelled, "Hey you haven't played for your water y"- but before he could finish his sentence they were already gone.
Mina And Nozomi
Mina and Nozomi left the store and they started heading back home. Nozomi was admiring her stuffed fox toy when Mina felt an uneasy presence.
Mina looked up on top of a building and thought she saw the outline of 3 figures. Mina grabbed Nozomi's hand and they turned into an alley. "Where are we going?"-Nozomi. "This is a shortcut to get back home faster."-Mina.
They almost made it to the end of the alleyway but they were stopped in their tracks by a man who emerged out of the shadow the building created.
Mina turned around and tried to run the other way but another man emerged out of a shadow and stopped her. Mina let go of Nozomi's hand and got into a fighting position. "What the hell do you guys want?!"-Mina.
"We just want the little girl."-Saburo. "Hand her over and we won't have to knock you out again."-Sachi. Mina shook her head and exclaimed, "Like hell I'm just gonna let y"- Mina was interrupted when Sen emerged from her own shadow and knocked her out.
Nozomi called out for help, "MENMA, PLEASE HELP US!!!" But Menma already left the village, so her cries went unanswered.
Asuma
Asuma was currently leaning over a toilet and was vomiting a jet black liquid. Once he was done he flushed it all down and tried to regain his composure. He heard a knock on the door, "Asuma sensei are you okay?"-Choji.
Asuma opened the door and walked out. He reassured Choji, "I'm okay, I just ate a little too much."-Asuma. Choji looked a little confused and replied, "You only had 1 leg. Are you sure that you're feeling okay?"-Choji.
Ino walked over and commented, "Yeah, this past week you've seemed just... tired. Maybe you should take a break from your missions."-Ino.
Asuma remained silent and was lost in his thoughts. 'I can't let anyone know about this, I don't want to hurt the hearts of my students, and especially not my wife.'-Asuma.
"Yeah maybe I should, I haven't been getting as much sleep lately cause Kuranai's pregnancy has been keeping me up. I think I'll just go home right now."-Asuma stated as he began leaving.
Asuma was hell bent on making sure no one found about about his cancer, especially not his wife. The stress of knowing that could possibly make her have a miscarriage. His only hope now was that he'd live long enough to see his baby be born.
Mina
Mina laid in the alleyway for a long time until she finally woke up. When she finally woke up, she went into a panic and searched around frantically. 'They captured Nozomi! I need to get help, where are Menma and Suigetsu!?!'-Mina. Mina ran out of the alleyway and started running back home.
Eastern Hideout
All 3 of the shadow trio walked into the main chambers of the Eastern Hideout. Sachi sat Nozomi's unconscious body onto the floor and looked around for Yurusarenai.
While looking he saw multiple little boys that couldn't have been any older than 11 hiding in multiple corners of the room. When making eye contact with one of the boys he saw a dead look in his eyes and he quickly broke eye contact.
Sen heard footsteps coming out of the bathroom and saw Yurusarenai walk out. He looked just about as ugly as always with his hair that looked like dead grass and his glassy dead fish eyes.
"What do you want?"-Yurusarenai asked as he walked up to the 3. He towered over them at a height of 7ft tall. Saburo cleared his throat and told him, "Orochimaru has ordered us to drop off this girl to you."-Saburo.
Yurusarenai glanced at the girl and picked her up to examine her. "What does he want me to do with her?" Sachi answered next, "He ordered us to tell that he wants you to do anything you want to her, just as long as you don't kill her."-Sachi.
"Uh huh, ok I can do that, but who is this girl anyway?"-Yurusarenai. Sen answered last, "This is the daughter of Minako Uchiha Uzumaki, and Menma Uzumaki has swore an oath to protect her. Orochimaru's goal is to break him and he believes that you can achieve that."-Sen.
All was silent for the longest time until eventually Yurusarenai's grin grew and he replied, "You had me at Minako, I'll be done by the end of the day."-Yurusarenai.
The 3 brothers nodded and were about to leave but Yurusarenai stopped them and told them, "Also tell Orochimaru to bring a huge amount of our gang to this hideout. We're gonna have an auction tonight."-Yurusarenai.
The 3 of them didn't know what he meant by auction but they did what he said and left.
When they left the building they searched around for tree shade and manifested in the physical world. Saburo walked up to a package he had placed against a tree and he told his brothers, "It's time we make this delivery, then our duties will almost be complete."-Saburo.
Orochimaru
Orochimaru sat down in his swivel chair maniacally and the silence left him nothing but his own thoughts. 'Menma is making a surprising amount of progress. How the hell did he get so strong? Just 2 years ago I didn't even have to try to beat him. If I'm correct it was reported to me that he died. So how could he be alive?'-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru stood up out of his swivel chair and started walking towards the cell room. 'The first time I talked to Odin he told me that the Sage of 6 Paths would eventually intervene with our plans. Is the sage the one that made him so powerful?' Orochimaru chuckled to himself as he arrived in front of someone's cell, 'It doesn't matter, even if he has obtained both the rinnegan and the eternal Mangekyo sharingan he still won't be able to defeat me, because my ability is absolute.'-Orochimaru.
The man in the cell woke up and recoiled to the back of the cell when he saw Orochimaru with him. The man asked, "What the hell do you want?!?"
Orochimaru made a hand signal that told him to come at him and he stated, "If you can make me fall or kneel I'll let you leave." Orochimaru pulled out a blade from his pocket and tossed it at the inmate.
The man looked confused and asked, "Seriously?" Orochimaru nodded and the man took a deep breath. He looked at Orochimaru but he kept his eyes covered but the man could see a red glint behind his eyes.
The man got into a fighting stance and charged at Orochimaru. Orochimaru made no attempts to stop him as he drove his blade straight through his chest. Blood splattered on the floor and walls and the man pushed the blade in further and tackled Orochimaru to the ground.
Orochimaru fell straight on his butt and the man thought, 'Seriously? Just like that?' But before he could say anything he felt confused. He looked around himself and noticed there was no blood anywhere, not even on the knife he was holding. He looked at Orochimaru and saw him standing there with no wound and not even a tear in his shirt.
Orochimaru hid a grin and asked, "Well, aren't you gonna do it?"-Orochimaru. The man came back to his senses and thought, 'I must have just imagined that, right?' The man ignored his thoughts and charged at Orochimaru again.
This time he went straight for Orochimaru's heart and he stabbed straight through it. Orochimaru made no response to the attack and the man held on to him and threw him to the ground.
Orochimaru laid down on the ground and the man looked up and took a deep breath. 'Finally.' But when he looked back down he saw that Orochimaru was no longer there and he was standing in the same place earlier. He saw Orochimaru standing still with no wound on his clothes and no blood.
The man was left speechless and couldn't think straight, "Wha- what the hell is going on??!!" Orochimaru pretended to be confused and asked, "What do you mean? Aren't you gonna bring me down to the ground?"-Orochimaru.
The man started feeling like he was gonna go mad and he made a mad dash towards the cell door that was open. 'For some reason I can't tackle him, I gotta try to get out of here while I have the chance! I have to'- his thoughts were interrupted when he realized that once again he was standing in the same place as before. He stared directly at Orochimaru and he only gave him a playful grin in response.
Orochimaru played with him for at least 30 minutes until eventually the man took his own life to get out of the madness.
Orochimaru left the cell and started heading towards the archive room and thought, 'One mistake I made was leaving the details of the Western Hideout in the Southern, but I have no info about the Eastern or this hideout within the Western hideout, it impossible for him to find a way to get to these places... unless that Akiro might have done something. His clan used to be known for having the most advanced earth users, they were so good that they could even control dust. Those he words he spout out before he died could a way of saying he would let Menma know where he was. I don't think will, but if he somehow finds out where the Eastern hideout is and he destroys it, I'll have no choice but to have the 3 Kage brothers kill him.'-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru reached the archive room and pulled out a couple boxes. He pulled out a folder concerning the Senjuro clan. Once he finished reading the documents he felt concerned. 'Back before the Kekkei Genkai purging the Senjuro clan were known as a clan that was better than any messenger bird. Using dust they could create a dust eye they could see out of for reconnaissance, they could also create maps by using dust to write on paper... this is troublesome, I should have read up more on the people I was capturing.'-Orochimaru. Orochimaru took a deep breath and decided to go back to the other box.
He searched for a certain folder and pulled it out. He started reading the contents and he thought, 'Out of all the people that have served me you 3 always shared the best ability. The ability to merge with shadows to the point where you exist in a different plane of reality. Back then I considered stealing one of your bodies, but I've come to realize that you 3 are too valuable for me to disrupt your unity.'-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's thoughts switched back to Menma. 'Luck doesn't seem to be on my side anymore though. Menma just had to come at such an inconvenient time. Did he know what I would be doing here? Did he know I would have to stay here for a month to look over a now age of inventions? No, it must have just been luck for him. But it doesn't matter, that handgun isn't the only thing I plan on making, I only made that as a first step that will be useful to Hagetaka to make up for their lack of real ninja skills.'-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru sat down at a study desk and thought, 'When was the last time luck was on my side?'-Orochimaru.
7 Years Ago In The Land Of Water
Kabuto was out gathering supplies while Orochimaru sat in a chair pondering his next move. 'Damn, I was hoping I would be able to discover some the children that survived this genocide. The only one I've discovered is Haku but the demon of the mist Zabuza already acquired him. Hmmmmm.'-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's thoughts were interrupted when he heard something fall on the ground. He searched for the source of the noise and his eyes came in contact with 2 emerald eyes of a child that was reaching for bread. The boy with ragged clothes seemed frozen in fear.
Orochimaru examined the boy further and noticed that it looked like half of his body was merged with the ground, or more specifically the shadow of a tree. The boy finally regained his confidence and grabbed the bread.
He tried to escape into the darkness of the shadow but Orochimaru grabbed his arm and pulled him out.
As soon as he did that 3 more kids came out of the shadows and rushed at him. Orochimaru manifested snakes from his free arm and trapped them all within the snakes grasp. The biggest of the brothers was somehow able to break free of the snakes grasp and started running at him again. Orochimaru smiled and thought, 'Oh? This one is unnaturally strong.'
He quickly manifested even more snakes and put him in an even tighter grasp. He tried to break free but he couldn't do it this time. All of them had terrified looks on their faces and Orochimaru pondered on what he should do until he came up with an idea. He gave them a fake generous smile and released them all.
They all seemed confused and Orochimaru walked up to all of them and gave them food. "Your gonna give this to us?" One of them asked.
Orochimaru smiled again and told him you need it more than I do. If you need more you can come back, but maybe you should try to be more stealthy next time."-Orochimaru. All of them smiled and said, "Thank you!" Before disappearing.
Once they were gone Orochimaru couldn't hold back a devious grin and thought, 'It seems like luck is on my side now."-Orochimaru.
Orochimaru heard 1 pair of footsteps approaching and bbn looked in the direction of the source. It was Kabuto with grocery bags.
"Kabuto, we're having a change of plans. We're gonna stay here for about another week."-Orochimaru.
Menma
Menma walked through a ripple in an alleyway and started walking towards and thought, 'I don't much use for the Preta path or the Naraka path, and I already use the Animal path and the Human path. I guess I should figure out how to use the Deva path.'-Menma.
Menma's thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone yell, "Hold it!" Menma turned around and saw that the source of the voice was a Hagetaka member holding a knife. Menma smiled and thought, 'This is the perfect opportunity to test it out!'-Menma.
"Hey what's your name?"-Menma. The man was surprised by the question and replied, "Dai."
Menma held out a hand and pointed it at Dai. "Go Dai!"-Menma. Nothing happened and the man with the knife looked a little confused. Menma made a different sign with his hand and said, "Fly!" Still nothing happened and Menma started trying out multiple signs and he kept on spouting phrases.
"Up up and away Dai! Shazam! Go! Go! Go Dai go!!"-Menma. This went on for a whole minute and Dai felt confused. 'What the hell? Is this guy insane? I got a little worried when I saw that it was Menma of Kitsune but now I just think he's crazy.'-Dai.
Dai turned around and started leaving. "Hey don't go away!"-Menma. Menma made a frustrated grunt and gave up. Menma started heading back home and was left to his thoughts.
15 Minutes Later
Menma arrived back home as the clock hit noon and he entered through the door. As soon as he entered the house he heard light sobs coming from Suigetsu's room.
He walked down the hallway and opened the door. What he saw was Suigetsu comforting Mina as she was shaking. Menma walked towards them with a concerned look on his face.
Toshiro showed up behind him and had a similar look on his face. "Did something happen?"-Menma. Mina looked Menma dead in his eyes and her look told him everything.
Menma felt a chill up his spine and he was paralyzed as the realization sunk in. Menma walked closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder. At first Mina thought it was for comfort but she felt the pressure on her shoulder increase.
Menma lifted her off the ground with his hand on her shoulder and brought her to eye level. Menma's eyes were wide open and he said, "How could you let this happen?"-Menma.
Suigetsu stood up and stated, "It wasn't her fault Menma! Those 3 are way too strong!"-Suigetsu. Menma stood unfazed by his words and he didn't release her until they all heard knocks at the door.
Once she was released, she started taking deep breaths and Toshiro asked, "Are you alright?" She nodded and said, "I'll be fine. But his presence was suffocating, Menma's not in a right sense of mind right now. You might have not seen it but it was like his pupils were fire."-Mina.
Suigetsu patted her and told her, "Stay here, we'll deal with it from here."-Suigetsu. Suigetsu waved for Toshiro to follow him and they went towards the front door.
By the time they arrived Menma had already placed the package they received on the table. He opened it dozens of extremely thick glass panels were lined up from numbers 1-20. There were instructions that said to separate them 6 inches from each other and to turn off the lights.
Menma's eyes narrowed skeptically but he followed the directions. Once he placed them 6 inches from each other he walked towards the light switch and turned it off. Once he did the eyes of all 3 of them widened to the point where it looked like their eyes could fall out at anytime.
Inside each of the panels where severed body parts. Menma could tell who was because of the missing hands. If you pushed all of the glass panels next to each other it would look exactly like a normal corpse.
Toshiro also remembered who it was, it's hard to forget someone that died right in front of you when you could have stopped it. He felt vomit rise up in his throat and he fell to his knees and released the liquid all over the floor.
"Akiro. So this is why you never came back to the shelter." There was sadness in Menma's voice but he retained a serious expression.
Toshiro's eyes opened wide once again and he asked Menma, "Did you say Akiro?" Menma nodded and Toshiro reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper he had been keeping.
He walked up to Menma and handed him the paper. "This is a paper Nozomi found near the homeless shelter, it was signed by someone named Akiro."-Toshiro.
Menma examined the paper and saw what appeared to be some kind of map. It showed a path leading from the homeless shelter to what seemed to be a hideout deep in the woods.
Menma put the paper in his pocket and thought to himself, 'Thank you Akiro for guiding me, and thank you Nozomi for noticing this.' Menma walked outside and looked up at the sky as the sun's rays peeked through the clouds. 'I won't fail you, Minako.' Was the last thing Menma thought as the fire returned to his eyes and he ran towards his goal.
