Menma woke up and the cold hard ground of a foreign place, he rolled over and saw his reflection in the ground. He noticed his eyes were golden for the first time in 2 years. He also noticed he had both of his arms.
He stood up and looked around. The place he was in resembled some kind of huge golden palace with statues of men depicted in heroic ways. One was a man with one eye that looked like Menma's, he also had a raven in his hand and a name at the bottom that said Odin. Then next line was a man with long hair holding a hammer standing on top of a dead giant with the name Thor. There were some others but Menma didn't bother with them and started looking around. 'This place doesn't seem like anywhere I've been.' Menma thought.
He heard murmurs and peeked around the corner. He saw an old man in a chair with a onyx magical ball taking to someone. The man looked like Odin and Menma felt slight anger staring at him. He also noticed that he seemed like that guy that told him a riddle at the Eastern Hideout.
"Has Thor returned from Jotunheim yet?" Odin asked. His advisor responded with, "Yes, but he failed to find that pesky fox." Menma couldn't resist the urge to smile and he thought, 'Fox? Could it be Kurama?!?' Menma shook his head and thought, 'I can't get my hopes up. It could just be another fox.'
Odin slammed his fist down on the side of his throne. "If I don't kill that fox soon he might find a way to get here. His overwhelming presence has created slight disturbances in Asgard. He can control his presence, but he's purposely making it spike out of control. So how can Thor not find something that big?!!?" Odin shouted.
The advisor replied, "He's more sly than any common fox, he's more sneaky than Loki." Odin calmed down and regained his posture. I don't know how the fox knows, but I'm sure that he's aware of what I'm trying to do with the souls of these ninjas. His presence is messing up the process and I haven't been able to absorb many souls at all." Odin stated.
The advisor asked, "Have any of the souls stood out from the rest?" Odin pondered on his question and answered, "There was this one blonde haired girl with a fan who was close to that child Menma, but that's it."
Menma's eyes widened after hearing what Odin said. But strangely, he noticed he felt nothing. 'Does that mean I'll never see her again?' Menma clutched his chest where his heart was and thought, 'Why do I feel like this? Why do I feel nothing? Was the love only a childish thing or something? Did it fade because it's been so long?!?'
Although he felt nothing from the news, the feeling of nothingness brought about it's own sadness. But Menma decided now wasn't the time to feel this way. He numbers himself and continued on spying.
He realized that they left and there was no longer anyone in the room. He thought about using Sage mode to make sure but decided against it since he didn't want to get discovered.
He ran into the room and looked at the onyx magic ball in front of Odin's throne. He tried to pick it up but as soon as he touched it he woke up.
He rubbed his eyes and looked around himself again. He noticed he was inside a hospital, but not just any hospital. This was Konoha Hospital. But before he could react in any way he noticed Adonai was staring at him from the corner of the room.
Menma opened his mouth and started blurting out everything that happened. He needed to get it off his chest. Adonai simply sat there and listened to him the whole time. Menma's tone of voice was a mix of worry, triumph, confusion, and sadness. At the end Adonai simply nodded and said, "I know. That wasn't a dream, your golden eyes ended up astral projecting you into Asgard."
Menma looked down at the ground. "Tell me something Adonai, is it normal to feel nothing from her death... cause even though it brings me great sadness every time, I don't want my loved ones deaths to be something I get used too."
Adonai gave him a mixed look that showed sympathy for his sadness and envy for how a human could experience such strong sadness. "In humans sometimes your brain presses the pause button on your emotions to protect you from something terrible so you can survive your day. This will eventually pass."
Menma's face showed relief and Adonai asked, "How do you feel about your fight with those 3 brothers?" Menma thought for a second and replied, "Excluding Orochimaru's torture it was probably the most difficult thing I went through."
Adonai nodded and asked, 'That's it? You don't feel any regret? Or desire that it could have ended differently?" Menma raised an eyebrow to this and stated, "I don't know about any other way it could have ended." Adonai peered his eyes and mentioned, "That one boy Sen acted a lot like Naruto. He wanted you to help them with something he found just rather than killing you like he was ordered to."
Menma gave him a slight glare and responded, "Don't compare those two. Naruto would never work for someone like Orochimaru!" Adonai sighed and replied, "You're only seeing things from your side. There must be a factor you're missing. Something could have happened anywhere between Odin's influence and now. You sh"-"Adonai, I know that sometimes there's more than what meets the eye. But Orochimaru is not one of those cases. Jiraiya even told me once that Orochimaru was always detached and cruel since they were young they were deluded." Menma Stated.
Adonai sighed a started fading away while thinking, "His hatred for Orochimaru is too strong. I know the truth, but he'll never accept until Orochimaru is already dead. I could intervene, but even if I made Menma think Orochimaru was dead and revealed the truth to him then Orochimaru would either still be under Odin's influence or he would be angered by his children's deaths. On the other hand, his hatred is a strong motivator, it will make him stronger. He already doesn't need the God Seal anymore. It didn't activate once throughout his battle so it seems it merged with him quicker than expected. But still, I should quell his hatred before darkness consumes his heart... although, I might not need to do that. Nozomi is the only person he has right now that calms his heart on sight. Hopefully that will be enough.'
Menma heard footsteps coming from his left and saw Jiraiya come in. Menma felt shock but before he could say anything Jiraiya hugged him. Menma returned the hug and Jiraiya said, "Jeez kid. I thought I'd lose you." Menma asked, "Jiraiya sensei, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be in the Rain Village by now.
Jiraiya responded, "A toad came and reverse summoned me after they said you were in trouble. When I saw you... I really thought you were already dead. You lost so much blood." Menma smiled and asked, "Jiraiya, can you take me back to the Sound Village?"
Jiraiya backed away and was left silent. He finally said, "Menma, you nearly died last night. You may have an amazing healing factor, but you shouldn't just jump into danger because of that." Menma quickly replied, "Those 3 were the strongest in the village by far. No else there even comes close besides Orochimaru."
Jiraiya showed an expression of slight shock and asked, "You're gonna try to fight Orochimaru?! What are you thinking?!? Even if you win he always comes back!" Menma smirked and said, "I'm not stupid Jiraiya. I'm not gonna just rush in there. Besides, I found someone that will teach me how to learn powerful seals at someplace called Pokanto Mountain.
Once again Jiraiya looked shocked and he asked, "Did you say Pokanto Mountain?" Menma nodded and Jiraiya asked, "Who told you about that place?" Menma told him, "Someone called Nero Uzumaki did."
Jiraiya put a hand up to his chin and started contemplating what he should do. He sighed and conceited. "Alright, we can go back." Menma pumped a fist into the air but before he could celebrate more Jiraiya cut him off, "On one condition. You must promise that you won't go after Orochimaru until you finish 2 weeks of training.
Menma scoffed. "2 weeks?!" He blurted out. No exceptions!" Jiraiya stated firmly. Menma was about to say something but finally conceited. He reluctantly replied, "Fine."
Menma got his standard attire on and stretched. Menma informed Jiraiya, "Just so you know it will be a lot faster if I just teleport us there."
Jiraiya showed a face of reluctance and mentioned, "I heard your teleporting makes people pretty nauseous." Menma shook his head and replied, "Those stories are exaggerated, c'mon." Jiraiya sighed and said, "Fine."
Menma placed a hand on his shoulder and space started warping around them as the setting changed from the hospital to the Sound village.
Menma stared around himself and noticed he was at Minako's house. Menma turned towards Jiraiya and asked him, "Can you stay here?" Jiraiya nodded and Menma walked up to the door and knocked a few times.
He heard the door unlock and Mina was the one to open it. Before he could say anything she instantly embraced him. "Thank Goodness you're back! We thought you wouldn't return!" Mina blurted out.
Mina released the hug and Suigetsu showed up from behind her and both Menma and him exchanged smirks. Jiraiya walked forward and stated, "You sure got close with these two pretty fast."
Menma nodded and replied, "Nothing brings people closer than going through life and death situations together." Menma looked at his two friends and asked, "How's Nozomi?"
Menma expected she might be sad but what Suigetsu said surprised him. "She's great, somebody came by earlier looking for you to take you to someplace called Pokanto Mountain and she went along with them. She seemed pretty determined."
Menma was surprised by the news and turned around. "In that case I should go there now!" Suigetsu put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Hold on for just a minute, are you alright?" Menma looked at him a little confused and replied, "Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?"
Suigetsu opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but he never spoke and shook his head. "Nevermind, let's just go." Mina shared the same look he did but she decided not to say anything either.
"Alright then let's go... but before we do, where's Toshiro?" Suigetsu told him, "He left the village. He didn't say much before he left, but I think he felt powerless since he was the only one with no techniques to use so he wanted to get out of the way."
Menma was saddened by the news but he understood. "Well it can't be helped, we should go now." Suigetsu nodded and they went on their way.
While they were on the way Suigetsu asked Menma, "Hey Menma, how different do you think life would be if the girl approached the guy? Like you know, they would ask you to be their boyfriend instead of the other way around?"
Menma pondered on what to say and replied, "Well I'll say this, people are not created equal because let's be real, it would practically be like someone picking out a pet. They would just walk up to a guy and say, "You're mine." And they'd instantly be in a relationship."
Suigetsu giggled at Menma's answer and agreed. "Yeah, when it comes to a lot of things girls really have it simple."
Mina looked at him and cut in, "Not really, girls definitely have it worse when it comes to a lot of things, I mean we have to go through stuff like periods and pregnancies, while all the guys have to do is plant the seed then your job is done."
Suigetsu put up his hands in defence and replied, "Yeah yeah I guess you're right... but there is one other thing they have it a lot easier in," Menma started rubbing his pale white locks of hair and asked, "What's that?"
"They have makeup."-Suigetsu. "And how's that make things easier?"-Menma. "Well we both know that women look better than men, it's always been like that." Menma looked at him weirdly and Suigetsu admitted, "Ok I might be a bit bias since I like women. What do you think Mina?" Mina responded with, "I don't think there's a real answer to that. I like men so I find them better looking."
Suigetsu grunted and continued on, "Well anyways the point is this. Let's say a girl was ugly, if they used makeup they could go from a 3/10 to a 8/10 just like that! But with guys, if you weren't born with handsome looks like me, then you're screwed."
Menma chuckled at what he said at the end but then he replied, "Yeah you're right, but why can't a guy where makeup?" Suigetsu gave him a mixed look and replied, "I mean... that's a weird question, a guy would usually just know... but if I had to say it it's a girl product, only time guys wear makeup is to look like a clown, and the makeup just makes them look either scary or goofy."
"Well I'm not talking about a whole face of makeup, but maybe something small like mascara, or a light lear of lipstick." Suigetsu thought for a second and replied, "Well I guess mascara isn't too bad, lipstick is a bit of a stretch though. But then again, did you know that some people can have naturally blue and green lips because of some kind of discoloration?"
"No, that's pretty interesting," Suigetsu said, "Yeah... but in all honesty." Suigetsu pointed at Menma, "With those long curly eyelashes of yours you already look like you wear mascara!"-Suigetsu.
Menma snickered a little and responded with, "What are you coming at me for? Look at your blue hair highlights and how your wet all the time, you look like you're about to model for a magazine!"
"I could say the same about you. You have the stereotypical model hair style!" Suigetsu retorted. Menma looked at him stupidly and shouted, "We both have the same hairstyle baka!" Mina blurted out, "Would both of you shut up!?"
The rest of the walk was silent until they turned a corner and saw the mountain. the mountain was unlike any other they've ever seen. The name Pokanto was really fitting, because there was a giant gaping hole in the middle of the mountain that let you see the other side.
"How does something like this happen? Is this natural?" Menma asked. Jiraiya shook his head and announced, "This mountain ended up like this after a battle between a Uzumaki clan member and the 9 tails. Even though he wasn't an elite clan member he could still hold off the Kyuubi with his seals long enough so that elite members could show up. This mountain is a testament to the power of the Uzumaki's sealing techniques."
The 3 teens stood in awe at the thought but Jiraiya brought them out of their trance. "Well c'mon, just a few more minutes and we'll be there."
They continued their journey until they reached the peak of the mountain and once the teens regained focus they started breathing heavily. "Why is it so hard to breath up here?" Suigetsu wheezed. Jiraiya answered, "We're on top of a mountain."
Menma wheezed, "Still though... this isn't a very big mountain... the air pressure shouldn't be this low." Jiraiya smirked and asked, "Do you remember if Nero used any seals on you the first time you meant? Like one that affected a single room or area?" Menma nodded and Jiraiya continued, "Well this is the same thing. Come on, you guys will need to get used to this before you guys can do anything. I'll tell him to put down the seal for now."
They all continued their walk for a couple more minutes until they reached a gate with the Uzumaki Crest on it. The gate opened and Nero greeted them with a smile. He adjusted his slim glasses and exclaimed, "You actually came! With all your friends too."
Menma didn't respond and kept on breathing heavily. Nero looked at him slightly confused and Jiraiya whispered in his ear. Nero made an O shape with this mouth and snapped his fingers. The air pressure returned back to normal and all 3 members of Kitsune took a deep breath.
Menma asked, "You thought I wouldn't come?" Nero nodded and stated, "The look in your eyes are a lot calmer now. But when I first met you I thought you would have went straight to Orochimaru."
Jiraiya cleared his throat to make himself noticed and Nero looked towards him. He jumped a little and blurted out, "Jiraiya! You're here too?!" Mina looked perplexed and asked, "You two know each other?"
Jiraiya ruffled up Nero's hair to his annoyance and answered, "Yeah we do. It's been a while though. Last time I saw you, you were about up to here," Jiraiya put his hand up to his stomach mimicking Nero's height back then.
Nero decided to give a clearer answer while pulling Jiraiya's hand off his head, "He's friends with my master. I can tell you the full story but you should come inside first."
Once everyone was inside a thought popped into Menma's head and he asked Nero a question, "Where is Nozomi?" Nero answered, "She should be sleeping right now. She was already really restless when I met her. She seemed really worried about you. Like you were in some kind of danger. She insisted I bring her with me so I did. But were you in any trouble?"
Menma stood silent for a few moments as he thought, 'How could she know I was in trouble? I hid it from her pretty well.' "Yeah I was in trouble. But the problem is taken care of now."
Nero nodded and stated, "Well since you finally got here you should meet my master Kiritsugu." They all followed him through the big house and along the way there were many paintings of a city that looked almost futuristic in comparison to Konoha. There were also many artifacts.
They eventually slid open a door and were greeted by a man that seemed to be 20 years younger than Jiraiya. He had on old Uzumaki armor and faded pink hair along with a thick beard. He looked up at them and his eyes landed upon Jiraiya.
He smiled and greeted him, "Jiraiya boy! Didn't expect to see you for awhile!" Menma looked slightly confused and thought out loud, "Boy?" Both of the elders heard what Menma said and chuckled. Jiraiya answered, "Despite his looks he's about 20 years older than me."
Menma nodded, "Ah, so he does the same thing Tsunade does?" Kiritsugu shook his head and corrected him, "No. Tsunade disguises herself to appear younger. I just use seals on my own body to slow down it's aging process."
Menma had a look of awe and blurted out, "You can slow down you aging with seals?!" Kiritsugu nodded and stated, "If I wanted too I could make myself immortal. But that would be pretty boring.
The causal way Kiritsugu spoke about immortality threw off Menma and he didn't know what to say. Kiritsugu burst out laughing and Nero reassured Menma, "He's half joking." Menma kept the same expression and asked, "Only half?"
"He isn't lying about how he could become immortal, but it isn't as simple as his tone implies. You'd need to have a good understanding revolving around the subject of what you're trying to do."
For once Suigetsu seemed genuinely interested and he asked, "Can you give an example?" Nero thought for a second then answered, "Let's say you wanted something that sped up your regeneration. Or maybe even something that enhances your natural healing abilities. You'd need to have a good understanding as to how things about cells work like cellular respiration, mitosis, and some other things like that."
Suigetsu showed an expression of clear confusion and Nero stated, "I understand your confusion. Cellular respiration isn't really something you normally learn in your ninja life. Do you want to learn though?" Suigstsu nodded, "These seals sound really cool, but one thing first. What's a cell?"
Nero had a deadpan expression and started thinking, 'He isn't joking is he? Even a 9 year old at least knows they make up the body.' Kiritsugu broke the silence in the room and burst out laughing. "Nero, I can teach this one. You should take the other 2 kids to their rooms." Jiraiya asked, "What about me?"
"Don't worry, I just need to talk to you about something" Kiritsugu stated reassuringly.
Nero took the two teens out of the room and they started walking down one of the many corridors of the house to their own rooms.
As they walked Menma looked around at all the ornate vases and designs that decorated the walls of the house. Nero noticed his constant admiration of everything around him and stated, "These are all relics from the good old Hidden Eddy Village in the Land of Whirlpools. As you already that village is no more, but Kiritsugu managed to recover all of these artifacts."
Menma asked, "Is that so? How did he do that? From what I know the place was completely destroyed without a single trace of Uzumaki's left except for our clan symbol." Nero put his hand up to his chin and thought. He eventually answered, "I never bothered asking. Why do you ask?"
Menma shrugged his shoulders and responded, "Not sure. Just sounds weird to me. So how were the Uzumaki's taken out anyway?" Nero replied quicker this time and answered, "They were taken out the same way the Uchiha's were, but on a much bigger scale. Multiple nations teamed up against them believing they were too powerful." Menma asked, "Do you know what nations?"
Nero sighed and pointed out, "You sure ask a lot questions," while retaining his smile. Menma apologized, "I'm sorry," Nero waved him off and reassured him, "It's ok, but I don't know what nations, Master Kiritsugu might know since he was one of the only Uzumaki's to escape."
Menma was surprised when he heard him say multiple Uzumaki's. He was about to ask another question but judging by Nero's look he didn't feel like answering anymore questions, so Menma got the hint and decided he'd ask Kiritsugu later.
Now that Menma had his mind off of his questions concerning their clan he started to realize how big the house was and he started thinking about how long they've been walking. Nero eventually stopped and pointed at some rooms. He stated, "You can sleep in any of these rooms besides that one. That's where Nozomi is sleeping right now.
Menma asked, "What's she sleeping in the middle of the day for?" Nero answered, "I told you earlier. She couldn't sleep because she was worried about you. I had to convince her you were safe so that she would sleep." Menma asked, "Did she say anything besides that she was worried about me?"
"Hmmmm, well she did say she wanted to get stronger. So I thought I could train her." After hearing that Mina noticed Menma's face showed dread and she said, "Menma, is there a problem? Isn't it a good thing that she is becoming stronger?"
Menma shook his head and stated, "If she wants to be stronger that gives some indication that she intends on fighting the enemy. I can't protect her effectively in a situation like that." Nero peered his eyes and stated, "If you feel that strongly about it you should talk to Nozomi about that. You can't pamper her forever." Menma remained silent and they all walked outside.
"Ok, If you 2 are ready I can start teaching you the basics," Nero stated. Menma raised his hand to catch Nero's attention and pulled a set of the 3 books he got from Minato. Menma mentioned, "These books belonged to my father. He was supposed to be a sealing master." Nero looked at the book and jumped a little. "You're the 4th Hokage's son?!"
Nero started rambling on and on about how honored he felt and how cool Minato was before Menma put up a hand asked, "I just wanna know if you can do anything with it." Nero nodded and cleared his throat, "Yes, I'll fill you in on them tomorrow, these are more sealing... well I guess since you already made it this far I should reveal to you these aren't called sealing techniques Choetsujutsu. Or Transcendent techniques. A lot of these techniques are based around sealing, whether it's slowing down, stopping, binding, or bringing something together. But they are such a high level that they can't be considered sealing techniques. You've already seen a few examples when I slowed down time and lowered the air pressure."
"Alright well that's the basic premise of it so now I'll go on to how it works. The biggest thing that separates them from regular techniques is how you create or active them. With normal jutsus like the water dragon jutsu you use hand signs to form the dragon, but with Choetsu techniques you use your mind." Menma cut in, "How can that happen?" Nero replied, "I'm getting to that. You can ask your questions at the end."
"The concept of Choetsu techniques is similar to a tribes God. You fulfill their needs with sacrifices and it will grant you a bountiful harvest. Sacrifices being restrictions, and the bountiful harvest being the effect you desired. Naturally depending on the restriction you can increase the abilities power. It can be as silly as drink 8 glasses of water a day or something as restricting as dedicating the Choetsu technique to 1 person. There's someone in your village who unknowingly created a Choetsu technique. Can you guess who?"
Menma thought for a second then it suddenly clicked in his head. "Tsunade," Nero gave him a thumbs up and said, "Bingo! Her restriction is to limit how much chakra she can use for a long time while constantly building up a huge supply of special chakra. In return she has obtained a second huge chakra pool that can grant her extraordinary healing abilities."
Menma face showed some disappointment and Nero noticed it. He asked him, "Is something wrong?" Menma looked up at him and asked, "Does every Choetsu technique require you to sacrifice something or restrict yourself in some way?" Nero grinned and answered his question, "I'm glad you asked. No not everything has to be that way. Choetsu techniques are quite forgiving and sympathetic. The power of something can be heavily boosted based on how strongly you feel about something. Even if you don't feel too strongly about something you can still make a Choetsu that simply requires you to build up something like speed. Do you want me to test one of the techniques on you?"
Menma looked a bit uncomfortable and Nero reassured him, "It won't hurt I promise. It's a non lethal one." Menmafinally submitted and let Nero walk towards him.
Nero got within punching distance of him and he started focusing. He focused on Menma's torso and struck him right above his heart with a single finger.
Menma panicked a little at first but then realized he didn't feel any pain. "Try to move," Nero ordered. Menma did what he was told and tried to walk forward but he ended up walking diagonally backwards to the right. At first he thought he might have lost his balance but he tried to move forward again and this time he moved sideways.
He remained like this for a few minutes. Eventually Menma started feeling extreme discomfort and the ability stopped on it's own. "Very interesting. I hate it," Menma stated. Nero chuckled a little and stated, "That was Shinkei Sosa. By hitting a nerve you can mess up the arrangement of nerves and the way signals from your brain travel. To avoid someone getting use to the ability it alternates between which direction you'll move in. The only reason it affected your whole body is because your torso connects to everything else, but if I hit your arm it would only affect the arm."
Menma laughed nervously and replied, "For a non lethal ability that's really dangerous." Nero nodded in agreement and stated, "Yeah, that's why there's a short time limit on it. Although there are different variations of it. There's one that's pretty basic since it just makes everything backwards, there's also a great counter to this ability called Hon'nō-tekina Ugoki or instinctive movement. It causes your body to move based on instinct instead of relying on your brain. This ability doesn't need a restriction because it's already dangerous on it's own to move based on instinct instead of your brain. But it is great for if someone is frozen In fear."
Menma nodded but before he could ask anymore questions Mina poked his shoulder and pointed towards where they came from. Standing there was Nozomi. Nero already knew what Menma was thinking and told both of them, "We can continue these lessons either tomorrow or later today. You two probably need to talk. If you guys come back soon I'll still be out here and we can continue our lessons like normal."
