4 years later

A young child with black hair and mismatched eyes sat on the ground. His clothes were filthy and worn almost to threads. It was late and he was on a road that wasn't used often. He hadn't seen anyone pass by in about an hour.

"Are you alright?" A voice asked him, nearly making him jump out of his skin.

He looked up to find a young woman kneeling down next to him. Her onyx eyes peered down at him curiously. Her hair looked like a curtain of black silk that fell to the middle of her back. She was dressed in the standard Jounin uniform with a katana strapped to her back.

Before he could respond to her his stomach rumbled loudly.

"Hungry?" He nodded to her question. "Come on, then. We can't have a child starve, can we?"

He followed along silently as she led him through several streets. Within minutes they were inside a small house. It was nothing fancy, but it was clean and had a comfortable feeling about it.

"Go ahead and have a seat," she told him, pointing him to a table.

He sat and watched her as she quickly made something to eat. Minutes later she placed a steaming bowl full of noodles in front of him. He stared at it curiously for a moment before looking up at her.

"It's ramen. You've had ramen before, right?" He shook his head.

"Really? You're named after it you know. Menma is a topping." She pointed to some bamboo shoots. "Those ones right there."

He frowned at this. "How do you know my name?"

"Everyone but the children of the village knows your name." She frowned. "I can't tell you why though, it's a secret. You'll find out one day, and when you do, I want you to remember - you're a hero."

"A hero?" He asked with a mouth full of noodles.

"Don't speak with your mouth full of food," she chided. "And yes, a hero."

He continued eating with a thoughtful look on his face. When he finally finished he placed his chopsticks down before looking back up at the woman.

"You mean like a ninja?" he asked quietly.

"Oh? What makes you think ninja are heroes?"

"Well... everyone says the Yondaime was a hero that saved the village. He was the Hokage, right? And the Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village, so he was a ninja that was a hero," he nodded satisfied with his explanation.

The woman stared at him until he started to squirm uncomfortably. "That's true, but you don't have to be a ninja to be a hero."

"But all the cool ones are!" The boy shouted at her.

"Does that mean you want to become a ninja?" She asked.

The boy faltered for a moment before puffing out his chest. "Yeah! I'll be the best ninja ever! And I'll be a hero!"

Again she watched him silently until he started to squirm awkwardly in his chair. "Not all ninja are heroes. It's a hard life and many turn out bad, but... I'm sure you'll grow up to be a fine ninja."

The boy grinned at her before blinking as though just noticing something. He stared at her clothing and the sword.

"You're a ninja! Can you train me?" He asked excitedly.

"I am, but my way isn't very heroic. I don't think you'd like to be a ninja like me," she told him.

"What do you mean? You helped me. You gave me food. You're a hero too!"

She smirked and stood, clearing the table as she did so. She quickly washed the dishes before returning and standing in front of the boy. "Come on, we should get you back to the orphanage before it gets too late. You can think about whether you really want me to train you or not on the way."

The walk to the orphanage was silent. The woman glanced down at him as they walked to find his face scrunched up in thought. 'I wonder which path he'll choose.'

They stopped about a block away from the orphanage at a corner covered in a pool of shadow.

"There you go. Think about what you want, Menma. I'll be here tomorrow night at this time to find out your answer."

He looked up at her, nodded, and walked towards the orphanage. The path he walked bathed in the light of street lamps. He stopped and looked back once to find the woman walking away, the street she was walking on was shrouded in darkness.

The following evening had come. He'd spent all day thinking about it and was still having trouble deciding. She was a ninja and would train him, but, something about the what she said and the way she said it, scared him. He walked slowly out to the corner where she had left him the night before. Looking around he couldn't see anyone and began to think she wouldn't show up.

"Over here, Menma." A voice called out from the opposite corner.

He jogged over to the woman before she turned him around and pointed to the corner he was just at. The path back to the orphanage was lit up by street lamps, the street they had come down when leaving her house was dark.

The woman brushed past him and stood at the mouth of the path back to her apartment. "Make your choice," she commanded. "Do you return to what you know, or do you follow me into shadow?"

He stared at her for a moment before turning to look at the orphanage. It wasn't so bad there. He wasn't abused or anything, but they did ignore him. Ignored him and acted as though he didn't exist. It was familiar, but it was lonely. He then turned to look back at her and her darkened path. The unknown. It was dark and scary, but she didn't ignore him. She looked at him. Saw him. Helped him. As he hesitated she turned and began to walk away. With a final glance at the orphanage he made his choice.

He followed her into the shadows.

2 years later

Menma was, once again, sitting on the side of a road. His clothing was in far better shape and mostly clean this time, only having dirt and grime from training on him. This time, however, it was morning.

"Ugh... I wish she had taught me how to steal, or at least had more food in her cupboards before she left for that stupid mission," he groaned out before hauling himself up to his feet.

'She's been gone... a month now? And her food lasted... ugh. I don't even want to know the last time I ate was.'

He staggered along aimlessly while trying to think of ways to find food. Before he knew it he was lost. It didn't take long before the hunger became too much and he collapsed against some garbage cans, knocking them over in the process. The noise drew the attention of the people in the house as well as a child in the yard almost immediately.

The girl, curious, wandered over to investigate and found him sprawled out on the ground. The two stared blankly at each other until the boy's stomach growled.

"Were you... digging in the trash for food?" She asked.

"What? No! I fell!" He told her while waving his hands around.

"Sakura? What was that noise?" A voice called out from the house.

"Ah... um... a cat! A cat knocked over the garbage, that's all!" She shouted back. "Hey um... if you're hungry I can get you some food."

"Really? That would be great."

"Alright! I'll be right back." She told him before rushing off.

Menma pulled himself up off the ground and dusted himself off. Looking over at the house the girl had disappeared into made him a bit jealous. "Everyone has all these nice houses and I live in that dump." He huffed.

Shortly after he had decided to leave the orphanage the Third had found him and given him his own apartment in the poorer section of town. It was probably one of the worst places in the village, but at least it was a roof over his head.

Before long the pink-haired girl returned carrying some bread. "Sorry, this was all I could get." She told him while handing it over.

"That's fine, I'll find something else later." He replied before tearing into the food.

The girl just sat and stared at his face while he ate. He glanced up at her and noticed the look of a girl wanting to squeal and hug an animal on her face.

"What?" He asked her warily.

"You look like a raccoon." He chirped.

"Wha-what?! I do not!"

"Yes, you do. You've got whiskers, and black marks around your eyes, and one of your eyes is even black, just like a raccoon. All you need is fluffy ears." She sighed, seemingly imagining it.

"First off, they're not whiskers, just marks that look like whiskers! The black around my eyes is because my sensei always makes me train at night so I don't get enough sleep! And my eye... I don't know why it's black. Plus, I would look stupid with fuzzy ears!"

"Sensei?" She looked at him questioningly.

"That's right, I'm training to be a ninja!"

"What's it like?" She asked.

"Uhhh... it's hard. You have to train all the time and you're always tired. Well, I'm always tired, but that's because my sensei is... different. You also get dirty a lot. And beat up, but that's just until you're awesome, then the other people get beat up." He explained.

"Sakura! We're going to be late, hurry up!" The voice called from the house again.

"Ah, I have to go. Bye!" The pinkette said before rushing back towards the house.

He watched her run off while eating the bread she gave him. After finishing it off he glanced down at the knocked over trash cans. Raccoons and digging through trash for food, huh? He would have to remember that. So busy with his plotting of ways to con people out of stuff by acting like a small furry critter looking for food he forgot to pay attention to where he was.

"Ah! How am I supposed to find my way back there to repay her?" He slumped as he realized he was lost again. "Ah well, I'll just ask sensei about people with pink hair. It can't be that common."

1 week later

Menma was bored. Unfortunately his teacher still wasn't back yet. Fortunately he found the pink-haired girl at a park and could repay her for the food.

Unfortunately she was being bullied and was on the verge of tears.

"How's it feel carrying around something that HUGE? It must be tiring!" Bully 1 jeered.

"With a forehead that big you can probably see it all the way in Iwa!" Bully 2 said.

"Yeah! And if you angle it just right, you could reflect the sun to blind the Tsuchikage and start another war!" The final bully added.

That did it. She burst into tears as the three laughed and mocked her. It also caused Menma to snap. No one deserves to be picked on like that. With a roar he flew at the three bullies.

They were older and stronger, but he fought dirty. Throwing dirt in eyes, biting, kicking them in the groin. It didn't matter to him. Soon enough the three bullies ran off and Menma was left alone with relatively minor injuries and the now wide-eyed girl.

He turned to her and gave her a grin. "You should ignore jerks like that." He told her.

She stared at him with wide eyes before bringing her hands up to her cheeks and muttering something.

"Huh?"

"Squirrel. You look like a squirrel now."

Menma's eye twitched. "Are you going to compare me to small furry animals every time we meet? Ah whatever, I paid you back for the bread so we're even now, ok?" With that, and a wave, he walked off.

Unknown to either of them the whole thing had been seen by a blonde-haired girl. She wished she could have jumped in to help her, but knew she wouldn't stand a chance against the three older boys. She might not have been able to fight off the bullies, but she could certainly help now.
She watched the boy who had helped the girl walk off before approaching her.

"Hi! I'm Ino, who are you?"

A/N:

Part 1 of most likely 2 before we catch up to the beginning of canon.

Remember to review. Tell me what is good and what needs to be improved.