2 years later

Menma stretched as he finished his instant ramen and threw the cup away.

'Ramen.' He thought with a snort. 'I wish all food were as quick and easy to make as instant ramen. Not because I like it, but because of convenience. It's quick. I can buy it in bulk without people ignoring me.' He snorted again. 'Probably because they think it'll stunt my growth or something. Assholes. And because people think it's some kind of blasphemy if I don't worship the food I'm named after. I swear the village is full of idiots.'

He glanced up at the clock mid-mental rant.

"Tch, better get going, sensei hates it when I'm late."

He quickly left his apartment and headed towards his sensei's house.

For four years she had trained him. Already he had been trained for longer than the academy lasts, by the time he graduated he'd be far beyond his peers. So what if most of what she'd taught had only been theory and the like? Today she'd begin with the more practical applications. A year of that on top of what he already knew plus the academy? He'd blow them out of the water.

As he ran towards her house and passed a fan shaped icon he'd grown used to seeing he realized something.

'I know we usually start late, but where the hell is everyone? Where are the random drunks stumbling home? It's too quiet.'

He slowed down and began to scan his surroundings as he walked. Her house was located fairly close to the walls of this district so he didn't have to travel too far in, he just followed the wall. The air was stale. He couldn't shake the feeling that something very wrong was happening. Throwing caution to the wind he bolted for her house, fleeing from the feeling.

The door opened before he could even start pounding on it. Rushing past her he spun and took a defensive position while struggling to control his heart rate and breathing.

"Sensei, what is that?"

She peered around outside before closing the door and turning to him. "I'm sure it's nothing. Go sit down and calm yourself so we can get to work." She ordered.

He walked over and collapsed into a couch to calm down. Letting his gaze wander over the pictures in the room he came across a fairly new one with his sensei and a man. He was a rather tall and imposing looking guy with black hair and angry black eyes. The photo was about a month old.

'That must be the guy sensei said she was forced to marry. What was his name again? Ecchi?' His eyes focused on where the man's hand was. It was behind his sensei's back and entirely too low. 'He looks like an Ecchi.(1)'

As he was plotting ways to make the man miserable his sensei walked into the room. "Alright, let's start with-"

Before she could continue any further the front door was violently kicked in, the splintered pieces littering the entryway.

"Eiichi?" She gasped in surprise.

"I thought you'd been sleeping around with other men, but monsters? You'll pay for humiliating me like this, bitch." He snarled before lunging at her.

Caught off guard she wasn't able to properly defend herself before being hurled through a wall. As the man stalked towards her Menma threw himself on the aggressor's back and started biting and clawing at everything he could. With a roar of anguish the man grabbed Menma and slammed him into the floor.

"You sit right there, demon fox. I'll deal with you after I kill that whore." He spat out.

With that the brute stalked into the other room.

Menma lay on his back gasping and trying to ignore the pain. As he lay there he could hear smashing from the next room. He also heard screams.

"Wait... screams? Plural? What the hell is going on?" He groaned before rolling over and pushing himself up on his knees.

His sensei came flying through the wall once again. She seemed to have several bits of wood sticking out of her. Eiichi stepped through the hole in the wall with a maniacal grin on his face.

"And now I'll kill you with your own sword, slut." He sneered and drove the blade through her heart.

"No! Sensei!" Menma cried out.

"Ah, we can't forget the demon fox, now can we?" He ripped the blade out of the dead woman and turned to Menma.

"You, demon fox. Kyūbi. We were all told how the Yondaime sealed the fox's spirit into an infant. You're the demon reborn. And it's all your fault that we Uchiha are despised like we are. All those bullshit rumors about how you had the Sharingan when you attacked eight years ago." He stalked closer. "But none of that matters now, BECAUSE I'M GOING TO KILL YOU." He roared out before kicking the boy outside through the previously smashed door.

Menma lie in the street coughing blood. He groaned as he heard another scream and lifted his head to see a scene from hell. Blood and dead bodies were strewn everywhere. The scream came from a woman standing only several yards away. He watched as a man dressed in ANBU gear cut her down. Eiichi having walked out after Menma just in time to see this, ducked around a corner.

"Wh...at?" The wounded boy gasped out.

The ANBU dressed man turned to face the voice. "Oh? You're not Uchiha. What are you doing here? No matter, I'll simply have to deal with you as well." He walked over until he was towering over Menma. Looking down at him and muttered a single word. "Tsukuyomi."

Moments later Menma's world went black and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Eiichi, seeing this, frowned before quickly leaving the area. 'That was Itachi. If he's gone crazy and started killing people... I don't stand a chance.'

The ANBU clad man walked over to the corner of the house where Eiichi had just stood and looked around curiously. "Perhaps there wasn't someone here after all."

1 week later

Menma awoke to a white ceiling. He sat up and looked around the room. 'White. So much white. Am I in the hospital?'A few minutes later a nurse walked in and informed him he would have a visitor soon.

He waited impatiently for his visitor, hoping that it was all a nightmare. That his sensei wasn't dead and that she was coming to visit him. When his visitor arrived it wasn't his sensei.

"Some old guy?" He blurted out.

The old man chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint. Still, I would think I'm a decent second choice, wouldn't you?"

"Huh? Who are you?" Menma asked.

"Don't recognize me without my robes or hat, hmm? You chose an odd time to wake up so I guess it can't be helped." He said, pulling out a pipe and lighting it.

"S-Sandaime?"

"Well at least you got it on your first guess. Tell me, Menma, do you know why you are here?" He replied.

Menma frowned and looked down at that. His memory was fuzzy. 'Why am I here? Something to do with an injury... blood... that ANBU guy. That's right, he was killing people!'He jerked his head back up to look at the old man.

"That ANBU dressed guy was killing everyone! Sensei was stabbed, what happened to her?!" He demanded.

'Sensei? Someone has been teaching him?' He frowned. "Who is this sensei of yours?"

"Her name is-" His thoughts ground to a halt. 'Her name... what is her name? I spent four years with her and I never bothered to learn her name? She was like a mother to me, damn it!'

"I... I don't know her name." He looked down. "I never asked."

"Hmm. You're here because you were injured and found lying in the street in the Uchiha district. You were one of only two survivors. The Uchiha clan is all but dead now." The Third explained.

'Uchiha? That was the Uchiha district? Was sensei an Uchiha?'

"Do you remember anything else about that night? Anything you can tell us?" Hiruzen asked.

"Uh... there was screaming. At first I thought it was just sensei as Ecchi beat on her." Menma told him.

"Ec-Ecchi? Beat on her? What was your sensei teaching you?!" He shouted.

"How to be a ninja. Ecchi was her husband that she was forced to marry a month ago or so. Can you find out what happened to her?"

"Uchiha... Ecchi? I think you got his name a bit mixed up, but we can check and see." The old man told him. 'The clan must be rolling over in their graves. Uchiha Ecchi.'He chuckled.

"After Ecchi killed sensei he... he told me I'm the Kyūbi." He whispered.

"He told you about the Kyūbi?" Menma nodded. "You are a jinchūriki not the Kyūbi, Menma."

The boy just looked up at him silently, pleading.

"If you seal a kunai into a scroll does the scroll become the kunai?" Hiruzen asked.

"No." Was the reply.

"What about when you sheathe a sword? Does the scabbard become the blade? When you pour water into a glass does the glass become water? He continued.

Menma shook his head.

"You are no different. The Kyūbi was placed inside of you, but that does not make you the Kyūbi."

"I... see. It explains how the villagers treat me, I guess. I'm glad I'm just the box and not the monster inside." Menma said. "Anyways... after that he kicked me out the door. Outside I saw that ANBU guy cut a woman. Then he turned around and said some things and looked in my eyes. After that, all I remember is waking up here."

The Third remained quiet while he processed all he had heard. "Alright. That's all I need to hear for now. I'm sure you'll be out of here in no time."

Menma watched the Third leave and quietly close the door behind him. Looking out the window he saw the moon had travelled roughly three-quarters the way across the sky.

"Stuck here for hours doing nothing, huh?" He sighed.

Several hours and a sunrise later Menma had finally fallen asleep. After only an hour of sleep he was woken by someone entering his room.

Standing in the doorway staring at him was a boy around his age. His hair was black and vaguely resembled the business end of a duck. His onyx eyes staring back at him as though trying to see into his soul.

"I didn't believe them when they told me someone else survived." The mystery boy said.

Menma frowned and looked down at this. "Yeah... but sensei..." he trailed off.

"We have to make him pay." The boy growled.

Menma looked at him oddly before nodding "Yeah. Ecchi will die for what he did!"

"E-Ecchi? You mean Itachi?" The boy asked with a blush.

"Was that his name? Itachi? I could never remember it." Menma told him.

"Yes, Itachi will die for what he did." The boy said, glaring at some imaginary person.

"My name is Menma."

"Sasuke."

"Let's get stronger together to kill him, Sasuke." He said solemnly.

Sasuke smirked at his newfound comrade. "Together, we'll make him pay." He replied, holding out his hand.

Menma reached out and grasped it.

A pact was made that day, even if they didn't realize they were after different men. They would fight together to get their revenge.

The Third, having watched their exchange through his crystal ball, frowned. "I'll need to keep an eye on those two. The path they've chosen isn't a good one, but they might just be able to save each other." The old man looked down at the files on his desk and frowned. "He made it sound like there were two people out there killing though. Was Ecchi really Itachi? Or was it someone else?" He brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. This is why he wanted a peaceful solution to the Uchiha problem. Now he had one, possibly two, Uchiha running around outside the safety and authority of the village. Someone had made a damn mess of things and he was stuck cleaning it up.

2 years later

Mizuki watched as Menma angrily beat on a training dummy. The boy had caught his attention almost immediately when classes started a year ago. Back in the beginning he was second in the class, just behind Sasuke. As time wore on, however, he had fallen further and further behind. He had seen how everyone had overlooked the boy, even when he was proving superior to just about everyone. It reminded him of Iruka and himself. He had always been jealous of the other man. No matter what he did, everyone was always looking at Iruka rather than him.

"It makes your blood boil, doesn't it?" He asked suddenly. Menma whipped around surprised that he didn't notice someone nearby.

"What does?" He asked.

"How he seems to effortlessly beat you at everything. How he seems better than you in every way." Mizuki walked over and examined the dummy. "I've been watching you since you started at the academy, you know?"

"And? Why should I care?" Menma snapped.

"You remind me of myself." Mizuki turned to look at him. "I know how you can beat him."

"How?"

Mizuki pulled a book out and handed it over to him. "Seals."

"Seals?"

Mizuki nodded. "As far as I can tell, Sasuke doesn't study them at all. It's an area where you can prove yourself better than him. There are very few seal masters in Konoha, if you were to become one..."

"I could beat him. I could prove I'm better at something than he is." Menma looked down at the book and snorted. "Fūinjutsu for Dummies? Why couldn't you start me with a different book?"

Mizuki smiled at him. "We all have to start somewhere. I have no talent or patience for it, so I'll give it to you."

"Why are you helping me?"

"Like I said earlier, you remind me of myself. Consider this my way of proving I'm better than Iruka. We're both teachers, but I'll be the one to help you return to the top end of the class." Mizuki told him. "And if you won't believe that, well then... let's say you do become a seal master. I'll expect a discount for getting you started, alright?"

Menma smirked at him. "Fair enough."

The boy really did remind him of himself. He had watched him for some time now and realized that it wasn't for lack of talent that he was slipping, it was that he pushed himself too hard. He trained so hard that it was detrimental. If the signs of insomnia weren't enough proof, it was watching him train until he dropped only to wake up an hour or two later only to start again. If he took to studying seals seriously enough, he would be forced to spend the time fairly immobile. That should give his body enough time to recover from his training that he'd begin to improve again. And if he really did become a seal master, he might just be able to help with a certain mark from a snake.

"You hungry?" Mizuki asked him. "Let's go get something to eat before you start on that book."

A/N:

(1) I doubt it really needs explaining but for those that don't know ecchi is Japanese for lewd/perverted/etc.

Next chapter is the academy graduation, bell test, and probably a little explaining of what Naruto(Menma) learned under his two teachers. (The Uchiha and Mizuki.)

I went back and fixed up the first two chapters. They were minor things like grammar and typo fixes, so no need to re-read. You're not missing anything.

Review if you have the time, please. Let me know what I'm doing right and what I can improve.