serialkeller: Yep. It'll be a double-edged sword most likely. If you think of how Konoha usually reacts to Sasuke (at least in fanfiction) you'll be able to figure it out easily enough.
Felicity Dream: I'm glad you decided to stick around. The change from Naruto to Menma is mostly symbolic. He'll learn his heritage eventually but I haven't decided if he'll take it up or not. As for Mizuki - out of the hundreds of fan fictions I've read, Mizuki has been a good guy in a grand total of ONE. Maybe I just have bad luck and miss them all, but I felt I should give him a break. Plus he felt like a better fit for Menma for the big brother role.
Chapter 8
(Flashback)
It had been about two weeks since Team 7 passed their bell test from Kakashi. It had also been one of the rare occasions where they had missions all day. Or rather, mission. It had been a particularly long and grueling day of wiping baby butts and runny noses and listening to children scream in their ears.
The mission had ended an hour ago and Menma headed straight for a training ground. He wanted to hurt something. Badly.
Beating up some unfortunate passing civilian seemed like a bad idea, so he took it out on some unfortunate stationary logs.
The mental stress of babysitting several things he was sure weren't even human combined with the physical stress of beating the unliving shit out of logs finally overcame him.
He briefly worried, just before he passed out, that the nightmares he got every time he fell asleep would consist of more babysitting.
Drip. Drip.
Instead he found himself in a relatively quiet sewer.
Drip. Drip.
It could even be called peaceful.
Drip. Drip.
Ok, screw that, he had to find a way out of this nightmare before it drove him insane.
He spent what felt like an eternity wandering around lost in the tunnels listening to that infernal dripping. Eventually he came across massive iron gates with a little sheet of paper stuck to the front of them.
"Seal?" What the hell was going on?
"Come to visit me at last, Master?" A voice dripping venom said.
Looking into the bars he saw a giant red furry creature. He glanced back up to the gate. 'This must be... the Kyūbi? Only one way to find out.'
"I am not your master, Kyūbi, just your jailor."
The beast turned its massive head to glance over its shoulder at him with a single eye. "Why are you here, hairless monkey?"
"I don't know. Normally I have nightmares when I pass out," he replied.
"Ah, yes, lovely aren't they? All that blood. All that death. All that destruction." The beast stood and turned to face him with a maniacal grin on its face.
"Wait, you're the one that causes those? Knock it off!" Menma shouted angrily.
"The nightmares will stop if you pull off that piece of paper on the gate, stupid chimp."
Menma gave the beast a flat stare. "How stupid do you think I am?"
"Stupid enough to pull that paper off? No? Well then, I'll stop giving you those nightmares if you pull it off. I give you my word, malformed orangutan."
"You're still asking me to pull of that paper," he pointed out.
"PULL IT OFF YOU WORTHLESS APE!"
"Stop comparing me to primates, damn it!" Menma roared.
Kyūbi grinned maliciously. "But that's exactly what humans are, you tailless lemur."
"Argh! Stay in here and rot, you furry bastard!" Menma stomped off into the tunnels to the sound of the Kyūbi's mocking laughter. It only took another hour of listening to water drip and the Kyūbi laugh until he finally woke up.
(End Flashback)
Menma walked up to the gate and immediately started talking before the Kyūbi could insult him.
"Listen up, hairball. I just did a contract-less summon and wound up in here. If you keep the names to yourself and help me with the contract I'll let you out to play once in a while."
"You can summon me by pulled that tag off." The Kyūbi grinned.
"I'm serious, asshole. You want to get out of the seal, right? I'm not going to kill myself to let you out, so this is the only way," Menma growled out.
"That seal won't allow some random piece of paper to summon me,"Kyūbi told him.
Menma frowned, of course it couldn't be that easy. The only way to allow that would be to alter the seal, and who knows what problems thatcould cause.
"What if I applied the summoning contract to my body and linked it to the seal somehow? Would that work?" Menma asked, pacing in front of the cage.
"It could, or it could blow us both up."
"Since you behaved, I'll try to work something out. With the lull in our fight against Gatō I'll have some free time for a while." Menma pointed at him. "Don't cause any problems, fleabag!"
With those last words, he vanished from his mindscape.
Two weeks had passed as they trained under Kakashi and Tenzō. Kakashi was working with Sasuke to teach him his signature technique, Chidori. Sakura, with an affinity for earth, was learning elemental techniques under Tenzō. Menma had poured himself into seals, trying to find a way to summon Kyūbi.
Which led him to his current problem. He was actually making headway in the seal he would need. He would rather not have his team fly off the handle if he summoned Kyūbi in an upcoming battle.
He also noted that it had been nearly three weeks since their assault on Gatō's first base and Sakura had still not told a soul about his Sharingan. He decided he would tell his team about it that evening and depending on how it went, tell them about Kyūbi.
That evening after they had eaten and the client's family had retired the team sat around the table.
"There's something you should all know," Menma said. After everyone focused on him he activated his Sharingan.
"What? How?! When?" Sasuke jumped to his feet in shock.
Tenzō's face was hidden behind his cat mask so who knows what he thought. Kakashi didn't seem to react at all. Sakura just gave him a small smile.
"I don't know how. I've had this eye for as long as I can remember. As for when? When we assaulted Gatō's first base it activated when I received that wound."
"For as long as you can remember. You were born with it?" Sasuke stared at the eye.
"I guess. I don't remember ever losing an eye and I don't have a scar like Kakashi-sensei." Menma nodded towards the cyclops.
"You were born with it," Kakashi stated. "I saw you less than an hour after you were born and you had that eye."
"So... he's an Uchiha? He's... family?" Sasuke asked quietly.
Kakashi shrugged. "Seems so."
Menma gave them a sad smile. "I guess my blood was pretty weak since I only got the one."
Sasuke stared at him thoughtfully. "It doesn't matter. You're still Uchiha. We need to get your name changed once we get back to Konoha."
"There's something you should know first." Menma glanced briefly at Tenzō and Kakashi. "Do you remember what we learned about the Kyūbi in the academy?" The two older men stiffened at the question.
"Yeah, what about it?" Sasuke asked.
"Didn't anything about the story seem odd to you?"
Sakura frowned. "What's wrong with the story?"
Menma turned to her. "What is the Kyūbi?"
"Uh... a monster made out of chakra?" The girl was clearly confused.
Menma nodded. "And when was the last time you heard of chakrabeing killed or dying?"
Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened at the question.
"It can't be killed and it doesn't die. So what do you do with it?" Menma asked. "You seal it away." He lifted up his shirt and channeled chakra to make the seal visible.
The other genin sat shell-shocked. Menma glanced over at the two older men again before continuing.
"A lot of the villagers ignore me because of it. Like they're trying to deny my, and its, existence," he said. "Some of them hate me and others are disgusted I'm alive. Are you sure you want all that tied to your clan name?"
Sasuke looked up at him and nodded firmly. "I already told you it didn't matter. As far as I'm concerned you're already Uchiha Menma. All that's left is the paperwork to make it official."
"Great! So uh..." Menma looked over at Kakashi. "That summon contract I've been working on? Don't freak out if you see a giant fox, ok? Ok."
Menma quickly stood and rushed out of the room.
Kakashi sighed and watched his student run out of the room. What was it Nara's said? Troublesome?
It had been a month now since Gatō's mansion burned. As they had planned, most of his forces had pulled back to defend his remaining base, his castle, and to blockade Wave off from Fire country. The occasional small group of thugs would gather and try to raid the village, but the local volunteers eager to get revenge fended them off. With each success more and more of the villagers found new hope and joined up.
It had reached the point where they could risk leaving the villagers to defend for themselves long enough to strike at Gatō's second base. If they took that out, he would only have his castle left.
Zabuza wasn't up to one hundred percent yet but the longer they waited the more men Gatō would recruit from the mainland to help suppress Wave.
The problem was they needed to do something they hadn't tried before. If they tried the same tricks Gatō would likely see through it and the attack would be a failure.
Kakashi had scouted the base a few days ago to see if he could learn anything else. The base was built on a small hill with the north side being built right up to the edge of a cliff that dropped off into the ocean. In the last month they had cut down all the trees on the hill leaving it open and void of any cover they could use while attacking.
"I say we just blow the whole place to hell." Zabuza was a simple man, and enjoyed simple pleasures - like watching spineless cowards being blown into tiny bits. And cutting people. That was always fun.
"We're not going to be able to get near enough with a bomb for that. They'll see us coming and kill us before we can set it." Sasuke replied flatly.
"What if we set explosive tags along the cliff face? Could we collapse the base into the water?" Haku stuck by his master. Even if it was a simple plan, it was his duty to follow.
"The explosion wouldn't reach inland far enough to destroy it all." Sakura studied the map. "At most, it would take a third? Maybe half of the base if we're lucky."
Tenzō looked at the map over Sakura's shoulder. "What if we could bury more explosive tags in the ground? How far in would they have to be buried?"
Sakura thought for a moment before tracing a line with her finger parallel to the coast. "Around here. Why?"
"If you figure out where to plant the tags, I can make tunnels to take us directly to the spot we need," he told her.
"I can do that. Now all we need are hundreds of explosive tags." Everyone turned to look at Menma.
Menma could only sigh.
(Outside Gatō's base)
Menma was starting to think that demanding a more interesting job for this attack might not have been such a good idea.
Sasuke, Kakashi, and Zabuza had been on watch, making sure no one from the base found out what was going on. Sakura and Tenzō were using tunnels to plant explosive tags on the inland side underneath the base. Haku and Menma were climbing the cliff face planting the tags they would need out there.
They wanted sunlight to be able to see properly during the attack but they couldn't be caught planting the tags, so they had started several hours before dawn.
"We've set all our tags. We're on our way out." Tenzō said over the radio.
"Haku. Menma. You two need to hurry. The sun is starting to rise." Kakashi this time.
"Yeah, well we didn't have the luxury of our own little highway. It's not exactly easy climbing cliffs in the dark, you know," Menma growled.
A few minutes later they heard a series of muffled thumping sounds.
"Uh... please tell me that's not the tags going off underground already. We're not done yet," Menma said over the radio.
"We're not sure what it is. I sent Zabuza back to the village to find out what's going on," Kakashi's voice came over the radio.
Moments later they heard it again, only this time it wasn't so muffled and came from behind them. The cliff to Menma's left exploded making him jump before whipping his head around to look behind and below him.
He first noticed something that had missed during the night, a massive dock. His gaze then lifted out into the water beyond to where he saw three ships, all lined up to fire at the cliff side. He slammed himself as close to the cliff face as possible as another explosion of rock and dirt went off above his head.
"Ships! They've got ships and they're firing-" He jerked his head to the right as he heard an explosion in time to find Haku plummeting into the ocean. "HAKU!"
The world exploded. Pain flashed through Menma's body. His vision went white and his ears heard nothing but silence. He felt weightless. 'Is this what death feels like?' The thought didn't last long as he slammed backwards into something knocking the air out of him. It felt wet. 'Water. I was on a cliff.' His vision cleared and his ears began to ring. He could see that he was, indeed, in the ocean. His gaze drifted to where the cliff should be. It was gone. Not just the base, but the entire cliff, was gone.His gaze drifted skyward as he began to slip into the water. Massive chunks of earth were crashing into the ocean, churning it up. It looked like it was raining mountains. As he sank into the ocean he had one last thought.
'We might have gone overboard with the tags.'
His world faded into black.
(Wave Village)
When Zabuza arrived in the village he found dozens of houses destroyed or burning. Looking out towards the ocean he saw six warships with their cannons pointed towards the village.
The militia that had formed over the past month were split roughly in half. Half of them trying to evacuate the village, while the other half seemed to be preparing themselves to meet the thugs that were charging across the bridge.
"He's attacking the village, Kakashi. That sound we were hearing was a bunch of warships leveling the place. I can also see a lot of small fry on the way," Zabuza said over his radio.
A loud and long explosion ripped across the island then. The ground shook like there was an earthquake. The chaos in the village jumped up a notch as the ground quaked.
"What the hell was that?" Zabuza asked over his radio. Several seconds passed. "Kakashi!"
"It was the base sinking into the sea. Hold the enemy off, we're on the way."
Zabuza grunted and waved the rest of the militia off to go help with the evacuation. "Glad I get some fun, at least. I thought this mission would be boring. Kirigakure no Jutsu!"
(Wave Coastline)
Menma slowly opened his eyes. The sky was bright and clear and he could feel the sun on him. A shadow crossed his face and he found himself staring up at large dark brown eyes filled with concern. The figure was wet. Long black hair clung to pale skin. He could see pink lips moving but couldn't hear anything. All in all, it was a rather exotic sight.
'Death might not be so bad if I'm surrounded by cute girls like her.' His gaze drifted down. 'Flat as a board though... she's even flatter than Sakura.' He blinked. 'Those clothes...'
"-you alright?" He recognized that voice.
'Awe shit.' He went to curse but coughed up water instead.
"Good. That should be the last of it. I was worried I would have to continue trying to resuscitate you," Haku said.
"Yeah, I'm fi- wait! Continue?!" Menma shook his head. "No, don't say anything. I don't want to know. This never happened, alright?"
"It will be hard pretending I didn't see anything. I might need incentive," Tenzō's voice came from behind him.
Menma could only groan. "What are you doing here?"
"I was sent to see if either of you survived. I'm glad to see you're both fine," Tenzō explained.
"Was the base destroyed?" Haku cut in.
"It was, however Gatō's men are attacking the village. We should hurry to support the others."
As they set out Menma turned to Haku. "How did you survive? I thought you got hit."
"It's embarrassing to admit, but I slipped."
"You slipped. You?You have perfect chakra control," Menma said.
"I wanted to conserve my strength so I wasn't using chakra."
Menma shook his head. "Embarrassing or not, you slipping saved both our lives."
(Wave Village)
Zabuza enjoyed himself at first. A never-ending stream of people just throwing themselves at him to get cut up, it was like a game. The problem was that they just kept coming. There comes a point where sheer numbers will overwhelm skill, and Zabuza was quickly reaching that point. In an effort to conserve energy he stopped maintaining the mist.
He started taking injuries then. They were pushing him back towards the center of the village. His arms were burning. He was soaked in blood. 'Where the hell do they keep coming from?!' After what felt like an eternity their numbers finally started to thin out.
As Zabuza cut down the last thug he stood, propping himself up with the Kubikiribōchō, panting.
Kakashi and his group came rushing up. "You're late. I had to fight Gatō's army off alone."
Kakashi grinned and waved a hand. "Well, you see, we got lost on the road of life."
"You're an asshole." Zabuza struggled to stand. His previous injuries combined with the ones he had just taken were making it difficult. Especially the nasty one to his left leg. "Where are the other three? Where's Haku?"
"They're... coming. I'm sure they're fine," Kakashi replied. "Let's help finish the evacuation."
None noticed a new mist rolling in as they helped get the villagers to safety.
Tenzō, Haku, and Menma arrived in the village just as the last of the villagers was led into the forest by the militia.
"I thought you said the village was under attack," Menma said with a frown.
"It is. Or it was, let's find the others," Tenzō replied.
The three met up with the rest of the group in the center.
"They had six warships lined up blasting away. They're probably still out there just waiting for this mist to clear to finish the job." They could hear Zabuza speaking as they approached the group.
"Yo." Kakashi greeted them with a wave. "Glad to see you two are ok."
"Kakashi-senpai, where are the villagers? Is the attack already over?"
"The villagers are all evacuated. The attack... I'm not so sure about. It's too quiet," Kakashi replied.
"It's quiet, because we were settin' a trap for ya," a random thug said as the mist rolled back towards the ocean revealing them surrounded on three sides by far more thugs than they thought Gatō had.
"Don't take unnecessary risks. Fall back to the bridge as we fight." Kakashi lowered his voice so only the ninja of their group could hear. "We can escape into the water from the bridge."
They fought the thugs as they retreated to the bridge, killing dozens as they went. When they reached the mist covered bridge the thugs started slowing down then withdrew completely, blocking both ends of the bridge.
"Anyone else feel like this is a trap?" Sasuke asked.
The mist disappeared completely revealing all six ships that had attacked the village, as well as the three that had attacked Menma and Haku, lined up to fire on the bridge. The largest and finest ship was within speaking range of the bridge. On the bow of the ship was a ninja with a slashed Mist headband acting as a belt. He had on a rather large and stupid looking hat with a feather in it. His foot rested against a large spear gun, anchored to the ship.
"Good guess, little ninja," the man said, looking over the group. "You know, when Gatō asked me to lead his navy it sounded too good to be true. Then he told me one of the men I would have the pleasure of killing."
The man turned his gaze on Zabuza. "I almost didn't believe him, but here you are. Finally, after all these years, I'll have my revenge on the Demon of the Mist."
"Who the hell are you?" Zabuza asked, clearly confused.
"You don't know me. You should remember my older brother, however, seeing as how you killed him along with everyone else at the academy!" The man roared. "His name was-"
"I don't give a shit what his name was. They were all worthless bastards." Zabuza sneered at him. "I bet he was one of the ones that pissed himself and blubbered at my feet like an infant, though."
With his face contorting in rage the Mist ninja kicked the harpoon gun turning it to face Zabuza. He then quickly stomped on the firing mechanism and sent a harpoon flying at him.
Zabuza couldn't jump aside in time. His injuries from when Gatō had tried to ambush him and Haku in his hideout combined with those he had received in the village were too much. Time seemed to slow around him as he watched the harpoon sail closer and closer. 'So this is how I die, huh? At least I took a bunch with me.'
When he heard the sound of the projectile hitting flesh he was confused. There was no additional pain. His eyes focused in front of him as the chain attached to the harpoon was reeled back in, tearing it out of the boy standing there.
"Am I... a useful tool, Zabuza-sama?"
"You were always useful, Haku. You didn't have to do this."
"I wanted to. Even if it wasn't my duty, I still would have saved you."
Zabuza let out a hollow laugh. "Stupid boy, all you did was delay my death a few moments."
Haku looked to the left and right ends of the bridge, filled with thugs. He then turned around to face the warships on the ocean. "I see... allow me... to clear you a path."
The boy staggered towards the end of the bridge leaving behind bloody footprints. The Mist ninja watched him curiously, with a wound like that there would be no saving him.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Zabuza asked.
The boy finished staggering to the side of the bridge and seemed to wave a hand. The ocean and the ships in front of him gained a small layer of ice, freezing them in place. The men standing aboard the flagship with the harpoon gun were close enough to be frozen to the deck of the ship.
Haku turned his face back and smiled. "Kinjutsu," he whispered. The team on the bridge heard him.
Haku turned back to the frozen ships and raised both hands above his head. A ball of blueish-white energy started to gather above his hands. There were no hand signs, no words, just raw manipulation. As the orb charged above his head they could see his hands wrinkling and his hair turning grey. It was as if he were pouring his life, his very soul, into the attack. When it looked like he was on the verge of death he pulled his arms down and back before thrusting them forward.
The bridge and his team were safe. The same could not be said for the ships and men in front of him. Freezing cold winds whipped past the bridge causing a mournful howl. Ice manipulation of the purest form flowed from of his outstretched hands flash freezing everything and everyone caught in it. Layer after layer of ice formed creating gigantic waves of ice. After several seconds of this Haku was left propping himself on his knees and panting. He raised a single hand and snapped. Everything shattered like glass. The men. The wood from the ships. The iron from the cannons. The ocean itself. His task done, he flopped backwards on to the ground.
The thugs stared in shock. Sure they were hot shit when they were bullying villagers that wouldn't defend themselves, but against ninja? That boy had just destroyed nine ships and how many hundreds of men with a single attack? Those on the Wave side broke and scattered with many rethinking their employment.
Menma walked over to Haku and stared down at his prone form. He was still alive, but it wouldn't last much longer.
"Why would you go so far for someone who thinks of you as a tool?"
The aged and wrinkled boy look up at him and gave him a bloody smile. "It's simple. He's my precious person."
Menma turned out towards the frozen sea and frowned. He wasn't new to the concept of precious people. He had two in the past, but they had both died.
"I would dirty my hands for him, I would die for him," Haku said. "I... would stain my soul for him."
"Is that why?" Menma whispered. "I wasn't willing to give enough to save them?"
When he heard no answer he turned around. Haku had died with a smile on his face.
(In a Hidden Location)
Two men were in a darkened room facing each other. One was cloaked and kneeling in front of the other.
"So, you finally found him, fighting a war in Wave? How unusual." The cloaked individual's only response was a nod. "Surviving a war deserves a reward, don't you think? I think I'll even deliver his gift myself."
The cloaked man nodded again and hurried out of the room leaving the other alone.
"We'll meet soon, Sasuke-kun. Kukuku."
End Chapter 8
A/N:
Yeah, Haku totally used Diamond Dust. He's cool, even if he is a trap, so I felt he deserved a special exit.
Wave reaches a climax next chapter. Then it's on to the Sand-Sound Invasion.