Wow, Wave went far better than I had hoped. Now I've got expectations to live up to.
Review responses after the chapter this time because of potential spoilers.
Chapter 10
(Konoha)
Team 7 was walking down the street. Sasuke and Sakura had finally decided on a place to eat in celebration, and to Menma's displeasure, they had chosen a ramen stand.
As they approached a little stand by the name of Ichiraku's they could hear two familiar voices coming from inside.
"I'm telling you, they're not coming!" No doubt about it, that was Kiba's voice. The other one they had heard before they got close enough to understand was feminine.
'Please be Hinata. Please be Hinata. Please be-'
"This is the only place we haven't checked! I'm telling you, they're probably avoiding us since their sensei didn't enter them in the chūnin exams!" That voice was definitely Ino.
'DAMN IT. Of all the people we had to run in to... why are those two even together?!' Menma glanced over at his teammates to see Sakura grinning and adjusting her vest. Sasuke had suddenly decided to wear his as well.
The two turned as Team 7 brushed past the curtain.
"Hey look, it's the losers!" Kiba looked at them with a smug grin. Ino, however, stared at Sakura with her mouth hanging open.
"Forehead! What the hell?!" She jabbed her finger at Sakura's vest. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yep! We were promoted to chūnin." She straightened her jacket again and stood a little straighter.
"How?! You guys aren't even in the exams!" Kiba shouted before a bark caused him to look towards Menma. His smug look returned. "Well, it looks like someone didn't make the cut. How's it feel to be the only loser on the team, second best?"
Menma calmly walked over to Kiba, pulled out a scroll and unsealed his vest. He carefully held it up for Kiba to see before smacking him upside the head with it and sealing it away once again. "I don't wear it because I think it would look stupid. I was promoted too."
Team 7 joined them at the counter and ordered their food.
"So, how did you guys get promoted?" Ino asked.
"Our last mission was crazy. The client only paid for a C-rank but it was much harder," Sakura replied. "What else did we miss besides the chūnin exams? We've been gone for awhile."
"Ooooh, that means you guys haven't heard about Wave!" Ino squealed.
Team 7 blinked in unison.
"What about Wave?" Sasuke asked.
"Rumor has it there's a huge war going on out there," Ino said. "They say there's a single team of elites out there fighting the war by themselves! They're going to be made into national heroes! They might even become known across the entire Elemental Countries."
"Elites? National heroes?" Sasuke grinned. "Well, I guess it's true."
"Well, they didtry to name the bridge after Menma," Sakura said.
"Ugh." Menma palmed his face. "Don't remind me. It's like some cosmic joke that everything important in my life be tied to ramen somehow."
Ino and Kiba stared at them, mouths hanging open. "Wait... you mean... you guys were the Wave team?" Kiba asked.
"How the hell do you guys even know about Wave? We got back last night," Menma asked.
"We've known about it for ages! The village found out when they requested back up." Ino shouted. "Er... when you guys requested back up, I guess. Everyone was wondering who was going to be sent."
"An ANBU," Sasuke replied. "He had the Mokuton bloodline."
The two genin could only stare. Team 7 had fought a war, worked along with an ANBU that had Mokuton, and been promoted after only a couple of months as active ninja without going through the exams. They were living every young ninja's dream! While they were out there being heroes the rest of their classmates were walking dogs and weeding flower beds!
"Argh! Damn it! I'm not going to be left behind!" Kiba shouted and jumped to his feet. "Let's go train, Akamaru!" He threw some money on the counter and took off.
"So... were you two..." Sakura asked.
"Hmm? Ugh! No!" Ino waved her hands in denial. "It's just... Shika and Chōji are lazy and only care about food, Shino made it to the finals so he's busy training, and Hinata... is in the hospital. No one could find you guys so Kiba was the only choice. Plus he's good at tracking so I was hoping he could help me find you."
"Hinata is in the hospital?" Sakura sounded concerned. "What happened?"
"She got matched up against her cousin, Neji, in the preliminaries." She frowned. "He started out trying to tear her down and getting her to quit, but she just shrugged it off. They were pretty evenly matched until he got a lucky hit in. He tried to kill her."
"Sounds like your typical Hyūga asshole," Menma said. His left forearm suddenly flared in pain. He looked over at Sasuke to see him gripping his neck. He dropped some money on the counter for his food and stood while locking eyes with Sasuke. "Come on, we need to speak to Kakashi."
The two left the girls behind to continue their gossiping.
(Kakashi's Apartment)
"What are you two doing here?" Kakashi asked as he stood in his doorway.
"Curse marks," Menma replied.
"Ah, right. I guess I can take care of Sasuke's now. Come in."
The two boys entered and closed the door behind them and stood stunned.
The walls were covered in posters of girls in different 'cute' poses. Numerous bookshelves were scattered around the room packed with books. In several glass cases there were figurines also in various 'cute' and 'battle' poses. Off in the corner they could see a bed with girls on the sheets and a large pillow with a girl on it.
As they looked around the room they started to notice something, flat-chested pink-haired girls seemed to be a common theme.
"Do you think we should warn Sakura?" Sasuke whispered. "These all kind of look like her."
"Uh... probably... I mean - wait a second." Menma looked closer at the pillow in the bed. It was a large body pillow with a girl printed on it. The girl was asleep and wrapped around a blanket that barely covered her at all. She was wearing nothing but a pair of pink panties while the blanket barely covered her bare chest. He pointed at the pillow. "That is Sakura. Is that Tazuna's house? How the hell did he already get something like that made?!"
"Well at least we know why he wanted to share a room with her now..." Sasuke muttered.
The followed Kakashi through the apartment. As they walked through the place more and more of the posters and figurines were in increasing states of undress.
"Yeah... we definitely need to warn Sakura," Menma said.
"Is that a SHRINE?!" Sasuke blurted out staring into a room in horror. There in the room they were passing was a shrine apparently dedicated to flat-chested pink-haired girls.
"I thought he was just lazy..." The boys looked at each other. "He's crazy."
"Do we really want someone like this placing seals on us?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi's head popped out of the room ahead of them. "Come on, now. It won't take long."
They followed him into the room. It was dimly lit and they had trouble seeing at first. Kakashi closed the door behind them and flicked on a light. The room was filled with more posters and figurines, however these were suspiciously androgynous and seemed to sport black hair.
"Alright, sit in the center there and take your clothes off," he said to Sasuke.
"What?!"
"Well, I guess just the shirt is fine. Go on, sit in the center of the rings." Kakashi waved him towards it while preparing.
Sasuke turned a desperate look to Menma. "You first."
"Ah, I won't be placing any seals on Menma. We wouldn't want to unleash Kyūbi or anything," Kakashi said with his back to the boys.
Menma smirked evilly at Sasuke. "You heard him, it's all you."
Sasuke nervously shed his shirt and sat in the spot he was told too. Moments later there was the sound of a camera taking pictures. Sasuke jerked around to see Kakashi holding a camera. "What are you doing?!"
"Taking pictures," he replied like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Just in case someone else gets one in the future, of course."
"Well cut it out and seal this mark already!"
Kakashi sighed and put the camera away. He then cut his hand and began writing symbols in blood around Sasuke and along his body around the seal. He flashed through a long sequence of hand signs before placing his hand over the seal and muttering something.
Sasuke writhed around and groaned in pain for a bit. "All done!" Kakashi chirped before his voice turned flat. "Now get out, you're interrupting my private time."
Menma dragged Sasuke to his feet and quickly staggered out the door supporting him. As soon as the two had left his apartment Kakashi locked the door and returned to the room they were in. He dispelled a genjutsu and the images all reverted to the same theme as the rest of his apartment.
"As if they would be glorious enough to grace my walls," Kakashi snorted. He walked to his shrine and collapsed into a bow in front of it. "Forgive me! I was only playing a trick on them! I would never be unfaithful! I just couldn't let them inform the Holy One about my Paradise!"
(Menma's Apartment)
Menma had spent much of the rest of the day going through his various books on seals. He wasn't making much progress however and had passed out at his desk.
Drip. Drip.
"Ah, well, I might as well see what he thinks about the seal." Menma wandered through the tunnels until he reached the seal.
"It's about time you show up. Do you have any idea what's happening in here?"
"Nope! But I imagine you're going to tell me. With lots of anger and name-calling."
"If I had time to relax. You need to decide what you're going to do about that seal that man gave you."
"Decide what?"
"That seal contains a portion of his soul. It's only thanks to my interference that you haven't already absorbed it like you did the other guy."
"Other guy? What other guy?"
"The Uchiha that was controlling me and sealed in here with me." The Kyūbi looked down at him with a grin. "You didn't think that eye was yours, did you?"
Menma blinked and frowned. "I'm... not a part of the Uchiha?"
"Nope. You were that blonde-haired bastard's kid."
"You knew my father?"
"No, I did not. I did have the pleasure of meeting him when he sealed me into you, however," the beast sneered.
Menma looked up at him. "Can you tell me about him?"
"Later. You still need to know about that other seal. As I said already, the only reason you haven't absorbed it already is because I've been dumping chakra into your system." He paused for a moment before grinning again. "There will be... consequences, if I keep it up much longer."
"So? Let it get absorbed. I absorbed some other guy and I was fine, right?"
"True, you became the dominant personality. You had an advantage because it's your body, plus I blocked his memories."
"Why would you block his memories?" Menma asked with a frown.
"Because I didn't want my container turning into some arrogant Uchiha and treating me like a pet," he snarled. "You pathetic monkeys are all defined by your memories and lives. You might not be the Uchiha, but if you had absorbed all his memories as a child you could have very well become some sort of reincarnation of him."
Menma frowned and paced in front of the cage in thought. "What's stopping you from doing it again?"
"You absorbed some of the Uchiha's abilities. Your infernal eye is his, as is your hair color. Do you remember what that man did on the bridge? Do you really want to vomit up new bodies when you get injured?"
"Ah, yeah, that was pretty nasty," he said with a frown.
"And that was the only thing you saw. Who knows what other abilities he has. What else would you absorb? Maybe he was hiding something worse, like... two sets of genitalia or his body was made out of maggots or something."
"Alright, alright, I get it. What can we do then? You said you were keeping it in check and that something would happen if you kept at it."
"Who knows. Your body might disintegrate and become something purely made of chakra like myself," the beast shrugged. "You might even sprout fur and grow a tail. Either way, that would be the result of leaving things as they are. I could send a concentrated blast of power into the seal. The best possible outcome to that... my power would burn out his soul shard."
"What's the catch?" Menma asked.
"That seal... the reason he leaves a piece of himself is to influence the mind of whoever receives it. Burning him out would leave a piece of me in there. You've already got a seal on you to keep me from influencing you directly, so it would leave the seal intact to function normally. Using it would grant you power."
Menma glared at him. "You still haven't told me the catch."
"You wouldn't have direct access to my power any longer. You would still be able to summon me and control how much power I receive, however."
"What about the power from the seal? How strong is it?"
"As I said, burning him out would leave a piece of me behind. It would be my power," he looked down at him. "Obviously it would be strong."
"You just said I wouldn't have direct access to your power anymore," he frowned.
"I don't have access to that seal. Anything I put in there is lost to me. It would become your power."
"So I gain an alternate source of power but lose yours." Menma returned to his pacing. "Would I be able to do the same for someone else?"
The Kyūbi grinned maliciously. "Yes, you would."
Menma frowned. He could see that he was planning something. "I need to think on this. I'll let you know what I want to do later." As he began to fade away the Kyūbi spoke one last time.
"Time is running short, monkey. Decide quickly."
End Chapter 10
A/N:
Few things. First off, no, there is no Naruto(Menma)/Hinata pairing. He was hoping it was her because she's relatively quiet whereas Ino is the gossip queen.
Yes, I made Kakashi a hardcore creeper otaku. Why? Because I can and it amuses me. No, there will be no Kakashi/Sakura pairing either.
I can't really think of anything else right now so we'll go into the review responses.
A warning - some things will be explained and there may be potential spoilers. If you don't want to ruin any surprises, skip 'em.
Tomaxor:Thanks for the review. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
gardien1204:Glad you like it. I update pretty much daily, so yeah.
serialkeller: As you can see at the end, the potential to use the curse seals is there. I don't want him or Sasuke getting too strong too early though, so there are drawbacks to it. I'm curious to know how many people will figure out what Kurama was thinking.
tierce japhrimel: I kind of skipped over the curse seals last chapter, didn't I? Kakashi did know about them, though. If you'll recall in canon Sasuke's life was threatened twice shortly after he received the seal. In the Forest of Death by the Sound team and in the preliminaries by what's-his-ass sucking his chakra. In this story they were at the tail end of the war. The fight was all but over so they were just resting in Tazuna's house. This meant the curse seal, while it did finish and activate, never got the chance to take over. Kakashi was more worried about Sakura's snake bites (who knows how many of them were poisonous) and the fact that he didn't have the proper supplies to deal with them at the time. Plus as you read above, he didn't want to mess up Kurama's seal.
Felicity Dream: Where to begin? We'll start with Orochimaru. From my understanding of canon, Wave lasted one week. After which Team 7 spent a couple of months doing D-ranks again before the exams. The Forest of Death lasted 5 days. My Wave took several months, so that jumps them ahead in the timeline through the D-ranks. That puts the end of the war roughly around the time the exams start. Orochimaru showed up on what, their second day in the FoD? In my story they missed the exam by a week. To clarify, I mean the exams started a week before they returned. So by the time they return the second portion had basically just ended. Orochimaru met them 2 days prior to their return. So, all in all, he shows up at about the same time, maybe even a day or two later, just in a different place.
As for joining Orochimaru, you're right, at least for canon reasons. Sasuke is leaning away from revenge, yes. Menma is also influenced by Haku, like you said, but with a twist. Will either of them actually join him? We'll see. I had originally planned for Wave to be basically canon with only minor changes and you can see how that turned out.
And finally, Menma's appearance. I thought people weren't going to notice that until some time later. Good job picking up on it so early.