Oplindenfep: I answered this back in the chapter 8 or 9 responses, but it's symbolic. Plus, I'm in a rebellious phase. Yaaay Menma, booo Naruto.

serialkeller: His response to his father comes in this chapter.

Chapter 11

(Konoha)

Menma jerked awake to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He rolled out of bed before staggering over to the door and throwing it open. He caught a brief flash of black before the sunlight blinded him.

'That's twice now I've slept the whole night since coming back from Wave...'

"Let's go make you an Uchiha," the person said.

"Do you have any idea how that sounds?" Menma closed the door behind him, squinting as his eyes started to adjust to the light. "It sounds like some kind of lame proposal."

"You know what I meant," Sasuke growled.

"Before we go I should probably tell you I learned some things last night. I'm not an Uchiha after all. I just... merged with one, so I got his eye."

"So what? You've got the Sharingan, that's good enough for me," he said before jumping away towards the Hokage's Tower.

Menma leapt after him. "What about Kakashi-sensei? He has one. Does that make him an Uchiha?"

"He already has a family," Sasuke said, leaping from building to building. "Besides, his is artificial, he can't pass it on."

"We don't know if mine will be passed on," Menma pointed out.

Sasuke shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, but we can have them test that later. You're not getting out of this."

"Alright, just thought you'd want to know I'm not really an Uchiha," Menma said with a sigh.

"Then what are you?"

"I don't know. The Kyūbi told me my father was a 'blonde-haired bastard' that he met-" Menma's eyes widened before flicking over to the Hokage monument. 'That he met the night he sealed him in to me.'

His distraction caused him to miss his next foothold and sent him flying towards the ground face first. He managed to catch his hand on something as he fell giving him enough momentum to make it across to the building across the street and stick to it's side. Sasuke stood at the top looking down at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Ah... if the Kyūbi wasn't lying I might have just figured out who my father was," Menma told him with an embarrassed grin. "I'll get a paternity test done too, I think."

Half an hour later they had just finished the paperwork and were standing in front of the Hokage.

The old man frowned as he went over the pages. "There... may be complications with it, but I can start the process."

"What complications?" Sasuke asked.

"Uchiha clan complications. Menma's status complications. Villager complications. It will be difficult to get this approved, but I will see what I can do," Hiruzen told them, stacking the papers neatly.

"Would it help if we found out if I could pass on my Sharingan or not?" Menma asked.

The Hokage frowned and remained silent for some time. "It could. It could also hurt your chances if the wrong people found out the answer. I can have someone I trust do the test if you'd like."

"I would like that. Can they... also do a paternity test?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at this. "And who, exactly, do you think your parents are?" He followed Menma's gaze and his eyebrow raised even further. "What makes you think you're related to him?"

"The Kyūbi told me he met my father the night he was sealed."

"Unfortunately I can tell you that you are not his son. Neither he, nor his wife, were related to the Uchiha clan in any way," Hiruzen said.

"Ah, about that... there was an Uchiha controlling the Kyūbi the night he attacked. He got sealed in with him and the seal absorbed him immediately. That's where my Sharingan comes from."

Hiruzen lit his pipe and smoked quietly for some time after hearing this. 'Could it be true? Was he right here in front of us this entire time?' Finally his gaze focused on Menma. "I'll have a paternity test done for you as well. It will take some time for the results to come back though. I'll inform you when they do."

The boys nodded and left the office.

"Let's get you moved in to the Uchiha district. Whether the rest of the village acknowledges it or not, you're family now."

The old Hokage stood staring out the window after the boys left. "Bring me Jiraiya."

(Hidden Location)

"So... the jinchūriki has the Sharingan and can even summon and control the beast." A man sat at a small table with a file and a cup of tea sitting in front of him. Half of his face was bandaged, as was one of his arms. A cane leaned against the wall nearby.

The man quietly drank his tea. "We cannot let such power go to waste. Observe him. Dig up everything you can and report your findings."

With an emotionless acknowledgement a cloaked figured vanished.

"I will have your power, boy. Even if I have to crush you to obtain it," the man swore. The man stood to go 'convince' some councillors it was a good idea to allow the boy to become an Uchiha. After all, what was the life of one or two boys when you had already destroyed an entire clan?

(Hokage's Office)

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen said without looking up from the paperwork sitting on the desk in front of him.

"As good as ever, huh sensei?" The white-haired man said, entering through the window. "So, what do you need?"

"You're going to bring Tsunade back to Konoha," Hiruzen replied.

"Again? You know how these usually go," he replied with a frown. "She'll just refuse again."

"You misunderstand," Hiruzen replied, pushing some pages towards him. "She will return, or those will be added to the bingo book."

Jiraiya picked up the pages and read them over, his eyes widened as he saw they were entries for both Tsunade, and her apprentice, Shizune. "You... you're pretty serious this time. What's going on?"

The Hokage paused in his paperwork and stared blankly ahead. "Do you remember Menma?"

"Menma? Ah, the brat Minato sealed Kyūbi in to," Jiraiya said, tucking the pages away. "What about him?"

"Do you also remember the rumors that were floating around the village after Kyūbi's attack?"

"The ones about the Uchiha controlling him? I remember."

Hiruzen sighed and turned towards Jiraiya. "They were true. There was an Uchiha that got sealed into Menma along with Kyūbi. He was absorbed by the seal first. That's how he got his Sharingan."

"If he's not Uchiha then who are his parents?"

Hiruzen stared at him for a moment before his gaze drifted over to a picture of Minato.

"You... you think?"

"You know Minato better than I do, Jiraiya," the old man said. "Would he use another child when he could use his own?"

"You told me Naruto died!"

"Yes, because that's what we believed at the time. The place Kushina gave birth in was destroyed. We couldn't find anything so we thought the two had died in the attack." Hiruzen pulled some more paperwork out and handed it to Jiraiya. "That's why I need Tsunade back."

Jiraiya looked over the pages he had been handed. "You want her to find out if he's Minato's kid."

Hiruzen nodded. "And to see if he'll pass on the Sharingan."

Jiraiya handed them back and turned for the window. "I'll go get her after I see him."

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen said before he could jump out the window. "We don't have any proof yet."

"I won't approach him yet. I just want to see him before I leave."

Hiruzen stared at him silently for a bit. "I believe he was going to move into the Uchiha district."

Jiraiya nodded and vanished.

(Konoha)

A week had passed since Menma had moved in to the Uchiha district. He was wandering around Konoha late at night thinking back over what had happened during the week. Team 7 had met the rest of their classmates and learned what had happened during the exams. They also heard about the preliminary fights.

In exchange they had been interrogated on their Wave mission. Team 7 told them about Gatō and how he had cut Wave off from the rest of the world. They told them about their different missions at the bases and how they went. They left out sensitive information such as Menma's eye and the Kyūbi. They told them about their fight with Orochimaru but left out the curse marks.

Sakura and Sasuke had been shocked to find out they had fought against one of the sannin.

Menma found himself at an old intersection. To his right, the road was lit and led to an orphanage. To his left, the road was dark and led to a section of the Uchiha district he had avoided since he moved in. He paused at the intersection and stared at the darkened path.

"Do you return to what you know, or do you follow me into shadow?"

Menma frowned as he remembered her words. 'Could I have done more that night?'

With a look of determination on his face he walked once more down the dark path. For a time, he would return to his past.

(Uchiha District)

He walked slowly, retracing his steps from that night. The air had the same heavy feeling it had back then. When he reached her house it was exactly as it had been that night. The front door was still broken in, and the wall smashed. He had expected the inside to trashed and ruined having no door to keep out the elements for years, but it was unchanged, almost like time had stopped moving in the district after that night.

He stepped into the small house. As he walked in he came to a stop where a large blood stain lay. The spot where he had watched that man kill his first teacher. He continued past the stain towards the back of the house.

Sliding open a door revealed a porch and a small back yard. As he stepped out on the porch he was so deep in his memories he could almost see a smaller version of himself facing his former teacher. The young version was being scolded.

"Speaking in battle is a sin! If the enemy is going to stand around bragging about how powerful he is or explain how his technique works, KILL HIM. It's an opening, USE IT."

He shook his head. 'She was right, at least. If someone is going to stand around for me I'll use it to my advantage.'

He turned around and headed back inside, closing the door behind him. His gaze travelled over the house and fell on the dining table he had sat at all those years ago.

"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."

He thought back on Wave, on Haku and Zabuza. 'Would she consider them heroes? One died to protect the person they cared about and the other killed a tyrant. At the very least she would consider them strong.'

He turned and walked past the broken wall. On the other side was her bedroom and he had only ever caught a glimpse of it once. Most of the furniture in the room was smashed and blood was spattered across the floor. He noticed something that looked like a handle poking out from underneath her bed. Pulling it out revealed a large war fan. He glanced back at the smashed wall.

'Probably got knocked off when he threw her through the wall.'

Holding the fan up he examined it carefully. It was a rather plain solid wooden color with black trim and a red mitsudomoe on either side of the top. The long handle was wrapped and it had a hole at the bottom, likely for attaching a chain or rope. He had asked her about it when he saw it, but she had been rather elusive about it. Her only response had been that it was a reminder.

He gripped the handle tightly. 'If it could be a reminder for her then it can do the same for me.'

He stepped back out into the main room and looked over the place again. He noticed that one of the pictures had been knocked down, the glass shattered and spread on the floor. Picking it up he saw that it was the picture of her and her husband. The picture was crooked in the frame and he saw writing along the bottom edge. He pulled the picture out of the frame to reveal two names on the bottom. He dropped the picture and slowly walked out of the house.

He paused just before reaching the street and turned back to look at the house.
"Not all ninja are heroes." He didn't understand when she had told him that eight years ago.

"Do you return to what you know, or do you follow me into shadow?" How could he? He was still too young. He hadn't seen how the world worked.

He turned away from the house. Two paths lay before him. The one on the right was illuminated by the moon. The one to the left was dark.

"I would dirty my hands for him, I would die for him," the boy had said. "I... would stain my soul for him."

He understood now. He knew what it took to protect those precious to him.

Sacrifice.

He walked down the dark path.

End Chapter 11

A/N:

Next time is the Sand-Sound Invasion. Let me know if you catch any typos and such. Not much else to say again, so, see you next time.