Menma's glowing form rose to its feet and screamed out a powerful roar that shook Ash Lake, tremors running through the ground like wildfire. The wandering Uzumaki unleashed a torrent of azure flames from his gaping maw, two large appendages began to grow from the light-covered males back, a third from his lower back, his armour making horrible creaking noises before it gave way and tore apart to fully unleash what had attempted to grow.
A pair of glorious wings flared out from his shoulders, along with a slim ebony scaled tail, the three eyed beast watched as the light around him faded into a gentle glow, his form leaving wisp-like trails of flames as his body had once more been altered.
A memory flashed through his mind, a formula, an explosion, his once crimson hair being burnt black, he gripped his armoured head and groaned, the memory of that day surfacing in full.
Flashback
7 year old Menma, sickly and pale with shoulder length messy red hair, stared at the paper before him, it was covered with an intricate seal that would hopefully cure him, he'd layered so many seals onto this, his masterpiece, that he was amazing it hadn't crumbled in on itself but the fact that it was could only mean good things.
He'd kept this project a secret, his parents wouldn't understand, the filthy lecher would patronize him, the big-titted wench that pretended to care for the wellbeing of others would attempt to dissuade him, along with her spineless apprentice. His fool brother would probably fucking ruin it, like he did everything.
Little fool should go back to brushing his hair and sitting in front of a mirror for hours on end.
Menma was well aware what had happened when the halves of Kurama had been placed between them, Menma had gotten Yin and Naruto Yang, as such with Yin being a more femininely inclined Chakra, the beast had formed and sucked any kind of estrogen or like-wise chemicals from his body, leaving him to become the picture of masculinity when he breached puberty.
And the reverse happened to Naruto, the Yang Chakra had sucked out all the testosterone in his system leaving the more feminine chemicals he got from their mother to manifest much easier. Menma wouldn't be surprised if this ended up making him gay or something, apparently stuff like that had to do with how your brain developed during sexual maturity, he wasn't sure. He was only 7 and it really hadn't bothered him to learn more than he needed to know.
It was funny though, how girly his brother looked, kinda like their father but like...Worse. Or better depending on how someone was inclined, who knows.
Anyway, the really roundabout point was that Naruto liked to fuck around with his experiments, constantly trying to distract him by wanting to play. Menma never bothered with the boy he had no time for him it was either being sick in bed, reading or working on Fuinjutsu. Which could also be done in bed.
Wandering thoughts are great.
Menma proceeded slowly and methodically through various handsigns, taking meticulous care to make sure each one was correct, the seal began to slowly light up as his Chakra snaked towards it, soaking the air around him in order to activate it, Menma took a deep, calming, breath before he activated the seal, "Fuin!"
"Onii-san~!" Called a voice, Menma's concentration was broken as the annoying voice pierced his ears the resulting explosion leveled his room and left the redhead charred and blackened, the horrified blonde could only look on in terror at what had happened, ANBU and their parents were on the scene in seconds to find the Heir charred and burnt, his once red hair blacker than the abyss.
His skin looked healthier though, so...Silver lining.
End
The result of course being he became full-blooded Uzumaki, leaving half of his DNA code blank, his mind turned to the various changes he'd been taking on during his time in this land and could only quake with anger at the fact that he'd become some kind of freak because of his stupid fucking bitch-boy brother. Well...Freak may have been a bit strong a word, but he was still unsure what he was anymore. What he could do to change himself back, definitely not that Seal, it'd fucking ruin him. So that was out.
Menma shook his head, turning back to the giant beast who merely looked down at him and stared, "You make no sense, you know that yes?" He asked with a drawl, the creature made no movement continuing it's stare.
Menma twitched, "Right...I suppose now is as good a time as any to practice with these..." He murmured, concentrating on moving the wings into a simple flapping motion, it took a bit of doing, like moving a limb that was asleep.
"This is gonna take a while..." Sighing he rubbed his metal forehead, but nevertheless practiced.
Flashback
Menma was hooked up to various wires and such, the beeping of several monitoring devices being the only noise filling the room, the worried form of Kushina Uzumaki holding the bandaged hand of her eldest child, her eyes red from crying. Her second child sitting next to her, his own face a mixture of fear and gut wrenching guilt.
The charred boy was almost head to toe in bandages, his small form struggling out breath after breath, the father, Minato Uzumaki, looked over his eldest with shattered blue eyes, staring down at his child with despair, his eyes glancing across to his other child for a mere moment, disappointment filled his gaze but it receded. He was certain the boy meant his brother no true harm and it was all a greatly unfortunate event.
"How long will he be out?" Asked the Uzumaki patriarch, turning to the doctor who held a grave look.
"Hokage-sama...I fear this may well be the end of him. Menma-sama has always had a weak constitution and to take a blast like that to the face..." The Doctor's expression was indeed harrowing for the blond man, who kept his walls up as best he could, "If he were to recover I do not see him being able to walk. And that is the best case scenario." Kushina's whimpers returned anew, the Hokage giving the Doctor a deathstare until the man wised up and left the room.
"Onii-san..." Whispered the blond child, looking at what he'd done, his shoulders quivering as tears spilt down his cheeks once more.
"...Shut...Up..." Whispered the coarse voice of the charred boy, the parents and son snapping to attention as he muttered in his sleep, "...Shut...Up..." He mumbled once more. They knew not what he was muttering about but apparently he wanted some quiet. Kushina ushered Naruto out of the room, Minato reached his son and placed a hand atop his head, kissing his bandaged forehead gently.
Though he did notice that his hair wasn't stained by soot or anything like it, Minato rubbed a stray lock of hair between his fingers and found it was now just coloured that way, the blond man sighed. Everything was getting a little too much to deal with. "Get better Sochi." He whispered softly before parting from the room.
End
Menma's progress was slow going indeed, whilst he could move his wings they were still quite tender and doing so was a mixture of pain and relief. It was weird. He shook his head and gave a quick scan around to make sure he had all of his belongings, fixing Monolith to sit between his wings properly. He summoned a slew of flames in his hand before slamming it into the ground, pulling it back up slowly and with it seemingly created a bonfire.
There were no bones fueling this one however, instead it seemed to feed of itself, the flames making several inward and outward spins, a single phantom blade of azure glass struck upward, all in all it looked like a stylized bonfire that didn't feel completely right. Menma grasped the blade and used the power of the Lordvessel to teleport to Anor Londo, his form shrouded in the flames and vanishing, the bonfire calming to soft licking flames.
The Stone Dragon looked upon the blue flames for a moment before returning to its statuesque position.
Anor Londo
Menma appeared in a flash of oceanic flames from the bonfire outside of the Tomb Gwyndolin apparently just fucking loved, he shook off the embers that still clung to him and proceeded down the stair, waving through the grey fog and raising a clawed hand in greeting, the serpent legged woman looking at his armoured form in horror, she gathered a large flux of power into her catalyst and blasted him with what could be surmised as a giant fucking Soul Arrow.
Menma was knocked onto his ass by the force of it, but his armour seemed to rebuke a great deal of the damage, "You done?" He asked blankly, the snake woman recoiled as though struck, the idea that the man she once shared conversation with had been turned into one of the very monsters her father had fought tooth and nail against to give them freedom.
She felt her heart grow icy with the sting of such a betrayal, she proceeded to launch Soul Blast after Soul Blast in a furious and reckless abandon, Menma summoned up a great wall of flames to deflect them, he came with a slow approach that she didn't seem to notice until one hand was around her wrist and the other around her throat, burning golden eyes staring at her with anger, black smoke rising slowly from the nostrils in his armour.
"Are you gonna calm down, or is this really how you greet a friend?" He asked with a deathly calm that was betrayed by the ferocity of his gaze. The woman gave a short gasp in response as he released her, though this proved meaningless as she struck out at him with her serpentine appendages.
Menma leapt back using his flames to get a proper amount of propulsion to make it easier to do so. "What is your fucking problem woman!?" He roared with a visible ripple in the air from the power of it. Gwyndolin's face was pulled into a hateful snarl.
"You dare come here? After groveling before that disgusting beast in the Ash Lake? You think it acceptable to me that you join its Covenant, the filthy demon witches and then return to me!? Do you truly believe this!?" She, struck out with a power but thin beam of concentrated magic from the tip of her catalyst, it struck true, impaling the dragon through his chest and out the other side, Menma armour seemingly melted away as he fell to the ground, leaving him in only the raggy clothing he wore previously, his face met cold marble as his body expired.
Bonfire
Menma rose grasping at his body, only to feel something around his neck, looking down as best he could he felt some kind of amulet, tugging at it and pulling it to his line of sight it seemed to be the stone the Dragon had gifted to him wrapped up in a chain necklace, the metal appearing very similar to his armoured skin previously.
Menma mouth became an 'O' shape as realization hit him like a truck, the Dragon hadn't just giving him wings, it had given him the power to return to a human form, the only cost being he had to die once but it wasn't that big of a deal when you're an everlasting undead creature with enough power to make a Bijuu your pretty little bitch.
Menma looked at his very human looking hands and grabbed the hilt of his Chaos Edge, the blade looked more relaxed than it did before, somehow, he looked at the necklace and gave it a hearty squeeze in a familiar white glow he felt his skin harden rapidly, his skeletal structure shift to accommodate his wings and horns along with his sleek tail.
Menma pat himself over and nodded to himself, grasping the now ready and raring to go Chaos Edge before leaping through the fog wall, "I was just about ready to just say, 'Oh I can calm her down no problem.' But then I remembered something you know what? You're an emotional fucking cripple with such a zealous love for your father it borders on fanaticism, you won't listen to anything I say. So there's no point bothering with you. However..." Menma paused for a moment, as he stalked towards the lone God of Anor Londo, his eyes alight with a spiteful flame. His souls surged back into his form as the green mist dissipated, Menma took a loose stance with the pommel of his blade facing its target, the blade tip almost touching the ground as he leant onto his right leg.
"You did kill me, so on principal I must return the favour. Burn in my flames." Menma's blade lit with a deathly azure haze as he seemingly glided forward, his upward slash cutting through its target and a good portion of the hallway with more ease than it was to take a breath. Menma slid his blade back into its sheath as the goddess burst into ashen mist, she fell to the ground a choked sob leaving her as a final breath, the power of her being flooding into him. The golden sprite of her soul floating atop the ground.
"You had a beautiful smile, Hime-sama..." He told the orb of golden light forlornly.
"Why did you feel this was needed?" Asked the Witch, she seemed slightly distraught.
"If there's one thing I know about that woman its that she will not see reason when it comes to Dragon's or thing that are against her father. I'm both, kinda, I honestly was holding onto some naïve hope she'd give me a chance to explain. But that hate that resonated from her...It was sincere." He informed his blade-spirit. The cold, careless tone in his voice doing little to shroud the twinge of regret he felt. Menma softly sighed and shook his head, what's done was done.
He probably did her a favour sitting in this crypt would end up killing her anyway, well...It did now but the point still stood. Menma leant down to swipe her soul from the ground and allow it to adds its power to his own, the flood of energy feeling like snakes under his skin.
Snakes...He should probably check on his family. It hadn't occurred to him to really bother checking in until all these damned memories made themselves known. "Kuchiyose No Jutsu..." He mumbled summoning up a simple adder its tiny form crawling over his forearm, he began poking around as he dictated to the creature.
It's eyes lit up with oceanic chakra that allowed it to 'record' his voice as it were. "Dearest Parents. I am not dead. Shocker I know. I appear to be in some land in a nearby dimension, if I were to guess. There is no chakra here, so I suppose having this battery was worth the trouble after all. Anyway, I heard from Manda that shit went down, I'll try to finish up here...I don't know why but the compulsion to see this through to the end is too strong for me to just up and return now. Make sure bitch-boy doesn't touch my shit, your's sincerely, Menma." As he spoke he rifled around the area, finding three chests, one housing an armour identical to that of the Knightess, so it was pointless to lug around with her being so much shorter than him, another holding a Miracle called 'Sunlight Blade'. Menma felt like a certain bro of his would like this.
The last held nothing, what a fucking tease.
"Now that I think about it, maybe I can't go home? Who knows. I can't really be bothered dealing with such things right now, I have my hands full with this dying world...Hmm..." Menma paused in thought for a moment, what would he do? Succeeding Gwyn meant linking the Fire, he didn't know what that entailed but Frampt wanted him to do that. And he hated Frampt, because fuck Frampt.
But what other option was there? Leaving things to progress in their natural order seemed the best idea to him, so if Gwyn's linking the fire was against it, that meant he should just leave the flame to flicker away and out. Menma shook his head of these thoughts, while they were important, he didn't want to think of such things right now.
"You killed her." Said a venomous voice, Menma trio of eyes gazed upon the Knightess, her hands clenched tightly around her estoc and parrying dagger respectively. While he couldn't see her face, the torrent of hatred that boiled around her was enough to know. Menma said nothing, words would be meaningless, instead he drew his Monolith. The giant obsidian blade gleaming in the gentle moonlight.
The hooked edge gleaming menacingly, the woman lunged at him to pierce his hide Menma weaved to the side and dragged his blade harshly through the air, bisecting its prey, the Knightess fell in two, black blood falling over over the ground, the blood of an undead. Her body turned to particles as the souls she housed flooded him Menma was already walking to the elevator-stairs by the time her body parts fell onto the cold unforgiving ground.
"I'm growing to hate this place." He grumbled, seriously this mood of his was worse than a fucking storm of angst. He needed a pick-me-up. Thus why he was going to visit the crossbreed, if anything she could put him in a good mood. He enjoyed being around her. He coated himself in flames as he walked through the large cathedral halls that led towards the Painted World, flooding the room with azure waves of chaotic flames.
Priscilla's Home
Menma passed through the familiar fog-door, though the sound of metal scraping against stone invaded his ears, a man donned in familiar Elite Knight Armour with two Uchihagatana's in his hands rolling about to avoid the deadly scythe weilded by the deceptively dainty hands of the crossbreed.
Menma was aware this was not Oscar, as he was hollowed in the asylum, but he was severely irked at the audacity of this Undead bitch-boy who was creeping onto his turf. Menma launched in coming in low and fast, swiping the man's legs out from under him before rapidly spinning and launching the armoured undead man into the ceiling, "Get."W little effort he followed after him and grabbed the back of his neck. "Fucking." And finished this wonderful display of agility by slamming the man's head into the ground, his body fading into ash as his body returned to the bonfire, but his souls siphoned into Menma.
"Got." Menma dusted his hands off and turned his gaze to the crossbreed who looked at him quizzically. "It's me, Menma." He informed with a tilt of his head. Recognition danced across the woman's dazzling blue eyes, she smiled warmly at him and placed her scythe against the wall, though she did something he did not expect, she engulfed him into a tight hug.
Now, whilst his sense of touch was dulled in this form, he would never forget just how amazingly soft her fur was, like wow. If that was fur, a dress? Maybe. Who cares. Hugs now, thing later. Menma returned the embrace she was a little taller than him which he was unused to when it came to women but he had no real problem with it. "Not that I don't like this, but I didn't really expect this kind of greeting." He admitted she pulled away slightly and stared into his three golden eyes.
"Thou hast returned, as thou said thee would. I felt a sadness when you left and desired your presence once more, I remember when I was young some of the Wardens would receive visits from their loved ones, this was how they greeted them." She returned to holding herself against him tightly as his armour would allow. Menma almost smiled if it weren't for the fact it would have hurt like a motherfucker, instead he just reciprocated the affection.
Menma was unaware how long he remained in her domain, but he felt at peace. Something he hadn't felt for quite a while, and was basking in every moment of it.
End of chapter
Raxychaz!