POV: MENMA.
I wasn't happy with the deal, but I had to make do with what I had. Surviving was one thing, but the weight of the demands was another. How long could we last before the pressure drove us to a breaking point?
I woke with my head spinning, blinking away the haze, only to chuckle at the sight around me. We were in what looked like a typical room found in a hospital with Shisui sprawled on a bed, looking like he had fallen asleep amid a battle. Beside him, Naruto was snoring like a runaway train, clinging to Shisui's right arm as if it were a pillow.
Shisui's hand was wrapped in bandages, a pitiful little stump poking out from the fabric. The contrast between Shisui's serious condition and Naruto's blissful ignorance felt almost comical. I couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, a strange mix of pity and amusement bubbling within me. Only in the shinobi world could you find such bizarre, bittersweet humor.
"So, you're finally awake," Shisui said, prying one eye open. The black was duller than before, a shadow of its former self.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this," I replied, managing to sit up but wobbling slightly on the floor. My bed was a few feet from theirs so I didn't have to worry about covering a huge distance to get to them.
"Don't sweat it, kid, but I have a lot of questions for you." His voice left no room for objections. I rested my hand on the metallic support on their bed to correct my balance.
"First what did you do to guarantee such action from the sage of freaking paths?"He asked. I was stuck, I couldn't answer it without revealing that which shouldn't be known.
"It's not that I won't, but I can't tell you," I tried to reason. My words sparked anger showing visibly on his face.
"I've lost my arm, kid. You really think that's not a big enough reason to spill?" He barked in anger, and Naruto shifted in his sleep, inadvertently hitting Shisui's injury, causing a wince of pain from the angry Uchiha.
"I can't believe I'm arguing with a kid who's not even half my age," he said, frustration clear in his voice.
Guilt washed over me. I knew involving them was a mistake, but they were my only hope. Call me an exploiter, but I wasn't willing to put my life on the line when there were others I could use to ensure my survival. I could only imagine how itachi was holding up right now.
"I'll tell you when I need to tell you. If i tell you right now, that information will become a burden and endanger you," I shot back, hoping to put an end to this conversation.
"A burden?!" Shisui's voice cracked. "Menma, I've risked everything for you and Naruto. You don't get to decide what I can handle. Do you have any idea how much danger you've put us in by hiding this?"
"Two years, Menma! Two years of being one of the only people to welcome you in the village. While others chased you away, I took you in. I made you one of my own, even when I was ordered to stay away from you and your brother. And now you keep something this important from me?" The hurt in his voice pulled at the core of my being, rendering me momentarily speechless.
"Okay then,how can you teleport, and don't you think such information about a rare ability should have been shared ?" He asked trying to calm himself down.
Before I could master a response, the door creaked open. I turned to see a boy, no older than seven or eight, with pure white skin and unsettlingly pupilless white eyes fixed directly on me. What was his,, name again Tony, Tonai ahh, whatever I'll find out eventually. My memories of the series and movie were hazy.
"I hope the ancestor told you the deal," he said, cutting straight to the heart of the matter, his voice steady and commanding.
"Yes," I replied.
*Yawn* Naruto let out a yawn, ignorant of the situation around us.
"Follow me." He said. He walked off as I followed closely behind.
"Menma, what's this deal he spoke about?" Shisui asked as he got out of the bed and followed me seeing no way out except to follow and inspect the place and make a plan, naruto following closely behind as he scratched his head in confusion.
"Na… Naruto and I were given tasks to complete after i made a deal with the owner of this place to give us accommodation in exchange." I said with a stutter at first.
"Which tasks, Menma?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes at my back.
"Naruto is supposed to supply chakra to their clan and I am supposed to retrieve something in the future stolen by Madara Uchiha." I replied honestly, he earned to be told the truth or at least a part of the truth.
"Madara Uchiha!!" He exclaimed in shock.
"I know you won't tell me how you know all this, but I want you to tell me everything when you are ready or when it's the time, as you said. But…I have a question since when did you start making decisions like that for Naruto?" He asked in anger.
I was really getting tired of his tantrums.
"Ever since I became his brother, ever since Shisui… or would you rather have him dead."I shot back as I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes.
"Stop your bickering and just follow." The kid in front of me said, stopping at an entrance. And luckily our argument stopped at that.
Entering what looked like a mixture of a NICU and a huge laboratory with multiple babies in metallic pods with breathing masks that directed a weird white and red gas into their bodies and a few adults in the same condition.
Naruto ran off in front of us and froze in front of one of the adults in a metallic pod.
"He… his… his dying." He said with horror on his face.
We walked over to him, and I tried to pull him over to us, but he tore my hand off his shoulder roughly, something he had not done in, like …ever.
I walked over to him and saw his eyes becoming teary. "Naruto, what's wrong ?" I asked as I gently placed my arm on his head as I gently ruffled his hair.
"Their…dying, Menma. The men the women the babies…their all dying and I can feel it." He said in between sobs.
I glanced at the kid who had led us here.
"What you're sensing is their low life force causing their bodies to destroy themselves due to imbalance." He said his face emotionless as he looked at his dying kin.
"In conclusion, they 'are' dying and it's your job to save them jinchuriki." He said referring to Naruto.
Then the realization hit me; now it summed up why an Ōtsutsuki would rely on mere kids; he was desperate. And being a spectator to your people's doom leaves null options without being able to interfere directly.
"What about you? Why aren't you like them?." Shisui asked, and immediately, the kid's emotionless face gained a tint of anger.
Really, poking the host in his own house. For a former anbu this guy was stupid at times.
"My name is Toneri Ōtsutsuki, the main family heir of the clan you're in right now, and we are going to live together for the foreseeable future." He introduced himself.
'Finally a name.'
POV: ITACHI UCHIHA.
'The Mangekyo Sharingan, a power so great, a tool so great, but if this is the cost, then Kami, please take it back.' I thought as I looked at the tombs we had improvised for Shisui and the kids using some of there belongings since we didn't find their bodies.
I stood in front of the whole village dressed in black. I mourned their loss as my friends but they mourned the image the deceased could have been and I hate it.
My hand tightened around Sasuke's as tears rolled down his face for his cousin and the only two friends he had had for the past two years.
We were at the very front near their graves since we were the closest to the deasead.
I was lost in my thoughts why wasn't it me who went rather than them.
"Ta…ita…Itachi." I heard my name being called.
"Itachi, I was hoping you could give a speech about the deceased." The hokage announced after giving a speech about the will of fire I no longer gave two shits about.
I let go of Sasuke's hand and made my way towards the podium.
"Hello there, I thank all those who are here for the dearly departed."I started as I glanced warmly at Teuchi and his daughter, the only two who were kind enough to give the twins food.
"And I appreciate all the others who had the modesty to come." I continued as my stare grew cold.
"My name is Itachi Uchiha, the heir of the Uchiha clan and friend of the deceased namely Shisui and the Uzumaki twins. Shisui was my brother, a mentor and an idol to me. He was everything I wished to one day become. But more so he was my best friend." I said as I glanced sadly at Mister Kagami's feet Shisui's father as he sat in his wheelchair unable to look into his eyes.
"The twins… haha those troublemakers. With completely opposite personalities, Naruto was cheerful, carefree, with an all-happy persona, but his brother was nothing like that at all." I continued as I heard a warm chuckle from Teuchi.
"Menma *whistle*, on the other hand, was the troublesome of the two. He had this mature act going on, constantly acting as everybody owed him money, haha." I said with memories of the kids playing with Sasuke in my mind.
"They were just the kind of kids everybody would love if you got to know them.…but you didn't did you!!." I said as my Sharingan started spinning rapidly, casting a red hue in front of me.
"You hated them, you were disgusted by their very presence, and now you have the audacity to come to their burial for who they could have been, not who they were." My words coming out bitter and driven by hate.
But before I could continue, a figure made its way to me and pulled me to the side.
I recognised him, one of the freaking Sannin Jairaya the master of the father of the twins. Wasn't he supposed to be there and take care of them from the start.
I pulled my arm away from him.
"Where were you?" I asked as three tomoe spun rapidly in my eyes as I looked at the man.
"Where were you when they were hunted on their birthdays? Where were you when their very names were altered to demon foxes? I hate you but not as much as the 4th hokage would hate you for abandoning his children." I said as I deactivated my Sharingan and met up with my family as we set off from this place.
# Thank you for reading and comment your honest thoughts on the story so far. And I wanted to clarify that this world is AU but it will follow the main concept of the naruto verse except certain improvised parts of my own.#
# Comment and a few powestones are appreciated as well.#