Little Nine-Tails

"Hey! Kabuto, you bastard!"

"Are you going to abandon the years you spent with us?!"

Late at night, at the entrance to the Orphanage, more than twenty orphans stood with director Yakushi Nonō as they watched Kabuto walk toward several men in black across the street.

The one who had shouted first was an orphan named Aqi. A few years older than Yakushi Kabuto, he had some talent for medical ninjutsu and had once accompanied the director to the front lines to treat Konoha's ninja.

It had also been during the Battle of Kikyo Pass that Yakushi Nonō rescued an orphan and named him Kabuto.

After Kabuto displayed talent as a medical ninja, he too went to the front lines alongside Aqi as the director's assistant, providing battlefield treatment for Konoha's ninja.

As a result, Aqi and Yakushi Kabuto had a very good relationship.

Uzumaki Menma stood at the back of the crowd, watching the shouting Aqi and the departing Yakushi Kabuto.

Memories began to surface in his mind. He vaguely remembered that after the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, when Yakushi Kabuto returned to the Konoha Orphanage as its director, this Aqi had been by his side.

"Kabuto, why?" Yakushi Nonō held her hands together in a prayer gesture. She could not understand why Kabuto had chosen to leave, and her eyes were filled with worry.

She knew all too well how filthy the Root organization was. She did not want any of her children taken away by Danzo.

"I just want to become a ninja." Yakushi Kabuto concealed his true emotions and thoughts. When he reached Danzo and Orochimaru, he turned slightly and gave his family at the Orphanage one last look.

Just as Yakushi Kabuto was about to say something else, he suddenly saw the smallest figure squeeze through the crowd and step forward.

"Kabuto, remember our promise." Uzumaki Menma shouted at Yakushi Kabuto.

"Menma?" Yakushi Kabuto was somewhat surprised.

Then he shook his head with a bitter smile. "Has everyone forgotten the Orphanage rules? It's time for bed."

With that, Yakushi Kabuto turned and walked to Danzo's side.

Orochimaru, dressed in a black robe, narrowed his eyes as he examined the children of the Orphanage. At the same time, he extended his tongue, sensing the chakra in the air.

Yet aside from Yakushi Nonō and the child who had shouted first, no one else carried the scent of chakra.

That included the child who had just mentioned some promise with Kabuto.

Orochimaru was somewhat disappointed. It seemed that aside from Kabuto, none of these orphans had any talent as ninja.

Danzo looked at Yakushi Kabuto and nodded in satisfaction, then left with Orochimaru and Aburame Tatsuma.

Yakushi Kabuto followed the three of them and disappeared into the night.

The Orphanage's other two caretakers began leading the children back inside. Director Yakushi Nonō remained where she was, gazing in the direction Yakushi Kabuto had left, her hands held before her chest as she prayed for him.

"Director." Menma walked up behind Yakushi Nonō and reached out with his little hand to tug at his gentle foster mother.

"Menma, hurry and go to sleep." Yakushi Nonō lowered her head, doing her best to hide her sorrow and pain as she spoke gently to Menma.

Unlike the other children, who all called her Mom, Menma's early maturity gave Yakushi Nonō a bit of a headache.

It was not only because he did not fit in with the other orphans, but also because Menma never called her Mom and only addressed her as Director.

"I'll bring Kabuto back." Menma's little face was utterly serious.

Yakushi Nonō merely assumed that Menma could not accept losing a family member.

She was also comforted. It seemed Menma was not as withdrawn as she had thought; he still had close friends.

"It's all right. Kabuto will come back." Yakushi Nonō crouched down and affectionately stroked Menma's black hair.

Still somewhat puzzled, she remembered that when she had first found this child, his hair had seemed blond. How had it turned black as he grew up?

Late at night, after all the children had fallen fast asleep.

Uzumaki Menma lay on his bed with his eyes closed, listening to the breathing of the children around him as he continuously refined the chakra within his body.

Yet he felt as though there were a bottomless vortex around his stomach, greedily devouring the chakra in his body.

Even with the Uzumaki clan's physical constitution, the chakra he refined could not fill that vortex.

Drip...

The sound of water droplets rang out, and Uzumaki Menma suddenly opened his eyes.

Before him was no longer the Orphanage ceiling, and the beds and peacefully sleeping children around him had vanished as well.

Instead, he found himself in a dim, damp environment. Moisture filled the air, along with an unsettled, restless presence.

Barefoot, Uzumaki Menma stood in shallow water and looked up at a towering iron gate covered in seals.

Behind the iron gate, a dark crimson figure with nine tails slowly approached.

"Nine-Tails, long time no see." Uzumaki Menma softly called out her name as if greeting an old friend.

Only when she came closer did Menma see clearly that what was imprisoned behind the iron gate was a tiny Nine-Tails roughly his own height.

"Menma! Where is this place?!" Little Nine-Tails stretched out both paws and clutched two of the iron bars.

Her dark crimson fur seemed ready to bristle, but Little Nine-Tails's voice was vastly different from Kurama's rough voice. It possessed a feminine softness, and her tone was gentle.

"Well, well. It really is you, Nine-Tails." Menma pressed a hand to his forehead as he looked at the tiny dark crimson Nine-Tails before him, his mind trembling.

Could that world really have been a parallel world that existed?

But if it was a real world, why had he, who had been born there, been rejected by that world?

Menma could no longer tell.

But at least one thing was certain: the Dark Kurama before him had been brought out of the Limited Tsukuyomi World, and she was a girl.

She was the complete opposite of Kurama's tsundere, shut-in personality.

In the Limited Tsukuyomi World, Dark Kurama had not only been gentle in personality, but she had also been extremely close to Menma.

"Menma! It's so dark in here. Hurry up and let me out!" Little Nine-Tails slapped the iron gate.

"If anyone sees you in your Nine-Tails form outside, it'll cause me a lot of trouble." Uzumaki Menma looked up at the seal on the iron gate, though he only said it would be troublesome.

He and Dark Kurama had been excellent partners in the Infinite Tsukuyomi world. During the final battle, Menma had controlled the Nine-Tails to face eighty thousand members of the Shinobi Allied Forces head-on, reenacting Uchiha Madara's "Would you like to dance too?"

"You really do have some strange tastes." Little Nine-Tails said it with her mouth, but her hands were already forming seals.

Transformation Technique!

Poof!

After a burst of smoke, the Little Nine-Tails inside the iron gate transformed into a tiny fox girl.

Barefoot and dressed in a fire-red kimono patterned with designs, she had two fox ears twitching atop her dark crimson hair, while nine fox tails drifted through the air behind her.

"There's so little chakra that I can only transform like this. It will take at least three to five years to fully recover." Little Nine-Tails lowered her head in dissatisfaction to inspect her transformed form, then spoke to Menma.

"But from now on, I won't need to consume your chakra. I can slowly recover and provide chakra for you too."

Looking at the tiny fox girl before him, who could not wait to provide him with chakra, Uzumaki Menma raised a hand and gave her a thumbs-up.

He was already secretly imagining how shocked Naruto and Kurama would be when they saw Dark Kurama more than ten years from now.