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*****
Three years later.
Konoha Orphanage.
"Menma, here is your food for tonight. No being a picky eater, okay?" Nonō Yakushi was distributing food to the children one by one. A few older children were helping by her side, including the bespectacled Kabuto Yakushi.
"Oh." The three-year-old Menma, wearing somewhat ill-fitting clothes, accepted the meal tray with an expressionless face.
"You child, remember to say thank you. Have some manners!" Nonō Yakushi felt a bit exasperated, but she lectured Menma in a very gentle tone.
"Thank you, Director." Menma sighed and gave Nonō Yakushi a slight bow.
She was, after all, the foster mother providing him with food and shelter. Though her care came with nagging, it still made Menma feel a bit of warmth in his heart.
Kabuto Yakushi, helping nearby, also said with a smile, "Go on and eat, Menma."
Three years had passed, but Menma Uzumaki, having emerged from the "Limited Tsukuyomi World," was still somewhat maladjusted, constantly fearing that this world might be fake as well. This psychological aftereffect had been torturing him incessantly.
He stared at the current Kabuto Yakushi, who was so gentle toward his younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage, and felt he was worlds apart from the "Spy Kabuto" in his memories.
I stayed in the Limited Tsukuyomi world for fifteen years and lost many memories. When exactly was Kabuto taken away by Danzo, and when did Nonō Yakushi die?
Menma felt that those fifteen years weren't a dream, but a genuine experience of fifteen years, which left him feeling a bit paranoid now.
Across from him, Kabuto felt a bit uneasy under Menma's gaze, wondering what this usually taciturn younger brother was thinking again.
Compared to the other orphans, Menma had always been very quiet. He didn't cry or throw tantrums as an infant, and while other children were still wetting the bed, Menma was already able to help look after the others. He was just a bit withdrawn, always looking at everyone with a strange light in his eyes.
Menma carried his tray and found a random table to sit at. When the other orphans saw him coming, they shifted their seats away. It wasn't that they were isolating him; they just felt uneasy around him. In the past, some children tried to ask him to play, but he refused. After it happened enough times, no one wanted to play with him anymore.
Menma was used to being alone. In the Limited Tsukuyomi world, he had an instinctive rejection of his surroundings, creating a barrier between himself and his peers—and even his "parents"—in that world.
Furthermore, Menma knew that Nonō Yakushi and Kabuto would soon be transferred away by the Root organization. Danzo might even select some people from the orphanage to join Root for cruel training or even human experimentation.
Therefore, he had to increase his strength as quickly as possible! He had no desire to be selected for Root by that "Godfather of Scapegoats," Danzo.
"Menma." While he was lost in thought, a soft call sounded beside him.
Menma didn't need to look back to know it was Kabuto. Holding a tray, Kabuto sat down next to him. Assuming the role of an older brother with natural ease, he picked up a piece of meat from his tray and placed it on Menma's.
"Hmm?" Menma turned his head in surprise.
"I see you finish your food completely every time. You must be growing fast and getting hungry easily; I'll share some with you." Wearing his glasses, Kabuto spoke to Menma gently, mimicking the Director's tone and mannerisms. He then proceeded to give half of his meat to Menma.
Looking at the extra pieces of meat on his tray, Menma felt a sense of unreality.
When he watched Naruto in his past life, Kabuto was already that cold, calculating "Spy Kabuto" who was a master of disguise. Yet in the "Limited Tsukuyomi World," there had been no sign of Kabuto, nor had he heard the name Nonō Yakushi.
If the Limited Tsukuyomi world was a parallel universe as netizens in his previous life speculated, they should have existed there. But there was another theory: the Limited Tsukuyomi world is constructed based on the cognition of the caster and the target, so things beyond their knowledge wouldn't appear.
This was exactly why Menma had suffered a mental breakdown in that world. He knew he was in a fake Limited Tsukuyomi world. Kushina and Minato's gentle home and the reversed personalities of the Konoha 11 made every one of his senses tell him that the world was real.
But there was no Madara Uchiha, no Sage of the Six Paths—which meant that fake world had no past and no future!
Menma Uzumaki couldn't tell. He really couldn't tell anymore!
"Why are you so good to me?" Menma lowered his head, his voice trembling slightly. He was so afraid that this world was also a fake. In his memories, Kabuto Yakushi should be a sinister, cold enemy. But now, he was concerned about Menma's physical growth like a real big brother.
"We're brothers, isn't it only right to help each other?" Kabuto's youthful voice carried a hint of confusion. Everyone in the orphanage was family and should help one another; this was the ideology the Director had always instilled in them.
"If I'm ever in trouble, Menma will help me too, right?" Kabuto squinted and smiled at Menma. Under Nonō's influence, Kabuto cared deeply for the children here, because this was his home.
"Trouble..." Menma thought of the future and the fate of Nonō and Kabuto. In this world, he had lost his biological parents and was discarded at the orphanage by Obito; Nonō and these children were his family now.
The fact that no one had come to investigate the extra orphan from the night of the Nine-Tails in three years suggested that the Third Hokage likely didn't know Kushina had given birth to twins. He had kept his distance to avoid affecting the original plot. But this cautious mindset, born of a fear of the butterfly effect, wavered under Kabuto's kindness.
At worst, I'll just treat this as a second fake world. Menma relaxed his mind, looked up at Kabuto, and said seriously, "I will help solve the troubles you encounter."
Having stayed in the orphanage for three years, Menma was still unsure of the outside world's situation. But for the Director's kindness in taking him in and for this meal from Kabuto, he didn't mind changing the future of Nonō Yakushi and Kabuto.
Kabuto was a bit taken aback by Menma's seriousness, but he soon smiled again.
"Director, Lord Danzo is looking for you." A woman from the orphanage suddenly found Nonō, who was watching the children eat.
Upon hearing that name, the gentle smile on Nonō's face vanished instantly.
"I see. Watch the children; remember to take them to sleep early after dinner." After giving some instructions, Nonō turned and left the cafeteria.
The dozens of other children eating didn't notice anything unusual. Only Kabuto and Menma sensed the anomaly. Kabuto put down his tray and secretly followed her.
Menma watched Kabuto's small silhouette leave the cafeteria, picked up the pieces of meat with his chopsticks, and ate them in large gulps. He was growing, and his energy consumption was massive because he was refining more chakra.
Menma had a faint suspicion that something was sucking away the chakra he refined, which was why his efforts over the years had shown no results. He had a vague guess.
It seemed he had brought something out with him from the "Limited Tsukuyomi World."
(End of Chapter)