Chapter 74
On another section of the battlefield, Mecha-Naruto recuperated just enough energy to re-enter his Mecha-Kurama form. The giant, mechanical fox engages the two dragons in vicious combat in the distance while Echo and Mileena battle Moryo’s last two generals.
“♪ Food, glo~rious food! I’m anxious to try it! ♪” Mileena sings excitedly, her arm transforms into an ax. “♪ Oh, food, wonderful food, marvelous food, glo~rious food! ♪”
The symbiote lunges for one Moryo’s remaining generals and Yomi’s second-in-command, Kusuna, Jin’s will brings down her ax with great strength and speed. The pink-haired medical ninja tries to evade but is not quite fast enough; while Mileena wasn’t able to hit any vital spots, she still managed to hack off his right arm; the severed limb drops to the ground along with a puddle of blood.
“GWAAAAAAAAHHHH!!” Kusuna wails in agony; he falls on one knee, clutching his injury as blood gushes from the wound. “MY ARM! MY ARM!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??!!! AAAIIIIIEEEE!!!!!”
Mileena picks up the severed arm and opens her maw wide, she stuffs it into her mouth and starts chewing. Her tongue is flooded by the taste of iron, dark chakra, and one of Kusuna’s dark medical ninjutsu snakes. The symbiote takes her sweet time swallowing her food with a satisfied look on her face.
“Ooh, your flesh is spicy! Delicious!” Mileena sneers with a seductive tone.
“Anesthetic Jutsu!” A now desperate Kusuna calls out.
A snake created from Yomi’s dark medical ninjutsu burst out of the general’s injury. The creature’s skin is a dark shade of violet with a dark pink scale on its forehead; Mileena is unable to tell whether or not the snake’s aesthetics are alien or demon-like, she just assumes that it is probably both.
The snake strikes Mileena with absurd speed, aiming right for her jugular with the intention of injecting the symbiote with a paralyzing toxin. However, Mileena is faster and quickly grabs the snake by its head and rips it clean off; its rich chakra-infused blood drips from the wound, soaking the ground. The evil medic ninja’s expression is a fusion of pure horror and bewilderment.
“Don’t look so surprised. Even if your pet had actually bit me, its toxins wouldn’t even affect me.” Mileena tilts her head to one side, making an innocent smile.
Kusuna falls back on his rear in a panic. “J-Just what… Just what the hell ARE you?!”
“I am the thing that keeps you up at night, the evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I am the night, I am vengeance, I am your worst nightmare.” The symbiote changes her voice to be deep, brooding.
Mileena takes a step forward; she can see the fear and panic in his eyes. The symbiote takes another step; Kusuna fights through his fear and starts to hurriedly back away. Mileena begins walking at a brisk pace until she stands before the medical ninja, towering over him. She looks down on Kusuna with her glowing red eyes and places her right foot on his left knee and applies pressure until she feels a cracking sensation under her heel followed by a loud popping sound.
“GWEEEH!”
“Whoops! Hey, sorry about that. Looks like I accidentally crushed your leg!” A taunting Mileena sneers as she reaches for him, her sharp claws pierce and dig into his shoulder blade.
“Gwaaaaah…!” The general winces in pain as he is lifted up, his face grows paler and paler with his blood loss.
“And now I’ll accidentally crush your head! Bon appétit!!”
Mileena opens her mouth wide open, bringing the medical ninja closer. The pitch-black tunnel that is the symbiote’s esophagus is the last thing Kusuna ever sees.
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“Whoever you are, you won’t win. Turn back.” Moryo’s second-in-command, Yomi, threatens, brimming with hostility.
I can’t read his mind… Moryo must’ve given him the same telepathic defenses he has. Echo stands his ground, cold and ruthless. “I know he’s nearby. Where is your master?”
The two ninja face each other down, poised to strike. Tremors are felt as Mecha-Kurama battles the two genryu in the background; he grabs the Earth dragon and uses it as a melee weapon, slamming it against the Fire dragon.
Further away in the distance, a large tornado made of black fire with an electric coating forms. The firenado’s dark-orange light illuminates the entire battlefield, but Echo pays it no mind.
“Heh, why would I ever betray Lord Moryo?” The loyal general takes a fighting stance brimming with dark chakra.
“Imagine the world free from the threat of Moryo.”
“Over my dead body.” Angered by Echo’s insolence, Yomi grows defensive.
The evil medical ninja’s chakra drastically increases, becoming denser, more powerful. Yomi’s chakra becomes visible, resembling a faint, black flame that manifests in the form of a feather-shaped array behind the medical ninja and spreads out from behind him like a peacock's tail feathers. Yomi undoes the top of his gray attire and reveals a rock embedded in his chest.
So, he’s using both the dark chakra from the Naruto Shippuden: Bonds movie and the meteorite from the Star Village filler arc… Echo replies with a simple,” Today’s the day skull-fucker.”
Yomi swiftly weaves two hand signs. “Body Activation Jutsu! Ninja Art: Kujaku: Beast!”
Yomi’s appearance changes, becoming more fit in looks, physique changes to be bulky and muscular. The evil medical ninja’s hair grows wild and much longer, his eyebrows become wildly thicker. Yomi’s muscles expand to the point that the clothes on his upper body burst, leaving him bare-chested, with only shreds of the sleeve around his wrists.
As Yomi’s appearance changes, his chakra transforms from peacock feathers to a spectral dog. The chakra beast rushes for Echo, its sharp, ethereal fangs drive into his torso; however, the time-traveler doesn’t even react, he disappears in a puff of smoke.
For a brief moment, Yomi is surprised, but then he immediately senses a chakra signature right behind him. He quickly turns around to see the masked ninja standing a few yards behind him, weaving hand signs.
“Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!”
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Ayanami, Jin, Naruto, and Sasuke’s 4-way combination jutsu lasts only moments before finally dissipating. The Ten-Tails has already detached the pieces of itself that remained on fire, but the behemoth is covered in fourth and fifth degree burns in spite of that; it twitches due to the continued searing pain.
Out of nowhere, a distortion appears on top of the Ten-Tails’ smoldering head in the form of a spiraling void; it swirls until Obito reappears with a gaping hole in his chest. He weakly falls on his back, coughing up blood.
“Guhhh…?! Ack…! Gwah!!” Confused, the Akatsuki leader begins to spasm uncontrollably.
Black receivers painfully blast out of his arm and a black marking appears; it spreads over his body like an infection until it covers half. Obito strains as an unknown power possesses him, forcing him to get up.
“Raaargh…!” Obito moans.
Now propped up on his knees, the Akatsuki leader finds himself slowly weaving hand signs against his will; he struggles to resist it, he is writhing as he battles for his freedom. The very thought of fighting it alone is making Obito feel like his head is splitting open, his muscles feel like they are on fire.
“Ohh… WOOOOOOR--Unngh!!”
Obito is suddenly kicked in the back of the head, he falls off the Ten-Tails, spiraling down. He is able to catch a quick glimpse of his attacker and is thoroughly shocked and bewildered as he sees a pair of Rinnegan staring right back at him.
“C’mon, like we all didn’t see this coming.” A sneering Menma shrugs gleefully.
As Obito continues to plummet, a vision of Rin flashes in his mind that is quickly followed by a suffocating, overwhelming sense of regret.
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WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED??!!! Jin internally screams.
Bearing witness to these unforeseen developments, the Onikage’s surprised and horrified eyes are as wide as saucers; his jaw has dropped to the point that it looks as if it could fall off at any moment.
Jin is so appalled, so taken aback that the thought to stop Menma doesn’t even cross his mind; the evil doppelganger excitedly weaves the Mirrored Ram hand sign, his hair changes from black to white.
“HmmHmm… Hahahahaha…!” Joyous, Menma cackles, he revels in his victory.
Like an earthquake, the ground violently shakes; several ninja in the back stumble and fall over. The Ten-Tails twitches, its tails all recede back into its main body and behemoth itself implodes, sucking Menma in. The Ten-Tails swirls as it is absorbed into Menma faster and faster, it is as if there is a singularity at its core.
Holy fuck, there are no words to describe how bad this is…! Jin finds that he is bracing himself on instinct, he can sense Menma’s chakra growing larger, stronger, more focused.
With a single side glance, Jin knows that Ayanami can tell this shouldn’t be happening.
The tremors come to a complete stop and the air grows still as a white orb is suspended ominously in the sky, its surface looks as smooth as a perfectly round pearl. Cracks begin to form on the sphere, they spread and spread until they cover the entire exterior.
Jin trembles with fear, sweat is practically pouring out of his face. His muscles tense up and he can’t seem to catch his breath; he is hyperventilating. Jin is unsure if he is having another episode or is in a state of fight or flight, he just knows that he is terrified by what is about to happen.
The white orb shatters, revealing a new and improved Menma: the doppelganger’s skin becomes gray, and his hair turns bleach white. Menma is now cloaked with a complete outfit composed of chakra, with a pattern of six magatama below his neck and a pattern similar to The Sage of Six Paths on his back. Menma has also gained two horns on his forehead; ten black orbs manifest behind him.
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The evil doppelganger opens his eyes, revealing the new him to this strange and different world. He looks down and coldly glares at all of his enemies, these counterparts are in some ways similar and in some ways different to the people he knows. When he looks at his counterpart, every hair on Menma’s body stands up, his skin crawls, and his gut wrenches.
Menma slowly descends to the point that he knows the four standing before him can hear his words.
“I’m overflowing with power… Unlimited power!” Menma takes one of his orbs and has it morph into a shakujo; he wields the staff like he has had it all of his life.
With the greatest of ease, Menma creates five crimson red chakra arms. Faster than the blink of an eye the arms all scatter in five directions, their ethereal fingers dig into each side of the previous Hokages’ Four Crimson Ray Formation. With a simple tug, Menma tears apart their barrier.
Everyone stops in their tracks as they are in awe of the doppelganger’s display of strength, the entire battlefield goes dead silent. No one is moving, no one is fighting, some are cowering in fear.
“I believe that was a good enough demonstration… try all the jutsu you wish, but I’ll break through… Hmm?” Menma’s attention immediately shifts, focusing on Jin and Ayanami.
As he is now the Ten-Tails’ jinchuriki, both Menma’s visual prowess and sensory abilities have increased to ridiculous levels. He now knows these two specific ninjas are hiding immense power behind a facade, their power rivals his own. Menma starts to shake with rage.
“Look, I’ll be blunt… This guy is much stronger than I am.” Hashirama says, appearing with the other three Hokages.
The Hokages all take flexible battle stances, allowing them to switch between offensive and defensive maneuvers on the fly.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of freaky power he’s gotten; we’ll still stop him!!” Naruto declares.
“I’ve seen what you can do with YOUR Kurama.” Menma’s attention returns to Naruto, a twisted and unhinged smile forms on his face. “If you can do it, so can I.”
In a flash of orange light, Menma’s hair changes from white to a golden yellow, the whisker-like markings on his face become thicker, resembling the ☰ trigram. His white cloak gains a golden yellow coating over it; it flickers like flames. His skin does not glow along with the rest of his outfit.
“Hey, Faker! Weren’t you babbling some nonsense about how grateful your friends are here?”
Not waiting for a response, Menma charges at the group and flies past them. The doppelganger flies over the warring armies, he diligently searches for Naruto’s closest confidants, his eyes darting from one person to the next. He scours the battlefield until finds the first of his chosen victims.
Menma descends like a meteor, landing; he creates a small crater the instant his feet touch the ground. Menma stands menacingly in front of a young man with messy brown hair and distinctive red fang markings on his cheeks. The young man also has a large, white dog that resembles a Great Pyrenees at his side.
“Grrrr!!” The dog growls with its fangs bare, it stares at Menma with a low head carriage.
“You’re the Kiba of this world, right? Time to meet your maker!” Menma greets with a maniacal smile.
The evil Naruto lunges for Kiba; the dog user attempts to dodge, but he just is nowhere near fast enough. Menma grabs Kiba by his neck and hoists him into the air, he slowly tightens his grip.
“Urk!” Kiba tries to speak.
As Menma increases his hold on the dog tamer, Kiba thrashes around in a desperate attempt to free himself. Kiba tries to punch and kick his assailant, but Menma doesn’t even react as he feels none of it. The strength behind Kiba’s attacks quickly ebb and weaken, his head begins to swell, and his face turns purple with his eyes bulging out of their sockets; Menma can see the blood vessels in Kiba’s eyes begin to break.
“*woof* *woof* *woof*!!!” Akamaru barks, leaping at his master’s attacker.
“Mangy mutt.” The doppelganger’s staff morphs into a katana.
Menma briskly raises his sword and brings it down on the dog with great force. Akamaru limply falls to the ground with his head rolling off to the side with blood gushing out of the wound, a scarlet puddle forms under the dog’s body.
Kiba’s head continues to swell and swell until it resembles a grape; blood spurts from the veins in his forehead and runs down his nose. Menma tightens his grip further, he continues to compress until the dog tamer’s head finally gives, it explodes, squirting blood everywhere.
Menma drops Kiba's body and kicks it away; the body is sent flying off into the distance. While Menma revels in his actions, everyone who saw what just happened all now wear looks of horror and disgust. The doppelganger turns his attention to the crowd before him, he wears a proud smile.
Menma opens his arms welcomingly and sneers, “Ahem… Now then… Who’s next?”