Chapter 4: Lord Pot Shadow Doesn't Mind a Few More Pots

In the orphanage at night, when Uzumaki Menma opened his eyes again, he had returned to reality from the spiritual world.

Feeling the chakra flowing endlessly through his meridians, Menma felt his entire body brimming with power.

With his Uzumaki clan physique, it had taken him three years to accumulate enough chakra for the "Little Nine-Tails." However, with the birth of the Little Nine-Tails, Menma’s chakra no longer had to be absorbed by this bottomless pit.

In fact, he could even request chakra from the Little Nine-Tails.

"Xiao Jiu, give me some chakra," Menma communicated with the Little Nine-Tails internally.

"I'll give you enough for one Tailed Beast Bomb first; I don't have much left myself." The Little Nine-Tails somewhat reluctantly shared her meager supply of chakra with Menma.

For a Tailed Beast in its normal state, the chakra required for one Tailed Beast Bomb was merely a drop in the bucket, but for the current Little Nine-Tails, it was nearly half of her total reserves.

However, this amount of chakra already exceeded the total chakra capacity of the vast majority of elite jonin.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Menma formed a few hand seals.

*Poof!*

After a puff of smoke, a shadow clone of Menma appeared beside the bed.

After exchanging a nod with his shadow clone, Menma carefully climbed out of bed, while the shadow clone took his place, lying down.

Menma then walked to the window, but after opening it, he didn't jump out immediately.

Instead, he utilized the Little Nine-Tails' chakra to activate "Malice Sensing."

The Little Nine-Tails, who had come from the "Road to Ninja" world, was viewed by the people of that world as a manifestation of "hatred, loathing, and betrayal," making her perception of good and evil extremely keen.

Having obtained the Little Nine-Tails' chakra, Menma had become highly proficient in the "Malice Sensing" ability.

Given that during the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Nine-Tails could sense malicious chakra across the entire main battlefield, what was the range of "Malice Sensing"?

"Found you!" Without time to overthink, Menma used "Malice Sensing" to detect malicious chakra inside a large tree less than ten meters from the orphanage.

A White Zetsu was monitoring the orphanage.

To avoid disturbing the children in the orphanage and his foster mother, Yakushi Nonō, Menma climbed out the window, closed it, and then quickly used the Body Flicker Technique to approach.

Purple lightning-attribute chakra condensed on his palm, enveloping his right hand and forming a jutsu similar to a chakra scalpel.

This was one of the many ninjutsu Menma had studied in the "Road to Ninja" world.

In order to escape that world, Uzumaki Menma had not only captured the jinchūriki of various nations but had also collected many secret techniques and ninjutsu, possessing a vast wealth of knowledge.

*Zzzzzzt—*

The purple lightning on his right hand emitted a soft chirping sound as Menma thrust his hand directly through the tree.

"Ah!!!" A scream erupted from the tree, which was thick enough to require at least three people to encircle.

"You..." A completely white figure was dragged out of the tree by Menma, its pale face filled with terror.

This White Zetsu couldn't understand how the brat he had been monitoring for over two years had discovered him, let alone how he could perform such a terrifying jutsu.

White Zetsu had very weak combat ability; after being pierced through in one strike, it died on the spot, leaving behind only a white corpse.

"Too bad I don't have a storage scroll." Menma hoisted the White Zetsu corpse onto his shoulder and headed quickly toward Konoha Village.

As he sprinted between the trees, Menma carried the corpse with one hand while forming hand seals with the other, casting a Transformation Jutsu to restore his appearance from the "Road to Ninja" world.

Beneath short, black hair, a white three-eyed fox mask covered his handsome face. He wore a long black robe with a white fur collar, red bandages wrapped around his arms and feet, and fingerless gloves.

The overall color scheme was dark, standing in stark contrast to Uzumaki Naruto’s sunny orange outfit.

"Menma, what is this guy?" The Little Nine-Tails lay on Menma’s shoulder, poking her small head out from between the white fur collars.

Looking at the white creature Menma was carrying, she felt an instinctive disgust.

She had never seen such a thing in the "Road to Ninja" world.

"A White Zetsu, just a tragic person from the era of the God Tree whose chakra and life force were drained away."

As he spoke, Menma had already reached the outskirts of the village. Through Malice Sensing, he discovered another White Zetsu hiding inside a large tree, seemingly staring toward the main gate of Konoha.

'It seems Black Zetsu has deployed quite a few White Zetsu in Konoha.' Menma recalled that ever since Uchiha Madara’s death, a corrupted Obito should have begun keeping an eye on Konoha.

Aside from the Hyūga clan compound, which possessed the Byakugan, there must be a significant number of White Zetsu hidden in the village, especially in the Uchiha clan’s district.

While pondering, Menma had already rushed to the tree hiding the White Zetsu. With a chakra-infused hand blade, he severed the tree, cutting the White Zetsu inside in half as well.

Taking the corpses with him, he continued forward.

He had to find a way to clear out the White Zetsu lurking around the orphanage to make his own activities easier; being monitored by them constantly was not a pleasant feeling.

But he couldn't alert Uchiha Obito or Black Zetsu, so he had to shift the blame.

Konoha in the dead of night was quiet and peaceful.

Menma emerged from a ninja tool shop, jumped onto a rooftop, and gazed toward the Hokage Rock, taking in the entire night view of Konoha.

He no longer had the White Zetsu corpses, but he had several storage scrolls.

He had also swiped quite a few ninja tools from the shop; he estimated they were worth about the price of Asuma’s head.

"This shop wouldn't happen to be Tenten's, would it?" Menma always felt the location of this shop was somewhat familiar.

'Forget it, I'll pay them back if I get the chance.' Not dwelling on such trivial matters, Menma turned his gaze toward the Hokage Rock.

'If I remember correctly, the Root base is right beneath the Hokage Rock.'

Menma leaped, jumping continuously across the rooftops of Konoha.

'It seems I need to develop the Nine Masks of Suvarnaprabhasa as soon as possible.'

Menma missed the flight ability granted to him by the "Heavenly Maiden" of the Nine Masks.

The original forms of the Nine Masks were foxes, and the Nine Masks of Suvarnaprabhasa was a summoning jutsu developed based on the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Therefore, he could only develop those nine summoning beasts with the help of the Little Nine-Tails.

Menma wove through Konoha, using his high mobility and Malice Sensing to evade the village's more perceptive ninja, clearing out two White Zetsu hidden beneath the Hokage Rock.

However, he didn't clear out all the White Zetsu he found; he only cleared the path from the Hokage Rock to the orphanage.

He figured Lord "Pot-Shadow" wouldn't mind taking on a few more pots.

By the time Obito and Black Zetsu reacted, Menma should already be living on his own.

Finished with his work, Menma felt hungry and decided to find something to eat.

Menma landed in a small alley, used a Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as an ordinary black-haired boy, and stepped out of the alley into the Ichiraku Ramen shop.

"Hey, hey, I heard the war is ending, peace is coming, right?"

"The Cloud Village envoys arrived yesterday, and the Third Hokage is hosting a banquet for them personally. This war should be coming to an end." Two ninja chatted while slurping their ramen.

'Cloud Village envoys?' Menma sat down nearby.

That’s right, this year is Konoha 54, and the war between the Cloud Village and Konoha Village ended in this year as well.