Naruto: I'm in Konoha, my name is Uzumaki Menma

Chapter 206 How could a mother not recognize her own child?

Om-!
Inside the laboratory, centered on that precious vortex Kushina cell tissue, the dark blue rune array suddenly burst forth with dazzling light!

The light carried a chilling and ominous quality that penetrated to the bone.

The air twisted violently, and countless grayish-white substances, like the ashes of burnt paper money, appeared out of nowhere!
These substances, as if drawn by an invisible vortex, surged wildly toward the rogue ninja in the center of the laboratory!

"Uhhh-!!!"

The rogue ninja named Shizo suddenly convulsed!
A distorted expression of extreme pain and fear appeared on his face!
His throat emitted incoherent, deathly screams, and his body began to melt and decompose as if it had been thrown into a wax figure with strong acid!
Skin, muscles, and bones, enveloped and eroded by ash, melted away as quickly as snow under the sun!
The ashes grew thicker and thicker, surging like living things!
They greedily devoured the remaining human remains, emitting a sickening hissing sound.

The dust churned and writhed, taking shape as if it were alive.

Gradually, her long limbs, full breasts, and slender waist were outlined.

Finally, a woman's face gradually became clear amidst the swirling gray dust.

His pale blue pupils contracted slightly as he stared intently at this forbidden scene that reversed life and death and desecrated the dead.

This was the first time he had truly used the Impure World Reincarnation technique himself, and the cold, repulsive feeling originating from the soul level made even him feel a little uncomfortable.

The lamplight cast flickering shadows on his young face.

The vortex of ashes gradually subsided.

The light dimmed.

Inside the laboratory, the rogue ninja named Shizo had vanished without a trace.

Instead, a figure stood quietly.

Her waist-length red hair, as red as burning flames, was still dazzling under the cold lights.

His features were strikingly handsome, but his skin had a lifeless, ashen color, like aged clay.

What was most striking were the fine, spiderweb-like black cracks covering her face, neck, and bare arms, like delicate porcelain that had been broken and then barely pieced back together.

She had her eyes closed and was wearing a simple green dress, the kind of clothing worn by the deceased during their lifetime when they were resurrected through Edo Tensei.

Uzumaki Kushina.

To return to the world in the body of the dead.

My heart, which had been numb, skipped a beat uncontrollably in my chest.

An indescribable, complex emotion instantly gripped him.

Is it the thrill of a long-awaited reunion?

Is it guilt for desecrating the dead?

Or was it the unexpected heartache that welled up when he saw this "broken pottery figurine"?
He subconsciously pursed his lips, and deep within his azure eyes surged waves of emotion that even he himself could not fathom.

Just then, the long eyelashes of the "ceramic doll" trembled, and it slowly opened its eyes.

The strange gray sclera characteristic of the Impure World Reincarnation, with empty and blank pupils, like dusty glass beads.

She stiffly turned her neck, looking around the cold, unfamiliar, and technologically advanced laboratory, her eyes filled with a sense of alienation and estrangement from the "world of the living."

Until her gaze fell upon the black-haired boy in front of her, who was quietly gazing at her.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The empty gray eyes of the reanimated imp, upon seeing the boy's face, suddenly rippled violently like stagnant water with a stone thrown in!

The bewilderment faded, replaced by incredulous astonishment, and then, a pure and fervent joy erupted like a volcano!
"Men... Menma?!" Kushina's voice was hoarse from just waking up, but it was filled with excitement and disbelief that was almost overflowing.

She even subconsciously took a step forward, and her ashen face seemed to radiate a faint glimmer of life because of this extreme emotion.

"Is that you? Menma?! Oh my god...you've grown so much?!"

Her voice echoed in the cold laboratory, carrying an unreal warmth.

Mianma's body trembled!
It was as if I had been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning!

His azure pupils contracted instantly, filled with shock and a hint of panic that was even greater than when he saw the Impure World Reincarnation succeed!
why? !

His current appearance is the result of a carefully maintained transformation technique!

It simulates what he would look like when he grows up to be fifteen years old in the "Limited Tsukuyomi" fictional world!
Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze from that world have long since vanished with the collapse of that world!
The woman before him, summoned by the Impure World Reincarnation, is his real mother, who died shortly after his birth!
How could she...?

You recognized him at a glance?!

Just as Menma was trembling and his thoughts were in chaos, Kushina, filled with the ecstasy of having found her lost son, opened her arms and wanted to embrace him after so many years!
Her ashen face was even distorted by the black cracks that stretched across it with excitement, but the longing in her eyes was undeniably real.

However, just as she was about to touch the numbness.

Menma's body, like a startled cat, suddenly took a big step back!

Kushina's outstretched arms froze in the cold air.

The fingertips were less than an inch away from the hempen collar, yet it felt as if there was an insurmountable chasm between them.

The laboratory was deathly silent.

Only the hum of the operating instruments sounded particularly jarring.

The ecstatic light on Kushina's face faded quickly, like a flame extinguished by cold water, eventually solidifying into a deep-seated sense of loss and sorrow.

Those eyes, shrouded in a grey halo, stared incredulously at Menma, filled with pain and bewilderment.

She slowly, tremblingly, lowered her arm, which had been frozen in mid-air, her voice thick with nasal congestion and a wounded tremor: "Menma... do you... do you still hate Mom and Dad? Hate us for not protecting you and Naruto... hate us for letting you... wander outside for so many years..."

These words, like a blunt knife, pierced Mianma's heart.

He forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart and forced himself to calm down.

He took a deep breath, the icy air piercing his lungs, making his voice sound unusually dry and calm:

"Hate? No."

He paused, his deep blue eyes meeting Kushina's pained gaze, and posed the core question that had shattered his composure: "I just don't understand. Why? How could you recognize me? My current appearance... isn't real."

She tilted her head slightly, trying to force a reassuring smile, though the smile appeared particularly fragile beneath the cracks in the filthy earth.

She looked into Menma's deep blue eyes, which appeared exceptionally profound under the cold light, and the sorrowful expression on her face was replaced by a maternal tenderness and insight.

“Silly child,” her voice softened, with a matter-of-fact certainty, “because of your eyes.”

"Eyes?" Mianma frowned.

Kushina leaned forward slightly, as if wanting to examine him more closely, while Menma maintained his distance.

"Your eyes are very similar to Naruto's, both are a beautiful blue, like a clear sky." Kushina's lips curled into a nostalgic smile, which was then tinged with a unique sharpness.

“But, Menma, your eyes… are deeper, more… complex, holding so much within them. And…”

Her voice lowered, carrying a hint of barely perceptible pride and heartache: "When you were born, you were different from other children. I saw other newborns in the maternity ward of Konoha Hospital, and they were all crying loudly. Only you opened your eyes so quietly, without crying or making a fuss. Your dark, round eyes just looked at me and your father so quietly... At that time, I knew that my Menma was a very, very special child."

"Your eyes, your mother will never forget."

boom!
Kushina's words struck Menma's mind like a second thunderbolt!

The details Kushina described, that unusual "quietness" and "gaze" from an ordinary baby, were like a key that instantly unlocked the most secret gate in the depths of his memory!
Memories of my birth flooded back, a torrent of fragmented images rushing to my mind!

Menma's breathing became heavy, and he subconsciously avoided Kushina's gaze, as if that gaze carried a scorching heat.

A strong urge to confide, a loneliness and confusion that had been building up for fifteen years plus seven, surged in his heart like a flood breaking through a dam!
"...I did not wander off." Menma's voice was low and muffled, carrying a weariness from traversing a long period of time. He began to weave a lie that was half true and half false.

"The day I was born... that mysterious person who attacked Konoha, his Sharingan genjutsu..."

He raised his head and looked at Kushina again, his deep blue eyes like an unfathomable pool.

"They've trapped me in a magic world called 'Limited Tsukuyomi'—"

"A full fifteen years!"

He began to speak.

The voice was calm, yet like a cold stream, washing over Kushina's heart as a mother.

He described that false yet incredibly "real" world: it contained Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, the complete Konoha, familiar companions, and the rules that governed the entire world.

He was born and raised there, and had a seemingly complete family and childhood.

The love of parents, the companionship of friends…

Everything is so real.

"But! I know it's fake! It's all fake!" Menma's tone suddenly turned cold, with a sharp, self-deprecating edge. "From the moment I gained consciousness, I knew. The light and shadow of that world carried an indescribable 'falseness'."

"I spent fifteen years... a full fifteen years! searching for a way out."

He paused, a hint of ruthlessness in his voice that he himself didn't even realize: "I captured Jinchuriki from various ninja villages, attacked the Five Great Ninja Villages, stirred up conflict, and sowed the seeds of war and fear! I didn't hesitate to start the Fourth Shinobi World War in that world, fighting alone against an allied ninja army of 80,000!"

"Use the most extreme methods to shake the very foundations of that world!"

"In the end... it rejected me, and that's how I was able to leave."

Kushina listened quietly, her grey eyes, resurrected through Edo Tensei, trembling violently with Menma's narration, filled with indescribable sorrow.

Menma's madness—to break down falsehoods and become an enemy of the whole world!

Kushina, as a mother, was shocked and heartbroken, and deeply regretted Minato's choice back then.

“That world’s… mother,” Menma’s gaze fell on Kushina’s ashen face, a comparison tinged with a hint of dazedness: “She… has a personality very similar to yours. Optimistic, cheerful, strong-willed, and fierce when angry; everyone calls her ‘Red Hot Chili Pepper’.”

"Pfft..." Kushina couldn't help but laugh out loud. The laugh stretched the cracks on her face, making her look a little strange, but it revealed genuine joy: "That really is exactly like me!"

The laughter was short and dry, carrying a heavy bitterness.

Menma's eyes grew even deeper as he continued, each word like an ice pick: "But... my father in that world, Minato Namikaze... he didn't become the Fourth Hokage. He chose... to be an ordinary ninja, protecting his family. Just a... Jonin with decent strength."

His voice was devoid of emotion, yet it made Kushina's heart sink.

Kushina finally understood.

I finally understood where the lingering alienation and confusion in my son's eyes came from.

I understand why he was so silent about the role of "father".

In that fabricated world, he possessed a "complete" and "family-oriented" father.

In reality... Minato sacrificed himself for the village and to seal the Nine-Tails, putting Menma and Naruto in grave danger...

Overwhelmed by immense guilt and heartache, Kushina was plunged into despair.

She could no longer hold back. Her resurrected body seemed to break free from some invisible restraint, and she took a step forward. This time, disregarding Menma's possible resistance, she opened her arms and hugged him tightly!

The cold, dusty embrace was not warm, but unusually tight.

"I'm sorry... Menma... I'm sorry..." Kushina's voice choked, and tears could not flow from her impure body, but the intense sorrow and self-blame were clearly conveyed.

"It's all your parents' fault... We failed to protect you and Naruto... leaving you alone... struggling alone in that terrible place... for fifteen years..."

She held him tightly, as if she wanted to knead all the debts and longing of the past fifteen years into this embrace.

This time, Menma's body only stiffened for a moment, but he did not retreat.

He let Kushina hold him, her red hair falling down, covering his face and obscuring his eyes.

His straight back looked unusually lonely in Kushina's embrace.

"I..." Menma's voice came from Kushina's shoulder, muffled, carrying a deep weariness and confusion.

"I can't tell anymore. I can't tell which world is real and which is fake. I can't tell... which 'Kushina Uzumaki' and 'Minato Namikaze' my feelings for you belong to."

He seemed to be stating an objective fact, yet it also revealed a great deal of inner turmoil and inner conflict.

His fifteen years of "real" experience in a fake world, coupled with the cold and cruel truth of the real world, tore his emotions and cognition to pieces.

Kushina's arms, which were holding her son, trembled slightly.

She released her embrace, cupped his numb face in her hands, and forced him to look directly into her eyes, which were tinged with a gray halo but filled with endless maternal tenderness.

“Menma, you’re wrong.” Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a power that pierced through the fog: “That world might be a cage created by the enemy using illusion magic, it’s an illusion! But—”

She spoke each word slowly and deliberately, her voice like a heavy hammer striking Mianma's soul:
"Your parents' love for you has never been fake!"

"No matter which world!"

"Illusions can create environments and distort perceptions, but they cannot create a 'real' emotion out of thin air! The love that Kushina and Minato had for you in that world was real! It stemmed from the instinct of 'our' souls! It was the kinship etched in our blood!"

Boom! ! !

These words, like the third and most powerful thunderclap, cleaved open the thick layer of ice in Menma's heart called "doubt" and "rupture"!

His deep blue pupils suddenly dilated, filled with an unprecedented and violent tremor!
Kushina's words were like a key, instantly unlocking the most turbulent floodgates in the depths of her memory!
In the limited Tsukuyomi world—

Kushina taught him the complex sealing techniques of the Uzumaki clan, from the most basic chakra control to the exquisite Adamantine Sealing Technique.

She was always loud and boisterous. If he made a mistake in a hand seal, she would tap his head lightly with a rolled-up book, shouting, "You idiot! You should do it like this!" But there was no impatience in her eyes, only full of expectation and encouragement.

He remembered the first time he successfully condensed a chakra chain, she excitedly picked him up and spun him around, her red hair flying, her laughter echoing throughout the training ground.

Minato Namikaze would squeeze out time to take him to the training ground in the suburbs between his busy regular missions.

I accompanied him to the training ground to practice Flying Thunder God Kunai and Rasengan, again and again, without getting tired of it.

In the sunset, the father's blond hair was dyed a warm orange-red, and his smile was gentle and tolerant: "Don't rush, Menma. Space-time ninjutsu requires 'feeling,' not brute force. Remember, where the heart leads, the body follows."

Hinata, the leader of the group, stood with her hands on her hips, beating the upperclassman who had bullied her until he was bruised and swollen. Then she turned back to him and gave him a bright and domineering smile: "I'll protect you from now on!"

The dark nine-tailed fox popped out from his scarf and snatched his three-colored dumplings. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up. The little fox angrily waved her little hands in protest: "You big idiot! This fox master wants to eat sweets!"

Those vivid and lively images, those emotions imbued with warmth…

Are all of these... fake?
If love is a lie, why are the details of those teachings so real?
Why is that look of satisfaction and pride so unforgettable?

Why is Hinata's love for him and her dependence on the Nine-Tails so vivid?

Looking at her son's violently wavering eyes, Kushina seemed to understand the turbulent waves surging within him.

A gentle, insightful smile appeared on her ashen face as she continued softly:

"Although Mom doesn't know exactly what that illusionary world looks like, I imagine... an illusion so vast, so real, that you could even live in it for fifteen years..."

She paused, looking intently at Mianma: "Everything it constructs, the 'us' it portrays, the emotions it contains... perhaps, are the most authentic and most desired reflection of your deepest... heart."

A true reflection of one's innermost desires...?

Om-!
Menma's mind seemed to be completely ignited by this sentence!
After a blank period, an unprecedentedly violent storm erupted!
Could it be... could it be that world...?

It wasn't entirely controlled by Obito's Sharingan genjutsu?
Is it...

That incredibly "real" limited-time Tsukuyomi that lasted for fifteen years...

It was me... deep in my subconscious...

To escape the cruel reality of being reborn into the Naruto world…

The instant he was hit by Obito's genjutsu... combined with the genjutsu power of his Sharingan... self-hypnosis... a self-constructed illusion?!
A haven for the soul born from his deepest desires and fears?

"I think... therefore I am...?" Menma unconsciously murmured this ancient philosophical maxim, his voice dry and hoarse, carrying a sense of shock that overturned his understanding.

He recalled the birth of Dark Nine-Tails when he was in the orphanage.

He was only three years old at the time, and he once thought that the little guy had appeared after absorbing his chakra for three years.

Perhaps it also stemmed from his endless negative emotions and loneliness.

He recalled the emergence of Hinata's personality, the fiery, straightforward second personality who made no attempt to hide her affection for him.

Is that also a subconscious longing for "pure love" or even XP?

All the clues are frantically connecting and colliding at this moment!
The high-intensity emergency lights on the top of the laboratory seemed unable to withstand the sudden surge of mental impact and the unconscious, violent fluctuations of chakra. They suddenly emitted a piercing crackling sound, and a blinding red light flashed inside the tubes. Then, with several muffled thuds, they exploded one after another!

Countless tiny shards of glass fell like crimson hailstones!

The entire core laboratory was instantly enveloped by a shattered and blinding blood-red emergency light!

The light leaped and twisted wildly on Kushina's numb and stiff body, on her cracked, reanimated form, and on the cold reflection of the alloy wall!
After struggling out of Kushina's arms, Menma seemed to have all his strength drained away. He staggered back a step, his back slamming heavily against the cold alloy wall with a dull thud.

He slowly raised his right hand, trembling, and touched his right cheek little by little.

That handsome face with freckles and pockmarks that belonged to a fifteen-year-old.

At this moment, however, his face no longer held any of its usual composure, calmness, and confidence; only bewilderment and vulnerability brought on by the immense shock remained.

Those blue eyes, deeper and calmer than Naruto's, trembled violently at that moment, with turbulent waves surging deep within their pupils, reflecting the shattered and scarlet light filling the room.

'Therefore, the so-called "limited Tsukuyomi world" was never an illusion created by Obito; it was myself...it was myself...'

(End of this chapter)