Chapter 4: The Awakening of the Prince
(LONG CHAPTER)
Little by little, Menma regained consciousness.
He was tied a couple of meters above the ground on what appeared to be a wooden post inside a small cave in the middle of the extensive forest surrounding the village.
He was gagged, and the spiked cable ties that held him back dug painfully into his skin.
For the first time in Menma's life, he felt fear.
His normally cold blue eyes now had a touch of panic in them.
"Look, the demon spawn finally woke up …."
The four Ninjas looked with dark amusement at the result of their work.
They now had the Kitsune in their hands and would avenge everything he had taken from them.
"Hmm ...!"
Menma tried to struggle, but he only managed to hurt himself by digging in more of the spikes.
He had never been in so much pain, and tears ran out of his eyes uncontrollably.
Hikari approached, already without the special clay disguising his face.
"Hahaha... look, the beast is capable of crying."
Menma tried to stop crying and gave an icy glare.
"Don't be cheeky, you fucking monster!"
Sora yelled as she slapped him on the left cheek.
"Don't glare at me, you monster!"
"But look at that … This filthy abomination is capable of suffering."
Koushirou, without her mask on, was coldly observing how the little one stirred due to pain
"Well, I think it's time to start."
Jyou approached with sinister delight at the helpless little boy wielding a Kunai.
"Go ahead," The leader whispered.
Tachikawa was the first to attack the little boy, driving the Kunai into his shoulder until the hardness of the bone stopped him.
The poor little boy squirmed horribly from the excruciating pain, and his suppressed sobs could not lessen his suffering.
He looked at his victimizers, entirely overwhelmed by fear, bewilderment, and, most of all, hatred.
He hadn't done anything to them, so he didn't understand why they were hurting him. They hated him just like everybody else did.
His parents thought he didn't see the glares from everybody, but he did. He was stared at with hatred and looked down on everywhere he went.
He tried to withhold the pain as they continued.
"Why don't you cry, you damn spawn!"
Not caring that the spikes of the bindings hurt him, Hikari landed a violent blow to his stomach, which took the air out of him.
That childlike face suffering and trying to hold in tears from the pain and terror made them feel such pleasure.
And that was reason enough to be more cruel to that abomination.
Using an attachment of artificial claws, the Mochizuki gently scratched the right cheek of the almost unconscious Menma, who felt the blood drain from his arm penetrated by the Kunai.
For the same reason, he was visibly frightened by those claws that subtly cut into his skin, but inside, he was much calmer.
He was too hurt, and the blood he was losing was reflected as intense dizziness.
He practically stopped feeling pain and was trying to think of a way out when suddenly, Koushirou stuck the claws into his skin.
Without consideration, a good part of the left side of his face tore, exposing even part of the skull.
Needless to say, the little boy's eye was shattered.
And for a moment, seeing that chilling image of that infant with part of his gaunt face and blood around him, the quartet doubted his actions.
Then something unexpected happened.
From the dying body of the little Menma, specifically from the area near the heart, several sealing formulas emerged that, fast as lightning, tangled in them, imprisoned that group of Ninja in dark cocoons.
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"W-Where am I?"
Menma was in a strange space with a huge set of pipes that came from all directions and were oriented in front of where he was. He walked that dark path as it was the only path available.
He tried to understand or give a reason as to why he now found himself in that strange place.
He continued down that shadowy path until he reached what appeared to be a gigantic dungeon whose bottom could not be seen due to the deep and gloomy darkness that it seemed to contain.
"So... you finally decided to come and visit!"
Before Menma could even think, a massive claw similar to that of a beast crashed into the large thick bars of jail in front of him.
"Where are you?" He muttered, visibly confused and wary.
He thought he would be scared seeing the claw, but since he came here found that most of his emotions were being forcibly muted. Almost as if something was forcing him to calm down.
Menma stared with an icy look at the darkness, trying to see what was talking.
Then, a subtle light invaded the place, and finally, Menma could see a sinister entity.
It was a woman with blonde hair and nine fox tails waving behind her. Although stunningly beautiful, her deranged expression and bloodshot eyes, with capillaries visibly highlighted, were enough to scare him.
She was chained down to a large throne she sat and held back by a huge and thick metal necklace that, through a thick golden chain, held her firmly in that prison and prevented her from freeing herself.
Seeing the woman, Menma's gaze narrowed and spoke.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Kyuubi no Youko (Nine-Tailed Demon Fox)!"
That sonorous and ominous statement made the entire strange space rumble.
"You don't need to try and play tricks with me, little boy. I don't know how, but I know that day, you were the one who locked me up!"
"As soon as I get out of here, I will kill you and be released, boy!" She screamed unhinged, thrashing against the chains that held her.
"Silence, Kyuubi."
The Kitsune and the little one were surprised by the voice devoid of emotion heard in all directions.
Little by little, near the little one, several particles of crimson light began to gather gradually to slowly form a human form, to the bewilderment of both present.
"Finally, the time has come for us to meet, my prince."
Finally, A young boy who seemed to be only eight years old appeared in front of him with a blank expression.
When the boy finished appearing, he faced Menma with his back facing the Kyuubi.
The boy kept a calm expression, ignoring the threatening presence of the most powerful of the Biju.
"Who are you?''
Menma asked the Kyuubi was also interested in the answer.
"I was Akihiko, the last Uzukage of the Ninja village of Uzushio. Now it is more correct to say that I am program set to accomplish a task. You can call me Omega."
The boy said mechanically.
Those words caught the attention of the Kitsune as she eyed the two of them.
"And If I am showing up, you are about to die."
"Huh?" The child was stunned by those words.
"The special stamp that was left in your genetic code to inform you of your mission has been activated, although it is supposed to happen at a later age," the child continued speaking.
"Am I going to die?" The boy said calmly. Once again, he felt completely calm, not knowing why.
"No."
Omega answered swiftly.
"This special seal was designed for an emergency of this nature because by revealing your true mission and giving you access to all the capabilities with which you were equipped, you will be able to give it return to the situation and overcome, and then begin to achieve the purpose for which you were conceived."
'You talk about him as a tool rather than a child.' The Kyuubi thought analytically.
Menma was confused and wanted to ask, but Omega began to speak again.
"When the seal in your genetic code is completely released, you will understand the purpose of your birth, and finally, justice will be done to our people."
Akihiko deliberately ignored the doubts of the little boy.
"The time has come, my prince."
Omega declared firmly while placing his hand on the little boy's forehead.
'If it is true that this little boy received special abilities, it's possible that I could use them once I destroy the brat's soul to free me,' The Kitsune thought about how she would make her move.
She couldn't help but smirk to herself.
'It will be easy to destroy that child in his mind.'
"Henshuu no Fuin: Kai (Seal of the Compilation: Liberation)," Omega said, beginning to release a subtle crimson Chakra from the hand with which he had contact with the little boy.
"Ah ...!" The boy screamed horribly when he felt that intrusion into his mind.
Soon Menma's mind was invaded by all the information the spiral project team encoded in that gene.
He needed to know everything about its capabilities, the entire history of the Uzumaki Clan, and its ultimate goal of restoring the clan and taking revenge on the Ninja villages.
While Omega watched indifferently, the Kyuubi rejoiced in the suffering of the little boy, who lost part of his inexperience and immaturity with each piece of information stuffed into his brain.
The intense pain that the little boy suffered in his head did not last long since, in about 10 seconds at most, the process ended, and Omega withdrew his hand from Menma's head, who kept his head down.
"Everything should be clear in your mind, my prince." Omega said blankly.
"I see, so that's it… Everything has become so clear now." The boy spoke as he looked up.
He was no longer just a child.
Now that he knew the truth of his origin, the little boy's gaze had visibly darkened.
He appeared to be a Shinobi with years of experience in special stealth assassination missions rather than an infant of just six years.
He knew the abilities he possessed and the reason why he had been developed and conceived.
"Very good, My prince. Now the entire future of the Uzumaki is in your hands."
"My mission is complete, and I will begin to terminate." Said Omega blankly.
Little by little, that manifestation of Chakra left to guide the Uzumaki heir slowly faded away.
When the appearance of the Chakra that the Uzukage had left in that seal, the boy closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them with an icy stare.
He turned to see a bewildered Kyuubi, who was involuntarily shocked upon seeing that icy stare.
She could tell something had happened just by seeing his look.
"What do you want?" She clenched her teeth, anxious.
"You are truly unlucky."
To Kyuubi's bewilderment, Menma quickly performed a short sequence of hand seals.
"Can you perform Ninjutsu?!" She said stunned
"Kinton: Atsuteikin (Metal Release: Imperial Collar of Repression)!"
The Bijuu immediately felt a strange oppression, as if she suddenly lost all of his enormous power. Then he noticed that the binding on his neck was glowing slightly.
"It can't be ..."
The Kitsune began to feel her body and found that her Chakra flow became erratic to the point of not being able to control it to be able to defend herself.
"What the hell are you doing to me?!" She bellowed, mad with fury.
"It's an application of Adamantine Sealing Chains of the Uzumaki Clan."
replied calmly with a blank look, leaving the woman unhappy.
She wanted to say something when the look on his face began to change.
At that moment, Menma's face morphed into a soft dark smile that surprised the Kitsune.
"Operation Spiral was the Uzumaki conception of a righteous sword that would repay the destruction of Uzushio..."
The boy's eyes were filled with a gloomy glee.
"And I am that sword."
Menma said with a laugh as his eyes stared at the chained woman.
"And you know what? I am going to use your power as nobody has ever done before. I will take everything of value from you, with you being able to do nothing to stop it. I'll take your chakra, power, body, mind, and soul."
"From today forward, you will be nothing more than a loyal slave and infinite power battery for me."
The Uzumaki brought his hands together before his face to form a seal that further baffled the Biju. And then, from the floor of that dungeon, a wooden dragon emerged, and its jaws opened to launch itself at full speed toward the woman stuck on a throne and stun her.
"Mokuton: Genkiryu (Wood Release: Mystic Tree Dragon)!"
The wood-formed dragon began to coil all over her body, binding her completely as she struggled in vain to free herself from those bonds.
The wooden dragon began to glow subtly and involuntarily when she was fully captured. The woman's body reacted, in the same way, moments later.
Little by little, branches with autumn red leaves began to grow from the dragon's body, which quickly grew in size and volume, increasing the severity of the Kitsune's prison. The chain that kept her tied broke, but the thick necklace that looked more like a shackle remained.
Soon the branches tightly wrapped around the voluptuous woman making it so that she could hardly move anything but her neck.
"D-Damn child…" The kitsune muttered weakly, feeling how her new prison powerfully absorbed her Chakra.
"You know? I am cursed."
The child said with a chuckle.
"All my time at home I spent reading about the world... Books that spoke of life, books that spoke of war, of adventures. It always seemed so funny that there was always a hero throughout every genre I was given. All these people are trapped with the fate of saving people. The fate to defeat the monster."
The kitsune stared with fear at the increasingly agitated boy.
"I once thought it so funny how they couldn't even decide their life for themselves while bound by their justice. Only now do I realize I'm the same!"
He said as he burst out laughing.
"From the beginning, no, even before my life was created, it was already directed to live fighting people I didn't even know for a purpose I didn't know. I received the combined experience of a whole village, an amount of knowledge and intelligence that a normal 6-year-old child would not even dream of..."
He spoke as a maniacal grin started to form on his face.
He stared straight into the Kitsune's frightened eyes.
"Certainly, we both truly are prisoners of fate, Kyuubi."
The kitsune stared at his eyes and felt incomparable fear as the boy's eyes slowly spun into the same eyes that ruined her life in the first place.
"I-It can't be....W-What the hell did the Uzumaki create...?"
Menma also possessed the Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha Sharingan.
Now just like six years ago, the Kitsune felt she lost control of her body completely under the influence of those sinister orbs that were soon reflected in her own eyes.
"At least now we share this fate together..."
All that tangle of shadows and sinister rusty pipes gradually became a vast green pasture with small flowers blooming pollen in all directions and as far as the eye could see, with the Kitsune trapped on her throne slowly inhaling it and the Sharingan slowly rotating in her eyes.
-------
Those four Ninjas struggled to free themselves with all their efforts because they stupidly believed that the Kyuubi had used his demonic powers to capture and devour them.
As soon as they finished escaping from that unknown Fuinjutsu formula, they would definitively end that monstrosity disguised as a child whose mortal wounds began to heal as a kind of dark red light.
It ran over his face from where he still had skin all over the place and an area with the skull exposed until it was completely healed.
Then, the boy opened his eyes suddenly, which were no longer their icy blue but a light lavender tone and highly familiar to all of them.
They were extremely surprised that the veins in their temples stood out identically to the Hyuga when they activated their Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan.
"Look!" Shouted a terrified Hikari.
"The monster stole the Byakugan!"
"They are so stupid."
Menma muttered as a chakra pulse emerged from his body that easily broke his bonds without hurting him, falling to his feet moments later.
"Seeing as they are ninjas, I am surprised that they are so ignorant as not to be able to differentiate the Biju from its container."
The boy murmured, while two stakes of a rare white material emerged from the palms of his hands to the growing confusion of those ninjas.
"But thanks to your primitive reasoning, you released something much worse than a simple Bijuu into the ninja world…"
The face of Menma was filled with dark glee.
"And it hurt to have half my face ripped off, so I can't be good to you."
"W-What are you planning, monster?"
Ishida muttered, visibly terrified, as the boy slowly approached them
"Do you know why the Uzumaki were feared?"
The Uzumaki Prince replied in turn.
"Stop playing games!"
Koushirou disguised the fear that invaded him with a courage that he was far from feeling.
"Anyways…"
The boy began to walk slowly toward the four ninjas.
"Want to see a trick?"
"N-No! Get away!"
Unlike her companions, Koushirou did not bother to hide the horror that devoured her heart when she saw that the thing was dying, and suddenly, his wounds began to heal.
She burst into tears, thinking that all the effort to end the Kyuubi had been in vain, so she and her friends were doomed to die at the hands of that abomination, just like her sister.
"Agh…!"
She sobbed in pain as one of the stakes pierced her left shoulder, causing a subtle hemorrhage.
"Help me…!"
"This is the 'human pincushion' act."
Menma smiled wickedly, gloating over the girl's suffering while gently turning her wrist; he broke that stake to create another.
"Y-You are …"
Jyou was disturbed by that show of cruelty
"You're a demon ...!"
"Actually, I'm a prince. The new ruler of the Uzumaki clan."
He replied mockingly to continue with his perverse entertainment.
Outside the cave where they were, the area's animals began to escape from the place due to the chilling screams, sobs, and cries of deep terror heard throughout the place.
----
Kushina and Konan were in the forest, reflecting indescribable anguish on their beautiful faces as they did not know their child's whereabouts.
When they finished their surprise to pamper him as they wanted on his special day, they went to look for him to take him to the kitchen, as was the tradition in that kind of food.
However, the food was soon forgotten when they realized that his little one had disappeared.
They quickly searched the house only to find the boy's books in the hallway and the one he normally carried outside.
It didn't take them long to find out that they had taken him away, and immediately a lump came to their throats at the thought that it could have been some Shinobi from some enemy village with some unknown purpose that they preferred not to delve into or...
Or some Ninja from their village had attempted with that child who was the object of adoration for both, which had been the Kushina's greatest fear since that nurse looked at the little boy with rejection in the hospital room.
It had been two weeks now, and they were utterly terrified.
They soon found a trail of footprints that seemed to be heading deep into the vegetation, and both women, already overcome by the despair of not knowing where Menma could be, followed the trail as soon as their eyes met.
They ran at full speed to find a vast cave quite well hidden by the forest vegetation, where the slight signs that someone had passed by.
They entered cautiously, expecting almost anything.
However, what they found was disturbing.
Four dead ninjas were at the scene, impaled with several white stakes of an unknown material and surrounded by several trickles of blood that fed large pools under each body.
Cruelest of all was that they had not been stabbed in vital areas, and the cause of his had been slowly bleeding out.
"My God …"
Kushina muttered in horror, recognizing the four dead as Konoha Ninjas.
"Menma!"
Konan began to explore the cave hastily, already invaded by despair.
"Tell me you're here ...!"
Kushina reacted and immediately followed her friend, exploring every corner of that dark place in search of her child.
Both were so focused on the task of knowing if their child was okay that they did not notice the presence of something that was placed behind them with exceptional stealth...
Until it was too late.
A quick and subtle blow was placed at the base of both necks aimed at their Tenteksu. They couldn't even turn to see their attacker when they felt the cold of metal in the form of thick shackles that closed around their necks.
Puzzled and feeling how those bonds prevented them from controlling their Chakra, they turned back only to meet those crimson eyes that Kushina knew very well.
Typically for Kunoichi like them, it was not impossible to break free from the power of the Sharingan. Still, the subtle blow they received previously and the subsequent binding repressing their Chakra prevented them from even defending themselves, and quickly the eyes of the two reflected those scarlet orbs of three Tomoe.
With their mouths slightly open due to the brutal and effective assault on their minds, the two women were soon inside a powerful Genjutsu.
"I'm glad my Kaa-chans are such good trackers. That saved me the trouble of having to lure them here..."
Menma smiled, visibly satisfied when he saw the expressionless faces of his biological and adoptive mother, respectively, totally under the power of his eyes.
Operation Spiral was the conception by the Uzumaki of a Prince that would take care of paving the way for the reconstruction of the Uzumaki Clan, and in these two weeks, precise planning was made of how the world was going to develop for the Uzumaki in decades years.
Following the activation of the program, he would be the new Uzumaki Patriarch.
But in Operation Spiral, there was a single variant that no one considered. A variant that was so obvious that no one from that broad group of researchers, one not even the leader of Uzushio, bothered to see...
That was that the Prince held the fate of the Uzumaki Clan and could do whatever he wanted with the clan's future. He could stick to the original plan or modify it however he wanted.
"Certainly, we are both prisoners of fate, Kyuubi …."
Menma muttered as he gently stroked the chins of those beautiful women under his power.
"But unlike you, I can decide how comfortable my prison is going to be."
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