4 Chapter 4

Seven year time lapse from the Kyuubi attack,

Menma Uzumaki and Naruto Uchiha got along just fine but the two of them were out casted by the society, Menma because of him containing the Kyubi and Naruto because his extreme visual prowess which made everyone stay away from him.

What Izuna never understood is why Menma always wore orange clothes. He had blond hair not unlike his father's and his hair was a little spiky. He had a few whiskers on his cheeks. He had extremely blue eyes. He was extremely boisterous and sometimes didn't think properly. He really loved ramen. His love for ramen had developed when he had walked alone on the streets once to go to a place from where an extremely strong aroma of spices and delicious food were coming. The place was Ichiraku Ramen. When he entered Ichiraku's, Teuchi had welcomed him. When Menma entered most places people were usually scared of Menma but it was not the case at Ichiraku's. They even treated him nicely. And boy was the ramen at Ichiraku's delicious. They didn't even ask him to much money for it unlike most other. From that day on whenever Kyukyoyu allowed him to go outside he went to Ichiraku's to grab some ramen. Menma also shared his parents' dream of becoming the Hokage.

Menma had grown to be a strong young child trained from the beginning by the likes of Izuna Uchiha and Menma had almost perfect Chakra control, thanks to Izuna's training and that summed up with his huge Chakra reserves and the Kage Bunshin no Justsu/Shadow Clone Justsu taught by Izuna to him, Menma was on par with chunin at a young age of seven. But even with all the training Izuna gave him, he still managed to find time to play pranks on people. Izuna sometimes regretted helping Menma with his Chakra control thanks to which he many a times completely humiliated the great stone faces of the five Hokage without being caught by any jonin or Anbu. Man, that boy was the best prankster Izuna had ever seen. Menma had once dyed all he dresses of the Hyuuga orange in broad daylight without anybody taking notice and unfortunately for Izuna, Menma had used a Fuuton jutsu to dry all the clothes due to which it took the Hyuuga over five weeks to get over it and they were made the laughing stock of the village. And even worse for Izuna, he had to pay for all the damage done to the Hyuuga and also had to pay for new clothes for the Hyuuga. Boy did Izuna hate Menma's pranks and yet in a manner Izuna was proud of his adoptive son Menma who was able to pull off the above mentioned feat like a true shinobi.

But compared to Izuna's son, Menma was weak. Naruto Uchiha was on a completely different level compared to Menma. Izuna had trained Naruto himself and Naruto Uchiha had manifested the mangekyou Sharingan, the Choku Tomoe. Naruto Uchiha could do the Amateresu, Kamui, place genjutsu on people who were extremely resistant to genjutsu and finally he could even do a Level 1 Susano'o. He could do wood style almost half as well as the First Hokage and had almost perfected Raiton and Katon. Naruto Uchiha was on par with most high jonin. Naruto Uchiha looked a lot like Madara Uchiha. He had spiky black raven hair. He usually wore dark blue robes. He too had a liking for ramen but not as much as Menma. He was clearly not a prankster like Menma was and was quite decent. His ideals were similar to those of his father and of Minato. His personality was kind of a mix between Madara Uchiha and Hadhirama Senju.

Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha would also sometimes train Naruto and Menma sometimes. Though Naruto and Menma didn't get along too well with Itachi's younger brother Sasuke, they got along just well with Sasuke's twin sister Mito Uchiha. Naruto would never understand why Sasuke was always so serious so unlike his elder brother and younger sister. He had black spiky hair, though not half as spiky as Naruto's and usually wore light blue clothes. He was a prodigy but not as much as Itachi. He was probably a few levels lesser than Menma and had a hundred years to go before reaching Naruto's level.

Mito Uchiha was much better than Sasuke. She had a good sense of humour. She was mostly cheerful rarely ever lost her temper. When she did lose her temper, she was one of the very few persons who ended up scaring Naruto and Naruto was usually only scared by his parents and enire hordes of ninja which his father had shown him in a genjutsu to retell one of the battles he had fought. Mito usually wore dark red clothes and had short spiky hair. She was a prodigy better than Itachi and was much stronger than Sasuke as well as Menma. But she was not even a fifth as strong as Naruto. Though people firmly believed that she would one day be at his level.

Mito and Sasuke's mother Mikoto also used to visit them a lot since Izuna and Mikoto were childhood friends and Menma's mother Kushina and Naruto's mother Kyokyuyu and Mikoto were best friends in their youth. Menma and Naruto treated her just like the way they treated their mother and she also had a motherly love for Menma and Naruto.

Outside the Hyuuga Compound

One certain Uzumaki walked right past the Hyuuga compound when one of the greatest pranks upon the Hyuuga clan dawned upon him. His eyes were like that of Master Jiraiya when doing his research. Those moving past him instantly moved back for they knew that if they tried helping the Hyuuga, they would become the laughing stock of the village along with the Hyuuga. Once, a shopman had tried to help the Hyuuga. He had ridiculously failed with the Hyuuga's condition having gotten worse thanks to him. Nevertheless, the next day Menma pranked him hard. His entire shop had been rolled with toilet paper. Upon that, a good portion of his shop had been painted oragnge. All his materials had Menma's signature prank. "Ramen- the food of the Gods" written in orange with all the walls having grafitti saying that Menma was the one and only prank god. The shopman was so shocked at the sight and practically, he had been made tha laughing stock of the village for the next few months. Everyone shuddered remembering this. They went as far back as they could.

Menma walked right into the Hyuuga compound. All the Hyuuga were perplexed at the sight of him walking right past. They feared what prank he might play on them today. All of them activated their Byakugan. They sent all the children inside to be kept safe from his Hyuuga leader Hyuuga Hiashi came in front of him. He said, "What have you come here for you insolent brat?" Menma answered, "Well, to do my most accomplished prank as of yet."

The Hyuuga clan just got more scared. One part of their mind told them to catch Menma but the other told them that if they did, the prank would just get worse. Many of them were shuddering in fear. No one knew what to do. All of a sudden, Menma popped and there was nothing. They couldn't believe that they were fooled by his shadow clone. All of a sudden, many Menma's with cans of every colour just came down. Menma shadow clones outnumbered the Hyuuga clan 3:1. They couldn't believe this. All of a sudden, even more Menma shadow clones appeared. Everyone was scared to the core. Then they said, "For our honour and self respect, let us take care of this insolent brat."

Saying this, they all rushed at the Menma clones and started using Eight Trigrams. Yet they failed. Menma succeeded in painting all the Hyuuga red, orange, blue and black. The Hyuuga could not believe this. Menma had just outsmarted them and beaten their Byakugan. Plus, thanks to the Eight Trigrams they just used, all the paint had spread throughout the compound. They were utterly shocked and saw Menma who was laughing away to glory. Hiashi asked, "Are you done now, insolent brat?" Menma said, "I am not yet done, jii-san. This is but the First Act. The Second Act and the climax are yet to come by. He-he"

Menma had not only damaged the Hyuuga clan property but also he had effectively damaged the pride of the Hyuuga by now having beaten their famed Byakugan and Eight Trigrams for the fiftieth time. They were all beyond despair. Only one certain young Hyuuga wasn't angry at this but merely impressed. If Menma hadn't been pranking them every time he beat their Eight Trigrams, he would be commended as a fine warrior and respected, but due to him always pranking the Hyuuga, he was hated by all of them except Hinata who basicaly started liking him more every time he beat their eight trigrams.

Then many shadow clones of his came over with many tubs of plain water and some with cement. The Hyuuga now just wanted to flee but Hiashi was not going to disgrace his clan by fleeing against a child, with all of them being A ranked ninjas. He said, "My fellow Hyuuga clan members, we have nothing to lose now. Let us not disgrace ourselves further by fleeing against this young boy." The Hyuuga clan was rallied once again as they faced the Menma clones. They once again used Eight Trigrams this time with Rotation. Unfortunately for them, it had the exact opposite effect they had hoped for. Many of them were now cemented and fixed to a place. Now they truly had nothing to lose. Menma had effectively ridden them of all their pride and self respect. Now some of them fell down to their knees unable to move. They said, "Please stop, you insolent brat. You have pranked us enough."

Menma said, "I am not yet done, dattebayo!" Frankly, many screams could be heard in the Hyuuga copound and those outside were so scared they ran away as far as they could.

Then instantly, Menma jumped up and many of his clones popped up and a rain of orange paint fell in the pattern which read, ramen is the food of the gods.

Menma then walked out of the Hyuuga compound with the smile of a triumphant general who just won a war most gloriously. No Hyuuga walked out of the compound until the day of the burial of the Uchiha clan after their massacre.