Chapter 123 - Interlude 8: Menma

* * * [After the Prison Events] * *

"Welcome to our small base of operations here in the vicinity of Konoha" - said Orochimaru as he watched the Namikaze boy, who was showing an apathetic expression - "Not the expression I was looking for"

"I don't care if we're in a lab, a private building, or a whorehouse," said Menma coldly. "I just want to know my mother's condition and when I start..."

"Fine... follow me" - said Orochimaru as he walked silently through the facility.

Menma noticed how everyone present was looking at him with curiosity, greed, and l.u.s.t, which sincerely made him uncomfortable.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it in time," said Orochimaru as he entered a room. "Okay, my work is done... she'll wake up soon"

That said, he exploded into a smokescreen because as you may remember, he was a Kage Bunshin.

Menma slowly walked over to where her mother was unconscious and sat beside her as she thought of all that had happened.

The more seconds passed in his silence, the angrier he became at the memory of his father - "Uzumaki Clan... Hiruzen... Konoha... Minato... all of you..."

He could feel his hatred growing with every memory he had, but his expression changed when he noticed how his mother began to react - "Where am I?"

"Okaa-sama..." - murmured the blond boy as he held his mother's hand.

"Menma-chan..." - Midori murmured as she opened her eyes - "We have to escape! Your father... no, Minato wants to sacrifice you!"

"I know..." - replied Menma as she sighed with regret - "I saw everything... I was there all the time... I decided to sacrifice myself and join Orochimaru"

Midori was silent as she hugged her son in pain. She could not believe that things had changed so quickly.

She always thought that when she helped Minato get out of prison, they would finally take revenge on Kushina and Kurama Uzumaki, so that later she could have the family life she always dreamed of, only for reality to hit her hard in the face. Minato not only decided to sacrifice her son to get what she wanted, but he did not care about her at all.

"Okaa-sama... Minato... he not only decided to sacrifice me... but also you..." - Menma said as she told him what had happened during the time she had lost consciousness, only to notice how her mother seemed to have broken down as the tears streamed down her face.

"No..." - mumbled Midori as she felt her world fall apart. She could only feel all the efforts she had made over the years turn to dust in the wind, as the memories of all the times she had sacrificed her body to help Minato tormented her to the point of madness.

"Okaa-sama..." - Menma murmured as she tried to hold the woman's hand, only to have her dodge it - "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

". . ." - Menma only looked at her in pain.

"I-I sorry..." - whispered the woman in a broken voice - "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"Okaa-sama..." - Menma embraced the woman with all her strength as she trembled and repeated her apology.

"Hmm... I see she's broken..." - said an unfamiliar voice as Menma stood on guard. Midori, on the other hand, only repeated "I'm sorry" as if it were a broken record.

"Who are you..." - said Menma coldly as he watched a man appear in front of him. An orange mask showing only red-eye and a black robe with red clouds - "Akatsuki..."

"I see that you are well informed... Tobi appreciates that so he won't have to introduce himself" - said the masked man calmly - "I'm sorry... it's the habit to talk like that... let me introduce myself again, my name is Tobi and I'm someone who has something you want"

". . ." - Menma just frowned when he heard this as he watched his mother continue to apologize - "What do you want..."

"First I'll tell you what I'm offering, then I'll tell you what I want from you," said Tobi in a slightly 'happy' tone. "First, I'm offering you Namikaze Minato to do whatever you want with him, although I'm asking you to deliver him to me alive because I have some business with him"

"That's already been offered to me by Orochimaru" - said Menma coldly.

"I assumed... but he won't be able to do his part if I capture him first... can he?" - said the masked man - "Now, don't interrupt me"

". . ." - Menma frowned again as she looked at the man. It was strange how he seemed to have a split personality because he was sometimes happy and sometimes cold.

"As I said, first I offer you your father. . . then I offer you power. . ." - Tobi said seriously - "A Sharingan to be exact"

"!" - Menma opened his eyes when he heard this - "How?"

"It's easy really, I just have to go to a one-eyed bird and 'ask him nicely' to give me one... and don't worry, the Sharingan I will give you will be Mature" - 'smiled' the masked man - "That's something Orochimaru can't give you... can't he?"

". . ." - Menma nodded silently.

"I see you were interested in my proposal... but I'm not finished yet" - Tobi nodded - "Third... I offer you a solution for your mother... although it's a bit extreme... but seeing how broken she is, I don't think it's much of a problem"

"Genjutsu?" - Menma asked seriously. If he was sincere, it was not an idea he liked.

"No... that would only be a temporary solution and seeing how broken she is, she might ignore the illusion" - answered Tobi calmly - "What I'm proposing, is something much more... interesting..."

"What are you talking about?" said the Namikaze boy with an increasingly apathetic expression.

"Simple... seeing how broken you are... why don't you just not sink any deeper into that madness?" - asked Tobi as a bigger and bigger smile appeared under his mask - "Don't deny it, I know when someone is on the verge of madness... after all, I am too~"

". . ." - Menma only responded with silence because he honestly couldn't argue against his words. He knew that he was not normal, at least psychologically, all because of his past experiences.

"As I was saying... you only have to do one thing and it's possible for everything to 'go back to the way it was'" - said Tobi calmly.

"What are you trying to say?" - asked Menma again.

"Did you ever think about having s.e.x with your mother? - Tobi asked in a cheerful tone, only to shake his head to avoid a kunai thrown by the blonde boy - "I'm serious..."

". . ." - Menma only frowned as he waited for the man in front of him to continue.

"You may not know it but your mother needs something to tie her to the ground," Tobi said calmly. "She lost everything, well, almost everything... leaving only you... that's why you are the person best suited to be her 'ground-anchor'... "

"She can get a partner..." - said Menma, though he frowned inside.

"Don't lie to me... I can see how much you care for her, after all, she's all you have left" - said Tobi while he burst out laughing - "And when you're as broken and crazy as we are, that love... becomes an obsession..."

". . ." - Menma nodded at his words. He didn't want to admit it but couldn't bear to see his mother get a partner because he felt she was leaving him behind - "I accept... what I have to do"

"It's a simple truth... I want you to become Akatsuki's spy in the forces of Orochimaru" - said Tobi seriously - "Let's say I don't trust our other spy"

"I don't have a problem," Menma nodded.

"Excellent!" - said Tobi happily. "Anyway, when I get Minato I'll be back... for now I advise you to 'help' your mother... Hahaha!"

Having said that, he disappeared from the scene, leaving a serious Menma and a broken Midori.

He took one look at his mother, who continued to apologize, only to come over and kiss her.

"!" - Midori reacted when she felt some lips and tried to separate when she noticed it was her son but little by little her efforts diminished. She didn't have the energy to stop him, not when she barely felt her life was stable.

"Menma-chan... if I stop him... he will leave me... he'll leave me like Minato..."- thought the woman as she felt her efforts diminishing - "If I don't let him continue, he'll leave me like Minato..."

"Okaa-sama..." - murmured Menma as he clutched his mother's b.r.e.a.s.ts while giving her a look full of conflicting emotions - "This is for your sake..."

He repeated this over and over again to convince himself, only to feel his thoughts become stranger and stranger.

"For my sake..." - Midori murmured as she nodded with a smile - "Yes... my Menma-chan would never hurt me, after all, he's all I have left"

"Okaa-san... you're the only thing I have left too..." - said Menma as he moved his face closer to his mother's again.

"Come Menma-chan... it's for our sake..." - said Midori while giving her a motherly smile - "If it's for our sake, then it's no problem"

The two of them mentalized themselves with those words as they sank deeper and deeper into the abyss. But none of that mattered since at least now they were with the only person they had left.

* * * * * * * * * *

First of all, no, I don't have a fetish for i.n.c.e.s.t. Second, I wrote this from a psychological standpoint. Menma and Midori are broken to the point that they don't give a shit about everything, after all, they lost everything, leaving just the two of them. When you're in that condition, you try to hold on to what little you have to the point that it's an obsession because that's what keeps them 'sane', if that got lost, then they would go into a spiral of madness. The mind is fragile but at the same time it has a great sense of self-preservation, that's why many crazy people ignore many things or simply twist their reality to maintain their 'Normality', or at least as normal as possible.