dmims Chapter 292 Naruto & Dream Naruto: We're not Menma...
Chapter 292 Naruto & Dream Naruto: We're not Menma...
Chapter 292 Naruto & Dream Naruto: We're not Menma...
Just then.
A slight spatial ripple spread out.
Three figures appeared one after another in the passageway not far away.
Kakashi, Tsunade, Jiraiya.
They are almost the current generation of Konoha's top leaders.
Sasuke's gaze snapped back.
Those dark eyes swept across the three faces.
No, Hiruzen Sarutobi is not here.
A surge of anger mixed with disappointment had nowhere to go, as if something was blocking his throat, making it hard for him to breathe.
If that person were sitting here right now—
Sasuke planned to rush over and confront everyone about the truth of what happened back then.
"Yo, Sasuke."
Kakashi noticed the boy's stiff back immediately.
He raised his hand in greeting, as casually as ever.
However, Sasuke seemed not to hear at all, his gaze sweeping over Kakashi.
Kakashi was stunned. Tsunade frowned slightly at the sight, but said nothing. She simply crossed her arms and found a seat.
Jiraiya gave Sasuke a meaningful look.
"Karin, over here."
Tsunade patted the empty seat next to her.
Not far away, the red-haired girl seemed to be startled. She quickly got up and ran over, obediently sitting next to Tsunade with her posture upright. She was nervous but also a little flattered.
Sasuke then got up and sat down in a corner.
Sakura stretched out her hand, her smile frozen on her face.
"S-Sasuke-kun————"
The next moment, ripples appeared in the space once again.
When Obito appeared, he casually glanced around the audience before choosing a corner to sit down.
He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, his posture excessively relaxed.
After a brief silence, the giant screen at the front of the theater lit up.
All eyes were immediately drawn to it.
On the screen, the image gradually became clearer from blurry.
A bedroom that was almost too tidy came into view.
"This room—"
Sakura muttered something to herself without thinking.
"Huh? Wait a minute."
Sakura suddenly opened her eyes wide and jumped up from her chair.
Not only her, but almost every audience member present had a change in expression.
On the screen, two almost identical boys were clearly visible.
The same golden spiky hair, the same deep blue eyes.
Soon, one person jumped to the ground shouting, while another sat on the bed looking alert.
Two Narutos.
Although they look extremely similar, a closer look reveals completely different expressions.
"What's going on?" Sakura was completely stunned. "Are both Narutos dreaming?!"
Not just Sakura, but everyone's face showed the same disbelief.
I've never seen anything like this in all my previous dreams.
Jiraiya stared intently at the two boys on the screen, his gaze gradually becoming serious.
"One is Naruto, and the other is the Naruto from my dream that I met during the day."
Kakashi nodded: "How come those two are both in the same frame?"
Jiraiya frowned; this completely overturned his understanding of the rules of dreams.
Before this, in every dream, the so-called protagonist would descend in a way that was almost like possession.
In Sasuke's dream, Sasuke occupies the position of Sasuke in the dream world.
The same thing happened in Kakashi's dream.
This was especially true for Naruto on several previous occasions.
Instead of the two Narutos appearing simultaneously as separate individuals, as they are now.
Kakashi remained silent for a moment, then narrowed his eyes slightly.
He didn't rush to conclusions, but quickly scanned the room on the screen, not missing a single detail, from the view through the window to the calendar on the wall and the photo frame on the bedside table.
"and----"
When he spoke again, his voice was heavy with the seriousness he displayed when analyzing the task.
"Look at the layout and details of this room."
"This is neither Naruto's room nor any scene from any of the dream worlds we've seen before."
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged a glance, both sensing that something was amiss.
"It looks like a completely new dream environment that's totally unfamiliar to us," Kakashi concluded.
A completely new dream, and two Narutos appear at the same time.
Tsunade's expression also darkened.
"What does this mean? Has the rule of dreams changed?"
[Ding! Tsunade's emotional fluctuations have been detected! Emotional value +250!]
The scene on the screen continued to unfold.
on the screen.
In his dream, Naruto quietly pushed open the sliding door to his bedroom.
He walked slowly along the second-floor corridor, close to the wall.
The sensory ninjutsu silently unfolded, sliding along the walls, floor, and ceiling to every corner of the room.
Two familiar chakra streams on the first floor made him pause.
Just then, a sudden noise came from downstairs.
Boom!
Immediately following was the boy's barely suppressed exclamation: "Whoa!"
The voice was so familiar.
Naruto.
Naruto's expression changed in the dream.
"Oh no!"
He didn't have time to think and instinctively quickened his pace.
"Menma!"
A tearful cry rang out; it sounded like a woman's voice.
"You're finally back—Mom was so worried about you—"
Naruto's steps suddenly stopped in the dream.
Face numb?
It was my mother's voice.
The emotions in his voice were genuine, yet somewhat different from the mother he remembered.
There was an added fragile tremor.
"Menma?"
The woman called out again, followed by the sound of a chair being dragged.
Naruto's heart sank little by little in his dream. After going downstairs, he carefully hid behind the wall and quietly peeked out.
living room.
A chair lay sideways on the ground, facing the stairs. A red-haired woman knelt on the ground, her arms tightly wrapped around Naruto.
Naruto was so tightly held that he didn't know where to put his arms and legs, and his whole body stiffened like a wooden statue.
"Mom, Mom?! Wait, wait—"
'
Naruto was completely stunned when he was suddenly tackled to the ground.
He had just come downstairs and hadn't figured anything out when he was hit with a hug.
"Ugh—Menma—do you even know how long you've been gone?"
The woman in his arms trembled, and tears fell one by one onto Naruto's shoulder.
"Your mom and dad are really—really worried about you—"
"Eh, eh? Menma? My name is Naruto!"
Naruto waved his hands frantically, trying to explain, but he had no idea where to begin.
Staircase entrance.
Naruto held his breath in the dream, his gaze fixed on the red-haired figure's back.
Without a doubt, it's Kushina.
Her hair color, figure, and aura were exactly the same as the mother he remembered.
But the boy she was holding, calling Menma, was Naruto.
Naruto in the dream involuntarily squinted.
Sensory ninjutsu has been subtly enhanced once again.
In his field of vision, the living room, along with part of the street outside, was clearly visible.
Minato and Kushina's chakra were like two gentle flames, however—
"————This is not right."
Naruto's brow furrowed even more in the dream.
In his world, his parents were both outstanding ninjas who stood at the pinnacle of the ninja world.
Minato Namikaze, the yellow flash of Konoha, is enough to rewrite the legend of the battle.
Kushina Uzumaki, a Jinchūriki who perfectly wielded the power of the Nine-Tails, possessed a chakra output comparable to that of a village's Kage when unleashing her power.
But at this moment, the power he sensed from these parents was only at the level of a Jonin.
It is strong, but far from overwhelming.
In particular, the aura of the Nine-Tailed Fox was completely absent.
The Kushina in front of me is not a Jinchūriki.
A nameless unease in my heart was amplified.
"Menma."
Minato Namikaze's voice only then rang out from the side.
He was dressed in casual home clothes, and he looked somewhat haggard, with dark circles under his eyes.
Minato crouched down, reached out his hand next to his wife, and gently stroked Naruto's hair.
"This time you're back, please don't sneak out again, okay?"
His voice was gentle, even a little cautious.
That kind of caution wasn't about strictly disciplining the child, but rather more like a fear of never seeing him again.
"Your mom and dad are really worried about you."
Kushina raised her face, her eyes red-rimmed, tears still clinging to her eyelashes.
"It's so dangerous outside, what would I do if something happened to you?"
"Promise Mommy you won't leave home again, okay?"
Her words sounded sincere and moving, yet they carried a vulnerability that Naruto rarely saw in his mother.
In my memory, Kushina was always noisy and boisterous, laughing as she punched him, then generously giving him three more bowls of rice.
The person in front of me seemed to be suffocating from something that had been weighing on him for a long time.
"——Menma?"
Naruto silently recited the dream in his mind.
"Is this... the name I use in this world?"
An extremely strange feeling rose from the bottom of my heart.
He never imagined that one day he would stand at the bottom of the stairs, watching his parents call out to another version of himself using a name he didn't recognize at all.
Just then, Kushina, who was sobbing, seemed to be stung by some kind of gaze and paused slightly.
She raised her hand and wiped away her tears haphazardly, then subconsciously looked up towards the stairwell.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Kushina's gaze met that of the figure standing on the stairs.
They had the same appearance, but the boy on the stairs had a calm look in his eyes and stood upright, completely different from the flustered, pale-faced girl in her arms.
Kushina's face froze instantly, her lips slightly parted.
"Two, two—?"
"Two pieces of dough?!"
Naruto followed her gaze and looked up, only to be stunned to see the dream Naruto standing at the top of the stairs.
"W-What's going on?"
Minato Namikaze was also stunned, his expression quickly changing from surprise to solemnity.
He immediately reached out to protect his wife and Naruto, his eyes involuntarily narrowing.
A ninja's instincts provide warnings.
The opponent's chakra fluctuations were exactly the same as his son's, yet they subtly gave him a deeper and more composed sense of oppression.
"Could it be some kind of clone technique? Or an illusion?"
He made a judgment subconsciously, then quickly rejected it.
Neither of these explanations can account for the current situation.
Seeing that he had been exposed, Naruto in his dream exhaled softly.
He could clearly sense the entire house, but he detected no malicious chakra aura and there were no ambushes nearby.
At least for now, this room is safe.
He lowered his guard and walked into the living room. With each step he took, those two tense, trembling gazes followed him a little further.
Naruto stood there awkwardly, looking left and right, completely unsure of where to move.
Naruto in the dream stopped three or four steps away from them, facing the parents with a clear and calm gaze.
"We are not the Menma you know."
The living room was so quiet that you could hear the ticking of the wall clock.
Minato and Kushina held their breath almost simultaneously.
Naruto in the dream tilted his head slightly, glanced at Naruto who was still scratching his head and looking silly, and paused for a moment.
"Our name is Naruto."
For him and for Naruto, these were names they had called out since childhood, but to their parents, they sounded like names they had never heard before.
Both Minato Namikaze and Kushina showed blank expressions.
"You mean—not sesame?"
"Is that Naruto?"
Kushina repeated it unconsciously, her voice full of doubt and disbelief.
Her gaze swept back and forth across the two boys' faces, trying to find evidence from their expressions that this was a joke.
But they found nothing.
"Ah, um!"
Naruto finally snapped out of his daze and quickly raised his hand, explaining, "That's right, my name is Uzumaki Naruto! That's been my name since I was little, not some kind of 'Menma'!"
As he spoke, he couldn't help but steal a glance at Minato and Kushina.
This feels so strange.
When his mother hugged him, his heart was filled with happiness, but she called out a name that didn't belong to him at all.
It's like being treated as someone else, a completely different dream world, even though it's clearly you.
In that world, although he was treated as the dream Naruto, he still felt like himself overall.
But here, that subtle sense of disorientation made Naruto feel somewhat depressed.
Kushina opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.
Her newly formed sense of hope was decisively shattered by those words.
It's not sesame paste.
It's not her child.
"How could this be—" She shook her head violently, her voice trembling, "It's clearly facial numbness! How could it not be?"
'
As she spoke, she seemed to remember something, and almost stumbled to a corner of the living room, grabbing an exquisite photo frame from the coffee table.
"Look!"
She practically shoved the photo frame right in front of the two boys' faces.
Inside the frame is a family photo.
Minato and Kushina in the photo look more relaxed than they do now, standing side by side with bright smiles, with a blond boy between them.
The boy's eyebrows and appearance were exactly like those of the two Narutos in front of him.
If we have to point out a difference, the only difference is that the boy in the photo has a darker look in his eyes.
That wasn't mischievousness or rebellion; it was very similar to the black-haired boy I'd seen before.
"That look in his eyes—"
Naruto's gaze fell on the boy's face in the photo, and he frowned slightly.
But, is it blonde?
He remembered the boy he saw in the flashback yesterday; he had black hair.
He had thought that was Mianma just now, but now the picture in the frame is of Mianma with blond hair.
The two scenes don't match.
Naruto in his dream looked up at the red-haired woman in front of him, who looked exactly like his mother in his memory, but seemed more fragile than ever before.
He couldn't quite describe the feeling in his heart.
There was unfamiliarity, pity, and a touch of wariness towards this world.
He sighed softly and said, "Although we look the same, we come from a world that is quite different from yours."
Naruto in his dream world tries to explain the concept of another world as simply as possible.
He didn't mention any dream, only that they came from a different timeline.
In that world, they call him Naruto, not Menma.
"We came here by chance because of some unexpected events."
Minato looked deeply at the dream Naruto standing in front of him, a complex expression flashing in his eyes.
He keenly sensed that the boy in front of him, in his manner of speaking, his posture, and even the instinctive wariness in his eyes towards all environments, was completely different from Menma, whom he and Kushina had raised.
If one had to pinpoint any similarities, perhaps the only one would be that stubbornness hidden deep within.
"—Another world?"
Minato murmured.
Naruto in his dream nodded.
He didn't reveal everything he knew, but instead selected the parts that were most easily accepted.
"You can think of us as your sons from another world."
"In that world, he and I were both called Naruto."
He pointed to himself, then to Naruto.
"Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we have temporarily arrived here."
This explanation is bizarre enough.
Kushina listened blankly, her hand slowly loosening its grip.
"Another world?"
She repeated it in a low voice.
Kushina stared at them blankly, a glimmer of light first appearing in her eyes, then quickly dimming as if weighed down by something.
"What about my noodles?"
She asked the question almost unconsciously.
As soon as she said it, she was startled herself.
The air in the living room froze instantly.
Naruto was stunned.
Naruto in his dream world keenly noticed the unusual nature of that statement.
Whether it was Kushina's near-collapse when she held Naruto, or the deep weariness in Minato's eyes, they all pointed to one thing:
The boy named Mianma has gone missing.
Instead of answering directly, he asked from a different angle, "What's wrong with my face?"
Minato, who had remained silent until now, finally let out a soft sigh.
He reached out and put his arm around his wife's slightly trembling shoulders, as if to give her support, or as if he was desperately trying to calm himself down.
"Mianmata————"
"They have been missing for a long time."
"We searched almost every possible place, but we still haven't found a single clue."
Kushina's already pale face completely collapsed.
"Waaah————"
It was as if those words had completely shattered her last shred of strength.
Naruto felt a tightness in his chest and couldn't help but take a half-step forward.
Kushina looked up at him.
For a fleeting moment, a hint of relief flashed in her eyes. Both Menma and Naruto were kind.
But that tenderness was quickly swallowed up by a deeper shadow.
A gloomy look also settled over Minato's face.
He gritted his teeth and continued, "Things are very unsettled outside the village right now."
"An extremely dangerous rogue ninja has appeared near the Land of Fire."
"He is hunting down ninjas with bloodline limits—and jinchūriki."
Naruto's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly in the dream.
Bloodline limit, and Jinchūriki —