Menma Uzumaki (HBH)

Menma Uzumaki (うずまきメンマ, Uzumaki Menma) is a member of the Uzumaki Clan and the son of Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage ((四代目火影, Yondaime Hokage, Literally meaning: Fourth Fire Shadow), and Kushina Uzumaki. Born with natural talent because of his lineage, Menma was considered a prodigy since a young age, and was highly-respected by the villagers and shinobi. Through his hard work and determination, Menma eventually surpassed his father and became the Fifth Hokage (五代目火影, Godaime Hokage, Literally meaning: Fifth Fire Shadow).

Background
Menma was born on the night of October 10th, which also turned out to be a historical night in the Shinobi World, as the Nine-Tails who was sealed within his mother broke free after the seal weakened during childbirth, but his father, Minato, managed to restrain it and seal it half of the beast back within Kushina and the other half inside of Menma, although Konoha suffered great damage because of the attack. Ever since as a young child, Menma was skilled in ninjutsu, being able to perform the Fire Release: Fireball Technique with no problem and was highly skilled in shurikenjutsu. After enrolling into the Academy, Menma was somewhat distant towards others, although he wasn't above to hang around others, and formed a rivalry with Sasuke Uchiha, due to Sasuke's flirtatious personality causing him to get jealous of Menma due to the majority of the girls in the Academy having a crush towards Menma, especially Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyūga. Sakura and Hinata had a heated rivalry with each other over Menma's affections, with Hinata using her sex appeal and provocatively sense of dressing to try and seduce Menma, although Menma showed no interest in neither Hinata or Sakura, with the two blaming each other for Menma's rejections. After graduating, Menma was placed in a team with Sakura and Sasuke, under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake. After successfully completing many missions from D-Rank to A-Rank, Menma, along with Sakura and Sasuke, were promoted to Chūnin.

Personality
Menma takes more after his father; he is calm, collected, talking only when he feels it serves a purpose. Menma is mature and very serious. He is also shown with a sharp wit, carefully thinking before acting and able to see the underline nature of the situation at hand. Menma is somewhat distant, showing little respect when talking to others, although he shows great respect for his parents and his superiors, such as Kakashi and the Hokage. He also shows no interest in women despite both Sakura and Hinata fighting over his love, telling them that their constant fighting was annoying him and told them to leave him alone. In later years, however, Menma began slowly showing some interest in women, starting with Sakura, after witnessing Sakura risking her life to protect the villagers, and thought to himself that he never saw Sakura more than just a friend, but began wondering if he felt more than that. This was initially confirmed as Menma later believed he had a crush on Sakura and asked her out on a date and later asked her to be his girlfriend, much to Sakura's joy and Hinata's anger. Later on, however, both Menma and Sakura realized that their "love" was nothing more than "child's crush" and Sakura and Menma mutually ended their relationship.

In his young adult years, Menma began keeping a close eye on Hinata, blushing after thinking about Hinata's provocative attire, showing a minor peverted side of Menma, and also thinking about Hinata's bold personality, something that Menma stated he admired in her. Later on, he asked Hinata out on a date, to which Hinata responded by (literally) jumping onto his arms and kissing him, and this caused both of them to fall to the ground, where Hinata continued to kiss him (although forcibly). Menma soon realized that he loved Hinata, and the two eventually married, with Menma jokingly commenting on Hinata's provocative wedding dress, although he was already used to Hinata's sense of fashion.

Despite his seriousness, Menma is very loyal to his friends, Menma is very loyal to his friends and village, as during the Chunin Exams (which Menma was put in charge of), Menma was informed about Orochimaru being in the Forest of Death looking for test subjects. After finding a dead genin team, instead of reporting back, Menma decided to search for Orochimaru to prevent further deaths of genin, further showing his loyalty to the village and their shinobi. Menma went great lengths to protect his friends and family, such as when he absorved the Ten-Tails into his own body to prevent Madara Uchiha from making himself the beast's jinchūriki, despite knowing the risk losing himself, although the thought of protecting his loved ones caused him to regain control over the Ten-Tails. Menma also developed a minor sense of dark humor, as when Madara sarcastically asked him if he had any last wishes, Menma told him he'd wished he could send Madara "crying home back to his brother", and after Madara told him his brother was dead, Menma responded with a smug smile: "I know".

Appearance
Menma looks very similar to his father; his hair being blond, long and shaggy-looking in style with jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face. His trademark characteristic are the three whisker markings on his cheeks. Menma wore an orange and black jacket with a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a red Uzumaki crest on the back. He also wore black fingerless gloves, orange pants with a shuriken holster on his right knee, black sandals and a black forehead protector. As an adult, Menma cut his hair short and stopped wearing a forehead protector. He also wore orange sweatshirt with black stripes, black pants and black sandals. After becoming Hokage, Menma dons a garment similar to his father's: a white cape that has a red flame pattern around the hem, is held together by a red rope, and has the kanji for "Fifth Hokage" written vertically down the back.

After sealing the Ten-Tails into his body, Menma's appearance changed greatly; his trademark whiskers disappeared completely, his hair grew to waist-length with shoulder-length bangs framing the sides of his face, covering most of his right eye, exactly like Madara's, with his hair also turning white due to the Ten-Tails' influence. His attire also changed; he became enveloped by a cloak of chakra that stabilised into physical clothing, with a mesh armour underneath, dark green pants and black sandals. Underneath the cloak, Menma sported six red magatama tattoos on his torso, with a very big Rinnegan marking tattoo above it on his chest.

Abilities
Menma is a very skilled shinobi. By himself, Menma could fight on par with Hanzō, who single-handedly fended off the entire Sannin. Menma is also well-respected within the village, as the elders of the village requested Menma's presence in a top-secret meeting with the Fire Daimyō to discuss Madara Uchiha's threat.

Chakra and Physical Prowess
As an Uzumaki, Menma has an especially strong life-force, granting him tremendous reserves of chakra and vitality. Derived from these traits are also an incredible healing factor and longevity. Menma is also noticeably fast and strong, being able to quickly intercept a surprise attack by Hanzō. Menma is also incredibly talented in taijutsu, being able to fight head-on with Madara Uchiha, which also earned him praise from Madara.

Jinchūriki Transformation
Menma is a jinchūriki of Kurama, granting him even greater reserves of equally strong chakra. Having long since made conscious contact with the fox and developed a strong relationship, Menma is able to access Kurama's chakra and powers whenever necessary unhindered. In battle, he can access the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, greatly augmenting his physical parameters and allowing him to sense negative emotions. Going even further, Menma can manifest a life-sized chakra avatar of Kurama to battle larger enemies, such as Hanzō's salamanders. .

After sealing the Ten-Tails into his body, Menma's power increased extremely, with his father stating it was "beyond human knowledge". In this form, Menma could fly and his physical abilities were enhanced, being fast enough to react to Madara's Susanoo and easily deflect Madara's Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation technique with no effort at all. As such, Menma was noted by Madara himself to be the most powerful shinobi in existence, with Madara even saying that Menma could possibly achieve the same power as the Sage of the Six Paths. With his transformation, Menma obtained Truth-Seeking Balls that floated behind him in a circular formation, which were comprised of the five basic nature transformations and Yin-Yang Release. Their chakra is highly malleable and versatile, such that he could use them as high speed projectiles, protective barriers, and various weapons. Another unique trait of Menma's abilities is that he was able to deactivate his Ten-Tails' jinchūriki transformation and return back to normal, although his Rinnegan was inactive when he wasn't in Ten-Tails' state.

Ninjutsu
Menma was taught by his father and by his master, Jiraiya, how to perform the Summoning Technique, and was one of the few people that Gamabunta would listen and respect. One of Menma's trademark techniques is the Shadow Clone Technique, which Menma uses in battle and to gather information in enemy territory. He also uses the technique as a bait, tricking his enemies into believing a clone was the original one and once they thought they killed him, Menma would surprise attack them with hundreds of clones. Menma is also an adept sensor, able to detect chakra signatures from miles away.

Rasengan
Menma learned how to perform the Rasengan after training with both his father and Jiraiya. Despite his father being who created the Rasengan, Menma proved to have a far superior mastery over the technique; Minato initially intended to combine the Rasengan with his own chakra nature, but the task was too difficult to complete, and as such, he gave up on the attempt, but Menma later surprised him by successfully adding his elemental nature to the Rasengan, which in the process created the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken technique. Menma immediately realized the technique's great risks to himself, and instead of physically connecting the attack like he usually did with the Rasengan, Menma threw the Rasenshuriken to avoid injuring himself. Over time, Menma created different variations of the Rasengan, such as the Giant Rasengan and the Wind Release: Rasengan, with Menma being able to launch the latter as a projectile instead of connecting physically.

Nature Transformation
Menma was able to utilise all five basic nature transformations, as well as Yin–Yang Release. Menma's natural affinity is Wind Release. As such, Menma proves to have a superior mastery over Wind Release than his other nature transformations. Despite this, Menma was extremely talented in all nature transformations, being able to create giant fireballs and powerful lightning beams from his hands without using too much chakra.

After becoming the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails, Menma was capable of using Wood Release and showed immediate mastery over it, being able to attack Madara with giant dragons made of wood which could drain his enemy's chakra. He also showed to be able to use Lava Release, a mixture of fire and water-natured chakra, and was able to create globs made of chakra which could bind an enemy or prevent them from escaping.

Rinnegan
After sealing the Ten-Tails inside himself, Menma immediately and inexplicably awakened the Rinnegan in both of his eyes, which Madara theorised that the only reason Menma awakened the Rinnegan was because of the Ten-Tails' influence. Madara's theory was heavily discussed as true, as Menma's Rinnegan was only present when he entered his Ten-Tails Jinchūriki. As Menma was the original owner of the eyes, he could use the Rinnegan's full power. With the Rinnegan, Menma could use all of the abilities of the Six Paths Technique, such as the Preta Path to absorb chakra and the Deva Path to perform Chibaku Tensei. Despite not having a Sharingan, Menma was able to use Susanoo, much to Madara's surprise and amusement as he never had the chance to battle another shinobi who could use the Susanoo. Due to his fight with Madara, Menma was quickly able to achieve Complete Body — Susanoo (完成体　須佐能乎, Kanseitai — Susanoo, Viz: Perfect Susanoo, Literally meaning: Complete Body — He with the ability to help by all means). Menma and Madara's battle with their respective Susanoo's caused the area where they were fighting to become a wasteland, and created nuclear explosions that devastated forests that were located miles away from their battlefield.

Intelligence
Menma was a very keen-minded individual, having the highest scores in the Academy. Even at a young age, Menma was able to carefully analize dangerous situations and come up with strategies to counter enemy attacks. With his observational skills, Menma could determine an opponent's plans and motivations based on only limited evidence. Menma could also adapt to new types of ninjutsu and battlefields, which caused Menma to rarely get caught by surprise, even when facing off a legendary shinobi as Madara Uchiha, and refused to fall into Madara's taunts about ending the world and creating a world of dreams. He also formed theories about enemy's hidden abilities and ways to counter them without losing his cool or getting frustrated if his theories failed, and patiently analized his enemies to find a way to counter their attacks.

Sunagakure Escort Mission Arc
After being promoted to Chunin, Menma, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and their team leader, Kakashi Hatake were assigned to escort the Kazekage from Konohagakure to Sunagakure following a meeting between the Hokage and the Kazekage. The Kazekage, Rasa, showed little trust for Team Kakashi and openly told them that if they tried to betray them, they would be brutally murdered, but Menma calmly responded by telling Rasa that they had no intentions to betray them, and if he wasn't satisfied with his words, he could have his guards constantly observe them. Rasa silently believed in Menma's words and wondered why he believed him. Two days later, as they were reaching Sunakagure, Menma and the others were ambushed by Iwagakure shinobi, but Menma easily killed the ambushing squad with his incredible taijutsu skills, but quickly deduced that Iwagakure would send more shinobi once their ambush squad didn't report back, and planned to stop at a nearby town to prepare a counter-ambush strategy. As Menma and the Kazekage's escort arrived at the town, Menma began planning a counter-strategy for Iwagakure's attack and created multiple shadow clones to watch all sections of the town to alert them of Iwa's arrival.

Rasa expressed his disappointment in needing to rely on Konohagakure to protect him and felt that as the Kazekage, he needed to protect his own shinobi and claimed the title of Kazekage wasn't easy to achieve and began plotting an all-out attack on the Iwagakure shinobi once they arrived, without warning Team Kakashi of his plan. At nightfall, one of Menma's clones witnessed hundres of Iwagakure shinobi approaching the town, and released the jutsu, alerting Menma of their presence in the process and he began putting his plan in motion. As the Iwagakure shinobi approached the town's gate, they were caught by surprise as thousands of paper bombs suddenly appeared in their feet, which caused a massive explosion, killing several of the Iwagakure shinobi, while leaving the other ones shocked and confused, but they charged at the town regardless. As Menma was about to launch his clones at the Iwa squad, Menma was caught by surprise as he witnessed Rasa and his guards charging at the Iwagakure shinobi head-on and wondered why were they interfering with his plan. As the majority of Rasa's guards were killed, Rasa was nearly decapitated by a sword, before Menma saved his life by slicing his kunai onto the Iwa shinobi's neck, killing him instantly. Rasa told Menma he had no reason to interfere, but Menma told Rasa he had a plan and he ruined it. Their argument was cut short as the remaining Iwagakure shinobi charged at them, but they were taken down by Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi before they could even reach Menma and Rasa.

Rasa told Menma and Team Kakashi that Sunagakure didn't need Konohagakure's help in escorting him back to his village, and relieved them from their mission, but before Rasa could leave, Menma intercepted him by kicking him in mid-air, before telling him that Konoha never cancelled a mission unless lives were at risk, and told Rasa they would continue their mission, wether he liked it or not. This prompted Rasa to attack Menma with his Gold Dust, but Menma was able to block it with a wall made of the ground, followed by a dragons made of water with incredible speed, which sent Rasa flying through a wall. Team Kakashi tried to stop Menma from attacking the Kazekage, but Menma assured them he had no intentions to fight him, and only wanted to make him stop, and were shocked to see Rasa unconscious from the attack. Menma then lifted Rasa over his shoulders and returned him to his carriage and continued their trip to Sunagakure. Once they arrived at the borders of Sunagakure, Team Kakashi were stopped by Suna's guards, who questioned them about Rasa's guards, and Kakashi informed them about the ambush. The guards became suspicious of Konoha and accused them of orchestrating the ambush, but before Team Kakashi could even answer them, Rasa, who woke up from Menma's attack, confirmed the facts and reluctantly said that Menma had protected him.

At the Kazekage's office, Rasa's wife, Karura thanked Team Kakashi for protecting her husband, and Menma responded by saying it was his duty. As Rasa thanked them for escorting him back to his village, Menma noticed some ruckus within Sunagakure and warned Rasa about it. As Rasa went on to check, Menma heard some Suna genin being hysterical about Konoha shinobi being "infiltrated" inside the village, and claimed they needed to be removed of Sunagakure, but Rasa told the hysterical genin that Konoha were simply escorting him back to Sunagakure, but the genin still refused to calm down and after noticing Menma staring at them, the genin began shouting at Menma for him and his team to leave and never return. As Sakura grew angrier by the genin's comment towards Menma, he stopped her, saying it wasn't worth it and that the inner problems of Suna were not of their concern and simply turned his back from the genin, which made them even more angry. As Team Kakashi was at Suna's gates about to leave, the genin who insulted Team Kakashi attacked them with several shuriken, but Menma effortlessly blocked them, and questioned their reasons. They said that Menma insulted Suna's honor by turning their back on their shinobi without putting up a fight and leaving the village with no effort and charged at Menma head-on with his sword. As Sakura tried to intercept, she was pulled back by one of Menma's clones as the real Menma easily kicked the sword out of the genin's hands and after putting him down, pointed the sword close to his face. As the other genin attacked him simultaneously, Menma avoided all of their attacks and before he could attack them, dozens of Suna's jōnin interfered and stopped the fight. As Rasa approached them and demanded an explanation, Menma told Rasa about the genin's actions and told him to control his own shinobi, otherwise Suna could accidentally cause conflict, much to the jōnin's anger, who cursed Menma for speaking with the Kazekage with disrespect, but Rasa told them it was okay, because Menma was right and told the genin to return to the village and he would deal with them later. Menma and Rasa had a brief staredown before Team Kakashi departed back to Konoha.

Chūnin Exams
A few weeks after the Sunagakure escort mission, Menma was named proctor of the second stage of the upcoming Chunin Exams. Before the exams started, Menma was caught up in a "battle" between Sakura and Hinata Hyuga, both who had crushes on Menma and were fighting over his affections, but before they could begin an actual fight, Menma got in the middle and told them they were annoying him and told them to leave him alone as he needed to prepare for the Chunin Exams and left Sakura and Hinata blaming each other for his rejection. Minutes later, Menma was confronted by Sasuke, who had a deep jealousy of Menma's popularity with girls since their Academy days, and challenged him to a battle to determinate who would go out with either Hinata or Sakura (or both as Sasuke stated), but Menma simply walked away without answering him. This caused Sasuke to attack Menma from behind, but Menma dodged it, and knocked Sasuke down with a leg sweep, before telling him he was more annoying than both Sakura and Hinata, and told him he could keep both of them if he liked, but told him to leave him alone. When he returned home, Menma greeted his parents before having lunch with them and talked about being a proctor in the Chunin Exams. Minato told Menma he should be honored to be in charge of the second stage as Konoha only put talented shinobi in charge of the genin of the village, and expressed his pride on his son. Kushina also expressed her pride in Menma, although she acted overprotective of him, contantly telling him to be careful and to always eat his lunch at the right time, much to Menma's embarassment.

After the first stage of the Chunin Exams was completed, Menma led the genin who passed to the gates of the Forest of Death and explained the rules of the second stage. As some of the genin refused to take Menma seriously due to only being a teenager, Menma showed his abilites by appearing behind the genin who doubted him and scared them by pointing his kunai on their necks, he calmly (and probably sarcastically) asked them if they had any more doubts about him, which all of the genin denied. As the second stage was underway, Menma was informed about Orochimaru, a former Konoha shinobi, one of the Sannin and a highly-dangerous missing-nin, who was rumored to have been seen in the Forest of Death, looking to capture some of the genin to use as test subjects, and Menma entered the forest to check on the teams. After checking on most of the teams, Menma found a genin team brutally murdered and saw some dead snakes near the corpses, and confirmed his suspicious about Orochimaru being close. Instead of returning to Konoha and reporting about Orochimaru, Menma decided to look for him to avoid any more genin from being killed or captured. After searching for nearly an hour, Menma finally encountered Orochimaru, who was surprised to be found so easily, and recognized Menma as Minato's son. Orochimaru boldly stated that Menma was no match for him, and told him he would capture him and make tests on his body, but Menma proved to be able to battle with Orochimaru on a equal level. As Orochimaru summoned giant snakes to attack him, Menma summoned Gamabunta to help him battle against the snakes. Gamabunta and Menma proved to work very well together as a team, as they successfully managed to kill both snakes, before Orochimaru summoned Manda, and as Gamabunta and Manda battled, Menma and Orochimaru continued to battle themselves, before Minato and Kakashi arrived. As Orochimaru realized he was outnumbered, he fled from the forest using the Reverse Summoning Technique, but not before stating he would one day gain Menma's body for his expirements.

Instead of cancelling the exams, Menma told his father to continue the exams so the villagers wouldn't find out about Orochimaru's appearance, to which both Minato and Kakashi agreed. After the second stage was finished, Menma, Minato and Kakashi discussed Orochimaru's sudden appeareance and Menma feared that Orochimaru would try to attack Konoha during the finals of the exams, and opted to have the ANBU overlook all of Konoha's perimeters during the finals. A month later, the finals of the Chunin Exams took place, and Menma watched the finals alongside his family, but kept a close eye around the arena, and kept Orochimaru's appearance from his mother to avoid worrying her. As the first match of the finals began, Menma sensed some chakra being disturbed in the Southern Gate and silently warned Kakashi about it, who went on to inform Minato about it. In order to avoid chaos, Minato carefully made a Shadow Clone, while his real-self went on to check on the problem, while Menma also created a Shadow Clone without alerting his mother and left with Minato and Kakashi, although both Sakura and Hinata noticed him as they were watching Menma the whole time and followed him. When they arrived at the Southern Gate, Menma, Kakashi and Minato found some Konoha shinobi dead with their faces disfigured with acid, and assumed it was Orochimaru. Menma, however, quickly deduced it was someone else leaving someone disfigured because of acid wasn't Orochimaru's style. As they continued to think about who was the killer, they were alerted when they noticed hundreds of Salamanders charing through the forest and they immediately realized it was Hanzo from Amegakure who was behind the murders and charged at them to stop them from invading the village. Menma created dozens of Shadow Clones and launched a barrage of Rasengan's on the salamanders to drive them away from Konoha, but were caught off guard when dozens of other salamanders were suddenly summoned around them and charged towards Konoha and destroyed the Southern Gate and began attacking the village, which alerted the villagers and everyone in the arena. As they were using too much chakra, both Minato and Menma's clones suddenly disappeared, which alerted Kushina, who then went off to look for her family.

Menma, Kakashi and Minato continued to battle against the salamanders before they noticed Hanzo and several Amegakure shinobi charging towards Konoha, and Minato told Menma to follow Hanzo as he and Kakashi would take care of the salamanders. Menma intercepted Hanzo, and eletrocuted him by using a shadow clone as lightning before questioning him about the attack. Hanzo stated that the Five Great Shinobi Countries were his enemy and he would have Amegakure become a major shinobi nation and would start by destroying Konoha and all of their citizens. As he declared he would stop him, Menma entered his "demon fox cloak" (妖狐の衣, yōko no koromo) and charged at Hanzo with a Rasengan, which caused only minor damage. As his fellow classmates battled against the Ameagakure shinobi, Menma was aided by Hinata and Sakura who attacked Hanzo with a double punch, despite Menma's protests of letting him fight alone. As Hanzo recovered, Menma was forced to protect both Hinata and Sakura from Hanzo's attack as they dropped their guards and caused Menma to be greatly damaged. Suddenly, Kushina, under her Four-Tails state, attacked Hanzo with a Tailed Beast Bomb, saving Menma, Sakura and Hinata's lives. Kushina then battled against Hanzo, but since Kushina was inexperienced in using Kurama's power, she was defeated by Hanzo. Before she could be finished off by Hanzo, Menma interfered and told Sakura and Hinata to take Kushina somewhere safe. Menma then charged at Hanzo with a Giant Rasengan, but Hanzo countered with his Fire Release: Exploding Flame Formation technique, which caused a giant explosion. Suddenly, Gamabunta interfered and knocked Hanzo out of Ibuse, his salamander, and this gave Menma the chance to hit Hanzo with another Giant Rasengan, which sent Hanzo flying through several buildings. As Hanzo struggled to get up, Menma approached him and told him that attacking other nations wouldn't make Amegakure strong, but would only cause Amegakure to lose their forces and shinobi, before finally killing Hanzo by striking Hanzo with a Rasengan to the face. Hanzo's remaining forces retreated. In the aftermath of the attack, Menma helped search for survivors among the wreckage of the village, but was relieved to discover there were no civillian casualties, although there were many shinobi casualties, but claimed they died like heroes protecting their home. Menma was hailed as a hero by the villagers for killing Hanzo and stopping the attack, although Menma claimed that all of the shinobi from Konoha were heroes, but the villagers continued to give him all the credit, much to his own disappointment.

Twelve Guardian Ninja
Following the attack by Hanzo, Menma spent the next several weeks helping the reconstruction of the village while also dealing with his own personal feelings, as he began seeing Sakura in a new light after witnessing her risk her life to protect her mother and the villagers during Hanzo's attack and wondered if he was starting to become interested in her. Meanwhile, Kakuzu an immortal shinobi and bounty hunter was attacking the Twelve Guardian Ninja temple, and collected millions of Ryos over the bodies over the guardians, but was exclusively looking to collect the biggest bounty of them all, which belonged to Asuma Sarutobi. Back in Konoha, Menma approached Sakura and congratulated her on protecting the villagers, much to Sakura's joy. Menma then grew courage and asked Sakura out on a date, which resulted in Sakura fainting from the surprise, much to Menma's shock and minor annoyance. After Sakura woke up, she believed that Menma asking her out was only a dream, but Menma again asked her out, which Sakura happily accepted and the two left on their date, while a raging Hinata looked on. During their date, Menma and Sakura kept helping the villagers rebuild their house and while walking around the village, they shared lunch and compliments.

Several weeks later, Konoha was nearly reconstructed and after many weeks of dating, Menma asked Sakura to be his definitive girlfriend after spending weeks around her and felt like she was truly "the" woman for him, which she gladly accepted and the two shared their first kiss, much to Hinata's anger. Hinata then confronted the new couple and told Sakura it wasn't over and Menma would soon realize how a horrible girlfriend she would be, but Sakura simply mocked Hinata before walking away with Menma. Menma and Sakura then encountered Asuma, who teased them about their new relationship, and claimed they looked well together. Menma asked Asuma if he'd seen his father, but Asuma told him Minato was meeting with the Fire Daimyō at that very moment to discuss the attack. Asuma then told Menma and Sakura he was about to head to the Twelve Guardian Ninja temple to ask for help in the reconstruction of the village and asked them if they wanted to accompany him, which they accepted. As they arrived at the temple, they were shocked to see the temple destroyed and checked for survivors, but found no survivors. Asuma wondered who could've destroyed the temple and assumed it couldn't have been only one shinobi because the Twelve Guardian Ninja were very powerful and deduced it was probably a group of shinobi. Suddenly, they were confronted by Kakuzu, who was waiting for Asuma and stated his intentions to collect Asuma's 35 million ryō bounty on the black market. Menma, Asuma and Sakura then attacked Kakuzu, who easily dodged the attack, before striking Menma with his Earth Release: Earth Spear technique. Asuma then charged at Kakuzu with his Chakra Blade, but Kakuzu proved to be too fast for Asuma and sent him flying with his Earth Spear technique. Sakura then used her superhuman stength on the ground to restrict Kakuzu's movements, but Kakuzu jumped high and attacked Sakura with his Earth Spear jutsu. Menma recovered and launched a Rasengan on Kakuzu, but suffered minor damage. Much to their shock, Kakuzu revealed he was immortal and they could never kill him, but Asuma still claimed they could defeat him, and even if he couldn't die, they could make sure he could lose his ability to use jutsu by cutting off his arms and legs. Menma used dozens of Shadow Clones to distract Kakuzu, while Asuma successfully cut one of Kakuzu's arms off with his Chakra Blade, but Kakuzu quickly re-attached his arm back, much to Asuma, Menma and Sakura's shock.

Menma, however, was able to analyse Kakuzu's hand seals, and pierced Kakuzu's heart with his Lightning Release: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang while having him distracted, exploiting the weakness Kakuzu's earth-based technique had against lightning-based ones. While this would normally be fatal, Kakuzu had five hearts (now four) in his possession, and thus recovered fairly quickly, sending a counter-attack to Menma. Removing his cloak, he revealed four masks on his back, one of which was now broken by Menma. Each mask contained a heart, the broken one having given its heart up to keep Kakuzu alive. The four masks broke free from his back into separate entities, with the broken one dissolving after doing so. Menma immediately realized that if they destroyed all of the hearts, they could actually kill Kakuzu. Ignoring the other two for the most part, Kakuzu focused on taking Menma's heart. Though Menma was unable to handle Kakuzu and his mask creatures alone, being forced to protect Sakura and Asuma too, he was saved when Minato suddenly arrived via his Flying Thunder God Technique and destroyed another one of Kakuzu's hearts with his Rasengan.

Kakuzu then grew angrier and angrier and vowed to take Minato's heart as well and charged at him, but was caught off guard as Minato teleported away and Menma attacked him from behind, destroying another heart. Menma and Minato then created a plan; Minato had already marked Menma and marked Kakuzu once he arrived. As Kakuzu wondered what they were gonna do, Minato shocked everyone (except Menma) when he threw his kunai onto Menma's heart, but Minato used his Flying Thunder God Technique, which caused Menma and Kakuzu to swap places, causing Kakuzu's main heart to be destroyed, leaving him with only one heart remaining. As Kakuzu lost control due to his anger, Menma prepared a Rasengan, while Sakura used her Chakra Enhanced Stregth within the Rasengan's power to form a Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan. As Minato and Kakuzu battled, Kakuzu pierced Minato through the heart, only to find out it was only a shadow clone, and was caught off guard by Menma's Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan, destroying Kakuzu's final heart. In the brink of death, Kakuzu cursed Menma and Minato for outsmarting and defeating him, and wondered why he'd lost, before dying painfully. Menma then collapsed due to overusing his chakra and was healed by Sakura. Menma woke up in the Konoha Hospital two days later and was relieved to see everyone alive and well. Asuma thanked Menma for defeating Kakuzu before leaving the room. Sakura expressed her relief in seeing Menma well, but both of them expressed mutual feelings that their relationship wasn't working well, because after spending some much time together, they realized they were only friends and mutually ended their relationship. After leaving the hospital, Menma was met by Hinata, who sarcastically warned Menma that he and Sakura wouldn't last long before walking away while saying she would "take him" someday. Instead of getting annoyed by this, Menma let out a small smile before heading home.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Preparations
Two years since Hanzo's attack on Konoha, Menma climbed up on the ranks of Konoha and was promoted to Jōnin and had completed over a hundred A-Rank mission dozens of S-Rank missions. Menma also began slowly developing feelings for Hinata, who acted as if she wasn't interested in Menma anymore in order to have him chase after her eventually, which turned out to be effective as Menma soon realized he was in love with Hinata, but kept his feelings for her a secret from everyone, including his parents. During a S-rank mission far away from Konoha, Menma found himself at Mountains' Graveyard, where he witnessed an old man sleeping and wondered how long he was there and if he was even alive. Suddenly, the passage behind him closed and Menma found himself trapped and as he looked back at the old man, he was caught in a powerful genjutsu. Menma found himself in a blank space, and was greeted by the old man, who was talking to him inside the genjutsu. The old man introduced himself as Madara Uchiha, but Menma didn't believed him because Madara was supposedly killed several decades ago by Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. Madara told Menma he survived the battle and lived in hiding all those decades, but Menma still refused to believe him because not even Madara Uchiha could survive that long, but Menma quickly believed him after Madara used his genjutsu to return his body to his prime, which shocked Menma. Menma then asked him why he was still alive, and Madara talked about his Eye of the Moon Plan and the Ten-Tails. After hearing about Madara's explanation, Menma told Madara he was delusional because such things didn't exist, but Madara assured him it could be created. Madara offered Menma to help him complete his plan and revealed he knew everything about him and how Menma wanted to help Konoha achieve peace and claimed the Infinite Tsukuyomi was the only way to achieve peace. Menma refused, saying peace achieved through a dream was only a lie, but Madara told him he didn't had a choice, because if he refused, he would kill him where he stood, but Menma still refused, saying he'd rather die than force the entire world into a genjutsu. Madara deactivated the genjutsu and praised Menma for his loyalty and claimed it was a shame because he was so talented and asked Menma to kill him, which Menma complied and removed Madara from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, killing him in the process.

Several months later, Menma still couldn't forget his meeting with Madara, but never told anyone about it. Suddenly, Menma was called to the Hokage Office, where his father was waiting for him for a serious meeting. Once he got there, he was informed about Orochimaru and the Eye of the Moon Plan. Menma expressed his shock at the mention of the Eye of the Moon plan, and Minato questioned him about knowing about it, and Menma finally told Minato about his meeting with Madara. Minato scolded Menma for keeping such as secret and told him that Madara might have had contact with Orochimaru and he could've been completing Madara's plan since then. Menma admitted his mistakes and asked to be punished, but Minato forgave him and told him his "punishment" would be to protect the world from Orochimaru's plans. Minato then organized a Five Kage Summit to discuss the matter and Menma accompanied his father as one of his bodyguards, with Kakashi being the other one. As they arrived at the Land of Iron for the summit, Menma sensed someone nearby with a powerful chakra and met with the Raikage A and his bodyguards Darui and C. A demanded to know the reason behind Minato's demands for a summit, but Menma stepped in and told A to wait for the summit for an explanation. A scolded Menma for being disrespectful towards a Kage, but Menma denied being disrespectful and only told A to be patient and they headed to the summit together, only to avoid getting attack by possible missing-nin. During the summit, Minato explained about Orochimaru, Madara and the Eye of the Moon Plan. The Tsuchikage Onoki initially refused to believe Minato's words, but changed his mind when the other Kage took Minato seriously as they knew about his reputation and he wouldn't demand a Five Kage Summit without a reason. The Mizukage, Yagura claimed some of his shinobi witnessed Orochimaru wandering around the Land of Water and were careful to not approach him. He also stated that Orochimaru successfully captured many Tailed Beasts alongside a mercenary group called Akatsuki. As Minato realized the danger it could bring to the Shinobi World, Minato offered to form a Allied Shinobi Forces to counter the Akatsuki. Before anyone could respond, Orochimaru suddenly appeared before the Kage, which prompted for all of the Kage's bodyguards to approach and protect their respective Kage. Orochimaru stated he wasn't there to fight, but simply to give them a warning. Orochimaru warned them about his plan and how he would take the Shinobi World into the Infinite Tsukuyome, where he would accomplish his dream of mastering every Jutsu in existence, and declared the Fourth Shinobi World War before fleeing by using the Reverse Summoning Technique.

As the Kage were stunned by Orochimaru's declaration of war, Menma shouted that they needed to form an alliance, otherwise the Shinobi World would came to an end and everything they knew would be gone forever, which caused the Kage to agree on an alliance, with Minato being named the Supreme Leader of the Allied Shinobi Forces. When they returned back to Konoha, Menma, Minato and Kakashi held a meeting with the village elders and the Fire Daimyō about the summit, where Menma pointed out the problems within the alliance; the villages didn't trust one another after decades of constant wars and fighting among themselves, and that would bring them a giant disadvantage, but they had no other choice but to trust one another. After the meeting ended, Menma met with Hinata, who once again faked not being interested in Menma, but due to the recent events, Menma boldly declared his love for Hinata, much to her shock and happiness, but quickly stated that he was too busy dealing with the upcoming war that he couldn't waste time with relationships and asked her to wait until after the war to deal with their personal matters. This led to Hinata insulting Menma, because he didn't knew if there would be a "after the war" as either of them, or even both of them, die during the war, and didn't wanted to risk never having the chance to express her feelings for him and broke down crying saying Menma was the only person she'd ever loved and wouldn't forgive herself if she couldn't protect him. Menma then walked up to Hinata, helped her to her feet and kissed her. Menma then apologized for being selfish and told her if there was a chance they could die, he at least wanted to be able to call Hinata his "girlfriend " at least once, before the two kissed again as Minato watched on proud... to be continued