Menma Uzumaki: The Naruto of the Parallel World

Released in Japan on July 28, 2012, "Road to Ninja" traps Naruto and Sakura in an illusion where the people close to them have changed personality. In this reality, the Nine-Tails attack killed no one: Minato and Kushina are alive and their son grew up with them. Yet he left Konoha for reasons never explained, and neither his parents nor his friends knew it.

An Antagonist Designed for a Single Film

Menma Uzumaki appears neither in the manga nor in the television series: he is the main antagonist of "Road to Ninja", the franchise's ninth feature film and the sixth Naruto Shippuden movie, released in Japanese theaters on July 28, 2012, then shown two years later, on August 29, 2014, in more than forty-five American cities. Masashi Kishimoto himself devised the original story and designed the characters of this installment, which the guide to all eleven feature films helps place. Menma is a creation of the movies, never carried over into the main story.

The wiki also notes a break in the chronology: although Kishimoto wrote the screenplay, the period in which the film takes place does not match the canonical events established by the manga and seems to diverge from them after Naruto's stay on Turtle Island. The film therefore does not fit into the manga's timeline, which explains why no chapter mentions Menma or the world he comes from.

The character went a long time without an identity. During the concept phase, he was referred to by only two names: "the Masked Man" (Kamen no Otoko) and "Black Naruto" (Kuro Naruto); the name Menma Uzumaki was settled on only later, and his family name was officially confirmed only by a note on Studio Pierrot's production blog. Outside the film, he is found only in two video games, Naruto Mobile and Naruto Online, where he is playable.

The Genjutsu World, Setting of the Inversion

The Genjutsu World (Genjutsu Sekai), In [monde-du-genjutsu]: replace "name recorded on page 79 of the artbook Naruto Stealth Volume: Road to Ninja" with "name recorded on page 79 of the companion book Naruto Stealth Volume: Road to Ninja". In [les-neuf-betes-masquees]: replace "The artbook Naruto Stealth Volume: Road to Ninja, page 77, places five of them" with "The companion book Naruto Stealth Volume: Road to Ninja, page 77, places five of them"., is a parallel reality created by Tobi when he casts his Limited Tsukuyomi (Gentei Tsukuyomi) on Naruto and Sakura and traps them in a crystal ball that hosts the dimension. The stated goal of the operation is the capture of Kurama. The illusion is a prototype of the genjutsu that puts the whole world to sleep : the Rinne Sharingan used here has only seven tomoe, since the Akatsuki held only seven tailed beasts at the time.

The setting feeds on two wishes: Naruto's wish to have parents and Sakura's wish to escape her own parents' control. Minato, who never became Fourth Hokage in this reality, and Kushina are alive there, while Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno died defending the village; it was Kizashi who held the post of Fourth Hokage, and his face appears on the Hokage Rock. The wiki adds that the personalities of the two sets of parents are partly swapped.

Tobi explains that the illusion was originally an exact replica of the real world, and that the distortions appeared when Naruto and Sakura were inserted into it, like the ripples of a stone breaking the surface of the water. He knows everything about this world but cannot direct it himself; he projects into it in the guise of the spirit of "Madara". A masked man meets him there and the two agree to work together, an alliance in which the Uchiha hidden behind Tobi's mask plays the role of guide, the wiki presenting the masked man as receiving his advice.

The Son the Nine-Tails Attack Did Not Leave Parentless

Menma was born to the Minato and the Kushina of his world. Unlike Naruto, the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox did not cost his parents their lives there, and he had a stable and loving childhood with them. He entered the Academy, became a genin and then a chunin. At a point the wiki does not date, the Black Nine-Tails was removed from his mother without killing her, then sealed inside him; he then mastered its power.

The parents themselves are not those of the manga. In this reality, the future Yellow Flash of Konoha and Kushina are jonin, look younger — close to the age of this version's Kakashi — and put family before their ninja duties, which kept them out of danger. The wiki describes their relationship with a rebellious Menma as recently strained : the son is seen there as disrespectful and reads his father's files without permission.

His personality, outside his criminal activity, does not resemble Naruto's. The wiki describes it as calm and composed, fairly close to Sasuke's, and not much interested in girls — even though the Sakura and the Hinata of this world compete for his affection, just as Sakura and Ino compete for Sasuke's in the real world. The inversion takes hold from this point on : the child who had his parents is the one who turns away from them.

Menma, a Ramen Topping for a Name

The first name comes straight out of the bowl. Menma is a Japanese condiment made from fermented bamboo shoots, found in ramen: the wiki sees in it a parallel with the origin of Naruto's own name. Menma is the only counterpart in the Genjutsu World whose name differs from that of his original ; all the others keep theirs, the inversion affecting, in most of them, only character and manners.

Two explanations are put forward, presented as hypotheses. The first has to do with the bowl itself: the naruto topping in Naruto's ramen is said to have been replaced with menma shortly before he was sent into the illusion. The second points to the novel by the Legendary Toad Sage : in this reality, he is said to have given the name Menma, and not Naruto, to the hero of his book. The wiki favors neither one nor the other.

The clue is planted in the very first minutes. Upset by his loneliness, Naruto complains among other things about the extra menma served on his ramen, a detail the wiki links to his state of mind at the time. After the end credits, the Ichiraku sign bearing the word "menma" has changed : the film closes on the condiment that gave the antagonist his name.

The Rogue Ninja Konoha Never Saw Leave

The wiki gives no motive for his desertion: it happened "for unknown reasons". It does describe it as recent, however, and supplies the clue that allows it to: both his parents and his friends were unaware that he had left the village and that Naruto had taken his place, even though he had already committed many crimes outside it. Neither his parents nor his friends have yet connected the masked man to Minato's son.

His actions, on the other hand, are listed. Described as ambitious, he collects secret techniques and kekkei genkai in order to gain control over the shinobi world, and starts abducting ninja who carry rare bloodlines: it is these abductions that draw the attention of the other villages and get him classified as an S-rank criminal. He then meets Tobi, who promises to lend him his power, then goes after the jinchuriki of his reality.

Two victims are named. He defeats the Two-Tails jinchuriki of his world, then mortally wounds the Jiraiya of this reality to keep him from bringing the Red Moon Scroll back to Konoha; the dying man nevertheless manages to seal the object in a chest that only Minato, his student, will be able to open. This scroll is described as capable of putting an end to the Genjutsu World, and can only be used at the moment the moon turns red.

The Black Nine-Tails, a Fox Nothing Holds Back

Menma's tailed beast is not Kurama but his counterpart, whom the film calls the Black Nine-Tails (Kuro Kyubi). The decisive difference lies in the sealing: Menma does not carry the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style on his abdomen. Nothing holds back the black fox, whose chakra is immediately available to him and considerably increases his power, whereas Naruto's Nine-Tailed Fox remains held behind the seal placed by Minato.

The film grants him no tailed beast transformation. His hatred is presented as what allowed him to bond with the black fox and control it better, to the point of releasing it entirely and using it like a summon. Like every descendant of the clan of fuinjutsu masters, he also inherits from his bloodline remarkable stamina and life force.

Naruto's fox is not neutral in the matter. Menma detects negative emotions and senses Kurama's hatred in his opponent; once his mask is broken, he himself explains to Naruto that the throbbing felt in his stomach must be the fox's reaction to the Black Nine-Tails. Rather than be trapped in a world controlled by Tobi, Kurama offers his host a truce, and Naruto opens the seal to summon him against his double.

The Nine Masked Beasts, a Pack Made of Chakra

The Nine Masked Beasts (Kumenju) are living entities created by Menma from the Black Nine-Tails' chakra. The artbook Naruto Stealth Volume: Road to Ninja, page 77, places five of them among the "divine beasts" (shinju) and four among the "divine priests" (shinkan). Menma summons them with a tiger seal, the phrase "Kumen Sowaka" and the recitation of the kuji-in, which makes a vast mandala appear where each kanji is ringed by nine circles, arranged according to the cross pattern on his cloak.

Each creature emerges from a specific ring, and the bestiary borrows from the pantheon: Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku and Genbu take up the Four Symbols, the golden snake Kinja refers to the yellow dragon, while Tennyo, the Shinigami and the pair Hokuto Sennin and Nanto Sennin form the priestly side. Their use is as much about restraint as about striking : Kinja and Tennyo bind, Hokuto and Nanto trap targets in purple cylindrical barriers, and the Shinigami's scythe releases waves that drain the chakra of whatever they pass through.

The pattern owes nothing to chance: the wiki notes that the kanji carved on the gates correspond to the nine rings it attributes to the members of the Akatsuki. Once defeated, the creatures return to their true form, nine masked fox cubs with a single tail, or convert back into chakra that returns to its bearer. It is by recalling them to himself that Menma reforms the Black Nine-Tails and sends it against Naruto.

The Spiraling Ring, the Rasengan in Reverse

Menma's techniques are essentially Naruto's, in a darkened version. The Spiraling Ring (Rasenringu) is a sphere of dark purple chakra surrounded by white rings that orbit it before aligning into a disc evoking the rings of a planet, a variant close in appearance to the spiraling technique developed by Minato. The wiki credits it with power equivalent to the Rasenshuriken Naruto throws in Sage Mode ; in the film, the clash between the two ends in a draw.

Two differences from the original are worth noting. First, Menma performs these techniques without resorting to shadow clones, which his counterpart needs. Second, the name is a play on words: the kanji 輪虞 are pronounced like the English word "ring" but literally mean "wheel of fear". The exact spelling of the name was in fact revealed for the first time not by the film, but by Naruto: Shinobi Masters, a Japanese social game.

The oversized version, the Great Spiraling Ring (Dai Rasenringu), is used to destroy a large part of Konoha when Menma comes to claim the scroll. The wiki explicitly compares this destruction to the attack led against the village by Pain, and notes that his way of fighting — creatures thrown in numbers, a repulsion technique very close to the Almighty Push (Shinra Tensei) — evokes the day Konoha disappeared more than Naruto's style.

What the Mirror Shows Naruto

The physical resemblance is almost complete, apart from a few details: the blond hair has turned black, which the wiki attributes to having given in to hatred, the cut is longer and shaggier, like his father's, the whisker marks are darker and more animal, and dark circles hollow out his face. Under the white fox mask he wears at first, it really is Naruto that one makes out, a mask paired with a gray-blue robe with a fur collar and a cloak bearing his emblem.

What he feels facing him is explicit: he is disgusted by the sensation Naruto gives him, and that disgust intensifies when he understands that the other is exactly the same as himself, which strengthens his decision to kill him. The wiki ties this feeling to the fox's hatred and to Obito's manipulation, not to a temperament he was born with. Menma is moreover the only counterpart to meet his original, the Sakura of this world having been moved into the real world, an exchange that only the companion episode "Road to Sakura" puts on screen.

The film does not make him a dead man. Tobi takes possession of his body, Menma then gains a Sharingan in his right eye, and Naruto puts him down the same way Minato, his own father, had defeated Tobi; his parents rush to a son who regains his original appearance. Studio Pierrot's production blog suggests that Naruto takes after Kushina, while Menma's personality may once have resembled Minato's, a reading supported by Menma Namikaze, the counterpart the anime places in the dream of Konoha's weapons specialist, and who, for his part, never deserted his village.

Summary Table

FAQ

• Does Menma Uzumaki appear in the manga or the anime?
  No, in neither one. He is born with Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, for which Masashi Kishimoto wrote the story and designed the characters, and which the wiki describes as poorly connected to the manga's chronology. Outside the film, he is encountered only as a playable character in two games, Naruto Mobile and Naruto Online.
• Is the Black Nine-Tails the same tailed beast as Kurama?
  No, it is his counterpart from the Genjutsu World, named Kuro Kyubi. The two foxes clash in the film, and Tobi reveals afterward that this was precisely his plan: to make Naruto and Menma fight so that their tailed beasts would face each other and Kurama would be weakened by it.
• Why is he called Menma and not Naruto?
  Because he is the only counterpart in this world not to bear the name of his original, and because his own name also comes from a ramen topping. The wiki puts forward two hypotheses without settling on either: the condiment that replaces the naruto in the bowl just before the hero's departure, or the Jiraiya of this reality, who is said to have given that name to the character in his novel.
• Why did Menma leave his village?
  The wiki does not explain it and sticks to "unknown reasons". It specifies only that the departure was recent, to the point that neither his parents nor his friends knew that he had disappeared or that Naruto was taking his place. His crimes, on the other hand, are documented: abductions of carriers of rare bloodlines, which earned him the S rank.
• Does Menma die at the end of the film?
  No. Tobi takes possession of his body to extract Kurama from Naruto, Sakura interrupts the extraction, then Naruto puts the possessed body down. Tobi then leaves Menma, Minato and Kushina rush to their son, who regains his original appearance before Naruto and Sakura return to their world.
• What is the difference between Menma Uzumaki and Menma Namikaze?
  Menma Namikaze does not belong to the film: the anime places him in Tenten's dream under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, in episodes 427 and 428 of Naruto Shippuden. His tailed beast is the real Kurama and not the Black Nine-Tails, and he never deserted Konoha. Studio Pierrot's blog nevertheless calls him "Menma Uzumaki" and specifies that, unlike his Road to Ninja version, this Menma did not go bad.

In summary

The fox's hatred, not his childhood, explains the turn. The wiki ties Menma's reversal to the Black Nine-Tails and to Obito's manipulation, not to a temperament he was born with; freed from Tobi's grip, he ends the film alive and regains his original appearance.