Menma (anime)

was a former member of a group of bandits originating from the Land of Rice Fields, the same land where Otogakure is located.

Background
Menma lost his parents when he was little and was adopted by the Shiin clan.

Abilities
Menma was able to use ninjutsu with his ocarina, enhancing an individual's strength and speed, and could move more quickly than Neji did at top speed. These abilities caused some people in Konoha, including Neji and Tenten, to suspect that he was a ninja from the Land of Sound.

Menma Arc
His real name is unknown. He left the clan after a member killed a man in front of his daughter Fuki while raiding a town. After saving the girl from a similar death, the boy acquires a case of amnesia as a result of falling off a cliff (it was later revealed to be a "memory blocking technique"). Naruto soon rescues the boy while gathering bamboo for his ramen and takes him back to Konoha to recover. Naruto gave him the nickname Menma (which means fermented bamboo).

When the hospital that he is staying at catches fire, Menma's memory returned while he was saving an infant, much to his dismay. After being permitted to stay, Menma builds a good reputation with the village elders, along with Naruto, by performing various odd jobs. After a bandit attacks, they go on a search for Menma's memories along with Neji and Tenten, into the Land of Rice Fields. By chance, they come across the village Menma attacked on the orders his clan's leader, Shiin, with the rest of his clan. However, Menma doesn't mention anything he remembers to the Konoha ninja.

It is revealed that there is a war currently taking place between the Land of the Rice Fields and other nations, mainly due to the actions of Orochimaru. As a result, the area that the raided village is in is a demilitarized zone, ruled by no-one, but with a gold mine on the mountain nearby. Bandits sought the mine, and raided the village to get to the mine. Menma was one of those bandits.

The Konoha ninja are told that the bandits will attack again, for the mine. Menma decides to help the village to make up for what he had done, but disguises his true intentions by saying he wants to help protect the village. He and Naruto make a wall around the village. Soon they are joined by Tenten, Neji and the rest of the villagers. They all prepare for their face-off with the enemy.

Eventually, Shiin attacks the village. Having difficulty with getting past the wall and defeating the Konoha ninja, he resorts to using music to paralyse the Konoha ninja, but Menma counters the technique with his own music ninjutsu. This allows Naruto to break Shiin's flute, plus Tenten and Neji to defeat the raiders.

Shiin, realizing the battle to be lost, retreats to the dam at the river. Menma quickly realizes his plan, having been trained by Shiin and knowing all his plans for the raids. Shiin planned to flood the village to drown the villagers. The gold mine would be left unharmed. Menma informs Naruto and they quickly race to the gold mine to collect the exploding tags.

While at the mine, Menma confesses everything to Naruto. He tells Naruto that he had raided the village and felt terrible for it. As a result, when he fell off the cliff, he erased his own memory to forget. But it was only temporary. He tells Naruto that he plans to make the mine collapse, stopping the flood. Thanking Naruto, he pushes him off the mountain, away from harm.

He eventually sacrifices himself in order to set off an explosion to prevent the bandits from flooding the village, thus saving the village. This was his way of giving back to the village he helped plunder, while on the raid with the bandits. Menma's death noticeably affected Naruto, who kept Menma's ocarina as a memento. Naruto also ate ramen with pickled menma root to remember Menma by.

Trivia

 * The music that Menma plays on his Ocarina is a song from the Naruto Soundtrack called, "Loneliness."
 * Menma is one of three people named after a type of ramen, the others being Naruto and Udon.
 * Menma's use of the Ocarina is similar to Tayuya's, also Tayuya and Menma share similar hair partings between their eyes, only with reversed positions.

Quotes

 * (To Naruto) "I just want to live a proper life. I don't want to regret anymore."
 * (To Naruto, Neji, and Tenten) "I sometimes think about it. I wonder what kind of person I was. If I was an evil person, what should I do?"
 * (To Naruto) "This is goodbye.... Thanks to you, my life has gained some meaning."
 * (Last words) "Goodbye, Naruto."