Genius

Some Orochimaru love, because I think that he should be a more sympathetic character… or something.

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He had been a quiet child, he heard from his parents. He'd never complained, screamed or cried much, or so they said. Always they had tried to make him comfortable, which he did remember. Even as his father came back weary from battle, his body receiving some new scars at times, which made him chuckle lightly, put him on his lap and tell about the battle. "Yes, daddy liked your mom so much that he cut straight through the man." Before pushing him off and letting him play with his toy kunai.

He had just started to learn, just started his path onto greatness, when tragedy struck. As he stood there before their grave, his eyes saddened, he could feel his sensei's presence nearby. As he saw something with keen eyes, his hands reached for it, feeling how his sensei's presence lingered close by. "Ooh, good eye!" He glanced at his sense, gently picking up what seemed to be a molted snake's skin. "That's a white snake's molted skin."

He glanced up at his teacher with inquisitive eyes, his brain working to see whether her could place the comment somewhere. "I've never seen one before." He trails off, glancing at the skin and running his finger briefly over the scaled. A chuckle from his teacher sounds, his eyes glancing up once more to the man. "Me neither, they are very rare. Very hard to find."

The color puzzled him and he asked. "How come it's color is white?" His voice sounded questioning, his sensei speaking up. "I don't know. Nobody really thought to find out why. But they've been considered symbols of good fortune and rebirth for years."

He looked at the skin and then touched it softly. "Good fortune… and rebirth." His mind was thinking, perhaps his parents had been reborn already. His sensei spoke further, giving credence to the thought. "The fact that you found it by your parents' grave must be a sign. Perhaps they've been reborn in new bodies so that someday, when you've grown up, they can see you again." He looked at his sensei, a sudden feeling of elation coming over him. "When's that going to be?" His voice was asking, his sensei's voice being slightly pensive as he said that he didn't know. He glanced at the snakeskin in his hands and then his thoughts went to what could possibly be the goal he'd put before him. I will find a way to see mom and dad again!

He trained hard for the next few years, his body growing in power and musculature. Where before, there had been a weak child, stood now a teenager with muscles that guarded his frame like a sweater. He was not a musclebound brute like Jiraiya or a superior medic like Tsunade but he excelled within Jutsu, his knowledge of Konoha's jutsu library unsurpassed. Every scroll that he laid eyes upon, he devoured. His knowledge grew with the days, his sensei inspiring him by chatting with him about the different techniques. He took up anatomy lessons from the Hunter branch of ANBU, to try and increase his knowledge about the human body. A shiver went through his body as he remembered about the Nidaime's techniques, walking up brusquely to the man and asking to be taught the techniques he knew.

A gentle rebuffal, Sarutobi-sensei once more speaking with him afterwards about asking impossible things, but he did not pay it any heed. Nothing is impossible for me, I am Orochimaru, I shall be the one to discover the secrets of the body, to bring back my parents! I want to see pride within their faces as they look upon me, having conquered death and brought them back to life!There was a shiver that went through his body that evening, Tsunade around his apartment for a check-up, which he had been neglecting for almost a full month, studying the secrets of anatomy. "You should get checked up more regularly, Orochimaru-kun. Your body is stressed out…"

Her words were hollow to him, NOTHING should stand in his way of studying the effects of regeneration, of how limbs worked. During that time, the serpent contract became available, the previous summoner having died within combat with an Iwagakure shinobi, whose name would not be revealed. He had a thought as to who it was, but didn't think it credible. The contract accepted him, not anyone else.

The pride of getting to be the summoner of snakes, and raising his first snake from the nest that had been given to him by the Boss summon, Gamera, was a good contender for keeping his time occupied. Feeding the snake, that he had called Manda, had made him occupied, homebound. Nurture was needed for all subjects, Manda having become affectionate enough to stay within the folds of his clothing, occasionally peeking out and hissing at Jiraiya as he came close. To his mind, it was almost a compliment to see his 'friend' look so scared. Especially as he had been the one harassing him the most about spending time with the three of them. It wasn't that he loathed time spent with his team-mates… But studies came first.

The secrets of katon Jutsu were nothing to him anymore, the knowledge greedily absorbed. Right now he was twenty. His attempts at summoning Manda to him, the snake having grown considerably, had been futile, as the trick had not become apparent to him. He didn't know where he'd gone wrong, till Jiraiya spoke about seals and their usefulness. He filed the information away, even as he went home, he began to look into his books for information on Sealing. It was not the greatest achievement that he made that night, but a considerable one. If one could seal objects and things within a scroll, one could also do that with a contract, to assist in summoning something.

That morning, he appeared upon the training field that he had been using for his private studies and then painted the summoning seal upon his arm, his right one to be exact, then placed it on the ground. Channeling the chakra into it to form the binding, the blood mixed with ground and the drain on his chakra became apparent, his eyes glowing lightly as he felt the blood loss. His eyes went and with a huge boom and puff of smoke, underneath him appeared Manda, hissing. "You did well, Snake Summoner." A hissing was heard from his hand and a terrible pain gripped him, as he began to feel the contract burning itself within his arm with the seal. His eyes gained a more serpentine quality that day, as he could feel a minute amount of snake venom go through his veins, the blood having changed to venom.

His appearance grew more haggard as time passed, knowledge assimilated slowly. He fought within the shinobi war, the feeling of weariness that went upon his shoulders becoming more and more present, the feeling of a loss of power by not studying but fighting became more and more apparent, as the need for able shinobi was clearer. Fighting Hanzo the Salamander had been tough, the man even naming them the Legendary Three… The title was meaningless. He knew that in a fight, he would always have his team-mates to guard him. His jutsu were an integral part of their strategy and it made little sense to him to abandon that.

A student was offered, Mitarashi Anko. The girl was alright, in his opinion. Eager, happy… Cheerful. That was the part he liked least. Her eagerness to learn he could understand, the happiness to be taught… but the cheerfulness? He could understand that the girl could see him as some sort of father, as she had been an orphan when she had been shoved forward to become his student but really… why would anyone be so cheerful when they almost knocked down a door to get to her sensei's house?

But nonetheless, as time passed and his quest for knowledge became at a stalemate, he began to ponder… Think on things. His attempts at seals had been stagnant, his mind growing more and more accustomed to the rapid way things became learned and more hungry for other things. The spot of Hokage came up and he eagerly asked his old sensei for the ability to learn even more.

He was denied, Jiraiya's student chosen above him. What filled him that evening as he had been told the news, he did not know. With determination, he snuck into the library of the Hokage's private residence and located the Scroll of Seals, opening it and gleaming from it all he could, locking it away once more. It was time to bring back his goals, to be the man who would be Hokage, even if he had to beat that brat to the ground!

The next morning, he had finished the preparations, the targets had been carefully selected, his gear was in order. There was no chance to reconsider. His goal would be clear, two men would have to die for his ambition. He would see his parents again, in the flesh! No matter what it took! No matter the cost!

That evening, two drunkards who had been ambling home after a long night of drowning their sorrows in liquor disappeared from the streets. Orochimaru had targeted them especially as they had little to no value to the overall functioning of Konohagakure and thus, were unimportant and not likely to be missed. As their bodies laid onto the ground in the basement of his house, he grinned as he placed the small piece of flesh from his father and mother onto the respective circles, beginning to channel the chakra into the technique.

A scream came from one of the men, then from both of them as ashes seemed to collect from around them, forming them into the shapes that he knew so well. A little part of him cheered as he looked upon the bodies of his mother and father, seeing them stand within the circle, the bodies of the drunkards gone, creating them. "W-where are we? My love, you are with me again."

He watched as his parents embraced, tears leaking from his eyes, an almost hopeful look in them as he slowly shuffled towards them. "Mom? Dad?" His voice was soft and tender as he approached them. They looked upon him and recoiled, his advance stopped by the naked terror he saw within their eyes. "Orochimaru? Is that you?"

"Y-yes?" He croaked, his voice stuttering briefly. "I've brought you back, back to me, so you could see me again." He watched as his mother and father shared a look, tears looking to fall from his mothers eyes. It was his father who spoke. "What you've done… Is inexcusable! I curse myself for having a son who would go to this lengths to just revive us! The Nidaime's technique was not to be used like this, Orochimaru, I am ashamed to call you my son."

The words hit hard and he trembled, looking at his mother. "Mommy?" His voice sounded childlike and it was as he felt, his world shattering with every breath that he took, more and more. "You are a vile, despicable creature! You snake! You vile abomination of nature." His world shattered with those words and he felt a very dark pit reach out to swallow him, looking at his parents and narrowing his eyes. With his hands he formed three seals, took a deep breath and then released the seal, the bodies of his mother and father crumbling away, hissing insults.

It was at that moment that the child called Orochimaru died. That moment, the serpent rose. His eyes glinted with dark thoughts as the memories of what he had done, the research he could do. If he was an abomination… Then he'd best make himself the best abomination he could be.

His experiments started then, experiments that would go down into Konohagakure's history as abominable, the length of the human body dissected by the madman, but he did not care. As he spliced cells into newborn babies, he did not care for the results, save for a want to make sure that his work bore fruition. The thought of becoming immortal struck gold within his mind, making it the focus of his studies, the knowledge that he had once wanted to bring to bear to resurrect his parents, now corrupted into a thirst for knowledge, to learn everything that could be learned. He would be the only one to learn the secrets of immortality, to become a testament to all that lived that man could triumph over death.

As he felt his body slip into the darkness, after the mortal blow had been struck, he reflected upon his life which he had led and then knew that he had become what he had wanted to become after that fateful night. A monster, a terrific madman who was feared. An abomination of forbidden knowledge, clad within the guise of man. As his sanity slipped away, he thought – What awaits me now? The answer never came. But he knew this -

He would not be a failure, like his parents had said he would be.

He was a genius!

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Something I whipped up as an ode to a great character, which died too soon. I hope that this look into Orochimaru's thoughts could offer an explanation for his behavior, or at least offer a different interpretation of it, that would make people think. Please give me your reviews and tell me about your thoughts on the subject, as I tried to humanize him. Read and Review, thus ^^