Author's Note: OHHH MYYY GAAWWWSSHH!
It has been so incredibly long since I've been on this site! I've missed it SOOO much!
Well, I was hoping I'd be able to do some writing during the school year, but that was pretty much impossible. I was super busy, and there was just no way.
ANYWAY, I am so happy that school is over so I can write again! :D :D :D
Thank you SOO much to everyone who reviewed "Until the End." It really means a lot to me that you all enjoyed it so much! :D
So, this is a new story that I started a while back, that I've only written a chapter or two of so far.
I think it's something quite different from what I've seen. But, then again, I haven't been here in what feels like a thousand years, so who knows.
I'm posting the prologue now, even though I probably won't be able to update for a week or two, just to see what you guy think of it.
Therefore, any and all reviews would be GREATLY appreciated, so I know if I should even bother to continue with it.
I, personally, think it's going to be pretty awesome, but it's my own story, and I'm supposed to think that. :P
I know, the prologue doesn't give too much information as to what's going to happen, but just let me know if you like it so far!
Again, I'm SO happy to be back!
Sorry this note is so long! Hahaha.
Prologue
Since the beginning of time, snakes have been a universal symbol of evil and sin. After all, it was a snake that coerced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and sprouting from the head of Medusa, whose single glance could turn a person to stone, was not hair, but serpents. Their long, slithering bodies are nothing but muscle, their fangs can impale with ease and inject deadly poisons into the veins of their enemies, and their shedding skin depicts constant renewal, or immortality. Yes, snakes were powerful, and it was for this very reason that he had taken a strong liking to them. After years of experimental techniques, and a contract signed in blood, he had turned himself into a being that was just as powerful—if not, more so—than the serpent. There was just one problem, however.
Unlike the serpent, Orochimaru was not immortal.
He desired to create powerful jutsu and to destroy the village that he had long since abandoned. As the years passed and his body began to age, however, he knew that his dream would take more than a single lifetime to fulfill. If he wanted to remain the most powerful and feared man in the world, then his body could not weaken, and his mind could not become dull. In other words, he could not age. He would need to create a special jutsu so that, like the serpent sheds its skin, so could he. Gathering the test subjects would be easy, but developing a jutsu of that magnitude would take some time.
After years of experimenting and thousands of subjects killed in the process, the jutsu had been completed and perfected. He had abandoned his middle-aged body for that of a healthy twenty year old, and the feeling of youth revisited coursed through his veins like a drug. High on the power, he craved more. He needed a better body, one with even more power, more strength, and more talent than this. If such a body existed in the world, then he would find it.
The promise of the perfect vessel came within the body of a young boy. The sole survivor of the Kaguya clan after their slaughter by Kirigakure, he was strong, naturally gifted in the art of combat, and a rare owner of an extremely powerful kekkei genkai. A few years after pledging his allegiance to Orochimaru, however, illness had taken over his body. Orochimaru, having recently acquired a skilled medical ninja in his ranks, employed his newest disciple Kabuto to the task of curing the boy's illness. But the boy was different; the kekkei genkai that he possessed had transmuted his skeleton into something that was almost inhuman. Kabuto spent years studying every medical journal he could get his hands on, but to no avail. Even a medical ninja as skilled as he could not cure him.
And so, 'Plan B' was formed.
A faint dripping sound echoed throughout the long, dark hallways as Kabuto walked. The dim candlelight flickered dimly against his surroundings, creating just enough light to illuminate his path. His eyes wandered along the swirling patterns etched into the stone floors and walls, lulling him into a trance as they continued further and further along without a single change in pattern. Turning a corner, he began to hear the faint sound in a room at the end of the hall. It was a familiar sound, a low whooshing sound that indicated that Lord Orochimaru had already begun the experiment.
Better hurry, he thought to himself, or Lord Orochimaru might get angry with me.
His shoes clicked loudly against the rocky ground as he quickened his pace, clutching in his hand the sample that his master had ordered him to retrieve. A bright blue glow peeked from inside the room, and, as Kabuto neared the doorway, he could see Orochimaru leaning over a table, his eyes concentrating intently on the technique that he was performing. Underneath his hands, an outline of a small human figure appeared, glowing the same blue color that filled the entire room. Kabuto noticed a limp body lying against the back wall, his skin a ghostly white and his eyes staring aimlessly off into the distance. He recognized him to be one of Orochimaru's prisoners, now nothing more than a sacrificial pawn for his experiment. He guessed that the bluish glow underneath Orochimaru's hands was the spirit of the deceased, needed to give Orochimaru's new creation life.
The door creaked as Kabuto pushed it closed behind him, echoing throughout the large laboratory. Stopping the jutsu, Orochimaru turned to Kabuto. "Did you get it?" He demanded.
Kabuto held up a small vile that was filled with a clear liquid. "Of course," he responded
Orochimaru grinned evilly, his yellow-green, snakelike eyes narrowing into slits as he did so. "I knew you would. How's the boy?"
"Still terribly ill," Kabuto answered while adjusting his spectacles, "his bone structure is so strange, I just can't figure out the proper way to treat him, even after all these years of researching."
"Such a shame," Orochimaru sighed, "a perfectly suitable vessel… wasted."
"Well," Kabuto suggested, "If this experiment works, then you'll still have the Shikotsumyaku, at least."
Orochimaru turned back to the laboratory table to continue performing his experiment. After forming a long series of hand seals to concentrate his chakra, he placed his hands on the abdomen of the human outline, and from his hands another blue glow appeared. He held this position for a long while. Sweat eventually began to drip from his brow as a result of his intense focus, and his mouth twitched slightly as the demanding jutsu began taking its toll on his body. After about five minutes, bones began to appear, taking shape of a human skeleton. Five more minutes passed before organs and muscles appeared over the skeleton. Ten more minutes, and the skin had formed as the final layer.
"Kabuto," Orochimaru called to his loyal assistant. Even through ragged breaths, his words were still filled with authority, "I want you to inject the sample into the body when I give you the signal. No sooner, and no later."
"Of course," Kabuto nodded while plodding toward the supply cabinet on the other end of the room. Pulling out a syringe, he carefully transferred into it the substance from the vile. Flicking it a few times, he positioned the needle so the tip was just barely touching the specimen's left arm. His eyes flickered upward, meeting his master's, and in an unspoken agreement, Orochimaru began the final technique.
Another long series of hand seals was required for Orochimaru's jutsu before he placed his hands against the specimen's abdomen again. Kabuto knew that this stage of the experiment would take quite a while; Orochimaru now had to construct veins, arteries, nerves, and all of the other microscopic pieces of this puzzle known as the human body. Though he wished to take a seat and relax until Orochimaru's signal, he knew that doing so would only anger his master, so he stood attentively and waited instead.
"Kabuto," Orochimaru hissed after fifteen minutes of silence, "now!"
Without wasting even a millisecond, Kabuto plunged the needle deep into the specimen's arm, immediately draining the liquid from the syringe into the body. When it was completely emptied of its contents, Kabuto extracted the needle and placed it on the table.
Orochimaru lifted his hands from the body, and the bright blue glow faded until the room had returned to its normal dim lighting. Kabuto's eyes darted to those of his master's. "Did it work?"
His master stayed silent, eyes narrowed as he gazed upon his creation. The doll-like creature lying on the table did not move. It certainly looked like a living human being. Its little lips puckered ever so slightly, its cheeks were plump and rosy, and its porcelain skin appeared smooth and healthy. Orochimaru had performed the jutsu perfectly, or at least he thought he had. The man sighed as he spun on his heel, crossing his arms over his chest and flashing a glare at his associate.
Oh, great, Kabuto thought to himself, a failed experiment always makes Lord Orochimaru terribly cranky.
The medic braced himself for the yelling that he was sure was soon to come, but before the Serpent Master could open his mouth, something interrupted him. It was a sound so miraculous that it caused even the sadistic Orochimaru to crack a grateful smile, for, to him, that sound meant the success of a very important experiment.
It was the sound of slow, gentle breathing.
