(1) Orochimaru

Sapienti sat

A/N: So I went ahead and did it, posted this, that is: the first in the collection of writings connected to the story 'The Price of Living'. Some of these can probably be read independently, so if you're one of those who like interaction between a random OC and a Naruto character, give it a try. As TPoL readers already know, this is quite an old chapter, with more than a few mistakes and, now, more than a few corrections. I'll also update the bonus chapter with Sasuke when I'm done with editing.

Keep in mind that all these 'cutscenes' will be determined by voting on my profile whenever I put up a poll- which means there are more chapters to come. For now, enjoy this scene between Orochimaru and a girl named Akane.

It was pretty hilarious, the girl decided. For once, she would have never thought that his face was even able to make an are-you-kidding-me look.

"Akane-chan," she gritted her teeth at the provoking suffix, "It was rather obvious that that was a trap."

The long-haired girl watched dispassionately as his pale hand moved his figure and briskly removed her bishop from the board. She had just given a bishop for his pawn- she'd gotten quite plenty of those. The man obviously had no qualms about getting them sacrificed for her precious pieces.

-and she fell for it every time.-

Akane shrugged her shoulders casually at the loss and once again her thin hand was on the Queen. Orochimaru watched with detached interest as she moved the figure across the chessboard and took yet another of his pawns. Yet another futile move. He was curious, although he kept his face carefully blank. What in the world did the brat think she was doing?

"Your… strategy," he settled for pointing out with a teasing lilt, "is quite an eye-catcher, my dear, but- as you have surely noticed- rather inefficient."

Greenish eyes shot up to meet his serpentine gaze. The Sannin could have broken down in laughter at how effortlessly easy she was to read. Even though she tried (relatively well for a mere civilian, he admitted) to conceal her body language and facial expressions, it was in her eyes… a palette of colors that revealed the true intensity of her feelings.

As if she had grasped onto his trail of thoughts, the eighteen-year-old promptly averted her look from his prying one. "It is efficient enough," she responded in a flat voice.

Too late. He saw it. The discomfort at his words. A slight hint of desperation.

Wonderful...

His long tongue slipped from his mouth and Orochimaru licked his lips in satisfaction, like a snake tasting the air for sweet fear.

My... 'strategy'? It would seem he noticed… Akane glanced back up at him just in time to see a tip of a red tongue disappearing into his mouth, only to have his lips form that irritating smirk. She couldn't help but suppress a shiver- a light, disgusted jerk of muscles she had become more than accustomed to.

Figures.

As her opponent had stated a moment earlier, her 'strategy' was quite unique… because it simply wasn't one. Ever since the beginning of this glorious game of theirs, the girl had never been the one going for the victory, after all. She knew she couldn't win against the likes of him (for Orochiamru hadn't been called 'the genius of Konoha' for nothing), but she would practice the only thing she was admittedly good at:

Prolonging time.

Akane remembered how she had been suspicious the very moment they'd started their routine conversation that morning. Both of them acted like nothing had happened, but the tension that had been breathing down her neck since that dreadful incident a few days ago had still been ever-so-present, and it took her tremendous amounts of energy just to keep her anxiety caged. Usually she would talk, and he would listen, and then she would retire to her room for the rest of the day. It was as simple as that. But this particular morning…

"Akane-chan," the pale man called out to her silkily over his shoulder as he piled some dusty old boxes, making her stop dead in her tracks, "it had recently come to my attention that you seem quite… restless, so to say."

A flinch.

Frowning in surprise, the soothsayer hesitantly let the doorknob slip from beneath her fingers before she turned to look at her captor. If by 'restless' he meant 'bored out of her wits', well then, she absolutely agreed. Drawing pictures in the dirt the whole day can only entertain one for so long… Cautious enough not to speak, she gave him a mildly curious look.

"I know I don't seem to have much time," Orochimaru apologized, tone mock-innocent and laced with grins, "however, at this moment I am available to spare a few moments for you."

Oh shucks, stop it, my ears are bleeding, a small sarcastic voice pecked away in her mind. She held back a cringe. Seriously, what ever did she do to give him an impression that she wanted his high-and-mighty company? Outwardly though, Akane smiled as pleasantly as she could and was about to retort when Orochimaru continued on.

"Do you know what this is, my girl?" he questioned and gesticulated to the rectangular box he was cradling in his arms. Old, dusty and checkered. It didn't take her long for her to analyze the object.

"..."

…chess?

(O.o)

Sensing his impatience at her bewildered lack of response, the girl quickly nodded her head.

Orochimaru didn't make small talk. That, she was certain of. Because of this little fact she had suspected some fiendish plot and evil-doing the moment he had addressed her out of the limits of usual unavoidable contact they made. But come on now… chess?

"I am aware that it is a game for the intelligent and the witted, but I was still wondering if you would be willing to play?" the man laughed briefly, "But of course, I will understand if you decline my offer…"

Akane could only stare.

Wait.

Did he just call her stupid? Did he just indirectly insult her and think he could get away with it? Was he intentionally daring her to refuse? !

The nerve.

Her eyebrow twitched dangerously. However, just like every previous time she had found herself in a rather displeasing situation, the girl's defensive reaction was but yet another disarming, amiable smile. Orochimaru returned her smile with his own predatory grin and placed the board on the table, promptly taking one luxurious seat.

"Well then," he beckoned for her, "shall we?"

Oh the bastard is going down.

She was taking the defensive again. Obvious enough, he concluded. Her whole game was in defending her King with a few pathetic offensive trips to his pawns. He was left with only a few of them but… they served their purpose. This girl-

…her small hand grasped the Queen tightly and, almost ruthlessly, crashed against his pawn…

-is playing with only one figure:

The Queen.

To say that Orochimaru was intrigued would be an understatement. The girl played the game with only one piece solely, thoroughly forgetting about the rest. From the very beginning it was obvious to him that she was a poor player, not even a challenge. If he had wished so, he could have finished the game a long time ago.

He didn't.

At first he was irritated beyond belief: the fool had no talent whatsoever, apparently no strategy, and no interest on what was happening on the field beside her two precious figures. She fell for the obvious, stayed perfectly mute when in a tight spot and, to top it all off, seemed to care little about seizing his King.

Orochimaru continued the game, patiently waiting and observing, for he was experienced enough to know that there was more to this weak little girl than met the eye: the previous few months were enough of a guarantee.

Surprisingly, he caught himself rather enjoying the game now. While Akane was by far the worst chess player he'd ever met, she was a formidable opponent in the game of wits, even when so annoyingly silent.

And so they played.

That was it. She was getting pissed off. He was enjoying this, toying with her, the bloody bastard. Akane kept her emotionless façade, but her hand gripped the figure a little bit too rough. He saw it (and how wouldn't he, when he had been eyeing her creepily this whole time) and his face split into that unnaturally sharp grin again. Oh God, how she hated him.

She had just lost yet another of the important figures. One by one, they all fall...

"Mind telling me how long are you planning to keep me waiting?" she finally spoke, completely deaf to her mind's warning that would have otherwise kept her silent, "Do you find such pleasure in slowly taking my army? Oh please, do take them all, just cut to the chase already."

The long-haired girl expected a frown to form on his forehead and possibly a long-awaited punishment for her arrogance, but instead his grin widened more (if that was even humanly possible) and then, he laughed.

Her eyes almost popped out from their sockets with incredulity. Akane stared at the dark-haired man, completely bewildered, for it was unexpected to hear a laughter of Orochimaru's so rid of malice and mockery. It sounded almost… good natured.

It scared the shit out of her like never before.

"Darling girl," the Sannin spoke as his strange laughter subsided, "I would have never thought us this similar…"

I beg your...? if she knew how, she would have made a point of lifting an eyebrow.

"What a cruel being you truly are." His hand slid under his chin, supporting it elegantly, and he smiled at her. "I find your apparent eagerness to sacrifice all of the weaker pieces for a greater purpose quite enchanting," the man leaned towards her, "Why, I believe you've surpassed even me in severity, my dear."

The meaning of his words made her hold in a lungful of tense air. That she should be as vain as he, as treacherous, as insane-

… he did not just imply that.

"Ah Orochimaru-san," she manipulated her voice into a sweet chirp, soft as a bird's song and sharp as its beak, "I do believe that is an impossible feat to accomplish."

Akane picked up her Queen and inspected the piece closely, swaying it gently between her thumb and index finger. "You see, on my side of the board, there really are no others. Only the King and his guardian."

"There are no. other. pieces," she finished, her voice cracking at the end with a tremble despite her control. She observed as his reptilian eyes lit up with acknowledgement and knew he understood her words perfectly.

And he did.

The King, a pathetic figure really. It could only move as much as one square and had almost no offensive or defensive power, merely relying on its protectors. But, however weak it might have been, it was still the most important piece in the game and the member everything revolved around.

The Queen, on the other hand, was the most powerful. The figurine was capable of impressive movement rate and was most suited for unexpected crises. Akane-chan was fond of the independent Queen and played with her just like that: independently.

Her hand picked the Queen once more and forced his lines back…

Akane was the Queen.

Fighting and battling defiantly without a moment to spare. And the King…

He eyed the passive piece, lazily enveloped in a false, cozy blanket of security.

… was her little friend he had imprisoned. Hana, was it?

'There are no other pieces…'

In the end, she wasn't sacrificing her other figures. She already considered them dead. There was nobody else to protect the other imprisoned girl. So this whole time… all the little Queen had been doing was taking her sweet time?

How cute.

But… what if he…?

"Check," the smooth voice rang and sickeningly golden eyes drilled into her own.

What the…? Is he done playing games? The girl puzzled over the sudden turn of events. The sudden attack was too abrupt and her brain stopped for a moment in failure to contemplate the new situation.

Check? she tried to collect her wits, But not checkmate? What exactly is he…? Akane finally snapped back from her daze and analyzed the board attentively when-

She took a sharp intake of breath.

The bastard.

Her King was situated in the very corner of the board. It was surrounded by other pieces from each side, which were effectively cutting off his escape route. It was impossible to move it an inch.

Yellow eyes gleamed sinisterly.

And there it was: Orochimaru's strongest figure, the black Queen, hissing at her King threateningly from all across the board. She had nowhere to go.

But how is it not a checkmate? Akane shifted her eyes to his hungry ones, as if trying to dig up the answer hidden under the glitters of fake gold. What was there left for her to do? What did he want her to do?

The solution composed before her eyes by a second and, soon enough, the girl shook her head slowly in disbelief. It seemed like the only way to save her King would be to put a sacrifice piece before him for the black Queen to devour, thus making it impossible for her to attack the king lest she should be taken by him in return. Yes, that would work.

As for the sacrificial figure, she tried to compose herself and calmly strategize, Which piece should I-?

It was only then when she realized that- she had almost none left. Just when did he take them all? All of my chances… The pieces fell to their places and finally, Akane understood. There was only one solution Orochimaru had left her with and it was the damnest one of them all- to sacrifice her pride and joy, the Queen herself, to save the priority of the game.

To put herself as a human shield to protect Hana.

She remembered from the series that Orochimaru observed reality as a game. He ranged people by their 'worth' and compared them to the figures. It was just a matter of time until he evaluated her and dragged her into his game. He knew very well who her King was, who was most important to her. He'd been tauntingly waving with Hana dangling in front of her nose since their first encounter. So… he wanted to see how far she was willing to go?

Is that it? Her knuckles turned chalk-white as she clenched her fists in hot fury. He was asking her if she would give her own life for the other girl when it comes to it, wasn't he? He dared to doubt her resolve after all she had been through? After all he had put her through?

"My dear, do not look at me so," Orochimaru chided her softly after her glare turned expressively green with poison. "If the Queen finds the situation too difficult to handle," a dark, almost intimate smirk, "she can always change the sides of the board…"

The equivalent to his implication made her jaw clench. Join me completely. Obey me. Give up. Give in.

The corners of her lips shaped a small tricky smile.

(Never. again.)

"But Orochimaru-san," Akane half-whispered after a few tense seconds, willing herself to speak, "that... is not how this game goes."

An elegant black brow rose.

"The Queen," she explained softly, as if to a small child, "must choose her side before the beginning of the game. Not after. Do you not remember? Just like you have chosen the black... I have chosen the white."

And white shall I remain, she thought, forever persistent in her decisions. White shall I embrace.

Orochimaru watched as the girl's fingers enveloped the white Queen and ceremonially put her in front of the King. Akane looked at the figure long, as if saying goodbye. She would not betray her little friend, it seemed.

No matter.

Then he would take her by force. He would bring her to her end.

Down to her knees.

And in the end, he. would. make. her. crumble.

The black Queen, he himself! The most powerful creature on the black side of the board! The strongest, most dominant piece! The master of the whole game! The superior to the white Queen!

The clash of the two Queens echoed throughout the wide dark room. The only thing that remedied the deadly silence was the sharp thump of the defeated white Queen as she fell. Pale hand stretched and gripped it, long fingers clenching its curvy sides, before pulling it harshly to his side.

The girl took the fall with empty green eyes, her head raised pridefully as ever while she watched the man across from her gloat in his triumph. The Snake Sannin spoke of his so-called-pity towards her then, and Akane found herself daydreaming of wrenching his poisonous tongue out of his throat. It was an image that thus far had kept her sanity in check; she'd become rather fond of plotting the snake's demise at her own hand...

"Now now, my lovely. Your King is still safe… for now," he cooed mercilessly, as he prepared for the continuation of his game. What he didn't count on, however...

"I'm not playing."

The girl's statement was followed by the screeching of her chair. A swish of an expensive, light kimono as she started to leave, and the tapping of her retreating steps—

"Stop."

She did.

"We haven't finished our game yet, Akane-chan," Orochimaru sluggishly motioned to the board crawling with black pieces, "Surely it is impolite to leave things unfinished."

The girl contemplated her reply for the longest ten seconds.

Breathe in… Breathe out…

She discreetly wiped the corners of her mouth with her hand, as if she were trying to wipe away the curse words that had almost escaped her lips. Facing him as she was wordlessly requested to, Akane stared into his amused eyes, trying not to spit out her polite reply, "I have no pieces left to play with. Besides, it's completely pointless playing with you."

Bracing herself, she continued on to the door in rigid, wooden steps and gripped its side tightly. The skin on the back of her neck prickled; she didn't like having her back turned to him. When no sound came from the very dangerous man behind her, she took his silence as an invitation to elaborate on her words. And so she spoke.

"Playing this game with you is quite unfair really," a dry chuckle scratched through her throat, "For how can I play it with somebody who has no King of his own?"

She really didn't, not once, try to attack the black King- because such an action would be completely meaningless, she knew. Akane tilted her head over her shoulder just enough to make out the dissatisfied face of the serpent master. A spark of inner victory flashed in her dull eyes, outshining the playful glitter of fire and shadows.

"Congratulations, Orochimaru-san. You won your game."

The door closed behind her and she took a deep breath of her one and only triumph. She navigated her way to her room, feeling the unexplainable urge to skip and whistle and laugh like mad along the way. Feeling lighter and stronger than ever. She'd shown him; her victory may have been a silent and inward one, but it had still been just that: a victory.

And tomorrow… Tomorrow is my time to attack.

With each breath the girl took, the air smelled more and more like rain.

Translation: Sapienti sat- A word is enough for the wise. (Indicates that something can be understood spoken with only a few words, without any need for explanation, as long as the listener has enough wisdom, insight or common sense)

A/N: Ignore the smiley in the beginning of the chapter, I just couldn't resist. xD So if there's anybody who didn't review this old chapter (or someone who hasn't bothered to do so so far) I'd be delighted to read your opinion on it. If you found yourself here by accident and had no idea what was going on but liked it nevertheless and would like to read on, feel free to read the original story, The Price of Living, which you can find on my profile page.