Disclamer: Is this really needed? I don't own Naruto. I don't own the general plot for this story either, since it's dracohalo117's, and a few things might be from Arynia's and Thanatos' too.

Anyway, on with the story.

Perfect.

Orochimaru had been called many things during his life. Strange, promising, genius, legendary, monster, traitor… But the one thing he sought the most was never said.

He had never achieved 'perfection'.

As a child, he was taken as an apprentice of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. When his parents died, he was basically adopted as a son by him, and vowed he would find a way to not only bring the dead back to life, but also achieve immortality so that no one would suffer like he did. He trained harder than anyone, became known as a sort of genius that appeared once in a generation. He did everything he could to bring his dream come to life, to bring an end to the suffering of the world by destroying the one thing that caused it all: death.

Looking back, it was such a foolish, idealistic view of the world. Something truly deserving of a child.

Years later, he would know first-hand how difficult such a feat was to accomplish.

He experienced war. The Second Great Ninja War impacted greatly his view on his promise. He saw hundreds, thousands of deaths of both enemies and comrades, some were people he knew and were almost friends with. He couldn't help imagining how their families would fare now, how many were losing their relatives in this war. Such thoughts were only intensified when they had to lay siege on smaller ninja villages such as Kusagakure, and even civilian towns. The images of the dead would haunt him whenever he closed his eyes, and he would be tortured by those thoughts whenever he had to kill someone. He didn't how much longer he could remain sane.

Then something happened, that gave the last push he 'needed' to break.

Seeing Tsunade, his female teammate who he considered almost like a sister, break down after the deaths of her brother Nawaki and her lover Dan were the last straw. He didn't care anymore about the lives of his enemies, for him they became undeserving of his worries. They had made people close to him suffer, he would make them suffer too. Orochimaru became almost a killing machine from that point on, until he met his possible nemesis. And someone who would once again change everything he believed on.

Hanzo.

The legendary salamander summoner had defeated an entire squad of Konoha ninja, and only left he, Tsunade and Jiraiya alone. He saw potential on them, and as such labeled them the Legendary Sannin. He also predicted Konoha's victory in this war, and as such removed his village, Amegakure, from the conflict. Although his prediction would come true, Orochimaru didn't see it as a victory. He saw in that fight with Hanzo the true answer to achieve his goals: power. He needed power to bring an end to the suffering, power to bring order, power to bring peace, power to overcome death…

But not everyone could have power, the war having been an example of it. As such, Orochimaru started to change his goals. No more he would bring end to the suffering of the world, but only to Konoha's. He and his comrades would be more than deserving to enjoy such peace, the rest of the world would not be so lucky. Yes, for some to possess happiness other had to suffer; it was the natural way things worked.

And as such, as a way for Konoha to enjoy true peace, Orochimaru's quest for power began.

Looking for the best way to achieve power, he started researching the most famous source of it-and what would later become his biggest obsession: Kekkei Genkai. He would do everything; researching about them, looking into the clans which possessed them, looking into famous wielders of them, finding new ways on how one could use or combat them… They said knowledge was power; however, there was needed something more. Eventually, his interest went away from the theory and started poking in the practice. He longed for the day he would be able to actually research them on the practice. And then, he eventually decided to actually do it. Collecting the necessary material was relatively easy, the problem was to put it actually to use. He needed somewhere to actually test them.

Humans.

It was for the good of Konoha, he reaffirmed to himself. Collecting people from the village, homeless or orphans who no one cared about; they would die anyway, so at least this way they could serve the village. But they weren't fit, the death rates were enormous both because of his lack of medical knowledge-once again, only theory-and the rejection of their bodies to the transplanted material. With time he got used to their deaths, something he never did in times of war; to a point he felt nothing about it. Soon, he saw that mere civilians were unfit for his experiments, and that he needed other kinds of people. Strong people, with strong bodies modeled to endure such activities.

Shinobis.

At first, he was unwilling to use Konoha shinobi. He was trying to save the village and these people, why would he do such things? Instead, he took the opportunity to find ninjas from other villages whenever he was out on missions. Some would just be convinced to join him, others would have to be taken by force. Which opened another question: where would he take them to? He had never told his sensei about his experiments; he would do so when he actually had results. It would be too suspicious to enter Konoha with a group of ninjas following him, or with hostages. As such, he started forming bases around the world, bases where he could make his experiments and where his army-followers, he kept telling himself-would stay without attracting unnecessary attention.

But time changed everything. The contact with those foreign shinobi, as well as his growing neglect towards human life, was slowly taking Orochimaru away from his original goals. He no more wanted power for the village; no longer did he care to alleviate the suffering of those 'close' to him. No, such views were too idealistic, something not worth his time-–maybe someone's like Jiraiya, but not his. The only one that should matter was himself, he would be rid of his own suffering only, he worked this hard and endured so much, he deserved it. So he soon lost the inhibition of going after his own kin. He hunted the Konoha shinobi; initially only low genins and chunins, so as to not attract attention.

His quest, which once was to better the world, became more and more selfish as time passed on. He now cared only for himself; to become perfect.

Then, another war came. The Third Great Ninja War was just as bloody, if not more than the second, but did not have the same impact on him. At it's end, his old sensei revealed he was going to retire from his duty as the Hokage. Orochimaru was the favorite, of course, but in the end he opted for young Minato Namikaze, a shinobi who became a hero during the war. This caused Orochimaru to lose the only bit of consideration he had left for the village, and literally throw precaution away: he started going after jonin and even ANBU. But his sensei discovered it all, and he was forced to flee.

It may have been a mistake. But, to him, this lead to something much more. This lead to where he was now.

It had been quite some time since he was approached by the messenger of an organization, Akatsuki, who wished to acquire his services. The man itself was quite strange: he had two large Venus flytrap-like extensions enveloping his head and upper body, looking like he was partially plant; but what really got Orochimaru's attention was his ability to seemingly pass through solid matter. Curious about him, and planning to investigate it further, he headed to Amegakure, the very same place where he once fought Hanzo, to meet the organization's leader.

A single glance at him and his followers, and Orochimaru knew he made the right choice. What he saw made the plant-man look like nothing in comparison.

All the members were powerful, famous, S-rank missing-nins. The legendary puppet master, Akasuna no Sasori; the former Swordsman of the Mist and wielder of the Samehada sword, Kisame Hoshigake; the legendary bounty hunter who fought against the Shodai Hokage, Kakuzu of Takigakure… But what really made him jump were the leader, Pain, and his partner. Two orphans he had met in Ame long ago, who had been trained by Jiraiya.

One was a blue-haired woman, Konan, who had the power to manipulate paper; to the extent of turning herself into it. He remembered Jiraiya saying something about her talent with paper, but nothing that big. Though most would scoff at the idea of it being useful, it was actually something intriguing and, in the right hands, extremely potent.

But the other child was the true jewel. More specifically, his eyes. The Rinnegan. The ultimate doujutsu, thought to be just a legend… He didn't know what its powers were, but all the hype surrounding it, and the fact that the man had defeated Hanzo thanks to it…

He was partnered with Sasori after entering the organization, though the small number of member caused them to sometimes trade partners. The plan was to gather the bijuu, the mighty Tailed Beasts which had been spread through the countries by the Shodai Hokage long ago, and create a weapon powerful enough to threaten the villages and give them control of the world. But this was the main, final goal; before they went there, they would start by destabilizing the major Hidden Villages. And what better way to do it than by hitting on what sustained them: the economy?

Taking advantage of Kakuzu's 'job', the others would take bounties occasionally; by taking missions from smaller nations, who could not afford the villages, for a low price allowed them to get their confidence and slowly cause the major villages to lose potential jobs; sabotaging the villages missions, resulting in their failures and losing their reliability in the eyes of potential clients… Hell, even Iwagakure would sometimes hire them.

But Orochimaru had a secret agenda himself. He secretly researched their abilities, trying to find ways to replicate them. Sasori was by far the least useful for him; he was strong, he had no doubt he could give him a run for his money, but his abilities relied on puppet techniques. He hadn't really had any interest in them.

Kakuzu had, from what he could tell, a pseudo-immortality technique. His insides were composed of thick, black threads that allowed him to extend his limbs. Not only that, it seemed he could take others organs, allowing him to substitute any damage he suffered! His main power, though, where in his hearts: he could take others hearts, granting him multiple lives and also taking their owner's chakra affinities. Orochimaru was sort of thankful for not having completed his own body-changing technique yet; otherwise, he felt he wouldn't resist the temptation to use it against him.

Kisame, like Sasori, had nothing truly special. His shark-like appearance, his humongous chakra reserves, and his seemingly natural expertise with Water Jutsus were quite impressive, true, but were nothing worth his time. What truly interested Orochimaru was his sword, the Samehada. It was basically a sentient being, able to literally eat chakra and pass it to its user; Kisame never tired and healed exceptionally fast thanks to it. And Orochimaru felt there were more hidden abilities he hadn't seen yet.

But new members would come, with even more interesting abilities.

"So, this is my new partner?"

Currently, all members were gathered on the Akatsuki's headquarters, in Ame, where their leader was presenting a new member. Hidan, from Yugakure, apparently had killed hundreds of people before fleeing his village-which had apparently decided to finish it's service as a hidden village in favor of becoming a touristic point. Orochimaru remembered taking part on a mission to sabotage that village's missions-he faintly wondered if it had anything to do with the village's decision. The man was apparently going to be partnered with Kakuzu, so to 'avoid later replacements'. Could it be that…?

"I don't really see what is special about him. Doesn't look like he could survive longer than the last one." Said Kakuzu, his voice showing his disinterest.

"I assure I will surprise you, Kakuzu-sempai." Said Hidan, a very respectful tone to his voice. He didn't notice the glances traded between Pain and Kisame, nor the large, club-like sword coming in his direction.

For Orochimaru's surprise, the man didn't show any reaction to the attack until the sword sliced-–or rather, shaved-his head off his body. "What a useles-"

"Damnit! This fucking hurts!"

For nearly everyone's surprise, the beheaded had started talking and in a rather different manner to the one before. Orochimaru was dumbfounded, looking agape and faintly hearing Pain explain about Hidan, only really paying attention to the explanation on his ability: he was subjected to a cultist ritual which granted him immortality. Immortality. Though it seemed it didn't give him regeneration, the fact Kakuzu managed to stitch it back together with no problems or collateral damage to the body functions more than compensated for it; he could see the pair was going to be quite monstrous. But, above everything, a single being with both their abilities would be even better.

Would be immortal. Would be perfect.

As time passed, he started going a step further in his plans: collecting their genetic material. Most were quite easy, to be honest; Hidan's in special. He wasn't very careful in his battles, and his own attacks normally involved doing self-damage.

Kisame was also very easy. In the few times he got to do mission with the shark-man, he saw how violent that man was. He would pound the opponent with his sword, normally leaving shards of it everywhere. He just had to take the shards and seal them in scrolls.

Kakuzu was also relatively easy. He had his arms cut off quite a few times in battles, some by his partner Hidan which greatly angered Kakuzu, and Orochimaru just had to take and seal the threads in scrolls like he did to Kisame. Apparently, the pseudo-immortal didn't have as much of a connection to the threads after they were cut, so he didn't notice it.

The others were more difficult. Although he really wasn't much interested in Sasori´s puppetry, he found out the man had found a way to make puppets out of human bodies. And, better yet, these 'Human Puppets', like Sasori called them, retained any special abilities they may have had while alive… Such as a Kekkei Genkai. This was something that interested Orochimaru. He found the man had detailed the process of doing it, as well as 'secrets' of puppetry, in a scroll he kept hidden in the off-chance he chose someone to pass on his legacy. He just needed to wait the right moment to take it; differently from Sasori, he wouldn't care about waiting a bit more.

In one of Akatsuki's missions, the client had specifically requested Pain's presence. It seemed an easy enough mission to accomplish, he could have passed it to another member, but he and Konan went along. As foolish as this mission was, Orochimaru managed to worm his way into the mission. He had been away for quite a long time, taking care of 'personal things', which angered a bit the leader. He used it as an excuse to accompany him and Konan in this mission; as a way to 'redeem himself in his eyes'.

In the end, it turned out it was a trap by Hanzo's loyalists to avenge their leader. The fight itself was, for the lack of a better word, boring. Most of the ninja looked like they were barely jonin-level, some not even chunin. There were a couple good ones, true, but even they were nowhere enough to take on S-rank shinobi. The fight, however, proved to have its value for Orochimaru: during the fighting, he managed to sneak a few sheets of paper from Konan, which she didn't seem to notice, and also got a bit of insight on the leader's abilities.

"Shinra Tensei!" Orochimaru managed to get out of range just in time for a powerful shockwave to go crushing through the rather large army. Orochimaru was truly impressed; this was a jutsu? No hand seals, instantaneous, large range, and the destruction caused… It could be compared to a high-level wind jutsu, but even those would probably pale in comparison.

Looking back at Pain, Orochimaru watched in shock as a man rose from the ground behind the Rinnegan-user, who seemed oblivious. With a kunai in hand, the man looked about to kill him from behind…

But, in an ironic twist, a black pole suddenly sprung through the man's chest from behind, instantly killing him. Taking a better look, Orochimaru saw who it was that did it: another man, this one with a long hair the same color as Pain's. Orochimaru's eyes bulged when he saw that the man also shared another characteristic with the Akatsuki leader. "Another Rinnegan user? How is this possible?"

Such was his shock at this new development, he didn't notice a man sneaking behind him until it was too late. "Die, worshipper of the fake god!"

In pure reflex, Orochimaru turned around, kunai in hand, and managed to block the man's attack. He faintly noticed the man attacking him was the leader of the now-rebel group, apparently a former higher-up during Hanzo's reign. The two didn't get to continue their clash further, though, as both their eyes widened and pained groans, as well as blood, escaped their mouths the next moment.

Thinking quickly, Orochimaru opened his mouth as far as he could and, with a sound akin to that of someone vomiting, a new body was regurgitated. Once freely out, the now panting Sannin looked back to see his now shed body pierced by a black pole, the pole continuing to impale the rebel Ame-nin as well. On the other end, holding the pole was an unknown man, this one rather stocky. He too shared characteristics with Pain and the other man… including the Rinnegan.

"Don't worry. I knew you would survive that." The stoic voice of Pain took Orochimaru out of his musings, and he looked to see him and the long-haired guy coming in his direction. Looking around he saw the battle was over, Konan taking care of the last few enemies; however, he saw three other people with Akatsuki robes fallen, two with orange hair and in a puddle of blood, obviously dead. Could they also…

"What made you so sure of it?" He looked back at the leader.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't be worthy of being in Akatsuki" The voice came from his side and, surprised, he saw two of the 'dead' guys coming in his direction. His eyes widened and he looked at the third: the man who had impaled him was now on his side, the seemingly dead man now standing up.

Suddenly, something clicked on Orochimaru's mind. That was it, he finally figured out Pain's secret. Those six were most likely dead people, but someone was controlling them. Probably the true Rinnegan wielder. Looking back at the black pole that pierced him, he remembered feeling it affect his chakra—his shedding had never been so chakra exhausting before—and seeing an image, a Rinnegan. Looking again at the six, he saw that they all had piercings that seemed to be made of the same material as the poles. They weren't weapons; they were more like chakra receivers.

"Who are they, Leader-sama?" Orochimaru asked; the answer could confirm his theory.

Pain smirked, the other five copying the action. "We, Orochimaru, are the Six Paths of Pain. We… are God."

God… indeed. The wielder of the legendary Rinnegan could be nothing less in Orochimaru's eyes. But this didn't mean he was a monotheist.

As they left the battlefield, Orochimaru quietly summoned a few small snakes. They would gather the shards of the black poles that remained on the battlefield-–Orochimaru noticed that Pain didn't care about leaving them behind-and take them to somewhere safe. Most likely there remained genetic material of the true Rinnegan wielder in these.

He would make sure that it ended in his hands.

A few days later Orochimaru returned to the battlefield scene. The amount of material his snakes had managed to collect was rather limited, so he decided to do it himself. However, upon arrival, he noticed that the number of corpses had decreased exceedingly fast. Nearly half of it was gone. Orochimaru frowned. There weren't enough animals on the region that would cause it, as most had migrated to new places thanks to the constant life-threatening conflicts that happened around Amegakure.

Noticing movement in the corner of his eye, Orochimaru looked to find the cause of it.

Zetsu.

The trickiest member and spy of Akatsuki. Orochimaru barely saw him after he had been approached with the proposal to join the organization; mostly in meetings and when he came to communicate Pain's orders. Not only that, but he was the only member he had never heard anything about. Because of it, he never had the opportunity to try and research his abilities or gather his material.

Now was the perfect time to do so. He had heard rumors about Zetsu being a cannibal, so he had an idea what he was doing; apparently, Pain was not as careless as Orochimaru had thought. He needed to remember that from now on.

Taking a few kunai in hand and flowing a bit of wind chakra in them, he threw them at the plant-man when he went for a man's body near a rock. The man took a while to notice the incoming projectiles; when he did, it was too late. Not having enough time to merge with the earth, he tried dodging them; a feat which proved to be too much difficult thanks to his 'appendages'. Multiple kunai pierced his flytraps and stuck them to the wall, a few others make small cut near his face and legs.

Approaching his prey, Orochimaru heard him yell at him. "What do you think you are doing, Orochimaru?"

"Oh, it's you Zetsu. My apologies." He said innocently, coming closer and starting to remove the kunai.

"What are you doing here? If you were stalking us, you will be-"

Zetsu didn't get to finish the sentence, instead groaning in pain as Orochimaru painfully removed another kunai, this time accidentally cutting a strip of flesh from Zetsu's flytrap.

"Kukukuku. Be at rest, Zetsu. I just came here to check if I could save any guinea pigs for my experiments. Though, from what I see, if anything was worth salvaging you already got rid of it, right?"

Zetsu grumbled, passing a hand over his injury. It would eventually grow back the missing flesh, but it hurt a lot.

"If that is what you want, you can search the remaining bodies. But if you do something like that again, you will die. Got it?" With that Zetsu slowly sunk back into the earth.

Orochimaru laughed a bit, storing the bloodied kunais and the strip of flesh in a hidden scroll. "No need to. What I wanted, I got even more." Looking down, he began searching a bit. He didn't know if Zetsu had truly left, and maybe he could find more shards.

"Kisame, he will be your partner. And I already got a mission for you two."

Orochimaru stared at the new recruit in wonder. Itachi Uchiha. He didn't pay much attention to Pain's introduction; he already knew quite a bit about the Uchiha genius from his spies in the village. That he killed the rest of the Uchiha clan, though, was news to the snake. To do so he needed to have been extremely powerful and skilled, maybe even… Suddenly, he remembered something.

During his time studying the Kekkei Genkai in Konoha, the Sharingan had been the one that occupied most of his time. He eventually studied also about Madara Uchiha, the man who took the Sharingan to a whole new level: the Mangekyo Sharingan. For Itachi to have achieved the power he did, he had to have achieved such this new stage. Even thinking about it and the advantages it brought…

For the moment, Orochimaru forgot completely about his plans. During a few solo missions he took the chance to visit his bases, specially the one in the Rice Country: he had basically conquered the nation and formed his own village there, Otogakure. He had already started the experiments; first was Hidan, since once a body accepted his powers they wouldn't die because of the other member's. Luckily Hidan's was the most abundant of the materials, so he could afford the many failures. But now, looking at a Sharingan again, he wanted to secure it as soon as possible. Even if it wasn't immortal, once with the body he could get as much genetic material as he wanted.

Hearing the mission Kisame and Itachi would be sent to, Orochimaru let a plan formulate on his mind.

"Leader-sama, if I could give a suggestion." Everyone looked at him, Pain giving him permission to speak. "I would like to take the place of Kisame, and accompany Itachi in this mission."

Kisame raised his brows at it. "Oh, really? Why is it you want to take my place?"

Orochimaru smirked. "From what I got, this mission will be taking place in the Fire Country, and Konoha shinobi like me and Itachi know that place very well so we are the most indicated for it." He pointed out. Pain nodded, but Kisame was ready to argue. "Besides, you say that we should get used to working with other members too besides our partners. This could be a perfect moment."

Inwardly, Orochimaru kicked himself. This last part didn't go like he wanted and sounded almost stupid. He could see Kisame smirk; it would be easy for him to debunk it. However…

"I agree. I would like to have Orochimaru as my partner, if you wouldn't mind, Leader-sama." The declaration of Itachi took both Orochimaru and Kisame by surprise, though like always the leader showed no reaction.

"Then it's agreed. You will be leaving right now." As the duo left, Orochimaru smirked as he faintly heard Hidan mock Kisame, followed by the sound of flesh being cut and loud cussing.

He should have noticed something was wrong. But he didn't.

"AARGHH! You bastard…!"

Orochimaru stood doubled over, clutching the stump where his hand should be. After completing the mission, he had tried to take over Itachi's body. But that damn Uchiha had dared to resist and put him on a genjutsu, and then cut off his hand!

"You expected me to fall for such a trick?" Itachi's voice was stoic; he didn't even show signs of contempt. Which only angered Orochimaru more.

"You… You won't get away with it!"

"I already did. I talked to Leader-sama before we left; he and a few others were already suspicious of you. Now, you just confirmed it." He looked down, staring intently at Orochimaru with his Sharingan eye active. "None of your deception can fool these eyes. This hand shall serve as a proof of it."

Orochimaru snarled; he had lost this time, but in the long run there was still a chance. Grabbing his severed hand and hiding it in his robes, he suddenly sprung in Itachi's direction, the Uchiha preparing to counterstrike with a kunai. As he got close, however, Orochimaru suddenly crouched and opened his mouth, literally spitting a new body in Itachi's direction. Not expecting the movement, Itachi barely managed to evade a critical hit, still getting a rather large cut through his arm from Orochimaru's attack.

"Don't start getting cocky, child. You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over. One day… Those eyes will be mine!" With that Orochimaru ran to the forest, disappearing from Itachi's sight.

Running through the trees, Orochimaru smirked. The kunai now had Itachi's blood, and considering the deepness of the cut maybe a bit of muscle tissue. Unfortunately he hasn't mastered his shedding technique to the point of recovering lost limbs, but that was just a minor setback. He had more important matters at hand.

Now he couldn't return to the Akatsuki, which meant he had lost his supplies of genetic material, and he was rather limited on Konan's, Pain's, Zetsu's and Itachi's. Luckily he had planned for a possible failure and as such he had taken Sasori's puppetry scroll earlier before leaving with Itachi. Also, since he took his severed hand with the membership ring, they would probably try to come after him; now he had someone else besides Konoha to worry about.

Above everything, now he needed to be more careful in his experiments. He couldn't be wasting his limited materials on those who would most likely die; he needed someone who had a near perfect chance of surviving them. Someone with almost supernatural healing, who could survive anything…

His eyes gleamed. He knew exactly who it was.

Well, here it is my version of dracohalo117 challenge, Perfection. It is also my first Naruto story, as well as my first english story so I know the grammar is not perfect. If there are any major errors, though, just tell me and I will try to correct them.

So, I apologize if it seemed to similar to Arynia's or Thanatos' versions. That is the problem with starting so later than them; most ideas got already taken. But I guarantee you this story will take a rather different path than theirs after a while, starting with the next chapter which will probably be out in a few days.

And, I think that is it. Don't really have much to say now. I like reviews so, if anyone took the time to read this, could you try to give me some feedback? It would be highly appreciated.