Babysitting the genin on the field was Orochimaru's least favorite responsibility. The higher ups insisted it was an honor to guide the newest generation of Konoha shinobi but Orochimaru knew better. It was just the pushing the time-consuming youngsters off on the lesser rank shinobi. He supposed he ought to appreciate them trusting the competent ones at least. There were some of his peers he wouldn't trust borrowing a pen nonetheless with another human being in training.
This particular mission had gone off without many hitches. Two of the wily genin under his charge were nigh polar opposites and always at each other's throats. One was devoid of any energy while the other was angry at what seemed to be the world in general. He didn't remember either of their names and merely mentally referred to them as the Lazy One and the Mad One. His other charge was full of boundless energy. Luckily he was used to this particular child as it was Nawaki, the little brother of Tsunade.
He thought it good practice to send the Lazy One and the Mad One to scout ahead. He gave them a very specific set of instructions with unspoken threat of death upon not completing it correctly. Don't go too far, too close, too near to each other, and for the love of God pay attention. The children complied obediently. This made Orochimaru think Jiraiya had been telling all the academy students that he ate children again.
Nawaki was currently going about the clearing they had stopped in and dutifully erasing any sign of their presence ever being there, straight out of the handbook. At least one of them read the handbook. Orochimaru was perched on a fallen log, touching as little of the environment as possible.
"I don't see why you didn't want to jump into my cell and not your sister's. Or even Jiraiya's." He in his soft dark velvet voice, a little higher in his younger years. It'd been the first he spoke in a couple hours as he usually let his stance speak for itself. Nawaki finished sweeping the area and lingered at the side. The little brunette boy crossed his arms and grinned like a hatter in enthusiasm.
"No way, you're a brutal shinobi, Orochi-sama. Sis is cool and all but she's kinda a nag." Nawaki announced thoughtfully. Orochi cocked his head down and affixed the boy with a cynical, albeit amused smirk that extended to his bright golden eyes.
"That's no way to talk about your sister." He said even quieter than before as if he didn't want to be caught legitimately defending someone's honor. Waiting for their would-be scouts to return with the all clear was a debate on the correct adjective to describe Jiraiya. Oafish was definitely the go-to word.
Periodically explosions sounded from behind them during which they would grow still. There was something of a pattern by the time Angry One and Lazy One returned looking worse for wear. They did more damage to each other than anything else. Ugh, other people's children.
"We're good to go, Orochimaru-sama, the way to the tree-line looked pretty clear." Lazy one announced. Angry One jabbed the kid in the gut and Lazy One piped up again, "I mean REALLY CLEAR." They both nodded in complete somber seriousness. Orochimaru grimaced at this responsibility he'd been stuck with while another distant explosion drifted on the wind. The older shinobi flicked his tongue subconsciously at the air. What exactly was this? Something he was trying to pinpoint. The enemy trailing behind periodically setting off bombs.
Angry One curtly tugged at one of Orochi's long flowing sleeves with this irrevocably grumpy look on his face. Oro wanted to tell him his face would stick like that if he insisted on being a horrendous brat about everything but the last thing he needed right now was genin running home to the council and crying about it. But his expression insisted they go as soon as possible. Truthfully Orochimaru just wanted to get this kids home so he could go to sleep without being attacked.
With a nod of his head, flipping his long black hair over his shoulders, the genin in his charged raced forward as trained. He sauntered behind them thinking still of the enemy. Nawaki gave another look at their campsite still grinning. That child was convinced he was going to be the hokage someday. It wasn't completely implausible. Grandson of Hashirama Senju, boundless enthusiasm for his fellow man (something Orochimaru lacked completely) and a stickler for the rules. He made his big sister proud, even if she only admitted it when he wasn't around.
Nawaki joined them in the branches above.
"Nawaki, stay behind the scouts." The pale nin chided to his charge.
The boys ahead of him jabbered for a moment before remembering to be quiet in case of enemies, something normal children would never have to worry about. After some time the tree-line became visible in the distance. Orochimaru had heard only one more explosion in the distance and it was some time ago. As he wondered about this Nawaki sprinted past his sensei like a galloping stallion.
"Come on Oro-Sama, I'm gonna go home and get some food!" Nawaki said as he jumped up excitedly, bounding over an embankment past the scouts. Lazy One had yawned loudly and Angry One had attacked him for "disrespecting the mission."
Orochimaru turned to yank one genin off the other and a bomb went off all but in his ear. A potent paper tag or three set off with trip wire cast the entire acre in a blinding light and deafened the team. The two genin split off and waved their arms as they tried to scramble to the embankment their teammate disappeared over. Orochi only remained frozen as his sense of smell picked burning hair and flesh from all the charred earth and trees.
It seemed like half an hour between that realization and the debris the bomb dug out raining back down upon them. The first thing he heard as the ringing receded was a small noise. A melodious chime. The chime of a necklace hitting the forest floor in front of him. The First Hokage's heirloom necklace glinted at him from the leaf litter as if to sob, its clasp blown off in the inferno. The First Hokage's necklace which Nawaki was given for his birthday yesterday. Tsunade had been so excited to give it to him, to carry on the legacy of what their grandfather meant to this village. Orochimaru stared at it for painfully long, heartbreaking second.
The sounds of the genin's shouts and cries pierced his fog of disbelief gradually. His training snapped back into place and he snatched the necklace, tucking it in his obi before turning to the boys. They were standing at the embankment. Beyond it there was nothing. Trees snapped forward and crumbled into the crater to the side of which was something that was only seconds ago a bright and happy child. Orochimaru could only press his lips so thin that they nearly bled.
His mind did not have time to gather his thoughts up from the floor of his skull when one of the genin yelled in anger and the other shouted of an ambush. The enemy had been trying to corral teams of leaf-nin against the tree-line where they could be pinned and extinguished. Sure enough a team of four experienced stone shinobi descended from what was left of the trees aiming to behead the pale leader.
Orochimaru was having none of this. Waves of sheer anger and frustration animated his reactions as he brought his arms up. The long sleeves of his garment flared back and unleashed a rope of live, heavy bodied serpents that attached themselves to two of the enemy's faces. They were consequently slammed into the others skulls before he dropped them from several feet in the air onto still smoldering jagged tree trunks.
The other Iwanin came in from the left and right aiming to take out his legs and his head respectively. Orochi's feet left the ground and he twisted in midair to grab one of the assailants firmly underneath the jaw. He abruptly bent the man backwards over his knee, snapping his spinal cord against itself. Oro snatched his katana as he fell to the ground in death throes and raised it toward the other. The enemy had time to block the blade but not the foot to the face. His momentary sprawling was cut short when Orochimaru drove the katana directly through his eye, subsequently pinning him to the leaf litter when the blade exited the back of his skull.
The only other attacker had survived the fall and abandoned any and all dignity to hobble away from imminent death as quickly as possible. Orochimaru wanted nothing more than to pursue this assailant like the Horseman War on his steed made of wrath.
The sobbing genin pulled on his sleeves. It was the lazy one. He looked determined, a look he had never worn before.
Clean up was necessary. Incident reports had to be written, wounds to be treated, a mangled body to be collected. … Kin to inform.