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Promised Morality Or Unknown Immortality
Orochimaru was a complicated man, he did not desire immortality, rather he feared the thought of mortality. Once he had loved his village more than anything else, but his fight with HIM had changed that, for indeed Hanzo of the salamander had created a monster, unintentionally though it may have been. Orochimaru feared above all things death and a jaded old man was the cause and epitome of his fear, he promised that he would never under estimate any one ever again.
When he was but a child he had been placed on a team with the worst, and one of the best in his class under the soon to be Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. They had quickly learned team work due to the the third great shinobi world war, it was either work together or die alone, and he rather feared such an occurrence so had worked together with his team mates. It had taken a long time before they were all on equal ground, incredibly high ground through it was. They had then been forced off to the harshest battle grounds in the current war, Amegakure or the Village Hidden In The Rain where they had faced the strongest Ninja that they thought they would ever see, they were wrong. Although they had lost to Hanzo-, and who could blame them, the newly dubbed Legendary Three Ninja had gained a title, one which Hanzo of the Salamander had bestowed upon them, Sanin.
The title had no meaning to him, he had lost, but he had survived, and his teammates with him, they had become equal to him, he had been the best, the strongest, but now he was the same, and if he was the same, he wasn't strong enough, but loath as he was to admit it, he had felt friendship for his team. he had lost some of his animosity, and for a while he had been, as his old teacher would have said, 'the will of fire' that all changed soon through, although unofficial, he had been in 'comfy' with Tsunade, so when she started to see more and more of Dan and less and less of him outside of training, he had been shocked, but if it was what she wanted, then fine, he could go with it, but then, she had the nerve to ask him to leave every time she was near, he knew why, he could see the shame in her eyes, being around him made her feel regret, sadness, and worst of all, disgust, whether at him or herself, he didn't know, but the glances from the corner of her eyes were enough to tell him the truth. With her out of the icture he had only his most powerful desire left withg him, and he begun it, the kidnapping, the torture, the experimentation, it didn't go well at the start, he was nearly caught a hundred times. Then, a massacre happened, an entire village slaughtered, leaving but one child left, it had begun to get much, much harder to find children, he had to tak a team just to get new ones, little Anko, Mizuki and Aoba, but with little to no chance of finding new test subjects, he jumped onto the opportunity.
He found that small boy, he was trained in the use of medical Chakra, his skill almost rivaling his teammate, the boy's name was Kabuto. Four of his experiments had went well and so he assigned them to protect him, after all how could he be bothered to fight canon fodder when he could simply relax and watch his creations do it, somehow that brought a slight amount of pride to him. He found Kimimaro lying on a bank of river with many bones protruding from his body and it is painfully obvious to him that the boy had the Dead Bone Pulse, a bloodline which let the user withdraw and regrow any bone within their body. Jugo comes to him with a power which he had seen only a few times before, the boy wished for him to remove his berserk-er state, a feat which he was unable to perform so instead he tries tracing his power back and he finds it, from this the Cursed Seals are born, Jugo still didn't have his cure, but as soon as he could perfect the seal, then perhaps he could.
When he abandons his home AND lab because of war crimes he feels agitated and betrayed, never mind if those war crimes were also being continued even now, before leaving he marks Anko with the Cursed Seal of Heaven, one of the many variants created with a one in ten survival rate it was currently the best he had. He then leaves her for her own safety after she sees him experimenting on a missing nin, he alters her memory, twice.
In time he met and joined a organization known as Akatsuki a gathering of the most powerful Ninja he ever met. The leader of Akatsuki was known as Pein, he had almost snorted when he heard the self proclaimed God, until he knew he had killed HIM, he wondered whether gods could die. He had asked the man if Gods died, only to see the man almost obliterate him with but a swipe of his palm, he had never spoken to the man apart from when necessary after that, he had promised himself that one day he would see a God fall.
The next member of Akatsuki he met was Hidan, an uncultured rage filled incompetent, the brute had insulted him gravely and he had cut the man in half. The then bisected man had promptly stated that his bisector was a reptilian prostitute; he had cut off Hidan's head. Again the now bisected and beheaded man had insulted him; he stomped on the man's groin, the immortal whimpered and wisely chose to shut up. He knew of immortality yet seeing it was mildly disappointing, so it was then he changed, rather than a want for eternal life he would instead pursue a way of permanently avoiding death, this would become his goal.
Another member of Akatsuki, Deidra... only one thought came to mind when talking to him, how do you stop an exploding man, he promised to never die if only to see the show when that man explodes. Kisame scared him not because of his appearance but his goal... truth... it scared him but... he didn't know why, he then promised himself that he would know not just know all Jutsu in the world, but all that is true, if only to beat the arrogant shark-man.
He had not spoken with her but Konan's origami made him content, he did not know why nor did he care but she seemed to somehow think herself above him and the others, just like she had so he crushed any happiness she inspired, her art though still remained keen to his eye, as it fell to the rain surrounding them often, from this he promised to himself to never fall to the pressure surrounding him.
Sasori's path had been a direction he had followed unknowingly whilst he was younger, now they stood on equal ground yet... it did not feel like it, he had became more powerful... they had done the same thing... his was just better, his immortality was perfect he had assured himself of that, so he promised to himself he would defeat these wielders of so called immortality and he would be the only one who could even think to boast of it.
Kakuzu was not as simple as one would think, incredibly greedy, overtly peaceful, beyond brutal, grievously betrayed and very old, yet still not even a scratch on his true personality of an honourable samurai, a betrayed ninja, a vicious bounty hunter and now a powerful Akatsuki member, so complicated even Kakuzu can't comprehend himself fully, He promised himself after watching Kakuzu count coins for hours that he would never be without a purpose for he had seen what that led to.
Itachi was different, he wasn't a spoiled clan heir or the psychopath prodigy he had thought he would be. One of his spies had found out about "Project Bloody Fire", one of the emergency protocols, specifically a coup was instigated and one of the perpetrators goes "insane" and slaughters the offending party then going "missing nin" and it never gets out that the Leaf is actually a vicious warped twisted place. He promised himself that he would not let this mark on Konoha remain, he had then promptly asked himself why he would care before realizing he somehow still cared for the Leaf, he contemplates this for much of his remaining time in Akatsuki.
He only meets the final member of Akatsuki in passing a fact for which he is glad, Zetsu frightens him oddly enough, for who fears there own creation. It had been along time ago when he last met him, in the land of Hot water when Zetsu had been but a promising young enemy shinobi, he had experimented on the child splitting his personality in two then infusing each into half of the boy's body which had required imbuing the child's body with plant cells, which he admitted having gone a tad overboard with. The time he thought the last of him, was when the base he had been using had blown up, and with it he had thought Zetsu. When Zetsu had first saw him in the Akatsuki headquarters he attempted killing him, that scared him as he tried avoiding having S-Rank foes, and so he promised to inspire within Zetsu the same fear he gained, if only to spite him.
Whilst in Akatsuki he has learned of himself and he did not like it, he tries to find what went wrong, Akatsuki he realizes, so he abandons it. He creates Sound trying to gain back what he lost, when he attacks the three Genin of team seven, he sees himself in the blonde or rather who he once was, he still marks Uchiha Sasuke. He evaluates Sasuke at the level of a experienced Genin, Sakura an academy student and Naruto... either a weak Genin or a high Tokebetsu Chunin... which is rather odd because he normally has better ability at predicting things such as this.
When he kills Hiruzen Sarutobi, his old sensei he feels neither pride nor accomplishment but emptiness instead. He has came out of the invasion of Konoha with large casualties on both sides, he feels this is the definition of a Pyrrhic victory, he is now at war with his home and controls little to no force within sound, he has destroyed his new home. He knows that in attacking Konoha he has simply made them hate him more, some of the shinobi within Konoha lust for his blood, now more so than ever, every time he wakes a slight piece of him feels a bit more dead, just like his arms now were.
When Tsunade betrays him he feels every bit as as old as his fifty one years and so weary he almost gives in but he reminds himself that all that he has sacrificed and all those that he had sacrificed would have been in vain. When Kabuto warned him he almost did not believe him, he trusts Kabuto though so he jumps away and the medic is proven right, he feels his heart brake for the only thing he still treasured rejected him.
When Jiraiya dies he feels alone and knows his great fear of the false God was justified. So when Akatsuki search for him trying to kill him he runs and hides but he can not depend on the sound, in recruiting the Uchiha he had lost five of his best Jonin again he felt a Pyrrhic victory had occurred, Sound was slowly turning on him he even had to start using fear tactics to keep the Genin in check. When he once stood with the people of Sound they were now starting to turn away from him. He has to transfer bodies because his body is damaged so much by the last technique of his old mentor.
When he hears of the false Gods death at the hand of Naruto he feels incredibly foolish at choosing Sasuke as his apprentice, he shudders at the thought of how strong Naruto had been when they had fought at the bridge, truly the Kyuubi was horrifying, when he thinks of the propose of his old organization he almost cries at the thought of a being eleven times stronger than he had faced.
He trains Sasuke well however the so called prodigy is worse than the Jiraiya of his academy days, he copies every Jutsu he tries to teach him, this is what he hated while he was a child, idiotic clan heirs using their bloodlines and family name for everything, this was not what he had understood the Sharingan to be, it copied but does not understand. He believes he should have bitten Naruto, he heard the other Sanin talking while the three had been fighting, he had mastered the Rasengan in less than a month. He wishes that someone had explained the Sharingan to him, he had wasted so much time and effort that when Sasuke tries to kill him he almost began laughing out of sheer happiness, the only real technique the little fool had which was original was impressive but too weak to matter much.
When he is sealed into the Totsuka sword of Itachi's susanoo he feels unending agony and agony only. He promises himself that if he ever got out that he would make his traitorous little apprentice PAY, and like Pein was so fond of saying the brat would know the meaning of true pain. He feels like years have passed and his mind reflects it, he feels older than the Sage of Six Paths, who he had estimated to have live around nineteen hundred years ago... so pretty damn old.
When he is revived by Sasuke he feels somehow... twisted he looks down at Anko he could at least do her one last favor not that he hadn't planed on it already, he regretfully kills all of Taka but Sasuke who has his eyes forced closed, his wrists cut off with a blade of ungodly hot fire equal to the power of amaterasu and his Chakra sealed for as long as he had his eyes closed, he had thought of thousands of strategies concerning defeating Sasuke and during his imprisonment within Totsuka he had ample time to think of Jutsu, as was one of his hobby's. He leans down to the floor and kisses Anko on her forehead, he felt empty inside as he got up, a tear dropped on her face, as he turns he feels a pain similar to when he had killed his sensei.
Using a chakra replenishing attack he knocked out Sasuke and took the dead bodies with him, it was time to unleash the dead, using all of his speed he ventured to the shrine and revived the Hokage, among many others, with a cruel smirk he faced the battle. "It'sss Jusst like you Sssaid Sssarutobi Sssensei, I underssstand the
He journeys out to the battle field some miles away feeling wiser for the pain inflicted on him and now truly and wholeheartedly believed he should have bitten Naruto instead of Sasuke. When the Ten-tails attacks the allied shinobi he sees the blonde about to get impaled by that thing, he moves in front of him, the Edo-Tensei-Shinobi doing the same for all others who would have suffered the same fate he blocks and then roars out in pain, he is numb, his arms are burning, his skin is bursting from the amount of Chakra required to hold the monstrous thing inside his chest, he wonders whether this is how it feels to die, as his his legs collapse under him, his muscles strain harder than they had ever before as they rip themselves apart blocking the strike, whereas others might have died instantly, he was strong enough to feel the tiny barbs ripping his organs out of him. He stares into the determined eyes of Naruto Uzumaki as he slowly dies, before he went almost tottaly numb he forced himself forward and smiled, he moves and bites the blonde's neck before muttering his final words "C-CU-CURSED S-SEAL O-OF KNO-KNOWLEDGE suc-su- success, N-Na-Naruto, I h-have no dou-doubt m-my t-te-tea-teammate wo-would h-have b-be-been p-pr-pro-proud o-of y-you"
Naruto watches as the snake Sannin bites his neck, he does nothing as the memories transfer, he smiles as he watched the man so like him announce his pride. He laughs for he has achieved it, he may be dead but... he would live on, "I am no longer Uzumaki Naruto but then again... he was no longer Orochimaru of the three... no... all that maters is that I am alive" the being thought.
In hindsight Orochimaru had not managed to keep all of his promises but he was not Orochimaru... for he had seen a God fall, he knows only one truth through, he was alive, he had seen the exploding man at least partially explode, he had killed Kakuzu, seen Sasori die and even more "immortals", he had seen the white Zetsu army crumble and then seen the fear in their eyes, he had most definitely punished Sasuke and he has never surrendered to pressure. He has never broken a promise and he did not intend to now, from this he promises himself that he will never lose again.
Orochimaru was a complex man, he contemplates as the body of the powerful ninja fell off him. He prepares to use the strongest of all the jutsu the snake Sanin had gave him, knowledge of elemental manipulation beyond most any other could boast, incredible proficiency with natural energies beyond any but the strongest toads of Mt Muoboku, and the abilty to open and for a short time survive even with all open, the Eight Gates of Death. He jumps high, as he feels the powers of Naruto Uzumaki and Orochimaru become one he feels content, by the time he had got to the Tentails mouth he had activated all of the eight gates, gathered enough nature Chakra to activate sage mode and finally went into the Ninetails Chakra Cloak.
They bellow out as two become one "Eight Headed Immortal Rasengan". A thosuand Ninja behind them, each striking with just as much force, he was no longer stood out, he was a root under darkness, but that was alright, because he had achieved purpose, which was the promise which he valued above any other.
THE END?
AN: I am going to add more content over the next few days. I published this one day ago however, I made quite a bit of spelling mistakes as I am rather prone to, so I redid a bit of it. This is my first story but please know that I do not normally write half as much as this in three days, I did this in five hours. Any way thank you for reading, also if you like plots similar to Life is a Game(LiAG) or Game of the Year Edition please check out my community, The Video Game Plot.
By Lewis The King.
Original Word Count 1000
Edit: Proof Read, Improved Word Count, Added Author Note. 13:42 GMT 10th January two thousand and thirteen current word count 1188
Edit: Added Image, improved Word Count, added Zetsu mentioned Anko, 16:54 GMT 10th January two thousand and thirteen current word count 2094
Edit: Proof Read, 18:18 GMT 10th January two thousand and thirteen current word count 2119
Edit: Improved Word Count, Added death of Jiraiya and death of Pain 21:50 GMT 10th January two thousand and thirteen current word count 2331
Edit: Improved Word Count, Added Sound Members and Betrayal of Konoha 08:41 GMT 11th January two thousand and thirteen current word count 2602
Edit: Improved Word Count, Added paragraph, 10:50 GMT 11th January two thousand and Thirteen current word count 2730
Edit: Improved Word Count, Added Paragraph, 11:52 GMT 12th January two thousand and Thirteen current word count 2907
Edit: Improved Word Count, Added Paragraph, 18:27 GMT, 25th September, two thousand and Thirteen Curent Word Count 3472