Today was just any normal day to him.
Well, as normal as it can get for a international criminal such as Orichimaru.
Today, he decided to go over the list of experiments he had because it was there weren't enough cells to house any more test subjects.
Separating the piles into "needs more testing" and "to be disposed of" piles, he was surprised when the door was slammed opened. Kabuto was usually the only person to come into his office and when he did, he knocked and asked for permission .
Irritation, and a faint trace of curiosity, came about when Orichimaru's 4th failed attempt of cloning entered the room carrying a small box.
"What do you want child?" he inquired with a hiss.
"Well..." The child said meekly. This only managed to infuriate Orichimaru even more as this was the reason he was a failed clone. Orichimaru wanted a perfect body that was incapable of fear.
"Well? Spit it out already. I don't have all day." Orichimaru snapped at him.
The small boy took a deep breath to calm his nerves and gain the courage to speak. All attempts of socializing with his "father" always went awry, but that didn't stop him from trying again.
"Happy Valentine's day!" Four shouted and held the box out. It took all his willpower not to shove the box to him and run away. He couldn't stop shaking in fear of retribution, but he gotten this far and he wasn't going to back out now.
Orichimaru immediate response was to scold the child, telling him to stop giving him useless things, but it reminded him of himself when he was a child. He was once young, innocent, and striving for affection from his father. Hesitantly, he grabbed to box from the child contemplating the contents of the present.
"Valentine's Day?" he asked neutrally. Orichimaru heard of the holiday many times before, but he had never celebrated it before. The purpose was lost to him a while ago.
Clone number four was shocked that he actually accepted the gift, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"I... I overheard the girl with the red hair talking about it. She said that you were supposed to give chocolate to the person you love and..." He looked up at him curiously, but when Orichimaru didn't immediately respond he faltered under his gaze.
"Thank you, I suppose..." Slowly, a wide grin formed on the child's face. With a nod, he ran out of the room happily.
Orichimaru for once in his life didn't know how he felt, but he knew that it wasn't a bad feeling. He pulled the lid off the box to discover a chocolate shaped heart. He wasn't a fan of chocolate, but he guessed he could tolerate it this one time.
As he ate it, he thought thought to himself that it wasn't as bad Ashe thought it would be.
Turning back to his desk, he moved clone number four's sheet from the "exterminate" pile to the "keep" pile. His reasoning unknown to himself, but he thought it wouldn't hurt to keep him a little longer.
