Story Summary: Naruto and Sasuke fail to defeat the Otsusuki clan when they come to destroy the planet, and one of the world's greatest scientists enacts her backup plan, traveling back into time to try and better prepare the world. Transgender Orochimaru. Time travel fic.
AN: Hello and welcome to my story. I've never written much before, but this is some practice. I've always loved the character of Orochimaru, and especially with her depiction as possibly female in the new Boruto series. I know she's not canonically transgender (beyond when she actually takes a female body), but I think given it's a shonen manga and from a somewhat conservative country, I'd imagine redrawing her the way they did was probably the closest we'd get to a transgender character.
The story is set to M to be safe, but it will likely remain at most "T" content.
Disclaimer: I make no profit from this work, and it is fair use.
I had timed it exactly right, so that my old self stood before me in the desert of Kaze no Kuni. I remember this day pretty well, I had setup a secret meeting with the Fourth Kazekage, where I had ambushed him and taken his place. He'd been over two hours late to the meeting, an insult which at the time I'd repaid by letting him bleed to death in the hot sand after I'd sealed his chakra and stolen his face. But now it served its purpose, an easily identified location where I could find my old self alone for hours.
"You look remarkably like someone trying to impersonate a sister of mine" my old self rumbled, her voice artificially deep, standing as though she had simply not aged for half a century. An illusion crafted by fake skin.
I knew the next few seconds were crucial to my plans, but even now my resolve faltered. Would it really be so bad to leave my old self alive? Was it possible I could convince her to abandon her plans of vengeance on Konoha and theft of the Uchiha bloodline? I knew how unreasonable myself could be, and without letting myself feel remorse I launched into a secret sequence of handseals I had never shared with anyone, a secret flaw in my old immortality technique.
Upon seeing the order of my hand seals, my old self rushed forward, her Kusunagi sword moving at Shunshin speeds to slice my head off.
Rookie mistake. My old self should've known decapitation would barely effect me.
I finished my handseals and released the technique, a blast of chakra pushing out from me and passing through Orochimaru, her body freezing and falling over as the Fushi Tensei failed her, sealing her mind back into her body and letting the original hosts personality surface.
Quickly letting my head reattach, I rushed forward and with a handseal dropped the groggy body into sleep. It was done.
I found her cursed seal, where my old self would be sealed, and began to absorb her chakra. I'd never felt a chakra so easy to absorb, my own chakra. Although I'd changed in the future, shifting to using white zetsu bodies full time, my old chakra was still familiar to me, and despite the immensity of it, was quickly incorporated. I felt powerful, the essence of my chakra nearly doubled in its potency, and I allowed a laugh to finally escape from me. This time around, I'd do things better, smarter. I wouldn't allow my world to end because of the foolish failures of other Shinobi or the evil powers of the Otsuki
I'd done it. I'd traveled to the past and replaced my old self.
I slipped into sage mode and allowed my senses to extend beyond me, looking for the Kazekage. I could sense his aura traveling at a slow pace in my direction, a determined steel of a man who'd chosen village over family. I idly pondered the female body before me, deep in forced sleep. I could probably leave her alive, but it'd be best to seal her ability to discuss what she knew of the old form of my Fushi Tensei. She had been a powerful ninja originally, my first experiment in actually adopting the female gender. She was from the Land of Rice, a jounin-level shinobi I had adopted the body of due to her strong chakra potency and minor Kekkai Genkai that allowed her hair to regrow quickly and harden. I'd never taken to utilizing the techniques myself during my time in her body, but it'd been a calculated risk to try taking over the body of a Kekkai Genkai user. I'd not known at the time if Fushi Tensei would be easy to hold over someone whose chakra was radically different than my own, as my first host had been chosen due to the similarity his chakra nature had with mine. I'd taken her after Itachi had cut off my arm, and I was already trying to determine what it would take for a Uchiha body.
I quickly placed the Cursed Tongue Eradication seal on her, the typical black bars forming on her tongue, as I used the technique I'd copied from Danzo to make any topic regarding me, my reanimation jutsu or Oto forbidden. I resolved to relocate her somewhere she could be productive, and placed a stronger sleep seal on her as the Kazekage drew close. With a few handseals, I summoned a snake.
The creature looked at me with confusion, its eyes flickering between my strange female form and the clearly unconscious female who, due to the snakeskin face hiding technique, looked just like the Orochimaru the snakes had always known.
"Take this body back with you, and do not kill her. I will come shortly to resettle her." I commanded.
The snake looked uncertain at my unfamiliar female voice, and I let out a small burst of KI at it, the clearly Orochimaru chakra convincing the snake to follow my command and transport the unconscious body away.
Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage entered the clearing at that time, two bodyguards I remembered nothing about marching at his side.
"You asked to meet me here to finalize our plans for the invasion of Konoha. What is it you need to discuss?" he shouted from across the rocky clearing as he continued to make his way up to me.
I started moving towards him, the two of us meeting in the middle of the clearing. He was wearing his traditional Kazekage costume, the silly ornamental hat emblazoned with pride that his mediocre village had chosen him to be their strongest. Given his successor was a fourteen year old who'd been selected after he'd recently been beaten by a group of Konoha genin, I was not impressed in the slightest. The third Kazekage was a far more magnificent specimen, his iron sand techniques had been a marvel to observe. Nonetheless, I knew the man was at least S-rank, and if left alive would serve as an extra obstacle to the Akatsuki's ability to secure the Ichibi.
"well?" he spoke, his tone filled with wariness, his eyes flickering to the Kusunagi my old-self had left on the ground behind me. If he was surprised at my feminine form, he didn't show it.
"I have decided to not invade Konoha. I've grown bored with the idea of revenge."
The man was silent, and I quickly let myself slip into sage mode to gauge his emotions. His aura was filled with suspicion, anger, and a smidgen of relief. Perfect. Hopefully he'd be amenable to the next step of my plan.
"Although it's unfortunate our partnership to destroy Konoha couldn't come about, I'd like to hire some of your Shinobi for an altogether different set of mission"
"You are telling me that the months of preparation we have put into place to lay siege to Konoha, the promises you've made to assist on that front, the risk I've placed my own children in, are all for nothing? That you're abandoning your end of the bargain due to boredom?"
Definitely angry.
"The missions I'm planning on in particular include recurring S-rank and A-rank missions that I will agree to fund. I'll even pay for the first few months up front. You originally said that the goal of the invasion was to gain more missions right?"
"And what exactly are these 'recurring' missions you're offering me instead of an invasion" the man spat out. His aura was filled with tightly bound anger and a growing feeling of distrust.
"I'd like to hire Suna shinobi to come to Otogakure and serve as consultants. My village is hardly formed, a ragtag collection I suppose you could say. To grow and prosper, we need structure and an academy system. And while I have some plans for my village, I have recently started on a number of ambitious projects which will be taking up my time. Furthermore, I'd like to hire your shinobi to lend support to a growing rebellion against Chigiri. It'd likely serve as a great repurposing to the expenses you've invested in this invasion, and if the revolution succeeds they'd be indebted to your nation"
Rasa stood silent, his aura reflecting the deep thought he was in as he eyed me warily, his distrust still highly present but his anger slowly subsiding to contemplation and what I hoped was a slight sliver of hope. I'd never been good at identifying positive emotions with sage mode. His bodyguards, excellent in their stillness, clearly lost their calm façade when examined by their auras. They were confused, wary and suspicious, as well as a fair bit of shock.
Rasa finally spoke: "Do you have more details regarding these proposals? Meddling in not one, but two countries domestic affairs would be seen in a bad light by many, and I'm skeptical to send many of my ninja into foreign territory for extended missions."
I chuckled. "Unless the pay was good enough, I presume, and I promise you, I've recently discovered a great source of wealth. I'll send a representative to negotiate the details of the terms, but for now, I want an agreement that neither of us will attempt to attack Konoha during the exams"
"Fine" the Kazekage said quickly. "I will be expecting your representative soon. I will be greatly displeased if we've dedicated the resources for an invasion and find few outlets to expend those resources" A threat. How cute.
"Goodbye Yondaime Kazekage for now, it's been a pleasure" I give him my prettiest feminine smile, and he blanches at the image. His gaze quickly grazes over my chest, and noticing the obvious bulge, what seems like a dozen emotions flicker through his mind, disgust being the most obvious. Disappointing.
I wait in the clearing as he and his guards depart, and pick up the sword of Kusunagi my counterpart had left. I unseal my own copy of the sword, and quickly contemplate how hard it would be to master using two-swords at once. One sword that could grow to endless lengths, cut through steel and be telepathically controlled was an amazing device, two of them at once would be practically cheating.
Orochimaru grinned, sheathed both her swords into seals, and set off to the east. It was good to be in the past.