A Snake in the Snow
By: EverbrokenX3ed
Note: A random Orochimaru-centric fic. Written when I was in a bad mood, I think we're really similar actually…I actually find this one funny, when I read over it. o0
Disclaimer: I own naruto…Yeah right.
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Snakes hate the cold.
He watched the lazy drift of snowflakes with a mixture of annoyance and contempt, eyes narrowed maliciously. They landed on his face like silent, mocking reminders of all the things he despised and avoided.
Like the snow. And the cold.
Especially the cold.
Fighting the urge to give someone a bloody, agonizing death, he contented himself with a daydream of feeding the toad-boy to a pit of his favorite snakes. What he would give to hear those screams…
He sent a defiant, hate filled glare at the white angels falling from the sky, failing in a futile attempt at judgment, before dragging himself out of the reverie of his imagination.
Orochimaru stuck his hands into his pockets and reluctantly set off to meet the talentless insects he had the fortune of calling his teammates.
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They were arguing, as usual, while Sarutobi-sensei watched in resignation, their voices screeching upon his brain in unrelenting agony. Their evident stupidity did nothing to improve his mood. Besides, they were still outside. In the cold.
"Just shut up." He commanded in a soft but condescending tone. The slug drifted off in midsentance with a look of annoyance. She hated him, but he didn't really care. As long as she stopped talking. Toad-boy was persistent though, and loud. As usual.
"You can't tell me what to do idiot!" He yelled, apparently still sore over being bested on yesterday's mission. And every one before.
Ignoring him, Orochimaru looked away with a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was back in the pleasant daydream, with toad-boy screaming as he was torn to wriggling, bloody pieces before being swallowed behind the poisoned fangs.
He hated most loud noises, but for some reason didn't mind screaming. There was something of a musical tone to it, and no one could say he didn't like the arts.
As long as the musicians were people he hated. Which basically meant everyone.
His love for violence might give you the idea that he liked death, but that would have been incorrect. In fact, he may have, in the deepest corner of his mind, feared it. But for others, death was just so much better. They were so much easier to deal with when they were dead. They couldn't annoy him even if they tried.
"Come on Jiraiya, Tsunade, Orochimaru, enough fighting. If have good news." Swallowing his bitterness at being told what to do, he turned to the old man with an expression of obedient interest. The picture of a well-meaning student, was he not?
"Although you are all still not quite fifteen, the three of you have proven yourselves to be quite capable jounin. Besides, you'll be with me," he smiled good-naturedly, and Orochimaru examined the light wrinkles creasing the corners of his eyes and lips, and the flecks of grey throughout his hair with a feeling of contempt.
"So…we've got our first S-class mission!"
His not entirely unexpected announcement still brought a cheer from the excitable Jiraiya and a smile on Tsunade's face. Buffoons, thought Orochimaru, watching them with his face back into a blank expression, as if an honest show of positive emotion would scar his doll like features.
Which it quite possibly could.
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He recognized it as Genjutsu instantly, as his eyes reflected the gruesome picture of his teammates floating in their own blood, toad-boy's limbs as limp as a dolls. The slug's fierce features were frozen in a soundless scream as she breathed her last ragged breaths and collapsed at his feet in a puddle of red snow.
Orochimaru smiled.
Narakumi no Jutsu.
This was just what he'd needed to cheer himself up. Too bad it wasn't real, because even they weren't stupid enough to have died already.
And if they did, who really cared?
"Kai," He whispered, breaking the weak genjutsu instantly. Only an incompetent genin would fall for something as simple as that.
Looking beside him, he chuckled at the horrified Jiraiya staring motionless at the bloody images only he could see. Frozen like a frog in view of a snake.
Leaving the toad-boy to his pleasant daydreams, Orochimaru took a slow look around him, at the same time locating their three opponents. It appeared more assailants had drawn off their sensei and the slug.
But judging from the level of genjutsu they had used, these three were in far over their heads.
He'd been eager for a little blood. Maybe he could save a little of it to give Tsunade-chan. Girls loved presents right?
Hahahaaa…
Sometimes he just cracked himself up.
After not a small amount of inner turmoil, the young shinobi took a kunai from his pouch in a casual manner. Sensing his enemies still stationary, he raised his arm with a graceful arc and his mouth curled in a sneer.
He flung the kunai at the still shaking Jiraiya.
Unconsciously licking his lips, Orochimaru watched the blood burst eagerly from the wound, the color staining the toad-boy's now pale skin.
Then his eyes narrowed in disgust as color flushed to his cheeks and the boy shook his head in a daze. Looking around in surprise, he felt the warm liquid on his face and touched his bleeding cheek with a shocked expression. Then he exploded at him, specks of spit flying from his mouth.
"What did you do that for idiot! You could have killed me!"
Hearing his grating voice again, Orochimaru was starting to wish he had.
"My, my toad-boy. Didn't you say you were going to do better than me this time? Well, it's certainly not going to happen when you can't dispel D-level genjutsu."
"SHUT UP OROCHIMARU! DON'T MAKE M-" They came from the trees around them, whistling softly in the wind. No longer listening to the still ranting Jiraiya, Orochimaru caught two of kunai, moving just enough to let the third miss his neck by a fraction of an inch.
Looking at his teammate as if seeing a mildly interesting television show, he watched him frozen in panic. Three kunai landed with solid thuds against his chest, until his body disappeared in haze of smoke to reveal a newly severed log. Too bad, thought Orochimaru.
"Senai Jashuu, Hidden Shadow Snake Hand." Completing the long memorized seals, he felt the cold, smooth skin against his arm, letting a small shiver of pleasure run up his spine. A slippery tongue flecked for a second upon the sensitive skin of his bottom wrist, softly tickling it in a gesture of affection, before the serpents flew from his sleeve to the hiding enemies.
"Idiots, your kunai showed me where you were hiding. You wasted your only chance, and now you're just prey."
Screams filled the air as the snakes wrapped around their them, holding them in a crushing embrace.
"We surrender!"
"Please! Let us go! We won't bother you!"
"We were forced, they would have killed us if we refused to accept this mission. Please, don't..."
Orochimaru made no sign of acknowledgment as he climbed the trees with his hands now stuck casually in his pockets.
Kneeling to examine the first rock-nin, he was only slightly surprised to see the boy could not be older than twelve. Judging by how easily they were defeated, these three were probably genin or chunnin forced to the front lines by their shorthanded villages.
They were a bunch of weak children.
It was too bad they had chosen to attack him, otherwise they might have lived long and fruitful lives. With a smile at the terrified boy in front him, he stroked his snake lovingly, earning a soft hiss in reply.
"Orochimaru, you aren't going to- They're just stupid kids!" Toad-boy's voice was the most pathetic he'd ever heard it. He was pleading. And Orochimaru couldn't say he minded it.
"Just let them go. They won't bother us."
Humoring him, he stood and turned around to look down his white haired companion from the branch, his face serious. Jiraiya, taking this as agreement, sighed in relief.
"For a moment though, I thought you were really going to ki-"
Orochimaru cut him off by stepped aside, so the boy behind him was visible. With a nod from his master, his snake began to squeeze the child to death. Hopeless screams were muffled as the muscular body of the serpent crushed his neck and vocal chords.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing! STOP!" Yelled toad-boy, leaping at his snake. But Orochimaru's fist sent him flying back to the ground with a heavy thud. Within moments, the small body's struggling slowed to shudders. Then it was still, sagging against its killer.
Expecting more confrontation, Orochimaru looked back at Jiraiya. But toad-boy was still, watching him with a glare of uncontrollable fury mixed with pure, unhidden fear.
Orochimaru smiled. Daring Jiraiya to challenge him, he looked pointedly at the leafless trees where the other two children were caught.
"You aren't going to stop me? I guess you're too afraid to stand up for what you believe in after all."
When Jiraiya did not, or perhaps could not, move in response, he began to laugh. A bubbling giggle at first, surging into a high pitched chuckle.
It struck him as funny, hilariously ironic, how weak the toad-boy was in the end. He could not stand up to him, no one could. They were weak, he was strong, he had power, they didn't. He had control.
Wiping tears of laughter from his eyes and snowflakes from his long eyelashes, he gained control of his emotions for long enough to regain his breath.
"Kill them."
And they obeyed, while toad-boy stared at him as if seeing for the first time.
He must have been blind for the last ten years, like everybody else.
Slowly, Jiraiya seemed to regain the use of speech, though it was halted and his voice quavered pathetically.
"You-You're…evil."
And if that wasn't enough to send him back into hysterics, nothing was. He hadn't smiled this much in years.
It was all so funny. Everything he said was so naïve, so foolishly innocent. Evil, he said.
"Now, now, don't be like that Jiraiya. Evil is all subjective. And it's such a negative word, don't you think? I don't call you evil even if your stupidity pains me, do I? You need to work on your manners, toad-boy."
He was silent.
"Fine then. I was just following the rules. Enemy shinobi should be eradicated before they can grow up and become a threat. I might as well kill them now, considering these three were useless anyway."
When he didn't answer, Orochimaru he turned away from him and clicked his tongue at the mutilated bodies that fell from the trees onto the snow below as his summons disappeared in smoke.
Looking back at the toad-boy with a wide smile, he watched him struggle to stand and pointedly avoid his gaze. Still silent, the weakling made no move besides clenching his fists in anger.
Sending a grin at him, Orochimaru turned to move away.
Then as if forgetting something, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at Jiraiya.
"Dreadful weather we're having, isn't it?"
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A/N: There's nothing like a good, violent fic to get rid of a bad mood... reviews? if only to tell me how much you hated it :D