Orochimaru was a stoic and slightly twisted potentially psychopathic nut but Jiraiya was always there to explain things and it said a lot about the world they lived in that her mind was content to not flinch at the needing of explaining..

"What's the issue if I'm trying to dissect the bird anyways? I want to know how it is put together!"

"Because it was still alive." Jiraiya explained, swinging her legs off the bench they were sitting on outside the orphanage. They'd been kicked out for the night, a fairly common thing when the workers got irritated with some of the kids. The idea was sleeping on the streets would make them more complacent for a while. Orochimaru had been livid the first few times, but Jiraiya was good at making contacts and getting information and had learned from some of the older kids who really stayed on the streets where was safe to go. It helped she'd gotten pretty good at sneak thieving and at least if not a blanket they each had a nice warm jacket she'd snuck back in and yoinked from the orphanage caretakers closets for themselves.

"Well of course it was alive. I need to see how the heart beat changes things and what muscles move.."

"Oro."

Orochimaru paused and looked over, scowl still in place but waiting for Jiraiya to try and explain it to him.

"It's because it was alive and in pain, people see that and it makes them squirm because they emphasize. They picture themselves in that position and it makes them scared of you."

"Empathize, wrong word Jiraiya..and I like them scared of me."

"No, you like the idea of power. But even a rabid dog gets fear. You want respect and with your brain you will get it." Jiraiya watched as Oro shifted and grumbled but finally nodded.

"I can make certain they are dead for a while first..for now."

"I'll start looking into ways to knock things unconscious. If you have to see them alive can you wait until I get good at that? Think about it if it was me on there and I was screaming would it bother you?"

Orochimaru looks away from her eyes, silent. Perhaps someone else would recoil at the lack of response but Jiraiya saw the twitch of his shoulders as he hunches in.

Oro won't admit it, but the idea bothers him and she can see that.

Jiraiya sighs and then leans over, head on his shoulder. "People who hurt others that are helpless worry people, Oro. The world doesn't think as you do, you always say it is too stupid to do so. Don't jeopardize your future because people are scared you don't know when to stop."

Orochimaru had never given thought to people not trusting him as a ninja some day when the graduate because they fear what he would do in the pursuit of knowledge. Of course he has limits! For the first time though he pauses and looks to the side at the spikey white hair poking into his neck. If Jiraiya didn't risk his temper, though not so much these days as he's learned Jiraiya isn't saying no but this is why it's a no..

If people had held his hunger for knowledge against him, shunned him and cornered him for it. Maybe there wouldn't be a limit to that. Because he still had trouble understanding why everyone around him wasn't always asking why. At least for all her idiocy in many ways Jiraiya was often just as curious..if about other things.

"You'll always tell me when to stop."

Jiraiya shifts to smile at him, it's the smug one that she's copied from him and has none of the elegance that Orochimaru manages. No, from Jiraiya it's all brutish and uncouth and yet..

It suits her.

There's no artifice to Jiraiya when she smiles like that.

"And if I don't, I'll at least tell you why I wish you would." There's a pledge there, a nebulous future that makes Oro close his yellow eyes because Jiraiya sees it too!

War will be back some day and while their year mates stay oblivious to playing ninja and thinking it is all protecting people and Konoha is Wonderful...there's always a darker side. Just like them. Yin and Yang.

"I'll listen."

"Yeah." She doesn't question him and Orochimaru smirks because Jiraiya knows when he says something he means it.