A/N: There may be some inaccuracies ahead. My schedule's too busy to find those episodes and rewatch them, so I'm going off memory of what Karin's base was like.
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Several hunts passed. Kakashi wagged his tail often and started an evening class where, every day after dinner, he would point out how his tail was wagging and explain what it meant. Orochimaru was making good progress, and could now tell embarrassed from lonely at a glance. This of course meant that he had less opportunity to practice, as Kakashi's tail wagged Happy more consistently. Kakashi considered it a stroke of genius to make a tail for himself, and hands-down the greatest benefit of his new life outside the village.
Orochimaru started a morning class in response, where he demonstrated different patterns of scents and body language. Kakashi also made steady progress, which produced some turbulence in Orochimaru's soul. Kakashi never asked, but he hoped it was a good kind of turbulence from feeling something good that he'd never felt before.
The middle portions of their days would be spent alternately in the lab, with Orochimaru asking Kakashi to demonstrate various things for him to examine, or in the trees talking about life, or in the forest attuning themselves to each other. And flying. Orochimaru loved flying, and Kakashi was more than happy to oblige. They flew at all hours, in all conditions. Kakashi found opportunities to sneak in trust exercises here and there, as when he laid out a thin layer of darkness and they ate dinner sitting in the sky. It was wonderful.
One time, Orochimaru asked him to demonstrate how his darkness would interact with the reality of something more durable than a living thing. He'd already fetched a block of stone. "It doesn't have a soul, so there should be no issue. I'll prepare the instruments." Kakashi wagged extremely vague Unease because it was true, stones didn't have souls, but nonetheless he felt that there was something natural in the stone that he would be destroying. If the neutral world was an offshoot of the divine, then everything must have a lingering divine nature in it. He explained this to Orochimaru after he agreed to the experiment. As he often had before, Kakashi could easily reconcile with his conscience for this one time.
Kakashi stayed up every few nights thinking about the ghost. In a way, he felt some kinship with it. Ghosts, like his own kind, fell outside the realm of things that were normal. There were some people who, having lived sheltered lives, did not believe either existed. Demons and ghosts both belonged to the category of things that many people would need a reason to believe in, rather than a reason to disbelieve. They didn't make natural sense to rational, orderly minds. For this reason, Kakashi was much more curious about the ghost than he would have been if he was normal. After the second such night, he started regularly sweeping his senses out, searching for any sign of it. He found nothing.
"Something isn't right here," he admitted one night to Orochimaru. The ramen he'd packed was running low. The snake took extra time to savor his current mouthful before looking at Kakashi inquisitively.
"I've been wondering about that ghost," he explained, "and I've been feeling very curious about it. I've been sending my senses out to search for it for most of the past week, and I haven't found anything."
Orochimaru set down his cup with a grim look. "Anything?"
"No." Kakashi took another bite and swallowed. "Nothing. Not so much as a whiff of ghost."
"This hideout should have a village's worth of ghosts in it," Orochimaru murmured. "That isn't right."
"I can't find any reason," Kakashi continued. "This is a place of bad memories, but then, why would one still be here? Can you think of any wronged person that would want to return?"
Orochimaru snorted. "I've put everyone, subordinate and test subject alike, through hell. I think Kabuto was the only one that actually liked me, and that was because I cultivated a dependent personality in him. In short, no."
"Maybe it wandered in from outside?" Kakashi considered this idea. "It could be the spirit of someone who had a twisted personality, who would be intrigued by this place."
"You would sense other visitors if that was the case." Indeed, Kakashi had been looking for some distance beyond the base every time and had not sensed any ghosts there, either. He was out of ideas.
"The only thing I can think of is the library," he sighed. "That's where it was, and the library contains a great number of portals to other worlds. But I've looked in all the fiction books there, and haven't felt any traces of it."
"So that's why you wanted me to collect all the fiction books!" Orochimaru chuckled. "You could have just told me."
"My apologies." Kakashi scratched his head and smiled. "I was highly motivated at that time."
Orochimaru nodded. He would understand that feeling well enough. They finished dinner in silence. Orochimaru shrugged as they stood up and cleared everything away. "I'll keep an eye on the library," he offered.
"Thanks." Kakashi had low expectations of results.
Two days later, Orochimaru got bored. The peacefulness of a non-shinobi life was starting to grate on him. He all but ordered Kakashi to move with him to another base. It was just unnatural to be spending more than two weeks in the same place. Kakashi regarded the base as like a small village, but he agreed anyway. Their experiences led to vastly different preferences. They would have to approach equilibrium together, or not at all.
They took off at night. Kakashi elected Orochimaru to be the navigator. Orochimaru turned out to be surprisingly good at finding his way by starlight.
"It's not hard to work out," he explained. "I've learned of the basics from missions to seafaring towns, and I spend a lot of time looking at the stars wherever I am for personal reasons."
Kakashi still thought it was a thing to be amazed by. "Whatever you say," he said with a smile.
They were taking a scenic flight, nothing like the fast-paced adrenaline rush of that first flight to the hidden base. The air blew Orochimaru's hair all over them both. "Hm," Kakashi began. "I hadn't considered that."
"What is it, Puppy?"
Kakashi shrugged. "It's not very important; I'm just surprised I never made the connection before. You smell like snake, and I'm always with you. I must be saturated with your scent by now. That won't help if I do seek out a pack." He shrugged again just to emphasize how much he really didn't care.
"Excellent point. I haven't stopped to think of how your scent might impact my relations with others either." Orochimaru's soul felt still and he was quiet. Kakashi knew this combination to mean I'm comfortable in my mind now and that he should leave noise behind. He swept his wings through the sky silently. He didn't deliberately give them noise canceling properties. Sound just seemed like another physical property of the world that didn't survive him.
Several minutes later, Orochimaru's soul returned to normal. "What kind of relations with others do you usually have?" Kakashi asked.
"..." A significant pause. "First, explain to me why you ask that now."
Kakashi was suddenly very conscious of his wingbeats. "Ah...sorry," he began. "I can feel the general activity level of your soul. When it feels very quiet, I know not to disturb you. I can't read your heart, unless I looked more closely. Which I haven't."
Orochimaru readjusted his grip. "I suppose...it's not much different from you having a tail to wag." Kakashi relaxed.
But not entirely. "I still have to ask. What is it normally like for you?"
Orochimaru shrugged. "Every so often, I am approached by a female who has apparently decided that I smell like a good mate." Kakashi could hear his grin. "Opportunities are opportunities."
Kakashi flushed. He'd never thought about what Orochimaru did to satisfy that kind of desire. Or need. He always had to remember that other people considered that particular urge to be a need. Why it would be considered in the same category as eating or drinking, he didn't know, but Kakashi tried to keep that in mind all the same.
Even as he mentally dodged the main content of those sentences, Kakashi stumbled upon something intriguing. "Females?"
Orochimaru echoed Kakashi's own words. "It's different between snakes and people. You know that."
"Yeah…" The natural follow-up was too good to resist. Should he resist? Kakashi decided he wouldn't. "Different how?"
"You first." Orochimaru probably meant that to be a challenge. He failed.
Kakashi answered easily, "I have no sexual interest in a wolf or a human of either gender, and as far as I know have romantic interest only in human males. Your turn."
Orochimaru laughed under his breath. "You're strange, Puppy."
"Answer the question." Kakashi sounded a lot harsher than he meant to be. Surely he wouldn't object that much if Orochimaru declined, right? Even if he was disappointed, he would be respectful. Other people also considered this general topic to be very Important and Personal. He tried to remember that.
"No interest in human females, both kinds for human males, both kinds for snake females, romantic interest only for snake males," Orochimaru recited. "The last is an intuition. I feel like I potentially could bond with a male snake, but I can't imagine mating with one."
"Is the difference scent based, or physical, or…?" Kakashi wondered.
"Male snakes do have different scents. As for human women, they're too squishy. Ugh."
Kakashi understood the latter. "Mm. Not good for hugging."
"Or anything else, but yes." Orochimaru buried his nose in Kakashi's hair. "Human scents don't make any difference to me. It's because my nose isn't tuned to them." Kakashi's hair and the wind muffled his words.
The natural follow up was even more too good to resist. Should he resist it? They were already in pretty deep. Kakashi tried to resist. He failed. "Would that change if you were female?"
"No." Disappointing. But it lessened Kakashi's temptation, so it was good enough for now.
They flew on.
.
"Since when do you have a beachside base?"
"Hehe. Surprise."
They stood on the small patch of sand around a very small island, with waves lapping at the back of their feet and some kind of stone complex clearly visible from ground level. Kakashi clearly picked out a door. "Why the hell would you have a beachside base?" This island was not beyond walking distance.
"The purpose of it was isolation. Distance. It's far enough from the nearest coastline not to be visible, and that's all I needed." Orochimaru was weird.
"You're weird."
"Yes." Orochimaru looked up at the barely concealed entrance. "The last time this place was disturbed was when Sasuke came here to free Jugo, a member of that team he put together." Kakashi remembered Team Taka quite well. Jugo was the one that looked like a more rugged version of Pain, he recalled. "There should still be interesting scents left for you to find."
Kakashi wisely decided not to ask how interesting, and followed in silence.
His mouth filled with saliva upon entering, and Kakashi had no idea why. The usual causes for excessive salivation were either nausea or appetite, and this combination of scents caused none of those. He felt his soul stirring. Huh. On second thought, appetite couldn't be ruled out after all. That word covered a great many things beyond food.
Orochimaru grinned back at him. "Ah, I was right. I love the exotic scents here. It's like visiting a zoo." He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. "Still strong undertones of fear, I see."
It occurred to Kakashi that Orochimaru would make one damn good wine taster. He shook his head to clear out that thought. "What else is here, besides prisoner cells?"
"Nothing substantial." Orochimaru was still savoring the taste of the air. "Where there are prisoners, there's a guard office, but that's about it. A small library, of course. Files."
Kakashi sighed. "Beds?"
"Do you feel any prisoners?" Kakashi did not. "Of course. I expected Sasuke would release them. He was still soft hearted while under my wing. I would sacrifice a base or two to learn what changed that." His eyes were on Kakashi.
Kakashi stared back. He didn't need that kind of temptation. His heart beat with fear still. What would happen if he succumbed to his powers, if he not only unleashed them but used them, all of them? What would happen if he looked beyond time and space, and then tried to return? The history of others of his kind was not one of the things Kakashi had inexplicable knowledge of. Yet, he knew it. He knew exactly what would happen if he went too far, knew almost exactly what had already happened. But it didn't affect Orochimaru and wasn't anything they could solve, so he kept his mouth shut.
Orochimaru sighed faintly. "At any rate, the guard post has a couch, which might be large enough for two people. It has a bed. But the main appeal of this place now is the taste of it, and there is nothing to stop you from taking a bed in any cell you choose. They're not that bad."
Kakashi nodded. There might be one part that affected Orochimaru. "Please don't ask or imply that I should look at something in the past or future for you. Not for idle curiosity's sake."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "What would be wrong with that, Puppy?"
Kakashi looked at him. It was a blank look, like stone or a brick wall. His position was simple: looking around in time would not happen. That was all.
Orochimaru took a step away. "I'll have fun seeing what Karin's done with the place." He disappeared down a hallway. Kakashi followed as silently as a shadow.
Orochimaru took the only bed, and Kakashi one of the cells. He wrapped himself in the scent of something monstrous and unfamiliar, ignoring the chains in the corner. Something about the smell made his pulse race and kept his attention on it, no matter how hard Kakashi tried to sleep. It was from a male. Young. Unstable. The urge to lunge and devour it took over Kakashi's blood and set his muscles twitching. Kakashi sat up and reached out, extending darkness from his hand. It was too much!
He touched nothing. Whatever it had been disappeared. Kakashi was stunned to suddenly perceive emptiness, and even more stunned that he had apparently been perceiving something in the air with other senses this whole time. He drew his darkness back. It had disappeared when he touched it with darkness. Then...Kakashi's eyes widened.
He must be responding to chakra! How could that be? He'd never had a particular response to any kind of chakra. Kakashi cast about in his memory. Had he? He thought of how he felt now. Chills pricked up and down his spine. Hadn't he gotten a chill in his spine once before? When…?
Pain. It clicked. After he'd followed his body's plight to where it should lead, made his way as close to the afterlife as he could and hoped whatever was in charge of afterlife admittance didn't notice him, he'd come back. And his back had raced up and down with chills.
No; not Pain. He'd met the power of the Rinnegan again in the battle with Obito. It did nothing special. It wasn't that chakra that Kakashi was reminded of now. It was Naruto. Sage chakra. Natural chakra, brought in and passed through someone's soul and released again into the air.
Chakra that had been through two different kinds of living beings must be changed somehow, he reasoned. Maybe they carried some imprint of the soul that produced them and having two such imprints was driving him wild. Souls could be very attractive in some indefinable way. Kakashi shivered.
He got no sleep that night. The taste was too much. He wanted to drown in it.
.
Orochimaru yawned the next morning, and asked about his sleep.
"I didn't get any." Kakashi went on to explain why. Orochimaru's eyes bored into his own.
The Snake Sannin drew closer as Kakashi finished. He reached out and cupped Kakashi's chin in his hand, holding the wolf ninja's head still to take a closer look into his eyes. Orochimaru's own golden eyes were glittering in a vaguely predatory way. "Do you sense it now?" he asked in a whisper.
Kakashi did. Orochimaru's eyes widened just a fraction. Kakashi knew what he must be seeing. His eyes felt like they were glittering in a predatory way as well, and Kakashi couldn't stop them. Why do I want souls? Why does the trace of them almost send me into a frenzy? His teeth itched to bite something. The instability, the wildness, it all fed a ravenous appetite Kakashi had never realized he had. I like...the chaos. He remembered now. Once before, a very long time ago, Kakashi had awaken from nothingness and apathy to the tantalizing lure of a soul in distress. If not for that first reason to move, he might still be in that spot, inactive and quiet. Kakashi's heart began to beat better; its speed no longer felt bad like fear. Having an answer for why he felt like this was a very good thing.
Orochimaru drew back, but kept his hand on Kakashi's chin. "Sage chakra...I never dreamed of anything like this. I know a place where you could find more."
Kakashi was tempted, but shook his head no. "I'm sorry. I just remembered. When I first gained consciousness, or regained it, I had no motivation. I had no memories to give me a reason to move. I got a reason when a soul walked by in distress. I like the instability." He blushed to admit that. Other demons fell to sadism. Was he like other demons? He hoped not.
"I see…" Orochimaru's tongue traced his lips. "I wonder what that means?"
Kakashi chuckled nervously. "We should get out of here. I don't like to feel like this." The little orange book still lay buried in the bottom of his pack. Kakashi felt like burning it. Fantasy was fine, but to be hijacked by feelings like that was too much. He shivered.
Orochimaru giggled. "Ah, you'll get used to it." He told Kakashi they could leave later, if he still wanted to, but for now there was still some business to attend to. Then Kakashi was alone, watching Orochimaru's back as the snake looked for whatever business he had. The hallway was blunt gray and silent. It still tasted too much. Kakashi shivered again.
What the hell? He shook his head. The odds were lower in Konoha, but Kakashi was still fairly sure he had friends there who would have passed over his discomfort the same way. He really shouldn't be surprised that Orochimaru didn't understand. He'd talk about it later. Here, now, Kakashi could take care of himself. He could escape into the open air and drift high above the base, leave all the strangely delicious but also too-strong scents of this place behind. That was what he did.
He landed directly in front of the snake some hours later, on the beach. "Orochimaru." His tone of voice meant business.
Orochimaru tilted his head at Kakashi and searched his face. The snake seemed very confused.
Kakashi sighed and tried to find the right balance of accusatory and reassuring. "You know that disregarding someone's feelings is not the right thing to do." He tried to sound patient.
Orochimaru chuckled. "Of course, if they're important."
Kakashi's right eye twitched. "That was important. I am not meant to feel like that, and I couldn't stop it." He disregarded his rising sense of anger. That would not be helpful right now.
Orochimaru took a closer look into Kakashi's eyes. "You really did feel bad, Puppy?"
"Yes." Riiiigghht. The classic 'if I don't experience it, it's not real' bias. Kakashi remembered how he'd used his powers to copy Orochimaru's feeling. Why wasn't that an ability everyone had? World peace would happen instantly if everyone could do that! No use getting hysterical. Facts are facts. The facts sucked! Kakashi tried not to show his frustration. If he could somehow extend that power to Orochimaru, allow the snake to use it, it would all be easier. But he couldn't. So Kakashi reminded himself he would have to make do with what he had, and teach Orochimaru about life the hard way.
"Oh." Orochimaru blinked. "My apologies. Sadly, it doesn't change very much of what I said. I still want to look through the records, investigate what's changed. We can leave tonight." He managed to shrug a little apologetically. Kakashi felt like sighing.
"Lesson number two: sometimes that's enough," Kakashi said instead. "Recognizing that another person's feelings are in fact real is the first and most essential step. Sometimes it's the only step you need to take." He'd expect the snake to be genuinely apologetic later. Kakashi offered his hand. "Would you like help looking through the files?"
Orochimaru's eyes grew distant as he looked at Kakashi's hand. He pulled himself back to the present shortly. "I would." They went back inside.
.
Orochimaru sighed. "Another one, huh?"
"What is it?" Kakashi looked up from his collection of files.
Orochimaru put his back in the cabinet. For obvious reasons, he had wanted to look through the most recent files, from after his death. He wrinkled his nose at whatever had been in them. "This place continued to run more or less as it did before," he summarized. "I've always expected more initiative of my people. I do not hate Sasuke for attempting to kill me, and I will admit to some pride in Kabuto for his achievements. Karin...is not so deserving." He shook his head sadly.
Kakashi blinked. "You're upset that she didn't immediately run wild when you died?"
"If I wanted to surround myself with imbeciles who couldn't be trusted to keep things running after surprises and hiccups, I could have murdered a minor village and raised them all with the Edo Tensei." Orochimaru sounded very disappointed. "There is nothing more detestable than incompetence."
Kakashi handed his files back. "Well, at least she was competent enough for running the base before your death. No suspicious activity here."
Orochimaru stuffed them back into the cabinet next to the files he'd looked at. "There's supposed to be suspicious activity. My subordinates are all the kind of people who would willingly take orders from me, for god's sake. Untrustworthiness is a job requirement."
Kakashi looked off to his left. "Well, I'll do what you ask me to."
Orochimaru shook his head. "You're not a subordinate, which means you don't take direct orders. I can trick anyone into cooperating with a mere request. An order is different."
Kakashi shrugged. "Mah, I'm still the kind of person who spends time with you. That would be suspicious enough in most places."
Orochimaru shrugged. "That's also different."
"She's found some kind of position with Konoha now," Kakashi said with exasperation. "Perhaps you're right, she wasn't cut out for working with someone like you after all."
"This kind of performance proves it," Orochimaru sneered. "My hatchlings made vastly more competent and active assistants."
Kakashi was startled into silence for several seconds. He'd never thought about this topic before, just like he'd never thought about the other one. He has children? Kakashi was somehow confused and in the mood for facepalming because it was so obvious, how had he not ever realized? Half of his brain devoted its energy to processing the news, and the other half devoted its energy to analyzing all the ways this wasn't news. It must have shown on his face.
Orochimaru continued as if he'd said nothing out of the ordinary, nothing remarkable at all. "I was always finding them in some corner of the base or another, doing some random thing I hadn't asked for. A couple of them even took it upon themselves to scold my human subordinates. Hah, I remember one of my daughters scolded Kabuto once." He sat back on the guard post's couch and chuckled at the memory. "She got extra treats, that was for damn sure. Was that the same...no, she was a different one. I wonder what happened…" Orochimaru's eyes were very distant now, lost in memory. He gave no sign of having noticed Kakashi.
Kakashi looked around the room for many awkward seconds while he waited for Orochimaru to come back. The snake sighed. Kakashi took that as his cue. "What were you thinking of?"
Orochimaru turned away. "Nothing relevant to you. Let's prepare to go, Puppy."
Kakashi's intuition told him that he'd just heard an untruth. He kept his mouth shut anyway and helped Orochimaru to put all the files back, repack everything, and undo all the signs of their presence. He scanned the base as well, in accordance with his new habit. "Orochi-"
He cut off, leaving a syllable jutting out into the air like a broken bridge. Orochimaru was instantly alert. "What is it?" His eyes and ears scanned the room, even as he waited for Kakashi's superior senses to tell him what was wrong. Kakashi did not answer.
Orochimaru was at Kakashi's side in a blink, squeezing his shoulder. Kakashi raised his hand and squeezed back. His head turned to look at the nearest wall, with an intensity suggesting Kakashi was trying to use his now-gone Sharingan to look through the wall.
"The library?" It was Orochimaru's base. He had to know what lay in that direction.
"Yeah." Kakashi released his hand. "And not just that. The ghost. The same ghost."
Orochimaru met Kakashi's eyes. "You've sensed it enough to recognize it?"
"Yes." Kakashi looked back at the wall, beyond which lay the library. "It has a distinct flavor. Hold on."
He squinted, peering intensely in that direction. His hand raised in a Stop gesture, though Orochimaru knew not to move. Another half a minute passed before Kakashi lowered his hand and wrinkled his brow in confusion. "Not good. Very not good."
He turned back to Orochimaru, who was waiting patiently. "It's not very active this time, probably because I'm not trying to pursue it. I've gotten a much closer look."
"It doesn't sound like I'll like what you saw any more than you do," Orochimaru followed. His fist clenched. "Tell me."
"Firstly, it's not dead."
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A/N: This story is coming along very well for something that was never a story in the first place.
This story is one I naturally came up with, without the benefit of dreaming about it. That means that ironically, it is more dreamlike than the stories that started as dreams. Does it seem incoherent at parts? Or perhaps a little info-bomby in places? It should, because this was always a thought experiment imagined as a series of distantly related scenes. It's not correct to say I naturally make mental fanfics when I like a show. It is correct to say I naturally invent "What if?" scenarios. This entire story is a combination of several What If? scenarios, illustrated through my favorite characters. So if their personalities seem a little off, and facts are stated too easily and quickly, that's why. The purpose of writing this is to see how well I can turn one into another, because I can't just provide facts without context.
If anyone bothers to review, keep that in mind. The ghost plot is the only real plot in this entire thing. Writing quality should pick up in accordance with that.
