PROLOGUE
A Snake Always Bites Back
If there is one thing Orochimaru can respect snakes for, it's their dedication to their prey.
No matter if it's the paralyzing strangle of whatever unlucky enough to be slain or the slow, measured digestion of its food. Snakes are stubborn, fierce, and relentless. If this is the reason why most fear snakes, he sees no reason as to why he shouldn't act like one as well.
"Tsunade." He beckons his teammate over with a terse movement.
The medic doesn't move at first. She huffs then saunters to his side. "Hm."
"How good is your enhanced strength with a quarter of your chakra?"
Tsunade wrinkles her nose while he speaks. "Using that much is a waste. What are you up to?"
"Obey. I am your leader."
"Arguably." Tsunade pulls at the strap of her leather greaves. "I can topple an area bigger than the Home, I guess. But, I won't. Not if it'll put other lives in harm. We can do things without going so low—"
"As if our enemies would be so kind to us."
"Well, that doesn't matter! What do we become, huh? And their families? And those who survive?"
He holds a palm in her direction. Tsunade presses her lips together.
"At night, you strike their camp. If it so pleases you, you can remain in the back to heal."
"That's low."
"It is a necessity," says he, staring ahead. "Especially after the people they killed."
Night cannot fall fast enough. Ahead, obscured by the plentiful trees within the Land of Fire, is the camp housing 200 shinobi. They are tired, far from home, and disconnected from their allies. Isolated and exhausted enemies makes way for desperation.
It would be no problem at all to surround them with insurmountable forces, use a little sound illusion to scare all animals away, and let them slowly starve themselves until they surrendered their secrets. It would cause no fighting. No bloodshed.
Tsunade wouldn't let him even suggest as much to the captain.
For her, there must be a battle and prisoners to take. It isn't something he would do as a first option, but Tsunade is too useful of an ally to ignore.
The peak of night emerges. The new moon leaves the forest darker than ever before. Staring at the shadows of the trees and plants swaying in the spring breeze can drive one mad. A few Wind shinobi stand out on the outskirts of the camp, their torches burning like grounded stars, eyes opened as wide as can be.
He sees as much while perched on a tree branch some meters away.
Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique.
His chakra slithers through the inky splotches. Just outside the circle of light, the trees warp ever so slightly. If the shinobi move their eyes, they could dismiss it as a trick of the night.
One shinobi blinks. And shuts his eyes tight. Once they open, he calls, "I think—I need to rest!"
"What's wrong? Falling asleep?"
"No…I guess I'm exhausted? I keep thinking I see eyes in the shadows."
He darts lightly off his branch, all while paranoia sows in his enemies. One by one, the shinobi start to second guess themselves. They cry Release! and cast their chakra forwards not knowing where the illusion begins to end it. On the ground now, he can feel the shinobi scurrying to their feet. Their talking allows for him to cut his thumb and drip blood at his feet.
"On guard! Prepare for an attack!"
"Careful! We don't know how many are out there!"
"Puppet Brigade, Exploding Dandelions!"
He lets out a breath hearing that. Reluctantly, he pulls out a kunai.
From all cardinal points, the brigade sends out puppet vultures. The wooden monstrosities cut through sky soundlessly, navigating through obstacles as their beaks pry open and release paper tags set alight.
They flutter down like petals. One, then two, four graze the coldness of his chakra and explode with a blast that disperses a bitter cloud of smoke. It makes the night all that more obscured.
He has no choice but dodge the tags. He figured they would be foolish enough to set fire to the forest, not use chakra-seeking explosions. They're hardly explosions, they are diversions. Unfortunately for them, the tags all explode near the same time, giving them nothing to work with—
Something reaches for his shoulder.
He spins his kunai to stab behind him, only for his wrist to be caught.
"Thought you were hurt," Tsunade whispers.
He pulls his hand away. "Thanks. Change of plans. Take out the brigade."
"How am I supposed to do that? I bring that camp down, we're gonna lose sight of them. We can't take down dozens of birds, Orochimaru."
He closes his eyes. "I would not tell you to do something if I did not know it would work."
"How am I supposed to know what you know? It just looks like luck—"
"Enough."
He sprints off to regain an advantage. Treetops won't cut it now. Being on the ground, however, is even less beneficial. He raises in arm to his face. From his sleeve slithers a thin, black snake looking no different than the veins on his pale arm. "Yesss?"
"Suji"—the brigade is preparing to send out another force of birds, this time carrying light—"what are we dealing with?"
"30 are wounded. There are decommissioned puppets. If they have more of those, they are too big to be used out here. None have any notable amount of chakra."
"Right. Tell the others to be careful of Tsunade. Take them out from the inside."
"Of coursssse…"
Suji returns. He skids to a halt. This should be far enough. Crouching to the ground, he runs through hand seals before pressing his palm to the soil.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Spikes.
He can feel the slight sluggishness in his body as his chakra leaves and converts itself into spikes jutting from the ground in a straight line. Every point soars out the ground with little warning. With it being so loud, it draws the attention of all shinobi and injures none.
"Over there! Brigade, fly!"
He grits his teeth, readying to run through hand seals faster than ever before.
All birds go airborne like shooting stars. The reach their apex above him. His body heats up as their amber glow surrounds him. This time, their chests open for golden tags to fall, set alight.
It is silent as they drift.
The first tags reach almost a couple meters overhead before a command rings out clear: "Brigade, destroy!"
He cannot move fast enough. He manages to reappear on a tree branch. But it almost doesn't matter. The sound is deafening. A shockwave from the explosions nearly pushes him off. He can't even take a breath of air. His lungs won't fill, the stench burns. Among the myriad of bombs, there is screaming.
He tries to survey the damage, but the giant fire and black smoke complicates things. He's forced to move in closer—
Their camp is obliterated. The earth juts up at odd angles as if trying to form mountains. Torches are quenched or deserted on the ground.
The shinobi still standing are shouting. No battle commands leave their lips. Only sounds of terror. They pull at their uniforms as if covered in flames. They topple to the ground. The ones who still seem sane pull at their teammates and wonder how to help them.
Leaves spiral into the sky before him, revealing Tsunade. The raging fire lights everything on her face except her eyes. "Orochimaru—"
"They are fine," he says and coughs. Seems the odor found its way down the back of his throat. "The snakes cause delirium. Before long, they will faint and everyone will be fine."
"There are wounded! If I didn't see them, you would've let me hurt them?"
"30 wounded. You avoided them—" He coughs again. He feels the acidic remains of his stomach burning his chest.
Tsunade huffs and shakes her head. "This isn't right! We should've have fought them like we've all been working for. This is—so cowardly and childish."
"We're outnumbered. You hated the other option."
"That's torture! You need to respect people. We're the same as them, we just think differently."
"Would you just shut up about this holier-than-thou nonsense, Tsunade? This is war. Your family died cause of war. Our friends."
"Stop," she growls.
His golden eyes shine as bright as the flames. "This isn't a game. This is the life of everything we love versus the death of everything we fight for. I'm not going to let you get yourself killed and screw over the world because you want to play hero like your grandfather."
"I'm warning you…" Her fists clench tighter.
"Newsflash, it doesn't matter how good you think you are," he hisses, "because if you get a fleet of our shinobi killed, you're as good as dead to the Leaf."
She raises one first, breathing hard.
"How many dead would be happy you're acting like this? How about Jiraiya?"
Tsunade brings her fist down onto the ground and deafens the world.
Extra Story Information
MAIN CHARACTERS: Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Hiruzen, Madara, OCs
GENRE: action-adventure, drama, political, suspense
KEYWORDS: family, friendship, love, adventure, death, grief, politics, canon-divergence, anti-hero, tragic villain, original characters, worldbuilding, original story elements, Shintōism, Buddhism, mythology
TONES: wholesome family interactions, teamwork and camaraderie, domestic romantic relationships, violence based in real life (non-explicit), combat based in real life, political drama, adventuring and traveling, aging, adulthood, protagonist wants to gain as much power as possible, moral ambiguity, character moral decay
WARNINGS: canon character death, suicide (please call 800-273-8255 if you have suicidal thoughts), self-harm, mental health, personality disorders
LONG SUMMARY: A soul who died a painful, lonely death finds himself in the body of a sociopathic snake where he is, once more, powerless to stop his parents' deaths. To him, death is a foul, repugnant beast that haunts and destroys, and he would sacrifice the world if it meant his newfound family would no longer live in a violent, suffering world. Only then, can he accept their love if it meant death would never bring an end to their happiness.
Quickly, he realizes how his morals go opposite of the world's. Going with grain will just surrender the ones he cares for into death's grip. From facing a Mizukage holding his country captive in a lie, a country on the verge extreme desperation, those who would anything for power and secrets, those who fight to survive and live their own "truths", and the systemic discrimination and corruption within his own home village, Orochimaru will face challenge after challenge that force him to ask himself: what costs would he make to secure the safety of Jiraiya's and Tsunade's fates?
Ultimately, he is nothing more than a human stuck in the cycle of life, death, and reincarnation that plague the 90 chapters of this story. If he is wise, he will learn to accept his part within the world. This is the only choice he will make that sees him die as a great hero or as a deplorable villain. Essentially, Naruto meets Joker and Attack on Titan with slow burn decay.
(For those who want to try less traditional heroic SI-OCs and less-than-amazing choices, but dislike overly villainous and callous characters from the get-go. As well as exploring original plot lines that sometimes reference canon and exploring world elements left untouched.)
AN: Hey, reader! This ends our in media res prologue. Yes, this scene will happen in the future. Orochimaru and Tsunade have bad blood between them, Jiraiya is nowhere in sight, and something is terribly wrong. Don't worry—their story only can get worse before it gets better! Probably. Mild confusion makes sense, but if this is overwhelmingly confusing, lemme know so I can clarify.
This is actually a revamped version of my other story Stuck Between Slugs and Toads. I decided I didn't like where it was going, so I took 2 years off, thought about it, watched tons of shows/movies/anime/etc, and decided that I really did love this story, so I'm giving it another shot. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did writing it!
The two stories are very similar, but because I never reached the points this version does in the original version, this story will seem wildly different, aside from the first few chapters. Yes, Stuck Between Slugs and Toads was planned to go down a similar, if not identical route to this. The point of it was to grow attached to our depressed character who starts to flourish surrounded by love….only to make dark decisions and mistakes in his attempt to protect the ones who gave his life meaning. The build-up was so long and sweet for the tragedy to come.
Sadly (fortunately?), I never made it to the plot points I so hopefully planned for…