Fate

by PancakeFlying

The Kanbayashi were supposed to die, wiped out and never mourned because in the eyes of the world, they never existed. That is not what happens, nor what should have happened. A black alien creature came for them and burned everything they loved to the ground; Sachi, against all odds, survives when she wouldn't have. This will change everything. [Fem!OC] [Fix-it fic]

15. Lessons & Consequences

Betaed by Windschatten

CHAPTER 15: LESSONS AND CONSEQUENCES

They had two weeks of rest until Anko could move again without cursing the bitch that stabbed her and the one that birthed her.

"It's not fair," she complained to them. "You bunch get to have the praise while I get to play the victim. It fuckin' sucks."

Apparently, the whole damn village learned about what happened in their fucked up mission, and now everyone had an opinion on a matter that did not involve them. Some even dared to pity their team, associating Team Two with such terms as 'too young', 'tragedy' and, funnily enough, 'cursed'.

"We killed them because we had to," Sachi said, throwing a pillow at her. "You'll get your chance later."

"Yeah, sure," Anko huffs, scratching at her chest. "I swear I'm gonna kill the next one that tells me I'm so very traumatized."

In truth, that mission did leave invisible scars on them. And it showed each time they pulled kunai when being startled, in their inability to sleep without their teammates, the nightmares... They weren't yet thirteen, and although considered young, people had decided to paint them as martyrs of the life of a ninja despite the fact that they were very much alive. Victims of the system, unfortunate souls or unlucky children that had been forced to kill.

Overall they were jumpier and more… unhinged than before. I could kill them popped up in their mind anytime they were confronted with a minor inconvenience, which was a very dangerous train of thought. Even Sachi, who was in control of her mind more than most, had struggled to adapt to her newfound instinct now that she knew what she was capable of. Kasui had since retreated within himself, growing even more protective of his teammates than before, which Anko in particular did not appreciate.

Because Anko was mostly angry. And even though she was very adamant that she was fine, she wasn't. Her third gate had almost been opened, and some of her main pathways had been altered, making it painful for her to do any jutsu until they healed.

They all dealt with it the best they could, taking it easy, and so far they were holding it together just fine.

Ashi, however, was not.

"I get that she's worried…" Anko began. "But it's too much. She doesn't even let us cook."

When they had been released from the hospital, Ashi had been very clear about what was going to happen. They were going to be sequestered in the Inuzuka Compound, not allowed to do any chores or duties or even breathe a word about going back to train. They hadn't heard Ashi curse so much in all the time they have known her; her mood so grim these days that they didn't even think to challenge her orders.

"She's scared," Haiiro had told them, having become their usual personal guard whenever Ashi was out of the compound. "Let her smother you for a bit until she gets her head out of her ass and everything's gonna be fine."

And so, two weeks had passed. Ashi loved them very much, which they didn't need to hear from her, but they were suffocated by her though care. They didn't want to be babied because that would mean that they were damaged in some way. As if going through something so heinous should mark them for life, never to recover.

Even the Inuzuka as a whole hadn't taken lightly to their stray pups getting hurt in such a manner. Their own awful experiences being projected onto Sachi and her teammates; prompting the clansmen to protect them in a desperate attempt to make peace with their own trauma.

Civilians were rather scathing in their remarks, outraged that children were used as soldiers. No matter that they decided themselves to become ninja, made a choice to live and to fight rather than die with their innocence intact. Civilians wanted, needed, ninja, but they didn't want to be confronted with the dark reality behind it.

Ashi was protecting them, afraid of losing them, as well as them losing themselves.

"Is it me or does Inoue-san give out the creeps?"

Yamanaka Inoue was a pediatric psychiatrist, which much to their dismay, was really focused on the pediatric part. The woman was the retired Clan Head of the Yamanaka, who wasn't supposed to take cases, but did anyway because she was interested in them. Not to mention the hefty sum the Hokage slipped her way. She was old but sharp, possessing a grandmotherly aura that was lost on them because they were orphans. She tried to come across soft-spoken, devoted and warm; but they remained cynical.

"Do you want to draw? Here, have some crayons, it'll help you," she would say, trying to cajole them to open up to her, a virtual stranger, just because she appeared to be harmless.

"The nightmares, tell me about them."

"You are safe here, you can say anything you want."

"It will be just a push, it won't hurt, it will help you."

"Describe what you remember. What did you feel, are you feeling it still?"

The woman had to do her job, acclaimed to be the very best in her field, but they just weren't interested in what she had to offer, or her thinly veiled interrogation.

"We're fine," they would say, ignoring the coloring books, the diagrams and other baits to make them talk. "We want to be together," when she separated them to make at least one give in. "We will handle it," anytime she addressed how young they were.

They didn't trust her. From the moment they sat, one by one, on the blue chair across her white desk, they knew she wasn't one of them.

There was just something off about her. Something about how her empty eyes would stare at them, and once they made eye contact, her hands would knot together.

"Do you think she's going to force us?"

"No," Sachi says. "She will not."

Sachi had been the one to warn them about the Yamanaka and their techniques. Their influence in the village was growing, partly due to them being in charge of the wellbeing of the minds of all their workforce, but there was something else. The traits of their clan were prominent, dominant genes reflected in their blonde hair and pupiless eyes. Sachi had the advantage of the Archive, giving her the insight of their anatomy and how it was exponentially straying away from regular clans, and what it truly meant.

The Yamanaka's eyes were evolving into a dōjutsu.

Very much like the Hyūga, the Yamanaka were evolving to not have a pupil. That would hinder their eyesight, colorblindness or some other impairment yet to be determined, but in turn grant them an incredible ability. The Mind Control technique could be learned by anyone, but the Yamanaka were the only ones that were able to use it properly. Their first two gates, located behind their eyes, were enlarged, with more chakra pathways around the eyes diverting from them. That, paired with the hand seal that gave them a window to focus their chakra was enough to sync their energy with their target's and access their mind by infiltrating their system as if it were their own.

Sachi knew this because she had the very same ability; the Dark Release marks allowed her to control and manipulate chakra at will, which in the Heart they had used to share their mindspace, their memories. The notion that some other clan aside from the Kanbayashi was able to make their way into other people's brains uninvited was terrifying, and anytime she stared at those smooth eyes of theirs she felt a little sick.

("Your father died because of them.")

"Today was our last day," Sachi amends. "She gave up on us."

Yamanaka Inoue had changed her demeanor very quickly when she finally let them be together in one of her sessions. Whatever she saw in them was enough for her to rubber stamp them. A relief, since they were growing so tired of seeing her every two fucking days and already had concocted a plan to forcefully convince her to let them go.

Among all this, Sachi's mind was reeling. Nothing made sense, and the excuse of their sensei being so very powerful that it granted him so many enemies, to the point where any mission was doomed to fail, was simply idiotic.

It wasn't a coincidence that a group of hunters happened to see them and try their luck at collecting the bounty on Orochimaru; they had been tracked. Neither of them had detected any suspicious activity, and their sensei was powerful, and yet he hadn't sensed their attackers coming. People were familiar with Orochimaru's abilities, but they didn't have a detailed report, or know how he was going to react, or the fact that he would have clones circling their camp.

Unless they personally knew Orochimaru.

Their timelines of that night were disorganized, and so they couldn't draft how the attack happened accurately. What they did know was that they were attacked roughly at the same time. They had counted at least seven enemies, three keeping Orochimaru busy while one went after Sachi and three others targeted Anko and Kasui. No gang of hunter nin was that big, and mercenaries rarely ever worked in groups that large. They all agreed that the attackers had had the same modus operandi, none of them saying a word, the apathy that had bordered on... dispassion. That not even one of the seven enemies had expressed a single emotion was strange.

Nobody except the Hokage or Ashi knew they were on a mission. And while the former was the one that had let their sensei take the A2-rank mission, Orochimaru had done this under his own name, not once mentioning them. They had left Ashi a note, but at that time they hadn't known what it would entail.

Ashi wasn't involved in this. The Hokage neither, since he wouldn't want to get rid of Team Two in such a sloppy way. For all it was worth, Sachi was the Archive, and it would go against all the trouble the Sarutobi had gone through to keep her alive. They were too notorious to be simply forgotten; the three best students from the Academy whom Orochimaru had taken under his wing no less. Team Two was known, if only a little, but definitely enough for the village to speak about them.

In her mind, Sachi mulls over the events, trying to decipher why, why, why.

"A spy."

"Not again," Anko and Kasui groan.

"Listen to me—"

"No. Let this go, Sachi. It was only an ambush."

"But it doesn't make any sense! No one knew about our route, the Hokage didn't try to kill us and Ashi didn't know where we were. Only sensei knew where we were going to be, what we were going to do, and when we were going to be back. He had decided which way we would take, one which only Leaf nin knew."

A spy. There was a spy in Leaf, and very high in the Tower. Someone who had the power to access Administration so they would notice which mission had been taken and then match it to the active roster to see who was missing before predicting their movements with knowledge only few were privy to.

"We were ambushed on purpose," Sachi says, completely serious. "But why? What would someone gain by getting rid of us? Or disgracing—"

"Shut. Up!" Anko pounces on her, pinning her to the bed and getting really close to her face. "Drop it, Sachi. Let this fuckin' go already."

"But—"

"I don't care. We don't care. We got unlucky, and that's it. There's no conspiracy goin' 'round, and there is no. Fuckin'. Spy."

Sachi stares into Anko's eyes, the stubborness in her clashing with how much she cherished her teammate. "Anko, we have to do something…"

"No, we don't," she says, making it very clear with her bared teeth. "We're already on everbody's tongue. If you fuckin' say somethin' about a spy no one's going to forget this. Just— stop, stop thinkin' for a sec, okay?"

She heard how strained Anko's voice was. She had been the one who suffered the worst from the mission, and the scar on her chest would remind her of how close she had come to dying. Sachi knew that it wasn't something you could get over quickly, and Anko hated being the one that everyone was currently pitying.

Anko was right. If Sachi raised the alarm, this whole ordeal would only grow. Sachi knew that Ashi would believe her, and that the Hokage would listen to her, but—

She couldn't do that to Anko. Her arms were trembling, and Sachi had to hold her through her nightmares ever since she was discharged from the hospital. Watching how she lost weight, became angrier and snapped quicker.

"... okay."

Anko releases her, sighing. "Great."

(Sachi was right.)

Kasui claps his hands, attracting their attention and easing some of the tension in their room. "Now that you two stopped being idiots, I have something to tell you."

They both focus on him, curious. "What's this somethin'?"

"Today, when Ashi-san was accompanying me to get new glasses," he points to his new frame, still round but more slender and higher quality. "I heard a few people saying that sensei tried to kill us."

"... what?"

"They said sensei tried to kill us like his other team, and that he had done it on purpose."

"Do you have… names to put on those people?"

"Ashi-san pulled me away too fast for me to hear…"

"Do you remember their faces?"

Kasui smirks.

.

"There he is."

"Sage, what's he doing here?"

"Haven't you heard?"

"Children! They are so young, and he nearly…"

"Monster."

Orochimaru had heard the same whispers after the funeral, when he stood vigil until the three caskets were buried and then some time. He's the one to blame, again, and Orochimaru can't say that he understands why.

People always seemed unsettled by him; no matter what he did or said, they would either cower in fear or become aggressive. Mother had told him that they were fools, and that they were governed by their emotions instead of reason. But then, who was at fault? The entire world or himself? Was he truly an anomaly?

Was he a monster?

He had followed his sensei's words. He had never prolonged the death of his enemies or targets, never sought to kill without a motive and he didn't engage in petty altercations. And yet, he was the one being insulted, defamed and questioned. They had never listened to his side of the story, and so he would never be redeemed in the eyes of his peers.

"He's expecting you."

The secretary was especially vindictive today when she pointed towards the stairs. Despite being a token civilian to please the Council, she could be very daring when dealing with ninjas. Orochimaru could kill her in thousands of painful ways but he didn't, because he knew that giving in to his impulses would only worsen his current situation.

Which is why the Hokage had called for him. He had kept to himself, able to dedicate more time to his research that otherwise would have been directed to training his students. Speaking of which, he hadn't heard or seen them in quite some time. The distance was imposed by their guardian and reinforced by his sensei, saying it would be best for him to 'take a break'. Orochimaru knew that it was sensei's way of damage control, but it hadn't sat well with him to be alienated from his students because the opinion of the village was unfavourable.

Cue his surprise to see the same three menaces he was supposed to avoid standing in the Hokage's office.

"Orochimaru," his sensei greets, visibly annoyed. It might be related to why Team Two was accompanied by an Uchiha official. "Thank you for coming so promptly."

His students turn to him and smile. Never a good sign.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," he says, noticing how stiff the Uchiha officer was standing, and how he averted his eyes. "It must be important for you to request my presence when you are aware of my responsibilities."

He nods, thoughtful. "Yes, but as you can see, your students have been involved in some sort of… prank."

"A… prank."

"The entirety of Maple Avenue, including the market, has been assaulted with pink dye and some sort of stinking gas." Ah, that explained the rotting corpse scent of the room. "Team Two as a whole has been accused of misconduct, and the Uchiha officer present here is certain that they are the perpetrators."

Orochimaru looks at his students, who do not have a stain of pink on them, or smell suspiciously of decomposing bodies. However, their smiles were anything but innocent.

"Certain, hm?" he comments, shifting his attention to the Uchiha. "That is quite the accusation, where is the proof?"

The Uchiha hadn't expected to be the one questioned, and so he coughs a little to mask his surprise. "Ehem, these three genin have been sighted at the market at the time the incident took place. They did not have a pressing motive to be in Maple Avenue, and several witnesses confirm their presence."

"Pressing motive? Pardon my inquiry, Uchiha-san, but have you considered that perhaps my students were on their way to another place? They might not have an excuse to be in Maple Avenue, but they may have been taking the shortest route to our meeting point."

Sachi, Anko and Kasui perk up at his words, faking indignance. "Yeah! He didn't ask us anything!"

"He took us to the Hokage without a warrant!"

"And he accused us when we were on our way to training with sensei!"

The Uchiha bristles. "They did not confer this information."

Sachi gasps dramatically. "You did not ask! Ugh, Uchiha—"

The Hokage gives Orochimaru a flat look that he knows all too well before raising a hand and making his students fall silent. "Answer me honestly, were your students to meet up with you for training?"

"Yes," Orochimaru says. Technically it wasn't a lie. Team Two was still his team and they would have come back to train, just not today.

"I see. Uchiha-san, do you have any proof that Orochimaru's students were involved?"

"T-they were present—"

"Were they the only ones at the market today?" Orochimaru asks, crossing his arms. "Or the Uchiha Police Force is currently screening the entirety of individuals that have crossed Maple Avenue, and my students are part of it?"

"Ah— no. We are not."

Orochimaru turns to his sensei, bored by this whole situation. "This is ridiculous. I have taught my students better than this, and they wouldn't do something so frivolous as pranks; much less getting caught," he massages his temples. "What did it involve? Some… stinking gas? Pink tint? What would drive my students to commit such a ludicrous prank?"

The Uchiha shrinks a little, and Orochimaru can feel guilt radiating from his uniform. "Unless… there was a motive. Which has also ended up involving me to answer for them instead of their rightful guardian." He lets out a trickle of his chakra, venomous enough to make the Uchiha reconsider his actions. "Am I also being accused of using foul smelling smoke and colorful dye?"

They wait for the Uchiha to defend himself, but he doesn't. "My students have been wronged and used as scapegoats when the true culprit is still at large. Also, pray tell, what am I doing here? I do not have the time to indulge in baseless accusations, and much less be dragged into a matter that does not involve me." As an afterthought, he adds "Or my students."

Said students have the good sense not to say anything, pointedly looking at the Uchiha with blank expressions that they probably learned from him, albeit they're a little too smug.

"If you'll excuse us, Hokage-sama. We are already behind schedule, and we do not have the time nor the interest to fight slanderous accusations."

"Of course. It was not my intention to distract you from your duties," sensei says, giving him a small smile. "Your training mustn't be interrupted."

"Yep," Sachi says, grinning brightly. "Sensei is the best, we have a lot more to learn."

The Uchiha hides his discomfort with the trademark grunt of his clan. "It seems they just were in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

Orochimaru shrugs, signaling his students to follow him. "I do not care, but I will not accept another incident like this. Hokage-sama."

They walked out of the office and went to training ground-forty one before he said "I do not want to know."

"Why, sensei, aren't you curious…?" Anko teases.

"The gall of those people to accuse us…" Kasui adds.

"So unfair!"

Orochimaru looks at his students, who appear to be different from how he remembered them. More… jaded. Their eyes had lost some of the shine of naivety, now replaced by a dark depth that Orochimaru recognized in himself. He could see bandages sticking from beneath Anko's shirt, Kasui paying obsessive attention to his surroundings and Sachi holding a kunai inside the sleeves of her haori.

But they were alive.

"You've recovered," he decides, which makes them smile. Orochimaru wasn't ready to let go of them. They were still too inexperienced, but he knew that the final decision didn't fall upon him. However, here they were, staring up at him, having sought him out instead of taking the easy way out. "Thirty laps. Now."

They scatter, not even letting out a sigh of complaint. They were weak but persistent, they would endure. Orochimaru watched them pass him when they completed another lap, and they were laughing and happy, continuing to run, dodge and avoid the kunai he sent their way. They continued to do so well after they got tired and even when they were cut by the weapons. They persevered.

They survived what Eimin, Gisen and Nawaki hadn't.

And that was enough for Orochimaru.

.

Shikaku spent the last days in a daze. So much that he struggled to reconcile what was going to happen with the sheer panic in his mind.

He was going to marry Yoshino at the end of the month.

He was going to be a father in four months.

"Good morning, my dear son," his father slides his door with a bang, awfully cheery at this time of morning.

Shikarō had been ecstatic when he learned what had happened, so much that he hadn't slept for days afterwards planning the wedding, the birth of his grandchild and his subsequent retirement. Thankfully, Shikaku had stopped him before he announced it to the clan, almost begging him to wait until his grandson was born.

And ever since Shikarō has been so unbearably radiant that Shikaku would rather face his in-laws again than be another second in his presence. Nonetheless, his father had other plans, and letting him brood in peace was not one of them. "You have company."

"Yeah?" he asks, not really interested. "Is it another death threat from the Kitoku family?"

"That was an hour ago, this one is different," he says, and only then Shikaku notices that his father was wearing the haori reserved for serious business meetings, the black one with the grassy patterned hems. "Come on, we can't keep our guests waiting."

His father disappears in a shunshin, Shikaku almost hearing his mother yelling at him about using jutsus in the house. He gets up, knowing that his father would make his life a living hell if he wasn't there to witness the last of his games.

It was no surprise that his mother died of an aneurysm.

Shikaku makes his way through the Mitsuba Manor. The Nara had several mansions that spanned their lands, the families that composed the clan staying in their respective homes that could act as Main House depending on who took over as Clan Head.

The Mitsuba Manor was a giant wooden home that the Nara had built by themselves. Old, obscure and oftentimes creepy, it creaked anytime you took a step, which his father argued was a good safety feature. It also had a distinct scent of mint that no one had figured out where it came from. It was home for Shikaku, as well as his cousins, uncles and aunts that lived in the different wings of the house, the hallways so intricate that you would get lost if you didn't know the way. Very useful if you wanted to hide for a while.

"So early…" he mutters, passing through a corridor filled with windows, allowing him to see the edge of their woods, and the pond they had as a centerpiece, water lilies floating idly. "Here I am… oh. Oh."

In the room his father used to hold informal meetings, Inuzuka Sachi was there.

"Forgive my lazy son, Sachi-kun, he takes after his mother."

"I do not—"

"It is kind of early," she amends, looking towards the shadow of the sun on the tatami floor. "I would apologize, but I'm afraid I will be taking some of your time. It's best if we begin early."

Shikaku regards her, all his instincts screaming that there was something odd about her. The Nara, infamous for their laziness, were avid observers. He had met Sachi on only two occasions, both brief and accompanied by Ashi, but Sachi was not intimidated by being in the midst of a clan not her own. He sits down beside his father, who has a steaming pot of tea and three cups set on a low table.

"No worries, little one, we have all the time in the world." Shikarō was entertained by Sachi, Shikaku could tell, which brought up a feeling of pity and sympathy for the girl. "No need to rush."

"I never rush my work," she chuckles politely, fixing the haori around herself. It was dark grey with red hems; the Inuzuka colors. "I do not wish to overstay my visit, we are busy people, after all."

"Indeed, indeed," Shikarō nods, elbowing him subtly to pour the tea; he does so begrudgingly. "You must be very busy, exceptionally so considering who is keeping you that way."

Sachi smiles, a small thing with closed lips that could be considered meek if not for the dangerous glint in her eyes; and Sage's balls, those were quite bright ones. "Some would complain, but not me."

His father touches his beard, Shikaku surprised to know that he was taking Sachi seriously. Growing up, Shikarō insisted that he was present in all the meetings he chose to hold, no matter the subject. However it was the social visits that he had to pay extra attention to. Shikaku had learned more when dealing with insufferable guests that had too much political baggage to ignore than he ever had listening to the Elders argue with each other.

Shikarō was amused by Sachi, and had been intrigued by her ever since finding out she knew fūinjutsu. Her quick wit kept him on edge and while Shikaku watched their exchange, his own questions arose about the young girl who was in front of him, keeping pace with them.

"Right to the business," his father hums, stroking his beard. "I knew there was a reason why Ashi took you in."

"Who knows?" Sachi shrugs, the Nara watching for some other reaction. Instead, Sachi spirited a scroll from one of her sleeves, and put it on the table with a thump sound. "Some congratulations are in order."

Sachi then shifts her eyes onto Shikaku, and he can't help but feel mesmerized by the action. She knew what she was doing. "Yes?"

"You're the one getting married," she says, unrolling her scroll swiftly.

"Oh? Is that what this is about?" Shikaku says, not sure if it was appropriate to laugh or not. So serious, that one. "Did Ashi send you here?"

"I chose to come by myself," Sachi explains, unsealing a set of brushes, ink and another scroll, deep green with coffee colored edges. "Ashi was talking about gifting you something for your upcoming wedding other than sake."

Shikaku supposed that Ashi had at least something to do with Sachi coming to his house. She was sheltered by the Inuzuka as a whole, but Ashi was the biggest barrier. He was flattered, for Ashi to trust him with her daughter. Especially one who was surrounded by so much mysticism. It was also a test, and he wondered what would come of it.

"And you are this gift you speak of?" his father prods.

Sachi doesn't hide her disgust. "For a clan with no bloodline limit, you Nara sure are eager to arrange marriages."

Shikaku spits his tea across the room, his father cackling loudly. "That! That was good! I like you, yes, yes. Ashi did good in keeping you."

Sachi remains neutral while using the whole table for herself, not minding their teacups or how it would be considered impolite to invade so much space. The girl was bold, Shikaku had to give it to her.

"By what you've brought with you, it's safe to assume you will gift me a seal of some kind?"

"Well, I can hardly sell it to you, since I'm self taught…" Shikaku and Shikarō hum at the same time, not convinced. "But I believe a seal, no matter how handy it is, won't be as useful as what I have in mind."

"More useful than Inuzuka sake? Hard to believe," Shikarō teases, and Shikaku knows just how much his father coveted Tsume's brews. "You've set the bar quite high."

"The bar is as high as your expectations in my skills are," Sachi says smoothly, so much that Shikaku puts down his teacup and restrains himself to only look and listen to her. "So far, no one has returned one of my gifts." Sachi opens the green scroll, unrolling it to its very core. Dipping a fine brush in a reddish inkpot, she begins her work.

Sachi is fast. Her handwriting is elegant and confident. Experienced. Even his father has fallen silent, his dark eyes surveying the matrixes she draws on the paper, so much that it looks as if the seals were moving. "How so very fascinating," he murmurs.

"A retaining scroll has space-altering seals, which allows for pockets in which to store diverse items," she begins. "Anyone can guess this, but not all can alter the base matrix to allow for a more personalized scroll. Depending on which connectors you choose, you can preserve the original state of the sealed object, such as heat, scent or implement a static effect when the item in question is formed by... organic matter."

The last part was the foundation of body scrolls, which kept the target's body intact, normally for transportation without damaging the corpse. Food or perishables could be safely stored in a regular retaining scroll, freezing them in a continuous state of stillness that they could later access, but human bodies were trickier.

What Sachi has called static effect was a feature they had only heard about; a way to successfully seal a breathing, living being in a scroll or a seal. They had heard about the experiments their Niidaime performed in conjunction with Uzumaki seal masters, and proving that it was possible. The cost of chakra was too great, and the seal unstable and complex enough to put it into the forbidden list of jutsu, but it could be done.

Because of it they were insanely expensive, so much that the Hokage kept those scrolls under constant surveillance and only used them in the direst of missions. Sachi spoke of them as if they were a regular thing for her to discuss, as if she had made them before.

"What matrix is that?" Shikarō points to a star-shaped seal, two triangles overlapping. "I have not seen one like that before."

"Not in retaining scrolls, no," Sachi is quick to answer. "You may have seen them in offensive seals, such as electric trap seals or paralysis seals."

Shikaku feels the shift in his stance the moment Sachi finishes her sentence. That hadn't been a hook for her to take, but her answer had surprised his father. Sachi knew fūinjutsu, that was clear, but how much? Normally, seal masters specialized in one branch of fūinjutsu, which was closely tied to just one matrix.

Sachi had used at least three types.

"Are you introducing an offensive feature, then?" Shikaku asks, picking up on his father's silence. "Ambitious."

"Sensible," she counters. "Using large-scale manufacturing for seals ensures impartiality in terms of quality, but if you know how to use one of them, you know how to use them all."

Ever since Uzushio fell they had relied on Iron's factories for distributing seals. They had benefited from having the largest gathering of seal masters by their side, offering them good prices and loyalty, and that kind of trust was not to be found in the regular issue seals of Iron. Seal masters were rare, but needed, and there was the very real danger of a seal master dealing much more damage messing with their limited fūinjutsu than a point-blank attack.

What Sachi was offering them was priceless.

Sachi smiles sweetly. "You may refuse, of course."

Sachi and Shikaku looked at each other, and a spark flared up. Birds of a feather flock together, and he could feel the same sensation he had when dueling his clansmen in logic games. That girl… she was good.

But could she be trusted?

"It is a gift, how could I?"

His father gives him an approving glance, letting Sachi continue drawing her seals. The scroll is long, medium sized, and every inch of the paper was inked thoroughly. Individual slots were created, connected with fine lines that curled and crossed each other. Watching a seal master performing their art was unusual, since some would be inclined to copy the design; only to die in the process.

Fūinjutsu was not as simple as painting some lines and channeling chakra into it. They seemed senseless to the untrained eye, but those that truly knew seals had a reason and a motive behind them. The complexity of fūinjutsu lay in how to give coherence to it all, akin to speaking a language with flawless grammar, with the added danger of dying if you failed.

There was no sign of fear in Sachi.

"Are you not thirsty?" Shikarō asks, sipping his cup. "It's the good stuff, as youngsters say these days."

"It's still hot," Sachi answers. "I'm certain that you treat your guests well, Shikarō-sama, but I don't really eat hot food or drinks, good stuff or not."

"Yes? Quite unusual. There's nothing better than a warm cup of tea in winter."

"Personal preference," Sachi briskly answers, that small slip in her act stored away in their minds. "Not wise to heat me up more than I already am."

She had realized her mistake, but used it as a jab immediately after. Self-awareness. "We wouldn't know. We have been neighbours for quite some time and yet we haven't got acquainted since your… arrival."

"We are really busy people," she amends, but she was tense. What was she hiding?

"You more than us," Shikaku says, testing the waters. "Had quite the scare on your last mission, is that right?"

"Yes," Sachi says, carefully blank. "As missions go. It was a good learning experience, though."

"A very mature response," his father states, watching for trembles, shakes or flinches; there are none. "I trust you and your team have recovered well?"

"Yep! Thank you for your concern. We are training in earnest with sensei, and that's all that matters."

That they are strong, that they are here, that they are still going. Sachi's words held faith in her team, and her features softened at the mention of them. Strange. Minds like a Nara's didn't easily allow for such convictions, that their trust was reciprocated; and yet, Sachi's intense eyes were proof that she believed in her team.

"Sensei, as in Orochimaru of the Sannin." Shikarō had his reservations about the man, a dissonance between their personalities, but he had worked in close proximity to him during his years in Research. "How would you describe him, as a teacher?"

Sachi considers her answer. "Meticulous."

"That's it?" his father presses. "And as a person, how would you describe him?"

Sachi does glance at him, and in the low light her eyes glow. "I have not known him as a person, but as a teacher."

They stare at one another, a clear challenge in it. Sachi was favourable towards her teacher, loyal, so far as to risk offending a Clan Head. That spoke of her character more than any personality test would, and his father huffs, not sure if impressed or vexed. "Playing sides so early, Sachi-kun?"

"Only with those that play my game."

Sachi was in the Nara Compound, it was clear who she was playing at. His father strokes his beard. "And what game that might be, do I wonder. It won't be shogi, yes?"

"I'm more of a chess kind of person," she confesses.

"Chess? I wasn't aware that the Inuzuka had such a hobby."

"They don't; I do," she says, crossing a matrix in a manner they have seen people have their throats slit. "Not recently though."

"That can easily be solved. We have a board lying somewhere…"

"Another day, then," Sachi intervenes before his father traps her.

"Ah, are you that busy, Sachi-kun? Don't you have a few minutes to indulge this old man with a game? I'm sure it won't take long for you."

"Duty first," she insists. "And, as I've said, I do not tend to rush my work, games included. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy ourselves when we have time? Ashi said something about a luncheon…"

Why were the Inuzuka so damn keen on making him fat? "Yes, yes—"

"Done."

Shikarō and Shikaku blink, Sachi presenting her work to them. "Done? So fast?"

"It's just a retaining scroll," she chuckles. "If you may put your hand in this circle here… channel some chakra…"

And with a flourish of her hand, Shikaku's chakra spark and a grunt later, the whole scroll lights up. "Why—?"

"There we go," Sachi chirps happily, rolling the scroll again. "The scroll is now attuned to your chakra, Shikaku-sama, be careful who you lend it to."

Shikaku takes the scroll in his hand, testing its weight and the feel. The paper was good quality, and the wrapping was waterproof by it's dull shine. So, Sachi knew more than just seals, but materials and tools.

When did she have time to learn all this? Who taught her?

"Thank you, Sachi," he says, noticing a faint hum when he dragged his fingertips across the first page. "I will use it well."

"Happy to hear it," she says honestly. "Seals are often misunderstood, but they can be much more than weapons."

Shikarō doesn't wait another moment before reaching out and taking the scroll. A crackle of chakra thunders instantly, and there is an actual electric spark that forces his father back. "Damn the Sage—!" he curses, holding his trembling hand up, a blister where the lightning struck. "That is wicked."

"Dad, she just told you not to touch it."

"Shut it, you ungrateful child. And you—" he turns to Sachi, who is beaming at him. "How did you do that? I have not heard the Uzumaki doing such a thing to their seals."

"I'm not Uzumaki," she says simply. "My seals are mine and mine alone, but they can serve another master. If I want them to."

Shikaku takes his new retaining scroll, feeling it soak up his chakra as the protective seals are charged again. That had been a lightning jutsu in a seal, powerful enough to hurt and loud enough to alert. If Sachi had been able to do such a thing, to create something akin to a safelock, then what stopped her from doing so much more?

"What more can you do with your seals?" Shikaku asks, the gears in his mind turning.

"Me? Seals can do anything," she bares her teeth in a smile. "I just happen to know which to do what. Not that I do that, since I know how important it is to have a fūinjutsu licence."

"You don't have one?"

"Hard to when Uzushio is underwater, and being acknowledged as one without support is quite… difficult."

They stand in silence, and Shikaku is surprised to find himself laughing heartily. He now understood why Ashi chaperoned her so. "True, true," he says, pocketing his scroll. "Politics and administration are a drag to deal with, but I don't think you are going to find a problem with them."

Sachi takes the comment as a praise, bowing her head a little. "Best to be in good company."

Sachi had told them she was not an Uzumaki, but she could be something else; she could be theirs. The proof laid in his pocket and Sachi's intent gaze, her hopeful smile. Sachi was a good seal master, but she was also a good chess player.

"These seals of yours… very useful, indeed," his father comments, watching Sachi down her tea in a few gulps. "The Inuzuka must be having a blast with you there."

"I have some very good paralysis seals, blood stoppers, chakra restarters, smoking tags, explosive ones as well…" she says, putting her cup down and getting up after sealing her tools rapidly. "The Inuzuka are kind enough to use them in their clinic; they work really well on the very big dogs."

"Dogs, hmm?"

"What else?" she questions, blinking her doe eyes at them innocently. "Although, adjusting the seals for different sizes or, say, another type of chakra system… It's easy enough."

Easy.

"Congratulations on your marriage, Shikaku-sama, the best of wishes to you," she bows, too formal after essentially bribing them moments before. "Thank you for letting me be here so early, Shikarō-sama. I must go now, sensei is expecting me."

"Go, child, don't let me keep you away from your meticulous sensei," he waves his uninjured hand at her, fond but pensive. "Chess, I've heard you; next time I will have the board ready."

She bows again, and then leaves the room in a rush. They see her run across their land and then vault over their fence with ease. His father trails her with his eyes, not moving in the least before saying "That one… she's going to become a troublesome woman."

"She already is."

The scroll in his pocket is warm to the touch, alive.

(It will be a reminder.)

.

"You owe me."

Sachi feels a cold body slither up her arm, circling her shoulders and settling around her neck in one fluid motion. Yasu's copper eyes are slanted and driven, her black tongue flickering in front of her face. "Old-blood, you owe me."

"I'm on nightwatch," she tries to say, but Yasu's body constricts around her. "I won't let my team be attacked like last time."

The snake shifts, looping once more around her neck. "You have a debt to pay, Kanbayashi. Or have you forgotten?"

Sachi doesn't let Yasu rattle her, calming her chakra as best she could to feel the seals around her. "You were following your master's orders."

"Ha, try again," she hisses, her tongue too close to Sachi's jugular not to feel her breath. "I have a question for you."

Sachi turns to face her slowly, a blank sense of peace at the back of her mind. Orochimaru had taught them how to meditate. Breathing in. Breathing out. But Sachi was on a very fine line with Yasu.

"Don't push your luck, summon," Sachi warns calmly, her voice deeper and foreign to her ears. "Or have you forgotten who you are speaking to?"

There's a ripple through Yasu's body, Sachi feeling her smooth scales running around her in a very clear manner. Sachi raises an arm, and Yasu slithers around it, laying her head on her hand. "Shiryō-kan," she greets. "You are far away from the snow."

"I am where I need to be," she refutes. "I commend you for your help, but that is not enough for an answer."

"My silence will?" Yasu questions, the tip of her tail tracing the side of Sachi's jaw.

"It will. But." Sachi reaches over with her other hand, touching Yasu's fang where she opens her mouth in a warning. "Don't forget that we have a deal to upkeep."

She withdraws, Yasu's eyes darkening. "I can feel the burden on your shoulders, will you be able to honor our promise?"

"Is that your question?"

"... no."

Sachi brings the snake closer to her, the safety seals around their camp activating when she pours more of her blood in them. She didn't want to do this, the paranoia of another ambush a possible outcome, but the snake was determined to have her answer.

Sachi lets the sealwork bleed into her skin, the glow hidden by her clothes except for her face, which Yasu stares at in amazement. "Ask your question."

"What happened to my sister Eikigō?"

Without so much as a whisper, they are taken to the depths of the Archive. The consciousness of a summon is alien to that of a human, disperse but dense. Sachi keeps their connection steady as the towers of books rumble, the mist thickening over the obsidian floor.

Soon, an image pops up. The patch of thick rainforest around the border of Grass and Waterfall appears, and in it, a giant temple carved in stone.

"Your clan comes from the Ryūchi Cave," Sachi says, recognizing the entrance to the summon's lair through the eyes of one of her ancestors. "A branch family that allied themselves with a human clan from Grass Country, the Yamata."

Orochimaru's clan.

People with impossibly pale skin, usually dark hair and purple clan markings around their eyes. The bond between the Sōsōhime branch of the Western Snake Nest had preceded centuries, further back than the start of the Warring Clans Era. The influence of the summons could be seen in the reptilian features of the Yamata, even more so in their abilities.

They watch a clan with people able to stretch their bodies to impossible lengths, their exceptional swordsmanship and knowledge of poison so extensive that even the Kanbayashi had been interested in them. Although, they hadn't been the only ones. In front of their eyes Uzumaki Mito meets with the matriarch of the Yamata clan, which has a giant dark blue snake curled behind her with glowing copper eyes.

"We will protect your clan," the woman says, fierce as she stares at Tsuchinoko. "There will always be a home for your kind in Leaf; as long as you protect her, we will protect the Yamata."

Tsuchinoko took Mito's invitation to join Leaf, which in exchange for leaving their home in Grass they received prestige and a portion of the forest just for them. There were always stories about how the four noble clans made the founding of Leaf possible, but they often forgot about how the Yamata or the Hatake had been there from the beginning. They hadn't been called because of their political influence or their riches, but the subtle skills that would ensure Leaf wasn't threatened as easily.

They were protectors of Leaf.

The Yamata poison was renowned in all corners of the world, and that clan had been the very first to produce shinobi with Sage powers. The bond between the snakes and the Yamata was as close as a human and a snake could be, a deal set in stone and honored in blood.

The friendship between the Yamata and the Senju was born out of the negotiations of Tsuchinoko and Mito, passed down to the rest of their clansmen for years to come. Shizuoka, Mito and Hashirama's only daughter, had been close to Yūdokuna, one of Tsuchinoko's daughters and Orochimaru's mother.

Sachi sees a woman with long silky hair, carrying a child that was a carbon copy of her. Even in his childhood Orochimaru seemed as an adult trapped in a younger body, but the glances he sent towards his mother, and how he absorbed any of her words when she spoke to him, proved some sort of devotion not easily understood. It wasn't love, not in a clan who chased any emotion away, but it was needy and selfish all the same.

Clinging to Yūdokuna was Yasu, her partner. Quite the pair, bonded after Yasu took notice of her bright intellect, and together ever since.

And in the shadows, a looming presence. Eikigō, the blue snake with copper eyes that had been Tsuchinoko's partner. Quiet but deadly, she was the matriarch of the Sōsōhime branch, overseeing each and every one of her hatchlings as a ruler instead of a mother.

"The Yamata and the Sōsōhime were all but one, the power of the summons combined with the particular chakra of the clan fusing together. The result was a hybrid, neither human nor summon, but powerful."

The Yamata were able to slaughter armies with only the few dozen individuals they had. They were a small clan, yet they didn't let it define the extent of their abilities. Between their poison— so corrosive and vicious that had decimated villages with only one drop—, their swordsmanship— too fast for anyone to match— and their cold-headedness— where others hesitated, they pushed forward— they were unearthly.

"That came with a price."

The line between human and summon blurred after generations staying in close proximity. No matter how strong the Yamata were or how many centuries the Sōsōhime lived through, they couldn't go against the force of Nature.

"They began dying, one by one."

Clansmen becoming sick, an illness so grave that no healing or technique could help them. Women dying in labour, sudden abortions and children with birth deffects that caused them to wither only hours after they'd entered the world. Summons perishing with their partners in battle, not recovering from injuries, the connection with their world dimming day by day.

"The Yamata, so proficient in poison, had not realized that they were poisoned from within."

A genetic disease. By the time they had discovered what enemy they fought against, it was too late. With only Orochimaru's parents barely alive, they knew they had reached their end.

"Nothing is meant to last forever," Sachi says, bitter as she knows just how true it was. "But the Yamata had not given up yet."

Yūdokuna, Yasu and Eikigō were the ones that remained; the Sōsōhime, built upon centuries, was wiped out in less than a decade. Orochimaru was alive too, Kōshoku as his partner but staying apart to avoid aggravating their disease.

Yūdokuna, acting out of selfishness or mere stubbornness, had taken her son and infused him with Eikigō's poison until the verge of death. The old snake's venom was fatal, which was what Yūdokuna was after. Orochimaru, like the other Yamata, had the same terminal genetic condition that would kill him before he reached adulthood; unless the very same infected cells died first.

The process was painful and brutal, Eikigō poisoning the very last of her hatchlings to give him a chance to preserve their clan; what they had been, what they could be. In the end, Eikigō succumbed to her own illness, stripped from the strength that the alliance with the Yamata offered her. Yūdokuna's last words to the son that lied in his stripped down flesh, reborn, were:

"Find a cure."

Orochimaru had to burn the remains of his mother and boss summon, so poisonous that he was forced to put it into a metal casket and bury it so far into the earth that he had dug for weeks. Summon's could die in this world, and Yasu stared until the last pebble was thrown over the burial and a flat stone was put as a reminder.

"This is your answer," Sachi says, exiting the Archive and the snake blinking her reptilian eyes at her. "I hope it brings you solace."

The snake doesn't say anything, curling tighter around her arm to the point it cuts off her circulation. Sachi knew better than to believe Yasu was experiencing complex emotions, but there was a primal kind of rage in the hiss she let out close to her face. "Don't throw your pity words at me."

"I don't pity you," she says, the heat in her blood slowly setting again. "Do you?"

"I am not the Archive to answer your question," she says, proud as she untangles herself. Whatever relief she got from having her question answered was deeply hidden away from her prying eyes. "Whatever is your business, it only involves the Kanbayashi. Or wasn't that what your predecessor once told us?"

"She warned you. What happened to your sister and the Yamata was the reason why," Sachi adds, feeling the tip of Yasu's fangs on her neck; she had uncoiled before her eyes registered the movement. "Careful, summon. You forget yourself."

"I could kill you right now."

"What is stopping you?"

They measure each other up, the tension high and heavy around them. Yasu let's out a hiss, halfway through amused and annoyed, before retreating into the darkness. "I wonder, what will you do, Shiryō-kan, with this answer of mine?"

When she's gone, Sachi can breathe again, but it's accompanied by a crushing realization.

Orochimaru was dying.

.

Team Two is doing one of those missions.

They watch from their perch as their sensei lures their targets, two brothers judging by the similar features, deeper into the forest until reaching the clearing they were hiding in.

The moment the targets catch sight of their teacher, a battle breaks out. Orochimaru was using his sword today, the legendary Kusanagi. Every move was accompanied by wind; dealing more damage than any normal blade. And yet each one was filled with grace. They watch, entranced as Orochimaru turns and twists his whole body to whip his arms and angle his blade just so before striking.

One brother lifts a katana over his head, letting out a howl of rage when Orochimaru gets between them; their teacher uses the older's momentum and evades at the last second, the man falling when his sword doesn't make contact.

Orochimaru hits his wrist with a measured kick, forcing him to drop his blade. Quickly taking his enemy's katana before slicing at the leg of the younger brother when he charges at him, all the while using the Kusanagi to slash at the other. They let out a surprised yell, and when he shifts his body to stop his fall, he ends up stabbing his own brother in the process.

Orochimaru finishes them quickly, the Kusanagi beheading them in a blink.

"Regroup." They follow his order, dropping in front of him. He cleans his sword with a cloth as he looks at them. "What have I taught you?"

"Any weapon can be yours," Kasui answers.

"How?"

"People forget that their weapons are objects instead of partners. They have no loyalty. An enemy's kunai can be your own, and your kunai can become theirs," Anko picks up.

"Why beheading?"

"Best option to finish a target. When in doubt, go for the neck," Sachi explains. "Enemies could have unexpected abilities. Separating the head from the rest of the body is effective in most cases."

He seems pleased by their observations, sheathing the Kusanagi without so much as a shrill. "Always go for the kill. If it's not possible, incapacitate. How?"

"Cutting tendons, especially behind the knee or feet."

Orochimaru nods. "Hindering your target's ability to run is astute, but do not forget that a capable shinobi will find other ways to kill without the use of their legs."

"Paralyze the hands or damage them," Anko adds. "No jutsu that way."

"Risky. Arms and hands have a wider array of movement, which is difficult to incapacitate. However, if you can, you should."

"A blow to the spine," Sachi says. "They won't die outright, but they won't be able to move. Sooner or later, they will die, if the blow was aimed well enough."

Orochimaru stares at Sachi for a moment. "The spine is a very ample target, and can be used in all manner of ways. Yet, it won't prevent your target from speaking," he looks at the entire team, and his voice is serious. "I teach you not to rely on emotions, but they can be used as fuel for unlikely scenarios. The desire for revenge, the hatred that comes from wounding a comrade, or even the anger resulting from the adrenaline of the fight can motivate your target further and, in some cases, they may overcome you when they shouldn't."

He glances at the cooling bodies at their feet, bleeding into the grass. "Don't leave loose ends, or they will come back to haunt you in the most inopportune moment." He was speaking from experience. "Killing your target can come with the added baggage of gaining a personal vendetta upon you. Letting a target live, knowing that they will perish because of the wounds you have inflicted for example, may create such an unfortunate happenstance; more often if the target is from a clan, notorious family or a unit."

Like them.

"Never spare an enemy that has seen your face or heard your name or voice," he summarizes. "If you do, expect a reckoning."

"So… we cut their tongues? Take out their eyes so they won't know who did that to them?" Anko asks, confused.

Orochimaru's lip quirks a little bit. "That is your choice. Never grow arrogant with your skills, or you will end up like them," he points with his chin towards the corpses. Taking out a body scroll to seal their heads, he says "Clean."

Anko burns the bodies with a fireball until they are ash. That was another lesson, to never leave a trail or a body, for a corpse had as many stories to tell dead as they would have when alive.

(Sachi knows that better than anyone.)

Afterwards, Kasui washes everything with a water jutsu to upturn the earth and clean the blood. Sachi uses a chakra absorption seal just in case, erasing any traces of jutsu or their target's signature. Ever since taking this kind of precautions there haven't been any more ambushes, and Sachi often finds herself watching her teammates; thinking about talking about her suspicions to anyone.

"We aren't done," Orochimaru tells them when they finish, handing them three separate scrolls.

They know what kind of missions they hold.

Opening the scroll they have a minute to read and memorize its contents before igniting. Even Anko, who has gotten better at distinguishing characters, can do it without struggle. It's hard to miss the word kill, after all.

"You have a week to stalk and kill your targets. I will be watching."

They scatter.

.

Somewhere in Grass Country, Shikaku is cursing his life. Their Hyūga tracker was dead, Inoichi was wounded and Chōza exhausted. They make a hasty camp, miserable and soaked to the bones. They haven't gotten a glance of sunlight ever since coming here a week ago, and it only got worse from there.

Grass Country can burn for all he cares.

"I shouldn't have listened to you," Shikaku groans, helping Inoichi sit down while being mindful of his leg. Probably broken, with how swollen and purple it was. "This is the worst bachelor party ever."

"Shut… up," Inoichi barks, wiping the mud from his face the best he could. "It's all your damn fault for getting hitched so early! We had a plan!"

Shikaku rolls his eyes, dodging Inoichi's half hearted attempt at stabbing him. They had listened to too many stories regarding the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and they had made a plan to get married and have children at the same time so they could do their part. His friends hadn't accepted his marriage announcement too eagerly, so they had decided to best work it out by taking a mission together before his child was born at the end of the month.

He knew they had merely been joking; having teased him enough for fucking up his first night in the village after his assignment. Using Shikaku's rapidly shifting priorities, they had managed to bribe Admin to let them take the recon mission in the Grass outpost, believing it to be a leissure type mission to relax and get loose for a few days.

Shikaku had been somewhat grateful, although leaving his new and very pregnant wife behind with his clan was not something he had been comfortable with. Yoshino, the devilish woman he had come to know better in the past few days, had told him to better get out and stop coddling her or he would be missing a ball come morning. Cue Shikaku leaving that very same afternoon.

Now, he regrets it. If a surprise castration was all it took to continue living, then he would gladly take it.

"We have time," Chōza says, always to wage peace between them. "It's not as if Yoshino-san can't have more kids later, and by then maybe you can stop fooling around, Inoichi."

"Just let me die already," the Yamanaka grits, not one for jokes when he was the one feeling the pain. "Fuck, this doesn't look too good…"

The mission as a whole didn't look good. They had been chasing the intel that some Earth nin had been testing their borders. To their surprise, intel had been right for once; those slimy worms trying to pose as farmers from a small village nearing their estern flank. They had discovered the real farmers buried under their fields the same day they arrived which… wasn't the best of welcomes.

"We sent a hawk for reinforcements," Chōza reminds him, gulping one, two, three pills.

They had informed the Hokage about the development, but as of yet, they had no response. "Who knows when they are going to come. Or who they send. The rain washed our trail, and who knows how far into the border those bastards have gotten— ah, dammit! This hurts like hell."

"I just hope they bring a good damn tracker."

And, lo and behold, a dog appears.

"Haiiro!" they say in unison, honest to the Sage happy to see him.

He sneezes at them, grunting. "Ugh, you got scared of this old hound or what? If I wanted to gnaw on your skimpy bones I would have done so when you were pups and more tender."

They chuckle, their hearts relieved to have him there, because it meant that Ashi was there too. "Woah, this brings back memories."

"Ashi, thank fuck you're here."

"Who else? You sorry assholes got yourself in a pinch so much that the Hokage called Kegawa the moment the hawk got there," she says, making a beeline for Inoichi and taking off her gloves to heal him.

"Why are you here then?"

"Thanks, Ku-chan, glad to know I'm wanted here."

"You know what I mean."

"Infection," Haiiro says, his nose hovering over Inoichi's leg.

"Got it. Kegawa is here, but we split when we reached the outpost. He has more experience in this territory, so he has gone to retrieve some of our troops while I tracked the scent of you morons all across Grass. I took this mission because I knew you needed someone to clear out your mess, and kiss away your boo-boo's."

That made sense as to how they got there so fast. The journey alone was five days, more if a large unit had been deployed, but the satellite village was a day and a half from their current location. Maybe they would actually make it alive.

"Motherfu—"

"Shh, I'm working here. You got your shin bones twisted up like braids, I have to set 'em up before healing them."

Inoichi was very pale by this point, clenching his teeth until Ashi put his bones in the right place and shoved her palms over the grapefruit sized lump on his leg and healed it. "We will need to get you to the outpost, darlin'. I can feel some shards of bone in your muscles."

"Damn it all," he hisses. Inoichi had his leg crushed between two boulders after they found some Earth nin doing recon. They had killed them, but it had been a messy fight. "Fuck, I don't want to fucking faint."

"Then don't," Ashi says, working her very painful magic between groans and curses. "There. I'll make ya a splint, but that's everything for now."

Healing took a lot of energy from Ashi, and they knew she wasn't acting as a medic this time. She takes out a scroll and unseals different materials and bandages to immobilize Inoichi's leg, as well as some medicine. "Eat this."

Inoichi does, praying to god that the pills she handed him were painkillers, or very hard drugs. "Fuck…"

"It's only goin' to take a sec," she says, Haiiro sniffing at his body in search of any underlying issues. When he doesn't find anything, Ashi gets up. "How are you on rations?"

"Could use some more." Chōza is quick to answer. "Care to share, oh great Ashi-sama?"

Ashi gives him the finger, her smile amused nonetheless. She unseals different meal packages that they take greedily from her, glad to taste something different than the bland shit of their dehydrated rations. "I love you."

"Not your wife, darlin'." They all chuckle at Shikaku's dismay. "Everyone eat up, you'll need your strength. And you, blondie, take your pills and sit on your flat ass, got it? You don't wanna lose your leg."

"No, ma'am," he entones, some color returning to him as the chakra replenish pills begin artificially circling his gates if he had seen the color right. "I'm so fucking glad that you're here."

"Say that to Tsume," she complains. "Had my kids not been away she would have come here herself."

They didn't know who they preferred, and although Tsume was a close friend of theirs, Ashi was more familiar with their team. "Right! How's motherhood finding you, Ashi-san? Planning for more triplets?"

"Keep that up and I won't give you any more food, Chōza," she warns. "I'm not speaking 'bout them on a mission."

"Saw 'em once," Inoichi says, his pupils dilated. "Granny Inoue took their case, she said they were completely bonkers."

Haiiro is the one that laughs. "Yeah, they are. Kinda reminds me of your litter, but smarter."

"Hey!" they complain at the same time.

"I see you're in high spirits to joke, very well then. Inoichi, you're out, don't even dare sayin' anything back to me 'bout this. Chōza, you need to grow fat quickly, and Shikaku… let's keep ya alive, hm? You haven't even met your kid yet."

They nod, falling into the role of subordinate easily with Ashi in the lead. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. We're gonna wait until Kegawa comes, swapping Inoichi and sendin' his ass home and then… guess some worm huntin' is in order."

They had truly missed her.

.

Orochimaru watches from above as his three genin go through their plans to kill someone.

Kasui has the woman with the stabbing obsession, and if he were to guess, the genin was actually luring her into stabbing him. Given her predilection for soft skin, she may fall for it.

Anko got the other woman, the one with the giant sword that was as long as she was tall and paper thin sharp. Orochimaru had purposely given her this target to curb any lingering trauma regarding swords after being stabbed. The girl took the challenge for what it was, smart enough not to put herself directly in front of it. Instead, as soon as they reached the next village, she went to the local apothecary.

Sachi had the sensor nin. Orochimaru wanted to see how she dealt with a target that could sense her from a mile away when she couldn't tamper her chakra by herself. Sachi, ever for quick thinking and full of tricks, had kept her distance so far but ought to be careful. If he had to intervene and kill the target because she had chased him off, it wouldn't end well for her.

"They are having fun," Yasu slithers up his body, careful of her fangs as she speaks close to his neck. "Fine hatchlings you have."

Orochimaru hisses. "Absolutely not. They are not my hatchlings, they are my students."

The thought of him as a paternal figure sends an unsettling shiver down his spine. And the thought of sharing custody with the Inuzuka woman who had a meaner punch than Tsunade was nightmarish. He was their teacher, nothing more, nothing less.

"Don't attach yourself to them," he tells her, just in case. "Not all reach their potential before dying."

She lets out her black tongue. "Heed your own warning."

They continue watching as Kasui bumps into his target, making her apples fall and apologizing profusely. Yasu curls tighter, tasting Orochimaru's pulse as Kasui catches the attention of the woman he was to kill.

Yasu had been his mother's partner, although she hadn't been able to stay in their world during the last years before Yūdokuna's death. It had been a surprise, to feel a familiar pull of chakra two years after his mother's death, and discover she hadn't died along with the others. Only her and Kōshoku remained from the Sōsōhime branch. They didn't have a contract between them as he had with Kōshoku, but she insisted on visiting him often.

Orochimaru wonders if there was some lingering emotion behind those social calls, but snakes weren't ones for sentimentality. The bond Yasu had had with his mother had been broken the moment she died, and Orochimaru wasn't interested in forming such a connection with her. He had Kōshoku, indifferent most of the time, and Manda if the need arose. As the last Yamata, the snakes answered to him, but he rarely employed them nowadays.

"You don't know what you have in your hands," she says, a chuckle coming from her with a soft hiss, almost conspiratorial. "Fickle are the lives of humans, their hatchlings so helpless without poison or a scenting tongue. But they can become useful allies, or fearsome foes."

"And?"

"Whatever they turn out to be, they will always remember who helped them shed their weaknesses."

Orochimaru wasn't sure about that. He had met his fair share of ungrateful people, and he had no expectations for his students. It was his duty to impart his teaching onto them, and whether they made good use of them or not, was not his business. He didn't want to be thanked for something he was not doing out of his own volition, and he refused to take responsibility for the outcome. They were to learn, not to serve.

"Am I supposed to help them shed?" he questions, testing the strange sentence on his tongue.

"Careful whom you sass," she says, biting him lightly, but venomous nonetheless.

He was immune to poison, thanks to the treatment his mother put him through, although he was aware of the state of his body. Yasu didn't seem to care, as she bared her fangs at him. "They are yours, and if you don't raise them well, they will plead their loyalty to another. After the effort you have put in them, it wouldn't be unlike biting your own tail."

"Train them or sabotage them," he muses out loud.

He could either train them fully, make them into the weapons they could become, or avoid them reaching that point. He has seen glimpses of that terrifying potential in their very core, how Anko could adapt to whatever situation came her way quickly while remaining vicious all the same; Kasui's sadistic streak that brought out the worst in him and yet hadn't hindered him so far. And lastly Sachi, who was so easy to underestimate at first glance, yet could think of a thousand ways to kill you and would likely decide to go with the most painful one.

"I do not want to put my trust on the wrong side."

Choosing them had more consequences than focusing on their training. He could dispose of them, could have done so a few months back when they were at their lowest, but hadn't. Orochimaru believes that even then, he had known that they were just like him.

Weapons.

"A difficult choice," Yasu agrees.

He did not want them turning against him on the possibility of them growing into the next Sannin as his sensei liked to fantasize about. And yet, it's not quite the same, because when he thinks about them turning their back to him, it brings up a sense of visceral pain that he has no way of processing.

They see Sachi's target move around the market, constantly looking behind him as he rounds and rounds the stalls; afraid, paranoid. Orochimaru had yet to see Sachi, only sensing the smallest hint of chakra as the days passed. "Old-blood… she's a smart one."

"Why do you call her Old-blood?" he asks, genuinely curious. Anko had been named Bright-flame, Kasui gaining the nickname Sea-storm. He could relate it to their affinities, but Sachi was the odd one out.

"Her blood is old," she answers simply.

"By whose standards? Yours or mine?"

"Does it matter to you?"

"Blood can hide interesting facets."

"You won't find gifts in her blood, but the mind that it feeds."

Orochimaru has no time to ask her about the meaning when he sees Anko sneak into the inn her target was staying at. Yasu scents the air, uncoiling from him. "They should finish soon."

"We'll see if they survive."

.

They are in the middle of battle. Having attacked at night with the full moon casting enough shadows for Shikaku to bask in and use for himself.

A squad of eight people, they raid the village. The Earth nin must have expected them, because they met them halfway through, clashing violently. Ashi and Haiiro had used a clan technique, the Double Headed Wolf, a massive beast with two heads which was the result of a transformation jutsu between human and dog.

Ashi rips the battlefield to shreds, grotesque howls of carnage echoing as she marches forward. That was the Ashi of the war, the one that had broken the frontlines with her teeth and her claws. From the Earth nin's reactions, they remembered.

Chōza charges and sweeps what remains, his enlarged body demolishing any enemy that hopes to get past their line. Those that do, don't manage to take another step when Shikaku catches them in his shadows, picked off by the other members of their team.

If only he could catch the leader— He searches the fields, trying to deduct which poor bastard they had to catch alive. His thought process is cut off by Ashi's monstrous howls, and a wall of earth rising inches away from his position.

Shikaku dodges, Kegawa already by his side and countering the earth jutsu with one of his own. He might be a bitter bastard, but he knew how to fight. Ashi and Haiiro shred the enemy that attacked them, and in the split second they see the blood spilling, they catch sight of someone trying to slip away.

"I see him!" he alerts, his team pushing harder at the enemy line.

Kegawa follows him as they advance, stopping one second as to allow Ashi and Haiiro's chakra fused form to bite the head off from an enemy. The Earth nin are retreating quickly and they must give chase. They cannot let them live, they needed to know what the fuck were they doing inside their country before they'd try again.

Ashi howls, the grey fur all but glowing in the light of the moon. Shikaku is struck by the sight for a moment and the memories from the Second War. He can't help but wonder where Isamu was now, the man that had always been by her side.

(Death is what follows her.)

"Follow!" Shikaku orders.

Ashi is unstoppable in that form, bestial as she takes off and they run behind her. Her nose is even keener now, and the trail is easy to follow as she crosses the field into the forest.

Chōza stays behind, too big to enter through the forest and he takes their backs as they move forward. They need to catch one of them alive and bring them to camp, Inoichi would take care of him. They could do this, Shikaku knows, he's sure of it.

(Shikaku's mistake would cost Ashi's life.)

There. In the trees. A flash.

"Stop!" Shikaku tries to say but it's too late.

The enemy had been waiting for them, their camp right under their noses. They are trapped. "Fuck—" he curses, able to avoid being stabbed by an earth spyke at the last moment.

But he's not fast enough to dodge the kunai aimed at his face. The pain is startling, and for a moment Shikaku believes he has gone blind. He cannot see anything, only feel the grip on his vest and the shift of a shunshin. "Shikaku! Look at me!"

He manages to open an eye, blurred by red, barely seeing Kegawa's concerned expression. "Those bastards…"

He touches his face, and can feel the sting of an open wound. Shikaku doesn't think about how they had mangled his face, and checks for any other injuries. "They almost got you."

Almost.

"C'mon, we can't let them!"

Wiping the blood away from his face, hissing at the pain, he recovers his concentration to search for a plan. They were surrounded, but they had the advantage of playing on familiar ground. Earth nin can do nothing in their forest, the ground covered by the roots of the redwoods, but it didn't mean they couldn't fight.

The light of the moon is not enough, and the leaves don't let him use his shadows. He thinks, thinks, thinks— but he's not fast enough, not quick enough.

Oh no.

"Ashi!" Shikaku yells before he knows it.

An Earth Dragon appears, going directly for Ashi and Haiiro. They see them clash, and a puff of smoke follows. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Transformation jutsus took a great deal of chakra, and even with Haiiro helping Ashi it wasn't enough to keep the connection between them.

Ashi and Haiiro are forced apart, the latter having taken the worst hit, bleeding as his paw is twisted awkwardly. Ashi is surrounded, and they are too far away to help her, to do something. Ashi and Shikaku lock eyes for a second, and they both know that it's the end.

(As it should be.)

A chill runs down his spine when he realizes that Ashi was going to die there. Gutted by Earth nin just like Isamu, and there is nothing that Shikaku can do to help her. He has to watch her die. He hears her howl of pain as one of those bastards stab her, and then—

Everything explodes.

.

Kasui baits his target into an alley, the woman giving chase after what she thinks is only a young, defenceless boy. He is cornered, and the expression of horror he fakes is gullible enough for the woman to believe. She takes a pair of senbon, panting as the thrill of the kill makes her reckless.

It's short lived, as another Kasui appears behind her. The woman, quick on her reflexes, turns and stabs him in the neck, Kasui dissolving into a puddle. The woman tries to turn again but Kasui is kicking her legs, making her slip into the water and getting a kunai to her throat.

Kasui looks up to where Orochimaru was watching, and nods.

.

Ashi isn't moving, bleeding heavily. They don't have a medic with them.

.

Orochimaru and Kasui watch as one of the clerks of the pub delivers the dinner of Anko's target. They see the figures talking, the clerk putting down her food and drink. The target closes the blinds, but the light coming from inside is enough to give them enough insight. She eats, and nothing more happens.

They wait an hour, and during that time the man comes and visits, and what transpires in that room doesn't need shadows or lights for them to know.

Anko appears then, climbing to their spot on the roof. "Is she dead?" Orochimaru asks her when she settles.

"She will by morning."

"Why don't kill her now?"

"And interrupt her sex party?"

Orochimaru shakes his head.

.

"Ashi, please, please don't die. W-wake up, oh god, wake up!"

.

"What the fuck is he doing?"

They are all keeping an eye on Sachi's target, who is a bit of an insomniac. Or he has become one as of late.

He's running around the streets, looking around for someone, for something. They are careful as they trail him, not a great sensor but one nonetheless, so they keep their distance as he rushes in a frenzy.

He freezes and then lunges for a corner. For a moment they believed he had detected Sachi, but in her place he pulled a… cat?

"No, no, no, no, no!" he throws the cat away, holding his head and stumbling around like a maniac.

"Hallucinogen?" Anko wonders quietly. "Psychedelic?"

But before they can guess what the man was on, a stone dragon from the temple he is currently under slips and crushes his skull.

That was… unexpected.

"Hi there," Sachi greets them, giving a mischievous smile as she joins their little group.

.

They make camp. "How did you dispose of your targets?"

"I attracted my target's attention, using her obsession to make her focus on me and get tunnel vision to distract her. A clone startled her and I took it to my advantage to make her slip and allow me to slash her voice box before she screamed."

"You have put yourself too much out in the field."

"I used a henge to hide my features."

"Has anyone seen you except for your target?"

"The clone was the one that baited her in the market, but I always blended in with the crowd."

"Splitting your chakra into too many clones can be dangerous, regardless of your chakra control. Using your target is good, but your surroundings can prove more reliable."

"Yes, sensei."

"I spent most of my time around the inn where my target stayed at," Anko begins. "Gettin' used to her movements, schedules and habits. I used a henge to slip in an' out the inn as an innkeeper that I put under genjutsu just in case. Chose a late acting poison to dispose of my target to give me enough time to get away and not be suspicious."

"What kind of poison?"

"One that reacts to the clorhidric acid of the stomach, which isn't activated until it passes to the small intestine. When it reaches that point, she will be dead."

"You have used my lessons in poisons well," he says, pleased that at least one of them actually listened to him. "The ingredients?"

"The apothecary. I stole the ingredients while using a henge that looked like the man my target was having an affair with."

"A scapegoat," he figures. "Was it a happenstance or staged?"

"Staged. I used a henge with my target's appearance to flirt with the man, which I noticed she was eyeing one evening, and took it from there. He took my bait at joining her for dinner, and they did, so…"

"You have many layers in your plan, Anko," he praises and condemns. "Easily taken apart. The henge is a useful jutsu, but do not overuse it. Observing your target is essential, as well as keeping yourself distanced from them. The poison was a good choice, and manipulating your surroundings, but what would have happened if the man you lured in to act as your scapegoat died too? It was your plan to blame him, but he could have died in the process, only casting more suspicion upon your kill."

"Yes, sensei."

"At last, Sachi. Your kill is an interesting one, describe your process."

"It would've been nice to know that my target was a sensor type beforehand, but I managed," she says, fully aware that he purposely omitted that from the details of her scroll. "After I figured out that he was a sensor, I stayed away from him. I used several baits, with chakra infused seals that were concentrated enough for even a low grade sensor to detect, and put them on dogs, birds and cats."

"Moving targets."

"Yes. They distracted him, and I upped the seals gradually to fabricate a possible hunting squad coming from him. He began to act erratic, committing mistakes and slowly influenced by the paranoia of being followed. When he reached that point, I dispersed my other lures and left only one, which my target followed until he came to the right position," she says, almost excited to tell them her plan. "I was waiting on the roof and used my environment to kill him. He could sense chakra, but a precipitating hundred-pound dragon he could not."

"... that's sick," her teammates say, impressed.

Kasui had killed his target with his own hands, while Anko kept her distance but maintained contact through her subtle machinations. Sachi had used other mediums to confuse her target and then strike without so much as crossing paths. Ingenious.

"That could have turned against you very quickly. Creativity is a tool in terms of killing under cover, but had your target been more experienced your lures would have been terminated quickly; and raised the alarm. You have used your surroundings quite literally, the stone figure heavy enough to kill your target, but had he been more aware he would have sidestepped it," he says, Sachi's cheer slowly dying down. "Stop playing, Sachi. This is assassination, there's no room for mind games. Puppeteering can work both ways."

"Yes… sensei."

"Kasui, you were feeling vindictive, engaging directly because of your emotions regarding her past crimes. I would have killed her with a permeating poison, absorbed by the skin, instead of attacking outright."

"For Anko's target… crushed shellfish. You were on a good path by going to the apothecary, and had you stalked your target enough you would have discovered that she avoided anything shellfish related, so far as to go to the head cook and demand he wash his utensils before preparing her meals. Crushed shellfish, accompanied by a strong drink, would have provoked an anaphylactic reaction that is much more plausible than an innkeeper killing one of their guests out of passion."

"Using a non-chakra strategy was the key to your target, Sachi. You lost yourself by influencing your target's paranoia, which could have easily been avoided with a kunai trap. Not all that mind screwing nonsense."

They seemed defeated by his criticism, and regardless of their approach, they had successfully killed their targets. They had adapted, and they had committed everything he had taught them to dispose of them, and the results lay in front of him.

They were good students, and Orochimaru was proud.

.

"Welcome back, Team Two."

They bow respectfully, strained because of their weary muscles. They had gone almost a month on that mission, and they wanted nothing more than to be dismissed and proceed to collapse on their bed.

"Here are the reports, Hokage-sama," Sachi says, taking the lead but barely. "Sensei insisted we made them early."

Orochimaru had not cared that they had completed their mission, and told them that if they wanted to rest immediately after, they needed to make their reports early. They had rushed the last bit, Orochimaru calling it endurance training. When Sachi looked at the Hokage in hopes of catching some sight of satisfaction at easing his job, he found worry.

"What happened?" she asks, more like demands when his wrinkles become tenser. "Hokage-sama, what happened?"

Anko and Kasui pick up on her panic, and their exhaustion is forgotten as they take her side. Orochimaru snaps his eyes at them, a reprimanding promise on his lips. "Ashi-sama… she is in the hospital."

They are gone before the scrolls touch the floor.

.

Shikaku is not having a good day, and when he thinks about it, he hasn't had one in years.

"I can hear you sulkin'."

They had made it back to Leaf in one piece, Ashi doing so by the skin of her teeth. She was lying on her side, groaning about the pain, while Haiiro was still knocked out cold. They were alive, and that's what mattered, but Shikaku couldn't smother the feeling about how wrong that mission could have gone.

After Ashi and Haiiro were forced out of their Double-Headed Wolf technique, which left the latter drained out and unable to fight, they didn't have a way out. Cornered by enemy nin, one which stabbed her through her back, Ashi should have died right then and there.

And yet, she didn't.

Because when she had no other way to get out by her own strength, no chakra to make a jutsu, wounded and tired; she had her retaining scroll with her. Shikaku hadn't known that those explosions were because of a stunning tag, or so she had told him afterwards, meant to shock rather than destroy.

Ashi had relied on the tags she had, from paralysis to explosives which had been enough for them to take her out while their enemy was busy making sense of what was happening. The fight ended shortly after that, when Kegawa, apparently familiar with the seals, threw them at the Earth nin until there were none left.

Shikaku had fought a war, although briefly, and he was deeply familiar with the feeling of the ground shaking and the stench of charred skin. Yet, those tags had been completely different.

The explosions were merciless, blowing a hole in the forest and painting it red with the blood of their enemies. Loud enough to render them momentarily deaf, and powerful enough to take the breath out of their lungs. The aftermath had been a carnage, and they had stared at the damage to reconcile that image with what just had happened.

Shikaku knew exactly who was responsible for it.

"Deep thoughts?" Ashi asks her back to him as he leans on the windowsill. "C'mon, don't leave me hangin'."

Ashi should have died. She would have been left behind, no way of reaching her. Had she not had the retaining scroll with her and those tags, she would have died.

The thought of what could have happened, but didn't, haunts him.

(Inuzuka Ashi and Haiiro would have died on that mission.)

"Just thinking," he says, not wanting to worry Ashi further. Had she died then, Shikaku would have blamed himself. She had come to help them, just like she did anytime their ANBU squad got in trouble. She would have died fighting a battle that wasn't her own. "How are you feeling?"

"That's what you thinkin' 'bout?"

"More about where your kids are," he says, changing the subject. "One would think—"

"Ashi!"

Shikaku is struck with the thought that maybe he had a hidden ability to summon people with his words. However, he's more taken aback by the sheer speed in which Team Two gets to Ashi's side than the coincidence.

"What happened?" Sachi demands. True panic in her voice as she pats Ashi all over, making sure she was fine. "Ashi—"

"I'm fine, darlin'. Don't— That tickles! I'm fine, stop it," Ashi says, trying to stop Sachi from fussing more over her. "It's just a scrap…"

Shikaku is stuck watching what feels like a fairly intimate scene. Anko and Kasui are worried sick, the latter immediately using a diagnostic jutsu that he puts over Ashi's bandaged back. "Damage to the trapezius and latissimus dorsi, bruised ribs, several shallow cuts and possible signs of infection," the boy says without missing a beat. "That is not a scrap."

"Damn Tsume teaching you anatomy," Ashi curses, trying to bat Kasui away from her. "Off, I'm fine you brats. How was your mission?"

"Don't even try," Sachi threatens. Shikaku blinks, surprised to hear such heat from her. He didn't have a good grasp of her character, but he had pegged her as someone who keeps her emotions under control. And yet, here her eyes are blazing, fixated on Ashi's as she holds her head between her hands gently. "You are hurt. Why?"

"Sachi, I'm fine now. It was a bad mission, that's all."

"That's all?!" Anko exclaims. "Who did that to you?"

A beat of silence follows, Shikaku choking on the tension of the room. They were children, genin, but they had an aura of danger that until now he had seen only in his peers. Killing intent leaks from Sachi, who is livid with so much anger that she falls deadly quiet. It's nerve wracking, because just moments ago she had behaved like a concerned kid for her parent, switching to a terrifying kunoichi right before his eyes. Kasui and Anko do not fall behind, and when Shikaku looks at them they are entirely focused on her, so still and tense that he fears moving and setting them off.

Just then it hits Shikaku that perhaps Team Two had a good reason why they were trained by the Snake Sannin.

"They are dead," Ashi says, dispelling the heavy atmosphere with a light slap to Sachi's hands. "Don't frown like that, I'm fine, 'kay? I got healed, and I just need to stay in observation for a bit."

"Kasui?"

The boy nods. "She's healed."

"Oi! Listen to me. I. Am. Fine. You three brats are giving me a headache. Stop frettin' over me for a sec and hear me. I am fine, the mission turned out badly but I'm alive; Haiiro too, if you care."

"We know," Sachi says. "We could hear him snoring all the way across the village."

"Oh? Mood for a joke?" They become children again. Sachi doesn't let go of Ashi, being the one closest to her, and Shikaku can see her fists trembling where she's gripping her hospital gown. "You smell awful."

"We just got back," Anko says, petting Haiiro.

"Good mission?"

"Better than yours," Kasui snarks, satisfied when he does a full check up on Ashi. "You are forbidden from doing anything. We'll take care of it."

"I am your Clan Head."

"When the current Clan Head is wounded, and unable to perform their duties, the responsibility falls on the second in command," Sachi says.

"You are not my second in command."

"No, but Tsume is. I'm sure she isn't happy about you being in the hospital."

Oh fuck, Tsume. They had come back a day ago, but from what he had gathered, she must be out of the village. Shikaku dreads being near Tsume when she hears about what happened, and he knows it's not going to be pretty.

"You know what? I'm done with you three. Go home, take a bath and don't bother me. I can't recover with you stepping on my toes the whole time."

"No—"

"Come again?"

Team Two reconsiders, Ashi was their mother and alpha. "We are going to take a bath." Sachi decides. "And then we are going to visit you. We will bring food, something you want?"

"Apple pie. Liver treats for the old man."

"Done," she leans over, bumping her forehead with Ashi's, the same gesture mirrored by her teammates. "When you get better we are going to have a talk."

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck off already, I wanna nap."

Sachi looks up, only then noticing him. For a moment Shikaku wonders if she's going to blame him for Ashi's state, or unleash her wrath upon him. She isn't happy, squinting her golden eyes at him. "You are hurt too," she observes, spotting the bandages around his face and the bruises.

"Not badly," Shikaku answers, not sure what to make of it.

Sachi stares at him for a long moment before Ashi urges her to go. "Shoo. You got stuff to do."

They leave, although their eyes stay on Ashi until they do.

"Quite the troublesome children you have, Ashi."

She sighs. "Tell me about it. I just know they are not goin' to let this go."

Their expressions had been resolute. They loved her, as much as she loved them, and he had only needed to take a glance to be certain. Sachi especially, and he wonders what would have happened if Ashi had died. Would she have raged? Gone on a rampage? Destroyed all of Earth Country? He practically felt her thoughts as she took in Ashi's injuries, and what he had seen was not something a normal child would be capable of envisioning, much less see through.

And yet, Shikaku was sure Sachi would have done that and much more.

(He was right.)

"What are you still here for?" Ashi questions, lifting her head to look at him over her shoulder. "I said I wanna take a nap. Or are you goin' to look at me like a creep?"

He lets out a chuckle. "I'm stalling for time. Yoshino is waiting for me."

"Ah, afraid of what your wife is gonna do to you now that you got your pretty face stitched up? You should be, she's gonna kick your ass into next week."

Ashi was alive. She shouldn't have been, but she was, and Shikaku didn't want to think about what ifs anymore.

He smiles. "Yeah, she will."

.

Orochimaru is in his lab when he hears his students coming down. After previous visits, they had reached an agreement. They could come over at their own risk as long as they behaved and didn't touch anything. He had been forced to draft a contract after Sachi had found loopholes in his initial conditions and he hadn't wanted to deal with her games any longer.

"Morning sensei!" Sachi greets, cheery as ever as she hops the last of the steps, Kasui and Anko are of course not far behind.

"You're still on leave," he points out in vain.

"We got bored," Kasui says, shrugging. "Can we train?"

Orochimaru hadn't planned on training them that day, believing that taking care of their guardian would keep them busy enough for him to continue his research in peace. As it often went with his team, his assessment had been erroneous, as the three menaces made themselves at home between his appliances.

He had set very solid boundaries, not interested in his privacy being invaded just because he happened to be their mentor. He had thought that having them in his home, his lab no less, would bring out a sentiment of… intrusion. Ever since his clan perished, he had maintained the Yamata lands by himself, not allowing anyone to step in. Only Tsunade was courageous enough to cross the stone path to his home, if only because she was confident in the ability to heal herself; or Eimin, but she was dead.

And yet, they feel as if they belong.

"I'm busy."

Team Two take a seat in their respective chairs, the same that Orochimaru had put in his lab for the occasion in which his students would come to visit him. Better keep them in one place rather than having them wander around his very delicate poisons.

"What are you working on?" Anko asks, interested as she peeks from behind him to see. "Is that a femur?"

"Yes. I am trying to isolate and replicate erythropoietin."

"Cool. Do you wanna find a substitute for red cell production?"

"... yes," he looks back, finding his students staring at him intently. "How do you know?"

"Tsume taught us in the clinic. She says we need to be careful about this type of stuff when dealing with animals."

"Yeah, especially if you are trying to stop the bleeding, or make their bodies recover faster," Kasui adds. "We have bones in the clinic, if you want more."

"We can get you a discount on rats too," Sachi chimes in.

Orochimaru stops to think about how he had found himself having three children in his laboratory one moment and bargaining about experiment subjects in the next. "I will consider it," he figures there must be some advantages that come from dealing with them.

His research was a personal project. He was willing to share his findings with the village, as he often did when collaborating with the Research department, but he had worked alone ever since his mother died. As he should, he supposes, since no one knew what he was after.

He was aware that it was a matter of time until his body started to fail him. He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he had begun to notice the signs. Muscles cramping up after training, injuries that took longer to heal, spontaneous pain, loss of appetite… Mild, for now, but worrying nevertheless. The memories of laying bedrriden, with rotting flesh and slowly succumbing to the disease were the prospect of his future unless he managed to find a cure.

Yūdokuna's treatment had bought him a few decades, but it wasn't a permanent solution. He had tried replicating the poison of Eikigō, but neither Yasu or Kōshoku were nearly as venomous; Manda even less. Even if they were, Orochimaru wasn't sure it would be as effective, since only his youth had saved him by rebuilding his body as it was destroyed. Now, at thirty three, his cellular regeneration had started to diminish, and would continue to do so as he aged.

That was what his research was about: cellular regeneration. A way to stop his body from dying by either changing his DNA or finding a countermeasure to stop it from affecting his cells. Immortality, if one were to mysticize his goal.

"Sensei, can we go train?"

Training was a very time consuming task. He had dedicated all the time he had left in-between missions to do his research. However these days it was less and less because of Team Two.

Orochimaru turns to watch them, hoping to find some of that anger or annoyance which usually rises in him whenever someone distracts him. He doesn't. "Why do you want to train so much?"

"Isn't that obvious? We want to learn."

That simple. They only wanted to learn, get stronger, become Sannin in their own right. Orochimaru could see the potential in them, but he knew that for them to reach it, it would take a dedicated teacher to their cause.

"Why me?"

"Because you are our sensei."

He mulls Anko's words as he stares through his lens, reaching yet another impasse with his experiment. He had been able to mimic the effects of erythropoietin, which he had then used to create the latest version of the soldier pill. But it wasn't nearly enough to be integrated in his genetic makeup.

Orochimaru was their sensei, and yet he was torn between the mission of finding a cure to save himself and the responsibility to instruct the next generation.

"Resting is important for your body. Straining it won't do you any good."

He should know.

"Not if we only spar today!" Sachi suggests.

Orochimaru looks down at his work table, sterile, filled with petri dishes and samples, blood, poison and spread out notes. He had reached a dead-end during his training with Eimin, Nawaki and Gisei. All his work was useless. He needed to extrapolate his results to the human body after only using animals, and Orochimaru knew what the logical step to solve it was.

("Your students are not your subjects, get it?")

He takes his experiment and throws it into the shredder. "Ten laps. Stretch thoroughly."

Team Two exits his lab carefully but in a rush, excited as they climb the stairs. Orochimaru goes after them, switching off the light and securing the entrance to his lab with his usual traps. His home was small, compared to that of other clans, the Yamata living together but apart in small units. He could have moved to a bigger house, all of them sitting empty, but Yūdokuna's laboratory was the one most familiar to him.

The Yamata lands are basked in sun, devoid of any trees but with plenty of tall grass. Not even Hashirama's trees could survive the corrosion that came from the lair of the Sōsōhime snakes, and it would stay that way for centuries to come. He catches sight of his students running over the stone paths, knowing better than to venture into the grass and provoke a nasty bite from one of the wild snakes.

Speaking of.

"Yasu," he acknowledges, the summon appearing on his shoulders. "What brings you here?"

"A whim."

"Manda won't take kindly to favourites."

"Manda is a cranky bastard, he's lucky he's that big," she says. Orochimaru is fully aware of how Yasu didn't like dealing with her older brother. "So? I see your hatchlings are alive and breathing."

His students finish running, beginning to stretch as they chat idly. At one point, Anko dives a hand through the grass, catching a snake which she brings out into the open. "Sensei! What's this snake?"

"A red-belly black snake, venomous. Quite young."

"Nice!" Anko replies, grinning. She had a way with animals that bordered on preternatural. "What is their venom used for?"

"Besides killing people with their neurotoxins, it can be used as an anticoagulant."

"Oh, really? That's useful," Kasui comments, getting a closer look at the snake but not touching it like his teammate. His talents lay more in medicine than in sympathy.

Anko had somehow charmed all his snakes, and anytime she found herself in his lands all of them would slither towards her. Eccentric, but something to be expected from Team Two.

"There you go," Anko says, letting the snake slither back into the grass, not once feeling threatened. "Oh, is that you, Yasu? Long time no see!"

Yasu had assisted many of their training sessions, her whim extending quite far. Orochimaru let her, indulging her as long as she didn't take too much of his chakra or tried killing his students. "I am. Missed me, Bright-flame?"

"Finish your stretches," he reminds them. "Stop distracting them, their attention span is short enough as it is, I don't want you making my job harder."

"I see you have given some thought to our last conversation," she hisses softly. "Have you decided?"

"I cannot teach them everything I know in two months." The Chūnin Exams were near, Team Two's progress commendable, but not as thorough as he would have wanted.

"Excuses will not get you anywhere. It is true that time is against you, but it doesn't mean you are obligated to do all the work by yourself."

"I am their sensei."

"Ah, you and your lack of human loyalties," she chuckles in her own sibilant way. "There is help to be found in others apart from your kind."

"Are you volunteering to give a piece of your mind?"

Yasu slides off from his body. "No, unless poison can be considered as such."

Orochimaru shakes his head. "The Western Snake Nest won't listen to them."

"Of course we won't," she hisses, more sharply this time. "We answer only to the Yamata, the one that has our blood. They are not worthy."

No, they are not.

"I see you frowning," she comments, going into the grass to go bother his students. "Better let them choose their own partners. You may be surprised by the results."

Orochimaru gives Yasu's words some thought. The old snake had insightful opinions, and she was one of the few that Orochimaru actually respected. Yasu climbs Anko's body and curls around her shoulders, the girl allowing this as she stretches her limbs. He had questioned Yasu for her behaviour, but the snake defended herself saying that Anko was very much kin by that point. What exactly that meant was a mystery, but Orochimaru supposed it was a good thing that Yasu didn't bite Anko like she did with him.

"Sensei! We're done!" Sachi calls. "All-vs-one? Or is it free-for-all?"

"You against me," Orochimaru says, watching them brighten. "Let's test your teamwork."

His students wait for him, utterly still as Orochimaru decides when to start. Boundaries were necessary when dealing with Team Two, and Orochimaru purposely takes his time in fixing his tunic before snapping his fingers.

Then, it's chaos.

Orochimaru ducks immediately, Anko coming for him straight on as Kasui and Sachi retreat. It seemed crude, to let Anko face him alone, but when Orochimaru tries to dodge Anko's kunai swipe, he senses Kasui aiming a water bullet at his back. Orochimaru uses a kawarimi to get out from the lock of his students, appearing a few feet away and seeing how now the water bullet was about to hit Anko.

Anko uses a fire jutsu, creating a curtain of steam that engulfs Orochimaru. It's thicker than it should be, and if Orochimaru hadn't been paying close attention to his students, he wouldn't have noticed Anko beginning to web a genjutsu to disorient him.

Orochimaru humors his students by not moving from his position, curious about their strategy. He does enhance his senses, however, since the goal of the spar was to inflict as much damage as Team Two could do to him.

Team Two has learned to hide their chakra, even Sachi whose energy was volatile, had come with seals that all but erased her presence. Sachi, despite her arrogant demeanor had the advantage of having only Yin and Yang chakra, which even the honed senses of a sensor nin had trouble discerning from the background. Orochimaru had never met someone without an affinity, and he would be more than willing to test Sachi's chakra to bring out her potential, but it was a dangerous thing to attempt.

Orochimaru catches Kasui's punch with his hand, but keeps his eye out for Anko's senbon. Orochimaru twists, dragging Kasui with him by taking hold of his arm and then throwing him with his momentum. Kasui disappears inside the mist but a second later a hand sprouts from the earth beneath his feet.

Orochimaru smiles, satisfied as he makes a slight earth jutsu to push Anko from the ground. He had taught Anko that jutsu, and she had trained a whole day until she was able to replicate it—

Orochimaru jumps, only a hum of chakra that he barely hears his only clue that one of Sachi's seals was coming his way. He is correct, seeing the reddish black runes all but rushing towards him with a very threatening intent.

Sachi's blood seals were as troublesome as they were useful. She had tried explaining to him the concept of seals using a blood medium, but Orochimaru had to stop her when she began talking about the types of matrixes and how their meaning changed when you used so and so connectors. What Orochimaru had gathered was that seals using blood were able to move, as opposed to the usual static seals found in explosive tags or storage scrolls.

"Blood seals are alive, just as I am," Sachi had told him as she let her blood drip onto the table for him to see how it moved and shifted. "Seals listen to you if you know how to speak their language." Sachi makes the matrix of a paralysis seal, and then with another drop of blood, it changes into a chakra stopping seal. "Blood seals have the ability to change."

Sachi's seals miss him, Orochimaru using a shunshin to get to a branch and avoid the ground where Sachi had undoubtedly set her traps. Sachi needed just her blood and a surface for it to travel to use as a weapon, and those seals were extremely fast.

But they had the disadvantage of drawing a direct line to Sachi's position, since Sachi needed to keep her blood flowing into the seal to change and adapt it. Orochimaru is about to use a shunshin to attack her when he feels a cold shiver run down his spine.

Above is Kasui, precipitating towards Orochimaru with a kunai and at his unguarded flank was Anko, who was in the process of making a lightning jutsu that would incapacitate him, if not kill him.

"Good," Orochimaru praises. "But try again."

The wind blast takes them by surprise, dissipating the mist and blowing Kasui and Anko away. With the field cleared, Sachi is nowhere to be found, and neither are her teammates. Team Two's attacks were coordinated, and even their seemingly failed moves had a purpose. Orochimaru is pleased, and readies himself for another attack.

When they finish their spar, Sachi and Kasui are exhausted, Anko taking branches and twigs from her hair as they share the cookies Sachi had brought with her. Sachi had a good hand with cooking, Orochimaru finishing his share without his stomach lurching because of them.

Team Two's teamwork was flawless, and even Orochimaru had trouble pushing them unless he managed to break out their formation. Sachi guided them, Anko was their main hitter and Kasui was their support. They were balanced and they were relentless. The injuries they sustained from their spar were minimal, and Orochimaru predicted that soon enough not even he himself would be able to lay a hand on them.

Team Two was good, but they could be better.

"Listen," he begins, his students snapping to attention instantly. "What do you know about summons?

.