Chapter 1 - Among The Snakes.
Pairing: Naruto x Fem Haku.
A/N: This is my what, the fourth/fifth attempt at a story? My beta and I talked about ideas, and this came up, we started talking more and more in-depth about the plot, and figured this could be a pretty interesting story. And yes, it is a Naruto story again where Naruto is older than his canon age. As usual, he is around the age of Itachi, and why? Because it fits the story better.
Naruto joins Orochimaru in this story. Why? Well, that will have to be revealed later on. Naruto isn't a Sasuke rip-off that just wants power, however. I've seen a lot of stories where Naruto joins Orochimaru, for weird reasons. In this work, Naruto's reasoning for joining Orochimaru is a bit more complex and not as… one-sided.
It's my first time trying to create a story like this. So I'll of course try my best, but a Naruto outside of Konoha is out of my home turf. Anyhow, I hope you'll enjoy it. Feedback is very much appreciated as always. Sorry for the long author notes, I'll try and keep that down from now onward.
In the middle of nowhere, beneath the surface.
No matter how long he spent time in this base, he never truly got used to the way it felt. It was cold, lonely, and dark. That was probably what he got out of deciding to join the guy living in the world's largest basement. Though, calling it a basement didn't feel right either. Of course, it was a sarcastic remark he had once thrown, but he had been quickly shown all of the stuff available in the underground space they found themselves in.
The place had underground training areas, several rooms that were possible to live in, several places to indulge in various aspects of science. There was also the floor on which the prisoners and possible test subjects were kept.
He did pity them, but in this world, it was survival of the fittest. After all the strong survive and the weak die. If he had to be honest, then he didn't see the big deal about it. People were doing even more unthinkable acts for less, it was all just over-exaggerated because the man was a worldwide known rogue Shinobi. So of course, his name would be tarnished even further. Not that the man cared about such trivial matters.
It was amusing though. People would force themselves upon innocent women, kidnap people, blackmail, the list would go on and on. Perhaps human experimentation was kind of bad, but there were worse things in the world to him. It was a big deal, but not that big of a deal.
What he would consider being worse, Danzo, that man brainwashed people. Forced people to kill each other, specifically forcing people that viewed each other as an all-but-blood family to murder each other. All to erase their humanity, and to create an emotionless husk that he would control further by putting a seal on their tongue so far down their throat that it wasn't even visible unless you pulled their tongue out of their mouth.
He wouldn't justify what Danzo and that man did, however. He had his reasons for being here, reasons he was not too keen on recollecting. Of course, he had to convince him to be let into this base in the first place. The base he had now been living in for almost five years. Well, not this base alone. They moved around regularly. One could never be too careful after all.
As he had been sitting against the stone-cold wall for approximately an hour, he was broken from thoughts as that grey-haired annoyance came walking in his direction. Or what he would prefer to call him, the dirty dog on a leash. All that guy could do was bark but lacked bite. He took oh so great pride in being his sensei's assistant, but that ego wouldn't get him anywhere. He was a fool. Nothing more, but probably less.
The guy wasn't weak, he was simply too narrow-minded. He never questioned anything. Any order given within this base was always absolute perfection. At least to that guy. Not that he would ever voice it if he did have a different opinion. Perhaps, it was to ensure his own survival. Disloyalty was unacceptable after all. Show one sign of it, and bye-bye. Possibly dead. That all depended on his sensei's whims.
Yet, he had figured out how to get around that. His sensei was actually a reasonable man. Gee, a scientist that had reason, go figure. You could talk to the guy, hell, even have a discussion. The man was a scientist, he loved a good talk. As long as it wasn't about being stupid or betraying him of course, or showing any sign of it. Which was why he hated the mutt walking in his direction. He never did anything of his own free will, he would always be the boot licker. That, he had no respect for. And he was keen on showing that.
At this rate, he had noticed that the guy had stopped and started talking to him. The words were sounding like nonsense to him. Probably because he wasn't paying attention. Not that the guy had anything besides medical expertise to brag about. He would admit this much, the guy had more medical expertise than him but lacked desperately in anything combat-related. Unless the subject was related to biology or medical ninjutsu, the guy was like a headless chicken. Hence why he looked like a question mark whenever he and his sensei were talking fuinjutsu.
"You do realize I'm talking to you, right?" The guy sneered at him, the visible scowl on his face, humoring him quite a bit.
He shifted his gaze upward to meet the annoyed eyes of the guy before him, his calm azure eyes slightly shadowed by his blond, which was mixed with a few streaks of red, locks hanging from his forehead as he calmly replied in a dull tone, "Who are you again?"
"What Orochimaru-sama sees in you, I'll never understand, Uzumaki." The guy growled from under his breath, his left eye twitching with bubbling anger as he stared down at his blond counterpart, who looked up at him without a single care in the world.
The Uzumaki tilted his head to the side and sighed, "So did you have anything to say, Kakito, or are you just interrupting my me time?"
The man almost fell on his face as he took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, "It's Kabuto, and yes. Orochimaru-sama has sent word for you. You are to meet him at the southern hideout in Hi no Kuni before tomorrow evening, I'll advise you to leave at once. You don't want to disappoint Orochimaru-sama."
The blond waved his hand at the grey-haired Bakuto and mumbled throughout a yawn, "Sorry, did you say something? Anyhow, I'm gonna head out. Farewell, Kakuto." The Uzumaki snickered as he stood up and walked down the hall, smirking to himself as he heard the enraged Kabuto shriek from behind him.
"It's Kabuto! Yakushi Kabuto! You better remember it, Uzumaki Naruto!" Kabuto yelled at the top of his lungs, his face red with embarrassed anger as a throbbing tick mark threatened to burst from the top of his forehead.
Naruto turned around briefly before flicking his wrist in Kabuto's direction with tremendous speed, the assistant of Orochimaru gulping as he heard the sound of a senbon embedding itself into the wall beside his face, a mere inch away from piercing through his earlobe. "Stop being so loud, it's embarrassing when you try to break the sound barrier with your barking."
Turning his back on Bakuto again, rightfully, the blond disappeared from the hallway in a gust of air taking the form of a swirl, leaving Kabuto to seethe in anger and embarrassment from being humiliated by Orochimaru's student. He didn't understand what he saw in that guy. He was disrespectful, annoying, had an attitude, and every other little Uzumaki feature that Kabuto was coming to despise with his entire being. No wonder the Uzumaki were massacred… If this was how they acted on a daily basis, they must've been asking for it.
He didn't even know what the Uzumaki was doing here. He had a good life in Konohagakure no Sato. Practically praised as royalty. The son of the Yondaime Hokage, one of the last Uzumaki, a young prodigy with a bright future. What could that moron possibly gain here? Was he a possible spy? It didn't make any sense why he was here. Yet Orochimaru-sama seemed to trust him.
He had undying faith in his leader, but this action was almost questionable. Kabuto just had to pray that this was part of some great plan.
Naruto left Kabuto behind with a satisfied smile on his face. That spineless coward didn't deserve his respect. Plus, it humored him greatly to see him fume with anger. Not that Kabuto wanted his respect, but he probably didn't want his disrespect either. Hence why it was so amusing to let the whiny dog feel just how much he disrespected him. Humoring indeed.
Waltzing through the empty hallways of the hidden base, Naruto wondered just how active this place would be when Orochimaru finally decided to move his current plans into action. It would be quite amusing, though he didn't exactly complain about having a few henchmen at his disposal. Being the apprentice of the one and only Orochimaru did give some perks that came in handy.
Turning around a corner to his right, Naruto walked toward a lone corridor with a dead end. However, there were three doors in this corridor. Two on the right, and a single on the left.
When Orochimaru had accepted Naruto into the hideout and started teaching him, the former Sannin didn't hesitate with making everything he could possibly need a reality. He had a bedroom, a study room, and a small reserved training space with seals to reinforce the structure within so that the hideout wouldn't collapse in case he lost control of a powerful technique. And this was available at any potential hideout he would end up staying at for an extended period of time.
So the two doors on the right were for his bedroom and study, useful rooms, but ultimately not that big, nor overly reinforced. The one on the left, however, led into a large underground training area with sparring dummies: both animate and inanimate, equipment, tools, and weapons. As he was about to leave for the time being, he opted for entering his study and bedroom. Upon entering, he collected a couple of changes of clothes, his current notes, and his theory papers before sealing them in a discreet scroll that he pocketed.
Gazing into the mirror, he looked himself over. Once he had worn screaming colors, or more accurately his mother had forced him into weird colors. Such as orange and even yellow. Not that his father had been any better. Now that he was here, a bit more discretion was needed. Not that he minded. It made him look more professional, and serious about his work. If he wanted to be taken seriously, he couldn't carry himself as a clown.
His outfit was simple, a loose hanging long-sleeved shirt which was half white and half blue and opened at the front, partially revealing his chest, tied around his waist with a black sash, both working as a belt to keep his clothes in place. Beneath was a dark pair of grey pants with bandages wrapped around his shins. And to finish it off, a pair of black shinobi sandals, a kunai holster, and a shuriken pouch. Nothing more, nothing less.
Kind of reminded him of a new friend of his, Kimimaro. The key difference was just that instead of having this 'huge' robe around his mid as his friend did, he settled for something more subtle instead. Much to Orochimaru's amusement.
Shaking his head free of thoughts, Naruto exited his room and pressed on the hallway wall with his palm, until a large sealing array appeared from floor to ceiling. A security measure, allowing no one beside him to enter his personal space of where he stored his belongings and notes. He treasured his property, and his important research notes.
As he walked down the hallway leading to the exit of the hideout, Naruto was greeted by two guards bowing their heads at the door. Seems like Orochimaru was already moving along with some of their plans, things were moving ahead of the schedule then. Excellent. The two guards were clad in simple dark purple robes, a black mask covering everything aside from their eyes from view.
"Greetings Naruto-sama, Kabuto-sama mentioned you leaving for a meeting with Orochimaru-sama." The first guard replied, a tone of respect shining through his words. It did cause Naruto to smirk slightly. This was real respect. Not the fake kind that people had loved to show him in Konoha. People there meant well, but their respect was primarily directed at his father. Not him.
Stopping in his tracks in front of them, he acknowledged them with a nod of his head, "Hai, I'm meant to meet him at the..."
"Southern hideout in Hi no Kuni, at a time before tomorrow evening if I heard correctly?" The guard on the right bid in as he heard the blond's sentence dying out.
Naruto nodded, "Yes indeed, I'll take my leave now." And without further ado, the doors to the hideout were opened. The blinding sunlight causing him to narrow his eyes, as he stepped outside. He waited for a moment to hear the heavy doors close with a thump behind him, the refreshing scent of nature hitting his nostrils as he took a deep breath.
There was always something about the look and smell of nature, it made him feel free. He had somewhat enjoyed being in Konoha, but he always felt like his reputation and his lineage had a heavy chain around him. It wouldn't do for him to do or say anything that would offend anybody, but now… he was free.
So with a deep breath, as he closed his eyes, he took in the air, held it in his lungs before exhaling slowly. And then, as his eyes opened, he took off in a gust of speed. Leaping through the trees, feeling the wind hit his face, and the air rushing through his golden locks as the scenery blurred in the sides of his field of vision. The green leaves blending in with the dark brown color of the tree logs. The blue skies blending with the white clouds, as he just enjoyed the feeling. The feeling of being free.
Landing on a tree branch, he gained a thoughtful look. From the hideout he was previously in, there wasn't that much distance so that he would need an entire day to get there. Perhaps, this had been some goodwill of his sensei. Ever since he had been a kid, he had loved exploring. So maybe Orochimaru had given him this time-gap to let him wander a little bit. Well, whether or not that was the case, he would still do it. He just had to get to the hideout before evening the next day.
What could possibly go wrong?
So with a quick twist of his foot, he sent himself flying in the direction to the left. He knew these woods like his own shuriken pouch. The only green area within the borders of Kaze no Kuni, lining up against the border of Hi no Kuni. The base he had stayed at had been lying hidden within these parts, and he knew that not too far from here. By Shinobi standards, at least. Laid a small town.
'I gotta be somewhat careful though, Hi no Kuni equals a greater chance to meet Konoha Shinobi. Unnecessary bloodshed is just that, unnecessary. I better avoid a fight if I can.' He thought to himself as he rushed to the outskirts of the town he had in mind. Even before it came into view, the happy sound of children playing in the streets and merchants selling their goods met his ears.
As he arrived at the village, he looked around for a bit before he started wandering through the busy streets. It was a refreshing feeling when you were used to living underground. In their hideouts, the only light visible was that of candles or lamps. Sometimes he went days without seeing the sun once. He was sleeping, eating, training, working, studying, and more, all beneath the surface. So when he had a chance like this to actually feel the sun warming his skin, the wind in his hair, then he took it.
Taking a deep breath, he smiled slightly. This was indeed refreshing. As he found himself nearing what he would assume to be the market area, the sweet scent of freshly cooked food hit his nostrils. And that seemingly put his body on autopilot. He found himself near a stand selling freshly prepared dango, but what he saw inside this stand made him sigh with a deadpanned look.
A woman with purple hair, formed like a pineapple, was sitting with her back turned to him, her hands moving with vigor as she generously stuffed her face with dango that the man behind the stand could barely keep up with making. It was an amusing sight, but not one he wasn't familiar with. Had you been in Konoha, then you would almost instantly be familiar with the dango wrath of one Mitarashi Anko. Mostly because the dango stand was located near the entrance to the village, and since she spent more time there than in her own apartment, most people traveling in and out had gotten a glimpse of the dango-holic.
What made matters worse, were that the lady in question was the founder and number one member of the 'I want to kill Orochimaru, cut him into pieces, and feed him to his pet snake' club. And since he was the student of Orochimaru, then he would, without a doubt, also be considered a primary objective of the club. Well, that is if he were caught. Like that would ever happen.
'So much for getting food…' He grumbled to himself in his thoughts, before turning around on his feet and begun to take his leave from the stand. Even though he was confident he take on Anko in a potential fight, he didn't feel like it, so why humor her?
So with a twist of his foot, he disappeared in another gust of air, unknowing of a pair of glaring eyes filled with fury staring at the spot he had just been standing in. The owner of the eyes' hands clenching tightly around a plate, till the point the porcelain object shattered into a thousand pieces.
Standing up with enough speed to cause everyone else at the stand to gasp in surprise, she slapped the payment for the Dango onto the stand owner's chest and raced back out onto the streets, looking left and right. 'There's no doubt about it, it was him alright. Does that mean he is here too?'
It was a terrorizing thought. The same man who had abandoned her left her for good, he could be right around the corner. He could be right there along with his new apprentice, the boy she had once called her very own teammate.
In the end, her hate and anger for the man stood above all. She had vowed to kill him, and everything he stood for. And if that meant cutting down the blond she had once thought of as a comrade that she could trust her life with, then that was what had to be done. Orochimaru's evil schemes couldn't be allowed to live and pass on into Naruto.
She argued that she'd be doing him a favor. It would help Naruto in the end. Before he turned into a monster like his master, she would cut him down. That way, he would at least not have any regrets in the afterlife, or at the bare minimum, die with a conscience.
Around the opposite side of the small village, Naruto felt a sudden rush of chills. 'I take it she spotted me then. Troublesome indeed.' He sighed while scratching his scalp. It wasn't too late to avoid confrontation. Perhaps if he went somewhere she wouldn't look for him? Like, the men's side of the hot springs. He doubted she'd look that far into it, but then again, Anko had never been known for taking anything related to Orochimaru lightly.
It was still worth a try. So he rushed toward the only hot spring he knew about in this area, dashing through the streets. Since going across the roofs would give Anko a much better opportunity to spot him.
Dashing toward the front of the hot springs, he waltzed up to the man at the front and took out some payment. And as soon as he were about to hand the money over to the man, a very familiar sound of perverted giggling hit his ears. A sweatdrop ran down from his forehead as he held up a finger, signaling for the man to wait a moment as the blond walked around the building.
And just as suspected. The sight that met him was all too familiar. One big fella, sitting on top of a toad giggling like a schoolgirl as he was busy pushing his eyeball through a peeping hole in the fence supposed to shield the female side of the hot springs from view. And just in the very moment, he had rounded the corner, at that exact same time, the man's head turned in his direction. The look on his face said it all.
"As if this day couldn't get any worse… What a surprise to find you here, Ero-ji..." Naruto mumbled out, the sarcasm dripping like venom from his tongue with his expression beyond tired. First, he had run into the woman who would without a doubt castrate him with a rusty fork if she got the chance, and then in his attempt to avoid said disaster, he runs into his perverted godfather.
The man in question, his sensei's teammate, the one and only pervert able to surpass Hatake Kakashi. None other than the perverted hermit, Jiraiya of the Sannin. The man couldn't even believe his eyes. In front of him stood his godson. Who he had been looking for five years without finding any trace of. And as he was researching, he just waltzed around the corner.
It was truly a sight for sore eyes. 'He looks so much older now…' Jiraiya reminisced sadly, the young man in front of him looked so different from that thirteen-year-old boy he had laughed and trained with five years ago. Gone was the boy, and in front of him was a young man.
His hair was longer now, he had gotten tall too. He wanted to smile, but it was painful to see him like this. Had there really passed that much time? It had only been five years. Five small years and his godson looked so much like his beloved student now, with that little hint of Kushina in his hair, those red streaks within all the blond had gotten more noticeable too.
'I finally found you again.' Jiraiya thought to himself, a deep regretful frown forming on his face as he looked at the dead-serious expression on his godson's face. The tense posture of his grown, muscular, and trained body. Naruto had been a talented kid, but this was far from the boy he saw the last time.
What made Jiraiya's heartache with pain and sadness, was to see the evident traces of Orochimaru, the purple belt around his stomach, the body posture, the cold serious look in his eyes. At least he didn't look hostile like his former teammate did. There could still be hope to turn him back. There had to be.
As he opened his mouth to speak for the first time, he noticed the movement of the blond's feet. It made him gulp, a sudden rush of fear washing over him. Orochimaru had trained him, so he had to be strong now. And just as fast as he had appeared, the boy could be gone again. It scared him to the bone, he couldn't let that happen.
'I won't fail again! Not this time, I promise you Minato, I'll save him before it's too late!' Jiraiya bellowed in his thoughts.
Naruto blinked and stared at the old pervert with his guards on high alert, but when the Sannin had made no move or said any words yet, Naruto was about to burst in the opposite direction with all the speed he could muster, but the moment he turned around the furious expression of one Mitarashi Anko met his eyes, her being only a few meters away and his face lost all life.
'Oh, you have got to be kidding me.' He thought to himself before hurling two smoke bombs into the ground, the sudden opening giving him an opportunity to leap up through the cloud of black smoke. Landing on the roof of the hot springs changing area, before he burst across the rooftops.
Even as he was darting across the village as fast as his legs could carry him without fueling them with chakra, he could still feel the presence of two people chasing after him. What do you know, Jiraiya had broken out of his perverted daze to chase after him. That would be a first… He should check to see if the world is ending, or if that was an imposter taking advantage of his godfather's appearance to peek at girls. And then there was Anko, of all the people he had to run into here aside from Jiraiya, it just had to be Anko.
Slipping off the rooftops and onto the streets, he frowned to himself. He didn't want to retort to this, but he wouldn't get caught. He still hadn't achieved his goal, and he couldn't do that in a prison cell, or if he was dead. He doubted Jiraiya would kill him, the old pervert didn't have it in his heart. Not that Naruto would kill him either if he had the chance. The wildcard here was Anko, that woman was as unpredictable as her hair was purple. Vividly.
Reaching his hand into his shuriken pouch, Naruto took out a handful of seals that looked like exploding tags, but these tags' purpose was different. As he passed around corners, he skillfully slipped the tags onto the walls of houses, lampposts, market stands, food stands, and let them fade into invisibility until they would be triggered by his remote signal with a mere hand seal.
As he had been running around the streets, he had noticed the sudden increase in numbers around him. Without doubt clones, probably shadow clones. So they were either trying to find or surround him at this point. Judging from the positions of all the clones, it was probably the latter option. These clones weren't canvassing, they were forming a circle around the place he was running to, and the village as a whole.
So with a leap onto a grass field, Naruto stopped and turned around. And as suspected, first came what he would guess to be the original Anko and Jiraiya, followed by a horde of clones. As if one Anko wasn't enough of a headache, and now there was, what, ten to twenty of her? As a Nara would say, troublesome.
The word 'troublesome' was starting to feel like his catchphrase these days. Was Konoha really this eager and desperate to capture and restrain him at this point? Jiraiya, well, he probably was. Anko's reason was probably to either skin him alive and feed him to her snakes, or well, what he had thought about earlier. At least she wasn't here yet, she probably wasn't a genin yet. Not that she would be sent after him, but she was as unpredictable as they came. She'd rush off on her own in a heartbeat. Or did she hate him, resent the thought of him, feel like vomiting at the mention of his name, too much?
"It's over Naruto, surrender yourself peacefully. I'm sure this wasn't how you intended your little detour from Orochimaru's to go, but do us all a favor and come quietly. It'll all be for the better that way." Jiraiya spoke softly, the frown he had, on his face from earlier was still present as he watched the mix of clones surround him.
It felt unfair. It was always Minato's family. First the Kyuubi, and then all the bad that had followed right afterward. What had led to this? Why did Naruto abandon his home? Jiraiya just wanted answers at this point. It was so painful for the old man's heart, to be the one to apprehend a young man that was as close to family, without the connection of blood, could be. What would be even worse, like if Naruto decided to go down fighting.
A small sigh escaped the blond's lips as he blinked slowly "We both know that isn't going to happen, Ero-ji." Naruto responded in a calm tone, his posture slightly more relaxed. He had figured out how to deal with Konoha a long time ago. Or, at least, he believed he did. The main problem with being a Shinobi of Konoha was that you had so many ethical boundaries you had to stay within, at least when you weren't in the shadows.
Jiraiya started feeling a bit more hurt, mixed with anger as his godson so calmly brushed him off, "Do you want us to fight?! Don't do this Naruto, don't cut the family bond we still have! Don't force me to fight you, please." The old toad sage pleaded out, at last, the last words of his sentence being calmer than the first ones that had been flung out in pure frustration.
"There doesn't have to a fight, dispel your clones and let me be on my way and you'll be free of what you wish to avoid." Naruto reminded him, giving Jiraiya the last chance to step out of this before things got messy.
Anko felt the need to give in her own two ryō at this point, her eyes narrowed with intense blinding anger as she gritted her teeth together with enough vigor that they could threaten with snapping at any given moment. "As if we would let a traitor like you get away! You're below scum! If you don't come peacefully then you can bet on being chopped to pieces and being taken home in a bag!" She hissed out as a snake would.
The words didn't seem to faze Naruto in the slightest. He had predicted this as much. Anko would always be Anko, her violent side seemed to shine through at any given time, hence why she probably still only was a Tokubetsu Jounin. "Last chance." He reminded them briefly.
"Do you really believe that you can take us both on Naruto? Look around you, you are surrounded. They may only be clones, but before you have time to make any yourself, or perhaps find a way to take care of them, it'll be too late." Jiraiya voiced out, a hint of concern present in the man's voice. Like he was concerned about having to fight this battle.
"I don't need to take you on, because, you see… Ever since you decided to give in to a chase, I've placed a very specific set of sealings tags all around the village. With a single hand seal, I can set them all off at once. Isn't it against the code of Konoha, to put civilians in danger?" Naruto asked, feeling a bit smug about himself. Not that he wanted to harm the civilians, but the thing he wanted less was to get caught.
Anko swung out her arm with a shout, "You're bluffing!" She felt like she had to believe that. Naruto had been nice, polite, and a good kid. Would he really endanger civilians? But then again, he had been trained by Orochimaru, the name itself causing her to feel a fit of rumbling anger in her gut.
With yet another sigh, which he felt like was becoming a habit, Naruto raised his hand and formed a half ram seal. And as he had explained not a minute earlier, a pattern of explosions run out throughout the entire area, shaking and rumbling throughout the ground beneath. Shouts and screams of pure terror ringing in their ears as clouds of poison rose to the sky, big purple thick clouds forming throughout the most populated areas of this small village. The aura of fear spreading like a wildfire.
Anko turned around on her feet and stared with horror at the skies, shaking her head with disbelief as she snapped her head back at him, the look of disgust and contempt written over her face so clear as if it had been painted on with ink, "You really are Orochimaru's apprentice..."
Naruto felt like frowning. This had nothing to do with being someone's student. It was all about being prepared. It was their fault for calling a bluff on him, he gave them an out. Their fault for not taking it. "So were you, but I don't think I need to remind you. I did give you a chance." He mumbled before pulling a glass of pills out of his shuriken pouch, displaying the small container between his index and middle finger for the two to witness.
"I'm not unreasonable, and I do care about innocent lives. There should be more than enough antidote in this bottle of pills to cure the village twice, the only thing in question is the time. This poison will become a problem in approximately ten minutes, and death will spread in around twenty. So what will it be, are you going to go after me, or do your duty?" Naruto spoke with narrowed eyes as he flipped the bottle into the air with his thumb, grabbing it with the palm of his hand before hurling it like hell in the opposite direction before he disappeared in a gust of wind.
Left behind were Anko and Jiraiya that in a hurry got to the glass of pills, and distributed it out among the clones to get it around the village as fast as possible. As they were doing all of this, the look in Anko's eyes truly questioned her fellow Konoha-nin about why it seemed like the Sannin hadn't even tried to stop him.
In a room lit only by a couple of candles, a man stood with his hands holding a test tube filled with red liquid, a smirk on his face as he tilted the little glass container up and down before his eyes. As the probable effect didn't happen, a frown spread across his face with a sigh escaping his pale face. Placing the test tube down in a rack again, he picked up his pen and noted the experiment to be yet another fail.
As he stood grumbling with his own thoughts, a knock on the door behind him caused him to turn his head with a calm tone asking, "What is it?" The door opened open to reveal a man crouching down in a kneeling position, his head down in respect.
"Orochimaru-sama, Naruto-sama has arrived and wishes to see you. Shall I bring him over?" The man asked in a polite, and respectful tone.
Orochimaru couldn't but smile as he nodded, "My, Naruto-kun is quite early. Yes, let's not keep him waiting, bring him to me. We have much to discuss." The pale sannin instructed, and the humble servant nodded and disappeared from his sight the moment after.
It didn't take long for the man to return, the door opening with a loud creaking spreading throughout the room, revealing the blond Uzumaki who entered the room to see his sensei who chuckled slightly. "I knew you were punctual, but you are almost an entire day early. And here I would have thought you'd have taken a detour as usual. Any reason for your early arrival, not that I'm complaining. The quicker we can get to work, the better."
Naruto couldn't help but laugh as he leaned against the wall with a small smirk, "I did, but I was just so fortunate to run into Jiraiya and Anko, quite an interesting meeting." Naruto mused to himself while scratching his chin.
Orochimaru raised a brow at that, "And you escaped?"
"Why do you sound so surprised, you trained me after all. It was true, what you said, that the ethical bounds on Konoha make it quite easy to slither away." Naruto shrugged, it had been quite a simple affair. He hadn't even needed to raise a kunai to get out of the sticky situation.
The sannin couldn't help but feel a surge of pride, his student had gotten quite good. And was still continuing to grow with leaps and bounds at this rate."I suppose you did have a good teacher, but I can't take all the credit. And here you are again with the snake puns, aren't they getting old yet?"
"And here I thought you loved snakes so much, feels fitting to throw in a mental jab once in a while." Naruto retorted as he walked over to the table where all the items related to their current project were located, he couldn't stop himself from bringing the test tube with the red liquid up from the rack, sighing as he placed it down again.
Orochimaru looked at Naruto inspecting their little experiment, and sighed, "Yet another failure, the components don't seem like they want to combine, instead they remain separate. I thought that if I had separated the samples from the first and second test subject, then they would be able to mix, but as you can see we lack the result."
Naruto nodded and moved away from the table, "Yeah, the color was supposed to be black or close to it if I recall correctly. Perhaps a very dark purple. The exposure to oxygen should, under normal circumstances, put the chain reaction into action, and yet it seems like it… dies out? If that makes sense."
His sensei gave a slight nod of his head as he inspected the rest of the samples they had taken, "Indeed, the problem is that they die out before they can even combine. If the mixture died out after combining, then we would at least have made some progress. So far, we have not. Perhaps we are going about this the wrong way."
The blond cupped his chin and looked over the cold test tubes, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Maybe we need to get warm samples. Hear me out, these tests were from a deceased, correct? Maybe if we took samples from a live subject, then the mixtures wouldn't reject each other."
"Qualities from a live subject may have some effect on the binding that we wish to achieve, I'll see to that we get some warm samples then. I, however, have another job for you. We'll continue this when you get back, but I need you to do something first. I had first planned on this happening tomorrow, but the sooner we can get this nuisance out of the way, the better." Orochimaru smirked with his arms crossed over his chest.
Naruto looked curiously at his teacher and moved around the table to stand in front of the man who had been teaching him how to get strong for the past five years, "What do you need me to do, and where?" No hint of hesitation in his voice, he had done a lot of detours for Orochimaru ever since he arrived, each successful one he had done without any complaint seemed to strengthen the man's trust in him.
'A team that trusts are a team that triumphs after all.' Naruto duly noted to himself in his head.
The pale sannin walked up to his desk in the room and pulled open a drawer, where he extracted a small folder. Turning around, he extended the folder toward Naruto, which the blond accepted and opened to review the contents within. "There's a Konoha Shinobi that is becoming a slight problem for us, his name is Mizuki. He managed to make contact with one of the men we have within Konoha and seemed to want to join us."
"Why is that a problem, I thought we could always use some people to do the work we don't want to. At the very least we could use him as a door stopper." Naruto joked, making Orochimaru chuckle out of amusement. Always the jokester, despite how much he had grown, there were still some very unique Uzumaki traits within Naruto.
With a shake of his head, Orochimaru pointed at a very specific picture of a scroll within the folder, "Mizuki promised, in exchange for joining us, that he would get this for us. The first few weeks were fine, he seemed to able to handle it, but things have changed the last couple of days. The fool got sloppy, and the higherups in Konoha are getting suspicious of his behavior."
"So, he'll bring us the forbidden scrolls of seals. I see, so this could blow back on us. I imagine that if he is indeed that bad at his profession, he'd drag them right here to our doorstep." Naruto noted and closed the folder.
Nodding his head in confirmation, Orochimaru took back the folder and placed it back into the drawer, "I have no room for such pathetic manpower, I doubt he could even classify as a test tube cleaner. I want you to eliminate this threat, I would normally say that cutting out his tongue would surface, but given that Konoha houses the Yamanaka clan, I doubt it'd have any effect."
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged, "So he has to die then, I'll take care of it."
Orochimaru couldn't stop smirking at that, out of all the candidates he had for an apprentice, he had probably picked the most efficient one. There were no regrets about that choice. "It would certainly be in our favor if he did, and we definitely won't be able to complain if he already had the scroll. There will be tons of useful information in there to help us with our experiments, and help you get what you need to achieve your goal."
The blond Uzumaki required no further explanation, "I'll see to that's it's done, and I have just the plan for how this should play out. If I'm lucky, I won't even have to enter the place to eliminate him."
The snake sannin shook his head with a knowing look, "Knowing you, you'll probably enter that place regardless. I assume you're going to check up on her? My sources tell me that her class graduated, and she should have passed all the tests and become a Kunoichi."
Without saying another word, Naruto confirmed Orochimaru's suspicion with a mere nod. After all, he was in the area, so why not see what see his not so little baby sister was up to?
So, that wraps up today's chapter. What do you guys think?
If you have a few more seconds, then I got a couple of questions from today's chapter.
Do you think Naruto has the Kyuubi or part of it?
What is Naruto's goal? Why did he join Orochimaru?
What do y'all think of Orochimaru? Do you think he is as bad or as evil as he is perceived throughout most of the series?
How much do you think Anko hates him for it? Especially since it's revealed that in this alternative universe, they were teammates at some point.