灯光
Shit, this is bad. It's wrong to sit around all day. Konoha needs a hero. I'm the only person in this village to know the Flying Thunder God Technique. I'm wasting my time here, when people are dying.
Minato watched a caretaker lead in another grouping of new toddlers, and felt a stab of guilt. There won't be this many new orphans if I could just enter and end the war…
And, the rooms were getting stuffy and the food was decreasing in portions and quality.
Now, Minato wasn't the skinniest or wimpiest boy in the orphanage anymore—but that's a bad thing considering he hasn't fattened up at all. It was the other kids that were in bad conditions.
"Gah! What am I still doing here?!" Minato mumbled in frustration as he walked through the hallways of the church-like orphanage. Faintly, he wondered where all the funding came from. This place looked like private property, and from his memories of being Hokage, there was no money being allotted to this particular place. He could say this for certain because he meticulously revised everything post-war, in his memories of the future.
And with so many orphans…Who's paying for all this?!
Wait no…only an organization can afford it…Is it ROOT?!
Nah, I'm jumping to conclusions, must be a wealthy civilian or shinobi…
Gah! I don't care! I'm getting out of here to end everything! This place stinks!
It felt weird to have his childish impulses mix with his aged wisdom, must've been a side-effect of his dream…but he'd rather have this than complete ignorance.
He had a duty as the future Yondaime, after all.
And so, Minato snuck out the front door, and no one bothered to stop him. Five years old was technically old enough to become a shinobi, albeit on the younger side. Five years old, with hands that could grip a weapon, and stab…
Minato frowned. It's not about how old I am; they just don't care, they can't afford to. One less mouth to feed, good for them.
All the more reason to end the war, become the Hokage, and fix every flaw in this shinobi system and make peace; a task he'd entrusted to his son in his memories of the future. But it wouldn't hurt to start early, now, would it?
Minato had his pride. He wasn't going to give up just because he failed to find the answer in his memories/dream, or because his future son had a better chance than he. He had another shot, and he wouldn't be worthy of his moniker Yellow Flash if he didn't utilize it.
灯光
Minato stood on the street across the front pouch of Jiraiya's apartment building. He'd been here before, in his 'dream'; it was a boarding house. No bathroom, no kitchen, just a single tiny bedroom to be considered a full-time home for his Sensei to live in. Then again, Jiraiya often resided in Mount Myoboku with his Toads spoiling him. The Pervert Sage hardly touched this place within Konoha.
Which was why, there was no one home, and Minato couldn't help but facepalm. Why did I come here in the first place? He's probably out on another infiltration mission! How do I get to Jiraiya-sensei now?! I don't know where he is and I can't summon any toads to contact him because he's still hogging the contract to himself!
"Kukuku~"
Snapped out of his thoughts by a soft, creepy chuckling behind him, Minato whirled around to see legs. Right, I'm a 5-year-shorty. I'll have to get used to this, he mused as he looked up.
Peering down at him, was none other than Orochimaru himself, in all his jounin-vest glory.
"AGCH!" Minato yelped as he fell flat on his butt. Nonono what now!?
"Scared, are we?" Orochimaru's lips curled back in a sneer. "A little yellow bird has run away from its mother's nest before learning how to fly."
Minato gulped, his face paling, his brain going on overdrive. This man's insane- He's done illegal human experiments and betrayed Jiraiya-sensei and Konoha! What's he going to do to me?! Or better yet, what can I do to defend myself?
...Really now? He's the Yellow Flash, chosen over Orochimaru for Hokage. Hah. I have plenty of ways to defend myself, so that's not a problem. More importantly, this man is Jiraiya's teammate! He's my only lead to get to Sensei!
Minato stopped shaking, (he was trembling?) and smiled charismatically. What would his son say in this situation? His soft smile split into a full-grin. "Yo!"
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. He had a predilection to scaring little boys (and older shinobi) shitless, but apparently the yellow duckling has developed an immunity from this brief encounter.
"I'm Minato Namikaze, and I live at..." Minato tried to remember the name of the orphanage but failed. "...an orphanage. I'm tired of that place so I ran away." Lamest excuse I ever made. "I need a place to stay, can I use yours?" It was an incredibly absurd request, but Minato had no fears of Orochimaru conducting experiments on his body. If worse came to worse, he could just activate Hiraishin and vanish outta there. Plus, he was bound to encounter Jiraiya if he stuck close to the Snake creep.
Orochimaru's jaw dropped, his golden-green eyes wide. Unbelievable. Bigger idiot than Jiraiya. Children ran away crying, it was survival instinct; but this kid...must be born a knucklehead. But moments earlier, there had been a flash of fear in those cerulean eyes, so the child wasn't completely desensitized. Orochimaru wondered what made this child suddenly relabel him as not-a-threat. Only Jiraiya and Tsunade had ever done that, because they had to as teammates, and they were precariously arrogant. Orochimaru was intrigued. It must be fate.
He smiled, his tongue flicking out like a snake's, inhaling the child's scent through reptilian ninjutsu. Traces of paper and crayons, diapers, oatmeal, sweat, plastic, leather, soap, cotton, and powder. There was no blood. Not a shinobi spy.
The boy didn't even flinch at the weird elongated tongue, he only grinned and held out his hand. There was an open wound, but no blood was coming out. Most likely he'd injured his hand, and healed by an amateur medical ninja with absurd chakra control to stop the bleeding but the stupidity to not close the wound. Wounds like that were common in war. A ninja gets stabbed, an iryo-nin stops the bleeding with the bare minimum of chakra before moving on to other ninjas in a rush, and the ninja is left with a gaping wound, an open scar. As Orochimaru's thoughts wandered onto the technicalities of medical ninjutsu, Minato started to grow impatient. He grabbed Orochimaru's hand and squeezed.
Shocked out of his thoughts, he stared down at the child in amazement. It's..weird. He'd always been isolated and he hadn't had friendly body contact with others- shinobi don't trust each other. This kid was no shinobi, but that would make him all the more weak to his thin layer of chronic killing intent. By reflex, he curled his fingers around the child's, much like a bewildered parent. What game are you playing, duckling?
"Let's go home." Minato gave him his best Hokage-smile and pulled him into a faster walk.
"It's the other way." Orochimaru deadpanned.
"Hahaaha, right!" As Minato was dragged off the opposite direction, he decided to ease some suspicions before he accidentally blurted out the man's name without having learned it. "Umm, adult-san, what's your name?"
"Orochimaru..." With a twisted smile, the Snake Sannin drawled sinisterly. "But you may call me 'father.'"
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