"You're clanless," says the boy. "You can't be a ninja without a clan."
The hegemon of Konoha begs otherwise, but he will play fair. "I am a Leaf-nin," Orochimaru informs them. "That is my clan."
"Oh yeah? Where's your headband?" the girl on the left interrupts. "Didn't Hiruzen-sensei give you lines yesterday? Some shinobi you are. Like picking up trash that much?"
Orochimaru brushes his hair behind his ear. The group looks up with angry eyes, all of their headbands glinting. He sits down. They scoot back.
"Hey! Ninjas only!"
"What the hell? Is he even listening?"
"Fuck off, Oro," an older girl chimes in. "You know the rules. Ninjas only."
Orochimaru stops untying the square of fabric holding his lunch. He folds his hands back into his lap, leans forward, and harshly enunciates, "I. Don't. Care."
He doesn't look up when they leave. They don't matter. He eats lunch by himself.
So sought after for their skins that the skin itself was the first to flee, abandoning their bodies and tumbling down, down, down into the sea.
Sometimes when he dreams about the ocean it feels like home. Fathomless darkness descending in all directions. Giants drifting through a world of silent snowfall. Sometimes they are nightmares.
Prince of Throats and Swallows
King of the Whale Fall
Every morning he wakes up with his head on the floor and his neck stretched out.
They came from the highest peaks of snow country, shapeshifting women who preyed on the people of Tenkai village. The locals tell stories about the rock piles found on mountain trails. They say if you hear a woman's voice during a blizzard, you're being stalked by a Nodo. When you hold your breath, she can't find you.
"Sensei," Orochimaru asks one afternoon, "where did I come from?"
Sensei takes an entire breath before answering with a tiny smile. "That is a very good question."
"Daughter of Nodo, have mercy on me! Swallow your spit if you must! My body is all I have left!"
"Yer peoples're DEAD! Skinneded and ates 'em ALL up!"
". . . How much of this world have you actually seen, Orochimaru?"