A/N: My gods, I'm getting so many reviews. Wow. Thank you, thank you so much! Special thanks to the C2 that's added this fic, Proof of Research. And now chapter three, where a couple of fairly familiar characters will be introduced...

Disclaimer: Previous disclaimers apply. The paraphrased quote below is from transsexual . org

Chapter III

Beads and Lace and Everything Nice

I was desperate for cute toys, but I became far too frightened to even ask anymore. But one toy was my dreams come true. This was too much for my little girl self to help. It obsessed me like Jihad to a Muslim. – Jennifer Diane Reitz

Almost all children in Konoha were latchkey kids by the time they were three. If both parents were ninja, they couldn't be expected to stay home and take care of the children, so as soon the children were old enough to walk and make simple meals, they were expected to care for themselves while their parents were away. Besides, it was generally accepted that if these children were to be killers before they'd hit puberty, they could take care of themselves at a younger age.

Orochimaru's earliest memory was of the first time he'd been left home alone, just before his third birthday. He had panicked and searched the house dozens of times, looking for his parents for almost three hours before falling asleep on the kitchen floor. Since then, his mother had stored a blanket and pillow on the bottom shelf of the pantry, just in case.

Now he had been staying home alone nearly every day for almost a year and a half, and was much calmer about the whole deal. His father had given him a key so he could leave the house if he wanted, on a simple white string. The string had gotten frayed and broken within a month, and Orochimaru had replaced it with green yarn.

Since then, whenever he was bored, he went looking for something new to hang his key on. He currently had it on a cord made of a pink ribbon, a purple one, and several strands of rainbow yarn – he'd braided the cord together himself. However, a couple of days ago he'd seen several girls with homemade bracelets, made with yarn and beads, and Orochimaru thought they were the prettiest things he'd ever seen in his life.

Today, he was looking for beads.

His parents got up around six for breakfast, and left cereal out for Orochimaru to feed himself before they left at seven. Orochimaru woke up at eight as usual, ignored the cereal, and carefully scaled the pantry shelves to get at the waffle syrup on the top. He couldn't reach the waffles in the freezer without knocking something over so he just had syrup on toast. This was his typical breakfast, with the untouched cereal set outside for the neighborhood cats to eat before his parents came home. After all, ninja were supposed to be able to provide for themselves.

With his breakfast finished, Orochimaru left the house, locking the door behind him with his key on its cord of ribbons and yarn. He put the key and cord on like a necklace – he'd always wanted a necklace – before running down the street to head for the shopping district. Hopefully he could find a nice shopkeeper who'd be willing to give him a few things for free. That was how he'd gotten his pink ribbon, several weeks ago.

It was late summer, almost time for school to start. Not that Orochimaru had to worry about that for another year. But soon all the kids on the street wouldn't be there for most of the day while they were in class, which meant Orochimaru would have the village to himself with the other children too young for school.

For a four-year-old, Orochimaru knew the stores fairly well. He could tell which ones sold food, clothes, weapons, and other things, and when he was looking for something in particular he could judge fairly well by looking in the windows whether or not the store had what he wanted.

He soon found a cloth store, one where he'd taken some scraps of yarn in the past, and wondered if maybe they'd have some beads there too. He walked inside and wandered near the walls, looking at the items for sale. He couldn't tell what most of the items were, but knew most of them were cloth, and the rest were random pointy things – needles and such.

Finally he located a wall covered in little containers of beads against the back wall. Excited, Orochimaru ran up and surveyed the selection. There were all sorts of beads on the wall – flower-shaped, star shaped, some with little engravings or paintings, hundreds of different colors and sparkles or shines or glitter... Orochimaru couldn't pay for any of them, of course, but he could take any that weren't packaged.

He crouched down on the ground, peering around to see if there were any spilled beads on the ground. Those, as far as he was concerned, were free to take. But whoever worked here must have been fanatically clean, because the only beads Orochimaru found were ugly square orange beads. He absolutely hated the color orange.

Disappointed, Orochimaru stood up and headed for the door. Maybe he could find another store with beads in it. He fingered the beadless braiding on his cord and sighed.

As he was heading out the door, someone grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, you. Got a minute?"

Orochimaru jumped and turned to face the person speaking. "What?"

It was a kid about his age, with white hair and red marks coming down from his eyes. "Look, I seriously need some help," he said. "Can you..." He suddenly stopped, frowning as he looked at Orochimaru. "Hey, are you a boy or a girl?"

Orochimaru blinked. "Excuse me?"

The kid studied him closely, leaning into his face. Orochimaru leaned back. "You've got a kimono and a necklace and your face looks kinda girly," he said. "But it's kinda boyish too, and you've got really short hair."

Self-consciously, Orochimaru reached up to touch his hair. "It's usually a lot longer," he said. Now it wasn't even the length of his thumb. He felt like someone had hacked it off with a kunai, which was pretty close to the truth.

"So you're a girl?" the kid asked. He looked again at Orochimaru's clothes. "But your kimono's got closed sleeves. That's a boy kimono."

Rather than answer the kid's question, he decided it would be best to introduce himself. He didn't want to lie but he didn't like the truth. "I'm Yashagoro Orochimaru."

The kid nodded decisively, as if that cleared it up. "I'm Goketsu Jiraiya. Can you help me?"

"Help you what?" Orochimaru asked, crossing his arms. The other kids usually thought he was weird and avoided him. Why didn't Jiraiya?

"I need to take some photos," Jiraiya pulled out a disposable camera, "but they kicked me out of the store. Can you go in and take them for me?"

Orochimaru frowned. If they'd kicked Jiraiya out, wouldn't they kick him out too? "Why should I?"

"Uh..." Jiraiya searched his pockets, and then pulled out several crumpled pieces of paper. "Here. My sis gave these to me. Does that work?"

Orochimaru took the papers. They were six hundred-ryou bills. Money. He could buy beads with them. Excitement rose in him. "Okay," Orochimaru said, pocketing the money.

"Thanks!" Jiraiya said. He suddenly grabbed Orochimaru's shoulder, startling him, and said, "You have no idea how much you're helping me. Okay, take the camera and go to the cashier in the back – you know where that is?"

"Yeah," Orochimaru said.

"Great! Get some photos of the guy working there. My sister sent me to take some, but I got caught," Jiraiya said. "She said he's 'damn sexy' or something like that. What does that mean?"

Orochimaru shrugged the way he'd seen other boys shrug. He had no clue.

"Ah, whatever. Just get those photos." He handed the camera to Orochimaru and shoved him back into the store with a "Good luck!"

Orochimaru wondered why boys always pushed each other around. With a sigh, he headed to the back of the store.

He decided that he should buy his beads first, before taking the photos. That way, if he were kicked out he'd already have his prize. So he went to make the hard decision of which beads to buy.

As far as he could figure, since he had six bills, he could buy six packages of beads. That was how money worked, after all. He looked over the selection twice, then chose one of metal beads with the Konoha symbol, one of simple pink hearts, one of multicolored star-shaped beads, one of sparkling purple beads, went back to get another package of pink hearts, and then was stuck for what his sixth package should be.

He looked all the way up the rack, craning his head back to see. Orochimaru doubted that he'd actually see something he wanted...

His gaze caught on a flash of silver, and he was transfixed. He stood on his toes to see better. Just barely within the reach of his fingers was a small bag, containing only five or six beads; each one was in a thin crescent shape, with a ring set off-center inside each crescent. Orochimaru had never seen prettier beads in his life. He managed to pull them off their hook and study them closer. They didn't even look like plastic. The beads were probably made out of some cheap metal, but to Orochimaru's eyes they were pure silver.

Happily, Orochimaru took his six packages of beads and 600 ryou to the cashier. Remembering his mission, he took out his disposable camera, scrolling the wheel so he'd be ready to take a photo as soon as the opportunity arose.

The cashier was probably seventeen or eighteen years old, with deep blue shoulder-length hair. "Is this all?" he asked, taking the six packages that Orochimaru had placed in front of him.

"Yes sir," Orochimaru said. He put the 600 ryou down as the cashier checked the prices of the beads. The prices went by on the cash register – 300, 300, 600, 400, 300, 1200. Orochimaru watched calmly. He had six bills and had taken six packages, so surely that would cover the price.

The cashier looked at the price, then at Orochimaru's money. "I'm sorry, you can't afford all this," he said.

Apparently, Orochimaru thought, this guy wasn't very good at math.

"You can put some back and get one or two packages," he suggested. "You can afford any of them except..." he singled out the package of silver beads Orochimaru had chosen last, the ones worth 1200 ryou, "... this one."

That one?! Out of all them, the only one this guy wouldn't give him was the one he wanted the most? How typical. The cashier apparently noticed the look of consternation on Orochimaru's face, because he laughed.

That, Orochimaru thought, would make a wonderful picture. He lifted his camera and snapped a photograph. The flash went off, momentarily blinding the cashier. Orochimaru took the opportunity to grab his six packages and run, leaving the 600 ryou behind. He needed to pay, after all.

"You brat! Hey! You're with that white-haired kid, aren't you?" The cashier vaulted over the counter between him and Orochimaru – crap, he was a ninja – and chased him, furious. "Give me that camera!"

He was doomed if the cashier caught him. So in mid-run, Orochimaru pivoted around and snapped another picture, with the flash going off again. This wasn't enough to slow down the cashier for more than an instant, so he tore open one of his packages of pink beads and spilled them on the floor. The cashier slipped, fell, and Orochimaru escaped the shop.

He ran all the way across the street before he figured he was safe. He was still trying to catch his breath when Jiraiya came up. "Did you get them?"

Orochimaru nodded, handing Jiraiya the camera. He cheered. "You're awesome! Hey, if you ever need anything, just let me know! I owe you one."

"Is that so? What did you convince him to do, Jiraiya-kun?"

Orochimaru and Jiraiya looked up at the man standing over them, who was smiling amusedly. He looked at Orochimaru. "Do you have anything to say, Orochimaru-kun?"

He gaped at the man. He'd never seen him before in his life.

"Hi, Sarutobi-san," Jiraiya said innocently. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you two the same," Sarutobi said. He looked at Orochimaru, who hid his beads behind his back. His father would never let him have the beads, Orochimaru realized. What if this man told him about them?

"Did you pay for those, Orochimaru-kun?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Orochimaru said softly. He'd been cheated, too. He'd left 600 ryou and spilled a bag, so he'd only got five packages. How rude.

"We're just taking some pictures," Jiraiya said. "Inside there." He pointed at the cloth store.

Sarutobi sighed. "Does your sister have another crush?" he asked Jiraiya.

"Maybe?"

"I swear," Sarutobi muttered. "I've never met a girl who likes boys as much as that Goketsu Kokona does..."

"She calls herself a connoisseur of the masculine physique," Jiraiya informed Orochimaru proudly. Orochimaru didn't know what that meant and suspected Jiraiya didn't either, but it certainly sounded impressive.

"Ask Kokona-chan to go easy on whomever she's after right now," Sarutobi told Jiraiya, then turned to Orochimaru. "Tell Shinja-san I said hello, would you?"

Orochimaru nodded.

Sarutobi said a farewell to them both, with an extra admonishment for Jiraiya to give to his sister, and walked off with his hands clasped behind his back.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "He's only in his twenties but he acts like he's someone's granddad," he sneered. "That's what nee-san says. She doesn't know what the First and Second are thinking, choosing him as a successor."

Orochimaru had thought Sarutobi was nice, so he didn't respond. He didn't want to get in a fight. "Thank you for the beads," he said instead.

"The what?" Jiraiya looked at the beads Orochimaru was holding. "Is that what you bought?"

Orochimaru dropped his gaze from Jiraiya's eyes. He couldn't let someone else know that he wanted the beads. He somehow knew that it was wrong.

Being not particularly knowledgeable in the finer points of social interaction, Orochimaru removed himself from the situation in the best way he could think of; he turned around and ran as fast as he could, clutching his beads to his chest.

By the time Dakatsu got home (most of the time Shinja made it home first, but not today), Orochimaru was quite sure he had the best cord in the world for his key. He'd unbraided it, added on all the beads, re-braided it, put the key back on, and had just enough time to admire it before he put it away. It was always risky to have pretty things around his father, so he figured it was safest to hide it.

His silver beads, the ones shaped like crescent moons with a ring on them, he didn't leave out in the open. Orochimaru hid them, the package still unopened, in the best hiding place he could think of: in the pocket of some old baby clothes in his closet that no one would touch. He had just finished hiding them when he heard the front door open, and ran out into the living room as if he'd been there all along when his father came in. "Hi," he said.

"Hello, Orochimaru." Dakatsu was carrying a suspicious-looking package. Big, brown, with little holes in the sides. Orochimaru eyed it apprehensively, especially when it started to move. "I got a present for you on the way home. To make up for your doll."

Poor Iwazaru-san. He hoped his monkey was happy, wherever he'd gone. "Is it another doll?" he asked.

"No, of course not," Dakatsu said, setting the box on the ground.

"Good," Orochimaru said. He didn't want anything to replace Iwazaru-san; it would be disrespectful.

His father gave him an approving look, and said, "I got it from the pet shop. I think it's a step up from a doll. Maybe you'll mature a bit, taking care of this."

The box rattled, and Orochimaru took a step back, eyes wide. "Daddy?"

"It's fine. This is a Yashagoro tradition," Dakatsu said. He crouched down, pulled out a kunai, and started cutting through the tape on the box. "Now, we'll get you a glass terrarium to keep it in, but you're going to get used to holding it, as well. We can't let you be scared of your own pet. Understand?"

Orochimaru nodded, watching the box apprehensively.

Dakatsu opened the lid, and the thing inside hissed. Orochimaru took a careful step forward and peeked in.

"It's a Zimuguri, a burrowing ratsnake," Dakatsu explained. "Three feet long, and male. The largest they had."

The snake was a deep red, a burgundy, with dark brown stripes the color of charcoal smears. It was twisted around itself, writhing around in a large coil. For a long moment, Orochimaru couldn't see its head; finally, it poked out from beneath its coils, focused on him with beady black eyes, and flicked its tongue out.

"We'll see if we can't toughen you up yet, eh?" Dakatsu chuckled. "I think we can eventually get you to handle a... snake..."

Orochimaru realized later he must have given his father quite a shock, but he didn't care at the time. He stuck his arm into the box to poke his hand between the snake's coils. At first it pulled away from him, but then it coiled around his hand and up his wrist.

"Do you like it?" his father asked, astonishment on his voice.

Orochimaru nodded enthusiastically. He reached in to try to pull the snake out with his loose hand and, not having much success, simply pushed the box onto its side and sat down so his snake could crawl out and onto his lap. "I like him," he said fervently. He loved him.

"Well." Pleasant surprise tinged his tone. "I'm proud of you, son. You're growing up fast."

He nodded absently, distracted by the snake on his lap. He held his free hand in front of the snake's face, and the snake flicked his tongue out to taste Orochimaru's fingertips, and then looked up at him with those little beady black eyes again. He named his snake Zimu-san, and decided it was the most adorable thing he'd ever seen in his life.

He didn't tell his father that, though. When his father asked what he was going to do with Zimu-san, Orochimaru lied and said he was going to train him to attack rats. But in secret, Zimu-san had just become the bodyguard and closest confidant to the princess of the Hidden Spider Village and the Crocodile Village warlord's kidnapped bride, Orochimaru-hime.