Other Side of Impossibility: BAD END II – OROCHIMARU
Guys, guys, I'm cackling. Your responses to Oro-chan-san's suffering are amazing; they always make me smile or laugh. Don't worry, there are more sufferings stuffed in this chapter. There are some points in this chapter that DEFINITELY WILL appear in future EI chapters, whether happening with more thorough description or mere mention within the future chapters, but I'm warning you that this chapter is VERY close to EI canon.
Very close, because I haven't decided yet about Rin's fate in EI.
I'm not answering questions here, because I answer questions on EI. However, let's mention some of my favorite comments:
"And that kids, it's why Oro-chan-san prefer little boys over girls." – Warlord of Chaos
"Rin just made it sound like Danzo is trying to get recruit them for a prostitution ring." – OneWhoReadsTooMuch
"FUCK DANZO WITH A SPIKY CACTUS." – MoonlitMelody
"It's official, I ship Inomaru and Gai. They would be cute together." – X Mika-Chan X
Also, for Lalathefox, I am keeping your fantastic idea of Canon Kakashi meeting with EI Kakashi! My brain is already flooding with ideas. Can you imagine the possibilities?! The many switches than can happen?! Like, Sasuke kills Orochimaru, and suddenly the one who comes back alive is EI Orochimaru, who knows nothing about him giving a hickey to an Uchiha, gets dragged into the Fourth Great Ninja World War and Oro-chan-san is PISSED. 'Fuck off. No. I am not helping. This world can burn for all I care. Why the fuck is the cheesecake Uchiha blabbing about genjutsu nonsense? And here I thought I was the creepy one.'
Or Canon Obito meeting EI Obitobi… Canon Kakashi meeting EI Rin… Oooooh boy, it's going to be a clusterfuck. I'll write this idea up sometime later, I guess.
Anyway, warning:
BECAUSE THIS IS MOSTLY FROM OROCHIMARU'S POINT OF VIEW, THIS CHAPTER MAY BE SEEN AS JIRAIYA, TSUNADE, AND HIRUZEN BASHING. HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS OROCHIMARU'S OWN THOUGHTS AND IS VERY MUCH BIASED. I DON'T WANT ANY OF YOU TO ACCUSE ME OF DOING CHARACTER BASHING. I DON'T LIKE CHARACTER BASHING; I'M JUST SHOWING WHAT OROCHIMARU THINKS OF THEM, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
(Other) Warnings: feels, angst, fluff, being Kakashi is suffering, Orochimaru stares at Fate and Death in the eyes and gives them a very not pleasant 'fuck you', complete with his middle fingers.
Humans are fragile creatures.
They get broken easily, they disappear easily.
One moment, and when they're dead, they're nothing.
Nothing but a pile of meat.
Nothing but a bunch of skeletons.
Nothing but ashes on the ground.
Nothing.
("Mom?" A whisper to the wind, the small pale white hands clutching the dirtied cream colored kimono. The side of his shoulder is burnt, and it hurts, it stings, but still he forces himself to take a step forward. One step, two steps, three steps. "Dad?"
He stumbles. He whimpers. There's an unrecognizable lump of burnt flesh in front of him, giving off a disgusting smell. His eyes wander to the surroundings, to the smell of burning flesh and wood, to the pools and splatters of blood decorating the ruins of what once he calls as his home.
His home is not the only one crushed under the attack, too.
He hears wailings, screams, pleads.
"Mom?" He tries again, "Dad?"
No answer.
Someone is screaming, it's not his parents.
Panic settles itself on his chest and he heaves, his breaths coming in short and fast, the boy's eerie yellow eyes looking around frantically.
"Mom? Dad? Where are you?"
He does not dare to shout.
He hears cries, screams, pleads…
He pays them no heed.
All he can think of is that it's not his parents' voice, not his parents, not his parents, not his parents—
His eyes settle once again on the corpse in front of him.
Who is that?
"…Mom?"
Silence.
There's a kid crying. He realizes belatedly that it's him.
He tries again.
"…Dad?"
The corpse doesn't answer.
He falls to his knees, his eyes simply wandering between the lump of flesh in front of him, the other one near his right, another a few meters behind the right one, and another on his left.
He doesn't know which one is his parents'.
One of them must be his parents—
One of them must be—
A sob bubbles out of the boy's mouth, and the thought of his parents as nothing but mere burnt flesh is enough to make him vomit.)
Humans…
Are fragile.
They die easily,
And they break easily.
He's been broken already, once upon a time, nothing but a mere large crack in his heart.
Luckily, cracks are easy to mend if done accordingly.
Jiraiya is the first to mend him, the obnoxious brat and his laughter, his idiocy and sometimes surprising acts of genius, especially in terms of seals.
They butt heads all the time, but Jiraiya is refreshing when he wants to be.
And then Tsunade comes, the Mother Hen of all Mother Hens, or so Orochimaru thinks at the time, because she fusses over him and takes care of him and worries for him even if she's very scary and… It's nice.
Then Hiruzen-sensei comes and teaches him and cares for him as if he's his own son and it's…
It feels really good.
It feels like heaven, like the first sip of a high quality honey, sending pleasure and contentment throughout his very beings.
His life is fine. He likes to think there are no cracks anymore. He's a shinobi of Konoha, a soldier to protect his new home.
He's happy.
Then of course it has to break all over again.
And it doesn't happen in a flash, like how it once was, with his parents. It happens slowly, but surely. The previously mended cracks are breaking once more under the force of agony seeping into his very own bones.
It starts with Nawaki.
He likes the boy, Tsunade's little brother, who snickers at him when Tsunade threatens to pummel him to the ground if he ever forgets to eat properly, who asks him to teach him about expert weapon handling, who dreams to be the Hokage.
That dream ends with a single blow,
And Nawaki is nothing but mere unrecognizable lump of burnt flesh.
("You don't have to bother." He says, unable to even take a single glance toward Tsunade.
"You can't even recognize his face anymore, all of it has been bur—"
"Orochi!")
Then Dan dies, another who wanted to be Hokage, another who Tsunade loves very dearly—
Tsunade cries, and cries, and cries—
Orochimaru watches through it all.
She cries, she mourns, she breaks.
He wants to help her like she's done to him, but what can a broken man do?
Soon enough, Tsunade changes.
Soon enough, she's nothing but mere husk of the fiery, terrifying woman she once was, nothing but mere shadow of the woman he once loved as his demonic mother hen teammate.
("I'm done," Tsunade says, her tone flat and eyes haunted, dark rings under her eyes.
"Hime?" Orochimaru beckons, but Tsunade simply shakes her head.
"I'm… I'm done. I'm done. Not this. No more."
"…What do you mean?"
"I can't, Oro," she whispers, lips trembling. "I can't."
Orochimaru doesn't let himself to demand, to force The Slug Princess, to insist that she can, he knows she can, dammit, she has to.
He doesn't.
Instead, he simply says, "I see."
Tsunade smiles at him, wry humor plastered on it. "You're as unsympathetic as usual."
That's not true.
Orochimaru stays silent.
"…I… I'll take Shizune when she becomes chuunin." Tsunade hesitates, licking her lips. "Until then, can you…?"
Don't let her die, is what she wants to ask him.
Orochimaru nods.
"Of course, hime."
"…Thank you, Oro."
"I believe you'll come back soon?"
"…Yeah. Sure.")
Tsunade leaves him.
And she doesn't come back.
She doesn't.
She fucking doesn't.
(She comes back, once, after Shizune becomes chuunin and Orochimaru sends her his snake to look for her to send that announcement.
She comes, takes Shizune, and leaves.
She doesn't look back.
She doesn't come back, not even for him.
'Liar,' his mind hisses. 'You're a liar'.
She's a liar.
Liar, liar, LIAR!
'…How could you?'
Tsunade leaves.
'Come back, Hime.'
She never comes back.)
And Jiraiya—
For all he says about friends and comrades and Will of Fire—It takes him three orphans to forget about Orochimaru altogether and Tsunade leaving to insist on his spy network and walk away from Konoha.
He comes by once in awhile, of course, but it's rare and far inbetween, and he's more busy with reporting what his network finds and researching, as well as spending time with his all-time genius Namikaze to twiddle thumbs over magnificent seal work to really bother much with Orochimaru.
His sensei is Hokage and he's more busy with the village than to care about Orochimaru's needs to ramble about his research discoveries.
They all moved on.
Tsunade moves away from her nightmares (Coward, his mind hisses, coward, liar, traitor! You abandoned me!), Jiraiya moves his interest toward things other than Orochimaru (I grew up with you, I fought in battles and war with you, how could you forget me so easily?), and Hiruzen is focusing on the betterment of the village than the one he likes to think as his son (If this is how you treat your sons, I am glad I am not your son).
They moved on, and they are still moving on.
Not him.
They're moving on without him.
(Are they leaving him behind, or is it him being unable to catch up?
Which one is wrong, which one is right?)
How is he supposed to move on from the people who mended his soul and made him feel whole?
How is he supposed to move on from his home?
Years pass, and his home is cold and lonely, whispers upon whispers around him, terrified looks and pointing toward his eerie appearance, disdain toward his accomplishment and apparent genius minds.
'Monster', they say. 'A demon.'
'How can the Hokage let him live?' they hiss, 'What if he kills us in his sleep!?'
'We should ask the Hokage to kill him,' another says, 'or detain him, at the very least.'
'He's very scary.'
'Creepy! Mom, who is that creepy white man?'
Hiruzen must have heard the rumors. He must've. He's Hokage, and shinobi gossips harder than rabid housewives. Orochimaru believes he must've heard about it.
But the rumors never stop, the mutterings never stop.
It's gotten increasingly uncomfortable.
It's uncomfortable to be uncomfortable in his own home, he thinks.
So he tells Hiruzen.
But—
But then—
"I'm sorry for what they say about you, my boy," Hiruzen says, smiling sadly.
That's it.
That's it?!
'If you're sorry, then why are you not doing anything about it?!' He wants to demand.
'Why are you not speaking against it?' He wants to ask.
'Why are you only sitting here, smiling at me? Do your job, you senile old man!'
Orochimaru stays silent.
He doesn't let himself dwell into it too long, but he in that moment, he sees Hiruzen as weak minded and easily swayed.
For not speaking up against it means that somewhere deep down, his sensei must have agreed with their words.
The words claiming he's a monster.
(He never quite realizes it until it's too late, until he's neck deep in his sins and his monstrosity, until he's drowning in his disdain and hate and bitterness, unable to crawl back out to the warmth his Konoha once provided for him.
He never really realizes it, but that time when Hiruzen clearly did nothing to defend him was the one event that started his gradual increase of his detachment against Konoha.)
A snake monster. There's no way a human can be that strong.
There's no way a human can be that cunning, that smart.
There's no way a human can be that apathetic.
Not human, not human.
Not human—
Not—
"Hey, rude ass man! Think before you speak!" The girl in front of him snaps, sending a glare toward the suddenly pale civilian seating five seats away from them. Perhaps he thinks that they won't hear, just like any other foolish civilians out there. They're ninja, they're basically trained to be cautious and in constant vigilance; it's not hard to find out that someone a few tables near them are talking about him. It doesn't help that the civilian mentioned purple markings, creepy eyes, too white skin to be normal human, as well.
"You can't just say someone is not human, did your mother even teach you manners? Even if you want to badmouth someone, you don't do that near the person who can hear you talking so loudly like a waterfall!" That's an exaggeration, he's sure. She can't possibly be that good with her sensing; she's not a tracker after all.
Still, it does its job, because the civilian man looks absolutely terrified.
The waitress standing near them looks terrified; perhaps she's waiting for a one-sided slaughter, done either by him or the girl who tries too hard to look like an angry kitten.
"Can you be quiet? I really, really want to eat this spicy chicken in peace," she says, then, and suddenly she doesn't look all that scary anymore—or so the waitress and civilian thinks, Orochimaru doesn't think she looks scary at all—although the scolding look never actually leaves her face.
Receiving no answer, she returns to her plate and eats her spicy chicken while occasionally muttering about possible herbs and spices used to cook said menu.
The civilian man quickly pays for his food and walks out of the restaurant, receiving no acknowledgement from either Orochimaru or the girl.
Nohara Rin glances up at him in the middle of her rapid mutterings of her cooking plan (what the hell is 'iga penyet'? He never hears of anything called like that before), and blinks owlishly.
"What's wrong, Oro-chan-san? Do you want more chicken?"
Orochimaru blinks and says with a straight face,
"You have chili stuck in your teeth."
The girl splutters.
"Oro-chan-san… You still drink black coffee?"
"One more comment about my drink preferences, and you're going to hope you're gulping down black coffee instead, Nohara. Do your training."
The girl lets out a quiet 'meep' and shuffles toward the corpse she's supposed to be working on for the day.
She quickly relaxes as her hands move in practiced motions, a far cry from the bumbling, confused child she was a week ago.
In fact, she's certainly getting better in stitching. He's almost sure that she is a natural when it comes to medical ninjutsu and chakra control, she will probably grow into a specialist like Tsunade (only there is never anyone like Tsunade, is a thought he tramples on rather quickly). Perhaps he can teach her how to remove organs properly in surgeries? Wait… Why is he even contemplating this? She's not his student. Dammit, Kishimoto, he ought to strangle that poison specialist for making him feel feelings, whatever this is—
A soft sound brings him back to reality, and he finds the girl humming.
No, she's singing.
…How comfortable must she be around him to be able to stitch and sing in his presence, in his lab?
He's pretty proud of his ability to intimidate his enemies (and he may have indulged in a rather sadistic glee when he succeeds in creeping people the fuck out. Hey, if they want a monster, he'll give them monster), but with the fear and wariness coming from people in his own home-
Although he can still see that even sometimes she's careful around him—wariness seeping into her form, careful eyes eyeing him for few seconds before she'll relax and be that bubbly girl once more—he can appreciate that she can be like… this.
Though he'll never tell her that.
And he doesn't really like that she keeps on bothering him, really.
(Kishimoto really is not teacher material, he thinks, because that damn poison specialist keeps on pushing Rin towards him! What in the seven hells?!)
"…Why are you singing?"
"Eh? Oh! Sorry, did I bother you, Oro-chan-san?"
"I never heard of that song before."
"Oh, uh… Well, I made it?"
"That sounded like a question."
"Er… It's called Zetsu Zetsu!"
"….I see."
"Yeah," she shrugs, "I don't like Zetsu but the title is Zetsu Zetsu and it's not Zetsu-ish like Zetsu so Zetsu Zetsu is an okay Zetsu Zetsu!"
"…." What even. "…Continue your work."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
This girl is infuriating.
But he can, sometimes, see parts of his team from her: Parts of his precious people making themselves known, providing Orochimaru warmth and mocking coldness all at once.
Jiraiya's obnoxiousness, his playful words, the harmless banters, the big grins, the perverted jokes and innuendos, the way both of their eyes light up when meet with something they deem interesting—
There are also Tsunade's interest in chakra control and medical ninjutsu, the temper that shows when she scolds infuriating civilians (and isn't that funny, to see her defending him, or more often than not, Hatake Sakumo), her soft smiles, her wicked grins, her motherly instincts sometimes kicking in—
Hiruzen's wisdom, Hiruzen's understanding and warmth, the way both of their eyes crinkle when they smile gently at him—
It's warm, because he misses this, he misses them.
It's cold, because he knows she's not them and she'll never be them.
(They've left,
But she hasn't.)
It's wrong to compare this… this child with his team, he knows. With the team that is no more, the team that is now different from what Orochimaru remembers and cherishes.
And yet,
There are parts of them in her, somehow.
Somehow.
And perhaps, he likes her better because of it.
You have to stop now, his mind whispers one day, when the girl fumbles over the poison he inflicted upon himself, mumbling about his apparent stupidity and nonexistent self-preservation.
It's been months and she hasn't left.
You have to stop.
It's been months and she stays.
Don't compare her to them.
After all, if she's that similar to them—
She'll leave you behind as well, no?
Orochimaru stops comparing her to them.
He knows Danzo has probably approached Nohara and invited her into his ROOT program, and while he raises an eyebrow at her apparent refusal in following the councilor, he doesn't know if he must laugh or feel disgusted at what she implies with her words.
It's very likely she doesn't know extensively about ROOT, because Danzo is not that stupid, no matter if he's overconfident in himself most of the times, she simply says that Danzo… invited her to come to him and she feels creeped out because apparently, she thinks of it in a rather… sexual manner and seems to be under the assumption that Danzo is a pedophile.
Scratch that, she thinks Danzo is a pedophile with some homosexual tendencies, because she thinks Danzo propositioned him.
She thinks Danzo, who came into his lab yesterday, asked him to have sex with him, and she thinks he's forced to do it.
Orochimaru can't help but blanch a little at that thought.
Even if Danzo offers many research equipment and subjects, he will not have sex with the old coot.
Thank God it's not sex Danzo wants from him. It's something far simpler, and frankly, it's not like it's something he can (and really want) to refuse either.
He gazes at the nervous—worried, she's worried—girl in front of him, and thinks that it's good that she refuses to join ROOT.
For something so bright to enter the darkness—
She's not fit in there.
(Just like how Jiraiy—
Stop.)
He's actually interested in the project.
Or at the very least, the possible result from it.
If he succeeds—and he will succeed—he will find an answer to one of the lingering questions that settled itself into his mind ever since his parents' imminent deaths.
But sometimes—
Sometimes—
("Oro-chan-san?")
He stops.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhale—
He continues.
He finds her, one day, sitting inside of the lab they seldom visit after the war has progressed even further and she moving to the frontlines, after he's gotten busy with his project and training Anko at the same time.
The only reason he knows she's there is because of the blue eyed white boa she affectionately named Nagisa, who takes it to inform him of her arrival. He's taken to leaving the boa inside of his old lab to keep guard of his papers and corpses inside, because orders to do the project or not, Hiruzen still gives him autopsy duties.
He opens the door to his lab, and finds Nohara Rin sitting on his office chair, Nagisa draped around her like a scarf. The long and admittedly rather fat white boa circles her neck and one of her arm, and yet she doesn't find any sort of horror from that sort of thing. In fact, she seems to find comfort from the blue eyed beauty, and Nagisa gleefully gives her the comfort she needs, nudging the kunoichi's cheek with his head.
The girl's eyes are red and puffy, the obvious telltale signs of crying, and there's a haunted look in her eyes.
(His mind shutters for awhile, because he knows that look—
Because Tsunade—
Stop.)
"Oro-chan-san," the girl greets him, smiling a small wry smile. "Were you on a break?"
"…Yes," he lies, eyeing the sniffling girl in front of him. He can't tell her that his hand had been fist deep inside a child's stomach mere minutes ago, after all. What will she think about him, if she knows?
("Oro-chan-san," the girl in his dream says, the tone different and cold and similar to the people who scorn him, sweet and regretful and it's mocking him.
"I'm sorry—"
Her voice overlaps with Hiruzen's, then, and Orochimaru shudders.
"—for what they say about you, my boy."
"—but you really are a monster.")
"Oh," Nohara sounds disappointed, wilting a little bit. Nagisa nudges her cheek in comfort. "I wanted to eat steak…"
Orochimaru raises an eyebrow. "Is that the only reason you barged into my lab?"
She smiles sheepishly, albeit a little strained. "Is it not allowed?"
He looks at her pointedly, and the girl deflates.
"Obito got crushed under a rock," she says.
…Well, then.
"I take it he's crippled?" Orochimaru inquiries. He crosses his arms and blinks when the girl's eyes darken as she scoffs.
"No," she spits rather bitterly, "We couldn't get him out and the cave collapsed."
Orochimaru has nothing to say on that.
Luckily, he doesn't have to say anything, because she simply curls into herself and lets out a half wail half sob.
"We left him there," she sobs, "we fucking left him there. We could've—I could've prevented it, I could've—! Kalau aku nggak kenapa-kenapa, kalau aku nggak—"
He doesn't say anything, furrowing his eyebrows when she starts to rant in a code that he never knows before.
"Dia ada di tangan kakek tua busuk itu! Aku harus gimana? Aku nggak bisa—Aku nggak tahu guanya ada di mana, aku nggak tahu Obito ada di mana—kalau dia jadi Tobi, aku nggak tahu harus gimana—"
It takes her some more time to ramble, and then she stops, heaving and huffing, her face turned away from him in an attempt to hide her tears and Nagisa peering from her head to stare at Orochimaru in a silent demand to do something; which is silly, because Orochimaru knows literally nothing in regards to comforting a grieving person.
He can't comfort Tsunade, so why the hell is Nagisa expecting him to do it for Nohara? Ridiculous.
Nohara sighs, rubs the tears away from her eyes and smiles at him.
"Sorry, Oro-chan-san."
He doesn't mention about her definitely dead teammate.
"I don't know the code you're using."
The girl shoots him an amused grin, no matter if they're wobbly, no matter if the eyes are still haunted and full of grief and regret and Tsunade—she looks like Tsunade—
"Of course not," she says rather haughtily, "I made it myself."
"…Of course you do."
"…You don't believe me, do you?"
"Not in the slightest."
She chuckles.
(It'll be alright.
She's not Tsunade.
It'll be alright.)
The gir—subject number 57 whimpers from the table, limbs bound, breathing ragged and terrified eyes focused on him.
Orochimaru calmly sedates her.
("Oro-chan-san.")
Subject is unmoving, breathing slow and steady, eyes unfocused—
("Oro-chan-san, I'm sorry, but I can't love a monster.")
He sinks the scalpel into her stomach.
"Are you not sad anymore?" He raises an eyebrow at Nohara, the girl looking up to meet his gaze as she munches on mochi, Anko sitting next to her also happily munching on mochi. It's quite amusing, to have Anko somehow admiring Nohara, for reasons unknown to him.
For all he knows, the girl is only polite to Nohara and that Yamanaka boy with cutting sweet murder smile, though less so with the latter, simply because Nohara doesn't mind her loud and impolite nature in the slightest, simply smiling at Anko's loud dirty mouth and sometimes even encouraging her.
He hasn't gotten the story as to why, though, because Anko is never polite and it intrigues him to know the reason behind her respect toward the medic nin and Yamanaka.
Still, the matter at hand is more intriguing.
Nohara blinks, and shrugs.
"I've gotten tired of being sad all the time."
This time it's Orochimaru's turn to blink. Because what?
"I was angry that Obito… you know, but then I got annoyed at myself for moping and sulking all the time, so…" She trails off, shrugging.
"…You got annoyed at yourself."
"Yeah," she nods, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "It was really pathetic of me. If I really want to change things, I mustn't… cry because one thing goes wrong, y'know."
Anko tilts her head, "change things?"
Nohara gives her a secretive smile, "things."
The dango lover narrows her eyes before she shrugs, popping another mochi into her mouth. At this rate, his wallet is going to be rid of its contents by the time the girls and their blackhole stomachs are done with their mochi buffet.
"So you're not sad that your friend died?" Anko asks without tact, because what is tact? She has basically none. Orochimaru despairs in trying to punch said tact into his student's head. Why did he take a student again? Oh right, because Hiruzen and his sly smelly buttcrack.
"People die all the time," Nohara deflects, staring into her sweet iced tea and letting out a small, sad smile. "But that doesn't mean that I have to stop living, you know?"
Anko asks her then, if people die all the time, doesn't that mean that their lives are all in vain?
It's pessimistic, but even Orochimaru's own views echoes along with Anko's question.
Humans are fragile.
They die all the time.
It's easy for them to perish—
It's easy for them to break—
Their lives, they're all in vain.
Orochimaru knows this.
Orochimaru believes this.
But then—
"No," Nohara refuses, calmly and firmly. "That's not true."
And then, she gives him an answer.
Orochimaru stares at the child on the operation table in front of him.
He's gotten his answer.
Does he really need to do this, anymore?
He doesn't.
But—
("Oro-chan-san.")
Orochimaru puts down his scalpel, and walks out of the room.
"Oro-chan-san," Nohara greets him, then, sitting on his office chair once again, with Nagisa draped around her once again.
"Nohara."
She smiles at him, "I'm going back to the frontlines."
"Is that so."
"Yeah."
Pushing herself to her feet, she calmly lets Nagisa to slither down her arm and settle on the chair. "I wanna say goodbye."
"I see."
"Yep! Goodbye, Oro-chan-san."
She doesn't say see you later.
She doesn't promise to come back.
("I believe you'll come back soon?"
Tsunade smiles. "…Yeah. Sure.")
"I believe you'll come back soon."
Nohara blinks in surprise, then smiles.
"…We'll see, yeah?"
No promises.
He doesn't know which one he prefers.
"Why have you stopped the project?" Danzo demands from him, and Orochimaru simply stares at him serenely.
"I have things to do."
"Things to do? Your project is—"
"I have responsibilities," he interjects, "that are actually watched over by the Hokage. Unfortunately, I am no simple commander who has an entire army. As it will be, I have duties I have to prioritize over a mere project."
Danzo narrows his eyes.
"You will continue the project."
He can sense the underlying threat in his words.
"I know, and I will."
He knows.
He's started it, he cannot stop now.
Not unless he want to be pulled under the ROOT commander's schemes and mostlikely blamed for everything happening in the lab.
He'll lose his home, if that happens.
("Oro-chan-san! Is this your student?"
"Sensei! She called you Oro-chan-san! Oh my god! Can I call you Oro-chan-san-sensei? HAHAHAHAHA!")
He'll lose his home.
He doesn't want to lose his home.
He won't lose his home.
Orochimaru stares.
The body is held within a black scroll, typical body scrolls, and yet tagged with notes regarding potential residue of maleficent chakra possibly coming from a bijuu, out of all things, and Orochimaru is ordered to do a thorough autopsy to make sure the bijuu doesn't magically reforming smack dab in Konoha or something.
His mind was reeling, when he read the notes.
Because bijuu? How the hell did a random Konoha-nin end up with a fucking bijuu? Uzumaki Kushina is still in the frontlines and taking names. Who was unlucky enough to end up getting a bijuu?
He opened the scroll, and then—
Brown hair, purple rectangles on her cheeks, dried blood on her lips and a fist sized hole where the heart was supposed to be—
Orochimaru stares.
He always likens Jiraiya and Tsunade, his best friends, leaving him behind as them ripping his heart out from his chest.
But of course Nohara has to take it into a whole other level and makes it literal.
Hatake Kakashi did this.
Her best friend did this.
He murdered her.
Her best friend.
Orochimaru stares at the report copy of said disastrous battle in the frontlines, and burns it to ashes.
Home.
His home.
He doesn't want to lose his home.
Not again.
Not anymore.
He won't lose his home.
Orochimaru eyes the subject in front of him, and injects Hashirama's cells within.
"Orochimaru," Hound says, dropping into a crouch in front of him, poised ready to strike. "You've betrayed Konoha."
Orochimaru glances at him as if he sees nothing more but a fly on the fall, "I have no time for you."
Hound moves to grab his sword, and Orochimaru rolls his eyes.
"Do you not hear me? I have no time for you. I still have to take something important."
Hound tenses, "you are not taking anything from Konoha."
The smile sent towards Hound is wry and mocking. "She doesn't belong to Konoha anymore."
What?
Orochimaru moves out of Hound's sight by then, his movements quick as he runs toward somewhere. Hound flinches at the sudden disappearance of the Sannin, and scrambles to follow.
(He shouldn't have.
He shouldn't have followed. It would've spared him the pain, then.)
"….Wha…"
No.
No. No. No.
What is this?
What is this?!
"What is the meaning of this?!" Hound—no, Kakashi—shouts, his grip on his sword tight and muscles clenched, and his eyes trained on the sight in front of him.
The room is embarrassingly painted a soft pastel pink, with glitter.
But that's not what caught him offguard.
It's the huge tube in front of him, and the girl he can see inside of it.
Rin.
Rin.
It's Rin. No, it can't be. It can't be!
It can't be Rin!
But Orochimaru glances back at him, and says rather sardonically, "Forgetting the face of the best friend you murdered already? Pity."
Kakashi reels back as if slapped, but Orochimaru pays him no heed. He starts to do something to the tube, and Kakashi doesn't know what, but that is Rin, right there, in that tube filled with green water and adorned with seals on her body and oh God it's Rin— Impossible. Impossible. Impossible! Why is she here?! She's dead, she was buried! He'd gone to her funeral for fucks sake!
But she's there. Not breathing (dead, dead, dead, his fault, his fault, his fault, this is his fault), but whole. No visible hole where his hand once went through, and if Kakashi doesn't know that she's not breathing, he'll think that she is sleeping, instead.
But there is no mistaking it.
It's Rin.
And Orochimaru is doing something to her.
Kakashi attacks.
The fight is over in mere seconds.
With killing intent so potent Kakashi has never felt before in close proximity, the teenage ANBU falls to his knees at the sheer pressure coming from the Sannin.
Orochimaru stares him down for a few seconds as he's left there, mortified and unable to move, unable to stop Orochimaru, unable to get closer to Rin—
Orochimaru steps closer and breaks his legs in a single move, making him scream from how swift and painful it is. The Snake Sannin slams Kakashi's head to the ground with his foot, breaking the ANBU mask upon contact, successfully muffling the scream let out from masked lips.
"Forgive me," he doesn't sound sorry at all, "but I can't really have you interfering."
And he turns back to his business, fiddling with the equipment and takes off the tube, watching as the water slowly subsides and Rin's body—she's not breathing, of course she's not breathing, but he hopes, oh how much he hopes—wrapped in purple robes before the Snake Sannin settles her into his arms.
"You... How...?!"
Orochimaru looks down on him, as if he's a piece of an annoying worm that interrupts his moment (in which it probably is, considering how the Sannin has been staring at her face for quite awhile, looking absolutely serene before the sneer replaces it the very moment Kakashi croaks out his question), and raises his eyebrow.
"All this moment, you didn't know that the grave you visited was empty?"
A chill runs down his spine, and if he is able to move, he will probably attempt to cut him down, or retrieve the body, or both.
But he's unable to move, and he can only watch in horror as Orochimaru moves to take her away.
He's taking her away.
From Konoha.
From Kakashi.
No.
"No!" He shouts, panic and horror seeping into his very being. "You—How dare you?! I thought you liked her! I thought you were her sensei!"
"How dare me?" Orochimaru scoffs, his next words cutting and harsh. "How dare you? You killed her."
"That's not—I didn't—" Excuses, excuses. Kakashi falters, before he bulldozes on more important thing, like Orochimaru experimenting on Rin. "That doesn't mean you can experiment on her, you fucking—"
"For a genius, you are simply very stupid."
"Wh—"
"I wanted her back," Orochimaru rasps out, interrupting him, "I still want her back. With my experiments, I managed to recreate her body parts, the body parts that you destroyed." He ignores Kakashi's flinch, casually looking over the many seals that adorn her feature. "But even with a body ready like this, I still can't figure how to drag the soul back. The Nidaime's Edo Tensei matrix is a good base for the seal, but even that is not enough for a total resurrection."
"W... Wha..."
"I would've thought you'd want her back, what a pity." Orochimaru sighs, as if truly disappointed.
"You... You can't..."
"Can't what, exactly?" An eyebrow raises, and the Snake Sannin scoffs once again, turning around from the Hatake, leaving him on the ground.
"No- You can't- Give her back!"
"Her body is necessary for me to reach my goal, Hatake. It is a pity, but perhaps you can pretend that the grave is not as empty as it is."
"No— You can't take her—"
"Why are you so against this? You'll see her again when she comes back to life."
"YOU CAN'T BRING PEOPLE BACK TO LIFE!"
"I can," Orochimaru answers simply. "And I will. Aren't you just terrified that she'll hate you when she gets back alive?"
That's a critical blow to the young Hatake, and Orochimaru knows that.
"No- No, no, no, no, Rin won't, Rin won't—"
"I'm wasting my time," the Sannin drawls out, and walks away.
"No! No! Give her back! You can't take her, you can't—" He makes an attempt to crawl, his broken legs protesting and causing pain to his whole body. But he has to move, he has to because it's Rin, and Orochimaru's taking her away and experimenting on her to bring her back to life and—
You're just terrified that she'll hate you when she gets back to life.
"No," he pleads, "please. Please. Give her back, give her-" he chokes on a sob, clawing the ground in sheer desperation. "Please, please, no—not Rin— Anyone but Rin, please— Please— Give her back- Give her-ba-ack-"
He's found minutes later by his fellow ANBU members, legs broken and face bruised, sobbing and clawing on the ground.
…I actually planned to write until Sasuke kills Orochimaru, but now I'm too tired and hungry, so.
Perhaps some other BAD END. This is certainly not going to be the last one, lmao.
Also, I hope I don't spoil too much on future chapters?
…Well, this is essentially a possible AU anyway, lol, I can always make EI different than this.
Though I love Nagisa, and yes, it's a Assassination Classroom reference. I mean, SNAKE, BLUE EYES, SUPER DEADLY. It's Shiota Nagisa!
The Zetsu Zetsu is Naruto Shippuden ED 40's title, guys. If you noticed my past preview has Rin singing You Are My Sunshine, but then I got inspired by this particular ED song and decided to use Zetsu Zetsu instead.
I don't wanna spoil what she says when she rambles in her mother language, but basically she despairs over what happened and what she must do after this and cursing Madara to hell and back. Oh and also despairing about Obito turning into Tobi.
Anyway, please tell me what you think? I really enjoyed writing this one. I hope I don't make Orochimaru too dramatic, since he's pretty much stoic on the outside but inside, it's like a hurricane.
Woooooo.
Review for happy things in Erasing Impossibility!