Something wasn't right, Orochimaru thought. It was... interesting, but not what he expected. The Snake sannin had expected... a different turnout. But then, you had to wonder what was so interesting, or what it was he was envisioning. He was a Konoha ninja, that was apparent from his hitai-ate which showed the Konoha's leaf symbol. Ahh but there was something not right about all of this because the Snake Sannin, deep down, was not of Konoha.
For a while now he'd been questing for power. It had taken many forms, many of them subtle as the snakes whom he had a summoning contract with. It had started as simple curiosity, to know if any ninja could possibly master all the ninjutsu in the world. That goal was one he realized could take a lifetime, or several lifetimes to achieve, so his quest for knowledge and power lead to studies on immortality. He knew at least one ninja who'd already defied age, but he wasn't the right bloodline for that. If he could perfect the technique to regenerate himself somehow, defy death, then anything was possible.
Orochimaru had studied well under master Sarutobi, but there were limits to what he could learn from him. He was, after all, just human. But what did that make the snake ninja? It made him something... else, something... a cut above the rest.. The more he trained and the more techniques he acquired, the more he saw himself elevated above others. It pained him to see anyone wasting their time and talents, and no group vexed him more than the Uchihas... What he wouldn't give for those eyes... That alone would speed up his goal exponentially if only they could be his.
But techniques were also made to be used, and to use them, something had to be... the subject. It was quite amazing, Orochimaru thought, how quickly people would submit to a flash of steel, the drop of a name, or the sparkle of a few coins. Money, influence, power. He had it all, so why not use it?
The money he made from missions was more than he needed for survival. Indeed, his apartment was so bareft of furniture or dust, one wondered immediately if anyone lived there. Boredom could be a motivating force in and of itself, and people with lots of wealth and few equals like the snake sannin enjoyed shining magnifying glasses on ants to see them burn. In his case, he used his assets to secure information and fund his... research projects.
He sat on the edge of a cliff, looking out over the sunset while clutching a scroll in his hand. It was partly crumpled because of the way he was holding it, and was contemplating its contents and implications. It was a message, sent to him by a scout from Konoha requesting he return as soon as his mission to the Land of Rice Fields was complete... there had been an attack.
Other ninja on missions at the time would have been surprised. Other ninja would have practically dropped what they were doing to shunshin home. Other ninja would... but he'd expected it. He was partly responsible for it after all... It was all he could do to keep himself from grinning madly at the messenger while he decided if he was worth leaving alive. Konoha was still... useful to him... or could be.
"Omoishiroi..." the jounin said aloud to nobody in particular. "So this is the power of the Leaf? Ahhh.... to survive the nine tails..." He threw his head back, his thick black hair falling in strands along his neck as he laughed. His experiment had been disrupted, tampered with because of the Fourth. The report had been rather basic, which was to be understood this far from Konoha, should it fall into enemy hands very little would be divulged. Yet it was sealed by Sarutobi. 'I don't know what you did yet, yellow bastard, but I'm sure you silenced my furry friend.' he thought in regards to the most certainly late Namikaze Minato. 'What a pity.'
He'd rather hoped the village would be razed to the ground, with only the strongest ninja surviving. He'd decided that immortality was obtainable in a way similar to how snakes shed their skin. He would shed his consciousness into a new body, and he about had the idea and jutsu required all worked out. A fight with the kyuubi would certainly have narrowed down the options for a donor body, but things had not gone to plan.
It was fortunate that the snake was adaptable, as a number of thoughts whirled around Orochimaru's head. The Land of Rice Fields was without a ninja village, which was why he was sent North anyhow. It wasn't the first time, and this time was because of a boy around the age of 5-6 years who had been on a nearly uncontrollable rampage. It was caused by an enzyme he produced which drew out his inner chakra and caused him into a rage, it even manipulated his genetics, causing forcing him into a monstrous visage at the peak of his rage. It was very curious to see such fight in one so young, and that too could be manipulated to his will. Yes, the Land of Rice Fields would be a good operating base...
He still had ties in Konohagakure though, and wondered if he should go back and see what he could salvage there. Truthfully, he was not far from striking a gash along his hitai-ate in order to sever his bonds to the village. But they could still be useful. The only other interesting part of the letter was Sarutobi's initiative to help mold and cultivate the young generation of orphans... two thirds of his genin team happened to be part of that statistic. He liked those odds.
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At the edge of the training grounds was the memorial stone. It was a circular base with a vaguely kunai-like shape to the top. Fitting that a weapon would belong to a monument of war. It wasn't necessarily war heroes who's names were engraved on the stone, but those killed in action. Namikaze Minato's name had been carved more elaborately into the stone, but it was the underlying Umino names that had a young ninja in tears.
Every time he looked at it, Umino Iruka relived the fateful day of the Kyuubi's attack. It didn't matter that ninja were supposed to be able to suppress their feelings, they were still human! The genin sobbed against his will as he thought about the things he saw that day.
Behind the darkness of his eyelids he saw the bodies on the ground and remembered how his hands trembled and he almost dropped his kunai. Genin were not to fight in the battle, that was an explicit order but... somebody needed to clean up the battlefield. Nothing sobers a person up or petrifies them more than carrying teammates and loved ones off the battlefield. Iruka had to do that. He'd had to carry his mother, Kameyo, to what he thought was a safe place.
It was a terrible place to be and nothing was safe. The thundering paws of the beast made the ground tremble. His roar struck fear into the hearts of the most hardened ninja. His malice hung in the air with his red chakra, pulsating and irradiating the village with an almost unbearable feeling. It was like breathing in hatred, it was hot and heavy and seemed to drain the life out of you. He couldn't hear a thing between the beast and the orders of ninja around him who were somehow working on autopilot... but one pulled him back. One pulled him back as two of the tails whipped at a group of ANBU that had tried unsuccessfully to attack it from the side. This was at least a hundred yards away, yet it had made a chakra-laden slice of wind that nearly split his head in two.
He brought his fingertips to the bridge of his nose. He had a horizontal scar, and one he would carry for the rest of his life. The only med-nin available at the time for such a minor wound wasn't good at minimizing scar tissue. He would have gladly borne it too, but others saw it as a sign of his cowardice than a war wound.
'How could they?' he thought, trembling. How could they be so inconsiderate? The fact that both his parents had died in the attack was another point of ridicule as they told him how weak they were. He didn't see it that way, and the tears flowed freely now.
"You have to stop Iruka." A familiar voice called beside him.
The young genin wiped away his tears as best he could and turned to Mizuki. "I can't... they..."
"Oi oi... Iruka." the other genin encouraged, smiling. "They don't matter. If you really want to teach them a lesson, learn how to fight better. That's where it counts right? In the field?"
"...It didn't work very well for my parents..." Iruka sniffed and rubbed his raw eyes.
Mizuki did wipe the smile off his face out of respect Mamoru and Kameyo. "They were good shinobi. Besides, in a fight like that, anyone would have had a hard time... We lost our Hokage too, you know?" He indicated the bold lettering of Minato's name.
Iruka gave a sad smile at that. There wasn't a ninja in the village who didn't know his name or heard stories of the things the Yellow flash had done. He was a great loss to the village, far more than his own parents who he'd been focussed on. "I guess..."
"Orochimaru-Sensei should be back soon, you know? Anko-san said she wanted some practice and my shoulder's kinda hurt you know?" Mizuki gave an out of place silly grin and pretended to be in pain when he flexed his shoulder muscles.
Iruka had to laugh, "You called her -chan again didn't you?"
There was a sheepish grin on the silver haired ninja's part. "Maybe!"
"That's not fair... using Anko against me." Iruka protested, but he was glad of the distraction. He gave a long look once more to the memorial stone. Soon, the words would possibly be his only link to his parents. It was better than seeing their broken bodies, but he wished he could see their smiles once more.
"Daijoubu Iruka-san. It'll be all right." Mizuki assured him and tugged at his arm.
An exasperated Mitarashi wasn't far away, spouting how mad sensei would be if he found them lax in their training when he got back. If he thought of the group as something of a family, a dysfunctional one perhaps, maybe Iruka wasn't so bad off.
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For the time being, Sarutobi had some silence over Naruto's situation. A woman named Akiko, who had lost her son and husband between the war and the Kyuubi was his current caretaker. The girl was normally upbeat, though under the circumstances, she had become far more reserved. She was one who saw Naruto as a reminder of what she had lost, but at least she didn't hold any contempt for the boy. Until he could find acceptance and even possibly love, he would have to settle for apathy.
"Is it really best to leave him at the orphanage?" Tsunade questioned as she left yet another stack of papers on the old man's desk.
"No. Of course not." The hokage let a few smoke rings rise into the air. He could see the look on Tsunade's face which bade him speak his mind. "Well, I may not have to adopt him out after all."
Tsunade's face scrunched up as she realized what he was saying. "Hokage-sama, you can't mean.... him!?"
Hiruzen's wrinkled face remained unchanged as he took great interest in a stack of papers that was laying on his desk. "I do. He should be back from Kawa no Kuni some time in the next few days. I sent out a note for his return personally."
He thought he saw the vein in Tsunade's temple pulse slightly. "Well... I see he'll be in good hands." Tsunade groaned and stormed out of the hokage's office.
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Moonlight welcomed Orochimaru back into the village, as did the glistening of new fallen snow. He grinned and greeted the few who were still awake. It was now late November, and there was hardly a sign that there'd been any struggle back in early October. Oh, he'd noticed the damage to the forest and the mountainside, but the village was virtually untouched. Quite amazing since the village craftsmen usually took months to fill in basic potholes in good weather. He didn't mind the dark and the cold around him though, it rather complemented his pale complexion.
He glided, more than walked, through the village unnoticed for the most part. When he got to the training grounds, he saw the last fighters of the evening. Hot breath turned to white vapor in the frigid air as three young genin fought for supremacy. He noted they were his students, all three of them, vying to stay on top of a singular log that was thicker than the others in the area. King of the Hill was an old game, but it was well adapted to the ninja life. So far, Anko was the Queen of the hill. It amused him as he stood and watched.
The boys were getting nowhere with direct attacks as Anko displayed the reflexes of a coiled viper. It took the combined efforts of the boys and some illusion jutsus to eventually unbalance the girl. Nobody wound up being King though, as they began rolling around in the snow after the girl had finally fallen.
When they finally looked back up at the stump, they were in stunned silence at their sensei, Orochimaru.
"That's... not one of your Jutsus is it?" Anko whispered quietly.
"...Well done, I must say." the jounin said with an all-too-wide smile. "Do you know why ninja often cover their face with a mask or scarf of some kind?" he asked amicably of his students.
"Yes Sensei!" the tomboy princess chirped, eager to show off. He enjoyed the spark in her eyes. "To soften their breathing in order to make infiltration easier!"
"Ahh... yes. But also, it would have helped out here..." The snake ninja said. "I noticed none of your illusions had frost breath." He puffed at the air, to demonstrated the white mist that hung there for a moment as all three out of breath students blushed. He continued to perch on the log and tilted his head at his students. "Well...?"
"We'll do better next time." Mizuki started.
"Good. Training begins 5:30 sharp. I have some new... ideas. Make sure you get enough sleep." Orochimaru told them in his dispassionate way, though the ends of his lips seemed to have an unwholesome tone as he beamed at his young students. Now that he was home, he had so much more material to work with.
The two boys quickly took off arguing while Anko stayed behind. She seemed a bit pensive and scratched behind her neck.
Orochimaru-sensei hopped down off his perch at last and regarded the genin idly while his hands were in the pockets of his jouinin vest. "You have something to say..?"
"Umm... Ano... that is..." Her cheeks turned pink and the Legendary ninja looked ever puzzled at her. He leaned in closer to make sure she was all right, though that was more of a medical inquiry. If he hadn't had his hands in his vest, she might now have had a gash slit up her throat because of the stupid thing she did - she hugged the snake ninja tightly around the neck, frankly shocking the hell out of both of them. "Welcome back master-sensei!" she shouted louder than she had to but that somehow seemed to justify the action. She took a quick step back when she was done, blushing deeply. She waved meekly at him before disappearing... she didn't want to know what he was thinking in case it might stop her heart.
...Orochimaru just stared blankly into the distance. 'Omoishiroi indeed... How interesting...'