Part I: Episode 3
It had been a long and frustrating two years since Orochimaru had been named Hiruzen's successor. Between the dozens of spies everywhere he went, missions, the meetings he was to attend, and paperwork, many of his experiments had either died or been cancelled; mostly the former. Hiding them was a major pain and a majority of the bodies were fed to Manda and those that lived, Orochimaru had to memory-wipe and then exile.
Orochimaru had to hide all of the information he had gathered and then double seal it away before setting fire to most of his labs. Danzo's Root, in particular, was beginning to grow bold. The Sannin would come back only to discover tiny footprints close to his various researching facilities and knew it would only be matter of time before someone stumbled onto something they shouldn' then there were his teammates. Since Orochimaru officially wasn't yet the Hokage, he was still sent on missions - often with Tsunade and/or Jiraiya for back-up. The frequency of these missions increased, causing Orochimaru to wonder if Hiruzen really did know about his secret experiments.
Orochimaru inwardly cursed as he walked away from the flames of one of his favourite labs, where had just recently made a breakthrough with Taka. Proud as he was at keeping the traitor alive as long as he did, Orochimaru loathed having to kill him. But there were too many ties connecting the two and the increased durability made complete amnesia all but impossible. Killing Taka, was next to impossible and Orochimaru hated watching Manda struggle to chew through the body.
"Orochimaru-san, is everything alright?" One of the guards at the village gate. Orochimaru silently groaned before looking the man in the eye. He was only a Chunin and a quick GenJutsu was simple for a man of Orochimaru's talents and just like that, he was walking through Konoha. He saw a few kids playing soccer, but noticed only two or three of them were actually Root children. The rest were just kids happy to have more people to play with.
The Sannin had been called to the Hokage's office for a war meeting - something that had been occurring more and more as the 3rd Ninja War began to reach its climax. Many of the smaller ninja villages had either been assimilated into the greater villages or been destroyed altogether. The relations between Konhagakure and Iwagakure had reached an all-time low and Konoha's relationship with Kumo was souring quickly, mostly due to the much publicized skirmish between Konoha's Minato and Kumo's A.
It didn't take long for Orochimaru to reach the Academy, but due to his difficulty with Taka, he was late. He quickly made his way upwards towards the office and entered the room just in time to say Minato say "-Rin, Uchiha Obito, and Hatake Kakashi along with me." The Sannin made no show of entering late and quickly slid into an empty seat. Hiruzen glanced at him before looking at Minato.
"I see. You're old genin squad. I see no problem with this. Orochimaru?" The third Hokage asked, looking toward his former charge. Orochimaru had grown used to Hiruzen randomly asking his opinion on matters such as this, often during meetings such as this. It irritated him, but he had learned to remain calm regardless.
"Two jounin, one of whom has been just promoted, and two skilled chunin. I presume this is for the Kannabi Bridge mission that you told me about recently. If that is the case, then this should be sufficient." Orochimaru responded coolly. Hiruzen nodded.
"Alright then, Minato, go get some rest. I would prefer if you left tomorrow at dawn, but as long as the mission is done within two weeks, you may do as you wish." With a quick and polite bow, Minato excused himself from the meeting and exited the room. Hiruzen then turned to face the rest of the committee. He was flanked by the rest of the Konoha Counil.
"Now onto the next item on our agenda: Kirigakure." Hiruzen stated. Danzo scoffed.
"Honestly, Hiruzen, I fail to understand why you care so much about Kiri. The village is at its own throat already. They will take themselves out of this war without us lifting a finger. We don't need to waste the resources." He declared. Hiruzen nodded slowly, genuinely thinking about the statement.
"Orochimaru?" Hiruzen asked. Orochimaru inwardly smirked as Danzo seethed. He was a proud man, and hated having his opinions questioned. Especially by the man who beat him for the title of Hokage. Orochimaru, on the other hand, had to admit that Danzo had a solid point. Kirigakure's inner turmoil was no secret and odds were that it would eventually self-destruct. But admitting Danzo was right was something Orochimaru was not keen on doing.
"Danzo-san has a legitimate point, sensei," Orochimaru began. Danzo's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "But perhaps, we should send a small group in for recon purposes if nothing else." A strange expression spread on Hiruzen's face, and Orochimaru had the sneaking suspicion the old man was proud to see Orochimaru participating.
"And who do you intend on sending Orochimaru? Our resources are spread thin as is!" Homura barked adamantly. Orochimaru glanced at him. He really hated the council members. Retiring them would be one of his first tasks as Hokage, preceded only by the disbanding of Danzo's damned Root.
"Have Nara Shikaku take Maito Gai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Kurenai Yuhi." At this, Hiruzen's face fell slightly, but Orochimaru ignored it. Danzo, however, did not.
"Hiruzen. Surely you did not intend on leaving your son here in Konoha while his fellow shinobi helped defend this village!" The man said, his eye narrowed challengingly. Hiruzen shot his old friend a look that could kill.
"Of course not. Besides, with Nara-san, I'm sure he will be fine. Thank you Orochimaru." Orochimaru nodded in response, his eyes watching Hiruzen. The man didn't seem annoyed at all. Worried, perhaps, about his son but not irritated with his student's decision. Orochimaru found himself wondering if they would be okay. After all, three of them were just kids.
Orochimaru then pulled himself from his thoughts. What did he care that they were just kids? It's not like they were anyone special. What did he care about this war? All he wanted was to become the Hokage so that he could get his hands on the hundreds of forbidden scrolls in the Hokage's mansion. The people of Konoha were of little importance compared to that. Orochimaru turned his focus back to the meeting.
The meeting had continued for about another hour, with Orochimaru and Danzo symbolically at each others' throats. Whenever one would make a statement, the other would counter it with an equally insightful statement. Hiruzen himself also participated in the debates. Surprisingly, however, the meeting was actually one of the more productive ones. Orochimaru found himself thinking about the things people could accomplish if they would work together despite their differences.
"Dammit." He hissed, pushing the thought from his mind. Maybe it was all of his meetings with Hiruzen, but this school of thought Orochimaru recently found himself apart of was irritating beyond belief. Orochimaru didn't care about such things like friendship and the like. He forced himself to think about the new technique he had been developing.
"Orochimaru," Tsunade called out, although her teammate didn't hear her. He was caught up in his thoughts, and probably wouldn't notice anything aside from an enemy coming towards him. And even that probably wouldn't completely pull him from his thoughts. Tsunade wondered if her teammate noticed that he was changing. Even if it was only slightly, she found herself thinking maybe Hiruzen was right. Maybe Orochimaru wasn't completely lost to the darkness.
"You know, staring is rude." A voice said suddenly, causing Tsunade to jump. She turned to see Jiraiya with a sly smile on his face. Tsunade rolled her eyes. Like herself, Jiraiya had been bought into the village to help Hiruzen keep an eye on Orochimaru prior to his ascension to Hokage. He normally inspected the labs that Orochimaru used. He did a fairly decent job, although Orochimaru kept anything incriminating under tight security.
"Shut up Jiraiya, I wasn't staring." She snapped. Jiraiya responded with a short laugh.
"Right and I wasn't staring when you tried to kill me." The toad sage responded sarcastically.
"If you want to go through the experience again, Jiraiya, just tell me. There's no need to beat around the bush." Tsunade threatened lightly. Jiraiya laughed as he held his hands up defensively. By this point, Orochimaru had noticed them but was walking the other way. Even after the past two years of being around each so much, Orochimaru still held his usual aloofness. Tsunade fumbled with grandfather's necklace and while Jiraiya said nothing, he couldn't help but notice.
"Well I'm gonna go do a bit more snooping. Orochimaru's been burning most of his labs. I guess the increased heat is starting to get too much." He said after a few silent seconds.
"What about the ones outside the village?" Tsunade asked. Jiraiya sighed.
"Well he hasn't really been able to visit them much. Most of the poor bastards are dead and those that are strong enough to have banded together and broken out. Odds are, there coming for him. I almost feel bad for the poor guys. You dig anything up?" Jiraiya asked. Tsunade shook her head.
"Nothing much. He's modified himself slightly, but I can't give any specific without doing an examination. I can tell you that his cell growth seems to have increased slightly and his skin is more elastic than the average human's, but that's about it." Jiraiya nodded.
"So he's still experimenting on himself then. I guess that's better than kidnapping prisoners."
"Yeah." Tsunade said, still fumbling with her necklace.
Author's Corner:
Well there's another chapter done. There's going to be another time skip between this chapter and the next, this one being one year. Part I is going to have a few more chapters in it, but like I said before, it's mostly going to be a prologue sort of thing. So, it's starting to wrap up. Anyway, just as a preview, next chapter we meet the mysterious masked man. Also, thanks for the feedback on Orochimaru, I really appreciate it.
Once again, thank you everyone for reading and please leave reviews telling me what I can improve, any corrections on my timeline/research, or even better just general compliments. You guys are the best and thanks for reading. Also, for all you writers out there, I wish you the best of luck with your writing.