Chapter 6.

Sorry for the delay everyone, this LibreOffice writer thing crashed and I lost this chapter as well as the next two. So I rewrote this one as best I could, I think it's better. Also, I know some of you hate flashbacks, and I realized in the middle of this chapter that it's all one huge flashback.

I would like to thank all the people who gave me ideas on Orochimaru. I think I'm going to do more with him soon. This was my first attempt in earnest.

Over 1850 Hits, 675 Visitors! Thanks for the support!

Review answers:

Loiosh311: Thanks again, I think I hate gardening as well.

3domfields: I didn't remember that, thanks for pointing that little fact out. Makes me feel even worse for how Kakashi is treated by the fanfic community. Although, it seems a little out of character for him to not have noticed that before. It is just possible that Kishimoto made that ability of shadow clones up at that point. Even notice how something new is discovered, and then he is all about it for the next few chapters? (See: elemental training.) Anyway, thanks for reading.

kakashidex: Thanks for your notes again. I know you hate flashbacks, so this chapter is going to suck for you. And there's a flashback within a flashback! But at least it's long, right?

mind liger: Interesting thought, I may use that later.

MadaMag: I don't know how to respond to that. Maybe this will be better?

lostWOLF-KING: Also a good thought, I think I'll just see how he comes out.

bookimp: I'm going to try not to follow cannon, but I don't want the world to be unrecognizable. (Also, I'm not THAT creative). And I doubt that Naruto will be going to Oto.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Here we go again

-pp

The light crept slowly down the patterned wall of the dark corridor. The atmosphere was still, with artificial light of candles flickering with every slight movement of the air. In the distance, or possibly just around the corner, the sound of muffled voices emanated from a small dark cavern. The hallway just ended at the rock of the cavern, as id carved from the mountain above itself. Inside, sat two very different figures. One was a short, very squat inhuman man, wider than tall, hunched over a scroll intently. The other, lithe, long-haired feminine figure, sat back on a reclining couch, chuckling amusedly to himself. The slight cool humidity of the cave was a stark contract to the fire in the squat man's gaze as he turned his eyes up to his companion.

"The last noble underpaid us for silencing those dissidents. Leader will not be pleased." He said in a gravely voice.

His thin comrade barely acknowledged the venom in his partner's voice. "Now now, Sasori, you were able to deal with that rabble in under two minutes. There's no reason to be so angry. Besides," he chuckled, "I was able to gain some interesting specimens for my experiments while we were there. I think it was well worth the discount."

Sasori of the Red Sand regarded his partner carefully before sighing, "Your experiments are fleeting, not like my immortal creations, Orochimaru. At least you didn't delay the our meeting like last time."

The renegade Sannin, former teammate of Jiraiya and student of the 3rd just chuckled. "You act as if we haven't done enough for the leader already. I have only been your partner for six months and we have already filled our quota for the next six. Besides, that last one was personal, I can't imagine the leader would mind too much. Kukukuku."

"Why do you even care enough about that village to continue risking the leader's wrath? You make too much trouble for me, no matter how- effective you are."

It was at that point that the Snake rose to his full height from his couch. The light glimmered in his eyes dangerously. "That village, Sasori, failed to appreciate my brilliance. If it wasn't enough of an insult to allow that- that child to succeed sensei, they then condemned me for becoming a legend." He chuckled, regaining his composure, and sat back down, "Those fools cast aside power like they don't need it, that sentimental fool of a hokage prattles on about the will of fire lasting forever, but only I, who have the vision and power of the ages, will become immortal. Much like your puppets Sasori-san. Kukukuku."

"I still think you spend too much time conspiring against your former comrades, and not enough time on our missions. We could have been finished with our tasks for the next year if you weren't so distracted with those Leaf shinobi." Sasori turned back to his scroll and removed a few tools. He looked up again at his companion and grunted, "And that last one was too close to causing a major war. Leader would not have been pleased."

Orochimaru closed his eyes as he reflected upon the incident that Sasori had mentioned, and his history with Kohona. He had only defected from the cursed Leaf six months ago, but that was after several months of planning.

Flashback

It was only weeks before Orochimaru had abandoned those Kohona fools for something greater. Sarutobi had gotten much better as locating his hidden bases, and his experiments were getting greater and greater notice among the shinobi. He had been looking for a way to prolong his life for years, attempting to gain immortality to surpass his sensei. The "God of Shinobi" was good at knowing techniques, but Orochimaru sought to learn every technique, to make himself a god of all men. With his skill at learning jutsu, and everlasting life, he would create a new dynasty, where he would rule over the entire world.

Of course, he needed to start somewhere, which is why it hurt so much that he was not chosen to be the village's 4th. It was sometime before the shortsighted village council made their decision that he thought to recreate the Mokuton bloodline of the 1st Hokage. A revival of Hashirama Senju's legendary kekkei genkai would have catapulted him to the position easily. Or so he had thought. While Danzo assured the Sannin that his measures were acceptable for the village's future, Orochimaru should have questioned the heavily sedated "volunteers" that Danzo had provided.

He would admit to himself, in a private moment, that this oversight was a mistake, but he had been so blinded by the possibility of the greater resources that the Root provided that he had ignored his common sense. To make matters worse, his experiment was a failure. Only Danzo, who only underwent the treatment for only his right arm, and a small child named Tenzo, had survived, and Tenzo didn't seem to actually demonstrate any of the ability. Danzo himself could not control the release, and canceled his underground funding.

The villagers themselves were silly fools, blinded by their adoration of the Sannin, and were carefully shielded from the horrific nature of the actual deed, but Sarutobi was not so blind. A fool, but not blind. When his sensei discovered this experiment, he immediately banned human experimentation from the village, and censured the Snake Sannin publicly. There were no laws at that time to do anything further, but being stripped of his seat on the council and removed from active duty indefinitely effectively removed him from consideration to be Hokage. They even relegated him to be a jounin sensei to a bunch of snot-nosed nothings for his attempts to improve the village's strength!

Orochimaru still fumed when he heard that Jiraiya's blond-haired brat pupil had become the 4th. Sure the child was a genius, Orochimaru himself had been impressed with his actions during the Third Shinobi War, but he was still just a child, not even in his thirtieth year! Knowing that he would never get the respect of the village shinobi and his sensei, and his failure to be hokage created a dead-end for his ambitions, he embarked on greater experiments, pushing the limits of current scientific knowledge.

It was one week before he would leave the village. He knew that Sarutobi was on his trail, and he would be found out soon. While Minato had shut down the Root funding, he was rather blind to the thought of underground action. Sarutobi had dealt with Danzo long enough to notice the signs. In fact, Orochimaru had taken great pleasure in leaving his sensei clues to suggest that Danzo was behind all of the bases that he he had abandoned one step ahead of the old fool.

His former teammate had proven a bit of a larger problem. Jiraiya had personally thwarted several of his attempts to "recruit" new volunteers for his experiments, and all while dragging his annoying godson around! Despite his scorn for the 4th, Orochimaru was indifferent to the boy. Being the vessel for the fox, in addition to his lineage, Orochimaru had little doubt that the child would become powerful eventually, even worth some of the Snake Sannin's time. The boy was still years away from being of actual interest, Orochimaru was no baby sitter, eventually however, he could use a soldier like him. The thought of his rival's godson loyally bowing to the Snake had some appeal, but it was unimportant at that time, he was not going to waste any more time in that wretched village.

Still, it was irritating having Jiraiya in the village. That feeble minded oaf was the least talented of his team, but he had become quite crafty, and Orochimaru could not have his intentions come to light. He knew that his secret partners wanted the boy, eventually, but they were not in a position to gather him for several years. That meant that aside from wet nursing the boy, Jiraiya only had Iwa to distract him while in the village. On four separate occasions, the Toad Sage had managed to bumble into his plans, and only succeeded in foiling them because Orochimaru was unwilling to blow his cover as the loyal yet disgraced student of the Hokage. Well, that image was about to die, Jiraiya or not. He was to start his soldier program, and no one could stop it.

He had assembled his chosen few genin, ten to be exact, in order to perfect his newest creation, the Cursed Seal of Heaven. If it worked like he thought, he would have ten perfect soldiers for his personal army. Their desire for power was acknowledged by all the other jounins assigned to them, and it was for this reason that they were chosen. Chosen to be the bearers of the greatest gift a shinobi could receive, power. These children would be the greatest tools in Orochimaru's arsenal. If the Seal worked like he expected, they would gain enhanced strength and speed, their chakra would be augmented by the Sannin's itself, causing a delicious overflow that would literally overwhelm the enemy. It would be perfect.

It was then that Sarutobi found his last lab. After he tripped the first of many alarms, Orochimaru knew he didn't have much time. Calling it a training mission, he told the collected genin to meet him at the Valley of the End, and sent them out through the escape tunnels. Only Anko Mitarashi was skeptical of her mentor's motives, but the Sannin had trained her well. A quick hand gesture sent her loyally with the rest of those pawns, and left Orochimaru alone in his lab when the old fool, dressed in full battle armor, busted down the door. It still made the Snake Sannin chuckle when he thought of his old mentor's face as he left the village forever.

After that, he had officially joined the Akatsuki. He had been a mole in Kohona for months, so he just scheduled a rendezvous with his future partner, Sasori. From that date, he had embarked on several missions to gather resources for the leader's grand plan. Orochimaru never met the leader personally, but taking his orders was fine as long as it allowed the Snake Sannin to progress in his own goals.

Sasori was bearable, a very powerful shinobi in his own right, but no threat. He was too driven to play with his toys to see the greater picture. Orochimaru had vision. Sasori will have a role to play, the Sannin had decided, but for now, playing the good loyal follower of the leader made the most sense. Even so, on the prior mission, a bounty on a rogue ninja hiding in the Land of Fire, Orochimaru had come a little too close to Kohona in his trip to collect new minions. As it happened, only Anko had survived the marking, but it was of no consequence to Orochimaru. He had his eyes on bigger things, improving his design.

He had brought his protege along on that mission, and when they stumbled across a border patrol, Anko had gone- a little overboard. After quickly and silently dispatching the jounin, she turned to the three chunin, and left a bloody mess only a mile or so from the village. One of the chunin had apparently managed to get a message back, and things got complicated.

Orochimaru had told Sasori that he would be right back, but Anko's little display to prove her worth to him had brought some unexpected visitors: two teams of ANBU and the Toad Sage himself.

"OROCHIMARU!" Jiraiya roared as he entered the clearing.

"Kukuku, well well, what have we here? Did the old man send his little stooges out to bring me home? What a nice welcome party."

"How could you do this to those people? To the village? To sensei? To Tsunade? To me?" Jiraiya's tone dropped as he stepped into a fighting stance.

"To the village? To Sarutobi?" The Snake chuckled as he dropped into his familiar Hebi stance. "They never appreciated my brilliance. Sensei will die talking about his precious Will of Fire, while dismissing the way to true strength, and his village will burn for it. As for Tsunade, we both know she doesn't care in the least whether I am still with the village. I may find her and kill her for fun, if she's crawled out of the bottle enough to make it a challenge."

"Don't you talk about her, 'Maru. I'll make you regret that."

"Kukukukuku. You think you can, oaf? I never even answered how I could 'do this' to you. The answer is simple: I never cared about you, or how you felt. You were never as good as I was, never as fast or as powerful. Your softness killed any hope you had of reaching my level, Jiraiya. You may be strong to that wretched village, but you are nothing to me. You exist on my whim. When I burn the Leaf to the ground, I will enjoy making your godson into my personal servant."

"I'll kill you." Jiraiya growled while starting to make hand signs.

"You won't have the chance, dobe."

The battle was joined. The two Sannin launched themselves at each other, spitting fire, blowing wind, and spraying mud. After both men dodged the initial onslaught, they engaged in a fierce taijutsu battle. After a few minutes of even fighting, Jiraiya struck with his right knee while simultaneously swinging with his left hand. The Snake shifted his weight, diverting the knee, while catching the punch with his right arm guard, and swinging his left into the white haired Sannin's face. Jiraiya slid back a few feet, growling, while rotating with the the strike and launching a back roundhouse with his left leg. It struck Orochimaru's guard, causing him to grunt with pain. A smirk appeared on the Snake's face, and he grabbed Jiraiya's foot, and swung the larger man into a nearby tree.

Upon reaching the tree, Jiraiya righted himself, and landed on his feet attaching himself to the trunk with chakra as he finished hand signs. "Toad Oil Bullet!" He paused as he spat a glob of oil at the Snake. "Fire Style: Flame bullet!" He launched himself forward. As Jiraiya flew forward, the flames outdistancing him as he flew to his target, he noticed a smirk on his former teammate's face as the fire engulfed him. Landing a few feet away he turned to his left as the figure in front of him turned to mud.

"Kukukuku, my my Jiraiya. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you weren't trying to capture me after all. I didn't think you had it in you to kill your life-long comrade."

"You stopped being my comrade years ago, 'Maru. And I'm sure you can take more than that."

"Too true you fool." The pale Sannin turned over his shoulder. "Anko dear, could you go and tell my partner that I might be slightly delayed. You know how he hates that."

The stunned girl, eyes wide and jaw open from watching the two Sannin go all out, nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The ANBU started to move to pursue her, when Jiraiya held up his hand to stop them. "Let her go, by the time you catch her, she will have reached his partner, who I believe is Sasori, the puppet master, formerly of Suna, right?" Jiraiya regarded Orochimaru, who merely smirked. "Stay out of the way. He's mine!"

"I should have known that the ninja world has no secrets, especially from you Jiraiya-chan." Jiraiya growled, while the Snake just chuckled and continued. "So I take it that you haven't retired as spymaster, even with that brat hanging all over you? Speaking of which, where is that little bastard Namikaze? I'm surprised you left his crib." Orochimaru finished with a fake smile, closing his eyes for a second when he felt a spike in chakra ahead of him.

Opening his slitted eyes, he saw Jiraiya kneeling with his hand on the ground as he whispered the technique that he had just used, trapping his legs. "Swamp of the Underworld."

Orochimaru just chuckled as his body transformed into a construct of snakes, slithering away. Jiraiya scanned the area and found the Snake Sannin perched on a rock on the far side of the field. "Kukukuku, I do love these reunions dobe, but are we going to keep playing around, or are you going to get serious?" The snake began to run through hand signs.

Recognizing them, and making his own, the Toad Sage narrowed his eyes at his former teammate as they both called out the name of their jutsu. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Two gigantic plumes of smoke arose in the field. The ANBU jumped back as they recognized what was about to happen. As they looked on two gigantic figures began to appear through the rapidly dispersing mist. As the two figures became cleared, they heard a rumbling voice echo through the forest. "Orochimaru! Why have you summoned me here?" The giant serpent hissed, "You still haven't paid me in sacrifices for the last time!"

"Kukuku, Manda, I have an old friend for you to dispose of, I didn't think you'd want to lose this opportunity."

Manda looked up and regarded the gigantic toad sitting across from him. The huge snake narrowed his eyes at the Toad, who exhaled a plume of smoke from his large pipe. "Very well, worm, I will fight for you- today- but you will owe me 100 sacrifices." Orochimaru smirked as he began to get ready from the top of Manda's Head.

"So, Jiraiya, it has come to this?" The toad whispered.

"Yes boss. It has come to this. We need to keep this away from the village walls, so we need to direct all our attacks that way."

"Very well, I have always wanted a snake-skin wallet." Jiraiya smiled and patted the head of Gamabunta, the boss toad.

The two giant figures slowly regarded each other before Gamabunta drew his tanto and launched forward at the snake. Manda curled out of the way of the attack, and lashed out with his tail, which the Toad hopped over. The serpent struck with his poisonous fangs at the air-bound toad, more quickly than could be seen with the naked eye. The toad merely flicked his sword, clanging off one of the fangs before landing behind the snake.

From the heads of the two summons, Orochimaru and Jiraiya began to hurl fire ball and gusts of wind and earth at each other. The attacks collided in mid air, creating a dull haze that began to fill the battlefield.

Miles away, the tremors of the conflict could be felt. Sasori squinted in the direction of the battle and sighed. Anko had arrived moments ago, out of breath and exhausted. The gravelly voiced man sighed. "So, if I am to understand young one, your master has gotten into a fight with the Leaf, only miles from their gates? Even worse, he is now fighting another Sannin?" Anko just nodded, robbed of breath from her flight. "We are going to be late! I hate keeping people waiting. Come along, girl." The large man turned away from the battle and began walking.

Back at the battlefield, the two Sannin had dismounted and were engaged in a smaller battle, dodging in and out of the summons' legs. "Hidden snake hands!" The pale man shouted as two solid streams of snakes flew out at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya kawarimi'd with a log, and launched himself at the Snake, with a kunai drawn. Orochimaru chuckled as his spit out the Kusanagi Sword and grasped it with an elongated tongue. The two weapons clashed, and held against each other. The sword was starting to cut into the kunai, when Jiraiya formed a rasengan with his left hand. "You're done, 'Maru!" He shouted as he was about to push the attack into the Snake Sannin's side. Suddenly, the ground shook enough for both Sannin to be thrown off balance.

Gamabunta had been straddling the Manda, pushing down his tanto while the snake's tail was wrapped around his arms, restraining the toad's arms. In one swift movement, the huge serpent had tossed the toad while still holding his arms, and body-slammed Gamabunta into the clearing. The toad was shaking his head, trying to clear the cobwebs as Manda was rapidly approaching his position.

Cursing, abandoning his attack, and kicking Orochimaru across the field, Jiraiya disappeared, and reappeared on top of Manda's head, driving his rasengan between the giant snake's eyes. Manda flopped in pain and stopped his advance at the still shaken toad. "Curse you Jiraiya! Damn you Orochimaru! You couldn't keep this tadpole busy for even a few moments? We will talk about our arrangement soon!"

With a gigantic poof of smoke, Jiraiya found himself landing on the ground next to a still dazed Gamabunta. "You can go home and rest old friend."

"I am sorry Jiraiya, I was out of chakra." Looking around he sighed, "You have lost your chance at him for today. I will train harder for next time." With that, he dispelled.

Jiraiya looked around, then closed his eyes and began to stretch his senses. He found nothing, Orochimaru had gotten away. "DAMN IT!" He roared as he fell to his knees, drained.

Miles away, the pale Sannin had caught up to his partner and protege. The larger man didn't even turn as he approached, instead chuckling: "So, your former teammate was too much for you to handle, eh Orochimaru?"

The Snake Sannin merely chuckled and placed his hand on Anko's shoulder. "No no, my dear Sasori-san, I was merely playing with him to pass the time. Hopefully I didn't delay you too much."

Anko gulped. 'Just playing? That level of battle was one that few shinobi would even dream of having, but it was nothing to her master.' She was beginning to doubt her decision to stay with this truly frightening demon, but she shook it off. Her life was for her master, she would need to get stronger.

Regarding the young girl, Sasori chuckled again. He was not so easily fooled as that child. The battle had taken a lot out of the Snake, which meant that Kohona was not as weak as leader originally thought. It would be interesting to watch.

End Flashback

Orochimaru opened his eyes, and regarded his partner, still fuming from his memories. "Leader needs us, dear Sasori. If I give him what he wants, he should have no problem with my elimination of a few threats along the way."

Sasori turned to the Snake Sannin, "You play a dangerous game Orochimaru. One that I will not condone. If you keep interfering with my schedule, I will not be happy."

"Kukukuku, well, my dear Sasori-san, I would want that." With that, he laughed out loud, his hoarse laughter echoing through the cavern.

A/N: This was already a re-write, so I'm exhausted. My eyes hurt. As you can tell, I haven't really decided what to do with Orochimaru, but I had to introduce the character somehow. I figure this background would be nice: Seeing some interaction between Sasori and Orochimaru would be interesting, and I get to write a Sannin battle (which is a lot harder than you would think).

Hopefully you enjoyed it a little, because I think this is my longest chapter by far. I'd hate to be going backwards.

Anyway, hit me up if it turns out that I took something from someone.

Later,

-pp