In the previous Chapter: Without warning Hinata felt him behind her. He grabbed her hand squeezing it firmly. "Don't start getting cocky with me. This little...exchange if you like to think of it in that way, by no means will change my ways. What I have done, I did for a reason. What I do now, I do for a reason and for my own purposes, mind you. Now be careful, I don't give without taking something in return. I think its a fair law of how the way life works."
For the next several weeks Hinata focused on learning more jutsu. She and Orochimaru would wake up, eat and leave to train only coming back to eat dinner then train once more in the dark. It was astounding to her how much her stamina greatly improved.
Orochimaru would talk to her during training sessions of how years of war time had actually been useful. In that time every shinobi was tested in all area's of their knowledge and even with strength poor decision making skills and durability can ultimately lead to untimely deaths. "It sounds like you find peace in war." Hinata did various backflips as she dodged snake summons that were attacking from underground.
"At first I did. I found a nice satisfaction of being useful..." He let the sentence hang in the air for a moment as he thought about it. As a child with his physical appearance it was difficult for him to find comfort in others, he eventually learned to live without it. However during the war, his and his teammates achievements earned them respect and admiration of others. At one point fellow shinobi would stare in awe of him instead of uncertainty and be amazed. During war was the only time anyone bothered to get close to him, to try and get to know him, understand him...but afterwards when the wars ended it never lasted. They would resume being wary of him and fearing him.
Hinata focused the chakra on her palm and running headfirst towards the final serpent, spun and struck down. Her hand bounced off from impact as her deadly gentle palm landed on the serpents nose. He chakra surged through and with a shrill hiss the snake crumbled to the ground motionless. She observed Orochimaru carefully as he had a contemplative look on his face. She walked up to him and placed a hand on his arm. He gave her a warm smile. "Took you long enough, either way its obvious you have long since surpassed your little sister Hanabi. It's a shame your father isn't reconsidering his decision, you would have made a lovely heiress." Hinata blushed a little at his compliment though she felt irritated he continued to bring it up.
"So you liked being useful to others? I didn't think someone like you would have care about things like that." Hinata waited patiently for him to finish his thought. Orochimaru's smile turned into a sneer as he noticed her eagerness to learn more about him. "I was naive and young. Though thinking about it, if it wasn't for the wars I would have had more time to further my research." Hinata felt he was hiding something but she knew better than to pry. She looked back at the corpse of the snake as it lay motionless. "Is it nice?" Orochimaru looked puzzled at her out of the blue question.
"What is?" Hinata tugged on the strand of hair, a little unsure about the question herself and the potential answers he could give. "Living as an immortal. To know that you can't die." She shuddered at the thought. Orochimaru was taken by surprise. He looked at the snake that was dead then back to her. "Hmmm, Im not sure if I can answer that question. I don't feel like I have achieved immortality quite yet. However, if I learned every jutsu and technique perhaps I can develop the perfect method. Why the sudden question though?"
Hinata shrugged her shoulders and began walking back. To live forever...without fear of dying. The thought of living forever was terrifying. She couldn't imagine living and watching all her loved ones pass away. That would be a very lonely life in her mind. She would die one day and leave Orochimaru. She stopped as the realization came to mind. "I am not like you...I will die one day." Hinata turned and looked at the man. The gentleness he had showed earlier was slowly fading in his eyes as they were being replaced with something else. "What will you do-"
Lifted her chin up and with the last of his gentleness kissed her forehead. He looked down at the young heiress as she realized the consequences of his immortality. "Don't contemplate life and death too much or else you won't be living at all." He walked past the girl, leading her back to the Estate. He heard as her foot steps ran close to him. She grabbed a hold of his arm and began squeezed it tightly.
She clung onto him the rest of the way, her mind fumbled with thoughts. As they approached the estate she saw a two figures waiting for them. Orochimaru made a noise in his throat as his body tensed. Hinata slowly let go of his arm and walked a step behind him. As they approached she realized one was her grandfather who was staring in their direction with a venomous glare and the other was Hokage Tsunade. She seemed in a cheery mood talking and drinking a bottle of sake.
Hinata and Orochimaru approached the two and gave them a respectful greeting. Tsunade continued to drink seemingly ignoring them much to Orochimaru's annoyance. "Princess Tsunade and Hyuuga Elder? There is something going on here." He thought quietly to himself. "About time you showed up. I was beginning to think I would have to send an ANBU squad to find you." Tsunade stretched and yawned. "Thank you for the treat Hyuuga Elder. And as for you two I need to inform you on something."
Tsunade's cheerful demeanor quickly changed to serious. It was obvious the information she had was critical. "Orochimaru, you have been staying here for quite some time now. With all the work were doing to get Konoha back up on its feet I have been unable to check up on you frequently. I understand you took on Miss Hinata Hyuuga as a pupil. It seems like you two will make quite the team for the mission I have in mind." Tsunade shot Orochimaru a gleeful look as she could see he wasn't going to enjoy this.
Orochimaru cleared his throat and gestured her to hurry up with the explanation. "I just received a complaint from the Mizukage. It appears that the citizens there are being targeted by assassins." Both Orochimaru and Hinata looked at each other in surprise. "There have been people turning up dead and all the reports coincide that they were former prisoners of Otogakure." Tsunade stared directly at her former teammate as the man looked away from the Hyuuga and locked eyes with her.
"I have nothing to do with these deaths. I have been completing on my word. I have been focusing on training my new pupil." Orochimaru dared Tsunade to doubt his word. She smiled gently at him. "I know that. Elder Hyuuga supports your alibi. However, the council is suspicious and wants an investigation. The Mizukage has sent a request for you." Tsunade took out a letter from one of her pockets and handed it to Orochimaru.
He turned the letter over and back before opening it. There were quite a number of pages inside. He flipped through them quickly and saw information of the deceased individuals along with photographs of people, presumably the ones the information was informing about. The faces were all familiar however it wasn't until he saw one in particular that he realized something.
One was of a young girl. About 8 years old who had the peculair kekkei genkai to cause plants to grow at abnormal rates. He had done research on her with the hopes that it was somehow a cousin kekkei genkai of Hashirama's wood style. However, after some experimentation it was proven she could not develop her abilities farther than that and was a useful yet not worthy ability. He had placed a curse mark on her in a last attempt to see if it would promote her abilities but nothing.
This time he went through the pictures slowly. Why didn't he see it before. "All of them..." Orochimaru's voice was hoarse. Sure enough all the victims were prisoners he had captured from the Land of Mist. Some were people he had recruited, but all of them were people he had placed cursed marks on. For one reason or another. But what was the meaning of this? It didn't make any sense. Why was someone going around killing people with curse marks...even more troubling, how did they know they had them in the first place? "Every single one of them had a curse mark." Orochimaru looked up at Tsunade with a grimace. "Its a shame really. Some of these people showed great promise in skill for them to be dead...perhaps someone trying to test their skills against my chosen ones."
Hinata felt terrible and prayed silently for them. One thing she couldn't get off her mind though was what was the significance of the curse mark with this? "...Some of the victims are children Orochimaru. This goes beyond someone trying to test their skills." Tsunade shifted her weight to one of her legs as she became uncomfortable. "We need to do something. There is no doubt this has something to do with you, whether you are involved or not is left to debate. Your mission is to get to the bottom of these murders Orochimaru. Hinata I will be assigning you to keep an eye on him and Sakura will be following you as well." Orochimaru gave a rather annoyed sigh. "No complaining!"
"Surely you realize how incredibly dumb that is Princess Tsunade? Sakura-chan still hasn't quite forgiven me for my past actions." There was a hint of whining in his tone. Tsunade merely waved him off and began to leave. "None of that! Sakura is a capable kunoichi and I trust her to keep you under control. However if anything were to happen to either of them rest assured there will be consequences. I will personally come for your head." All four walked Tsunade through the estate. "Besides you more than anyone should be used to cooperating with a member that hates you."
"Ah yes there was that period of time with Jiraiya. If I remember correctly a certain someone said and I quote, 'If I were to have a boyfriend, I'd choose Orochimaru over an egghead perv like you' provoking that sentiment in the first place." Tsunade let out a mischievously boastful laugh. "You leave tomorrow morning, behave and good luck." The Hyuuga's waved good bye at the Hokage as Orochimaru let out a final irritated sigh and left to go to his room. Hinata looked as he went back inside and went to follow him.
Elder Hyuuga quickly grabbed hold of Hinata's arm. His eyes locked with Hinata's, "A word Hinata." Confused Hinata obeyed and lingered. "I warn you, if you are also involved with this you won't be forgiven." All the color flooded from her face as her heart dropped. "Y-you think I-I am involved?! N-no! I have nothing to d-do with this!" Her heart raced with fear as her grandfather stared at her with merciless eyes. "You better not be. I know about you and Orochimaru as well and I won't hesitate to inform Hiashi about your lecherous activities with the Serpent. Listen...and listen to me very carefully granddaughter, I won't allow you to taint our good clan's name. Understood?" He let go of here shoving her lightly.
Hinata was trembling in fear at her grandfather's threat. So he did know. She nodded in understanding and slowly walked away from his menacing presence. Her chest was heavy as it became difficult for her to breath. Elder Hyuuga sighed sadly at his granddaughter's foolish predicament. He was doing what was right. He had to make her understand the risks she is taking with that man.
Hinata went to go to her room to lie down for a bit but as she turned sharply to the right corridor she saw Orochimaru had waited for her. He had a small smile as she finally caught up with him but he quickly became concerned. She was obviously shaken. Perhaps she was concerned about the Mist. "Hinata I assure you, I have nothing to do with the murders. I don't know what's going on either but I promise you I will get to the bottom of this. It's a shame Sakura is tagging along I was rather excited to think we would be going on our own." He couldn't embrace her with the risk of someone walking around so instead he stretched a hand towards her and patted her head trying to calm her down.
She looked up at him as tears began to fall from her eyes. He immediately stopped startled by such a negative rection. "M-my grandfather...h-he knows a-about u-us." She whispered quietly, her voice cracking and straining to remain composed. Orochimaru became serious as he watched the girl shed quiet tears. "I know. He confronted me about it some time ago. What did he tell you?" She shook her head and without hesitation embraced him tightly. At that moment Hinata didn't care whether or not anyone saw, she needed to be comforted by him.
Her face was buried in his chest and with slight pity Orochimaru rubbed the Hyuuga's back hoping to calm her down. He heard the Elder's foot steps and sure enough he passed by the corridor. Both men made eye contact but the Elder quickly looked away, hoping he hadn't fanned a flame. Orochimaru continued to eye where he had been. Something inside him was beginning to boil and his patience with the senile coot was wearing dangerously thin.
New Chapter Up~! Stay Awesome! :3