"Let me think...", Said Orochi, rubbing his chin in a picturesque way. "Nope. I won't", He answered.
"Orochimaru, I knew your parents..."
But the old man didn't have time to continue as the second man suddenly shot a red beam at Orochimaru. But Orochimaru didn't jump away from the target area of the attack, reacting with only a small, sparing but eerily smooth movement, sidestepping the sudden attack without jumping off the ceiling.
The black-haired man, right in the middle of the attack, pulled a small rope from the pocket of his robes, muttering a hasty mutter under his breath:
"Portus."
And with a slight swirl, with a loud pop, he suddenly disappeared.
Orochimaru frowned, and without waiting for the old man to perform a similar action, immediately rushed at him from the ceiling with all available speed, knocking him out with a precise and accurate blow to the temple with his fingers.
Because of the excessive inertia he had accumulated as a result of jumping from height, Orochimaru was unable to regroup immediately, flying a few meters forward with his back to the old man, so he had no time to react to the sudden appearance of the red bird, which, with a small flash of fire, transported the old man's body before it could fall.
"Damn."
But then, he noticed a small yellowish envelope lying near one of the piles of dirt that had apparently flown out of the old man's pocket.
He was in the middle of a fight with the old man, and then he saw a small yellowish envelope lying beside one of the piles of dirt that had apparently fallen out of the old man's pocket.
He was also able to pull the already open envelope up to him with the same chakra thread, and pulled out one of the letters.
"Parchment", Orochimaru whispered, stroking the green-inked page with his fingers.
"Surrey, suburb of Little Whinging, wasteland, Orochimaru's underground lab, bedroom at the opera...", Orochimaru stuttered, stopping to read the letter for a second.
"The operating room... So they've been following me for a long time", Orochimaru understood this clarification in his own way, continuing to read the letter.
"The School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?", He cocked an eyebrow, rereading that particular line once more.
Running his eyes over the entire text, Orochimaru noticed the words that often appeared, such as mage, wizard, sorcerer, and the like.
"Not the strangest self-name for a chakra user...", He thought, returning to reading the letter.
"That Albus Dumbledore... With titles like that, he must be a pretty strong shin... Wizard", He corrected himself. "Maybe even on the level of the old monkey."
"Problem..." - Orochimaru exhaled.
After reading the letter to the end, Orochimaru sighed heavily, and folded the sheet and put it back in the envelope.
"So, in his lifetime, the boy was enrolled by someone in this strange school. It's possible that the same old man who claims to have known 'my' parents...", Thought Orochimaru, approaching his throne.
Sitting back on it, Orochimaru rubbed his temples wearily, returning to his thoughts:
"So it was just the instructors of this so-called school. Mere chunin." He hummed. "That explains their weakness, though they're still too slow even for a genin, though that's partially offset by a pretty wide arsenal of ninjutsu. I'd say they're somewhere on the level of a chunin. Though I'd even give the old man a stretch of tokubetsu", Thought Orochimaru, remembering the instant application of the water elemental ninjutsu that was able to block his fireball.
"There wasn't a drop of chakra in those attacks. Pure natural energy. Although they were pretty easy to dodge, if anything, they were pretty hard to block with normal ninjutsu. It's a good thing I had time to refine the seal for today..."
"Two-thirds of my chakra is still sealed. Also, this body still hasn't reached its peak, and I doubt that even after time it will compare in strength to my previous body, since most modifications are missing and I can't do them without the proper genetic material. Also, the lack of summoning severely curtails the use of my fighting style. If you don't count senjutsu, I'm a strong jounin at most. And with sen-mode on, I'm about the same level as an A-ranked shinobi, though I'm not up to Kakashi's level..."
"Especially since, from what I hear, he's even gotten a little stronger since the war", Snorted Orochi.
"Anyway...", He said aloud, rising from his throne. "As unfortunate as it is to admit it, my sanctuary has been compromised. And in all likelihood, for quite some time."
"I don't know how strong the local 'wizards' are, but if you take those two as the benchmark for the average shinobi in this world, then in the event of a full-scale raid on the base - I don't have much chance of winning. At least not with my current strength. We need to lay low immediately, and try to somehow find a local hidden village", Thought Orochimaru, heading for his lab.
"Albus, don't you understand? This monster was simply playing with us!"
"Severus", Dumbledore said sternly, "you're the one who started all this. If you hadn't provoked Harry, none of this would have happened."
"Didn't you hear what he said? He had no intention of leaving us alive to begin with! - He retorted loudly."
"As you can see, even though he attacked, he didn't kill me", Said Dumbledore, rubbing a small bruise on his temple. "And he had his chance."
"He said it himself, he needed the tongue. - Severus stopped getting heated, pulling himself together a little. "And if you didn't have a phoenix, there's no way he would have let you go alive.
"There's no need to be so categorical. And after all, you were the one who threw the spell at him first, the one who ran away from the battle. Even though you saw for yourself that we were starting to have a dialogue."
"And it was my only chance of salvation!", He raised his voice again. "If I hadn't distracted him with my spell, I wouldn't have had time to use the puncher! You said yourself you didn't even get a good look at how he knocked you out!", Severus shouted toward the end.
After catching his breath a little, Snape continued in a calmer voice:
"I knew your phoenix could get you out anyway. But I'm sure if you were missing he wouldn't give me a chance to escape. I'd just be bound by those mud golems in no time, so your phoenix's claws wouldn't have anything to grab onto."
When Snape finally finished his rebuke, Dumbledore's office was briefly silent.
"Well," Dumbledore replied after a while, "your arguments sound reasonable, and quite justify your sudden escape. But," he said, "I still don't agree with what you said about Harry's cruelty. He's just a child lost in life, albeit a pretty strong one. Besides, you heard yourself that he doesn't remember himself at all..."
"Why are you still so sure it's Harry and not the evil spirit in his body?", Snape interrupted him abruptly, looking seriously into the eyes of his companion.
"I didn't want to tell you that yet, Severus", Dumbledore sighed heavily, slowly getting up from the table. "Have you ever wondered why Voldemort can't die?"
"Stone Dwelling Destruction Technique", Orochimaru voiced the name of the technique in his head as he folded three hand seals.
After that, a slight shiver went over the ground, accompanied by the muffled sounds of the collapse of the shelter that Orochimaru had painstakingly built throughout his time in this world.
"I've certainly never swallowed so many scrolls in my life", Orochimaru hummed cheerfully, trying to distract himself from his small regrets about the wasted time. "At least I had some time to pack this time, and I won't have to settle in at the next place from the beginning."
"I should suppress my chakra for now, well, as well as disable the senin mod so I can get lost somewhere crowded", Thought Orochimaru, cutting off his access to nature's energy through the SCR.
"I think London would be perfect", Said Orochimaru, hurrying towards the capital.
"And you think it was the Horcrux that was able to affect him so much?", Snape asked doubtfully.
"Yes, Severus. I may have underestimated its influence, but I don't believe it could be an evil spirit. Blood protection is tied to the body, not the soul. So it would not allow any magical influence on Harry's body, even after his death."
"The blood protection you've been harping on about all year?", Raising an eyebrow, Severus asked. "I thought it was just a fairy tale for McGonagall so she wouldn't kill you too much after she found out the details of Harry living with the Dursleys. Do you even believe in her existence?"
"No, I don't. I know she exists because I have personally seen the results of her actions", Dumbledore said confidently.
"You mean..."
"Yes, Severus", Albus grinned, gleaming his glasses slyly. "Do you really believe that a baby can defend himself with his bare forehead against an unkickable spell?"
"Ahem", Snape coughed dryly, preparing to ask his next question:
"Do you think that monstrous power is also the result of a Horcrux's influence?"
"Quite possibly", Thinking a little, Dumbledore answered, remembering the words of the prophecy:
"And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but will not know all his power...", He repeated and repeated in his head. "Well, apparently that power will be much greater than I expected at first..." He hummed. "But what's its price?"
Hello, this is the author of this fanfic speaking to you're. The thing is, I'm looking for a beta for this work. You've probably noticed by now that my English is way off, and it's not because it's my second language. It's not even my third. It's that I don't even know it at a conversational level. This fanfic is written in russian, and I just run it through Deepl Translator. I think you've already realized how bad it is :)
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