-I don't own Naruto-
Orochimaru was panicking. The old man was standing in front of him, in his secret lab for despicable experiments for the betterment of himself.
He put up a brave face.
Hiruzen was unimpressed
''Orochimaru... what are you doing?'' said the hokage, his arm crossed, his tone disapproving.
He had the face of a dad that would say smomething like ''I'm not angry, just disappointed ''
''I ...'' snake face didn't know what to say. This was worse than killing intent.
''Just some experiments'' He finally said. His bravado was gone, replaced by uncertainty.
''On humans'' sighed Lord Third.
''...No...'' he lied.
Hiruzen got angry and out of nowhere produced a sleeping child that could not be older than eleven ''Then what is this?''. Orochimaru gulped. He recognized him ''A kid''
''With wood release, because you implanted Hashirama cells into him''
''H-how do you know about it?'' oh crap, he was in so much trouble.
''Danzo confessed''
''Oh'' was all Orochimaru managed to say. That was... unexpected. Anxiety and fear creeped into his body. What did Hiruzen do to Danzo? How can someone make a man like him confess?
''Yes, oh. You are in big trouble young man, you did horrible things. I will punish you accordingly''
The sannin was trembling '' don't kill me master, please. I just wanted to cure death''
''Your punishment will be worse than death. Your crimes deserve much worse''
''What could possibly be worse than death?'' he asked. Being Sealed away perhaps? Costant torture until he died of old age? Sharing a room with Jiraya? The last one made him shudder.
Hiruzen took a deep breath ''As of today, you are now the fifth hokage, enjoy the paperwork''. And just like that, the old man vanished with the kid still in his arms. The Anbu with him all knelt down to their new leader.
''What?''
Hiruzen walked through the streets, watching his people going about their day to day activities. He loved all of them, but sometimes they were so annoying and hard to deal with. And he was old, too old and with a newborn grandson to raise. Three of them actually, in a sense (or perhaps four... he should stop taking in orphans before it was too late). He stopped in front of the orphanage. A terrified woman brought him a three years old with spiky blonde hair. ''Hello little Naruto'' he said. The boy looked up at him with big and curious blue eyes. The boy looked a bit underweight. He knew the staff didn't treat him well. He was disappointed by how adults treated little Naruto, but he could not say he didn't understand. Tens, if not hundreds of people had died during the tragedy of three years prior. Almost everyone had lost at least one family member. People hated the fox and the fox was contained into Naruto. Not even some ninja understood the difference between jinchuriki and tailed beast, he didn't expect civilians to know any better. It still wasn't fair and justifiable and so he leaked a tiny bit of killing intent just for fun, scaring the people. ''Jiji?'' said Naruto. ''Let's go home Naruto''
Orochimaru was excited. One of his dreams had come true. To think Hiruzen would think this was a punishment! Ha! He truly was senile. He sat in his new chair in his new office. He laughed and girlishy screamed when suddenly the door burst open. Tsunade, surprisingly sober, stood there, whatching him with a super serious expression.
''Tsunade?'' he asked
She stared at him for several seconds and then she started laughing so hard tha tears spilled from her eyes.
The snake sannin was annoyed ''what's so funny?''.
She laughed harder ''The Old Man really did that... he really made you...'' she could not finish. Still laughing she flickered away.
''Why is it so funny?''
Two days later came Jiraya, acting exactly like Tsunade. Orochimaru was pissed and still didn't understand why it was funny... or a punishment. Part of him was sad that his team didn't even congratulate him. Not that he would have done it if the roles were reversed.
Three months later, the day after the birthday of a certain Hyuga, he understood why it was a punishment.