Chapter III
The Strongest: The Snake Sannin
Kakashi sighed looking at the sky, he estimated he still had two hours before he decided to meet his team. He mentally prepared himself for how the bell test would go and once again sighed.
Who was he kidding? Even if they failed, what was impossible since Naruto knew about the purpose of the test, he would have to allow them to graduate and take them as a team, council orders.
'Honestly, what are they thinking? A team like this will cause unbalance between the other teams, all prodigies, the Kyubi Jinchuriki, Sharingan, Byakugan, the Rigukan, and the Limitless. Oh well, I will let Naruto figure it out, maybe he has already something planned,' Kakashi thought before once again looking at the time before shrugging and taking out his Icha Icha, giggling where no one would hear him.
Naruto looked at Kakashi from distant trees, far enough that even the man's Sharingan wouldn't notice him, thanks to the Rikugan, he was able to see everything in the slightest details, no matter how far it was, as long as it was in his line of vision.
"Typical, Kakashi, making everyone wait for you. Eh, I guess some things never change," He muttered with a small smile and turned in the other direction, looking at team eight, consisting of Kiba, Shino, and Sakura under Kurenai. Naruto noticed the raven-haired beauty began her exam and from the looks of things her team would pass.
The blond's attention shifted to Asuma who was leading the Ino-Shika-Cho of the new generation, but to the blond's amusement, the bearded Jonin was playing Shogi versus Shikamaru, talking about gossip with Ino and eating chips with Choji. Well, at least they were enjoying themselves.
With a single leap, Naruto landed on the ground and walked home. He still had about two hours before Kakashi would go to the academy and in the meantime, he could relax some at his home.
Naruto sighed in contentment taking a sip of tea, imported from the Land of Twilight, a moderate country finding itself on an island. It was also the westernmost country in the elemental nations.
It cost him a fortune to have it imported to Konoha, not to mention the delivery time, which was three months. The 'fallen star' tea was only produced in the land of Twilight and they wouldn't tell anyone how they made it, which caused a few wars and conflicts already.
'Imagine, countries fighting over the recipe of a tea' But while the blond thought how silly it sounded, he had to admit, while having drunk many types of teas, even in the best tea shops on the continent, the fallen star tea was his favorite.
Behind Naruto, in a shadowed corner of his apartment, slitted golden eyes opened and watched the blond carefully. In a single swift motion, a pale white hand shot out and hit its target. Naruto sighed and looked over his shoulder at the amused visage of the Snake Sannin.
"Orochimaru," The blond greeted, giving the older man an annoyed look. The black-haired Legend took a sip of the tea and smiled in contentment.
"Naruto-kun, how good to see you again,"
"I would say the same but you took my tea,"
"Kukuku, it's really tasty, I almost wonder how much have you paid for it,"
"3 S-Rank missions. Now before you start talking again, is there something you wish to tell me, or is this just a social visit?" The blond asked seriously, turning his whole body to look at the Snake summoner, who surprisingly became very serious.
"Very well, first, it's just as you suspected, there has been some movement in Suna, Kusa andAme,"
"Amegakure as well? Hmm, well, that's five Villages that are mobilizing their forces, three of them are great Villages. I am not sure if even Konoha would be able to fight this war. How are our relations with Kiri?" The older SHinobi sighed and looked out of the window.
"Kiri has been in isolation for the past few years, a civil war between the bloody Mizukage regime and the resistance, consisting of bloodline users and few people that wanted to pose the Yondaime,"
"I see, so they have their hands full for the moment. What about the other thing I wanted to be checked, Orochimaru?" The blond asked and the pale man gave him a small smirk.
"Just as you suspected, there have been some movements on the Island of Uzu. I wasn't able to get anything definitive yet, but I am certain that once you venture there, you will be able to find what you searching for," The blond smiled at that and stood up.
"So there is the possibility that I am not the last Uzumaki, maybe some of them are still on the island, protecting it and waiting for my return," The blond mused and turned to leave his house, seeing how it was about time Kakashi appeared on the clearing. Before leaving, he turned to the Sannin who was looking at him expectantly.
"You have done well, continue to observe the other Village's movement and inform me should anything of notice be noticeable. Ah, and if you would stumble upon who is the one leading the rebels in Kiri and get in contact with them, it would be most splendid," Without another word, the blond left the Sanin with his orders.
Some would scoff at the idea of the Orochimaru ever following a twelve-year-old brat, no matter how strong they might have been, but the Sannin thought differently. He remembered the day the two met for the first time.
It was nighttime in Konoha, a perfect time for the Snake Sannin to conduct his experiments on immortality and the various Bloodline limits. Ever since Yondaime has been elected to lead the VIllage instead of him, the dark-haired man has been disappointed and angry.
Angry at Sarutobi, who ever since accepting him as one of his Genin told him about his potential and the hopes he had for Orochimaru to lead the Villages one day. The old monkey went as far as playing favorites and giving him private lessons, not only in the Shinobi arts but in what he dubbed the 'Leader courses'.
This, of course, added with the lack of parental figures for the Sannin, led to him being attached to everything Hiruzen has ever taught him in hopes of not disappointing his Sensei and fulfilling the hopes the man held for him.
That was until Minato came. Ever since then, the Third distanced himself from Orochimaru, focusing more on the blond, teaching and mentoring him on topics Jiraiya couldn't or did not know about.
For a long time, Orochimaru remained hopeful, training and learning more for the sake of his effort being recognized by his Sensei, but it seemed no matter what he did and no matter how hard he tried, the old monkey's focus stayed on the young Namikaze.
This led to Orochimaru feeling resentful at the Third and soon it turned to anger when the younger Shinobi was chosen as Hiruzen's successor.
The disappointment was aimed solely at him. A small part of him always remained Orochimaru that he wasn't good enough and that the Sandiame simply choose a better alternative.
This led to Orohcimaru's obsession with becoming more powerful, and more knowledgeable, which in turn soon bloomed in experiments on the different talented Shinobi in hopes of finding a way to better himself.
The snake summoner concluded that a bloodline limit was something that could give him the edge he sought and not too long after, he began with his experiments.
However, with his still relatively young age, Orochimaru knew that he had to be quick, otherwise he never might find the answer he was looking for, and soon came the fear of dying.
What would all his efforts matter if he died before achieving the pinnacle of being a Shinobi? He knew that death was something unavoidable, no matter how strong you became. The best examples were Hashirama and Madara. They were seen as gods by other Shinobi, but even then they succumbed to the grasp of the reaper.
An idea formed in his mind.
If he never died, he would have all the time in the world to achieve the pinnacle of power and forever have it at his grasp, then undoublty he would be seen as the strongest and all who doubted him, as Hiruzen would cower at his feet.
His experiments would be seen by most, if not by all, as immoral and sinful, but the Snake Sannin was sure that once he achieved his goal, none would dare to go against him.
And so, the pale Ninja was collecting the necessary subjects for his experiments. Some of them were the bodies of deceased Shinobi, other were Shinobi whose absence wouldn't be missed or could be explained as a mission going awry. A few of the Subjects were simply orphans, for who no one would bat an eye trying to find out where they have gone.
Some of them had Kekkei Genkai's while others were simple Shinobi, some were strong others were weak. But all of them were subjects that the Sannin could use.
Tonight has been most fruitful, he snatched the body of a recently dead Jonin, who was killed on a mission, but his body was brought back to the Village. Tomorrow would be his burial and since neither was he well known nor had any close family, Orochimaru exchanged his corpse with a fake, knowing it would be enough to fool others.
As he walked through an empty training ground towards one of his many secret bases in the Village, he felt a set of eyes on his back. Slightly startled, the man turned around only to find a young boy looking at him through sunglasses, even though it was the middle of the night.
He recognized him by the eyeglasses that usually covered his eyes and spiky blond hair. Although he never met him, not wanting to meet the child of the man who took his dreams away from him, Orochimaru heard about Naruto.
Putting his best-disarming smile, Orochimaru greeted the boy.
"Ah, you must be the famous Naruto, who everyone is talking about,"
"And you are Orochimaru, the old man's student,"
"Yes, that would be me. Would you mind telling me what you are doing here, so late at night? Someone might attack or try to capture you, especially with how similar you are looking to your father," The blond snorted and closed the distance between himself and the Sannin.
"You kidding? Anyone who would try this probably has a death wish," This intrigued Orochimaru. While he heard of the boy and his two bloodline limits, he was not aware of how strong the boy was. Surely, a six-year-old wouldn't be strong enough to be this confident. Or maybe this was pure arrogance?
"Well, no matter how much I would like to talk more with you, I have some places to be, so if you excuse me-" The Sannin said and turned around.
"What do you need the corpse for?" The pale man froze. Not turning to face the blond, he asked.
"I have no idea what you talking about," Surely, the kid had no evidence, right?
"I'm talking about the corpse you took from the mortuary, you know, this Jonin,"
'Shit! Has he been following me for so long? I didn't even sense his presence. No, what's more important, he has evidence, if anyone ever discovers this, I am done.' The older man narrowed his eyes, his Chakra surging through his body.
In a single moment, he was standing ten meters away from the child, the next, Orochimaru was behind him, a Kuani drawn and poised to strike. Only, it didn't strike. The Sannin's eyes widened as he saw the knife stop a few inches away from the blond and a bead of sweat slid down his face.
The blond didn't react instantly, instead, his head craned slowly to look at Orochimaru, his cold blue eyes peaking at the Sannin from under his sunglasses. And then, Orochimaru saw and felt it, the power behind these eyes.
The presence felt overwhelming, even with his experience and strength, it felt like he was a mere pebble compared to a mountain. The weight of Naruto's power promised to squash him like a bug, an unworthy obstacle that wasn't even worth being looked at by those eyes. He tried to peer his gaze away, to create distance and use his repertoire of Ninjutsu to fight this monster, but he stood still, lost in those eyes.
Most Shinboi wouldn't ever come close to feeling the power Narut held, just because they were unable to imagine the scope of it, but Orochimaru, who was one of the strongest Shinobi alive and a talented sensor, who saw beasts like the Biju and monsters like the Sandaime, Yondaime, and Hanzo of the Salamander himself, he was able to truly see the extent of this beautiful power.
At this moment, the Sannin understood the limitless difference between him and the child, blessed with powers as divine as the Rinnengan. He was snapped back to reality when the blond took a step away and look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You good? I asked what you need the corpse for, not to try and attack me," The blond said, his hands in his pockets, looking at the Sannin with a curious expression. The man lowered the knife and swallowed hard.
"For my experiments," He muttered, knowing that if it came to it, he stood no chance, not yet at least.
"Experiments? And you need a corpse for that? What are you researching?"
"I'm in search of power and immortality," The blond looked at him with an interested expression before smiling.
"Power, huh? Good to know. Hey, tell you what, if you work for me, I will help you," Orochimaru couldn't believe what he just heard. The absurdity of him, one of the Sannin to work under a child, made him chuckle.
"Yes? And how could you help me?" He asked, amused at the prospect of working for the blond.
"You know, if it's corpses you need, I can bring you a lot of them once I become a Shinobi, strong and special one, unlike this Jonin,"
"And what do you expect in return, then? I believe it's too good of an offer for you to not want anything in return,"
"You are right. I need someone who will help me with some... projects, yea let's call it like this. And of course, once you find the power you are looking for, I will want to fight you, to compare our powers,"
The Snake summoner was speechless. While he held no love for Konoha and planned to abandon it one day, he didn't expect to become a follower of the Uzumaki boy. Nevertheless, it wasn't a bad offer, after all, following possibly the strongest person in the world, would mean more protection for him, which would give him more time to achieve immortality. With a chuckle, he nodded and clasped the boy's hand when he extended it.
"I hope our partnership will be most fruitful," The Sannin declared and Naruto grinned.
"Of course, it will be,"
And as it turned out, the partnership was very fruitful, Orochimaru may be bold enough to say. With the help of the blond, the pale man was able to make many breakthroughs in his research, which would take him much longer without the subjects acquired by the blond.
With time, the partnership even turned to loyalty on Orochimaru's part. He saw how fast the blond was progressing, how strong he was becoming and because of this Orochimaru saw a glimpse of himself in the blond. Maybe he was just becoming older and more sentimental, but the black-haired man wanted to see what Naruto would do, what he would achieve. The snake summoner wanted to be at the heart of the changes the blond would bring.
Naruto landed silently on a branch outside the academy and saw his assignment, the Hyuga girl and the Uchiha boy. He grinned, thinking about how to prank them already. Well, maybe being a Genin wouldn't be so bad, at least he would have Kakashi to make fun of the two Genins.
'Honestly, they are both called Geniuses, yet here they are, twelve and Genin, if Itachi ever heard of this, even he would crack a smile. Well, better get going, Kakashi will be here any moment.'
Next Chapter, team seven meeting, test, and training.