Chapter 24: The Serpent

The laboratory was lit with a green glow, casting the surroundings in a sickly pallor that made it feel as if all other colors had been wiped out of existence. Death hung heavy in the air, particularly around a stack of boxes covered in preservation seals.

Boxes just large enough to hold a child.

Most of the space was occupied by a series of tall glass cylinders, and within hung the subjects for his current run of experiments. Limp bodies floated suspended in thick fluid, cables and tubes wrapping around their young, fragile limbs. Over half of the testing chambers were empty: drained of liquid and unlit.

At a lab table amidst the various testing apparatus, waiting for a cloudy solution to congeal, Orochimaru considered his notes.

The project had been proceeding precisely as he had expected it to: poorly.

By now nearly all of the test subjects had failed, either succumbing to the chakra drain from the injected Hashirama cells or simply too weak to survive the procedure in the first place. Obviously, none had shown any sign of developing the Wood Release kekkei genkai.

"Such a waste," he murmured to himself, vaguely irritated with the situation.

He may as well have just tested on cadavers.

Doing so was generally preferred, actually; there was less risk involved, and no consideration need be made for the survival of the subject. Granted, some experiments did require a living participant, but he had an… agreement with the Torture and Interrogation Department for those cases. The unfortunate death of a traitor or prisoner had never been much of an issue.

Not that it was much of an issue now. Clearly nobody cared if the street orphans simply vanished—it would not have been so easy to get the case dropped otherwise.

Still, if the commander hadn't been so insistent that the project remain completely secret, he would have rather followed his usual methods. The secrecy meant an annoying lack of human subjects for introductory experiments, and there was only so much he could learn from stray animals.

So instead, subjects that could have been worth something ended up dying in the preliminary tests.
Like he had said: a waste.

As things were, two thirds of the original S1-15 group had failed, leaving five barely alive and fading fast. The second group, S16-25, had lost only two, but the remaining eight were all on a steady decline and their deaths were basically assured. All but one of S26-35 had died. Testing on S36-45 had only just begun, but he was certain that its results would be much the same.

All sacrifices to even begin to understand the effects of the injections.

At least, dead or alive, there was much that could be learned from the bodies.

There was a shift in the chakra seals lining his laboratory, and he spared it enough attention to determine that the detected intruder actually had the clearance to visit.

Unfortunately, yes.

With an irritated scowl, Orochimaru tapped a quick sequence on the table and pulsed his chakra: a seal built into the wood immediately stored away all of his research notes save what few he'd actually share. As much as he disliked detailing his discoveries to a second party, at least the man he reported to could appreciate his work.

With the Hokage… Sarutobi-sensei had always looked sad. Apologetic.

The lab door slid aside.

"Commander Danzō," Orochimaru greeted, smile drawing up on one side into a sarcastic smirk. He tapped the side of the beaker in front of him, checking how much the cloudy solution had thickened. "What a pleasant surprise."

It was nothing of the sort: he was busy.

His lone eye glancing around the lab with an expression of detached interest, Danzō approached the lab table. "What have you learned?"

Instead of answering, the scientist simply handed over a scroll summarizing the unimpressive results of the most recent batch of experiments. It was faster than trying to lecture him on the finer points of genetic engineering, and the councilman likely wouldn't have understood a more detailed account anyway. The older man unrolled the report, quickly skimming through to get the general details.

It was easy to notice when he reached the section on the actual test results.

"I gave you these children to make them stronger," he remarked after a moment, pocketing the scroll. "To make capable weapons for the village. Not to kill them off."

Orochimaru was unconcerned, simply continuing his work. He took a metal scoop and the beaker of now-opaque viscous solution, measuring out a small amount and adding it to a test tube of thick red liquid. The mixture hissed, and the glass warmed.

"You cannot expect one to find their way through uncharted country," he said at last, one hand idly unrolling a scroll while the other gently swirled the thin glass, "without taking a single wrong turn."

The commander nodded, apparently in agreement despite his earlier tone. "Sacrifices must be made." He set a hand against the nearest glass chamber, peering at the small body suspended inside with an unreadable expression. Then he glanced back to the scientist. "Though a traveler must always be wary of stepping on a snake."

Orochimaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes, catching both the literal and implied remarks. It would seem that word of how his summon was almost trod on by a child had spread. He would need to do something about that.

"So it would seem," he replied, tone perfectly neutral.

"Tell me," Danzō continued, "what have you learned?"

It was the same question as before, but the topic had clearly moved on. He knew what—or rather, who—the councilor was asking about, of course.

"There's nothing to learn." He set aside the test tube to settle. "Aside from his fascinatingly undetectable chakra, there is nothing remarkable about him. The man is just a civilian."

Which was not a lie, but was not quite the truth either.

Orochimaru had been keeping a passive eye on the odd blacksmith since he had first learned he was there. His monitoring seals could not track him and, given the proximity to his laboratory, the man could not simply be left unchecked. Not to mention the peculiarity of his chakra, which was enough reason in and of itself to assign some of his snakes to monitor him.

He had quickly determined that the man couldn't possibly be a shinobi; he answered questions too easily, and the information he shared didn't line up nearly well enough to be considered a stable cover story—another point of interest. Essentially, he was simply too suspicious to be an infiltrator. Nobody would sneak into a hidden village with a persona guaranteed to have the authorities keep an eye on them…

Unless they were a distraction.

Which was why he had actually bothered to inform the Hokage, all those months ago. If there was a threat to the village, something needed to be done.

Of course, even with ANBU surveillance in place, his summons remained. Threat or not, he was still curious about the man's strangely undetectable chakra.

Weeks became months, and the village remained largely undisturbed.

So the man likely wasn't a threat of any sort: had he actually been an infiltrator or distraction or attacker, something would have changed after nearly a full year.

Still, just as obviously as he couldn't be a shinobi, the odd man was far from a typical civilian.

Though his expression barely changed at all, Danzō still managed to look unconvinced. "A civilian, certainly. That agrees with the report given by the ANBU." He turned and headed for the door, but then paused, as if debating whether he should say more.

"And your own agents?" prompted Orochimaru.

"They have found nothing of note, besides the fact that there seems to be nothing to find."

That had him raise a brow, interested. "How curious."

"He has managed to ingratiate himself with several figures of importance in the village, and we know nothing of where he comes from." The councilman shook his head. "It would be remiss to ignore that fact simply because he appears harmless."

That emphasis was definitely aimed at one individual in particular.

"If something must be done," Orochimaru said, tapping one finger on the side of the now-cooling test tube, "I'm sure that something could be… arranged."

"Indeed." His lone eye narrowed in grim promise, before his expression returned to something more passive. "In the meantime, well. There is only so much we can learn at a distance."

At that, Danzō left. The door shut silently behind him.

There was a long moment of stillness, disturbed only by a the occasional liquid gurgle from the test chambers.

Then: "Caught by an academy student," he hissed in annoyance.

There was a blur at the floor by his feet, and a small white serpent slithered into view. "I was not caught, Master. Only seen, and the one who saw me did not seem bright."

"True," he conceded, "but that only means you were spotted by an idiot. That is no improvement."

The snake scowled—in as much as a snake can scowl—and replied, "It means he does not know what he saw. The civilian will think nothing of it."

Orochimaru frowned slightly, doubtful of that for no reason he could put into words. He gave his summon a dismissive wave, and the white serpent didn't hesitate to vanish in a cloud of chakra smoke.

Finally, he was left alone with his thoughts.

He had been preoccupied with more important projects over the past year, so he hadn't had much time to actively investigate the odd civilian: almost all of his information came from brief reports given by his summons, which were mostly inane tales of an unremarkable life.

But only mostly, and so his attention remained caught.

There were too many pieces that couldn't be easily explained, and he wanted to know how they all fit together. Now that the first stages of the experiment were fully underway, it was only a matter of gathering data and waiting; he should have time to pursue a few of his idle curiosities.

"Perhaps it is time to try another approach," Orochimaru mused, finding his thoughts lining up neatly with the councilman's parting remark.

There is only so much that can be learned at a distance, after all.

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Beware of snakes.

I found a great Persian proverb: "When the snake is old, the frog will tease him."
Such wisdom, though I have no idea what life-lesson that's supposed to teach me. It's pretty funny in this context, though.

Sweet goodness gracious, this was a hard chapter to write. Short, but very hard. Orochimaru is a tricky character to nail down. That said, tell me what you think of how he's been presented here. Advice is greatly appreciated!

This semester had been absolutely exhausting, and the past few weeks especially so. Sorry that it's a short chapter, but sometimes life be like that. (I'm very tired.)

Updates on the 15th of every month. MADE IT, WOAH SNAP THAT WAS THE CLOSEST.
Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows!

(Now it is time to sleep. Assuming I can get my brain to calm down.)

See ya on the flipside, everyone!