Chapter 18: Orochimaru's Motives 7. (Finale)
Author note guys, This is going to the the last chapter of this arc and the second last chapter of the volume, after that I will be beginning the Pseudo-academy plus Gennin Chapter.
Also I don't think I have clarified the ages of characters.
Shirai: 4 Years 6 Months old. (He was born on Oct 10th)
Itachi: 5 Years 9 months old.
Sakura: 1 Year old.( I messed her age up in one of the previous chapters, so I'm here to correct it.)
Naruto: 6 Months old.
Saskuke: 7-8 Months old.
Time since the Kyubbi attack: 6 months and 3 weeks.
...
Orochimaru chuckled in amusement as he slowly poured a solution into a test tube containing some reddish Brown coloured liquid.
"Kukuku, What amazing Adaptability! Even the Unstable H.U.Cells are Lot more stable than before." Orochimaru inspected the test tube in his hands, an oozing smoke appeared to come out of the test tube. The smoke soon dissapeared into thin air.
(H.U. Cells are Hashirama Cells and Uzumaki DNA, combined they are inherently Unstable and full of impurities, I mentioned this in one of the previous chapters.)
The impurities in the H.U.Cells were killed away by the combined H.U. Cells and the Blood Of Shirai Haruno, escaping the solution as smoke. The Snake Sannin chuckled slightly upon seeing the finished product. A thick red liquid, a stable and usable form of cells.
Orochimaru out the Enhanced H.U. Cells in an incubating scroll an put the scroll in his pocket, and walked out of his lab, for the first time in a few days. He walked through the dark and narrow halls, he walked towards the Main hall, intent on checking how his hired Mercenary guards were doing their job.
"And that's the last one, Phew." He heard someone say from the main hall, a childish voice, one eerily irritating and similar. The Sannin sprinted towards the main hall intending on finding this Supposed intruder.
The pink haired Brat was sitting in a pile of bodies, Orochimaru's hired mercenaries. The Sannin's eyes were widened for a second before he slowly unwinded them, a creepy smile growing on his face, hs licked his lips with his creepy long tongue.
"Oh, fuck it's Snakey."
Shirai seemed to notice Orochimaru standing Infront of him, licking his lips in a weird and creepy manner. He turned a complete one eighty degrees and sprinted onwards the supposed exit from where the Mercenary guards were guarding.
As Shirai reached the opening, the opening of a cave, He noticed the Snake Sannin, appearing Right In front of him. Shocked, he turned to the other direction, kicking up dusts in the Sannin's eyes.
Bastard didn't expect dirt to be thrown in his face. Shirai ran towards the forest, finding that the snake Sannin was following him, soon Orochimaru would catch up, in less than 5 seconds, no he is just gaining speed, its more like 2 seconds.
Shirai started weaving handsigns for the only offensive Justu he knew, in a rapid manner the Handsigns for Firestyle: Great fireball jutsu were Weaved. Orochimaru was startled to see such display from kid but regained his composure, intending on reaching the kid before he finished weaving the handsigns.
Orochimaru leaped towards the kid and realised he isn't going to make it before The kid finishes the jutsu, in midair he couldn't do anything but throw a kunai at the kid, hoping that the kid would be injured by the kunai instead of finishing the jutsu.
Orochimaru greatly underestimated the kid as the last handsign was weaved by the kid, Shirai managed to move jutsu in time for the kunai to miss his major vital areas but still had his left lung pierced by the kunai. He winched slightly but fought through the pain and findished the handsigns.
"Fire style: Great Fireball justu."
He poured as much chakra into the jutsu as he could. Roughly a quarter of his reserves. Chakra practically escaped his mouth in pure state, boosting the flammability and destructive nature of the Simple fireball to great heights.
A blueish Yellow fireball, roughly quadruple the size of a normal fireball emerged from the kid's mouth, The Sannin was baffled by the size of the jutsu, even if the kid had been integrated with Hashirma cells, A kid was still a kid.
Quickly thinking of all the possibilities, Orochimaru quickly started coating his body in water Style chakra. As the large fireball went past him, a leidenfrost later of vapour managed to form, protecting him from the heat of the fireball before it was too late.
The fireball destroyed a sizeable amount of the forest starting a small wildfire, but the target of the jutsu was nowhere to be found, was he reduced to ashes?
Shirai looked around, not finding the snake Sannin, he removed the kunai from his shoulder and felt his blood starting to clog up the injury to his left lung. He felt a cold hand in his shoulder and a stinging pain to his neck.
The Sannin appeared to be slightly scorched by the fireball, in his hands, he held the unconscious body of Shirai Haruno.
...
""The facility seems to be coated in earth chakra as well, but I can see A pile of unconscious Mercenaries." Hizashi said to his hokage, The Hyuga had veins buldging around his pearly white eyes, they were currently running down the tunnel in top speed. The Hokage, Hizashi, Kakashi and Tenzo att he front and the Uchiha's and other Ninajs at the back.
"Hokage-Sama, I see two people." Hizashi informed his hokage. The Hokage nodded upon hearing Hizashi.
"Can you tell me what they look like?" The Hokage asked Hizashi, the Hyuga nodded at his Leader.
"One is tall and slender, a male, with long slick hair. The other is a kid, he seems to be about 6-8 years old give or take a few, his hair colour is slightly in the Reddish spectrum, likely the kid you are looking for Hokage-Sama." Hizashi informed the hokage, the hokage had slightly widened his eyes. There was no mistaking it, this tall slender man was definitely Orochimaru and the kid was likely to be Shirai.
"The kid seems to be escaping the facility, going towards the great Konoha forest but is being chased by the tall man." Hizashi explained to his hokage, Hiruzen increased his speed and quickly reached the facility. His subbirdinates quickly sped up as well, to catch up after their hokage.
*Boom*
An explosion of sorts seemed to have happened in the surface, shaking the tunnel up. The Hokage looked to be frustrated and looked at the Hyuga running besides him.
"A fireball justu from the kid, One many times denser and roughly quadruple the size of a normal fireball." The Hyuga told the Hokage, The professor seemed to be mildly suprised but kept his composure.
"Kakashi, Tenzo you two follow me, others, raid the facility and rescue any other children you find. Fugaku You're on charge."The Hokage informed his force of roughly 65 shinobi, composed mostly of Uchiha's and the tracking clans of Hyuga, Inazuka and Aburame as well as Tenzo and Kakashi. The other experienced combatant was Fugaku Uchiha, as a clan head and also having a large number of shinobi under him was the reason he was the Vice-leader of this mission.
"Okay, Hokage-Sama." Kakashi and Tenzo said simultaneously. Fugaku commanded the shinobi to quickly enter the facility.
"Hiding like a mole jutsu." The Hokage announced the name of his jutsu and quickly dug up from the ground. Reaching the surface in no time. Kakashi and Tenzo soon followed after their leader.
...
"KuKuKu, You certainly were troublesome Brat!" Orochimaru said, holding on to the pink haired kid with a single hand. The kid was troublesome for him to defeat with the unexpected and powerful Fireball technique. Orochimaru and many plans for the boy, maybe brainwashing his previous memories away and turning him into a loyal servant like Kabuto.
He chuckled upon the prospect, Kabuto was as loyal as a dog, the Yakushi won't dare betray him knowing what Orochimaru could do to him.
Orochimaru was beyond delighted upon the H.U.Cells succes, the cells could be revolutionary in his research. They were basically a blessing of life force to whoever they were injected into. The Sannin giggled creepily upon the prospect of using The Haruno kid for his research.
As he jumped from tree to tree, going toward his base to collect all his equipment into asealing scroll, a foreign yet familiar chakra signature appeared a couple of hundred meters behind him. And it was approaching him fast.
"Orochimaru, stop right there!" The voice of the Familiar chakra called out, the snake Sannin turned around, lightly shocked that the hokage himself had come. It would be a hard fought battle and the Sannin didn't know who would come out on top.
"Kukuku, I have been found?" The Sannin said in amusement, sarcastically. Looking at he Old and wrinkled face of his teacher. The Hokage was wise and powerful, perhaps even more than the previous Hokage's during his heydays but he was way past his prime at this point in time.
"You certainly weren't sly, what so ever, with your motives." Hiruzen stated the obvious as the Sannin Chuckled in amusement.
Does he think I will simply let him go? I have let my self be too biased towards him eventhough everyone told me of the rumors of his wrongdoings. Th hokage thought, lightly gripping his summoning staff, Emma.
"What will you do about it then? Beat me up like I am some child." Orochimaru asked the Hokage, Hiruzen grit his teeth.
"I'll do what I have to." He told the Sannin, The Sannin In front of him Chuckled. Hiruzen was certainly very strong but Orochimaru was a sly and cunning shinobi.
"Kukuku, Your sense of humour is just as old as you." Orochimaru said as he readied himself for a fight, dropping the kid held in his arm in the dirt, the boy looked pale, sickly yet vigorous, a sign showed by Tenzo as well. Showing the signs that Hashirama cells were imbued in him.
"Pthu, I never should have raised you as my own Orochimaru, I only ever had suspicions about your experiments but you have finally proved yourself." The Hokage spat on the ground, realising his old mistakes. He should have slit Orochimaru's throat when he started inhumanely experimenting with animals, when the snake had yet to grow fangs.
Images of Orochimaru's parents came to his mind, Sabito and Kimiko, civilian born jounins who died in the second shinobi war, they were fiercely loyal to Hiruzen. The memory of Orochimaru first picking up the white snake's shed came to his mind. The moment when Hiruzen told him it was a sign of good fortune, wisdom, or transformation.
That is the moment when the Sannin first got obsessed with snakes and eventually becoming a catalyst for the Sannin's veil personality.
"Kukuku, Look he's the product of one of those experiments, The only one among 78 children to survive." The Sannin said to the hokage. The professor's eyes widened in shock and disgust. He grid his teeth and saw nothing but evil infront if him. The child who longed for curiosity and knowledge was replaced with a monster in human skin.
"You bastard, Tenzo!" Hiruzen commanded his subbordinate, Tenzo got out of the trees and started weaving handsigns for a wood style jutsu.
"Wood style: Smothering Binding Technique." The Anbu said, unleashing a flurry of branches from both of his hands. The hands binded orochimaru, clearly locking him in place. Immobilising the Member of the Sannin.
"Kukuku, You are Kinoe, a creation of my own. But your techniques are far too weak to-" Orochimaru as interrupted as a shadow imerged out of the trees, moving at blinding fast speeds, with one eye red, spinning wildly.
"Chidori!!" Kakashi called out as his hand was completely envelopes by a blue chakra, the sounds of a thousand birds chirping entered everyone's ears.
Kakashi stabbed the chidori into the immobilezed head of Orochimaru, expecting blood to come out of the Sannin's head. Instead, the Sannin transformed into mud. Substituting with an earth clone.
"Too bad, try again next time." The Sannin told the Hatake, Widening the Scarecrow's eyes. A kunai was thrown at the hatake. Whose hand was stuck in the mud clone's head.
The Hokage appeared before the Jounin in a flash deflecting the kunai away. The roots entrapping the mud clone slowly recessed away, and the mud became loose enough for the Hatake to pull his hand out.In the short moment of distraction, the Sannin managed to run away.
"Tenzo, Take the kid to safety." The Hokage commanded The Anbu, Tenzo nodded he sprinted towards the oinket, grabbing him and running towards the rest of the tracking squad.
"Kakashi, Summon Pakkun." Th Hokage ordered the hatake, Kakashi nodded at the elder, going through several handsigns.
"Summoning jutsu." Kakashi spoke out as a small pug with ninja clothing appeared.
"Pakkun, search for the smell of a snake." The Hokage ordered the Ninja hound.
"On it, Hokage." Pakkun affurmated the leader of konoha. After a few seconds of smelling, the extremely smell sensitive Pakkun was able to find the location of a snake.
"A strong smell of a snake, a hundred meters northeast." The dog told the Hokage, Hiruzen nodded at the dog as Kakashi unsummoned the dog.
A moment if tree hopping later, Kakashi and Hiruzen had arrived to where Orochimaru had ran off to.
"You aren't escaping now Orochimaru." The Hokage told his student, the snake Sannin clicked his tongue, annoyed By the hokage.
"Damn you Hiruzen, Summoning Jutsu." Orochimaru cursed his teacher, using his blood to summon the king of snakes.
"Sss, Orochimaru, You dare summoning me during my Sss Mating time Sss." The purple snake hissed at its summoner, becoming increasingly angry at the Sannin by the second.
"I will feed you fifty, No a hundred humans Manda, I just need you to kill the old man." Orochimaru told the snake, the snake seemed to be rid of his annoyance to the Sannin's nf agreed.
"Emma!!" Hiruzen pulled the staff out of his back, the staff transformed into the king of all monkeys Emma.
"It'sss been a long time, King Emma. Sss Too bad you are dying here along with The old mansss."Manda told the summoned monkey. The monkey king grunted upon hearing the taunt of the snake.
The hatake meanwhile was going through a couple of handsigns, intending on casting a subtle illusion on Orochimaru. The Sannin easily took notice of Kakashi's attempt at putting him in a genjutsu and commented.
"Kukuku, You amuse me Hatake. But sadly your sharingan genjutsu is far too week to affect some like me." The Snake summoner said, easily breaking the genjutsu. Kakashi seemed to looj frustrated with the situation.
"Kakashi don't loose your calm. Try to deal with Manda while I take care of my mistake." The hokage commanded him, the scarecrow nodded.
"On it Hokage-sama." Kakashi said as he started battling Manda, fiercely.
Hiruzen and Orochimaru had a showdown, Teacher Vs studentm they both leaped into action. Hiruzen with Emma in hand and Orochimaru with a common kunai.
Hiruzen elongated his staff and swung at Orochimaru, just for the Sannin to leap, avoiding the staff entirely. Hiruzen clicked his tongue, shortening the staff and getting into hand to hand combat range.
The Sannin threw a right hok at Hiruzen, kunai at hand. The kunai got blocked by the professor, before being countered by the black adamantine staff. Orochimaru was swung away with great force, enough to break a few branches and make an indentation on the ground.
"Wind Style: Great breakthrough." Orochimaru heard his sensei call out and immediately started weaving handsigns for the same jutsu.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." Orochimaru called out a few seconds later, sending a similar burst of wind. The two opposing winds collided with enough force to knock a few trees around them and make small cuts to each other.
The Sannin gritted his teeth as he felt the adamantine staff elongating towards him, dragging him in the dirt floor of the forest. Orochimaru was dragged a few meters but he soon managed to stop, catching the staff and sweating it away with a chakra enhanced punch.
"Fire style: Great Fire Ball jutsu." The Sannin called out, a fireball roughly the radius of his own body emerged from his mouth towards the hokage.
"Water Style: Water wall!" The Hokage used his quick thinking and superior hand speed to create a water wall before him, stopping the jutsu from hitting him.
In the midst of the water vapour generated by the intense heat if the fireball colliding with the water wall, the hokage managed to put his two hands in a tiger seal. Using the sunshin to appear behind the Sannin In a flash.
He hit the Snake summoner, hard enough with his staff to throw him away but his staff was dodged by the Sannin. The Hokage made a mistake but soon corrected it by using the momentum generated to roundhouse kick his student, the blow was blocked by the Sannin's forearm but an audible crack could be heard, signaling that a bone had been broken.
The Sannin grit his teeth in pain and punched the hokage with his other free hand, the hokage quickly turned his body and hit Orochimaru with the full blunt force of his adamantine staff, with enough power to fracture the Sannin's skull.
"Pthu, 'Ts been quite a while since I saw your formidable Staffmanship." Orochimaru said as he spit blood on the dirt, His forearm was broken and he was disoriented. Hiruzen kicked the Sannin back into a tree. Orochimaru collided with the tree with enough force to shake it.
"Indeed, but this is the last time you see it." Hiruzen told his student, approaching his student, The Hokage raised his staff, intending on brutally mauling and caving the Sannin's face in. But he was stopped, not by another person but himself. He couldn't do it, the Sannin was like the third son he never had, the most brilliant student in his team with a bright future ahead of him.
Flashbacks of the Sannin's childhood came to his mind, the crying face of the innocent boy mourning for his parents death in the cemetery.
As the hokage was busy having flashbacks, a large purple snake slithered towards him, with less than good intentions.
"Hokage-Sama!!" Kakashi Shouted at his house, warning him of the befalling doom. The jaws of the purple snake were almost too close to the hokage, the snake bit down with an audible sound.
*Chomp*
The Hokage dodged the snakes bite as he backed away, Orochimaru laughed getting inside the snake's mouth. The Sannin was trying to escape. The Hokage extended his staff towards the Sannin inside the snake's mouth but the old man was easily swatted away by Manda's long and slender tail.
"You can't kill me old man, You are too weak, your emotions control you." Orochimaru said from inside the snake as he weaved a few handsigns, of likely the reverse Summoning technique.
"Chidori!!" Kakashi said as he struck the side of the snake's mouth with a blue chakra covered hand, hitting the man inside and greatly injuring him, puncturing his lung and breaking several ribs.
"Augh!" The Sannin vomited blood, Kakashi slightly smiled upon the strike.
"No, Kakashi!" The Hokage warned his subordinate, Kakashi widened his eyes as he realised a large purple tail was coming towards him. The hatake pulled out his bluehand outwards of the snake's mouth and backed away from the oncoming danger.
"Reverse Summoning justu!!" Orochimaru said from inside the Snake king's mouth, dissapearing in a puff of smoke along with his summon.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone