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Orochimaru Sensei: Chapter 1

If someone where to ask a random Konoha villager to describe Orochimaru in one word, most would answer with ‘Creepy’ and the rest, ‘Very creepy’.

It was clear that literacy nor maths were Konoha’s greatest strength.

And yet even if the man himself were to hear the villagers he wouldn’t even pause, for he had accepted a long time ago that he was in fact ‘Creepy’.

Alas, his random thoughts early morning stopped once he stopped at the Hokage’s office door.

“Enter.”

Unsurprisingly the office was the same as last time he was there, the only thing that was out of place was the stern look his sensei was giving him. The Orochimaru of twenty years ago would have started fidgeting at the severe gaze of the Professor and the thought made him chuckle.

“Is this a joke to you?”

“Kukuku, I don’t know what you are talking about sen-ssei.” Orochimaru said with a slight smile.

“Enough of your games Orochimaru! Your wretched plans to steal the Forbidden Scroll have been thwarted. By this point in time one of my best is protecting it.”

Well this was getting interesting, someone was able steal the Scroll right under the Professor’s nose.

“Kukuku, ah, so that’s what happened. And tell me sen-ssei why am I suspect here?”

The Hokage inhaled from his pipe. “Because only you and Jiraiya know of my greatest weakness. And Jiraiya is in the middle of who knows where.”

What weakness… Ah of course. In reality it had been three people who knew of his weakness. But, despite what people might think of him, he wasn’t callous enough to remind his sensei of the third person. His late wife Biwako-san.

The office grew still. Neither elite ninja spoke. Orochimaru would’ve let it stand, something innocuous like this, didn’t bother him in the slightest.

But, at his core, Orochimaru was a polite and diligent student. As such, he’d give his old sensei an opening, “Sen-ssei, who sstole the Scroll?”

“It was Naruto.” the Professor lowered his gaze and sagged in his chair.

Impressive, a little genin was able to do what some of the most fearsome shinobi failed to do. He defeated the Professor.

And then it clicked.

“I think I understand now sen-ssei. You accusing me, is a way for you to keep some dignity?” Orochimaru smiled for himself. “Instead of ‘a genin defeated the Sandaime Hokage’, it becomes ‘the Sandaime Hokage’s best student finally defeated him, using a well thought-out plan’”

“…come on kid, help your old sensei a little.” The Professor said sheepishly “the dignity of the Hokage can’t be tarnished like that.”

“Kukuku, well sen-ssei, Let’s think of something else to save the dignity of the Hokage seat.” The Professor eased his posture. “But I’ll ask for something in return.”

“Thank you kid, I… I’m sorry I couldn’t leave the post to you.”

“Kukuku, sen-ssei I’ve already made peace with not being eligible for being Hokage. There is no need to apologize” Once upon a time this would have been a blatant lie, but now Orochimaru knew, really knew what being Hokage entailed. The ungodly amount of paperwork would have made it impossible for him to follow his true ambitions.

The Professor looked at him with a warm smile. Twenty years ago Orochimaru would’ve felt proud at his sensei’s words, now however he knew his teacher was completely misunderstanding him.

“In order for this to work sen-ssei, I need you to tell me what happened. No details omitted.” Orochimaru had an rare smile on his face, his prideful sensei was about to admit to his defeat in the hands of a cute little genin. “How could a genin, weakness-knowing or not could defeat the Sandaime Hokage? kukuku.”

The Professor muttered something.

“I couldn’t hear you sen-ssei.” Orochimaru was enjoying this a little too much.

His sensei sighed, “I said, Naruto wasn’t even a genin.”

Hmmm, the little jinchuriki is a real genius. Minato’s son indeed.

“It all started yesterday’s afternoon, right after the Academy exams…”

By the time the Hokage finished the tale, Orochimaru had already forgotten the names of almost everyone involved.

The little jinchuriki learnt the Shadow Clone in a few hours. A real genius the likes of Minato or Itachi had blessed Konoha with his appeareance once again.

“Make me his Jounin instructor sen-ssei, I’ll make sure to nurture his genius. Kukuku”

This gave the Professor pause, very few times his talented student had expressed himself so openly. He sees himself in Naruto. An orphan scorned for things out of his control who finds in his genin team a family. His wise and handsome sensei guiding and nurturing him into being a valuable member of Shinobi-society. For all his student talents, there was one thing that the Professor couldn’t teach Orochimaru. Teaching Naruto… yes this will teach Orochimaru empathy, and little Naruto gains a fearsome protector.

While his sensei was pondering, Orochimaru was thinking about having his personal army of blondes clad in orange throwing ninjutsu like there was no tomorrow. Hokage? My student and I will flatten the Elemental Nations and forge them anew. Kukukuku Supreme Kage has a ring to it, I like it. Paperwork? kukuku shadow clones clad in orange will take care of that.

And so with a smile on both faces, student and Professor agreed on something that would change the fate of the entire Elemental Nations.

That morning Naruto felt shivers while running under the sun.

###

Team Seven found themselves in the academy rooftop. Ready to begin a new chapter in their lives.

And they would begin with the classic ‘things you like, things you hate, dreams of the future’. If it worked for the Professor, it should work for Orochimaru.

“For starterss, let’ss get to know each other. I’ll start, I’m Orochimaru jounin of Konoha, I like to learn new ninjutsu almost as much as I like to develop my own. My goal as a person…” Is to achieve immortality and learn all ninjutsu. “Is a secret kukuku.”

From the looks of apprehension from the little Uchiha and the slight trembling from the pinkette, Orochimaru could tell that his team was as unremarkable as one might imagine…

“You create your own ninjutsu sensei? That’s so cool, believe it!”

Maybe one member of his team was worth something. This member being the little genius was a nice bonus.

“Kukuku, indeed little one. I am a ninjutsu specialist after all. If I call myself the second best, no shinobi in the elemental nations would dare to call themselves best.” Well, maybe my old sensei.

At this exchange the two other members of his team relaxed a little. While the little jinchuriki had this odd look on his face. His eyes… were glowing?

“But sensei, you forgot to tell us your dislikes”

Ahh, so perceptive.

“Kukuku, well little one, years ago I would have given you a list of my dislikess. But now, I could simply take care of anything I may dislike, therefore no dislikess from your senssei little one.”

Orochimaru may have accidentally exuded a tiny little bit of killing intent at “take care”. Who could blame him? Hanzo and Danzo could really piss him off, so much that only thinking of them, could incense him enough to use crass language. Only in the privacy of his mind, he had a reputation to uphold after all. Alas they were long gone and disliking them still was beneath him.

The pinkette was shaking in place and the little Uchiha was paralyzed. Was this the standard the academy had fallen to? Disappointing. How was the jinchuriki doing?

Naruto was glowing with a my-sensei-is-the-coolest kind of gaze. Orochimaru knew that look.

Someone was reminding him of little Anko. Presenting them both could be something good? Thinking about it, Anko isn’t suited to meet just graduated genin… Although, seeing the jinchuriki being unaffected by his accidental KI flare, as a matter of fact, the blonde looked giddy. If someone could remain unfazed at a little KI, maybe he could handle Anko. Orochimaru put that meeting in the “for later” bin.

“With that out of the way, little one. Why don’t you tell us of yourself?” The sannin said looking at Naruto.

“I’m Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konoha, I like ramen, but I love the ramen from Ichiraku. I dislike the time you have to wait for instant ramen to be ready. And my dream is to become Hokage. Believe it!”

Kukuku, keeping a mask of an ignorant and simplistic fool. Loudly declaring his intention to being Hokage in order to present a facade of unbreakable loyalty. Everything packaged with a fake conviction that could fool almost everyone. Minato, your boy will go to places.

“Well said little one.” Orochimaru nodded and slowly got up from his seat. “Team 7, meet me tomorrow at training ground 3 at seven hundred sharp.”

Orochimaru was pleased, his little jinchuriki was almost as smart as him at that age. A little rough around the edges but overall he got himself a great student. As for the other two were… acceptable… maybe.

“But sensei, Sakura-chan and the bastard didn’t present themselves.”

Kukuku, laying the act a little thick? Let’s play for now.

Orochimaru was a busy man, he had a tea and dango appointment already so he did the only logical thing to do. He left a shadow clone and shunshined away.

Later when his clone dispelled. Orochimaru filtered the useless information and finally got to know the other two members of team 7: Sakurachan and Bastard.

###

“Good morning Team 7.” Orochimaru gave his genin team an easy smile. For some reason it did nothing to relax his pink and raven haired genins.

“Good morning sensei! Are we gonna learn some cool ninjutsu? or maybe take a mission to save a princess?… Oh, oh. We could spar, I’m sure I could beat the bastard with my new ninjutsu.”

The enthusiasm of the little jinchuriki was in full bloom. If only his other genin were half as enthusiastic. Sakurachan was stealing glimpses at Bastard, while the later was completely still and… was that focus he could see in his eyes? He could work with that at least, maybe…

“Kukuku, since it’s our first meeting as a team. I’m going to ‘take it eassy’ and evaluate where your skill at chakra control is at. Today, you will be doing the ‘tree climbing exercise’.”

Normal protocol dictated that he had to ‘test’ his new team, but given the disastrous extras his little genius was teamed-up with, he had the small chance to lose his patience and fail them, afterwards his pride wouldn’t let him take anything back, hence he had to avoid any scenario in which he didn’t end up as the little jinchuriki’s sensei.

He showed them the basics, and left them to it, unsurprisingly Sakurachan was the first to climb the tree. Given her mediocre chakra reserves the ‘accomplishment’ was hardly something of notice.

“Sensei, I did it!” the pinkette waved from the top of the tree.

“Well, keep at it,” was his response.

“Ahh but…”

Orochimaru spared his genin a gaze. He was getting ready to explain the need for improving her mediocre chakra reserves. How chakra is like a muscle and can be exercised in order to increase the reserves. And how repeatedly draining ones chakra, recovering it and doing it again and again was one of the easiest ways to improve her pitifully low reserves… But.

The pinkette paled, “Y-yes sensei.”

She deduced my reasoning.

There may be hope for Sakurachan yet.

About an hour in, Naruto had barely made progress. He approached his sensei with a sheepish grin. Orochimaru was, once again impressed by the little jinchuriki. He kept training for an hour straight, no complaints, no rest.

From Naruto’s expression, the Snake Sannin prepared himself to answer any inquiry.

“Sensei, this is too hard. How did Sakura-chan did it?”

“Kukuku, the point of this exercise is for you to understand your chakra better in order to control it. If I were to give you all the answers little one, you could learn now but what about later when you are trying to learn some complex ninjutsu?”

“But, but… You’re right sensei, I’m gonna be the Hokage after all, I’ll figure it out… somehow…”

Determination. One of the signs of a great shinobi.

“However, I can give you a clue little one.” The jounin put his hands in front. “Your hands, use them.”

His little gening kept watching his hands, muttering while walking towards the tree line once again.

Orochimaru opened his jutsu scroll once again. It is significantly easier to mold chakra with the hands. The trick is to first use your hands to adhere to the tree by finding the approximate amount of chakra needed and then concentrate that approximate amount on your feet.

“Sensei, I understand!”

Give a little genius a clue, and they’ll deduce the rest.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”

Eight copies of Naruto ran to do the exercise.

Orochimaru was an experienced shinobi, he fought in the Second and Third great wars. Very few things could surprise him nowadays and this… this was one of those rare surprises.

A genius is oftentimes unpredictable, because in their perspective extraordinary is normal.

“Kukuku, great job little one.”

The smile on Orochimaru was genuine, so genuine in fact that Sakura and Sasuke went even harder in their training.