The Hokage's Office
"Alvarcus! I'm glad to see you haven't picked up your sensei's tardiness. If I summoned him I would have to wait at least three hours." The Hokage greets me with a warm grandfatherly smile.
"Hokage-sama, permission to speak freely?"
"Of course. Whatever you have to say I will listen." He graciously allows.
"Just get to the damn point. I don't want to play this game where we dance around each other for half an hour and then we finally get serious. I've had the worst weak in the history of bad weeks and I just want to go home and relax." Oh wait, I can't do that because my parents aren't talking to me anymore. Fantastic.
The Hokage chuckles. "Ah to be young again. No time for pleasantries, yet you have all the time in the world."
"Cut the crap. You want to know about Orochimaru and what he did in the forest." The Hokage nods. "I'm assuming you didn't get Sasuke in here because Jiraya is looking at his seal?" The Hokage drops the grandfatherly act and dons his real face.
This is the man that runs this village. This is the shinobi who has lived through wars. This is the Hokage. He is a force like no other, he is the most dangerous being I have ever seen.
"Very smart of you. How did you know he was in the village?" The Hokage demands.
"Naruto is here. I was there when Jiraya took him away from the Academy. No one saw him again until the Chunin Exams started.
My guess was that Jiraya wanted to watch his new student compete, but since things went wrong during the exam and Sasuke has a new seal branded onto his skin you got Jiraya to stick around to look at it. If Jiraya jumped town already you would have called Sasuke in here, not me. He was conscious for longer anyways."
"Very good. You have a sharp mind. Tell me then, why didn't I call in Sakura?" The Hokage puffs on his pipe.
"She isn't a kunoichi yet. She hasn't made the jump, she is still too civilian. But she's close, very close. If the Chunin Exams and confronting Orochimaru didn't make her take the leap, then I have no idea what will.
She can't handle talks like this, she'd crack out of pressure or leave something important out on accident. She might even omit information to protect Sasuke or me, believing she is doing the right thing." As an afterthought I add, "Or she is still unconscious from her fight."
"Just like Orochimaru. You both think in the same ways, like no other." The Hokage is comparing me to Orochimaru? "You even look like he did in his youth. Fair skin, black hair, and yellow eyes." I remove my sunglasses. I have to give the man some credit, he didn't even pause.
"Forgive my oversight, I am sure that you still need time to adjust." I put them back on. "Now, tell me everything that you can about Orochimaru."
I do. I tell him from the point when the female Orochimaru approached me up to the point where he gave me the jutsu scroll. He never interrupts once. I leave nothing out.
I even tell him that I was used in a failed Edo Tensi, but I don't mention Orochimaru wanting me for my knowledge of the past, or the fact that I'm not from this world. He just listens, unyielding, unreadable. I finish my story. The Hokage sits in silence for awhile.
"May I see the scroll that he gave you?"
I reach into my hip pouch and withdraw the scroll. I hand it over. The Hokage quickly scans it over the next few minutes, I wait patiently. If I don't get the scroll back it's not the end of the world. I don't really need to learn the jutsu Kakuzu uses or the basic information on the Jiongu.
"Take care of this scroll. It is not without thought that Orochimaru would give this to you." He hands the scroll back over to me.
I honestly didn't expect to get it back.
"The information on the Jiongu alone will aide you greatly." Ah, it must be common knowledge then. Or at least easily accessible. The Hokage wouldn't trust me with sensitive information.
"May I ask you a question, Alvarcus?" That is just the Hokage trying to be polite. He can order me to respond regardless of whether I want to or not.
"Go ahead."
"In your story, you said that Orochimaru is a great shinobi." I nod. I did. "You even said you compare yourself to him, as if you use him as a measuring stick. As if you look up to him. Do you?"
"I hate that man with my whole being. I want him to die violently for what he did to my team." I growl out.
The Hokage smiles. "You care that he put the curse seal on Sasuke more than that he gave you the Jiongu?"
I consider that question for a moment. I know what Sasuke could become. I know the horrors of the cursed seal. The Jiongu is tame compared to that. Well, at least Kakuzu's Jiongu was, I am not so sure about my Orochimaru variant.
"Yes. I do." The Hokage's smile gets wider. "I fear for Sasuke. Orochimaru wanted him for something specific. He came here for him, I was just a happy accident. If I was anyone else he probably would have killed me. He most likely spared me because his experiment went successfully. He can learn from me. I still have a use in his eyes."
The Hokage nods in agreement. "One last thing. The knowledge you have of the past."
I freeze. Shit, it makes sense he knows how the Edo Tensi works. He figured out this isn't my first life from my story.
"I'm making it an SS-class secret. Tell no one of it. Not your teammates, not Kakashi, not the next Hokage. Not even me. Never speak of it."
That... is not what I expected. I thought for sure I would be slammed into T&I to spill all of my secrets.
"The past is in the past. It is best left buried. You can go now." The Hokage waves at the door.
Both Orochimaru and the Hokage have implied that I know the past, lived it. Could this be my world, just far into the future?
I hesitate by the door. "Hokage-sama? Will you permit me a question?"
The Hokage looks up from his paperwork. "Yes. Go ahead and ask. I can't promise I can answer, but I will at least hear it."
"Is... is there any hope of me getting rid of the Jiongu? You're The Professor, the God of Shinobi. If anyone has even the faintest idea of a technique that might work it would be you. Please be honest. I need to know if I have to live like this for the rest of my life."
After careful consideration, the Hokage replies. "No. I know of no techniques that could reverse the effects. The only ones that even come to mind require human sacrifices, usually the users."
I thought so. "I will never sacrifice others for my gain. So there really is no hope. Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama." I go to leave the office. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a true smile on his face for the first time.
When I have one foot out the door he calls out to me. "Alvarcus, just because I don't know the solution does not mean there is no solution. Do not give up hope so easily, I can tell the Will of Fire burns brightly in you." He truly means every word. Why does he trust me so much? I wouldn't trust me at all. I exit the Hokage Tower.
It's time to face my parents.
...
Alvarcus's House
I stand outside the front door. Should I knock? I don't even feel welcome in my own house anymore. How pathetic.
I knock. Tou-san opens the door.
"Hello Alvarcus." He coldly greets me.
"Hello tou-san. Is kaa-san home? I need to tell you both some stuff."
"She's in the living room." We go inside nad sit down awkwardly in silence.
"I... uh... I don't know where to start. I've had something bad happen to me. Something terrible. Done by someone even worse."
My parents fall still. "Its true then. Orochimaru came back. He talked to you, didn't he?" Tou-san whispers.
I cringe. "He did more than talk. He gave me a 'gift.' He used me in an experiment."
"NO! Not you too!" Kaa-san shouts.
"Kaa-san, you know Orochimaru?" I know Orochimaru did something to me while I was a fetus, but do my parents know that? Did they allow Orochimaru to do it?
Namika pales, all of the color leaves her face. "Y-yes. Fujita and I are originally from the Land of Rice. It's been renamed the Land of Sound. He wouldn't let anyone leave. We had to submit to one of his tests to get out of the country.
So I did. All he did was run his hands over my stomach, and said 'Another failure. How disappointing.' I wouldn't know what he did until you were born. I didn't know I was with child! I didn't know he would imprint himself onto you! I am so sorry! Please, forgive us. We didn't know!"
"Is that why you didn't want me to become a shinobi? Because you thought I was Orochimaru reborn?" I have to know.
"No! Of course not!" I can see the lies in her eyes.
"You're lying. I can tell. You really think I'm like Orochimaru?" I stand up. "You think I am like him?" I remove my shirt, displaying all of my new scars. "You think I would do this to another person!" I rip my sunglasses off my head, revealing my new eyes. I catch sight of myself in a mirror for the first time.
My eyes are solid black masses of threads. Always moving, always shifting. The familiar yellow is gone, replaced by this soulless black. My chest is ruined. Scars litter across it, the most visible is the one from shoulder to hip, seconded by the spot where Orochimaru put his fist through my gut.
My arms look like they have been through a blender. I turn around and show them my back. I hear sobs start to come from both of my parents. In the mirror I see three deformed pulsing lumps. The hearts.
There are long gashes over the lumps, a reminder of where they entered my body. Littered over my back are various exit points the Jiongu used during my brief fights with it. What used to be clear pale skin is now a horribly scarred mess. I can give Ibiki a run for his money in a game of who has the worst scar.
"He did this to me. Orochimaru did this to me. And you thought I was like him? I'm disgusted with you both." I pick up my shirt and sunglasses and stomp my way to the front door. "I'm moving out. You'll never have to see me again. Goodbye."
"Alvarcus wait!" Kaa-san calls out to me.
I don't. I sunshin away. I can't be with them. I can't. Not anymore. Not now that I know they thought I was a mini Orochimaru.
Where can I go? I reach into my hip pouch and withdraw Kakashi's envelope. He did say I can use it whenever I need to. I open the envelope and take out a key and his address.
It takes me fifteen minutes to get to his apartment. I knock on the door.
"Kakashi-sensei? Are you inside?"
There is no response.
"Guess not."
I open up the door. I half expect traps to trigger and attempt to spear me full of kunai. Nothing happens.
"That was disappointing." I say to no one.
I explore the apartment, it's small. A two bedroom with a tiny kitchenette and a living room.
"Cozy."
I stay out of the bedrooms. That is none of my business. I start stripping out of my mission gear, I put on civilian clothes and lay down on the couch. With one last thought, I surrender to sleep. Fuck this week.
...
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