Hours Later
"Orochimaru-sama come quick!" One of Orochimaru's minions shouts into his lab.
Even when something goes wrong no one enters the lab without permission. It is a place to avoid at all costs.
"What is the issue?" Orochimaru quickly walks over to a sink to wash his hands free of the blood of his latest victim.
"We think we're going to be attacked!" The minions shouts into the lab again with a great deal of fear. Whether it is fear of disturbing Orochimaru or the impending attack no one knows. It's best to assume it's both.
"Karin is sensing something. It's too far out even for her to tell how many or who this is, but -"
"Really?" Orochimaru cuts off the minion, his interest has been piqued. "We have tested Karin before, even at the edge of her range she can tell who and how many shinobi there are."
"Yes, the issue is that there's too much chakra in the air for her to sense through it. She knows something is there, something strong. But she doesn't know who or what. It's just too thick, to potent."
"Interesting. It takes large quantities of chakra to cloud a sensor's capabilities, especially for Karin. Only long sustained ninjutsu battles of the highest scale could cloud her senses. Someone would have to use high level jutsu after jutsu, over and over and over again to achieve this effect. This phenomenon also occurs when there's a clash between large groups of shinobi who throw around ninjutsu like it's going out of style."
"We think it's a group prepping for a massive jutsu. One meant to destroy our base all in one go. We think we've been discovered. She felt this an hour ago and it's just kept growing since!"
"Where is this coming from?" Orochimaru takes off a protective red apron. It was white when he put it on. "I shall go confront them myself. To think that someone would be so bold in this day and age! To me! They shall not live to make this mistake twice."
"The south east. One of the neighboring islands. We think they're using it as a staging ground, a base for themselves."
"Oh." Orochimaru's visage changes from deadly to surprise. "That's nothing to worry about."
He casually dismisses the minion and turns back to his latest victim. Said victim whines in both fear and agonizing pain.
"You're still alive? Maybe this isn't a loss then. Let us continue." Orochimaru dons his red apron again.
"Orochimaru-sama? You know what that is?"
"Yes." Orochimaru confirms as he picks up a scalpel. "It isn't a what, but a who."
"I know it is not my place, but may I ask who it is?" The minion is doing this for two reasons. One: so that he can explain to everyone exactly what is going on to calm them down. Two: he doesn't ever want to be on the bad side of whoever that is.
"My child." Orochimaru grins sinisterly. "He's the one causing that."
"You have a child?" The minion staggers as if he was stuck by a powerful blow. "A child?"
"Yes. Now is as good as time as any to publicly introduce him to my shinobi. After all, one day he will command you himself. Now begone! I have more things I need to do before this subject expires."
...
A Few Minutes Later, With the Unnamed Minion
"Hey! What is it? Where's Orochimaru-sama? What are his orders? What do we do? Some of our other sensors are starting to feel it! It's not just Karin anymore!"
"Oh. Yeah. That." The shaken up minion says. "Ignore it."
"Ignore it? Are you mad? What the hell even is it?"
"Orochimaru-sama's child." The minion from before whispers out. Even though his words were spoken softly they're heard clearly by everyone present.
"Holy shit. He has a kid?"
"There's a mini Orochimaru-sama running around now?"
"Oh I bet he's cute!" One of the more fanatical individuals exclaims.
"We're so fucked. I thought Orochimaru-sama could be cruel when things go wrong but now his kid is here. He's going to explode if anything wrong happens to the kid."
"The Sound Three are terrified of someone. Have you seen them recently? I heard a kid was dragging them around last night. They were tied up and everything. You've got to be skilled to do that, no one here can stand up to them."
"Do you think it was Orochimaru-sama's kid that did that?"
"I don't know. But if it's Orochimaru-sama that raised him, you can bet they're similar. It's best to not piss him off. Or insult him. Or look at him funny."
"Didn't one of the new arrivals raid a kitchen yesterday? Do you think it might have been..."
"There's no way Orochimaru-sama would raise his kid like that. Had to be someone else."
...
"Hey you're not going to believe this."
"What?"
"Orochimaru-sama has a kid! And he's here!"
"No way!"
...
"So there's this new rumor going around."
"The one about Orochimaru-sama's kid?"
"Dammit! How do you always find out things before I do?"
...
"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!"
"What's his problem?"
"He heard about Orochimaru-sama's kid. He's terrified of two of them running around."
"Oh. Shit."
...
"Maximum security at all times! Nothing will happen to that child on my watch! I want our defenses doubled, no tripled! We will protect the child at all costs, for Orochimaru-sama!"
"We don't even know if it's true."
"QUADRUPLED!"
...
The Mess Hall
This is one of the few places in Orochimaru's base that is considered an 'at ease' location. It is an unwritten rule that no one will attack anyone, no one will have to acknowledge their superiors should they walk by, no one has to do anything of the sort. This is a place where people can relax.
It's just one giant cafeteria. Along one of the walls is a buffet style arrangement of numerous kinds of foods while the rest of the room is covered in sets of tables that run all the way across it. This is one place that everyone considers a good spot to unwind, they can happily chat with friends over food.
"Whew!" I plop down at an empty section of a table with my tray of food. "Nothing like a good workout. I don't think I've ever pushed myself that far before! Is this what having low chakra feels like? I never have that issue anymore. Man I'm beat!"
~Yes, you were very zealous today. I don't know if there's anything left.~
"Oh shut up. I know there's at least smoldering ruins left. I can't make it disappear, I don't have the Jinton. Though that would be cool. And even more broken than I already am."
"OI!" Someone from a group of four quickly approaching shinobi shouts at me. "You came here with Orochimaru-sama right?"
"Uh... yeah? Doesn't everyone? How else do we know where the bases are?"
The four of them sit down around me. There are three guys and one girl.
One of the guys has bright purple hair and deep green eyes. He is rather lanky, towering over everyone else but is as thin as a twig. He has a sword strapped to his hip, another on his back, and a short blade strapped on each calf and forearm. I think he has a thing for sharp pointy stuff.
The second guy has on long flowing clothes, much like the Sound Three and Orochimaru wear but they are definitely of a much lesser quality. This guy is bald, there's not a single hair on him but he's trying to hide that fact with his forehead protector. He wears it like Ibiki, it's covering his scalp.
The last guy, the one that shouted at me, has a mohawk. A bright sky blue mohawk. He really should have picked a better color. This one is just wearing the usual basic shinobi gear, a chunin vest and rugged and durable clothes.
The girl is on the shorter side. She's barely as tall as I am and has lovely normal brown hair. Seriously normal hair is hard to come by now, there's blues and greens and purples all over the damn place! Anyways, she's wearing what looks like a red battle kimono with white floral accents on it.
I say looks like because she obviously took a pair of scissors to it to make it a low cut. A very low cut, it's exposing almost all of her shoulders and quite a lot of her bosom. It's nothing short of a miracle that it can stay up. Or just chakra control, she could be adapting the premise of tree walking to hold it up.
...
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