"I'm set" Takumi muttered into his headset, and Kyoko and Sora confirmed his statement.
Orochimaru watched the trio as they crept through the dark streets of Musutafu. All of them had one goal. A man, 32 years old, steam quirk, normal office worker with no special features. He walked through the night streets, his footsteps echoing and his figure illuminated by the glare of the lanterns.
He had given them a task. They were to kill him without drawing attention to themselves. It was a simple task, it was to test their teamwork, skill and ability. He had spent three years drilling all sorts of tactics, fighting styles and knowledge into their heads and had them practice until their bodies reacted on their own.
So why, why were they acting like genin on their first mission? Theoretically it was their first mission yes, but he still expected... more.
"I want to kill him" Sora shouted into the microphone and Takumi sighed.
"You stay in your position and don't kill anyone. Your job is information and surveillance, so stick to that."
Sora started to complain, his voice rang through the empty streets and the man, their target stopped and looked around. A frown graced his face as he looked around.
And another point deducted on their rating. Orochimaru could only shake his head.
" I 'll move closer" Kyoko whispered, and a figure detached itself from the shadows of a dark side alley. Dark clothing and a mask hid the girl behind it. Her footsteps were barely audible as she continued to move toward the man, well hidden.
Suddenly there was a clatter in a side alley the an was walking past and he stopped. Kyoko stiffened briefly and fled with a leap behind a parked car.
"Hello?" the man asked into the darkness, stepping up to the entrance of the alley. He was unsure, afraid, and seemed to be debating with himself whether he should just leave or venture deeper into the ominous alley.
A choked and croaked "help" sounded from behind a pile of trash cans. The man paused, hesitating briefly before taking a step forward and stepping into the alley. His eyes scanned the barely discernible surroundings as he walked slowly and cautiously forward.
"Hello?" he asked again, more uncertainly, wanting nothing more than to get out of here.
He was never fast enough to dodge the knife that darted towards him, he never managed to escape his death in time, and he never had the chance to change anything about his fate.
Only his choked and gurgling scream announced that he was at least still fast enough to realize that he was dying.
Kyoko ran out of her hiding place and towards the side alley, Takumi appeared a few meters away and followed her.
They stopped in front of the entrance and quickly he took out his flashlight. A white beam of light illuminated the scene in front of them.
"I win" shouted Sora, who was laughing towards them sitting on a corpse. Kyoko sighed and Takumi groaned as they looked down at the little boy.
"I told you not to kill anyone" Takumi said, turning away at the sight of the dead body. He still couldn't handle seeing things like that. Whether it was the corpses of man or animal, or the misshapen creatures that dwelled in the deepest cellars of Orochimarus hideout. He leaned against the wall, his hand over his eyes. He really couldn't handle it.
"You have to stick to the plan" Kyoko scolded, ignoring Takumi who kept his distance. She was probably the only one who had some kind of idea about how this was supposed to go. She adjusted her mask, an animal mask similar to that of the Anbu. Once again, the design was due to Orochimaru's great creativity.
Sora looked angrily and offended at the girl in front of him and crossed his arms. "I did the task and it all went well after all" he said and started a staring contest with Kyoko.
Suddenly Orochimaru appeared in the middle of the three, his face blank, but all could tell he wasn't pleased. Takumi looked toward him.
"How good?" he asked, and the sannin turned to him.
"Horrible," was his prompt reply, and Sora made an indignant sound.
"Why!!! It all worked out!" he shouted, throwing his arms in the air. Orochimaru raised an eyebrow before he began to list:
"Your behavior was unprofessional, your responses too slow, you missed perfect chances to strike, multiple times, you ignored the plan, and while I am someone who is open to freestile, the death was too loud and" he turned toward the exit of the alley.
"-the police should be arriving any moment"
As if on cue, sirens sounded in the distance and he turned back to his students.
"In short, horrible."
All three looked at him silently, disappointment thick in the air. Sora looked to the ground and pouted, Kyoko looked for an excuse but found none.Only Takumi spoke up after a long while of silence, nervously looking towards the exit.
"Uhh... I don't know what else you guys are up to, but I think it would be a great idea to get out of here," he said, referring to the approaching sirens. Orochimaru hummed in agreement and seemed lost in thought for a moment before grinning.
"Good idea," he said, and Takumi looked at him suspiciously.
"As punishment and a little exercise for your miserable performance, you shall be allowed to find out for yourselves how to get away from this. And remember, no one is allowed to recognize you" he said and Takumi's eyes widened in shock. He wanted to protest loudly, but by then the Sannin had disappeared, leaving the three of them, including the corpse, standing alone in the alley.
"So what now?" asked Sora, all eyes falling on him as he looked completely innocently at the two older kids. Takumi seriously wondered why the boy was still asking.
"Run, of course!" he shouted, getting ready to take off.
"What about the body?"
"Leave it."
Reluctantly, Sora separated himself from the corpse and let the other two pull him away. The sirens were getting closer, the bright blue light already illuminating the end of the streets and the older boy cursed.
"Can I kill them?" asked Sora loudly from behind him, pointing at the approaching carts.
"Hell, no!"
~*~
Sometime a few hours later, the three came slurping into the hideout, out of breath. Orochimaru had been expecting them, a cup of tea in his hand and a book on his lap, he smiled at the half-dead children before him.
"I.... hate you.... so..much...right..now" groaned Takumi, dropping down onto a nearby sofa, his face buried in the cushion.
"Why did you run, anyway?" the sannin asked, absolutely amused with the situation of seeing his three students so done. Takumi only made a sound that sounded like a mixture of an annoyed scream and an exhausted groan. Kyoko just smiled as she downed water bottle after water bottle, and Sora was similar to Takumi, collapsed on an armchair and about to fall asleep.
All three of them had no problem being in each other's presence. They had already been through enough bullshit together, as Takumi pointed out after the sannin had praised their teamwork for once. Said boy had made some changes in his personality. He was mentally stronger, didn't whine about every little thing, and he had also given up on his crush for Kyoko at some point. He had claimed she had taken on this big sister role, but you could see how much he still favored her at times.
Sora had also grown and had outgrown his naivety. The boy had absolutely no need for it with his intelligence, but he still liked to play the ignorant little boy.He had fun seeing how others underestimated him. He simply loved the expressions on people's faces when the little rabbit turned out to be a bloodthirsty monster.
He had fun seeing how others underestimated him. He loved the expressions on people's faces when the little rabbit turned out to be a bloodthirsty monster.
And Kyoko, well she hadn't changed much.Still the sweet little girl that would smile at you as she stabbed you in the back with a dagger. She was a disciplined child and seemed to struggle a bit with her own personality, but hadn't changed much. Except, of course, that her body had reshaped itself.
They had become a really interesting team over the past three years. Orochimaru the one who threw everyone into all sorts of situations, Takumi who questioned everything with perfect logic and morality, Kyoko who was probably the only one who made any effort to get anything done at all and Sora who ended up ruining everything with his tendencies.
In any case, they were no longer a group that someone had randomly lumped together. In this case, Orochimaru, who had picked them all up off the street. Just a little more practice, a few more missions, and they would become the proper chess pieces he wanted them to be.
His gaze fell to the book he had just been reading. A newly published theory on quirk evolution. Something about how children grew stronger with each generation and assumptions about what that would mean for the earth and the future of humanity. One chapter even questioned whether they were still human at all. Maybe they were a superior race, something better than normal humans, and they had yet to realize it. Orochimaru found it laughable, but he passed his time reading unrealistic and silly theories. Either because he knew that he had already put some of these theories into practice, or because he was amused by the creativity of the authors.
One book described the idea that humanity is slowly being taken over by aliens, like host and virus, and that quirks only show who were already infected by those beings from outer space.
A good way to pass the time.
He looked at the clock, it was five in the morning and he should slowly bring Takumi back to his orphanage. A clone usually replaced the boy, but he had to make sure he got him to school at least once a week. He also had to write his exams on his own.
There was a reason why he did not let Takumi disappear yet. It was the identity. Just as in his old world an identity could show if you were a spy or not, here it made you inconspicuous. An identity was something that could bring trust and mistrust. And besides, it allowed Takumi to walk around in public without being taken to a police station because he was supposedly missing.
That was actually the same reason why he himself was still in a school. He would just graduate from whatever school he ended up at and then disappear from the eye of the world. No one would care if he was gone and everyone who knew him would think it was normal that it was practically impossible to contact him.
"Takumi, you have to go," he reminded the boy, who turned his head to him and stared at him tiredly.
"I'm ditching"
He didn't feel like going back to the orphanage, nor to school. Not at this hour, not when he had just run miles, and even more so when he had just killed someone. Technically he was not the killer, but the accomplice, but that was enough in his eyes.
But once again he was given no choice and didn't even manage to complain before Orochimaru called one of his shadows, Takumi was grabbed and thrown into a portal like a pile of garbage. He landed on the ground in front of the orphanage and could barely see the portal close in front of him. Again he groaned and straightened up. He then made his way into the building, lurching with all the stealth he could muster in his exhausted state.
Inwardly he cursed the sannin for who knows what number of times. Maybe he should start making a tally so that he can eventually shove it into Orochimaru's face and tell him what of a big asshole he can be sometimes. Although, why is he talking about sometimes? Orochimaru is always an asshole and a creep on top of it. Sometimes he wondered what his younger self was thinking, following a complete stranger, clearly psychopathic and subtly mentally unstable kid, in the hope of getting a quirk. In the end, that with the quirk had worked out, but in retrospect, his decision had been pretty stupid at the time. Takumi was pretty sure that Orochimaru was one of the only ones who could have kept the promise with the Quirk, any other person would have just kidnapped him and possibly killed him.
But it was Orochimaru who had picked him up like a lost pet, and as much as he wanted to hate the guy, in the end he still came running back every time. And he couldn't say he disliked the thrill of doing something illegal and knowing a side of the world that hardly anyone had seen.
It was annoying that he still had to play the quirkless boy for the world to see, but he got through it. It wasn't easy, it was never easy, but he comforted himself with the thought that they didn't know any better. And that now he had a place to go and people he belonged to. Even though he sometimes still had to cope with the twisted personalities of the rest of the team, he somehow managed. With a lot of stress eating and walls to smack his head against if the bullshit got to be too much for him.
With all his strength, he pulled himself into the room through the window, ignored the loudly snoring boys and looked at his bed. The clone sat there wide awake and stared at him unblinkingly, only to nod and disappear shortly after. Takumi was already used to this and without caring about anything else he fell into the bed.
~*~
Orochimaru found his way back to his home. A new home.
The big house was replaced by a smaller apartment somewhere in the middle of Musutafu. The family's main money earner was gone and so was most of their wealth.
He walked through the small hallway, over to the kitchen. There, at the kitchen isle, was his mother, who was eating an apple and holding her phone at the same time. She looked the same as always, her now shoulder-length hair neatly combed and her appearance well-groomed. She looked up when she heard him coming and her eyes lit up at the sight of him.
"Kenta, was school out early today?" she asked, getting up to meet him. He nodded simply and she smiled.
"I haven't started making dinner yet, so be patient for a minute, will you?" she asked, and again she received a nod.
She really seemed the same as always. No one could tell that anything was wrong with the woman, no one would say that she sometimes tumbled home heavily drunk, no one could see that she had to change jobs countless times over the past few years and no one could guess how much she struggled not to confuse her own son with her late husband.
Everything seemed okay, but it wasn't.
She suffered, but she fought, for her children, for the people she still cared about. She didn't want to drink, but her hands seemed to reach for the bottle on their own, she didn't want to lose her jobs, but her performance kept declining, and she certainly didn't want to burden her son with looking like a dead man, but her brain loved to play tricks on her. She hated it and she fought until she broke and no one could tell when that would be.
She turned on the radio, humming along to the music while she turned on the stove and got a pan out of the cupboard. All seemed well for the moment, but the darkness came and went. Like the ebb and flow of the tide. One moment you could breathe and move freely, and the next you were drowning as the tide swept you away.
Orochimaru knew, had been watching the woman for years, but in the end he was someone who didn't care. He never cared, and no matter how much the world seemed to be burning around him, he would stay in his little safe zone while he watched the rest being miserably burned alive. He would not help them, would not offer any protection and would watch the whole thing as if he were watching an interesting movie.
It was fascinating to watch the human psyche break. How once brightly shining eyes suddenly became dull and dim, loud laughter was replaced by stifled crying and the bright flames of life slowly burned one from within.
It was interesting to see how people fought for their lives, stumbled, fell and then got up again, until they eventually fell down a cliff where they could no longer get up, no longer walk. He once estimated that his near immortality set him apart from other people, his cold and sadistic character made him stand out. He didn't feel like a human, he had long since stopped calling himself that, and it felt like he was watching a bunch of animals fighting. Their lives were worth nothing. They would die while he lived on and watched the next generation of animals play their little game.
And in the end, he was okay with that, because that's what he always wanted. Just do his thing and even if everything falls apart, keep living and enjoying the show. Throw a few jutsus here and there around, prank a few people, be an arrogant, antisocial bitch and cold-bloodedly clear out everything that bothered him on his path somehow, even if it was just a small pebble.
Because that was his life now and it would continue that way. And right now he wanted nothing more than to see how much this society could throw itself into chaos. Because that could definitely still be interesting.
__________________
This is what happens when I write while having a writer's block.
And the updates will come a bit slower in the near future, because school started a few days ago and I have to fight with my own motivation again.
Stay healthy and goodbye.