~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter!
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After making up, the days felt like old times again.
Tsunade was walking beside him again.
Bickering again.
Using that “Tch, nothing special” tone to critique his training results again.
But some things were different.
Kitahara Kaede didn’t notice.
…
Early morning, before the sky had fully brightened.
Kitahara Kaede hung from a branch in the back mountains, chakra flowing in a steady, even current along his meridians.
Same as every morning, without fail.
15 minutes.
He released the technique and dropped, feet touching the ground without a sound.
Time to find Tsunade for breakfast.
He turned, and heard something.
Very faint.
His steps paused.
He followed the sound and pushed through the bushes.
Orochimaru was crouched on the ground.
In front of him lay a wild rabbit, sliced open, its abdominal cavity spread wide, organs separated one by one and arranged in a neat row on the leaves beside it.
His fingers were stained red.
Each cut was clean, precise, deliberate.
Orochimaru looked up.
Golden, slit-pupiled eyes met Kitahara Kaede’s gaze.
No alarm.
No explanation.
They looked at each other.
“You’re up early,” Kitahara Kaede said first.
Orochimaru lowered his head and kept working.
“Studying organ structure.
Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys: position, size, how they connect.” He lifted a small piece of tissue on the tip of a kunai and held it close to examine it.
“The basic anatomy of humans and animals is similar.
Know where the organs are, and you can kill in a single strike.”
He paused.
“And you come to understand just how fragile life really is.”
His tone was flat.
Like stating a fact.
A child, slipping into the woods before dawn to dissect a rabbit and study its organs.
Anyone else who stumbled onto this scene would probably find it deeply unsettling.
Kitahara Kaede crouched down.
He looked at the organs arranged on the leaves.
Then at the opened rabbit.
“Heart’s about 3 centimeters left of center.
Aortic path is basically the same as in humans.”
Orochimaru’s hands went still.
He looked up and studied Kitahara Kaede.
“You’ve researched this before?”
“No,” Kitahara Kaede said.
“But knowing where to put a blade so someone drops fastest, that’s just basic survival.”
He reached out, grabbed the rabbit by the hind legs, and gave it a testing heft.
“Meat’s still fresh.”
Orochimaru blinked.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Take it back and roast it.
You’re done with the organs, right?
Don’t waste the meat.”
Orochimaru stared at him for 3 full seconds.
Then he smiled.
Not polite.
He genuinely found it interesting.
“Kaede.
You are the strangest person I have ever met.”
“Strange how?”
“Anyone else who saw this scene would be afraid, or disgusted.
Your first thought was to check the meat quality.”
“I’m hungry.”
Kitahara Kaede took a few steps away with the rabbit, then glanced back.
“Next time pick a bigger one.
This size barely has any meat on it.”
Orochimaru watched his retreating figure.
All this time at the Ninja Academy, everyone who looked at him carried distance in their eyes.
Polite distance.
Guarded distance.
The faint, unspoken unease of someone unsure what they were standing next to.
Only this person, from the very first day their eyes met across that classroom, had never once looked at him any differently.
Orochimaru looked down at his bloodstained fingers.
The curve at the corner of his mouth stayed.
…
Night.
East District, Konoha.
Jiraiya crept along the base of the wall, hunched and furtive, glancing over his shoulder at every corner.
He rounded two bends and found his target.
Orochimaru sat on the stone steps at the end of the alley, reading by the glow of a streetlamp.
“Orochimaru!”
A loud whisper.
Orochimaru didn’t look up.
“Busy.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet —”
“You show up at this hour for one of two reasons.” Orochimaru turned a page.
“Either you got caught peeping and need someone to clean up the mess, or you’ve had another stupid idea and need a helper.
Either way, busy.”
Jiraiya dropped down beside him.
“This time it’s serious!”
“Your definition of serious and everyone else’s are not the same thing.”
“Just listen!” Jiraiya pressed a hand down on the book.
“I’ve come up with a brilliant plan.
A plan to make Tsunade finally see me differently.”
Orochimaru looked up.
Not out of interest.
It was the kind of curiosity that says: let’s see exactly how far this goes.
“Talk.”
Jiraiya cleared his throat and dropped his voice.
“You remember that time at the Academy?
When Kaede saved Tsunade?”
“Mm.”
“Ever since then she’s been…
toward him, you know how it is.” Jiraiya’s face twisted.
“Why him?
It was just one rescue.
If I were to do the same thing,” He slapped his knee.
“So!
I’m going to stage my own hero-saves-the-girl moment!”
Orochimaru’s hand, mid-page-turn, stopped.
“You’ll play a rogue ninja and pretend to attack Tsunade.
Then I drop in from above, knock you flying with one punch, hero saves the girl!” Jiraiya’s voice climbed with excitement.
“Tsunade will definitely see me in a whole new light!
Maybe she’ll even,”
“You think Tsunade will be scared?”
Jiraiya hesitated.
“…She will, right?”
“She cracked one of the training ground’s wooden posts with a single punch last week.”
“A surprise ambush is different —”
“Are you certain you can beat her?”
Jiraiya choked.
3 seconds of silence.
“That’s exactly why you have to make it look convincing!” He slapped his thigh.
“Your ninjutsu is better than mine, you playing the rogue ninja is way more believable!
I’ll handle jumping in at the end to wrap things up.
It’s perfect!”
Orochimaru set down his book and looked at Jiraiya’s face, which had lovesick idiot written all over it.
This plan was catastrophically stupid.
The holes in it were too numerous to bother counting.
But,
“Fine.”
Jiraiya blinked.
“Really?”
“One condition.” Orochimaru leaned back against the wall.
“You owe me a favor.”
“Done!
Anything you need, I’ll —”
“You arrange the meetup with Tsunade yourself.
Just tell me the time and place once it’s set.”
“Leave it to me!”
Jiraiya nearly bounced on the spot, spun on his heel, made it to the end of the alley, then doubled back and pressed his palms together.
“Orochimaru!
You’re my best brother!”
The white hair disappeared into the dark.
The alley went quiet.
Orochimaru picked up his book.
The corner of his mouth was still curled, but it wasn’t warmth.
Tsunade’s strength, he knew it exactly.
The outcome of this plan, he knew that too.
Jiraiya was going to get beaten half to death.
But that didn’t stop him from wanting to see it firsthand.
The look on that idiot’s face when Tsunade was chasing him down.
As for why Jiraiya was so fixated on pursuing Tsunade in the first place,
Orochimaru didn’t understand it.
Didn’t want to.
Things he couldn’t understand, he filed under irrational but worth observing.
Just like that rabbit this morning.
Cut it open, and the structure was simple.
Everything clear at a glance.
But while it was still alive, it couldn’t help but thrash around.
Orochimaru opened his book and kept reading.
…
➤ Next: Emotional Distress Compensation