25 25: A Very Bad Idea

Jiraiya and his teammates practically collapsed once they'd made it into the cave.

"Haaaaah... That was miserable." He openly complained to the other two while sitting on a rock next to Tsunade. Orochimaru stood nearby, observing the open water outside the cave for a moment before turing back to them.

"Of course it was, idiot. You got all of our backup killed and it was just us three left to fight that Salamander." Orochimaru accused. It was technically Jiraiya's fault for leading them into a battle against a poison gas user. That kind of attack could only really be resisted if you had high chakra, and most basic Chunin and even Jonin simply didn't have enough to survive.

"Oh yeah? Well... well you're the snake guy! You should've known there would be poison!"

"That is not how it works and you know it. If that were the case you would have to blame Tsunade, our top medic, for not noticing." The snake guy in question smoothly deflected.

"Hey! Don't bring me into this." Clearly Tsunade herself wasn't as amused.

The banter continued for a good few minutes. As much as the team had been exhausted by their battle with Hanzo the Salamander, they had at least come away from it with a title given to them by one of the strongest shinobi of the current era. That was worth something, at least.

Suddenly Orochimaru stepped closer to the other two.

"Shh!" He pointedly looked off into the cave. It was a wide space full of both natural and unnatural pillars, with plenty of room for an enemy to hide and ambush them.

"What the... I can sense them. They're just kids..." Jiraiya whispered.

"Don't let your guard down..." Orochimaru whispered back.

They glared into the cave for a moment before Tsunade called out.

"Stop hiding! Show yourselves!"

Seeing as they'd been caught, and they had intended to speak to the three shinobi anyways, Yahiko stepped out of the darkness.

"What do you want?" Jiraiya asked.

Yahiko calmly walked straight up to them and held out his hand.

"Give us some food." He demanded. This was their strategy to break the ice, by having a reason to approach in the first place.

The Sannin hadn't expected such a blatant request. Jiraiya was slightly wide eyed, but saw no real reason to refuse. He reached into his hip pouch.

"Here, have some crackers." He held out a handful of travel rations.

Yahiko took one and quickly ate it, before calling out to his friends.

"Nagato, Konan, come out! They don't seem like bad people!"

The two rushed out from behind the pillars and happily grabbed a few crackers for themselves. They had initially only used hunger as an excuse to get close, but they really were quite famished so this was killing two birds with one stone.

The three children ate in silence for some time before Jiraiya decided to speak up.

"So... where are your parents?" He tentatively prodded.

Yahiko swallowed the mouthful of food he was chewing and answered first.

"They were killed by shinobi because of this stupid war."

'Ah. Yeah that'd explain why they're on their own... poor kids.' Jiraiya thought to himself.

After the two trios finished eating, the Sannin stood up to leave. The children, of course, followed them out.

As the two groups walked along the top of the dam, Tsunade had enough of waiting for the kids to stop and chose to confront them.

"Why are you still following us?"

Konan held out an origami flower made of the wrappers from the food they were given.

"Thank you for feeding us." She said as she offered it.

Yahiko decided now was the time to speak up. They would only get one shot at this.

"You guys are Konoha shinobi, right? Please! Teach us Ninjutsu!"

...

Jiraiya and Tsunade were rather stunned by this declaration, but Orochimaru had a different idea. He stepped forwards a few paces and spoke.

"Hmm. Shall I kill these children?"

"What?! Orochimaru you can't just say that!" Jiraiya was outraged that he would even make such a suggestion.

"They are war orphans, Jiraiya. Only suffering awaits them. Better to end it now." Orochimaru reasoned.

Jiraiya racked his brain for a way to stop Orochimaru from doing something like that. He was a good teammate, but his methods were getting more and more extreme with every year that passed.

'Well... I was looking for a good reason to get away from the fighting for a while... I guess this'll have to do.' Jiraiya came to a decision.

"Then you two can go on back to Konoha on your own. I'll stay here in this country and teach these three how to survive." He announced.

"What? Jiraiya, are you serious?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, I am. I'm not teaching them Ninjutsu though, just a few survival tricks and such. We've been fighting for too long anyways."

Orochimaru rolled his eyes at that. "Fine. Have it your way, Jiraiya."

As he turned to leave, however, he spotted something in the cave they had just come from.

'Hm? A wolf? No... far too large. That can only be a summon.'

"Wait. There's something in the cave we just left. A summon." He informed the others.

Jiraiya and Tsunade looked up at it, while the orphans turned around to stare as well.

They could all hear Nagato mutter to himself as the creature vanished into smoke and its rider stepped out onto the dam and removed their mask.

"...Seija?"

- - -

'Damn it. Of course Orochimaru would notice me...' Seija swore as she caught Orochimaru's gaze. Unfortunately, her Wulgs weren't very stealthy creatures.

'This could be a chance though. If I'm going to have to speak to them anyway, then I'd like to hear Orochimaru's reasoning for all the shit he's going to do in the future. Maybe I could even change his mind...' She considered. After all, why shouldn't she use her otherworldly knowledge to improve the lives of the people of this world?

She sent her summons back to their world and began to approach the group on the dam, removing her mask so that Nagato would immediately recognise her.

As she got closer Jiraiya and Orochimaru began reaching towards their weapons, so she stopped about ten meters away.

"Hey, Nagato. You were a real pain to track down, you know that?" She started off by showing that she knew him. It took him a few moments to process the situation before he responded.

"S-Seija! Where have you been?! H-How did you escape from the village, it was totally overrun with shinobi!"

"Mom found a way to get the Jonin in charge out of town. I had to stay hidden for a week after the ninjas showed up, but after that I could sneak out. I was going to take you with me, along with your mom and dad but... yeah. You had already left town on your own by the time I came out of hiding." She explained.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, Yahiko and Konan winced at that explanation. It wasn't hard to guess what that 'yeah' was referring to. The ultimate fate of Nagato's parents.

Nagato spoke up again. "Ok but how did Mrs Himiko get the Jonin out of town? How did you hide from all those ninjas? And how did you follow us here? A-And what was that big wolf thing?!"

And she was happy to answer his rapid-fire questions.

"Ok, first answer: Family stuff apparently. Mom and dad let themselves get captured and taken to Konoha. The Jonin had to escort them, for some reason." She began. Jiraiya and Tsunade raised their eyebrows at that. 'Was her mother a missing-nin?' They both wondered.

"The second, third and fourth questions all have the same answer: I used the Summoning Jutsu, which sent me to a summoning realm where I could hide for a while. There, I got a contract to summon those Wulgs - that's what they're called, by the way - and I used their sense of smell to track you here." She finished.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at her. "Interesting... using the summoning realm to hide, hmm? Clever..."

'Nice, he started a conversation all on his own. Time to start putting mom's childhood gossip to work.' She put on her best acting face but internally she was grinning like a fool.

'Heh... I'm about to do something really, REALLY risky...'

"Say... Your white skin and purple eye-liner remind me of someone my mom once described to me."

His eyes narrowed further.

"Oh? And who was she talking about?"

"She told me about a student at the Academy a few years younger than her. Apparently broke a few records on the written exams and had a dream to learn every Ninjutsu in existence. Was that you, Mr Orochimaru?"

He was actually a bit surprised that she was right. He kept his cool though, unlike Jiraiya who looked like he was itching to ask if her mother had ever heard of him as well. (She hadn't.)

"Well well... that is correct. I am Orochimaru, and that is indeed my goal. Why bring it up, though?" He asked.

"Because I think it's a terrible idea." She happily said right to his face.

He narrowed his eyes again. Jiraiya stepped a little closer in case he needed to hold Orochimaru back from just killing her.

"...Elaborate..." He commanded.

"Well then, let me ask you a few questions about that dream. First, how do you plan on learning every Ninjutsu when new ones are created every year?"

"I will extend my life through the techniques that I learn. Ideally, I would aim for immortality. Then I will simply learn them as they are created." He stated.

"Ok... next question. How will you learn Ninjutsu from specific clans and bloodlines? Those aren't typically usable by normal shinobi. Not that you are merely normal, of course."

"...I will study the bloodlines, and I will try to trade with clans within Konoha, and steal from those outside of it. I will learn their secrets eventually."

'This is interesting. He's not just being outright hostile about me questioning his goals. Maybe he actually likes discussing it? Fitting for a villainous character to want to monologue their evil plans at people.' She supposed.

She continued speaking, "Very well. Now, with all the similar Justu out there, why would you not simply choose to master nature transformation instead? Why spend all that time just to learn fifty different ways to shoot a fireball or a jet of water when you can create your own Ninjutsu that you can optimise for your own purposes?" She was gradually setting him up for what she hoped would be a big hit. A way to maybe prevent him from walking the unethical path to immortality.

"Hmm..." He fell into thought. The other two Leaf shinobi couldn't believe what they were seeing. Not only was Orochimaru having a serious conversation with a total stranger, but he was actually considering her words.

Seija decided to ask another set of questions.

"Also, immortality is almost invariably a bad idea to pursue, isn't it? Eternal life will eventually lead to eternal boredom. Not to mention all of the different ways that it could go wrong. And the kinds of experiments into 'life' and 'death' that you would have to perform to obtain it would likely not be very ethical, would they?"

That last question made his eyebrows twitch.

"Well then how do you expect me to have enough time to learn it all?!" He shouted at her. The outburst was surprising for everyone, including Seija. She wasn't sure if she could remember a time when Orochimaru actually had an outburst like that in the entire series. So she aimed her final nail at the coffin.

"Have you considered the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" She politely asked. He paused.

"...What?"

"The Shadow Clone Jutsu. You're a Konoha Jonin, so you must know it, right? Are you not unaware of its use as a training tool?"

Orochimaru once more fell into thought.

'What is she talking about? Certainly, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is a useful tool for combat and scouting, but I've never heard of it having external applications like this.' He wondered.

So he asked her, genuinely intrigued.

"What do you mean?"

She smirked.

'Got him.'

"Well, what happens when you send a shadow clone off to do something, and you then dispel it?"

"Its chakra and memories return to the user. Why?"

"Say that again, but slower."

"Its chakra and... memories..." He froze.

And everyone present bore witness to what appeared to be some kind of transcendent awakening within the snake man's brain.

"...Tsunade. We're leaving."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him. "What? I mean, sure that's what we were doing already, but why the urgency?"

"I need to experiment..." And on that note he Flickered away across the dam.

*Sigh*

Tsunade followed after him, leaving just the three orphans, Jiraiya, and Seija left standing there.

Jiraiya cleared his throat after that strange interaction and turned back to the children.

"*Ahem* Right then... since you're here now, will you be joining us? You're clearly better trained than these three already but I would rather not push away Nagato's friend if I can help it." Jiraiya offered to her with an awkward smile.

Yahiko interrupted the conversation.

"I don't trust her. She's not even an orph-" And he was promptly interrupted in turn by Nagato.

"It's ok, Yahiko! Seija and I have known each other for years. And... and her parents were kidnapped! Who knows if they're even still alive..." He hurriedly vouched for her. Konan spoke up as well.

"I think it would be nice to have her around... she looks strong." She threw in her two cents.

Yahiko grumbled to himself, but ultimately relented. "Fine. She can join us."

Jiraiya clapped his hands and spoke up.

"Ok! Now that that's sorted, let me get us somewhere safe. There's an old cabin out in a field a short hike south of here. That's where we'll be staying." And he set off at a slow pace, letting the untrained kids keep up with him.

Seija glanced off in the direction that Orochimaru left in before putting her mask back on and following along with the group.

'I hope that worked. He might become stronger than he was originally with this trick... but I'm betting the reincarnators will keep him in check if he decides to become evil in the end.'

She wondered what their time with Jiraiya would have in store for her and the orphans. She would have to make sure not to stop Nagato from fighting when the Iwa Chunin shows up to attack them, thus revealing his power to Jiraiya.

'Jiraiya won't teach them Ninjutsu unless he notices Nagato's power. There were very few actual details about this time period in the story, so I'm not really sure how everything went down...'

She would just have to take things as they came. This would prove to be an interesting experience, she was sure.