After a lot of argument letters, finally Hiruzen agreed to Tsunade's demand. So by the time of evening, Jiraiya took over as the commander of the rear logistic base while I, Tsunade, Minato and five hundred other shinobi headed towards the frontline.
…
Orochimaru
"Launch an offensive…"Orochimaru scanned the new order given by his teacher Hiruzen and sneered in his mind.
First his teacher had forcefully sent him to the battlefield taking away from his research. Danzo had promised to keep his works a secret from his teacher in his absence. But Orochimaru was not an idiot to trust that guy. That's why he had left his own snake summons in his lab before leaving for the battlefield. It was Danzo who was the main reason Orochimaru got involved in something messed up like human experimentation. Technically it was the fault of his teacher Hiruzen, who introduced human experimentation to regain wood style Bloodline limit. It was the third hokage who initiated and granted permission to dissect the body of the first hokage. Who threw countless children from civilian families and the Senju clan to the experiment table promising them great power. And once Orochimaru's hand died in innocent blood, he started losing his humanity. Being a scientist, who was seeing the world in a completely different way, Orochimaru valued knowledge over anything else. Even the main reason why he sought after eternal life was knowledge. Since human lifespan is very limited and human life itself is very fragile, Orochimaru wanted eternal life to learn as much as he can. So once he got used to killing innocent people in exchange of small insignificant research data, his perspective of life changed completely. So when Hiruzen suddenly stopped the research after dead bodies piled up too much, Orochimaru accepted Danzo's proposal to continue the research in exchange for multiple forbidden jutsus. After working all these years with the old rat, Orochimaru understood very well that he wouldn't hesitate to throw him away like unwanted trash the moment everything about the research got exposed.
Little by little Orochimaru lost his hopes for the hidden leaf village. But then started the third great shinobi war. This time Hiruzen came forward and gave him an offer. If he performed well and gathered enough military merits, Hiruzen will step down and he will become the next hokage. Although Orochimaru had no interest in becoming the hokage himself, he was very interested in continuing his research. And it was only possible by taking the seat of the hokage. Initially he was giving his all to the war. It was thanks to his efforts that all of the attempts of the hidden stone to breach the border of the land of Fire failed. But when the official war started, Orochimaru found himself disappointed with his Sensei. Forget about the difference between the numbers of two sides. His sensei hadn't even sent him a decent shinobi of a passable amount of strength. Jonins and Elite jounins had enough strength to hold their own against the hidden stone shinobi. But their number was low. The village had assigned a high number of Chunins under his command. And honestly they were only slightly better than average genins. So it was obvious that there was a lot of pressure on Orochimaru. But even after a lot of request, he always got the same answer from his teacher. "The village is low on manpower". After receiving the same answer over and over again, Orochimaru became sure. His teacher was just playing his own game. And Orochimaru refused to be any part of it.
Unfortunately he still had some loyalty left towards the village. So he did what he needed to do to protect the land of Fire. If his teacher was insisting on sending only canon fodders to him, then Orochimaru made sure that those canon fodders should at least kill 10 times of their own numbers before getting sacrificed for the village. That's why when Kitsuchi launched a full offensive on the border with the Tsuchikage himself backing him up from his war tent, Orochimaru didn't hesitate to sacrifice the fodder chunins to kill triple the amount of Iwa jounins and prevent them from breaching the border. He didn't care about anyone's opinion anymore. Because he already knew that his teacher had only made empty promises.
"He wants us to launch an offensive attack like the hidden stone did. The hidden stone had used 2000 Jonins and special Jonins combined, to attack our border. And what Sensei had given me? 400 chunins, a hundred Jonins and that fool Jiraiya." Orochimaru burnt away the scroll as he closed his eyes and sat on his seat.
Since it is a direct order he will have to follow it. And after following this order his reputation will drop even more. Unlike his other two teammates, people never respected him. They had always feared him. But not like Orochimaru cared. His main concern was not sacrificing a few hundred more shinobi to complete the order from the hokage. His main concern was the presence of his foolish teammate Jiraiya. He didn't want that fool to hinder his plans.
But Orochimaru's worries lessened when instead of Jiraiya, Tsunade came to the battlefield. Tsunade was someone that has suffered because of the village just like him. So both of them have lost a lot of respect for their teacher, unlike Jiraiya.
"Tsunade, I never expected to come here with your condition…." Orochimaru flashed a smile like a snake.
"My condition is not as severe as it used to be. And besides…. With the condition of our army, and the kind of order that sensei had issued, I think you will appreciate my presence more than Jiraiya's." Tsunade said indifferently as she took her seat beside Orochimaru.
"As I had expected. You know me very well.
"So are you planning to sacrifice them to complete the mission given by sensei ?" Tsunade asked after a moment of silence.
"I have not decided yet. Maybe I will decide to ignore his order.
By the way, I am interested in your prodigy. I heard that she single handedly defeated an entire squad of hidden stone shinobi…" Orochimaru said to Tsunade, changing the topic.
"Usagi is my student." Tsunade said firmly.
"Oh, don't worry. I have no intention of taking your disciple. I just wanted to meet the person who is going to play the biggest role in the upcoming operation." Orochimaru licked his lips in his usual style.
Tsunade didn't want his creepy teammate to take interest in her daughter. But Orochimaru was still better than that Pervert Jiraiya. So she called for her presence and then continued to discuss the situation on their front with Orochimaru.
Usagi reached the commander's tent after 10 minutes.
And Orochimaru was beyond shocked when he saw her.
"My my…. Tsunade, this young prodigy of yours, resembles your younger self too much. Are you sure you are not blood related ?" Orochimaru asked it like a casual question. But it was enough to throw off Tsunade. Orochimaru didn't need confirmation. The expression of his teammate told him the answer. Orochimaru immediately understood why Tsunade had come to the frontline risking her own life when she could have stayed in the rear. Tsunade's relationship with the new seal master Usagi must be more than just a master-disciple relationship. But since Tsunade didn't want to reveal it, she could only come to the battlefield herself to protect the girl.
"Good night, commander Orochimaru."
Before Orochimaru could get an answer out of Tsunade, Usagi greeted him, giving him and Tsunade a confusing look.
Tsunade on the other hand was glaring daggers at Orochimaru, silently warning him not to continue the matter in front of Usagi.
"My, what a polite….. you can go and rest. I will talk to you about our plan tomorrow. I just wanted to meet the young prodigy of my teammate." Orochimaru sent away Usagi immediately not wanting to provoke Tsunade anymore.
"But as soon as Usagi left Orochimaru's eyes glinted with curiosity. He immediately activated the privacy seal of his tent and turned towards Tsunade.
"Now that there is no one to hear us, how about you tell me who she really is ? I swear on my name that I will not speak of it to a single soul." Orochimaru asked eagerly like a married woman asking her newlywed friend for some details on a certain thing.
Tsunade's face darkened after hearing Orochimaru. Unlike Jiraiya, Orochimaru is smart. And if he is curious about something then he will only stop after finding the answer.
"Fine. But if I find out that you have told this to anyone then I will personally kill you before becoming a missing nin." Tsunade warned Orochimaru, making him smile.
"She is my daughter. That's all I will tell you. No more questions." Tsunade revealed the secret.
But unknown to both of them Usagi was hearing their conversation secretly through a seal she had hidden inside the tent after coming in.
…
Next chapter: Learning the truth
AN:
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