Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Tayuya didn't really see what the big deal was.

"But how can we still be sure it's still Orochimaru-sama? He-" Kidomaru hesitated, "She is acting completely different. Minimizing casualties. Most research is now about things like medicines and jutsu that anyone can use. It's completely different from what was being done before."

"Right. And someone that just so happens to know all of Orochimaru's pass codes, techniques, and also just so happens to have a snake contract and the Kusanagi. Get real dumb-ass. It's the same person." Sakon mocked.

The collective morons that made up the Sound Four had regularly taken to bickering about the boss's decision to act like some air-headed bimbo. It was really fucking weird, to be sure, but this constant arguing on whether they still serve the same master was just so fucking pointless.

"Sweet Tits of Izanami, shut up!" She growled. The rest of Orochimaru's personal guards turned to her. Well most of them. None of them were dumb enough to have this conversation around Kimimaro. "If she is or isn't the original doesn't fucking matter! She can still take us apart like tissue paper. Her strength is real and that's all that counts in this fucked up world."

The ninja all shuffled in place. They had seen the strength for themselves. They knew she was right.

"Women shouldn't talk like that." Jirobo said, "But the new Orochimaru is also training us personally. We'll all be much stronger if things keep going this way. I like this better."

"The fact we get way more pork is the real reason you're happy, fatass." Tayuya said with a roll of her eyes. Couldn't have the tub of lard thinking that just because he agreed with her they were somehow friends or something.

The stupid bickering cut out though. All of them knew for sure that Boss Lady still had real power. The power to rival the strongest ninja in the world. At the end of the day, nothing else really mattered. You follow the strong or you die. There was nothing else to it.

"Come on. We have two hour to finish this training before we gotta see Chief Snakeyness. Lets get this over with." Tayuya said before turning back to the room full of moving targets and timed objectives.

Orochimaru was making changes, and they needed to keep strong or they would find themselves one of the one those "dismissed" from employment.

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Things were beginning to get under control. It had been two weeks and there hadn't been a single unintended death. I could go out and help train some ninja for hours at a time without having things literally catch fire. I was somehow receiving even larger amounts of request for human testing though. But I was feeling better about things being somewhat stabilized.

Taking Kabuto had been very helpful. I just hoped he wasn't reporting everything happening to Danzo or Sasori. I mean, he almost certainly had to tell them something, but I didn't need all my dirty little secrets reported.

But after a month of having him assist in managing the din of psychos and idiots I felt confident enough to leave the spy in charge of running things for a week. I needed to get some things done and the clock was ticking down on me being able to make great strides in fixing my problems with man power, money, and supply lines all in one fell swoop.

I even had the perfect thing to make sure that Kabuto didn't try and stab me in the back while I was gone. Someone who, in his own words, was the arch nemesis of Kabuto.

"As a reminder, Nagisa-kun, don't confront Kabuto with any suspicions you have. If you see something just report it to Guren or Kimimaro. They will know how I want them to respond. You won't be able to take Kabuto in a fight anyways."

I realized that Nagisa was a little unfit for the job. However I needed someone who actually understood all of the laboratory stuff to keep an eye on what was going on. Hopefully Guren and Kimimaro could manage to keep his rampant paranoia about Kabuto in check.

I had already told the two to prepare themselves for a stream of baseless accusations.

"I will make sure to watch the traitor closely Orochimaru-sama. I won't let him get in the way of our machinations." He said as he went into a bow.

I briefly questioned my wisdom on giving authority to a man that used the word machinations without a hint of irony, but again told myself that I didn't really have a whole lot of options. Not if I wanted to leave this place for any significant amount of time.

Which really just meant I had to prioritize making sure Kabuto was completely loyal to me. Which was tricky because he'd made a life of making people believe he was completely loyal.

"How is the study on a cure for Kimimaro going?" I asked, trying to change subjects before this could get into a rant on how I shouldn't trust the two face back stabber that just wants to take Nagisa's position from him. The man was probably right on all those fronts, but I had other things I needed to take care of.

"I have gone over Kabuto's results and have to concur. It does seem as though Kimimaro's sickness comes from a problem with his bone marrow." Nagisa said with bitterness.

I had been afraid of that. Bone marrow was very hard to do anything with. Most medicine was already very filtered by the liver and kidneys and the bodies other various filtration systems before the medicine ever got close to penetrating into the bones. Chakra also tended to have trouble interacting through the bones to reach the marrow as well.

"Keep the research up. When I return I will assist in making this my highest priority." I said as dismissal.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." Nagisa said before bowing out of the room. As the door clicked behind him I felt a great weight fall off my shoulders. Interacting with any of the people that literally worshiped me was always so exhausting, but Nagisa was the worst of them.

It was incredibly relieving that I was going to be able to leave later that day. I stood up with a stretch before idly smoothing out my grey and purple sundress. I would have liked to have a larger of variety of colors in my wardrobe but it's apparently really hard to match outfits with the literally white skin and permanent purple lines under my eyes. I had options, but I found myself slightly more limited.

Also the sundresses seemed to really distress my minions. More so even than the turtleneck. So I took to only occasionally wearing the more feminine outfits.

They had no reaction to the purple lipstick for some reason though.

I had spent the weeks before deciding where exactly I needed to go and what exactly it was that I needed to do. I had so many plans. Even outside of gaining strength for my village I needed to get stronger myself too. I needed to be able to go toe to toe with the likes of Nagato.

After I got a report from Konoha though, I saw an opportunity unfold that made me realize I couldn't afford to wait.New novel chapters are published on

A knock came at the door. "Orochimaru-sama. You called for us." Sakon asked through the door.

"Enter." I ordered.

The Sound Four were an odd bunch. They had mostly been chosen for their amount of chakra. Orochimaru needed them to be able to maintain his barriers for long periods of time. They were way too weak for them to really be body guards. They were still low rank jonin and there was a vast sea between that and any of the Sannin.

That said, the group seemed to hesitate on seeing me in a sundress. Aside from Kimimaro and Tayuya though. Kimimaro apparently accepted me as Orochitama now, or at least noticed that I wasn't killing people for treating me like a woman. Tayuya though seems to not give a single shit about who I am or what I wear. She's managed to take everything I have been throwing out with naught but a raised eyebrow.

"Ara ara. So prompt." I said as the five bowed (six if you counted Ukon), "Kimimaro-kun. I had told you that you didn't need to come to these meetings anymore. You're meant to be resting."

"My apologies. I know you intend to leave today and wanted to ensure that your personal guard were prepared for the dangers ahead." Kimimaro replied with eyes to the ground.

I promptly crossed the room to him, and gently pulled him up by his elbow. "That's no good. You have testing tomorrow. You need to be well rested because the marrow withdraw is going to be exhausting." I ordered as I spun him around and had him stand just on the outside of my door.

"But-"

"But nothing. Go rest or I'll assign Suigetsu to tattle on you."

Intrigued, she continued her journey into the heart of the town as she heard a crowd in the distance. She could also hear the reason so many people were happy.

"Food! Someone is handing out food!"

"Quick! Come to the market before it's gone! Someone is handing out food!"

The entire town seemed to be crammed into the market. Cries of thanks, need, and joy filled the air as the crowed slowly thinned one person at a time. Each person clutching a small parcel to their chest.

Tsunami could hardly believe it. Someone was handing out food? No one that had the ability to help ever seemed to care about them before hand. She wanted to believe it was true, that there were still good people in power in the world, but she suddenly found fear grip her heart as she realized who it might be handing things out.

Gato and his men were the only ones with power. The irrational thought that they were handing out poisoned food to kill them all grasped her limbs and had her push rudely through the crowd. She shoved or pulled all obstacles out her way until she burst into the gap in the middle of the mob.

The eye of the people storm held a small line of villagers that dissolved into the chaos of the crowd. However that line led to someone unlike she had ever seen before. It was a woman with skin as pale as moonlight and the golden eyes of a beast.

"Ara ara. No pushing. You have to wait in the line to get your food." The woman chastised her.

"Oh. Sorry." Tsunami muttered.

The woman in the grey and purple sundress certainly didn't look like one of Gato's men. She smiled kindly and spoke softly. She also didn't have guards with half drawn swords. All she had was herself and a large wooden crate that she was handing out to people one by one.

A child came to the the front of the line. It was Nariyuki's kid. The little girl probably couldn't remember the last time she had a full belly.

"Ah. A noble lady has come to have some of my humble food!" The pale woman said, making the young girl blush and shyly look to the ground. "Do you have someone to help you cook it?"

"Yes. Grandma can cook." The child said.

"Enjoy!" The stranger said as she handed over the brown paper package.

Tsunami didn't know the stranger, but the woman was confident, and spoke with so much authority that the throngs of desperate people listened to her as she mandated an orderly line in her circle. Gato would never let someone like that live anywhere he controlled. She effortlessly did what he required legions of goons to do.

"Excuse me." Tsunami said as she approached. "Can I help you somehow?"

"That would be great." The woman said. "It's just packages of rice and some pig's fat, so it's not heavy, but a second set of hands would speed this up."

Tsunami hadn't done what she was expecting to do with her time in town, but she certainly wasn't going to miss out on being part of something that was making the people of Wave smile once again.

-------

I immediately thought that Tsunami was an absolute peach of a woman. The whole town seemed to know her and respect her. She made no comments about getting an extra portion of the food for helping out, she didn't seem to want anything from me at all. Tsunami just wanted to help people desperately in need and helped me hand out food until night fall.

"Thank you for the help, Tsunami-chan. You helped that go by much faster."

"Oh no, I'm much too old for the chan." Tsunami gave a dismissive wave, "And if some of us can't assist when help comes for us, then Wave really wouldn't deserve to be saved."

"Ara ara. You are plenty young and cute enough for everyone to call you chan." I said with a wink.

Tsunami just looked confused by my response. I was barking up the wrong tree apparently.

"Do you have somewhere to stay the night miss...actually, I don't think you gave me your name?" Tsunami asked pleasantly.

"You're right. I didn't!" I responded, "And I have my accommodations for the night. Thank you for your concern though."

"Alright then." She relented easily, "Though if you need anything I live in the little house to the east, outside town. It's right on the creek. If you need anything you can find me there, or go to the bridge and ask for Tazuna. That's my father."

Oh shit. I forgot what Tazuna's daughter's name was. Plus people look really different in person than they do as 2D drawings. I had no idea that I had spent the last three hours with someone that was actually pretty important to my plans.

It had actually been my goal to try and find the bridge builder's home after handing out food. Granted, just one of many goals for the night, but I had just passed on someone taking me directly there without rousing any sort of suspicion. It appeared I'd have to do this another way then.

"So your father is the one building the bridge! I'll have to swing by in the morning to see if he or his workers need anything."

"That would be great. The promise of food will do a lot to motivate workers. I'll tell my father to expect you in the morning." Tsunami said with cheer.

"Sure." I promised, "I'll swing by your house just after dawn."

"I'll be sure to set a plate for you at the breakfast table then." Tsunami promised.

"Are you sure? I've been known to eat a woman out...of house and home."

Tsunami was clearly wondering why I put an odd pause in the middle of my sentence, the sweet innocent child. I was clearly barking up the wrong FOREST.

"It should be fine. The more the merrier." She replied.

It took all of Orochimaru's training for me to give no reaction to that.

"Sure. I'll bring more food with me." I promised with a shake of my head.

I distinctly did not offer to bring my clam nor did I offer some fish. I just calmly waved goodbye and made my way to the other side of the island. I had to do some reconnaissance on Gato's warehouses and see what exactly it was that he was shipping illegally.

The anime never really expanded on his operations and Orochimaru never considered him important enough to find out.

It was time to see what exactly was hiding in Gato's warehouses. More importantly, it was time for me to see how I could make their contents work for me.