"Would you like to join me for a board game?" Hazō ventured.
"I've found they make for a great intellectual challenge," he said. "Different games test the intellect in all kinds of different ways. More than one of my sealing ideas has been inspired by something I saw or did in a game."
"At your age," Orochimaru observed, "my idea of an intellectual challenge was tracing the connection between elemental affinity and the balance of the bodily humours. Some of the analytical procedures I developed continue to serve me to this day."
He began to turn away.
Hazō didn't know where he was heading, but he did know that in that direction lay Noburi's solidarity-building "summoners versus summons" game of Kage Hunters.
An old thought came back to him. Echoes of a past conversation. One he'd had with Mari,
a long time ago.
Hazō, if there was a kunai with an exploding tag flying at Noburi and he couldn't dodge, would you throw yourself in front of it?
This was it. The time of his test. Few options were open to Hazō. But what little he could do had to be enough. For all that Orochimaru kept an aloof, detached facade to show himself above all concerns and most importantly everyone else, he never failed to listen and answer until a conversation genuinely bored him. He liked to have the last word, and cared about coming on top. Considering Hazō's abilities, he had exactly one course of action: being as infuriating as he could.
"At my age", Hazō retorted, "did you use this insight to revolutionise war?"
Orochimaru stopped. What was that petulant
child's endgame?
"I was too busy waging, and winning, one." His tone was cool, not the way a stone wall may be cool, but the way a scalpel dissecting a corpse was cool. "Do you have a point,
nephew?"
This last word was uttered with such sardonicism that it alone would have Hazō on edge. Of course, the killing intent from Orochimaru for so bold an act of insolence went above and beyond that, and threatened to make him pass out. He steeled his resolve, and pursued, trying his hardest to cut off his every sense as he clung to the Iron Nerve to produce words one after the other, mechanically, no matter how he was holding up.
"Oh, I suppose the talent of the greatest Sannin had to bloom late then, if you had to be a warrior and a tool firs-" Predatory eyes were set on him. A dance of traumatic experiences arose behind his eyes as Orochimaru's anger and annoyance spiked. He experienced this once, the feeling of being sliced open and reliving all damaging memories. Pain and fear and thooughts hum@ns mvst nno,t sEe 4nd the p9int 0, t%e w4(rlD -hAt w&s a wEBB `F LIE++S 4FG° 4¤2µ0ND HE C6ntr0lled hiS s4NSes aNd kEppt goin,g. "How long did this head-start at questioning biology last before Tsunade overtook you in ability and insight?"
If the Snake Sannin was cross at the disrespect before, he was now positively fuming. The nerve! On the one hand this kid was clearly attempting to get a rise out of him, and in an especially clumsy way. On the other hand, no one in a very long time had tried his patience anywhere near that extent, and the fact that it was on purpose only
added to his anger.
"I have only very little time for meaningless acts." He projected his aura at the boy at full strength, instantly knocking him unconscious. "I do suppose, however, that I have to make time for more pressing matters, and interesting new projects. I did welcome you to my compound as volunteer."
Hazō woke up lying on a cold slab of stone, recognising an environment burned in his memories as surely as he hoped never to see it again. The Basement. He tried to move. His body did not respond. He tried to move again. But nothing happened. He could feel nothing below his neck, which apparently was strapped, only see and hear. See a stone ceiling, hear a strange rustling nearby. And smell, too. A strong scent he could not identify made it hard to think. Or it was the pain welling in his head, in his head and everywhere else. He could still feel pain.
"Ah, it seems you've come to." The voice was unexpectedly cheerful, for all that it looked like his plan to anger Orochimaru as a last resort to protect his family had been a success beyond all hope. "You were sadly incapacitated for the first steps of the procedure, but I trust you will want to be with me and follow the path of the rest. Trust me when I say it will be highly informative.
"You see, you represent a loose end. You have seen too much of my research, and I had no way of knowing exactly how much. You waste much of my time. You are a regular, constant impediment to my pursuing grandiose interests and discovery far past any achievement you make dance before the eyes of the village, and my peace requires I play along. Your safety was always at my convenience, but you've now well passed the gates of the marginal utility I could have to not, ah,
extract the peace I await.
"See, before I was exiled, I tried to learn Yamanaka secrets. They were furiously guarded, but I had nothing but time and tools to chip away at their guards. Sometimes even literally." Hazō could
hear the sneer in his voice, the voice of someone who knew himself to be beyond stopping and consequence. "Unfortunately, they do rely partly on some Bloodline abilities. After all my testing, splicing of bodies, and recomposition, I still cannot dive as they do. What I can do is fortunately much m
ore complete, but also much more definite. I will
make you reveal how much you know about my research, I will
make you reveal what secrets you hold, I will
make you reveal why you felt it wise to attract my ire, and this will be your last experience as this will happen as all information in your brain is forcibly extruded. Then I will see if your body can be of any use based on that information. You had an interesting reaction to my aura both times you were subjected to it. The experience might prove harrowing."
The blood beating at Hazō's temples should have been deafening, his mind racing to find an out, but he did not even try to open his mouth, not that he would have succeeded had he tried. Orochimaru's teaching tone was pure statement of fact, but he was clearly enjoying toying with him before finally ending his life. The excitement kept seeping in, not only at points of data, but on any word indicating Hazō's situation and incoming death.
"Now, dear nephew, let us learn what is hidden in this unwise hea-wait, what the fu-THE VOIC
ES-STOP THIS HURTS-HOW COULD YOU-HOW DARE YOU-THE VOICES, THE VOICES-SO MANY-what's a train?-DID WHAT WITH SUMMONING SCROLLS?-IT BURNS, IT BURNS, IT BUR
Orochimaru was immobile and he was hurting and Orochimaru was about to kill him. Hazō was about to erase all that made up Hazō and taking great joy in it. Hazō yelled. Orochimaru howled. Hazō cried. Orochimaru bellowed. A soul-rending noise that only he could hear tore away at his sanity and mind and the flesh that was just a-
He was looking at his own body, strapped to a table and painted in uncountable seals. Hazō was tall. Taller than he had ever been. His hands were paler than he remembered them. Also, his body on the table was dead. Turning around, disconcerted, he saw his reflection in a mirror on the wall. Well, that explained it.
Orochimaru's face split in a childlike grin.
"You know, I think I could weaponise this."
