Author's Notes: Thanks to the one who recommended the reading on Critical Period Hypothesis :) I will keep that in mind. Also, most of the beginning will be focused on other characters because Naruto is a baby and I don't like time skips very much. I will slowly switch over to give Naruto more 'screen time' but right now the main focus is on Itachi and his team.

Itachi Uchiha was about to pass the genin exam. The academy curriculum really wasn't difficult if you knew the basics and had access to one of the greatest clan libraries in the elemental nations. Scratch that, He thought as he performed a simple transformation, You don't even need the awesome library, all you need are the basics.

Itachi sighed, all he did was learn a couple E-rank jutsu, perform a couple punches, and write a test on tactics so basic that they were practically common sense. Yet, he was praised as a prodigy. The real challenge would be passing the chunin or jonin exams. He sighed again as he walked up to receive his headband.

The teachers supervising the exam scowled at the sighing Uchiha. Did he think that he was above taking the academy exam. The teachers all hated the arrogance of the Uchiha, and pitied the jonin that would be forced to teach one. Some teachers smiled internally, as they knew that overconfidence could get you killed on the field and that the Uchiha clan deserved that.

As Itachi left the exam room, their teacher called the next name, "Iruka Umino." Itachi stared at the other student as he stood up from his seat and casually strolled towards the exam room. Itachi didn't know most of his classmates, as many envied him for reaching his final year at the academy 6 years younger than them. Due to the animosity, he was isolated from his peers.

Itachi walked past Iruka to get back to his seat and did so normally until Iruka was right beside him. Shivers subtly rippled down Itachi's spine as he whipped his head around to examine the boy who had continued walking past him. Itachi's eyes widened ever so slightly. There was something strange, something dangerous. He definitely did not want that to be targeted towards him.

Someone sitting at the desk beside the frozen Uchiha sneered, "What? Are you expecting everyone to bow down to you as they walk past you, 'Mighty Uchiha'?" He finished while miming air brackets. The boy who had mocked Itachi, like many others of the village, didn't like how the Uchiha walked all over everybody else. He expected Itachi to retort, or fight him, so he was surprised when the Uchiha simply glanced over and murmured, "I am not like my family."

Itachi then walked back to his seat and sat down to wait for the remaining students to take the academy test. He wondered what his squad would be like, and if he would be able to find teammates among them. Itachi sincerely hoped that his team wouldn't treat him with scorn because of his young age or arrogant family members. He was scared that his teacher would either show favoritism towards him or assume that he had a superiority complex.

Itachi shook the thoughts from his head as he noticed the teachers filing out of the exam room. The homeroom teacher stood at the front, obviously prepared to make a speech. He just simply reminded everyone of exactly what being a ninja entails. Itachi didn't see the point of the speech. If his classmates are squeamish around blood and death them why did they become ninja in the first place?

The teacher began to read out teams, "Squad 1: Jokoto Mikaya, Sedona Machiko…" Itachi turned out the names that he didn't know until he heard, "Squad 9: Itachi Uchiha, Iruka Umino, and Anko Mitarashi. Your jonin is Orochimaru." Itachi's eyebrows rose slowly. That interesting kid was going to be on his team. He wondered what that quality he noticed about the boy was and how he could use it to boost the success of the team. The girl, Anko, was above average and seemed to have a slightly sadistic aura in the making. Right now, as far as Itachi could tell, Anko was a sweet and caring girl. Even if she looked a little lonely. Itachi's gut feeling told him that Anko was going to be a hell of a sadist. He also heard that she retook the last year of the academy when her previous teacher left the village.

Their teacher was a surprise though. Who would've thought that the most powerful of the sannin would become a jonin instructor? Orochimaru was well known as a prodigy even in his youth, so Itachi hoped that his instructor would be able to relate to him and his situation. If not then Itachi would just have to do his own training and research. It's not like it would be a big deal or anything, as once you reach chunin you don't have a jonin to hold your hand through everything. Most chunin choose to find another instructor for the area they decide to specialise in, but it is blatantly obvious that there is no coddling whatsoever for the chunin pupil.

Thinking more about his new teacher, Itachi thought about the bad rumours circulating about the most powerful of the sannin. Itachi had heard that he had been performing cruel and immoral experiments to prisoners of Konoha. Legally, Orochimaru could do whatever sick experiments he wanted to the prisoners. After all, how do they think they test poisons, antidotes, torture techniques, and illusion techniques? It's not like they can test potentially lethal techniques on their fellow leaf ninja.

While Itachi was caught in thought murmurs were being spread in confusion and a little bit of fear. About a year ago, it was found out that he was doing experiments on civilians that had committed crimes as well as artificially impregnating female prisoners in order to have infants to experiment on. For a while there had been a lot of uproar from a lot of civilians and some ninja, and many questions on the legality of the experiments. Orochimaru quickly became fed up with the village ransacking his labs and attacking him and decided to leave Konoha.

A few months ago, the ruling decision of the council was that since all of the experiments were done on prisoners and therefore legal. The infant experiments were a huge subject of debate before it was finally concluded as legal due to the infants falling under the category of genetic experimentation on prisoners. Orochimaru did not come back after his innocence was declared and only recently had the whole issue calmed down. That was why he was so surprised that Orochimaru would be teaching; he didn't even know that Orochimaru was back in Konoha!

"What?" A quiet, but deadly sounding voice rang out amongst the murmuring. Anko, who had been shock still until now, stood up with her bangs shadowing her eyes. Everyone went silent.

Anko walked up to the teacher with her eyes still hidden, and grabbed their teacher's arm tightly with a strength that they didn't expect from her. She looked up into the teacher's face and smiled eerily, "Are you saying that no-good snake bastard is back in Konoha and is going to be our instructor?"

The teacher just nodded, wondering what triggered that nasty atmosphere from his normally gentle student. He was about to tell the class that their jonin leaders would come to get their teams now, but was interrupted by a laugh.

"Ku, ku, ku. Hello little Anko, shouldn't you be more careful about insulting your superiors?" A pale man with long dark hair walked into the classroom.

Anko immediately let go of the academy teacher and launched herself at Orochimaru. Once she reached her destination she had unseen tears rolling down her face as her head was buried into Orochimaru's chest as she hugged him. Orochimaru simply patted her head fondly.

Itachi had the sudden feeling that he was intruding on something private and emotional, so he looked away from the scene.

In looking away from Anko his eyes met with his other teammate. They both stared at each other for a few moments before shifting their gazes elsewhere. Itachi was only slightly reassured by the neutrality in his eyes, as Iruka seemed to be the kind of person who can hide his emotions when he wants to. Following Iruka's new line of sight, Itachi traced Iruka's gaze to a girl in their class. Itachi's interest was peaked slightly, and he was also slightly annoyed. If his teammate had a crush on the girl his eyes were trained on, then it could potentially cause problems later.

Itachi suppressed a groan and coughed a few times to let his still hugging team leader and teammate know that it was time to stop. Anko removed herself from Orochimaru's person and had the grace to look abashed.

Orochimaru simply smiled and said, "Squad 9, follow me."

Itachi and Iruka responded by standing up and offering a 'yes sir'. They both walked towards the front of the class and exited the room with Anko and Orochimaru.

The new team navigated the academy's hallways in silence. The silence persisted until a few minutes after they exited the academy when Iruka spoke up, "Where are we going?"

Orochimaru's grin got bigger if that was even possible, "We are going to one of my labratories for your second genin exam."

"Oh," Iruka said, and they were quiet again. Anko already knew of the second genin test since she was technically already a genin who passed the second test but sent back to the academy. Iruka and Itachi weren't surprised due to how easy the first genin exam was.

Orochimaru hummed in delight, "Ku, ku, ku. I'm glad that none of you are screamers, so I'll reward you with some information. The second genin test has an average fail rate of 66%."

Itachi only gave the information a quick thought before dismissing it. Approximately that percentage of people barely passed the first test, and would likely fail the second test. Around 10 minutes later, Orochimaru stopped in front of a pretty average looking building and turned around.

"This year I have been given permission to administer my own test, so as a warning to Anko it will not be the same as last time. Your task is simple: go into the lab, find your way to the back, touch a seal, and return here." Orochimaru instructed.

"What's the catch?" Itachi asked.

Orochimaru pulled out a couple of kunai, "I will be attacking you as you progress through the lab. I will not be allowed do anything that hampers your movement, cripple, or kill you, but I can cause you a lot of pain." Orochimaru paused for a moment before continuing, "I will not lie, this test is a lot harder than the usual test. At any point during the test just say 'stop' and I will ensure that you will get another jonin instructor who will give an easier test."

Orochimaru opened the door and the dark entrance loomed threateningly over the new genin. Disappearing into the darkness, Orochimaru said one final thing, "The test starts now."

The three genin immediately sprung into action, chasing after Orochimaru through the doorway. As soon as they entered the lights turned on, and all the genin almost threw up at what they saw. Human bodies were floating in semi-translucent green fluid with dozens of wires and tubes sticking out of each body. Some contained mutated bodies with grotesque limbs and oddly coloured skin, while others contained humans missing eyes, heads, legs, or unmentionables. There were even a few containing babies and young children. The genin visibly flinched when a movement in one of the tanks caught their eyes.

3 kunai flew out of seemingly nowhere and grazed each of the genin causing blood to start dribbling onto the lab floor. Orochimaru's echoing voice taunted them, "What are you all standing around for? You have a mission to complete. Unless you're giving up?"

"No way!" Anko said, "I am not going to lose my teacher a second time." She followed up on her words by running forwards through the lab.

Itachi and Iruka glanced at each other for a moment before following her, trying their best to ignore the slimy experiments lining the walls.

"That's more like it." Orochimaru's voice came again, and soon the young ninja were attempting to dodge as many weapons as they could while dashing their way through the lab that seemed to be just a giant hallway.

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka all reached the end of the lab, planting their hands on the giant seal that took up most of the wall, and unconsciously sent chakra through it. They were prepared to return the way they came in order to pass the test but were stopped by Orochimaru standing in front of them.

"That's enough, you all pass." Orochimaru said, and beckoned the genin to sit down on chairs that they hadn't noticed before. "First I would like to tell you the point of this test," Orochimaru started with, "Most jonin either test teamwork or skills, but those are both things that are learned with time and I personally think it's unfair to test genin based on them. My test was different as it tested your resolve. I can teach you skills, and I can teach you how to work as a team, but none of that matters if you don't have the mentality to be a ninja. You would just freeze up at any morbid thing like you did at the start of this exercise and get killed by enemy ninja. By not giving up through pain and disgust you have proven to me that you are capable of being ninja."

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka sat and absorbed this for a few moments before Iruka spoke up unsteadily, "I think I get it. If you get distracted by immoral things on a mission, then you are only likely to get you and your teammates hurt."

Orochimaru nodded at Iruka's secondary explanation, "That was a good summary but it has two flaws. First, we are ninja. Ninja do things like kidnaping, assassination, seduction, and murder, but they do it with good reasons and intentions which makes it hard to draw a line between moral and immoral. The second thing is that is you are distracted by your enemy's wrongdoings, you won't get hurt, you will get killed. Enemy ninja will not show mercy for you just like you shouldn't show mercy for them."

Now confident that his lesson had sunk in, Orochimaru continued, "Now, everyone should introduce themselves. I would like you to mention your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and aspirations. Anko, you can go first."

Anko leaned forwards in her seat, propping her head up with her elbows resting on her knees, "My name is Anko and I am 11 years old. I like dango, music, and having Orochimaru as a teacher. I dislike loud people and people who assume the worst about others," She said that part with a scowl, "My hobbies are training in forests and playing with my kunai. My dream is to become a great ninja like Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru was satisfied with her explanation and moved onto the next person, "Your turn Iruka."

"Wait," Itachi said before turning to Anko, "What is your relationship with Orochimaru? It it blatantly obvious you already know each other."

Anko sat straight up, "You don't know? Where have you been living, under a rock?"

Itachi frowned, "I assure you I have been living in the Uchiha compound, and at no point in time have I lived under a rock."

Anko rolled her eyes, "It was a metaphor. Anyways, Orochimaru was my instructor for half a year but when the whole scandal with the experiments happened and he left, a bunch of people saw me a untrustworthy and sent me back to the academy for 'mental issues'."

Itachi was angry that some of the villagers could be so insensible. He was about to voice his issue with Anko's treatment but was cut off by Iruka.

"On a less depressing note, my name is Iruka and I am 13 years old. I like my parents, children, and the sunrise. I don't like cinnamon and bullying. For hobbies… I guess I like to read a lot. I don't really have any goals but I think that whatever I do decide for my goal that it will be something that will help others." Iruka introduced himself.

"Now you Uchiha," Orochimaru said.

Itachi leveled a glare at Orochimaru, "My name is Itachi not Uchiha. I am 7 years old and I like pocky, candles, and butterflies. I don't like people who misjudge me because of my family name," Itachi sent another glare to Orochimaru, "Or people who think that they are better than others. My hobbies are training and thinking of stories. My aspiration is to make sure my unborn baby brother becomes the best person he can be."

"Hmm," Orochimaru, "It seems we have a good balance of personalities on this team. Our next meeting will be tomorrow at training ground 21 at 9:00AM. We will be doing Taijutsu practice and teamwork exercises tomorrow so come prepared. Dismissed."

All three genin nodded, and proceeded to flee the laboratory as quickly as possible. They were hanging around those creepy experiments for long enough.

Hokage's Office

Orochimaru walked into the Hokage's office to report on his team, and wondered what had changed recently. Just yesterday, Minato had used his flying thunder god technique to appear next to a seal he had hidden on Orochimaru when he fled. Orochimaru was surprised and expected to have to escape from him, but was even more surprised when he informed him that he had been deemed innocent and proceeded to take Orochimaru back to Konoha using the flying thunder god technique again.

Minato's darker intentions were revealed when he started bargaining with Orochimaru and offered what he described as a 'promising experimental subject'. Their bargain was quite simply actually. Orochimaru would continue his research for Konoha and do experiments on the special subject and in exchange Orochimaru would be able to officially return to Konoha and teach Anko again. Of course, two other academy students were also tacked on as a condition for teaching Anko.

Now, Orochimaru and Minato were meeting to iron out the details of their agreement. They needed to plan on what happens when Anko and her teammates reach chunin, when the subject would be delivered to Orochimaru, and the reopening of Orochimaru's laboratories. Much to Orochimaru's dislike, Minato still hadn't told him exactly what or who his new test subject was.

"Hello Minato," Orochimaru greeted the Hokage who was sitting at his desk.

"Ah, Orochimaru. Did your team pass or fail?" Minato asked.

"Ku, ku, ku. Skipping straight to business aren't you Minato? No matter, my team passed of course. I wouldn't expect anything else from them." Orochimaru responded.

Minato wrote something down on a form on his desk before directing his attention back to Orochimaru, "Now that I have fulfilled my parts of the bargain by allowing you back to Konoha and giving you a team with Anko, let's organise your half of the deal."

Orochimaru went into serious mode at once, "The first thing I need to do is get my laboratories running again. After the many accusations, ANBU laid many of my labs, research notes, and experiments to waste. They will also need updated technology as new equipment was developed over the year I've been out of the village."

Minato nodded, "I will send out teams to repair and update the labs under your supervision. If all goes well they should be fully operational within a week."

"Good," Orochimaru seemed pleased by the speed in which Minato would ensure his labs are running again, "Once my laboratories are fully repaired and revitalised I can start the experiments on the subject you wanted me to test."

Minato scowled deeply, "Sadly there are certain conditions that must be followed with this particular subject. The first is that it must be returned to me before the end of each day and there will be some days in which it will not be available. The second is that by the time it is returned it must have no sign of being experimented upon. That means no experiments with long lasting effects. The last condition is that the subject cannot die unless I instruct you to kill it."

Orochimaru pondered on what this thing could possible be to have those sorts of odd restrictions. Internally shrugging he decided to grace Minato with a response, "Your conditions will be followed, but what is this mysterious subject that you want me to experiment on?"

Minato just smiled an evil, evil smile, "You'll see."

Orochimaru was instantly on edge from the uncharacteristic malevolence coming from the blond Hokage. When he left Konoha he had spotted the seeds of insanity planted inside Minato, which was part of the reason he left. Now, he could see that the seeds have long taken root and only now were the growing sprouts visible to the world. If Minato's insanity flowered into a poisonous bloom, then considering Minato's status as Hokage and as a SS-rank ninja, the dangerous flower of insanity could be very damaging to Konoha.

He could be wrong though. It is very possible that this subject was a major threat to Konoha and Minato simply takes a touch of delight in the probable suffering of the subject. Orochimaru's gut feeling said that this bloodthirst was a lot deeper than a simple enemy of Konoha. It was then solidified in Orochimaru's mind that Minato's mind is rotting, and when something is rotting there is only one thing you can do.

Throw it out.

Namikaze Estate

Kushina laid down on the soft grass of the garden and looked up at the stars. Under her brash and caring mother act she hid from her feelings about her son. Nobody should misinterpret this to mean that she doesn't love her son. She loves him with all her heart, believe it! The part that Kushina needs to puzzle out is how she feels about the Kyuubi somewhat merging with her son. Before and after the sealing, all she thought about it was that it was the only way to be a part of her son's life. She knows that the Kyuubi would've been sealed into him either way, but she was still debating the morality of making an unborn child a jinchuriki.

On one hand, by sealing the Kyuubi in Naruto before he was born it allowed his chakra to build up a natural immunity to the more poisonous bijuu chakra. It would also allow his chakra system to regulate it in a way that could benefit his future career as a ninja. Although on the other side, if it was sealed into Naruto after he was born then he wouldn't have the ears and tails that would mark him as a demon in the eyes of others. Would her little Naru live a better life if she and Minato hadn't forced the sealing on him?

Kushina knew that the decision they had made was the only possible one. Anything else would've risked the Kyuubi escaping and rampaging the village. She only hoped that the villagers would be able to see Naruto as the one who saved them from the destructive forces of an angry nine-tailed bijuu. Kushina knew that it would tear Minato into pieces to have to choose a side between Naruto and the village. Kushina was confident that while it may hurt Minato to pick a side, he would surely side with family.

Thinking about Naruto's extra appendages, she could see first hand how good and understanding people could get the wrong impression. The two solutions to this problem that Kushina could picture would be either to hide Naruto's ears and tails with an illusion or give Naruto enough positive reputation that they would know he isn't a demon from his reputation. These solutions had major flaws though, as Kushina didn't want her son to be forced to a life where he had to cover up his real body every time he went into public areas. It would also be difficult to construct a positive reputation for him while he is less than a week old.

Kushina was afraid of how she could protect Naruto from enemies when she couldn't even protect him from the stinking animal who dared to harm her little Naruto. Her thoughts reminding her of Naruto's wounds, she held him gently as she removed the bandages. To her surprise, there was barely any blood on the bandages, as if the scratches were healed immediately following their infliction. In fact, tracing her hands down Naruto's tiny cheeks, they were fully healed aside from 3 paper thin marks on each side.

Kushina was pleased that Naruto inherited the Uzumaki healing factor, and that it seemed to be amplified by the Kyuubi's chakra. The Kyuubi has been sealed in one container or another for around 100 years now, but Kushina had still heard tales of the Kyuubi's powerful regeneration from stories passed on through families. Apparently, any amount damage inflicted would be regenerated within seconds. It seems like Naruto had somewhat adopted that trait from the Kyuubi judging by the small amount of blood on the bandages.

The thing Kushina didn't understand is why the whisker-like marks hadn't faded away. Kushina knows that her healing factor will eliminate scars from her skin, but the scars on Naruto's face haven't healed over. Maybe because he's still a baby his healing factor isn't that strong yet, Kushina thought but immediately knew it was wrong. With the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto's healing factor has already far surpassed Kushina's.

Kushina sighed. It seemed like the things that would make other people label Naruto as a freak were piling up. The importance of having a loving circle of friends and family was constantly growing. Kushina knew that she and Minato could provide a loving family, but no matter how much she and Minato care for their child they won't be able to replace Naruto's friends. Also, in this dangerous world of ninja she and Minato could be killed at any time and Naruto would need someone to turn to if they died.

Keeping that in mind, Kushina planned for a surprise visit with Mikoto soon. Mikoto was her best friend, and she was the one that she would trust with Naruto if anything ever happened to her. Mikoto was also 5 months pregnant with her own baby boy. Mikoto was also one of the few people who knew that Kushina was pregnant and married to Minato. Kushina knew that Naruto and Mikoto's son would be like brothers, or perhaps like cousins because she and Mikoto were practically sisters.

Kushina frowned slightly. Tomorrow isn't a good day to visit because they'll probably be celebrating Itachi becoming a genin. Kushina was also a bit worn out still from giving birth 2 days ago. She decided that she would spend tomorrow relaxing with Minato and Naruto, then the day after she would visit Mikoto. Itachi would be out doing D-ranks and Fugaku would probably be busy with clan business so the day would be perfect to hang out and chat over tea. And a light spar. They are ninja after all, not housewives.

Naruto's Mind

Some time had passed in the comfortable stillness before the big energy began to move again. Less panicky than before, Naruto payed more attention to the way that the energy moved. He could spot certain patterns to the movement that he hadn't noticed before. Occasionally within the movements there would be a couple repeated ones like a thin strand of energy reaching towards him, or how the energy would retract on itself as if flowing inwards.

Naruto curiously tried to move his own energy in a thin strand towards the strange energy like it had done towards him. His attempt turned out more like a shapeless blob extending towards the being, which frustrated Naruto a lot. He tried really hard to move his energy in that weird way! His frustration was cut off by a pulse of energy from the big energy. The big energy seemed more prominent, brighter. It made Naruto feel like he did something good, and he felt his own energy go a bit lighter. He was happy.

But, he was still angry at himself for being unable to do it properly. He needed to practice moving his energy like the nice big energy. Naruto tried to move his entire energy in a direction and felt his energy shift, but not move. The big energy seemed to sense what Naruto was trying to do and positioned itself in a way similar to Naruto before letting out another small flare to regain his attention. Paying rapt attention to the big energy, Naruto carefully observed as the energy moved its energy downwards which pushed the rest of the energy upwards.

Naruto didn't understand how moving his energy one direction made the rest go in the other direction but he still copied what the big energy did haphazardly. He continued to attempt the tricky maneuver until he felt something pull at him. Moving his awareness towards the big energy, he didn't sense any movement from it, but he still felt the tug. The tug pulled until Naruto moved, and he quickly became upset as the big energy was fading away.

Naruto felt himself be deposited back into the darkness he had been in before he went where the big energy was. His energy began to bubble and scrape in his loss of the big energy. The darkness was different this time; not as dark, but Naruto wanted the big energy back! He felt an energy enter the range of his senses and was filled with hope that the big energy was back but was disappointed when he realised that it was the energy that was bigger than him but no-where near as big as the other energy. Now that he could sense the smaller energy better, he could tell that his shape was somewhere between the shape of the smaller chakra and the shape of the bigger chakra.

Naruto was calmed with the presence of the smaller energy. He didn't have any way to describe what these energies were, but later when he understood language, he would know that the words he was looking for were, 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'.

Training Ground 21

If someone was to try and describe training ground 21 with 3 words they would would describe it with 'rocks', 'rocks', and 'rocks'. That would be an accurate summary of the training field as it was covered in rock of all shapes and sizes. The parts of the field that weren't covered in large boulders or medium sized rocks were covered in a gravel-like substance that looked like a bunch of smashed pieces of rock. There was nowhere in the training ground that any soil was visible. Overall, it looked like the sky above training ground 21 rained boulders and giant children had a snowball fight with the rocks.

This is what team 9 saw when they entered the training ground, and they were all seriously debating the safety of the area. Iruka had arrived first, ten minutes before they were scheduled to arrive and thought that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a construction zone. Well, less construction and more of a destruction zone. He was about to leave to look for the training ground until Anko showed up and confirmed that the rock apocalypse zone was indeed training ground 21.

Anko paled when she reached the training ground. She had only been Orochimaru's student for around 2 months but she did know that Orochimaru definitely did not coddle his genin. While she was his student, he would put her through intense conditioning and chakra control exercises that would always leave her exhausted by the end. Then Orochimaru would also expect them to do more conditioning on their own time on top of all the other workouts they did. As soon as her eyes fell onto the training field Orochimaru instantly switched from a tough teacher to a sadistic teacher. She almost cried anime tears.

Itachi arrived around 5 minutes after Anko, taking in the training field with a stoic attitude. Orochimaru said that they would be training in taijutsu and teamwork, but he couldn't see how this training field was good for either of those. Perhaps he had a hidden lab here as the entire area seemed to be abandoned. Itachi was worried about training inside the field, as he could see a lot of very pointy rocks that could probably go straight through his foot unless he was wearing heavy combat boots. As it was, he was wearing ninja sandals. That isn't even mentioning the rocks that are hidden from his view.

Orochimaru came right at 9:00, and observed the 3 genin. They all seemed to have varying degrees of fear and disbelief, with Anko looking like she wanted to bolt and Iruka pretending to himself that they were not actually going to train here. An amused smile crept onto the snake sannin's face. Things were going to be different with this team as all of them had great potential. Anko was dragged behind by her other teammates with his last team, but this time her team members can equal or surpass her.

"Ku, ku, ku. Hello little genin, are you ready for your taijutsu training?" Orochimaru let a tiny sliver of killing intent mix in with the question just so the young ninja knew that this training was not going to be pleasant.

The killing intent worked as intended as all 3 ninja gulped and nodded.

"First let's do a little history lesson on this training field. As you know, the 3rd ninja war ended about a year ago due to our Hokage slaughtering a large mass of Iwa's forces. Around 3 years ago, there was a team of underground infiltration experts who entered Konoha. They happened to surface in training ground 21 but they were quickly found out and intercepted by ANBU. The ANBU squad that fought them also happened to contain a lot of earth specialists. A large earth ninjutsu fight occurred and the entire area became covered in rock. Since we were still in war, we fixed up the buildings around the training field and moved all the scattered rock to the training ground. They never had time to fix the field, so they just left it the way it was and let earth users train their affinity here."

Itachi voiced a question, "If it is used to train earth affinity then why are we coming her to train taijutsu?"

"Good question," Orochimaru said, "When you are attacking a bandit camp in the mountains, or fighting a missing nin in any rocky area you won't have the luxury of a flat training field to fight them on. I am getting you used to fighting with difficult terrain now while we are safe in Konoha as opposed to while your life's in danger and the slightest mistake can result in your death."

The genin's eyes widened at the realisation. They hadn't really given much thought to how terrain could affect the battle even though it is actually one of the most important factors.

"We are not training there yet," Orochimaru told the genin, "We need to take steps up to that point. First we are going to the library to look for taijutsu styles."

Itachi spoke up for the second time, "But I already have the intercepting fist."

Orochimaru lightly scowled at him, "You may have a style already but that doesn't mean your teammates do. Also, I don't want you to use the intercepting fist as it is a flawed style that relies heavily on the sharingan. Once you run out of the chakra needed to maintain the sharingan the style becomes 4 times less effective, which will get you killed. If you were fighting someone on an undercover mission and used the sharingan with your taijutsu you are alerting everyone in the area who can sense chakra to your presence. The intercepting fist is also too rigid, and can't be adapted to individual fighting styles. This is why I also want you to learn another style. I can't stop you from using the intercepting fist, but at least I can give you something to fall back on."

Itachi already knew some of the downsides of using the intercepting fist, but he didn't expect there to be so many disadvantages. Although he wasn't exactly surprised either. It would make sense for the Uchiha to stick to a flawed style just because of their pride.

"I agree with that, I meant no disrespect." Itachi said to reflect his thoughts. If his father was watching him he knew that he would go into a rage of how he wasn't acting like a 'proper Uchiha'. The way you act like a proper Uchiha is to have a superiority complex and inferiority complex at the same time, and Itachi wants none of that.

Orochimaru just gave a small grunt in acknowledgement of his apology, "Let's go."

With that, Squad 9 headed towards the library. On the way there, Orochimaru had them talk about their fighting styles and what kinds of physical techniques interest them.

"I usually fight based on speed and accuracy with some strength mixed in," Itachi started describing his style, "I like to fight my opponents psychologically as well, to trick them into fighting aggressively and taking advantage of their mistakes. I want to find taijutsu that can complement this and be used easily with genjutsu."

Orochimaru turned slightly towards Itachi without slowing down, "There are a couple taijutsu I can think of that follow most of those criteria. One would be the normal style for genjutsu wielder, the illusionary fist. Another to look into is the taunting fist, which is all about baiting the enemy into making mistakes. The last one I can think of off the top of my head is the needle style which is similar to the gentle fist except it's often used with senbon and it attacks pressure points instead of chakra points."

Itachi was about to say something until Orochimaru added in another bit of advice.

"You don't need to learn only one style. Good taijutsu users makes their own style and techniques using parts of different styles in combination," Orochimaru finished, "Iruka, Anko, that goes for you two as well."

Itachi was again cut off from what he wanted to say, this time by Anko who was eager to share what she wanted for her taijutsu style.

"I like to fight up close and personal with flexibility and precision along with some good old-fashion intimidation. Causing the greatest amount of pain would be good too," It was here the Itachi and Iruka experienced their first dose of Anko's revealed sadisticness, but Anko didn't notice their expressions, "The kinda taijutsu I wanna learn is something good with poison and good with dodging."

Orochimaru smiled, even though his face was already in that ever present smirk, "The style that I prefer, the snake style, would fit that description almost perfectly. A close second would be the binding fist which is like the snake style but it uses more movement constricting techniques and isn't as good with poison. Other styles that could suit you is the seducer style which is mostly about seducing your opponents but also incorporates flexibility, misdirection and that 'up close and personal' you mentioned."

The genin all flushed red when they heard about the seducer style. They could only imagine what Orochimaru meant by 'up close and personal'.

"Thanks." Anko managed to squeak out from the embarrassment. Although the style did sound interesting…

"Well I guess I'll go now." Iruka said, managing to be the third person to interrupt Itachi before he started speaking.

Itachi didn't even know why he bothered.

"The only specific thing I can think of about my own type of fighting is that I lean a little more towards speed and power rather than accuracy and flexibility. Since I am fairly well rounded in terms of taijutsu I would like to find a style that is very adaptable and can fit almost any situation."

"Ku, ku, ku," Orochimaru laughed in a way that sounded creepy but didn't feel creepy, "It seems like you kids balance each other not only in personality but in fighting styles as well. Some of the more versatile fighting styles you could use are the justice fist which is very adaptable but also relies a bit on balance. The monkey style created by the Sarutobi clan is also very well rounded, and is often used with a staff or double sided blade. Just remember that the styles I mentioned are only a few of many different styles that could suit you. You could even find a move you like from a fighting style that doesn't correspond with your way of combat."

"That makes sense," Iruka said, "Although I don't think we balance each other that well because Anko and Itachi both have more aggressive fighting styles while I have a rounded style. Our squad is missing a defensive or countering taijutsu user."

Orochimaru smiled somewhat fondly, "That is a very good analysis Iruka, but there is a fact that you are missing. Our squad is going to be specialised in assassination, information gathering, and research since the three of you scored the highest in stealth and tracking. Your psychology was also deemed to be the best suited to these missions which are more to the shady side of things in the eyes of civilians."

Anko's nose scrunched up as she interrupted Orochimaru, "Wait, are you saying that some psychologist decided that we would be the most sadistic and emotionless of the bunch?"

"No," Orochimaru countered, "They decided that your minds would be able to take the mental stress. The fact that the way most people deal with the mental stress by being sadistic or emotionless is completely unrelated. Anyways, because of the sensitivity of the missions we will go on, if we are discovered by the enemy we are to flee immediately. If you do get into a fight that you can't run away from, you kill your enemy as quickly as possible before attempting to flee again. There is no reason why you should be using a defensive style."

"But what if later one of us discovers that we naturally lean more towards defensive techniques?" Iruka asked.

Orochimaru hummed in thought, "Well, I don't really see that happening with Anko and Itachi but if you want to delve into defensive combat then you will likely have to assume the role of a decoy or a baiter."

Anko looked a bit confused, "What would a decoy or baiter do on a stealthy assassination mission?"

"There are many ways you can use a decoy or baiter in an assassination," Orochimaru replied, "You could use a decoy to distract the target, draw away resistance with a minor commotion, or as a stand in for the target after they are removed. A baiter can lure the target to an easy assassination spot, intercept supplies, or manipulate the target into killing themselves. There are countless ways you can use defensive roles in an assassination."

"Why did you list a bunch of manipulation tasks as things a defence can do? Shouldn't you have an interrogator or spy do that?" Anko questioned.

"Ku, ku, ku. Any ninja who fights defensively is already a manipulator," Orochimaru lectured, "Ninja are weapons of the land of fire used to kill. Defending is just a tactic used to stall for time or draw attention away from another operation. If you're fighting defensively, then that means that at anytime your enemy can simply avoid you or wait for you to attack, but if a defender attacks then they are at a disadvantage. Therefore, any ninja who fights defensively needs to be able to trick their enemy into fighting them and trick them to make a mistake."

They stopped talking for a while after the on the go taijutsu and strategy lesson. Itachi absorbed the facts and concepts he had been taught with the ease that had him labeled as a prodigy. Now that there was finally some quiet, he now had the opportunity to finally voice his earlier question.

"You mentioned the needle style for me which is most effectively used with senbon. In the academy all I learned about senbon was how to recognise them and a little throwing theory. What are senbon used for?" Itachi asked slightly embarrassed.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Ku, ku, ku. Senbon can be used for a wide variety of things. They can deliver poison, remotely activate explosive tags, target pressure points, and even set traps on the fly when used together with ninja wire. Senbon can actually be used for almost anything because they are small, narrow, and quick. Unfortunately, because of their small size and shape it is extremely difficult to master throwing and they do not have a lot of force behind them, so you can't use them to break bones, pierce internal organs, or cause blood loss."

"W-" Itachi started but was stopped by Orochimaru.

"You can answer any further questions yourself. We have arrived at the library." Orochimaru stated and indeed they had. The library was a large impressive thing that was styled in an old fashioned way that was similar to the architecture from before the second ninja war. It had curving wooden pillars that had a fading polish waxed over them. There were also various plants growing along the sides of the library as well as from hanging pots.

Orochimaru left the sides of the genin for a moment to converse with the ninja who was guarding the entrance, who nearly had a heart attack when she sighted Orochimaru. Apparently not many people knew of Orochimaru's return yet. After a quick check to ensure that none of them were henged or under a genjutsu and an explanation of the rules while inside the library they were admitted inside.

Orochimaru turned towards his students for one more lesson before they separated for individual research, "The last thing I want you to remember before you go looking for suitable taijutsu styles is what can you use with it. The illusionary clone technique and a kunai don't do much by themselves but if you combine them it can be lethal by using a clone to distract an enemy while you slice their throat. The same thing applies to taijutsu. How can you use it with other skills? There are so many paths of study a ninja can take from tactics to fuinjutsu to medical ninjutsu, and by combining them amazing things are created like Tsunade's body enhancement technique or the fourth Hokage's flying thunder god technique. Remember where your strengths lie, now shoo. Anko stay behind, I want to talk to you for a moment."

Iruka and Itachi glanced at each other then at Anko for a moment but then left towards the taijutsu section of the library.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Anko said in a bubbly manner.

Orochimaru sighed, "Anko, I know that you may be uncomfortable with it, but the fact is that as a female ninja on an information gathering and assassination squad that you will have to learn some seduction."

Anko turned bright red within seconds, "B-but I'm only 11, I don't even have any of the," Anko seemed to cough for a moment, "equipment to seduce anybody."

"You would be surprised at how many pedophile perverts there are out there. In fact, research shows that nearly 30% of the population will feel attraction towards children at some point in their lives." Orochimaru replied evenly.

"How do you even know that?!" Anko exclaimed, getting a few looks from the other people in the library.

"Yamanaka," Was all that Orochimaru had to say, "You probably won't have to use it a lot, but it is worth looking into. It never hurts to have another card in your hand."

Anko just nodded, as the blush seemed to paralyse all movement in her mouth. She then turned towards the taijutsu and left to rejoin her teammates, slightly dazed.

Itachi and Iruka noticed the deep flush to Anko's face immediately and were concerned. Iruka, the oldest of them, spoke to Anko out of worry.

"Orochimaru didn't do anything perverted to you did he?" Iruka demanded.

"No!" Anko shouted before lowering her voice, "He just talked to me about learning some… seduction techniques." The blush that had died away in her fit of anger returned in full force.

"Hmm," Itachi pondered out loud, "Perhaps we should learn some as well. We can seduce the women and gay men and you can seduce the men and gay women." Itachi had a faint blush on his face that with his young age actually made him look quite cute.

Anko immediately commented on that, "You are seven and no where near puberty. It is physically impossible for you to have a sex drive at your age. You are never going to be able to seduce anybody while you aren't even a teenager yet."

Itachi shrugged, "I can always use genjutsu or henge to make me look older. When people are turned on they won't focus enough to notice a genjutsu."

Iruka was curled up into a ball behind Itachi muttering, "No shame. No shame. No shame."

Anko had actually fainted from the implication. Orochimaru, who had been watching from afar, simply shook his head. They will need a lot of training in resisting seduction and mental trickery. To give them some credit, they had recovered quickly.

Anko woke up and said, "Let's just look for taijutsu already."

Once team 9 was settled into their taijutsu hunt, Orochimaru left to find some of his own materials. After confirming his identity and permission to be in Konoha to the secret ANBU guard in a subtle manner, he entered the secret information room. Orochimaru was the head of research and development (R&D) before he left Konoha, and will likely take over for whoever replaced him after training his genin team. He needed to catch up on the things that he missed while he was away. While he was Konoha's best researcher, Konoha had more resources than he could ever get as a missing nin. That was one of the biggest reasons to why he came back.

Orochimaru browsed through the information starting from the most recent ones from after his departure. The first month was pretty much what he expected, continuations of his in-progress experiments with a couple other minor toxin development. It was the second and third months that made his blood boil. Konoha had done almost nothing aside from testing a few minor theories he had made a while back, and some autopsies of enemy corpses after missions. The slacking of the R&D department was unacceptable, and he hadn't even looked past the first three months he was gone yet.

The research and development portion of Konoha was arguably the most important sector; the only other that came close being torture and information. Because of the great variety of plants and animals that could be found in the land of fire, poison users were common and prominent in Konoha. The thing is, once a poison specialist uses a poison on a mission, other villages can collect samples of the poison and form antidotes. This is why poisons must be regularly modified and changed to work around any cures that has been found for it. With the R&D department slacking off the way it is, poison specialists would run out of usable poisons within a year. Orochimaru wouldn't be surprised if administration saw a decline in poison users recently.

The other part of the departments lack of development was antidotes. Just as other villages made their own poisons, Konoha needed to make antidotes to those poisons. Orochimaru would have to put a lot of effort to catch up to the other villages in poisons and antidotes.

Something Orochimaru realized in his time as a missing nin is how much he took his resource materials for granted. Without a ninja village, Orochimaru had to fight tooth and nail to get even half-decent research materials.

This only amplified his fury at the members of the R&D department for wasting all the perfectly good experiments they could have done with Konoha's abundance of resources.

And that was only talking about poisons, not to mention all the medical herbology, medical technique, nin and genjutsu development, kinesthetic research, genetic and chakra experimentation, and elemental chakra research that they could have been doing.

Orochimaru dreaded to think of what would've happened if he didn't come back to Konoha. First, the poison specialist would die out, with only the ones proficient in making their own poisons surviving. Next, more ninja would die from poison because antidotes stopped being developed. After that, even more ninja would die due to lack of new medical developments and less medic nin training. That would also result in the academy and genin standards being lowered to replace all the dying ninja. In the long term, the other villages would gain more power while the leaf's development was halted and the new generation of ninja would all be ninjutsu spewing brutes that don't have the proper tools they need to grow as ninja.

Orochimaru decided that if he ever left Konoha again, that he would have to manipulate the research and development department internally to ensure that Konoha doesn't become a village of glorified thugs. Either that, or he would have to train his genin to become the R&D department's new assets, like Orochimaru was.

Having mentally blown off his anger he skimmed through the rest of the year, which only decreased in research quantity and quality from the first few months of his absence. Moving on, he went over to the files for the torture and information department. Orochimaru would often work together with the T&I department because of the information they could provide to help in experiments and the new torture techniques R&D could supply to them. It helped that he knew the previous leader of the T&I department, Danzo. He was the teammate of his jonin instructor, so he knew him back when he was a genin.

Sadly, Danzo had lost much in the war just like any other, and would never be able to work as a ninja again. The last Orochimaru had heard, was that they would be picking a young man from the Yamanaka clan to run T&I. Orochimaru scowled, those fools. The T&I department is much too important to be run by and inexperienced ninja.

By anybody else's terms, Yamanaka Inoichi would be experienced ninja with over a decade of life as a ninja under his belt, but to Orochimaru who had seen 2 shinobi wars, Inochi was far lacking.

It seems like the standards had dropped. Orochimaru would see if he could bargain with the Hokage about Danzo leading T&I in administration and leadership while having the Yamanaka man be the figurehead. Perhaps he could drag Minato into doing it by mentioning the extra work he would have to do in order to revitalise the R&D department from this sorry state.

As he reached the first few files from after his departure, it showed the kind of productivity that could only be attributed to Danzo. He read through all the files up into the obvious transition of T&I leadership, which only happened 2-3 weeks after he left. How inopportune for the 2 most important departments in Konoha to lose their leader's in the same month, Orochimaru thought.

Orochimaru read through the first few files of the Yamanaka's work. Was he saw made his previous anger at the R&D department seem like a candle flame compared to the hell inferno of anger that was currently burning inside Orochimaru.

They had tortured Anko. Orochimaru left Anko behind in the village in hopes that she would be able to find comrades among the leaf. He just couldn't bare to condemn his cute little genin to the life of a missing nin. Orochimaru gave her his last gift to her as the cursed seal of heaven and left her in the minor laboratory that he had been inhabiting so that the Konoha ninja would be able to find her. He left her alone so that they would see that she had no part in any of the crimes they accused him of. But no, they decided that instead of simply questioning her about any information that she knows about him like they should for any other loyal Konoha ninja that they would torture her like an enemy ninja who had committed heinous crimes against the village.

Someone was going to pay. He couldn't blame Danzo, as he had legally exited the ninja forces and couldn't know about Anko's interrogation which was classified as a B-rank secret. Pretty much the entire T&I department plus the Hokage were fair game, because almost everyone in T&I is allowed access to T&I related B-rank secrets and under. The Hokage receives daily reports (summarised of course) of everything that happens in the T&I department. Minato should have ended this as soon as it started, no, before it started. The moment he heard that Anko had been brought back to the village, he should've ensured that she wouldn't be sent to T&I.

Although, the main focus of his anger right now was one Yamanaka Inoichi. He should've never been chosen for leading the T&I department. In fact, Orochimaru knew that there was one person in T&I who he would respect as the leader of it. Morino Ibiki. Orochimaru knew Danzo agreed with him. They sometimes discussed who their successors would be. The only reason he could possibly think of to chose the Yamanaka is because he was part of a clan while Ibiki came from an entirely civilian background. So, politics.

Orochimaru noticed it was starting to get dark out, so he locked away his enragement in the back of his mind and put on a calm facade to dismiss his genin. Exiting the secret information room, he made his way into the area he left his students to find nobody there. Taking a quick assessment to where each of them had gone he made a mental note to teach them how to cover their trails. He walked to Iruka, the closest, who was reading a book on tactics and squad positioning.

Iruka looked up to see Orochimaru and gave a quick explanation, "Since my style is going to be the most defensive out of me, Itachi, and Anko, I thought that tactics would be a good read. The person on defense is in the best position to view the area, and administer commands based on observations." He stumbled over his words for a second, "Of course, you would be the one giver orders, I only meant if we got separated or something…" He trailed off.

"Good job Iruka," Orochimaru said, "I just hope you didn't neglect your taijutsu."

Iruka grinned, "Nope! I have a good idea of what I want to work on now."

Orochimaru nods, "Let's go find your teammates."

Orochimaru and Iruka made their way through the library where Itachi was just putting away a book that Iruka only glimpsed the title of. He thought it was something to do with senbon or poison. Itachi just glanced at them silently and started walking in the direction he had seen Anko go to as if he already knew that they were coming to retrieve him. He probably did. It's not like they were trying to sneak up on him.

On the way to wherever Anko was, Itachi and Iruka saw that the books were beginning to lead toward the shelves that held teachings on the darker aspects of the ninja arts. They nervously tried to imagine what kind of book Anko was reading. Was it assassination? Purposeful mutilation? Corruption? Their questions were answered as they turned a corner to find Anko.

Anko, who was sitting there utterly engrossed into a book on seduction. The boy's jaws dropped. Anko, the somewhat shy, nice girl who blushed anytime someone mentioned anything to do with romantic relationships, was sitting there reading a seduction book with the biggest smile on her face. Itachi and Iruka simultaneously brought their hands together and said, "Release" while flaring their chakra. Nothing changed, except for the fact that their small chakra flare drew Anko's attention and she had turned towards them.

Orochimaru acted as if nothing was strange at all and said, "Anko, it's time to go."

Anko pouted, "But I want to stay here longer."

"The only reason you were allowed in here at all was because I pulled rank on the guards in order to let you guys in. That was only on the condition that you could not sign out or copy materials and that I would have to be in the building with you at all times." Orochimaru explained.

"Fine," She huffed, and very reluctantly put the book away.

"Since we failed to keep track of the time, we won't have any time for any big teamwork exercises today. All you're going to do is summarise what taijutsu you're looking into and one other interesting fact you learned. Anko can go first since she seemed to be very engaged with that book."

Anko coughed slightly, but didn't blush, "I thought that the snake style and seducer style would work perfectly for me if I blended them together, so I read up a bit on both. The taijutsu scroll for the seducer style recommended reading the book I just put back, 'The Art of Seduction' in order to use the style to it's full effectiveness. Well let's just let this be my interesting fact: seduction is a lot more powerful and useful than it looks."

"I am glad that you see what seduction is capable of. Many ninja, especially female ninja, look down on seduction because they see it as a degrading ninja art that is only used by those who aren't strong enough to overpower their enemies."

Anko sounded shocked and angry, "How can anyone think that a seducer is weak? Have they ever even thought of the mental fortitude it takes to flirt, kiss, or even have sex with someone that they know is an enemy of Konoha? There have been cases in which a seducer needs to have sex with someone who had raped and killed their family, act like they enjoy it, and do it again until they get the information or assassination opportunity."

Itachi and Iruka were astounded by this revelation. Before, they thought seduction missions were just a way that older ninja who didn't have time to pursue romance relieved sexual tension (or at least that was the rumour that circulated around the academy last year). But now, they couldn't understand why they couldn't see the neon flashing bit of information that, 'oh yeah, the people getting seduced are enemies of Konoha'. Nobody wanted to do that with the enemy.

Orochimaru smiled, guessing what the boys were thinking. Leaving them to their whirling thoughts, he decided to respond to Anko, "You are absolutely correct, but sometimes having seduction seem weak can be an advantage. It means that ninja won't take seduction resistance training seriously, and that means easier targets. But moving on from that little discussion on seduction, let's move on to what Iruka learned."

Iruka stood up a little straighter, "Well, out of the taijutsu you recommended, the only one I found okay was the justice fist, but it still didn't quite suit me. After doing a little research on the justice fist I found that it was originally adapted from an ancient style from somewhere far from the elemental nation's called the legislacerator claw. A legislacerator was what we called lawyers in the land this style came from, except these lawyers also served as hunters who tracked down criminals and brought them to 'Grand Highblood's' court for trial. The style isn't purely taijutsu. Most of the techniques are with a bladed cane and developed so that the user doesn't rely on sight in order to fight which can be a pleasant surprise to my enemies."

Orochimaru cocked his head, "You said it was ancient. Are the records of the style accurate?"

"Yes," Iruka said, "The copy I found was sitting there gathering dust, but surprisingly it is the original scroll that the creator of the style made. Although they wrote strangely, as the writing was all in teal capital letters with the 'I's, 'E's, and 'A's replaced by the numbers 1, 3, and 4 respectively. For example the author's name was spelt N-3-O-P-H-Y-T-3 R-3-D-G-L-4-R-3."

"That- is very surprising actually. Scrolls don't normally stay in good condition for more than 30 years at best, they they have to be replicated. Estimating from what you said, this scroll has been in good shape for over 200 years at least. I wonder if there is anything special about the paper? I'll have to take some samples later. I also find it strange that a visitor in a strange land would leave behind a scroll with their original techniques."

Iruka shifted, slightly nervous, "Well there was a note at the beginning from whoever received the scroll with a brief history of how it came into their possession. To answer some of your wonderings, Redglare gave the scroll away for safekeeping until her descendant came to receive it. Apparently Redglare said that nobody here would be able to learn the style because of it's difficulty and tailoring towards herself."

"Are you sure that you want to take a difficult style? I am sure that you would find other appropriate styles if you looked some more." Orochimaru asked.

"No, I want to use the legislatorlegislacerator claw. I can't quite explain it, but it just… seems right." Iruka responded thoughtfully.

"As long as you can use this style effectively, I'm okay with it." Orochimaru concluded, "Now Itachi, please tell us about what you were reading about."

"I looked into the needle style the most, as it allows me to fight at either close or medium range. My fact is that senbon is actually a broad category that includes over 30 different needle-like weapons." Itachi stated, giving the bare minimum necessary.

"That will be sufficient I suppose." Orochimaru grudgingly accepted. He wanted to draw a bit more than that out of Itachi. Instead he moved on to the last thing that they would do before they dispersed, "Are any of you familiar with the civilian game known as truth or dare?"

The three genin just blinked somewhat owlishly at him.

Orochimaru sighed, "It's a game where someone asks someone else 'truth or dare'. That person responds by picking one of the options. Dare means that you can tell someone to do anything- provided it doesn't break any laws or last past the duration of the game. Truth means that you ask any question and they have to answer truthfully. In our case as ninja, we can't reveal any secrets that you are not permitted to know."

Itachi looked at him strangely, "How is that civilian game going to help us with our teamwork? It seems like a silly game that is used to create entertainment by the expense of others."

Orochimaru grinned, "That would be true for civilians but we are ninja. This game will teach you what each other's boundaries are, which is important to know on a team. The dares will help you with missions. Often, you get dares that you don't want to do. Almost always, you get missions that you don't want to do. This builds up mental fortitude. Truth is simply to get to know each other better as squad members. By knowing things about someone that nobody else does, trust will build between them."

Anko looked slightly giddy, "So, when will we start?"

"We won't start today because it's late and I don't want all of you to be exhausted for taijutsu practice tomorrow." Orochimaru said, "We will play a few rounds of this game everyday after practice. I recommend that you don't start with invasive dares and truths right away, and let everybody ease into being truthful with one another. Now, get home little genin. Shoo." Orochimaru waved his hand in a way that clearly said 'go away'.

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka went home for the night.

Orochimaru notified the librarian that he was leaving for the day, and made his way to the closest laboratory that was still in good condition. Orochimaru didn't actually have a house; a house is an easy target for any threats or assassinations. Instead, he kept a futon in a sealing scroll and set it up in whichever laboratory he felt like sleeping in that night. Almost all labs had a bedroom to put a futon down in so that there is a place for the rotating scientists to sleep while watching fragile experiments that needed constant attention.

The particular lab that he had stepped into for the night was one of his few chemistry labs that didn't work with poisons and antidotes. This lab was testing different ways to get compounds to ignite, from creating chemicals that catch on fire when exposed to air or water, or special acids that create large amounts of heat when they come into contact with a carbon source. Because of the highly flammable nature of the experiments, the lab was completely fireproof and came equipped with heat resisting suits. The lab was also abandoned by his no-good R&D subordinates.

Orochimaru sighed when he saw how much dust the lab collected. All this dust could actually become a fire hazard. Orochimaru cleared a little of the dust with a minor wind ninjutsu and laid down his futon so he could sleep. Some ninja may say 9-10 pm is too early to go to sleep but Orochimaru thought that having a different sleep schedule from most ninja can be beneficial because then attacks can be made when most ninja are sleeping, which is normally somewhere between 12-3 am. By sleeping earlier, Orochimaru can be wide awake while other ninja are easy and lethargic prey. But enough of that, the day has ended and a fresh new day would be waiting for him tomorrow.

Yeah, kinda lame ending but who cares. I am sorry for updating so slowly but I have other commitments too.