Once upon a time, there lived a young boy ninja. He was an orphan, and didn't have any friends. All he ever did was train himself in order to grow stronger and stronger, so he could fulfill his single-minded goal of personal revenge.

One day the boy met a wise and powerful ninja master, who saw the great potential in the boy. Knowing that he could give the boy training and abilities that no one else in their village could, the master decided to take the boy under his wing.

For many years he trained the boy, guiding him as he developed his talents, and loving him as his own son....

"What is the purpose of this?" Uchiha Sasuke interrupted, scowling.

"The purpose of 'this,' my dear boy, is the moral that you will hear at the end of the story." Orochimaru gestured gracefully with the sock puppets on his hands. "Now, if you would be quiet and pay attention, we can get to the end sooner."

"You said you were going to teach me an important technique, not waste my time with this foolishness."

"It is not foolishness!" Orochimaru glared sharply at his student. "Puppets are an ancient and distinguished way of storytelling. And storytelling is an important technique to know. It will give you an air of dignity that you will need if your brother is ever to take you seriously!"

Sasuke promptly showed his own dignity by simply glowering at his mentor, unable to come up with a reply that fittingly expressed his disdain.

Orochimaru continued with the lecture, ignoring his student's expression (which was actually a rather typical one for the boy). "You see, you are much too focused on this revenge business and getting stronger, when you also need to become more mature. Itachi will never acknowledge you as his equal if he still thinks you're just a brat, after all."

"And just what do these ... puppets ... have to do with anything?" He glared down at the two ridiculous lecture props again. One of them was staring straight ahead through red button eyes, and the other one had what seemed to be a smirk on its snake-like face.

The Sannin also glanced down at them. "These were simply to illustrate my story, as I led up to the moral about Itachi and your misplaced priorities. Although, since I already explained that to you, there's really no point in finishing it now."

Before Sasuke's hopes of being able to go off and do something productive could rise, Orochimaru cut him off by continuing. "As I said earlier, storytelling is important. And, as with any other technique, you must practice it if you want to improve. So take these—" he held the puppets out to his student "—and show me how well you've learned."

You're completely crazy, Sasuke thought in horror as he reluctantly — very, very reluctantly — reached for them.

Once there was a young genius ninja, whose sole desire was to get revenge on the one who had murdered his family and ruined his life. For a while he trained with an infamous ninja master, who taught him many powerful new techniques and helped him to become stronger.

One day the genius ninja realized that the old man, though normally insane, had now totally lost it. He then decided this wasn't a total waste, because he had always wanted to see what sort of sharingan power he could get from killing his own master.

The End.

Sasuke strode off in a moody yet dignified way, leaving Orochimaru rolling on the ground and choking on the sock puppets that had been stuffed down his throat.