Title: Pater Familias

Author: Lovesrainscent

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and do not stand to make any profit from posting this story.

Summary: Orochimaru considers his relationship with Kabuto.

Pater Familias

Orochimaru pauses at the half open doorway to look at the sleeping youth on the cot in the room. The boy has fallen asleep reading yet again. A brittle scroll of archaic jutsu lays unfurled across the bed but Kabuto's eyes are firmly closed behind his heavy glasses, his breathing steady and even.

Deftly Orochimaru retrieves the scroll and quietly re-rolls it, placing it back on the desk among the others. He looks at Kabuto once again and notices that his face is turned to one side, the nose piece of his glasses pressing uncomfortably into his face. A red mark is already beginning to form. The raven-haired man sighs and without disturbing the medical nin in the slightest he lifts the spectacles and places them on the bedside stand.

Then with his head cocked to one side like a curious bird he studies the sleeping boy.

What is it about Kabuto that makes him so different from all the others, he wonders. Why can't he bring himself to just use him as a vessel?

He dismisses the thought almost as quickly as it enters his mind. He's known precisely what it is about Kabuto that enthralls him for quite some time now.

Orochimaru rests one hand on the boy's head, silver hair like silk warm beneath his palm. He lifts a few strands and watches it spill back down from his fingers, feathering across Kabuto's cheek.

Oh yes, he'd suspected it immediately when he first laid eyes on the boy. If looks alone weren't enough to convince him, then seeing him in action, seeing the specific skill he possessed confirmed it.

Blood will out, as they say.

A genetic test had been a mere formality at that point. Orochimaru didn't need it to confirm the lineage of the orphan of Kikyo Pass. Still it had been worthwhile to see it spelled out in objective sequences of adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine. He knew the pattern he was searching for quite well. The Senju markers do stand out and he's worked with them before.

But what he hadn't been prepared for, what had taken him completely by surprise had been the Y-chromosome.

Oh, Tsunade-chan, he whispers to the night.

As he turns out the light and closes the door behind him, it occurs to him that what he feels is a strange paternalism toward the son of his two former teammates.

A/N: Inspired by Contessa-Hime's collection of fatherhood ficlets "A Man Called Father"

Pater Familias is Latin for 'head of household'.