Initiation

The door opened and Higeki's sensei came in.

It was a pale-skinned man with snake-like characteristics, such as his eyes.

Higeki immediately recognized him as Orochimaru due to spending time with him as a baby, and his snake-like eyes was a special thing worth remembering to baby Higeki.

Orochimaru and Higeki entered a staring contest, both analyzing each other to see how much they've changed over the years.

The room remained silent, and you can almost hear a pin drop.

Eventually, Orochimaru broke the silence with his trademark chuckle, "Kukukukukuku... long time no see, Higeki-kun. I'm your personal sensei due to your special characteristics. You could even call this an exclusive apprenticeship with the Sandaime's student.

One could say that this apprenticeship was extremely fitting because after all, a genius should only learn from another genius, should they not?

"Orochimaru-san," Higeki began his sentence and called him something other than sensei due to them being relatively friendly with each other, "I was surprised that father wasn't my teacher. I thought that he would know me the best due to spending the most time with me."

"Kukukuku... there are reasons for everything, Higeki-kun."

(Flashback, Hokage's office)

"We are now assigning teachers to each team, and there may be a few exclusive apprenticeships if you are interested.", Hiruzen announced to the jonin gathered in his office, some of them being notable figures like Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Ironiki, Danzo.

"I will take team 3. The children there have the potential for taijutsu, and they lack tactics and coordination. I will teach them how to cooperate and formulate plans, and they will be our assault team.", Danzo said with an analyzing look on his face as he looked at his students' profiles.

"Hmmm.... I'll take Team 7! Me, you, Tsuna, and Orochi were in Team 7, so I'll be the next one to teach them! Also, this Minato kid is one of the greatest geniuses of his generation, so I'll teach him because, after all, I'm the Toad Sage, Jiraiya!"

""I'll take Higeki in an apprenticeship."", two voices announced at the same time.

At this moment, the office went silent due to a student being wanted by two different people for an apprenticeship, and that student was none other than the other genius of the generation.

The office got even quieter after realizing the two people in conflict with each other; Shirai Ironiki, and Orochimaru.

One is arguably the greatest student of the Sandaime, while the other one of the strongest ninja in the village.

The two then glanced at each other, and then the Sandaime motioned them to explain their reasoning.

"He's my son, and I know him best, so I'll be able to teach him.", was Ironiki's reasoning.

Ironiki may be smart in a battle, but the thing was, he was no good in an argument.

"That's favoritism, Ironiki-san. I would like to take Higeki-kun in an apprenticeship due to his skills with water and wind release, which are the elements I specialize in the most. I believe that Ironiki-san would be ill-fitted to teach Higeki-kun due to his specialized elements being Fire and Earth, which could be said to be the opposite elements to Higeki-kun's specializations."

As expected, Orochimaru formulated a perfect argument within seconds, and even if there were holes in it, Ironiki weren't experienced enough in this field to figure them out.

Ironiki grudgingly took the team, and Orochimaru had a smile on his face.

"Alright, you're all dismissed. Orochimaru, stay behind."

Everyone left the office, and then the Sandaime signaled for the hidden Anbus to leave as well.

"Well? What's your real reasoning for taking Higeki-kun?"

Orochimaru chuckled and replied, "There are no hidden reasons. I feel like I would be able to best realize Higeki-kun's potential, that's all."

At the moment, Orochimaru was an aspiring ninja who specialized in ninjutsu and researches related to chakra, so a mutation like Higeki would naturally be something of interest for him. If he was able to turn himself into an element without weakness, he would be virtually invincible. Again, it was merely his theory that Higeki would be weak to fire-related jutsus due to his elementalization being ice, but it was just a theory for now. Even with all the reasonings, of course, he wasn't going to tell the Sandaime his real reason for an apprenticeship with Higeki.

"Alright, you're dismissed."

(Flashback ends)

"Come with me, Higeki-kun. We'll go to my private training ground in the Forest of Death for your real graduation test."

Orochimaru then used body flicker to move towards the Forest of Death, while Higeki gave himself ice wings to fly.

Orochimaru looked curious at Higeki's ice wings, and he asked, "Where did you learn that, Higeki-kun?"

"Ahahaha... I got this inspiration from watching a bird."

(Flashback)

"Minato! That damn bird stole my food!"

"Sucks to be you, you can't really catch it when it's flying."

(Flashback ends)

They eventually arrived at the Forest of Death, and Orochimaru led Higeki deep inside to a clearing.

"Well, come at me. I'll test your skills to see if you're fit for being a genin."

"With the intentions to kill?"

"Feel free to. I won't die from your attacks anyways."

Higeki rose an eyebrow and attacked Orochimaru with the intent to kill.

First, he probed Orochimaru's power by creating a weak, but big glacier-like wave of ice and launching it towards Orochimaru.

As Higeki expected, Orochimaru didn't even need to use hand seals to unleash a blast of wind blades to shred the ice wall apart.

"Kukukukuku... you have to try harder than that, Higeki-kun."

Higeki didn't bother responding to Orochimaru's provocation, and this time, he created 4 ice spikes to launch towards Orochimaru.

"[Water Release: Water Colliding Wave]", Orochimaru released a vortex to water to destroy Higeki's ice spikes and proceeded to manipulate them to crash towards Higeki.

The moment the ice touched Higeki, it froze, and Higeki manipulated the ice and turned it into 1 large ice lance, which he used to launch straight towards Orochimaru.

Orochimaru dodged the ice lance, but then it further separated into ice spikes that locked onto Orochimaru and tracked him.

Orochimaru used [Wind Release: Great Breakthrough] to destroy all of the ice spikes, then he used [Wind Release: Air Bullets] and launched blasts of wind towards Higeki.

[Ice Release: Pheasant Beak]

Higeki created ice and molded it into the form of a pheasant, which he used to take on all of Orochimaru's attacks and then he willed it to go towards Orochimaru.

Orochimaru once again dodged it, and instead of using water or wind release as Higeki expected, this time, he used fire release.

"[Fire Release: Flame Bullet]"

Higeki this time dodged the attack instead of countering it, and Orochimaru noted this action.

Orochimaru kept up the attack and continued to use fire release jutsus, and Higeki kept dodging them rather than preparing a counter.

"[Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique], [Wind Release: Great Breakthrough]"

Orochimaru used the two attacks in conjunction with each other, and this time, the enhanced fireball was too big for Higeki to dodge, so Higeki prepared a counter.

[Ice Wave]

Higeki generated a large amount of ice and launched it towards the enhanced fireball, creating a large glacier inside the Forest of Death.

Thankfully, the glacier wasn't big enough to be noticed by outsiders, but with careful observations, you can easily notice it.

Anyways, Orochimaru and Higeki's attacked clashed with each other and generated steam - something that Orochimaru took advantage of and appeared behind Higeki, using a fire-chakra flow enhanced kunai.

Higeki was actually damaged this time by the fire chakra enhanced kunai, rather than breaking into ice pieces and then reforming, this time he held his hand up in surrender.

"You pass. You should be able to beat most genin and chunnin, but you are lacking against a jonin. Unless that jonin specifically specializes in water release, there is little to no chance of you winning against them. Your attacks are too straightforward, and anyone would be able to dodge them, if not destroy them as I did. The only thing that could give you an advantage was your ability to create ice wings, but it seems like you can't maintain it for long in battle."

Orochimaru lectured Higeki, and Higeki carefully listened while noting down the faults that Orochimaru pointed out.

"Well, at least you passed the initiation test. You're dismissed for the day, come back tomorrow at 8:00 PM."

Orochimaru dismissed Higeki and immediately left afterward, and Higeki had nothing to do, so he also left the training ground.

He returned home, and he noticed that Ironiki was already home.

Ironiki welcomed him and asked, "How was your initiation test?"

"Well, did you give one to your students?"

"Of course! They passed the test, and we'll be a tracking team for some reason. I don't even have anything useful for tracking... but there's an Inuzuka and an Aburame in my team!"

"Congratulation."

"Haha! Today is a day worth celebrating, you passed the initiation test and are enrolled in a one-on-one apprenticeship! We'll eat soba tonight for dinner!"