Chapter 12.

"It had been a while. How are you, Dan?" - I met Dan at Tsunade's Birthday party and we talked a bit. Not about the technique, no, just regular staff. When we were on a joined mission, I picked into his head and found mental protection there, which prevented hem from revealing his techniques to untrustworthy people. It was most probably left by his deceased parents. I've later found out that they were the last family of the Kato clan, which was feared for their abilities but wasn't strong enough to prevent its ruin. The block wasn't dangerous, rather it was to Dan's advantage, so I left it be. The protection also had a function of storing knowledge. That is where Dan got his ideas about the technique.

We accidentally met here, one of the training fields. I like this one because it is fully surrounded by trees and has a small pond beside it. When I get the team, this field will be reserved for us. I hope it will, at least. I properly filed a request and sent it to Izuna.

It had been almost three weeks since our last chat. Both, Dan and I were busy with our duties. For him it was missions and preparations for chunin exam and for me it was some paperwork, missions and a bit of research with Tobirama.

While I was away, he continued to research in the lab, got some really great ideas, but didn't have the means to complete them. I didn't teach him all of the runes yet and he couldn't find an analogue in Fuinjutsu.

I've told my Nii-sans somethings about my origin and Tobirama was helping me to uncover what had changed when I ate the Chakra Fruit. Well, apparently, if I was any less trained by them previously, I would've died one that day. Also, my mana greatly helped the process, instantly healing injuries when the purification was happening. Moreover, it appears not to eat The Fruit is in the best interest of any shinobi of the present time. They will die because they don't have any blood of my clan to withstand the pure chakra.

We also checked my Chkara Pathways with Taimuai and they became much more durable, thick and grew a lot of extra channels throughout my body. I wasn't human anyway, but now I'm not even close to resembling one... On the inside that is.

"Yes! I wanted to show you the results, Malika-san!" - Dan pulled me away from my thoughts.

"Alright. Do you want to do it here, or go to my space?" - I replied while standing up from the grass under the tree I was resting.

"Can we go to your space? You have also promised to show me around a bit." - He embarrassingly inquired.

"Oh?" -I looked at him for a moment - "Sure. I keep my promises."

***

"Those beasts really exist in the place you came from?" - The trembling voice finally asked me when we returned to the training ground. Dan managed to perfect his technique and started to work on the Jutsu that will allow to posses only, but not kill the possessed person. The idea was good and I offered my help, just like the last time, but he refused. He wanted to do that on his own. Since he was so passionate about it, I didn't persist and resisted the urge to tell him that this way he will have to kill a lot of people during practice. He is a Shinobi and smart teen. He probably already knows it but has to train and steel himself. War is still going on and there's no guarantee it won't break out again. Therefore, instead of breaking his courage, I decided to fulfil my promise and showed him around.

Dan was surprised at some of the plants in the forest and animals, excited by the few from mountains, but when I got to the part where I let some of the Magical Beasts to reside, he was a little horrified by the energy they were giving off and stayed silent till the end of the tour. I didn't take into account that shinobi are sensitive to those kinds of things, and probably gave him a shock. On the bright side, after experiencing such intense bloodlust, he would definitely be able to endure the amount humans can master.

"Not anymore, Dan-kun." - I shook my head. - "We got rid of them because they posed a lot of danger to the citizen. I only managed to save a few so that the species wouldn't get extinct. Who knows, maybe we will need their help with something in the future?"

"Yeah..."

***

"Greetings, oh the most learnt of the future genins, Orochimaru-kun!" - I found Orochimaru on the Hokage mountain reading another book, but this time it was related to Jutsu and Seals.

"Stop this, please." - He sighed. Since our meeting at the party, I would sometimes fish him out and talk. I had a nagging feeling that if I don't resolve something inside of him, the issue will blow up into something extreme later. So I started to talk to him, but I try to make the greeting into something new each time. This triggers him to pay attention to me, but it also makes him have fun. The results were very favourable and I was intending to finally uncover the problem.

"Maybe I will, if you tell me, what is bugging you." - I nodded and saw a surprise written all over his face.

"W-what do you mean...?" - He started to shift a little bit as if preparing to run. This is too strange and alarming.

"You are always tense when it comes to the things you like, read or study. Look," - I pointed at the book he was slowly hiding away from me, - "even now you are scared of something that forces to keep your interest a secret.

During this whole time, I was casting soothing spells alongside Nature Chakra.

"You can tell me. I won't judge."

We sat in silence good half an hour before Orochimaru finally crack up.

"It is dark."

"Eh?"

"My interests are dark. Normal people are not interested in things I find intriguing."

"Poisons, medicine, complicated or dangerous Jutsu, Fuin and so one?" - I wanted to confirm because if it is, there is something so wrong about some people from Orochimaru's circle of acquaintances.

He hesitantly nodded and hid his pale face behind long, black hair.

"Who told you this?" - Irritation was filling my heart. This is not alright. Whoever it is, you can't make a child this anxious about learning things!

"Sarutobi Hiruzen. I met him around two years ago and shared some of my thoughts since Tsunade and Jiraya seemed to have a lot of trust in him." - He hesitated for a minute but continued. - "He warned me and I tried to stop learning things that unrelated to me, but failed. Hiruzen-san tried to help but eventually gave up. He still continues to spend his time with us, but sometimes, I catch a bit of disappointment in his eyes."

"What about your friends?"

"They try not to show it, but Hiruzen-san's words did affect them. A very little bit." - He smiled. Yeah, it feels incredible to have friends that don't really mind nonsense. I agree.

"Well, do you think that all of the Med-nins are dark?"

"Eh? No... but-"

"Do you see Senju Tobirama as dark and evil?"

"No! I admire him! He has done so much research and helped Konoha greatly!"

"But he also studies all sorts of things and invents Jutsu that are way too dangerous or wicked in the spur of the moment." - I tilted my head. Orochimaru froze and gave me a disbelieving look. - "Trust me, I would know since I would either help in creating or he would inform me of them."

- I finished off with the laugh. To be completely honest, Toborama-nii-san has a tonne of ideas and some of them really are a bit over the top, but it is fun to work on them.

"But I'm not him?" - Orochimaru stated unsurely.

"So what? I know that you are an orphan from not too long ago and don't have any backing, so that might be the reason you are oppressed."

This happens in all of the worlds, I guess. If I wasn't part of the Royal family, most of my projects wouldn't come out so easily.

"If you want, I can become you backing!." - He twitched and stared at me.

"Why?"

"Because I don't like when this kind of nonsense is cultivated! Also, I'm not a fan of seeing how a talented individual is getting the short end of the luck." - I finished off with a grin. I helped some of the citizens previously and now they are powerful figures in their departments that are indebted to me. Having you back covered feels a lot nicer.

Orochimaru didn't say anything, but his aura became a lot lighter.

***

"Hokage-sama," - I got Izuna's attention when I finally saw applications of all of the graduates of the batch, - "can I ask you something?"

He raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"I want to be Sensei of this team."