Up on the cliffside

[smallstepstopower]

Rolling out of his bedding hadn't brought him to an unanticipated level of comfort. He'd been on his way back to the village and had been in camp with his teammates after all. No, the jarring part was the mad scramble needed to avoid taking a headlong dive over a cliff that hadn't been there when he'd gone to sleep, and it was more than enough to immediately put him on the defensive, back straight as he slowly scanned his surroundings.

No teammates, no -forest-. Where the hell was he?

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[smallstepstopower]

He frowned immediately as he looked at him. "Wait, the Kushina that follows Jiraya's prize brat around like a rabid puppy?"

He gave a long pause, eyes widening. "Why did -Minato- get made hokage?! I've been working for that for years!"

[orange_dattebayo]

He threatened him with clenched fist:"Watch whom you call brat, snake! That's my father and fourth Hokage you are talking about, 'tebbayo! Show some respect!"

He crossed his arms, huffing:"Probably because you decided to be selfish ass and threaten lives of lots of people, that's why." He shuddered mentally at the thought of Orochimaru being the Hokage.

[smallstepstopower]

"He is a brat! The little bastard salted my dessert last time I ate with my team in the village!" Orochimaru threw up his hands. "And I wouldn't do anything that ran counter to Konoha's needs. I'd never hear the end of it if I did."

He shook his head sharply. "Clearly the brat must have done something to impress sensei, though I can't imagine what."

[orange_dattebayo]

He blinked and then burst into laughing fit. Oh dear, what would he give to see his dad doing pranks on Orochimaru. "Well, pff, I can freely say that you deserved it." Yep. He's not sorry saying that at all.

But his laughing soon stopped as they returned to Orochimaru's intentions, so to say. "Oh you did counter. You endangered many lives, even lives of your own students." He decided to finally say it. "It is you that killed Third Hokage."

[smallstepstopower]

He stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "If I did, then I suspect it's only because he let me. Sensei always did know more jutsu than he was willing to part with, so I doubt I could defeat him any other way."

He hitched a shoulder up in a shrug. "So far as the rest... I've never had any students to endanger. I'm not like Jiraiya who picks up every stray orphan that catches his eye."

[orange_dattebayo]

This guy... is annoying. "Let you? I really doubt he let you kill him. There was no chance he would die just because you wanted to kill him. You attacked Konoha! Everyone in it!" He's really losing it.

Stray orph- that's it. Naruto's temper couldn't handle that jab, and he made another, more precise and faster swing at him. He will knock him out cold and throw off the cliff!

[smallstepstopower]

Or Orochimaru would dive for the ground and Naruto could go stumbling for the cliff himself. He had zero desire to see how hard the boy could hit, after all. It was far too early int he morning for that.

"Well, I can't think of any other way. As for the other... I attacked Konoha? -Really-? It makes me wonder how they managed to make me -leave- in the first place then!"

[orange_dattebayo]

He didn't go off the cliff. Even if he did, if he went into sage mode he wouldn't even get a scratch.

He's just going to continue to glare at the other. "You went rogue. Ero-sennin went after you but you wouldn't return and you attacked Konoha. You don't give a damn about Konoha! And you took my best friend away with you!"

[smallstepstopower]

He rose from his crouch when it was clear the blond wasn't about to renew his attack, hands brushing off the white of his robe. "As I said. The only way I would go rogue is if I was shoved bodily out the door and staying would get me killed. Clearly I wouldn't be stupid enough to come back to that. Jiraiya was probably too stupid to notice what had me leave in the first place, and if he couldn't figure it out, I wouldn't tell him. He'd never learn anything if everyone is always telling him how to do everything."

He scoffed, shaking his head. "I -tried- that but the idiot just gives you this blank stare whenever you even -attempt- to explain something to him. Aggravating. As for your friend... I don't see myself turning into a kidnapper, so if he went with me, I bet he had his reasons."

[orange_dattebayo]

"You experimented on people! That's why you took Sasuke away as well! Do not play all innocent with me and 'I did it for Konoha' because you almost destroyed it dattebayo!"

He stepped forward to him, grabbing Orochimaru for collar of his robes:"And as I already told you- pay some respect to the dead! Maybe Ero-sennin chased skirts and goofed around with his pornographic novels but don't you dare insult him in my presence."

[smallstepstopower]

"You never told me any of those people were dead you know." He reached his hands up to pry the blond's fingers open with deliberate care. "And it's not disrespect if it's true. You don't paint someone as a saint or villain just because they died, that's not giving them their due as having lived as a real person. Idiot."

He shoved the hands back away from his body as soon as he was sure he wouldn't send himself stumbling with the action. "As for experiments... I've had sensei's blessing to do that on enemies for the last six years, and Tsunade helps me for her medical breakthroughs. It's war, something you clearly aren't very familiar with."

[orange_dattebayo]

"I didn't say to treat them as saints. I doubt they were, but they were good people, and I will not let you insult them." He stumbled backwards at the shove, but still glared at him.

He blinked- he was allowed? That... was probably not true. This is Orochimaru. He never does as he says, the snake. "You experimented on live people! Konoha people! On your own student!"

He looked away, glaring at nothing in particular:"Oh I am very familiar with war. Don't jump to your own assumptions when you don't know half of it, dattebayo."

[smallstepstopower]

"I have no reason to turn on Konoha citizens for my needs. If I did, then I expect it had good reason, at the time. Whatever that reason is, I do not know because I have never been in that position."

He shook his head slightly and lifted his chin. "I won't deny experimenting on people however. As I said, I -do- have permission. It's the best way to learn enemy secrets and limits as well as developing new jutsu that could aid our village." He rolled a shoulder.

"My only presumption is that you would not know because you have not seen what years of war can do to a place."

[orange_dattebayo]

He growled:"Excuses. Nothing but excuses. Nothing can justify killing your own comrades, dattebayo. If you were in quarrel with someone there were other ways to solve it."

He rolled his eyes, pacing around:"Yes, but if you did it on people that were alive..." he trailed off, stopping his pacing to glare at him.

"I might not know what years of war can do, but we are at war at the moment," he muttered, turning away from him. He didn't want to talk to Orochimaru about that.

[smallstepstopower]

He sighed softly. "Who do you think T&I gives the prisoners to once they have all the information they need? They kill them and give them to medical teams, or if they can be safely handled, they give them to someone who can examine them. I'm sure the need for this will lessen in time after the war ends... but I cannot see the use ever going out entirely."

[orange_dattebayo]

Naruto shook his head. Things had changed... he wanted to believe that they did change and that Konoha doesn't kills prisoners just to find out how to counter techniques.

"So... you know nothing about new war that we are having? Against Madara and Tobi?" If he didn't know about it... then this Orochimaru is way younger than one he knew. But... how was that possible!?

[smallstepstopower]

"Considering we're in the wind down of the Second War... no. Now then, Uzumaki Naruto, just how old am I to -you-?"

[orange_dattebayo]

He scrunched his nose at him:"Well... you look younger than the one I was talking about... but that can't be true! There can't be two Orochimaru's!"

[smallstepstopower]

Orochimaru heaved a deep sigh and stared up into the sky for a long moment before looking back to the blond, speaking slowly and clearly. "You are from the future. Maybe not -my- future, but -a- future. Now. How old are me and my teammates there?"

[orange_dattebayo]

He blinked:"I am!? So- you are from the past, 'tebbayo?" He frowned, scratching his cheek:"Well, they are in their fifties I think." His face darkened at the thought of Ero-sennin.

[smallstepstopower]

His voice was flat. Oh dear gods Minato produced an idiot. "Fifties. Okay. I will remind you of something crucial now shall I? I am -twenty six-."

[orange_dattebayo]

WHOA! "TWENTY-SIX! Are you kidding me!?" he exclaimed loudly, his hands flailing around.

[smallstepstopower]

He rubbed his forehead. "I did mention this earlier in the conversation as well."

[orange_dattebayo]

"You did?" He forgot. Then he remembered:"What does that have to do with anything?"

[smallstepstopower]

"All the things you mentioned, I can't have done them no matter how you look at it, because I am much too young." He tilted his head. "You really don't look like your father, now that I'm really studying you."