Orochimama

Chapter 11

I just finished being a distraction to Naruto and Sasuke's training when I met again with my two underlings to discuss the unfolding problem we were having.

"I'm pretty sure Gato doesn't have a second in command." Tayuya said with a shake of her head. "He seems to assign people to be in charge of specific parts of the business but no one could be called his second in command. The midget doesn't trust anyone enough to put them in second in command."

I heaved a sigh. I was beginning to feel that way too. Not a great way to run a business but a great way to make sure your underlings didn't kill you. Hell, it wasn't until I brought in Kabuto that Oto could be considered to have anything resembling a second in command.

"Kidomaru. Do you agree?" I asked.

The four armed man gave a nod, "Yeah. The dock seems to work the same way. There isn't any one person who is in charge of the whole dock. Two guys are at the top and they seem to be in competition with each-other."

This made my plans more difficult. I had hoped to be able to take over the business wholesale. That didn't seem to able to happen. Any change in leadership I tried would be more likely to result in infighting as all the little people tried to make themselves the boss.

So if I couldn't steal the the company I'd have to settle for second prize.

I took out two scrolls and wrote a quick message, encoded in a basic cipher, I pressed a finger into a needle on my belt and used the blood to summon two snakes. The two snakes a stripped grey and black, Their bodies thin, even by snake standards, though they were both about a meter and a half long. The twin snakes were Nobutoshi and Shun. The two were often summoned as messengers.

"Take this scrolls to Sakon. Wait with him until you get a reply, then take whatever he gives you and deliver it to Otogakure." I ordered Nobutoshi. "Shun, you take this scroll to Oto ahead of him. Deliver to Kabuto."

"Payment?" Nobutoshi wheezed out.

"A whole pig should be available for you to bring back with both yourself and Shun." If Oto had one resource currently, it was dead pigs.

Shun and Nobutoshi exchanged glances, tongues flicking out.

"Acceptable." They finally stated before they both took their respective scrolls and swallowing them. Then the two snakes slithered away.

"So what's the new plan Boss Lady?" Tayuya asked.

"We need to find the location of all of Gato's warehouses and ships. Gather as many manifests and shipping schedules as you can find." I ordered. "Most importantly, we need to find where he keeps his cash."

Tayuya smirked. "With how he's running shit he definitely has the cash somewhere nearby. At least most of it. I can give him a good reason to want to go count his money. I just need him to be suspicious of someone using it first."

"That shouldn't be hard to do." I said. Gato was absolutely the type that was constantly sure people were stealing from him.

"Okay. Here's the plan. Our jobs are going to be a bit easier if we insert ourselves into the organization. Kidomaru, take over the identity of one of the leaders of the dock. Tayuya, take over for whoever it is that finds Gato his girls, then take me in. I'm sure if you get me in as one of his conquests I can give him that last push we need to get him to run to his ninja backers."

My two subordinates gave a nod.

"Orochitama-sama." Kidomaru began. "You order no bloodshed without authorization. Do I have your permission to eliminate my target to better take over their identity?"

"Denied." I responded immediately. "We need to be able to question him about further information. Tie them up and stow them away somewhere."

Kidomaru and Tayuya restrain an unhappy look. Killing a target was always much easier than kidnapping and storing a target.

"In the meantime, Tayuya, I need you to inform me on all of Gato's tastes. Kidomaru, I need you go to the docks and see if you can find some jewlery. The most ostentatious and expensive looking jewelry you can find."

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"Ah. Of course Orochitama-sama." Kidomaru said, catching onto my idea.

"Let's get it done. We'll start at night fall. Assuming no complications, our time in Wave should be over soon." I reassured. "Now, Tayuya, tell me about hair color."

----

Tsunami found herself delaying on making any sort of dinner. A small part of her mind whispered that Orochitama would just be coming by with some extravagant ingredient for dinner. She hadn't been told that the strange pale woman would be coming by again that day, but she had already dropped in for a surprise visit a few times. The female ninja was somewhat unpredictable.

Though it was getting late, she should probably start-

"Kakashi-sensei!" An excited voice yelled before her front door burst open. Admitting the ball of sunshine that was the smallest Konoha ninja. Tsunami found Naruto to be an adorable and well meaning child, and she often found herself worrying that boy seemed very...un-ninja-like.

"Naruto. This is someone's house. Don't burst in and don't yell." Kakashi said from his resting spot in the corner. The grey haired ninja always impressed her with his patience. He never raised his voice or yelled at any of the kids, even when they did things of...questionable intelligence.

"Oh. Sorry." He said before continuing at a volume more similar to a yell than the roar it was before. "But I skinned and undressed a boar! Orochi Lady came with a boar and had me take care of it! And then she took all the blood and stuff and gave me the boar inside this scroll! She also said that there is a box of fruit and stuff in here too!"

"Oh. That's nice of her." Tsunami said, though tried to get her head around the idea of putting an entire pig inside some paper. It seemed like a waste of food.

"She approached you guys during your training? Did she do anything else?" Kakashi asked far too casually. The man seemed intent on being hostile to Orochitama for some reason, though there was apparently some sort of past between them, so she shouldn't try to judge.

"Yeah! Came in with an apron and everything, pulling the boar behind her. Then she told Sasuke how amazing I was and that Zabuza is just doing a job or something. Oh and she said she used to be a monster like three months ago, but that was just silly." Naruto prattled on.

"Three months ago?" Kakashi asked. "She said that?"

"The man trying to murder my father is just doing a job?" Tsumani asked. She couldn't believe that Orochitama would say something like that.

"Yeah. Three months ago." Naruto confirmed. "Anyways, she said you should do something with this food and she won't be by for a few days."

Kakashi let out a deep hum. Three months apparently meant something to him. Though he continued with a question. "You said she took the blood form the boar too? She sealed it away?"

"Yeah." Naruto said with a nod. "Nice of her, so we don't have to smell that constantly."

"Oh. And it will stop predators form looking for scraps near your training spot too." Tsunami supplied.

"It appears we won't be seeing much of Orochitama during the next week." Kakashi said bitterly.

"I thought you didn't like her." Tsunami stated in confusion. "Shouldn't you be happier to not see her?"

Kakashi looked at her in consideration for a moment before he spoke. "Tsunami-san, let me answer your question with a question. Would you rather be in a room with a rattlesnake you can see? Or in a room with a rattlesnake that you can't see?"

"Kakashi-san, I don't think that talking about Orochitama like she's some sort of criminal is-"

"I'll just leave these here." Naruto said as he unsealed the scroll in his hand, dumping a field-dressed boar and a crate baring the name of Gato Shipping Company onto the floor.

Kakashi looked over at her with a droll look in his eyes.

"Okay, so yes, she does steal stuff, but she's been nothing but nice to the people of Wave." Tsunami replied.

"Yeah, I know." Kakashi said as he leaned back into his corner and closed his visible eye. "And that's really freaking me out."

-----

"So how do I look?" I ask as I turn this way and that. The henge over my body making me look about half a foot shorter, my features far younger, my hair a vibrant blonde, and my make up applied like I had no idea what I was doing.

I was also decked head to toe in the gaudiest jewelry I had ever laid eyes on. A head band with rubies the size of walnuts, a necklace made of silver and thirty separate diamonds, a ring on every single finger that had opals, pearls, sapphires, and emeralds.

"You look fucking ridiculous." Tayuya answered.

"But will Gato take the bait?" I asked.

"Oh he'll fucking love you until he realizes where all the bling came from."

Great, that's exactly what I was going for.

"What do you two think?" I asked as I looked to the two men tied up in the tree hollow that we had set ourselves up in.

The one that we had picked up from the docks, Nariyuki, glared at me in defiance, but the other man, Aoki, that was responsible for getting Gato's girls did his best to give me a thumbs up. Aoki had been nothing but obedient and positive with us since he arrived.

His great attempts to make sure we remained happy with his services was vaguely amusing.

"Kidomaru-kun, try to stay unnoticed as much as you can. Business as usual only. Slip away tomorrow night with any information you managed to gather that we didn't already know."

The Spider Shinobi gave a nod before dashing away. I gave one more look at my more...streamline form, wearing a silk yukata of blue and green, before turning to Tayuya. "Well, time for you to hand me over to a walking embodiment of little dick syndrome."

Tayuya cracked a smile before the two of us jumped away. Ninja travel landing us just a few hundred meters out of Gato's hideout. Tayuya put on her henge and stepped forward with a length of rope.

I showed great maturity by not saying any bondage jokes as she bound my wrists. We needed to make it seem like I couldn't run off and that I was at the mercy of whoever held the end of the rope. They didn't know I had over two dozen ways of getting OUT of said rope, or all of the ways I could kill them all with my wrists still bound.

I took a breath and tried to get into the right mind space.

I wasn't Orochimaru. I wasn't a mature adult. I was an irresponsible teenager that did foolish things because someone flashed some shiny objects my way and just got over my head.

I let tears gather in the corners of my eyes and looked up at my subordin- at my captor.

"Please. I didn't know! I was just having some fun!" I cried.

The illusionary form in front of me gave a nod of approval before a look of apathy took over. "Come on now. I don't call the shots. Gato's the boss and what he says goes. He's a pretty reasonable guy. We'll let him decide."

It sounded good. We both were in character.

We approached the hideout. Tayuya occasionally yanking me on as I gave slow shambling steps.

"Halt!" One of the guards in front of the base called. "Who's this? Why are you bringing her here? The boss said he didn't want any girls brought in tonight."

My captor shrugged. "Yeah, well this isn't for that. Look at all that cash on her. She had to have stolen it from us. I figure the boss would want to know and handle this case all...personal like."

The guard looked me up and down, I flinched away and let out a small whimper.

The guard frowned. "Aoki. The boss did say that he didn't want any girls today. You could just collect the goods and just...forget what she looks like."

Of all the guards to run into, we had to get the one with a conscience! Even thieves and thugs like this had lines they didn't like to cross.

"Can't. Nariyuki already saw her. He plans on coming in and tattling in the morning. I let her go, it's my ass tomorrow." Tayuya said, appealing to the one thing all thugs considered the highest morality.

Self-preservation.

"Alright, yeah. Head on in," the guard said with a defeated sigh.

It took another fifteen minutes and two conversations about "taking this thief to Gato" before we stood in front of Gato's office. My captor knocked on the door and we were told to enter. I reminded myself to look around. I had no reason to be familiar with the office and the opulence of the room would be awe inspiring for a poor peasant girl.

"Aoki! What is this!? I said not to bring any more girls in!" Gato snarled.

The man had seen better days. Thick bags hung under his eyes, his hair was greasy and matted, and he looked a little pale.

"I know boss. That's not why I brought her. I found her near the docks, looking like...well this. There's no way one of the peasants here could afford to look like that."

The man came up short, and finally noticed how I was completely decked out in jewels, silver, gold, and silk.

I turned up the water works. "P-please! I didn't do anything wrong! I was given these! I swear! One of your men gave them to me when we'd meet for a date! I didn't do anything wrong!"

Gato let out a snarl. "Throw me her headband." He ordered.

My captor complied and Gato took a moment staring at the rubies, holding them up to the light before muttering, "These are real."

The midget snatched up his cane and marched around his desk. Without warning the cane smacked into my face with all the force of a bug bite to someone like Orochitama. I let it drive me to the ground and released a cry of pain.

"Who gave you these!? Who!?" He snarled.

"Hiroto! His name was Hiroto!?" I sobbed. "It wasn't serious! He just gave me money and jewelry for meeting him!"

Gato looked to Aoki. "Who the hell is Hiroto?"

Aoki shrugged. "I dunno boss. We don't have anyone on payroll by that name. We also don't pay any of our guys enough to afford all this. I figure someone gave her a fake name, but I don't know where they would have gotten the stuff from."

I made sure to stay looking away from Gato, but I could practically hear him connecting dots along the trail we left for him.

"Someone's stealing my stuff...and it might be how the ninja have had so much access. Someone on the inside is playing me." Gato came the the desired conclusion and smacked the cane against my prone from once again. "Take her to my room. I'll give her a thorough...interrogation later. Now I just need to-"

The door the the office opened, catching both Gato and me by complete surprise.

I hadn't sensed anyone at the door. Granted, I hadn't expected to be looking for ninja stealth, I was a bit too in character, but even still, whoever manage to avoid my detection up to this point was an upper tier jounin at least. There was a brief clacking sound as I made sure to look up from my position as a brutalized civilian would.

Sandals that could almost qualify as heels. A blue dress that covered an armor weave of chakra metal that worked similar to chainmail, though thinner and lighter. A go to for many ninja. It was also ludicrously expensive.

My gaze trailed up to see auburn hair pulled back in that cascaded down the ninja's back. A mist headband hung loosely around her neck displaying the symbol of the Mist.

I then knew how Gato managed to get a hold of Zabuza.

"Gato. My sources say that you've been having some business problems." Terumi Mei, the future Mizukage, said with a haughty tone.

Her eyes met mine. Her eyes narrowed.

Well, this plan was fucked.