Sound Four

Two months later, the aroma of roasting meat drifted across a hill outside Otogakure.

"Kidomaru, I can smell the barbecue already. Your grilling skills have improved again." A red-haired girl with a brash manner sat by the charcoal fire with a boy who had six arms, staring intently at the meat roasting over the coals.

It was a whole wild boar, caught in a trap the six-armed boy had set with his webbing. Even after its organs and entrails had been removed, a boar weighing over a hundred pounds would still feed more than a dozen adults.

"Tayuya, how are the barbecue seasonings coming along? If you mess up the spice ratios again, watch out or Lord Shisui will punish you by forbidding you from eating."

The six-armed boy struggled to turn the boar with his various arms, making sure every side was roasted to a crisp. Meanwhile, he used chakra-coated webbing to slice through the thick cuts of meat, allowing the inside to cook as well.

The six-armed boy was Kidomaru, and the red-haired girl was Tayuya. Both were orphans adopted by Orochimaru.

"Tayuya, Lord Shisui will be coming over from the experimental base soon. Don't do anything to upset him."

"Yeah. If Lord Shisui gets upset, we brothers won't go easy on you."

Two boys who looked almost exactly alike came over from nearby. They were twins.

"Sakon, Ukon, where's Jirobo? That deadweight always eats the most, but whenever there's work to do, he's nowhere to be found."

Ukon was the older twin, and Sakon was the younger.

Usually, Ukon hid inside Sakon's body, so the two of them looked like one person when combined. But after Shisui arrived, he demanded that Ukon separate from Sakon, saying that constantly hiding inside someone else was unhealthy for his physical and mental development.

"Don't even ask. That guy let his gluttony get in the way of something Lord Shisui assigned him, so he was taken to the experimental base to be a test subject."

Sakon answered, recalling something terrifying. He couldn't help shivering.

"...Poor Jirobo." Kidomaru sighed and focused even harder on grilling the meat.

"You'd better worry about yourself first, shut-in." Faced with Sakon and Ukon's taunts, Tayuya gave as good as she got, firing back by picking on Ukon's peculiar habits.

"You dare call me that?"

"Don't you bully my brother!"

Just as the three of them looked ready to fight, a voice suddenly rang in their ears. Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon, who had been at each other's throats moments before, all stopped moving.

"I could smell the barbecue from a long way off. Is Kidomaru in charge of grilling today?" While they were still bickering, Shisui had silently appeared behind them.

"Lord Shisui, your Body Flicker Technique keeps getting better. We didn't notice you at all." Tayuya knew Shisui didn't like them showing him the same excessive deference they showed Orochimaru. In truth, he was only two or three years older than they were, but the vast gap in their strength set him apart from them.

"What, want to learn? Get the seasoning mix I taught you right first." Shisui had found wild chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns near Otogakure and taught them to grind the spices into powder in specific proportions to enhance the flavor of the barbecue.

"Lord Shisui, don't listen to Tayuya. It'd be a miracle if she could get the seasoning right." Quick-thinking Kidomaru realized this might sound wrong and hurried to cover for Tayuya. After all, stealing someone else's techniques was taboo in the Shinobi World too.

Shisui noticed all of it, but he truly didn't mind Kidomaru and the others learning from him. His perspective had long since moved beyond so-called "secret techniques."

"The meat's ready." Seeing the meat sizzling over the coals, Shisui took a small knife from Tayuya, cut off a piece, and tasted it carefully.

A moment later, Shisui patted Kidomaru on the shoulder and praised him. "Your grilling skills have improved again."

"That's all thanks to your teaching, Lord Shisui. I only did as you instructed."

Of the group, Kidomaru was the most meticulous and also the most mature. He was cautious in every interaction, nothing like the later Kidomaru, who enjoyed toying with his opponents and faced death with such nonchalance.

"You don't just have extra arms. You've got more brains than all of them, too." Shisui teased him as he ate the barbecue with the seasoning Tayuya had just prepared.

During his time in Otogakure, spending time with these not-yet-grown members of the "Sound Four" was the most relaxing part of Shisui's life. The rest of the time, he was shut away in the tightly secured laboratory, assisting Orochimaru with various experiments.

Orochimaru had only recently adopted Kidomaru and the others, and they hadn't yet developed the fierce presence they would later show when they attacked Konoha.

"Don't worry. Jirobo was only sent to clean the laboratory. Once he's finished the work he was given, they'll let him out." The others didn't say it, but Shisui knew they looked out for each other. They might bicker all the time, but because they were all war orphans, sticking together was their first means of survival. They were colleagues at work and close companions.

"Thank you for your generosity, Lord Shisui." This time, even Sakon and Ukon, who had been quiet until now, bowed together to express their gratitude.

"All right, all right. You lot really are old souls in young bodies." Shisui waved them off, popped a piece of barbecue into his mouth, and prepared to hurry back to the laboratory.

His time was extremely limited. He had to solve the problem of transplanting Hashirama Cells as soon as possible.

When Shisui returned to the laboratory, Orochimaru and his assistants had already prepared the equipment for the next experiment.

"You seem to be getting along well with the five new orphans I took in, Shisui. You're so approachable—it's hard to believe you're an Uchiha." With his keen sense of smell, Orochimaru had evidently caught the scent of barbecue on Shisui.

The longer Orochimaru spent with Shisui, the more he realized that Shisui's people skills were nothing like those of an Uchiha. If anything, he was more like the Uchiha's old rivals, the Senju Clan.

If the other Uchiha were all like Shisui, then forget about the Fourth Hokage's position—even the Third's seat might not have been secure back then.

"Lord Orochimaru, strictly speaking, I'm only eight years old right now. Isn't it natural to get along with people my own age? Compared to you, I'm still a baby." After spending two months together, Shisui had gradually grown more familiar with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru: "???"

Shisui realized that Orochimaru's personal charm was no weaker than Minato Namikaze's. It was simply that their ultimate goals were different, which led them to act differently.

Of course, at this point, Orochimaru hadn't yet started messing with his fragile soul.