Orochimaru Had a Change of Heart?

The three-day wilderness survival exercise officially came to an end.

Most of the students at the clearing where they had gathered looked utterly exhausted and filthy.

Naruto had two muddy streaks smeared across his cheeks, and the orange fabric of his clothes had been slashed in several places by branches. With his hands on his hips, he stomped around the crowd, fuming.

Sakura's hair was a little messy as she bent down to brush the dead leaves off her pant legs.

Sasuke leaned against a tree at the edge of the gathering point. After his earlier fight with Orochimaru, he looked a little worse for wear, too.

"Sasuke!" Naruto spotted him beneath the tree and immediately ran over.

Pointing at Sasuke's nose, he began shouting.

"Where the heck have you been hiding these past three days? I searched every inch of the forest and couldn't find you! Were you hiding in a tree hollow because you were afraid I'd take your stickers?"

Sakura came over, too. She wasn't as over-the-top as Naruto, but there was a hint of complaint in her voice.

"Sasuke-kun, I really didn't see you at all these past three days. I thought if I ran into you, we could team up..."

Sasuke straightened and rolled his shoulders.

"It's better not to run into each other at a time like this."

"Huh? Why?" Naruto puffed out his chest indignantly.

"Because if I ran into you, I'd take your stickers. Then you wouldn't even get a passing score."

Naruto's face flushed red. He waved his fists. "Don't underestimate me! I managed to get a scroll!"

"Everyone, come hand in your scrolls and stickers!" Iruka called from behind a long table in the middle of the clearing, a clipboard in his hand.

The students lined up and came forward one by one.

When it was Sasuke's turn, he walked up to the table and reached into his backpack.

"Clatter."

A pile of stickers and mission scrolls spilled onto the tabletop.

Iruka's pen hand froze in midair.

He looked at the loot on the table, then at Sasuke's expressionless face.

"Uchiha Sasuke... seventeen stickers and... four scrolls."

You practically plundered the entire training ground, Sasuke...

Iruka swept the items into a collection box, his gaze turning complicated as he looked at Sasuke.

The boy's abilities had already far surpassed the standards of the Ninja Academy. He had to report this to the higher-ups.

"Iruka-sensei." Sasuke didn't leave the table. Instead, he spoke up directly.

"I want to see Lord Hokage."

Iruka paused, then glanced at the absurd pile of loot on the table and nodded.

He had to report to Lord Hokage anyway.

"All right. Come with me."

Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind a broad desk.

He held a pipe in his hand, and thick stacks of documents covered the desktop.

After Iruka brought Sasuke into the office, he briefly reported on the exercise, then left and quietly shut the door behind him.

Only Hiruzen and Sasuke remained in the office.

Hiruzen took the pipe from his mouth and tapped it twice against the ashtray. His gaze settled on Sasuke.

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon, Sasuke." Hiruzen's voice was warm. "Iruka told me about your performance in the exercise. It was excellent."

"You wouldn't come to see me on your own unless something was wrong." Hiruzen set the pipe on the desk and folded his hands beneath his chin.

"Go on. What trouble have you run into?"

Sasuke walked up to the desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

"I saw Itachi Uchiha."

Hiruzen's expression remained calm. After all, it was perfectly reasonable for Itachi to want to see his younger brother. "Mm, I understand. I'll send someone to investigate in a little while."

"There was someone else." Sasuke looked Hiruzen in the eye.

"A pale-faced guy with a long tongue, named Orochimaru."

"Clack."

Hiruzen accidentally knocked over the pipe beside him. It fell onto the desk with a sharp clatter.

The old man's expression changed completely.

If Itachi's appearance had been within his expectations and control, Orochimaru's name was a complete shock.

Orochimaru had infiltrated Konoha? And made contact with Sasuke at the training ground?

The Anbu and the Barrier Team hadn't noticed a thing!

"What did he do?" Hiruzen's voice turned fierce in an instant, radiating menace.

He stared intently at Sasuke, searching for any signs of injury or a curse.

Hiruzen understood better than anyone how covetous Orochimaru was of Kekkei Genkai.

"He wanted to put something called a Cursed Seal on me," Sasuke replied.

Hiruzen shot to his feet. The chair behind him scraped across the floor with a shrill screech.

"You were bitten?!"

"No." Sasuke shook his head.

The tension in Hiruzen's shoulders eased slightly, but his brow remained tightly furrowed.

Orochimaru hadn't forcibly abducted the boy? That was completely unlike the conduct of his former pupil.

"Black," Sasuke called to the shadow on the floor.

The shadow beneath him rippled, and Black Dog stepped out of it.

It shook its fur and sat down beside Sasuke's leg.

Hiruzen's gaze fell on the Ninja Dog.

"He didn't bite me," Sasuke said, pointing at Black Dog. "He bit him."

Dead silence fell over the office.

Standing behind his desk, Hiruzen gaped, his eyes wide.

He looked from Sasuke to the black dog, his mind unable to keep up.

"Y-you said what?" Hiruzen wondered if he'd heard wrong.

"Orochimaru bit your dog?"

"Yeah." Sasuke patted Black Dog on the neck. "Show him."

Black Dog let out a deeply reluctant growl.

He tensed the muscles on the side of his neck, parting the black fur to reveal the grayish-white skin beneath.

At the dog's jugular, three black Tomoe linked together, radiating a faint, cold chakra.

Hiruzen braced both hands on the edge of his desk and leaned forward, staring at the mark on the dog's neck.

He knew it all too well.

It was Orochimaru's forbidden technique for controlling his subordinates. It had once appeared on the neck of Orochimaru's beloved student, Mitaraishi Anko.

Hiruzen himself had sealed it.

And now one of Orochimaru's greatest creations had appeared on a dog's neck.

The corner of Hiruzen's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

The first thing that shocked him was that Orochimaru had actually let Sasuke go, instead of forcibly taking away the last surviving Uchiha.

The second shock—the one that nearly made his brain short-circuit—was that...

Orochimaru had actually gone and bitten a dog's neck?!

"Wh-why would he bite a dog?" Hiruzen's voice trembled, whether from anger or sheer disbelief.

"I told him to." Sasuke leaned back in his chair, his tone matter-of-fact.

"He said this thing could grant power, so I had him try it on my Shikigami. He didn't want to at first, but he eventually did it."

Black Dog let his fur fall back over the Cursed Seal and scratched his neck with a hind leg.

"That guy named Orochimaru had a dead rat's breath." Black Dog spoke, his voice full of disdain.

"If I hadn't wanted that little bit of power, I'd have bitten his tongue off right then and there."

Hiruzen slumped back into his chair.

He covered his face with one hand and rubbed it hard twice.

Orochimaru had become so twisted and treated human life like grass, yet he'd obediently listened to Sasuke and bitten a dog?

What was he thinking? Had he had a change of heart lately?

"Lord Hokage." Sasuke tapped the edge of the desk, bringing Hiruzen's thoughts back to the present.

"I've given you the information on Orochimaru. If he can get in without anyone noticing, he can do other things without anyone noticing, too."

Sasuke stood and slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"I did what I promised. I didn't withhold any information."

"As for why he came and what he wants, that's something your Konoha High Command can worry about. Just don't let him bother me again."

Sasuke turned and headed for the door.

"Wait." Hiruzen lowered his hand, his expression once again solemn with the authority of the Hokage.

"Sasuke, Orochimaru is extremely dangerous. Now that he's set his sights on you, he won't give up easily. In a while, I'll find someone to take you out of the village for a change of scenery."

Sasuke had just grabbed the doorknob. "As long as that person can help me, that's fine. I'll be going to the library soon, so give me my access pass as soon as possible."

With that, he strode out of the office, and the door slammed shut behind him.

Silence fell over the office once more.

Hiruzen's gaze settled on the documents on his desk.

He took a long drag on his pipe.

Amid the swirling smoke, the old man's expression grew incredibly complicated.

"Orochimaru..." Hiruzen murmured the name.

"What are you plotting?"