"So you really know," Orochimaru stared at him for a long while, especially at the long blond hair. "Then you know your mother is—"
"Inazuri," Chad cut him off sharply, with a gaze that could have melted carbon steel. "My only mother is and always will be Inazuri, no matter what happened. She carried me in her womb, fought every hour for months so I could develop safely, and gave birth to me at the cost of her life. I will not recognize anyone else as my mother." The chakra around him stirred with his words.
Especially not a cowardly woman who decided to abort him and throw the embryo away like trash!
If not for Inazuri, who witnessed the scene in horror and saved him by implanting the embryo into her own womb to preserve his life…
If not for her insistence on fleeing from pursuers to protect him at all costs despite her terrible injuries…
If that wasn't maternal love, then what was?
Orochimaru didn't correct him. It was clear they both knew how the story had unfolded to reach this point, despite the asymmetry in their information.
While Chad understood his true origins clearly, Orochimaru had only managed to deduce most of it after analyzing the blood and discovering that Chad was… his biological son.
Not a clone, not a lineage modification—his true and only son.
"Anything else? I doubt you suddenly had a paternal awakening."
Orochimaru pressed his lips together. He wasn't going to start acting like a father even after confirming the truth. It was simply too late in every sense, and it felt like a role completely foreign to him.
"I know it won't change much, but… I didn't know," he said in a tone even strange to himself.
The idea that he had had a family all this time without knowing was bitter, especially since the information had clearly been hidden from him deliberately…
"I know," Chad nodded as if expecting that answer. "I don't blame you for anything. Well, except trying to take my disciple."
"I apologize. I will leave that girl alone."
Chad paused for a moment.
Did Orochimaru just apologize?
That was almost as rare as Obito admitting that what he felt for Rin wasn't love, but a possessive obsession bordering on sickness.
"Look, the situation is strange (even for me)," Orochimaru licked his dry lips, running a hand through his hair. Only now did he notice Chad had some similar features to him, though they were mostly hidden by the tan and the muscles. "You don't discover every day that one of the top ninjas in the world is your son." He paused briefly. "By the way, congratulations on your marriage."
Chad simply stared at him with a raised eyebrow. This behavior was confusing even for Orochimaru, who had given up so many things in pursuit of immortality due to trauma and fear.
It was like seeing his younger self, one that hadn't yet burned away all his optimism.
Konoha really ruined one of its best talents…
What would he say if he knew he was about to become a grandfather?
…
No. He wasn't going to tell him. If Orochimaru had any idea about his grandchildren, they would end up without a grandfather.
"Orochimaru, what do you really want?"
"I just needed to close this matter, to speak with you in person," Orochimaru replied, lifting his head to look at the sky, which showed a rare clear day in the Land of Water. "I suppose the reality of it hit me harder than I expected…"
Even he was surprised at how much it affected him, as if he had discovered a side of himself he had long forgotten—or thought dead.
Chad didn't deny it.
To be fair, it was the kind of news that changed a person's life.
And as his existence proved, not everyone chooses to accept change with open arms. Some are simply cowardly to the core…
"You know, if you dropped all that immortality research and focused on R&D—"
"It's not happening!" Orochimaru interrupted, raising a hand. "I don't even know how you know I'm pursuing immortality, but at this point I can't just abandon it."
He had spent decades studying, experimenting, sacrificing too much, losing people important enough that stopping now was impossible.
His pride as a researcher simply refused.
"So be it," Chad thought, disappointed, though he had expected the refusal.
Whether it was to turn Orochimaru into Kumo's greatest researcher, keep him under control as a threat, redeem his father, or whatever reason there might have been behind the offer—only he knew.
Besides, things with Isaribi would become very complicated if Orochimaru changed now.
Chad couldn't tell her that the man she hated was the father of her teacher. The poor girl would go through an emotional crisis worthy of a psychological study.
They both fell silent, uncomfortable, unsure how to continue the conversation.
"Are you interested in acquiring more subjects for your experiments?" Chad said after a minute.
He didn't want to delay any longer; he needed to return to camp.
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
"Once this conflict is over, Kirigakure will be history—that's a fact," he stated firmly. "I have the means to take some people from Kiri to Kumo along with whatever resources remain. Needless to say, there won't be many survivors… but ideally, there shouldn't be any."
If people tried to flee Kiri at the last moment, even with the number of ninjas under his command, it wouldn't be realistic to stop everyone. Some would slip through.
He also couldn't use a Bijūdama against the center of Kiri, since although it would speed up victory, they needed to loot the place properly and recover everything useful.
"You want me to 'take' Kiri's survivors?" Orochimaru laughed with his deep, characteristic tone. "Sounds like you're using me as a hunting dog to clean up the remains of a fallen village."
"Feed them to your snakes, use them as test subjects, interrogate them for techniques. I don't care. I just don't want loose ends," Chad shook his head.
"That's a good habit," Orochimaru agreed.
It reminded him of those children he once met in the Land of Rain. He still believed it would have been better to spare them suffering. But Jiraiya had interfered and caused trouble…
And how did that end?
Wait… now he realized his son had killed his former comrade.
"Needless to say, I won't know anything about this," Chad looked him in the eye. "As far as everyone is concerned, while Kumo handles Kiri, you took advantage of the chaos to gain your share of benefits, which coincidentally helped Kumo."
"And that works for me," Orochimaru waved a hand dismissively.
In fact, he was going to do exactly that regardless of the conversation. This was a golden opportunity to obtain not only a large number of living ninjas, but also corpses.
In other places, capturing ninjas required careful planning to avoid leaving traces—an annoying process.
The fall of Kiri was essentially a contained zone of "take whatever you can in the chaos."
It didn't matter if a hundred, three hundred, or five hundred people disappeared; they would simply be counted as war casualties or missing persons.
He could even summon Manda. That impatient serpent would be delighted to consume those useless to Orochimaru.
Too bad that no matter how many "sacrifices" it ate, it wouldn't increase its intelligence…