Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

A Sheath for a Sword

Chapter Fifteen: A Sheath for a Sword

Minato had never been inside a laboratory before, but he quickly understood that they were not pleasant places, or at least the ones run by creepy androgynous geniuses weren't.

He looked around the badly lit room – every blind drawn, and only half the dull orange florescent tubes working above them. Most light appeared to be coming from a strangely smoking glass of noxious green on the middle workbench, confirming everything Minato had ever suspected about mad scientists. Granted, everything else looked pretty mundane. A cage of rats. Stacks of paperwork and research notes. One partially dissected monkey. Its little brown paw that so closely resembled a human hand had slipped off its tray to point at the floor. It reminded Minato of another place, at the edge of the water country, where it had been human corpses lining the tables and walls.

That memory was a dulled one. It no longer made his stomach clench the way it used to, but whether he realised it consciously or not, Minato raised his guard. He couldn't be at ease in this place; nor around this man.

"Have you ever been interested in science?" Orochimaru asked huskily, sliding past him to tap a long, elegant finger against a set of beakers contained some sort of current experimentation.

"It's alright," Minato said with muted enthusiasm. He'd been top of the class in science, but then he'd been top in everything. It didn't translate into any particular interest. "Botany was ok."

"Indeed?" Orochimaru smirked. "Did you know there are species of plants that are as close to immortal beings as any life-form on this planet? Once established they can live forever."

Minato begged to differ. The last time Kushina had gone away she'd left him in charge of all the houseplants. Minato had dutifully watered them every day, and in turn each and every one had dutifully shrivelled up and died. Still, the damn knotweed in the garden would probably outlive them both.

"What was it you needed helping with?" Minato asked, hoping to steer the sannin back to the matter at hand. The sooner it was done, the sooner Minato could return to the world of the living.

"Of course, of course. This must be the can-do spirit everyone talks about. Not a challenge exists you won't charge head-first into," Orochimaru said, smiling gracefully. But it did not sound like a compliment. "So tell me; did it bother you that the Hokage handed your mission to me?"

Minato remained perfectly schooled. It bother him, sure, but had a highly respected sannin really just brought him down to his lab to rub it in his face? "I'm sure your skills were better suited to the task," he said, which was a reassurance he'd been telling himself for weeks.

"Perhaps so, as I seem to have made a remarkable break-through."

He really had come her to have his face rubbed in it. Minato's eyelids flicked fractionally lower. "How nice," he deadpanned.

Orochimaru tented his fingers together. They really were absurdly long. "And perhaps now, in the spirit of sticking to our strengths, it is time to return it to your hands?"

"What?" He hadn't expected that. Now he was gaping, stunned, as Orochimaru glided across his lab to retrieve a scroll from another bench. It bore the official seal of the Hokage.

"Our man has been identified and unearthed," said Orochimaru as he handed to scroll to Minato. "The bodies of the victims may never be recovered, but we can still find them justice, don't you think? His name is Kamina. He fled the village five hours ago when the Hokage issued an execution order."

That very execution order now rested in Minato's palm. He looked at it carefully, then back at the sannin. "I don't understand. Isn't this your mission to complete?"