The Day Orochimaru Meet This Boy

Chapter 7: Village gossip and Kakashi's mask

Orochi had moved into the Hatake Compound. Between that and being seen with Kakashi all over town and the fact that the child calls him Kaa-chan/mama/ and occasionally mommy it was fodder for the gossips.

Orochi couldn't take two steps out of the compound before the whispers started...

"I hear he is with Hatake-san, scandalous!"

"Is Orochimaru a man? Why does the Hatake boy call him 'Kaa-chan'?"

"Why is that cold snake with the sweet little boy, maybe he is a pedophile!"

"For shame being openly gay when they are prestigious shinobi."

"Wasn't Hatake-san married. So is it adultery?"

"I think the council should put a stop to such lewd displays...I mean that poor boy!"

And Orochi wasn't the only one bothered by it. Kakashi seemed to hear everything. And for an almost 3-year-old prodigy to hear all the slander thrown at his parents. It was starting to take effect on him. Those damn village peons, but even their fellow shinobi were just as bad, scum.

"Kaa-chan, why does everyone stare? I..I don't like it."

Orochi continued to walk down the road. He ignored the bottom feeders. He ignored the whispers and the finger points and even the sneers. He focused on walking and his son. He acted like his cold emotionless self. He spoke like the village idiots weren't there.

"Listen to me, my little Hatchling, you will always be plagued with morons that do not understand. It has nothing to do with you. I promise. It is because I am a man, but I am your mother. It is because I live with you and To-san though we are not married. Because they don't understand; they feel uncomfortable and so they make themselves feel better by putting us down. You should ignore them."

"Why don't you and To-san just get married if that will make it better?"

"Oh, my Hatchling, I will only marry if I am in love. Not that marrying your father would make them stop talking. If you can not ignore them, what can I do to help you?"

And that is how my sweet angel baby learned about facades. How we shinobi use different layers of masks to hide. The obvious ones like Anbu. And the personality ones Nade and I used. I was a cold-hearted, twisted, calculating snake and Nade was a loud, blunt, drunk.

So to help we made it a game...spot the facade. The obnoxious bowl hair-cut, green leotard wearing man who likes to spout phrases about youth...he was insecure, sad, afraid, and also hiding his true power. The Hokage hid his true strength and intelligence by letting his opponents underestimate him and he furthered it by complaining about being old, slumping his shoulders, not standing tall, taking up smoking a pipe...all physical and mental ways of hiding. The Nara clan, also hiding their intelligence much the same way under a lazy demure.

That was when my Hatchling asked if he could work on his shinobi facade. Helping my son pick a disguise mental or physical was easy, my son hid his face to hide his emotions. He was a hider. So we picked out a half-face mask. It worked well because the scarf was a safety hindrance.

He also must have decided to try a personality change, because to anyone, but Sakumo, Nade, and I, he acted aloof to them.

Orochi was at home cooking. He was gonna ask Sakumo at dinner about an at-home office and possibly a research office. Nade and he were getting into a few applications of some of the medicines they had discovered and were doing cadaver research and experimentation. Nada also wanted to expand into test tube embryo fertilization and fetal growth. We discussed gene splicing and possible application for the research. I was taking a few missions nowadays. But with Kakashi, I didn't want to risk being in Anbu any more and Sakumo was talking about taking on another genin team when his PT was done. But with a child money still had to flow home to cover expenses. But he was enjoying the work and his teammate as a work partner.