Chapter 36 – Laboratory
Orochimaru’s words were unexpected for Sango, he expected a favour or something along that line of thoughts.
“You want to take me as a disciple?” His words contained unmasked suspicion, after all this was Orochimaru, with a master like him you had to sleep with your eyes open. Not that the idea was bad, Orochimaru was skilled enough to teach Sango, but what worried him was that Orochimaru must have some sort of plan to profit from taking Sango as a disciple.
Sango pondered and his expression showed it, “I have to say that the idea doesn’t displease me, but why?”
“Why? Because you are indeed suitable to be my disciple.” Orochimaru replied to his question with a smile, “Didn’t you say that you understand why I think we are similar? Then you understand why I want you as my disciple.”
Coming from anyone else, Sango may have fully believed that to be the case, but since the one that said those words was Orochimaru he didn’t fully believe what he said, at least he believed that while Orochimaru didn’t lie he had also not said the full truth. The question was if Sango was willing to take the risk, it would probably become a battle of wits and trickery with Orochimaru if he agreed.
Thinking for a short while, Sango made his decision. “Sure then, I will take you as my master.” He said but continued before Orochimaru could speak, “But I won’t betray the village.” That was his condition, he didn’t really care about the village, but Hinata, Ino, Sakura and above all, Kurenai, they cared about the village and they won’t betray it and Sango wont put then in the position where they had to do so.
“I won’t make you do anything.” Orochimaru replied plainly.
“That settles it then, Orochimaru-sensei.” Sango said, he was satisfied with the outcome, for now at least.
Orochimaru extended his hand and with a *puff* of smoke a scroll appeared in his hand.
“Take this, it will guide you to my secret laboratory in the village.” He gently threw the scroll to Sango who opened it. As Orochimaru said, the scroll indicated where and how to enter the laboratory. It was rather impressive that even after this time it wasn’t discovered, but looking over the scroll he could understand why.
“I’ll give it to you.” Orochimaru plainly stated, “I will come to find you from time to time to begin your teaching.” Having nothing more to say, Orochimaru stood up. “I look forward to what you’ll become.” With those words, his body began to warp and shrink with cracking noises, in the end only a small white snake remained, and it left through the window.
“I hope I won’t come to regret this choice.” Watching Orochimaru leavin, Sango murmured to himself. At the moment the pros were far more than the cons, he will just have to be very careful of him or her, now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure of Orochimaru’s gender.
There was still time until the appointment time with Kurenai, since that was the case he decided to go and see the laboratory, but before that he had one more thing to take care of. Lifting Asuma’s head, Sango gathered Fire Chakra in his hand, in an instant the Head turned to charcoal and then to fine ash, in the end the ash was thrown into the trash. No one would ever know what happened to Asuma’s head.
Since his normal appearance attracted too much attention, Sango transformed into an average-looking person and left his apartment, if the Hokage decided to randomly spy on him, all he would see would be Sango doing menial things in his apartment, Sango was able to change to Hokage’s target to one of his clones, letting him breathe a sigh of relief at his newfound privacy.
Luckily, the laboratory was situated very close to where his recently bought plot of land was situated. Sango was in front of a rather large and sturdy-looking tree, following the scroll’s instructions he placed his right hand in a particular spot and released chakra in bursts following a certain pattern.
The wood on the trunk, right in front of Sango, began to cave in, opening a door for him, inside he could see a staircase spiralling downward into the earth. With no hesitation, Sango began descending into the depths.