c2: Shihara Hidezawa
"You… you're that orphan from the Konoha orphanage who was taken into Root, aren't you?"
Orochimaru's golden, snake-like eyes narrowed as he studied the boy's face, his voice dripping with curiosity. A thin smile slithered across his pale lips.
"If my memory serves, your name is… Shihara Hidezawa, correct?"
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru. Lord Danzo personally sent me to deliver something to you."
Hidezawa bowed slightly, his tone calm, though it was shocking that Orochimaru recognized his Root identity despite his current ANBU assignment. Yet, compared to his real secret, that revelation was nothing.
Because Shihara Hidezawa was not originally from this world he was a time traveler.
He once lived as an ordinary salaryman, living comfortably off a stable job and easy days. After work, he'd enjoy a quiet drink or sneak in a nap during office hours. Life was peaceful until the night everything changed.
He still remembered it clearly: meeting a desperate college girl who told him her father was sick, her mother jobless, and her brother struggling with school fees. Out of misplaced kindness and mild curiosity he'd offered to help. He'd only closed his eyes for a short nap afterward… and when he opened them, he had woken up in another world.
He found himself in the war-torn village of Konohagakure, during the years following the Third Great Ninja War. The "Iron Fist of Konoha" its brutal training, its endless tests soon taught him how merciless this world was.
He became an orphan under the care of Yakushi Nono, the "Mother" of the orphanage, and there he saw much of Konoha's hidden side. He even witnessed the tragedy of Obito Uchiha the boy who once idolized his teammates whose actions would later claim the lives of the Fourth Hokage and his wife.
Worse still, he saw Danzo Shimura arrive at the orphanage to recruit children for Root.
Hidezawa hadn't planned to stand out he just wanted to stay alive. But when Kabuto Yakushi had "recommended himself" to Danzo, the old war hawk's sharp eyes had landed on him as well.
Though he was never spirited away to another village, Root was no place of safety. Under Danzo's doctrine, "emotion is weakness," and training was nothing short of indoctrination.
Danzo's preferred method of "education" was as simple as it was brutal discipline through pain. Through endless combat drills and conditioning, the Root children learned loyalty through fear, and obedience through blood.
In that darkness, Hidezawa's mindset hardened.
"If I don't kill that bastard one day," he thought grimly, "I'll never know peace."
Driven by survival and silent fury, he swore to someday crush Danzo with his own hands. But before that moment could come, his system his cheat-like power from another world finally awakened.
"Since you were sent by Root…" Orochimaru's voice interrupted his thoughts, the older man smiling faintly. "I assume you've brought the item I requested?"
"Of course, Lord Orochimaru. I wouldn't dare neglect Lord Danzo's orders."
Hidezawa swiftly produced a sealed scroll and tossed it lightly toward Orochimaru.
Though the Sannin had defected from the village, Danzo's cooperation with him had not entirely ceased. Their "partnership" was built on mutual benefit forbidden research in exchange for political silence. Hidezawa's current mission was to deliver one such gift.
Orochimaru caught the scroll effortlessly and began to examine its contents, the faint curve of a grin forming as he unrolled it.
Meanwhile, Hidezawa discreetly opened his system panel invisible to all but him.
[Name: Shihara Hidezawa]
[Overall Physical Ability: LV6]
[Chakra Capacity: LV6]
[Abilities: Water Release LV5, Earth Release LV6, Taijutsu LV5, Sealing Technique LV5, Ownerless Curse Seal (unbound)]
[Free Points: 5]
Unlike the sentient systems of fiction, his was cold and mechanical no guidance, no advice, no personality. It simply turned his missions into quantifiable objectives. Completion meant rewards; failure meant nothing.
Simple, but deadly efficient much like Root itself.
No matter how the system presented them, the rewards were chaotic skills, money, even forbidden tools sometimes appeared among the spoils.
Most important of all were the Free Points that tasks awarded according to difficulty.
Free Points could be added to his attributes to raise them, but each level upcost more points. For example, upgrading an ability to LV6 required six Free Points.
This particular mission hadn't been especially dangerous, but the gains pleased him all the same. Besides the Free Points, the task granted him an Ownerless Cursed Seal.
If I remember correctly, he thought, the cursed mark stems from the same natural-energy phenomenon that people like Jūgo are born with an ability to absorb and react to nature's flow.
The power of natural energy had been Orochimaru's obsession for years. He had researched, stolen, and experimented until he could twist nature into a form he could use. To Hidezawa, whose system offered no congenital bloodlines no Sharingan, no Kekkei Genkai this felt like a priceless prize.
At first the lack of a bloodline had been a bitter discovery. In his previous life he'd been an ordinary salaryman; in this life his lineage meant nothing but hardship and servitude. His ancestors were not noble they were peasants and laborers for generations. A hereditary ability simply wasn't in the cards for him, and the system's rewards did not include bloodline limits. He was, in essence, a pure "numeric" anomaly: numbers and levels instead of lineage and fate.
For example, Overall Physical Ability was a composite of strength, speed, reaction, and spirit. Every two levels corresponded roughly to a shinobi rank; LV6 placed him in an upper-Jōnin tier for balanced development with no glaring weaknesses. Chakra represented his chakra reserves and production, which were tied to those bodily attributes after all, chakra generation required both physical conditioning and mental focus. His Water- and Earth-Release techniques were simply specializations within his Escape and Release skills.
Most importantly, from what he'd observed so far, his growth might be limitless. That prospect was the only real comfort. More than anything, he wanted the system to help him break away from Danzo. Following Danzo was a dead end.
"Not bad," Orochimaru said after finishing the scroll, his pale fingers tracing the sealwork as if savoring a new toy. He fixed Hidezawa with those snake-slit eyes. "Tell me was it because Danzo wanted eyes on the Uchiha, like on Shisui, that you were placed in ANBU? And why approach my lab so brazenly? That's hardly subtle."
Orochimaru had left the village, but he watched Konoha like a long-forgotten gardener watches his old plot from afar yet with a detailed memory. He knew enough to suspect Danzo would keep tabs on talented Uchiha, and Shisui's movements were of particular interest to any power that feared the clan.
"It was Jiraiya who advised the arrangement, Lord Orochimaru," Hidezawa answered softly. At the mention of Jiraiya, Orochimaru's expression shifted as if a puzzle piece finally slid into place. If Jiraiya had suggested such a placement, Hidezawa's presence in ANBU became plausible.
"As I thought," Orochimaru murmured, amusement thinning into disdain. He shook his head. "Danzo clings to children like a miser clings to coins. An orphan from the shelter makes the perfect asset: replaceable, malleable, expendable. But placing an ANBU operative near someone like Shisui… typical of him to use others as shields and eyes."
Hidezawa pressed his lips together. He had long wanted to leave Root to break Danzo's hold but he couldn't speak that aloud. Root's iron training and Danzo's political reach left holes you didn't get out of easily.
"Danzo remains the same hypocrite," Orochimaru went on, voice cold. "My former master grows more cautious, more concerned with his reputation than with truth. He would have his dirty work done by others so his hands remain clean."
Hidezawa didn't let the venomous flattery sway him. Orochimaru had a talent for wrapping sedition in soft words; it was a skill he used as well as any jutsu. The Sannin's conversation sounded, on the surface, like idle complaint but beneath it lay hints of far larger schemes. If Hidezawa had been a younger man in his old life, he might have devoured every conspiracy and whispered secret Orochimaru offered. He had read too many novels to not recognize the pattern.
His LV5 Sealing Technique would keep the Cursed Seal from dominating him for now. He was not bound; the mark he had gained was Ownerless, unclaimed, and therefore unstable in a way that made it dangerous and valuable both.
Still, his thoughts kept returning to Uzuki Yugao and the reinforcements she'd gone to fetch. If she returned to find him calmly chatting with Orochimaru, there would be questions and dangerous ones.
"Go. Now," Orochimaru said abruptly, as if sensing Hidezawa's inner debate. He did not press the point; he knew the value of silence.
"Thank you for your counsel, Lord Orochimaru. I can manage this alone." Hidezawa shook his head quickly. He did not want Orochimaru's touch who could say what subtle mark or seal that man might leave?
Orochimaru simply smiled and rose, his robe whispering on the stone. As he reached the lab's threshold he paused and turned, the smile widening into something colder.
"You'd best hurry," he said softly. "Your teammates will not hold forever."