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Orochimaru was content to not be in the center of the attention. Crowds made him uneasy. Manda was always willing to be a distraction, draping across the snake-charmer’s shoulders as he moved from his normal spot, the lingering onlookers chattering about how
amazing
the show had been. Manda’s scales rustled against fabric.
At ease partner.
Orochimaru smiled faintly. “Shouldn’t I be telling you that?” He ignored the sudden silence that was followed by a larger burst of chatter about how crazy cool that snake charmer was!!
Manda’s tongue flicked out and Orochimaru could feel the snake’s amusement.
When one’s partner is twitchy as a dinner, one must take it upon themself to provide stability.
“I am
not
twitchy like a mouse Manda, you take that back!”
“Oro! Oro, can I pat Manda today?” Big blue eyes blink across the fire at the snakecharmer. Orochimaru sighed and nodded. Naruto brightened and scrambled around the fire. Manda’s head came up as the kid reached out with a soft hand, and he pushed his nose into the eager fingers.
A racket on the far side of the camp. Two men dropped out of the shadows, clawing and grappling for an upper hand. One melded into the ground, and the other left standing, whirled around, knives gripped tightly.
Orochimaru twisted his head, lunging for Naruto as the shadow melding man came back
far too close to Naruto
. Manda dropped off his shoulders and slithered away to bite at the shadow man.
Rude townie, interrupting head pats, trying to take the hatchling. I will bite you to death!
He stuck out with a hiss and there was a scream followed by a ringing silence.
Tsunade appeared out of the main tent, followed by Jiraiya. She looked at the man who had dropped next to the snake charmer with his knives still in his grasp. A sharp inhale and she snapped, “Jiraiya, it’s him.” Jiraiya grabbed his sword and moved out into the woods with Genma and Gai.
Orochimaru sat up from where he had tumbled away with the kid. Naruto peeked over his arms, staring at the man with deep-set grooves carved into his face. They looked like they hurt, and Naruto pulled out of Orochimaru’s arms to pad over to where Tsunade was running one of her diagnostic pendants over his side. A back eye opened to stare blearily at them.
“Ahh, Tsunade-sama. I made it back.” He sighed softly. “Good.”
Tsunade ran a hand over his hair. “Easy kid, it’s been a while since you’ve been home.”
As the sunlight rises, the circus packs up. The town is filled with horror at the mangled mess of body that was dumped at the base of the fountain in the center of town. Some brave man dares to fetch the scroll left neatly on the fountain side.
Please do police your borders better. Imagine if Kaguya’s gang had managed to make it into the walls.
The little blond boy heard the murmurs. “What a fortunate thing that they were stopped.” "Who could have dared?” “I don’t know, but I will sleep better tonight.”
“People are kinda stupid, aren’t they ‘Bito?” Obito looked over at where his sensei’s kid was sitting.
“Yeah Naruto, they really are.” He sits on the back of a wagon, at the back of the pack train on the way to the next destination. After all, the Uzu Troupe wasn’t going to be stopping for sure until they made it back to Uzushio proper and raised the grand tent anew.