"It's not me who is wrong, it's the world that is wrong," Saeko kept muttering to herself, each time feeling something shift inside her.
Watching her, Orochimaru fell silent.
What he had told her, those exact words, were once his own mantra. After all, to do the kind of dreadful experiments he did, you either had to be a nutcase, have iron-clad control over your emotions, or simply be numb to it all. After regaining his memories, he had clung to that phrase, letting it anchor him against guilt and sentiment.
Because someone who conducts human experiments is instantly branded a monster. But children trained from birth to kill, brainwashed to treat murder as glory, are called noble sacrifices. That is what the system demanded.
The system that bred shinobi by treating them as weapons.
He understood he wasn't a good person. In fact, he never really cared about being good. But he certainly wasn't a hypocrite, not like those who spoke of peace while feeding children into the furnace of endless war.
With a soft sigh, his eyes landed on Saeko again. She looked fragile, not weak, just cracked. Like a blade that had seen too many strikes and was just waiting for the final one to snap it in two.
Stepping closer, Orochimaru gently placed his hand on her head and stroked her hair.
Her body tensed at first, then slowly eased into it. She looked up, confused, but didn't push him away. Maybe she lacked the strength. Or maybe she didn't want to.
"You must be lonely," he said quietly. "But don't worry anymore."
Even if they came from completely different worlds, he could see it in her eyes, that same isolation. That fear that if someone saw the real them, they would turn away in disgust.
He removed his hand.
"Let's go."
Saeko's gaze dropped to the floor. After a beat, she followed. She could have left. Should have, maybe. But something in her gut told her she would be better off staying near him. The world was ending, after all, and maybe the monsters were safer together.
As they walked through the corpse-strewn corridors of the school, Orochimaru's voice cut through the silence. "Do you know how long it takes for them to turn?"
Saeko blinked. She knew what he meant, how long until the dead reanimated. "No. I haven't noticed yet."
But as soon as she said it, a chill crept down her spine. The number of dead must be enormous by now. Every second, more were joining them.
"I don't know much about this world," Orochimaru said. "But the fact that this outbreak is happening everywhere, all at once, suggests it was pre-planned."
Saeko's footsteps slowed. "Pre-planned?" she echoed in a low voice.
It made sense. Too much sense. And that made it worse.
Why?
Orochimaru answered her question before she could ask it. "There are many reasons. It could be someone's twisted plan to reset humanity. Or maybe this was man-made, a virus, a parasite, some biological experiment gone wrong… or right, depending on your perspective. For all we know, someone already has the cure and is just waiting until the world's on its knees. That's when they will step in as saviours."
His words painted a bleak picture, and Saeko could see it clearly. Governments falling. Chaos replacing order. And at the end of it all, someone holding the antidote, demanding absolute control.
A bio-weapon, she realised. Not just to kill, but to reshape the world.
If they could infect the air or water next…
"Groan."
The sound snapped her back. Zombies up ahead, staggering closer. Saeko gripped her bokken tightly, instincts kicking in, ready to fight.
But Orochimaru raised a hand, stopping her. He quickly performed hand seals.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!
A rolling inferno burst from his mouth, engulfing the undead in flame. The stench of burning flesh filled the air as their howls turned to silence.
"Fire works," he murmured.
"Gurgle…"
He turned. Saeko stood frozen, cheeks red, her stomach growling in betrayal. She looked like she wanted to dig a hole and vanish.
"I'm hungry," Orochimaru said, pretending not to notice. "Let's find something."
He stepped forward, crushing ash beneath his sandals. Saeko followed with a sigh, feeling the heat of embarrassment more than the heat of the flames.
It wasn't her fault. She hadn't eaten since the outbreak began. And now, somehow, she was walking beside a man who could melt flesh off bones with a single jutsu and still remember that people needed food.
Oddly comforting.
"Did everyone else already leave?" Orochimaru wondered as he glanced around. Only Saeko remained. The others were gone, and frankly, that made sense.
It would have been strange if they had stayed.
But this was a test. Of more than just strength.
"If they can't survive this," he thought, "then they were never worth the trouble anyway."
The apocalypse would separate the weak from the useful.
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People he should take back ( from mashup )