Snakes are Venomous, Flowers are Poisonous

Chapter 13: Meetings- Part 1: Apologies

Sakura yawned loudly, the Sakura in the mirror doing the same. She had already eaten a large breakfast, and with staying up late to study katas, she could feel her eyes growing heavy.

"Do I need to set a bedtime, hatchling?" Orochimaru chuckled behind her, and she could see his eyes meet hers in the mirror. Smiling back, she shook her head.

Standing still, she let him continue adjusting the elaborate kimono he had gifted her. As soon as she had laid eyes on it, she could tell it had been made with the finest silk found in Fire Country, no doubt coming from the capital itself. She had been raised by merchants, and it would have been a poor job on their part if she couldn't identify different types of silks.

The base color was red, while gold and white flowers adorned it. The still early morning light shone off the embroidery beautifully and Sakura's fingers itched to feel along the stitches. One of the reasons she had gotten so enamored with ninja wire was because it reminded her of all the hours she had spent sewing and embroidering when she had been little. Other kids had made fun of her calloused fingers, but she had been proud of her work. She faintly wondered if she hadn't become a shinobi, maybe she could have made kimonos as beautiful as this one.

At the moment, Orochimaru was fiddling with her obi and had yet to settle on a proper knot to accompany the kimono's elaborate design. Staring at him in the mirror, she couldn't help but admire how stunning he was, even if his face was scrunched up in concentration and his tongue was stuck out slightly.

Before he had pulled her in front of the mirror, he had gotten himself dressed in an equally beautiful, silk kimono. While it was black, purple and white flowers flowed down the long sleeves and made him look more feminine than before, but it only added to his already exotic beauty. His long hair was wrapped up in delicate hair pins, and Sakura had to wonder if they held any kind of weapon or poison. If there was anything she had learned while staying at the Orochi compound for the last two days, it was that every occupant was armed to the teeth at all times.

So much so, Sakura could feel the leather straps on her arm, keeping a newly gifted knife up her long sleeves, but ready to be used at any moment. She had been practicing throwing it throughout the day before, even managing to shave off a few of Jiraiya's hair when he wasn't paying attention.

Orochimaru had handed her a piece of daifuku as Jiraiya yelled about encouraging bad behavior.

The last few days had been a blur. From reading scroll after scroll on mokuton, then mixing medical jutsu and poisons into the mix, Sakura felt her body thrumming with her newly acquired knowledge. She desperately wanted to use everything she was learning, but Orochimaru had warned her that she needed to increase her chakra reserves to really be able to practice anything. That left her schedule full of reading, meditating, and practicing katas.

She couldn't wait until next week when they would work on her endurance, and she could start sparring with her siblings.

It still felt odd calling them that.

Sakura had grown up as a single child, receiving every drop of affection and love from her parents, but as she had begun her journey to becoming a shinobi, life had shifted. Her parents didn't love her any less, but their time had started to dwindle. With her graduation from the Academy, her parents had begun taking on more trips out of the village, trusting her to be busy with her own career and being considered an adult by village as genin. She still loved them, but desperately missed their constant attention.

However, staying in the Orochi compound made her wonder what it would have been like if she had had grown up with older siblings. Even though there were many of them running around, Orochimaru made sure to save time with each of them, even if that meant a simple conversation at breakfast before they were running off. Kabuto and Anko had been the first to leave, but they had both stopped to give their parent a hug or kiss on the cheek. Kimimaro had received a bento box and a pat on the head before he left as well. Jiraiya had received a narrowed look and a reminder not to be late for dinner.