Work Text:
Prompt: Cancer: A dead queen, but a queen nonetheless. Clothing covered in shimmering azure beads.
Exposed bone and fossilized flesh deftly manipulate sewing needles made from her fathers ribs.
Prompt source: https://normal-horoscopes.tumblr.com/post/181747177221/the-royal-signs
In one world, Kushina was brought to Konoha as a newborn, to serve as the future token Uzumaki to be the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. In this one, Uzumaki Mito dies before Kushina is born, and a different girl is sacrificed at the altar of alliances. This strains the relations almost to their breaking point, as the bigger village practically demanded a newborn once they realized their current human prison was crumbling under the weight of the tailed beast’s toxic chakra.
Kushina’s world ends when she is eight years old.
Konoha has just declared war, and Uzushio isn't even given the courtesy of a warning. Its common knowledge Konoha and Uzushio are sister-villages, and it is assumed that they will stand together in this war as they have done in the First Shinobi War. The strain between the villages isn’t a widely known matter.
Therefore, when Konoha declares war, the other three big countries cobble together a temporary alliance, to eliminate the very valid threat of Uzu seal masters wreaking havoc on the frontlines. Uzushio also has the capability of impenetrable fortification, so their only hope of eliminating this threat is to strike soon and with overwhelming force. If the Uzushio seal masters decide to seal off the island, they will not be able to route them.
As such things go, it’s an effective, if truly depraved plan.
Uzushio was either an enormous village or a tiny country depending on the point of view. It is the only settlement of an island that is technically called Land of Whirlpools, but the Uzu people never really stood for tradition. Technically there was a Daimyo as well, squirreled off somewhere, but when all is said and done, the Island was basically the extended territory of the shinobi village which was run by the Uzumaki Clan. Given all that, the village was composed in a somewhat unusual manner - there were some 35 000 civilians, and 10 000 shinobi, about half of which were on active duty. As an island nation, most of their income came from commerce, so about a third of their population was away on any given moment.
While Uzu waits on the word of her sister village, her enemies were already mobilized. The village, not having declared war, or even participated in any skirmishes, doesn’t feel all that concerned. That, they will learn, was a mistake.
Iwa attacks with half of all their available forces. The Uzu shinobi leave the safety of their gleaming walls to meet them on the waves, counting on the fact that the Iwa-nins were in a disadvantage, regardless of their superior numbers. What they aren’t counting on is the wave of Kumo shinobi, that flank them on both sides. Precious few survive long enough to fall back to the village, hoping to activate the security seals, but were picked off by Kiri-nin who hid in the lush forests on the island, having used the raging battle as a cover to slip by unnoticed.
What happened next was a study in depravity. The village was built as a series of nine concentric rings, separated by tall, gleaming walls. Kiri shinobi surrounded the cyclical city and systematically started making their way through, massacring everything and anything living along their way. Around circle five they were in unfamiliar territory, as no foreigner was ever allowed that deep into Uzushio. When they reached the innermost circle they already cut down all the adults and elders, and all that was left were the young.
The Innermost circle consists of a big gleaming white marble courtyard, and a big, round tower, that contained the Uzukage’s residence and office, the School of Sealing that doubled as the Shinobi Academy, and the infamous Libraries, that contains every seal ever developed by an Uzushio shinobi. That was also, coincidentally, where the desperate Uzu citizens barricaded their children. It is unclear if the invading shinobi would’ve slaughtered them as well, or if they were only looking to plunder the vaults and libraries, but as one might imagine, it doesn't quite work out like that.
It happens quickly, without any warning. One moment, the invading shinobi are prowling around their cornered prey, the next, a blue shimmering dome snaps into place around the gleaming white walls, trapping everyone inside in a vacuum.
The island, at that time, contained around thirty thousand live souls, almost all of which were those of the invaders. Once the dome came into place, that number went down to a couple of thousand.
The invaders watch their brothers and sisters as they die gruesomely - unnaturally - by the thousands. Wherever they look, there is a writhing disfigured body, dying on the white cobblestones.
They try to help, throw every type of attack they have on the barrier, but it doesn’t even shimmer. They look, horrified, at the absolute nightmare that is Uzushio, a monument to depravity and despair.
***
Time passes. The Konoha shinobi come to aid, and they are so, oh so late. They stand on the edge of the dome, their shame a living, breathing thing, and are met by a sickly pale girl-child of anywhere between six to ten years. She is naked but there is so little human in her, that it doesn’t seem out of place. A black, sprawling seal covers her head to toe, and the clean black lines stands stark on her pale skin. Her face is twisted in a rictus that has too much madness to truly be called a smile, and there is unholy fire in her eyes.
“You should not have come, Konoha. I would not have killed you if you stayed away.”
She wears strange jewelry made out of what appears to be human bones, wrapped around her neck and wrists, and tied up in her hair. The katana draggs behind her is much too large for her, and the child obviously has no skill in using it.
The Sanin are there, shocked speechless. Jiraiya opens his mouth to say - something, anything that might relieve of some guilt. He is stopped by a sharp gesture from his, perhaps wiser, teammate. Orochimaru looks at the unnerving child, and the almost gleeful, anticipatory gleam in her eyes. He can practically feel her thirst for bloody revenge caressing his skin.
He doesn’t know how she hopes to kill his entire platoon, but he is no fool, There is currently one living chakra signature on the entire island, and he can clearly see the piles of corpses inside the village. They knew what they would find, when they saw thousands of looted, redheaded corpses, decomposing in the waters surrounding the island. The dome, however. The dome is something else. Something new. Something dangerous.
Whatever happened here, it won the war for Konoha. The combined forces of Kumo, Kiri and Iwa were decimated, with mere hundreds returning to fight, out of the tens of thousands that they sent out. The alliance surrendered and agreed to all conditions imposed by the Hokage. They won, his sensei declares, and it rang false to Orochimaru. He suspects it rang false to Sarutobi, as well.
He looks into the eyes of the Shinigami child that once Kushina-chan. Orochimaru was a frequent visitor to the Uzumaki clan. He would come under the pretense of acquiring some seals, and inevitably weasel out some tutoring from the long-suffering shopkeepers. The little red-headed menace was fascinated by the black-haired, snake-like foreigner and would follow him around ever since she learned how to walk. Golden, slitted eyes lock with ocean blue and his suspicion shifts into dreading certainty. This was no victory.
He straightens his back, and bows low, lower than he ever has, lower than he ever thought he would. Long heartbeats thunder in his ears, and he counts them slowly.
He counts ten, and when he rises the look in the child's eyes is unchanged, except all her unnerving attention is focused on him. He doesn’t flinch, because he’s Orochimaru, and snakes do not flinch. But he thinks would have, were he a more warm-blooded creature.
He takes out a kunai, unceremoniously removes his upper armor and shirt, baring his top half, and drags a long but shallow line diagonally across his heart. A second line joins it and he holds the girl's eyes as he traces the bleeding wound with a long pale finger. A terrifying, childish laugh escapes her throat, and she sing-songs “Cross your heart and hope to die!”. A mad grin still pulls at her lips but thinks the look in her eyes is less gleeful about the impending slaughter, and more.. lucid isn’t the right word, but he suspects there are no right words for the spectacle of horror unfurling in front of his eyes.
He knew the girl and was fond of her but he is painfully aware little Kushina-chan died with the rest of her family. He wants to resent this creature that is wearing her face so badly but finds he cannot. It’s difficult to attach emotion to a thing that seems so otherworldly.
He doesn’t speak, wouldn’t dare even if he knew what to say. The war is already over, and Konoha will go on even if Uzusho slaughters them all, but he hopes things won’t turn out that way. Not that he values his life overly much in the face of death on a scale he can’t truly comprehend. But he hopes it will not come to that. Even if only because he doesn’t want to add to the number of corpses
The child-God cocks its head, the movement a grotesque parody of innocence.
“Interesting.”
She looks at his teammates, frozen in place, clearly having recognized the daughter and only heir of the Uzukage.
“I will let you leave if he stays.”
Orochimaru doesn’t hesitate and crosses the barrier before his foolish teammates have a chance to protest. He is mildly surprised that the barrier let him though, but he tries not to think about it, as he falls to his knees in front of the girl, cuts on his chest still bleeding sluggishly.
She spares him no attention as her eyes are still locked at his teammates who are now struggling with other Konoha shinobi, both with a silencing seal on their person.
“Go home Konoha. Go home, and know what you have done to your sworn allies. Go home and weep, and cry, and carry your shame. You are not welcome here. You will never be welcome here. Go home or die. “
Orochimaru doesn’t turn around to see them go but knows this was the right decision. He has no illusions and knows his death might be imminent, but he prevented thousands more from dying, at a place he used to think synonymous with life and vitality.
This is a victory.