Chapter Text
Harry Potter, age 17, gingerly touched his face as he looked in the mirror, eying the changes he'd hidden for a few years now. His face, skin and hair had started to change, little by little and the wizard had been afraid at first, but after a trip to Gringotts he'd found out why. His mother had borne another man's child, due to the fact that James was sterile, they had then proceeded to do a blood-adoption ritual, effectively giving Harry three parents. They had made sure to spell him to look like James, but with their death the spell had started to break and so Harry looked similar to what he assumed his second father had to look like. At least his hair was straight now, and it wasn't like he hadn't been pale before, it was just... his eyes. Or rather, the strange purple markings on his eyelids. He'd done an inheritance test and he knew his other father's name and approximately where to find him, all he had to do was make himself leave.
It wasn't that he wanted to stay in Britain, it was just that after fighting for so long he didn't want to give up the place he'd fought for. Though perhaps it would be better to leave. After all, he didn't really feel like he belonged. And... the thought of an actual family plagued his mind and wouldn't leave him alone. If he left, he might actually have that. Perhaps this man, Orochimaru, would accept him, and if not... well, Harry was always good at adapting. With this in mind, Harry started making preparations.
The barely-adult man fiddled with the bracelet he'd embedded runes in in order to not have to re-apply the glamour every other hour as he walked down the streets of some small village near a Hidden Village called Amegakure. He was glad he had no need for glasses anymore, otherwise the rain would be much more of a bother than it was currently. His portkey had landed not too far from there and he was slowly making his way in the direction of his father's village. Things were actually going pretty well for him even though the surrounding countries seemed to be in some kind of war.
He really shouldn't have jinxed it.
Not soon after entering another village, he ran afoul of some of the country's Shinobi. Had he not tripped while dodging a kunai, then he probably could've continued his journey relatively unmolested. As it was, the leather strap around his wrist his disguise was anchored to was sliced by one of the kunai and with his hood down, it was visible to everyone as his features shifted.
The leader grabbed him by his throat and started interrogating him on his identity and his connection to Orochimaru of the Sannin. Harry refused to speak and instead struggled in the man's hold.
This was how he ended up a prisoner to Hanzo the Salamander. Shackled somewhere underground where he was cold and forced to listen to the steady sound of dripping water. Had his wrists not been shackled against the wall, he would have escaped already. If they were normal shackles attached to chains, he could reach them and open them with an alohomora and apparate away, however, his hands were locked by a solid piece of metal held shut by a padlock which he was unable to reach, should he try to apparate, he'd rip his arms out of their sockets. It had been almost a week now and Harry was starting to break. He had yet to speak a word to his gracious host. It didn't matter that he did not know a thing about his father, he refused to let the man know anything. Harry did not know if the man could use his identity against his father, nor if it would work, but he'd rather not risk it. Family was much too important to him.
Jiraiya had never been a quiet person, Orochimaru thought with disdain, but the rather obvious approach was a little much even from him. Before the Snake sannin could debate jumping out the window to escape his brash teammate, the white-haired menace threw his door open.
“Orochi! Where are you, teme?”
With a sigh, Orochimaru exited his private lab and came face-to-face with his teammate, who had obviously been on his way to the exact same place he'd just left “Yes, Jiraiya? Is there a reason you are imitating that giant toad you insist on summoning?”
Instead of taking the bait like usual, the man thrust a picture in the pale man's face, causing him to roll his eyes and pluck the piece of paper from his teammate's hand before bringing it to a distance from which he could actually see what was printed there. His mind then promptly froze at what he saw.
A young man wearing a cloak made to be worn in the rain, with slick black hair that reached the back of his neck and emerald eyes staring defiantly at the man holding him up by his neck. But that wasn't what had the raven stopping and staring, no. It was the purple markings identical to Orochimaru's.
Said man whipped his head to stare wildly at the Toad Sage, who didn't need any prompting as he started to explain “One of my contacts delivered that to me, about a week ago, Hanzo acquired a new prisoner, that kid in the picture. Anyone can see the resemblance, Orochi, what do we do?”
It didn't happen often, but sometimes Jiraiya reminded him why he was fond of the man. And this was one of those times.
“We need to talk to Sarutobi-sensei.”
Without even pausing, they both took off towards Hokage Tower. Orochimaru had only five minutes prior been considering an offer made to him by Danzo. With this development however, Orochimaru knew he had no choice. If he did not get this child before that man, he would be forced to work for Danzo. Which meant he had to move against the old kook and thus shut down any possibility of working his more morally gray experiments.
Somehow, that didn't seem so bad anymore. That small part of Orochimaru that craved family was ruthlessly crushing the part of the scientist that wanted to discover how to achieve immortality. If this young man, this child, was part of his extinct clan then he did not want to live longer than him, screw the cycle of rebirth.
Hiruzen looked up at the sound of hurried footsteps and suppressed his urge to jump when his door was thrown open, not by Jiraiya or even his secretary (not that she'd have the guts to do it) but Orochimaru, looking harried for once. He'd never expect this sort of disregard of manners from his star-pupil, so he knew immediately that there was something wrong. When the man hurried over and laid down a photograph in front of the old Hokage, he understood. The child held an uncanny resemblance to the man in front of him and if Hanzo had him... well, Hiruzen could understand the state his student was in.
Looking up into his student's eyes, the old Sarutobi asked “I assume you wish to retrieve him?”
Orochimaru visibly bit his cheek and nodded, which was so out of character that the Third almost had to check for a henge, but refrained. He knew his student cared for family, he'd been there for him when his parents perished, after all.
“I'd like to leave as soon as possible, before other parties find out about this and act on the information.”
Hiruzen looked sharply at his student, reading between the lines “Who?”
His student seemed to hesitate before speaking “I was... approached by an organization within the village with the option of working for them... if he gets hold of this,” he tapped the boy in the picture “person, there will be no choice.”
Hiruzen's expression darkened. It was as he'd feared, then. Danzo had actually put together Root, as he'd suggested a while ago, even though Hiruzen had explicitly told him no “I see. Very well, gather whomever you think will be useful on this retrieval mission, I shall run interference. Consider this an S-rank mission.”
The surprise on Orochimaru's face was painful to witness, but the determination and gratitude that followed warmed his heart “Hai, Hokage-sama.”
Hiruzen waved him out “Go, come back to retrieve the mission scroll before you leave. Hurry.”
With a nod, both his students turned and left in a hurry, most likely to find their third member. Whether or not they'd recruit anyone else was debatable, but the Hokage put that out of his mind as he drafted up a mission scroll with the bare bones of the mission detailed there before ranking it S-class.
He would not be the one to keep his student's family from him.
That was how the three-man-team found themselves once again in Ame, though for a completely different reason than last time. Had the situation been different, Jiraiya would've tried to convince the other two to let him search for his students. As luck would have it, though, when they were casing out Hanzo's HQ, they ran across one of them.
“Sensei?”
The three of them looked to the side where the red-haired teen stood in the shadows, his hair shadowing his eyes, but they could all see the apprehension and joy in his body-language.
“Nagato!” Jiraiya quietly exclaimed with a wide grin before waving the boy over.
The red-head did come over, eying his teacher's companions even as he let Jiraiya sling his arm over his shoulders, positioning him so that he, too, was facing the building they wished to infiltrate.
“Why are you here?” the soft-spoken teen asked, glancing towards the building he knew was Hanzo's preferred haunt.
Jiraiya was the one to speak “Well, apparently Hanzo has a prisoner that looks an awful lot like Orochimaru here.” he explained, jerking his thumb towards said teammate.
Nagato eyed them all before nodding “We heard about that too, Yahiko thought I had the most chance of finding out more... but, since you're here, couldn't Orochimaru-sama have some of his smaller summons search for this person?”
They all blinked before said snake summoner agreed “An excellent idea, we hadn't gotten that far yet.”
With that, he breezed through the hand signs and biting his thumb, summoning three small snakes that would have no trouble blending in with the shadows “I want you to investigate that building,” he started, indicating it “there should be a prisoner there that resembles me greatly, we might be related. I want you to confirm his presence.”
The snakes hissed in confirmation before rapidly slithering away to do his bidding. With this, all four sat down to wait. And if Orochimaru was visibly tense, no one pointed it out.