Naruto: I Became Orochimaru's Apprentice

"May I leave now? Master Orochimaru." Teriyaki looked up with puppy-dog eyes.

"Your jutsu knowledge is still quite weak, I realize. You also look quite similar to me so you could be targeted if you went outside."

Teriyaki looked at his reflection in the glass of a test tube, it was true this body held several resemblances to Orochimaru. From the hair to the pale skin.

"However, if you know how to wield a kunai you should at least be able to defeat Chuunins and maybe even Jonin's after I give you that."

"That?" Asked Teriyaki

"You will learn later, first fight Kabuto here. I want to see if you are good with a kunai, it is required to have at least an intermeditate skill level considering your opponents will be well versed in fighting with kunais."

The Duel Begins

The cold training room stinks of sweat, blood, and damp stone. Orochimaru stands high above, perched like a serpent on a ledge, eyes glowing with amusement.

"Fight him, but just use your kunai and your hands," Orochimaru purrs."I want to see if he is naturally gifted for combat, or just another failure."

Kabuto steps forward, rolling his shoulder, a kunai already spinning between his fingers."If you're a ninja, you should at least know how to hold a blade. Come on Teriyaki, this is all being done so you can go outside."

Teriyaki gulps. He had never held a weapon other than cutlery. His hands had only been used for chakra transfer and weird jutsu — not stabbing people. But he was cornered, he needed to prove he was adept to Orochimaru.

Teriyaki held onto a Kunai, his grip awkward.

His fingers fumbled over the kunai handle. Too tight. Wrist locked. Orochimaru sighs audibly.

"You're holding it like a kitchen knife. Think, how should you hold it if you want to kill someone."

Kabuto wastes no time. He rushes in, low and fast, a kunai in each hand. There is no longer a smile on his face.

The first exchange is brutal.

Kabuto's kunai knocks Teriyaki's aside with ease. Kabuto's footwork is surgical, stepping inside Teriyaki's guard immediately.Palm strike to the jaw. Knee to the stomach. His kunai handle cracks against Teriyaki's wrist. 

Even though Teriyaki's body twists to the side, with immense flexibility, he's injured and taken out immideatly.

Teriyaki's kunai clatters to the floor. His lip splits, blood on his tongue. Kabuto barely looks winded.

"Keep going, I know you aren't done yet." Kabuto muttered, in each of his hands he was spinning a kunai.

Panicking, Teriyaki grabs a second kunai off the ground — reverse grip this time. It's awkward, but he swings wildly at Kabuto's shoulder.

Kabuto catches his wrist mid-swing."Too slow, too obvious. You have been modified with snake-like flexibility, yet all your attacks are readable."

He twists Teriyaki's wrist. Teriyaki's wrist pops and the kunai drops again.

Wheezing in pain, Teriyaki looks up hatefully. For a first time experience, neither Kabuto nor Orochimaru were being particuarly thoughtful.

Kabuto looms over, pointing his Kunai at Teriyaki's neck.

"If this was a real fight, you'd already be dead, you need to fight with both your mind and body. Not one or the other."

Desperate, Teriyaki lunges, trying to wrap around Kabuto like a snake and bite him if necessary. His flexibility lets him twist like a snake—but Kabuto sees it coming.

Kabuto slammed his knee into Teriyaki's ribs hard enough to lift him off the floor.Teriyaki crumpled to the ground, wheezing. Kabuto's kunai tip tapped the back of Teriyaki's neck and Teriyaki instantly knew he had lost.

"This is over. I'll heal you now."

Orochimaru sighs loudly."Pathetic. No instinct for killing, no proper form. Just flailing, if you were brought up like me, you wouldn't have passed the acedemy."He waves his hand."Take him away. Give him three months. If he still can't fight properly, I'll just dissect him for parts. By then 6 months should have passed since I gave him the deal, if he can't fulfill my standards by then he'll become a real test subject."

Time Skip — 3 Months Later

Every morning was the same. Orochimaru introduced a few sound genin for Teriyaki to spar against since Kabuto was clearly out of his league.

"By duelling those more near your level, you should be able to spot mistakes and techniques more easily."

Although the sound genin had been laughably weak when he had read the manga, they were like monsters in real life. Faster than him, stronger than him and worst of all far more adept in battle than him. Which led to constant defeats as they fought with kunais.

Basic kunai drills. Grip, guard, stance. Sparring against weak Sound Genin, losing constantly. Forced to do pushups and grip training until his fingers bleed.No fancy tricks. No Snake Clones. No weird chakra gimmicks, Orochimaru expected him to give Kabuto a run for his money.

Just him, a kunai, and the brutal reality of hand-to-hand combat.

Teriyaki was still clumsy, but now:

He knew where to hold a kunai for balance.His stance is lower, more stable.His strikes aren't fast, but they aim for weak points (joints, ribs, neck).He's learned to block instead of just dodge. His footwork is less panicked, more intentional, and he's better at using his flexibility to his advantage.

For the first time, Teriyaki was starting to understand:"If I can't fight, I train. If I am too weak, I need to do anything for power, that's the only way people like Orochimaru can keep up with the verse."

The 3 month period was up.

Teriyaki stood in the same training hall. His knuckles were wrapped. A kunai sat in his hand — not shaking this time or in an awkward grip.

He was still a frail 8 year old Child, but now one that knew how to use a kunai efficiently. His mind went back to when he had sparred some sound-genin.

"You're pretty good for someone so young, especially because of how flexibile you are. It's creepy..." A sound genin had said after beating him down for the fifth time.

And in the meantime of all the training and sparring, he still had to keep practicing his snake clones, his chakra control, his other jutsus and most importantly his studying of biology, Orochimaru's biology.

Since he was so busy practicing sparring, he had only learnt one additional jutsu in the 3 month period. A water jutsu. (Mizudeppō no Jutsu) Water Gun technique. If he held his hand out like a gun and compressed the chakra to produce a tiny but powerful water pellet, he could blast it off with enough strength to pierce through a sand clone.

Orochimaru had laughed whilst giving him the manual, saying the people he had stole it from were a mardy bunch.

Teriyaki recalled when he blasted a sound genin in the face with it, leaving them sore and red for days after.

Nevertheless, the time had come for him to go against Kabuto once more.

The stone floor felt cold under Teriyaki's feet. He was back in Orochimaru's training chamber, this time he wasn't against a sound genin, but his senior Kabuto. Kabuto stood across from him, relaxed but watchful, a kunai already held in a casual reverse grip. His glasses reflected the torchlight.

Orochimaru watched from above again, his face unreadable.

"Begin," Orichimaru commanded.