"Orochimaru-sama. The process is complete."

That was the first words I heard coming to this world.

Moments before that I was having an experience I would liken to an acid trip through a haunted mansion decorated by H R Giger, which culminated in me eating a snake that was in the middle of eating a woman. In the process I somehow ate the woman as well.

Really messed up nightmare fuel stuff.

Now I made the assumption I was not insane, which any insane person will tell you is always a good idea, so I came to the very reasonable conclusion that I am somehow now Orochimaru. Not just that, I was him right as he had just completed his first time taking over a body after an unsuccessful attempt at possessing Itachi. I know this only because I have memory of doing these things myself, as if I was Orochimaru.

Was I making sense? Probably not. Either way, I had an entire life's worth of memories of study, training, practice, and interactions with people I have never known. Plus a whole lot of killing, bloodshed and torture. Lovely.

Though it was all that training as a magic soldier wizard that was also a scientist spy that allowed me to keep my face carefully blank as I replied to the minion that was in the room with me.

"Thank you, Hibiki-kun, you are excused." I said glancing at the man groveling before me before he finally left the room.

"Orochimaru-sama, before I go, as I'm sure you've noticed, your body is a bit different now than it was before you went to posses the subject. Would you like for me get-"

"That is not necessary. I will do my own examination." I responded.

"By your leave then." He said before backing out the door, head still bowed.

The man was clearly terrified of Orochimaru. Of me.

As the door clicked shut and I sensed the man walking away (and wasn't that wild. I could sense people now!) I ran a hand down my face and let out a groan. Of all worlds to possibly go to, this was very low on my list. The fact that the fates, the gods, or whatever the hell got me here decided that I should be shoved into the second biggest asshole in the setting wasn't great.

At least it wasn't the biggest asshole in the setting. "Guess Danzo is good for something." I mutter under my breath.

I turned to take stock of my new body. There was already a mirror set up in the room because, no joke, Orochimaru wanted to check his hair after the possession. Which made sense. No one had such long straight hair without it being something of a priority in their life. The same hair I had now, which was a bit different for me. My hair had always been wavy and would take hours with a flat iron to get anything like what my reflection showed. My skin was pale white, like albino white, and was decorated with purple lines just under my eyes. But many other things were still familiar to the old me. Same nose. Same ears. Same mole on the back of my neck even. But there were many things different. My cheekbones weren't the same. The shape of my eyes were wrong too. The list went on with most of my body features. Some the same. Some different

As I went to wonder why the answer came to me almost immediately. Whenever you place a soul into something it tries to take the shape that it's soul recognizes as it's own. It was a major principle on the Edo Tensei and also why a jinchuriki often released their biju's chakara in a shape similar to the biju itself. But in living flesh, there was a certain limit to it.

Orochimaru was already well on his way to taking over this body when I, somehow, ate his soul and took over it myself. Still giving me all of the man's knowledge and ability. His summoning tattoo was also still present and my chakra could feel the contract was still active and would respond to my call. Then there was the position. If I left the room I also knew that I would find over a hundred men and women who would kill and die at my word now.

Well at least I was still a woman? Since the man had already been in the process of taking over a woman. The same one that he had when he fought Sarutobi if I could guess right. Small comforts and all that.

A knock came at the door.

"Orochimaru-sama, I know you might still be recovering, but you asked me to immediately bring you the report when it arrived. All the test subjects have passed away and none exhibited the desired results before they passed. Should I start on the next batch of subjects?" A voice called through the door.

What was he- Oh. Orochimaru was trying to forcibly give people super healing effects and failed at it. The next batch was supposed to be all children under the age of five.

Well that shit was stopping right now.

"No. For that matter please call for a meeting among my lieutenants. We will be making some changes in light of...new information."

I felt exhausted. The back of my mind noting it was due to a large amount of chakra depletion. But due to how Orochimaru was running the show like this was the Island of Doctor Moreau, the longer I waited to make changes the more people would die. I'll have more than enough guilt and nightmares about the shit Orochimaru has already done, I didn't need the death of innocents added on to that.

I stood up and stretched before putting on Orichumaru's old clothes. They were hideous, by the way, but they would do for now. Walking out of the room there was only one thing on my mind:

Time to make some changes.

Besides, I was flipping Orochimaru. Pretty sure it wouldn't be hard to get them to go with what I decide.

-----

"So, to recap." One of my minions said, disbelief clear on his face, "You want us to stop all research that has a risk of the subject dying. You want us to stop all current missions that involve gathering more research subjects. And you also want all of our spies to take lower risk missions?" One of my head researches asked.

"Yes. That is correct." I responded.

There wasn't a murmur in the room, all of the people in the room either too well trained or too afraid of me to vocalize anything resembling disagreement. But looks were shared and a tense nervous atmosphere settled into the room.

"Um...can I ask why? My research is close to getting results."

"I have plans now. Plans that will require me to have as many people to command as possible. I need lives not to be spent on other things currently. Plus I have now had a recent...disagreement with a group of very powerful people. We need to keep a lower profile for a while." My own powers of bullshittery were already pretty strong, but Orochimaru's training added in? They were pretty powerful.

But I was trying to sell non-violence to what was basically the people running Auschwitz. I certainly couldn't get them to do it on a basis of morality, and I did want a structure here. A base of power. This world sucked, and I would be a force to help change it.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Plus pretty much everyone with power wants me dead.

So, I needed to preserve what I had, and these guys didn't seem to be very happy with this idea.

"Orochimaru-sama, I can't accept this. When I joined up with you, it was because you said I could complete my studies without any constraints, and you want to take that away when I'm so close to a breakthrough?" The man didn't yell, but the veins on his neck and face bulged with anger. Many faces around the table looked to be the same. Minus a few that seemed to affronted that he would ever question me.

I would probably have to make an example and this guy was making himself a target. But I didn't want to kill anyone. Orochimaru may have killed thousands, but I had not. Besides, this man could have his own children and fami-

Memories filtered through on how Orochimaru had found this man. His experiments had killed scores of people. The Hidden Waterfall Village was growing tired of failures and were reluctant to provide any more test subjects. So the man used his wife and son. His notes had been meticulously detailed about their deaths.

"Now, Tsukino-kun, I don't appreciate you making such a mess in my meeting room."

Confusion crossed the man's face. "Mess? I don't-"

I opened my mouth and Kusanagi's blade shot out and impaled the man in the throat before he could say anything else. He fell to the floor with a wheeze. The blade of the Kusanagi had done it's job so quickly no blood had even managed to splash onto the tool of death.

"Ara ara, causing such a mess." I said with a shrug, as if I was mother saying "Boys will be boys." Everyone else in the room had gotten deathly still. "Now then! I lost track of what we were talking about. Were any of you stating that you were going against my order too? I'm a bit tired and forgot who were on which side."

Shockingly, everyone seemed in full support of my plan now.

"Meeting dismissed then." I ordered as everyone quickly filed out of the room. Once everyone was gone I sat there and waited.

I surprised myself and didn't cry. I had thought I would cry after that. Instead I stood, walked over to Tsukino's body and carefully closed the man's wide, terrified eyes.

I didn't like killing. Even if I wouldn't cry over it, it was still distressful to me. Still felt like such a waste. But the threat of death is how Orochimaru kept these people in line, and until I could fill the ranks with people that I trusted the continued threat of death is likely the only thing that would keep them in line.

"Damn you, monster." I muttered under my breath.

Still, I'd drag this village into being more than a din of depraved monsters and mewling sycophants yet. Right after I figured how the hell to actually do that now.

----

It started with paint. I'd initially informed everyone that, since we were sending less personnel out, I had some busy work for them. Idle hands and all that. So I had gotten some white paint and had them put a fresh coat of paint on the walls. It's amazing how much a coat of paint can change the feel of a place.

It transformed the little hideout from being a gaping maw of darkness to giving off the feel of a government building. So basically only slightly better.

However, I then put in for the ceiling to be painted blue. I stated that it helps to keep people awake if the ceiling is the same shade as an open blue sky. It all seemed as a logical way to make them better at paying attention to their jobs.

I'll eventually find some nice paintings and stuff to hang up. As soon as I'm able to actually leave this pit and be confident none of my minions will start offing people.

I swear these people were like two steps away from Lord of the Flies.

"Ishida-kun. I have tasked you to research avenues of curing heart disease, did I not?"

"Yes Orochimaru-sama." He said, eyes low.

"And why exactly are you presenting me with a plan to cure heart disease that will also destroy their liver and damage brain cells?"

"I know it is incomplete, but I felt we were at the stage for human testing."

"You aren't. Continue to use the pigs that I provided."

"Ah. Um...about that. I am out of pigs."

I blinked and slowly looked up from what I had been writing on my desk. "I gave you one-hundred pigs. Last week."

"...yes Orochimaru-sama."

For fucks sake! These people didn't know how to research anything without killing something! Two weeks ago, I barely stopped a group I had tasked with studying new implementations of fire techniques on a living subject. The technique didn't even require anything beyond a wooden target!

"Get out." I ordered.

"Yes Orochimaru-Sama." He said before bowing out of the room. A few seconds later a piece of paper was pushed under the door asking if he would be getting more pigs soon.

The fact that I don't bang my head against a wall is really a compliment to my sanity.

Finding things for these people to do that didn't violate international ethical laws on even THIS world was proving to be very difficult. Most of the minion's research and desires were not the stuff of a ordered and peaceful society.

Hell, Orochimaru wasn't even PAYING these people. They were here because they were messed up enough in the head to stay or because they were too afraid to leave.

That's not even counting the various people here to fight and kill. The regular people intended to be soldiers and guinea pigs. Though those were proving easier to please. I sent them out to hunt for food and tasked their commander to treat it as an exercise in stealth. To not let anyone see them and leave no traces. Even a town person mysteriously disappearing would be considered a failure. I also started up other attempts at actual training, which is apparently something that we weren't doing before.

Sound had been just getting most soldiers to a level of "barely acceptable". Which Orochimaru KNEW made them weaker and more liable to die. He just didn't care. So I was doing the equivalent of assigning people D rank missions. Establishing working as a team being a thing that was actually important. And pretty much all of the rank and file soldiers, after the first two weeks of grumbling, seemed to be enjoying the new structured pace and feeling as if they were completing tasks.

After all, most humans want to work and not just stand around doing nothing. Even a NEET wanted to read and play games, which is a byproduct of wanting to feel like you were accomplishing something.

But I had also come to realize what it was I needed to do. I needed to make my own hidden village. I sort of had that, but I needed the village to have more strength. I needed something that could challenge one of the big villages. I needed something that's strength was acknowledged enough that I would able to call myself a Kage, a title reserved for only the five major ninja villages.

I would need to go recruiting. Hidden Villages are very competitive, and if I wanted to become a threat it would need to be rapidly enough that few people realized I was so much of a threat until I was more of a pain to take out than was worth it. More of these brainwashed edgelords here were going to help with that. I needed to take a page out of Akatsuki's playbook and recruit missing-nin. Which would, in turn, help me with raising the strength of the rest of my people as they start to train other people.

Orochimaru was grabbing up any random person with a Bloodlimit he could find before all of this anyways. So if a little work got put into them there would be a good base of power here. I just needed Jonin first.

"Orochimaru-Sama." A voice came from my door. I was so tired of hearing that. "I have come to submit for human testing." I was tired of hearing that too.

I ripped the door open and took stalk of the now very nervous woman at my door. "Kuchiki-san. I would like to clarify something. Your research is towards making plants grow faster, correct?"

"Yes Orochimaru-sama"

"Through applications of chemical and chakra treated dirt." I added on.

"Yes Orochimaru-sama."

The only thing I had demanded be approved through me for human trials was for things that had a high probability of harming someone. So rather than asking how the fuck her research would ever need human trial approval, I just strode past her and away and said, "Do not follow me."

I still had many things I wanted to check up on. Many subjects I want to help and try to actually cure instead of just study. But I was too busy stopping people from sticking a knife in a metaphorical light socket to do that. So, for the first time I decided to do something else. I navigated the purposely confusing corridors and entered a lab with a subject that could help me on my next project.

The room was full of only a giant chamber of water and various testing equipment ranging from computers (somehow) to seal arrays. A face suddenly appeared in the water, looking at me with a confused expression. I ignored him for a few moments to interact with the sealing array. In moments the chamber drained of most of it's water until only the water in the shape of a young teenager remained.

"Who are you?" he asked as he took on the colors of a normal human being.

"Ara Ara. You don't recognize the one that you begged to take you in, Suigetsu-kun?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You don't look like Orochimaru." He said with eyes locked onto my chest.

"Yes, well some things have changed."

I ignore his muttering of "Big change."

"I need your help Suigetsu-kun." I lean forward and lower my voice, as if I were whispering a secret, "What can you tell me about the personality of Momochi Zabuza?"

-----