Finding a mother for his child was probably the biggest challenge Orochimaru had undertaken in quite some time.

For the first ten years of Mitsuki's life, he'd been content being a single parent. Mitsuki was his pride and joy, his greatest creation. Why add anyone else to their carefully built life? Especially when a large portion of the shinobi world still saw him as a monster. Even amongst his peers, Mitsuki was bombarded with invasive questions about his home life. Or parents side-eyed them at school events whilst whispering. Orochimaru knew what they were saying. And now Mitsuki was old enough to understand what they were saying.

But then he spotted you.

You were the assistant teacher, mainly acting as another warm body to keep the kids in line. But you were intelligent and warm. You had been Mitsuki's partner at an end of the school year event after none of the kids would stand next to him. It was clear that Mitsuki really liked you and that you cared for him. To you, Mitsuki was not the artificially created child of a former monster. In your eyes, he was simply another child that just had a hard time in groups.

It took a few months of casual conversation and "running into" each other around Konoha. But eventually you asked him out. And now you were sitting boxes down as you slowly finished moving out of Konoha and into Orochimaru's isolated home. He'd considered living in Konoha again after Mitsuki had been created, but figured it was safer to stay away.

But now you were here to make it a little brighter.