The scrape on their arm wasn't in dire need of medical care, nothing the trained eight year old couldnāt patch up themself. A small training blunder. Yet they found their way back to Hiruzen's home for it to be nursed by the man. Any reason to not go home to their lonesome abode, having hated the empty apartment since it was given to them when their parents passed. It is while they are sitting on his couch that the orphan poses their question,āwhy canāt I just live with you Sensei?" //Hiruzen
It was always a difficult thing, when a young childās parents passed. Hiruzen hated being the one to have to decide what to do with the child. There was the option to stick the child in the orphanage, where the child would be crowded with a bunch of other lonely children with too many needs to fulfill, where hierarchies and bullies would be created, where Hiruzen would hire surrogateĀ āmothersā orĀ āfathersā to care for the children, a job very few people wanted. But the fact of matter was, the Konoha Orphanage was overcrowded. He couldnāt put every orphan into the orphanage without it getting overrun. So the capable children, generally shinobi children, who Hiruzen thought could fend for themselves, or who Hiruzen thought wouldnāt do well in an orphange, usually were forced, to his regret, to fend for themselves. There was just no other good option.
Such was the case here. Orochimaru, Hiruzen knew, would be able to fend for themself. Orochimaru, Hiruzen knew (or thought he knew), wouldnāt do well in an orphanage. They would either turn into a bully or be bullied. Maybe both. And the chances (and Orochimaruās desire) for adoption were slim to none. So the only option was to stick Orochimaru in a random apartment.
When Hiruzen talked about the difficult decisions a hokage had to make, this was one of them. Orochimaru, being one of his students, was someone he had more responsibility for. So when the child showed up at his home with an injured arm, Hiruzen let them inside.
It was obvious this was something Orochimaru could fix on their own, which meant Orochimaru was just feeling the naturally childlike need to be cared for. Not being the type to be overly... affectionate, Hiruzen could only nod and lead Orochimaru to the couch, quickly healing the wound.
It was then Orochimaru posed the question. Hiruzen winced slightly. Indeed.Ā āWell,ā he began,Ā āthat would be unfair to Jiraiya, wouldnāt it?ā His first response, and then he realized Orochimaru would possibly just ask why Hiruzen couldnāt just adopt both of them.Ā āAlso, that would possibly cross the sensei-student boundary, Orochimaru.ā Did he just make that up? Probably.
