"Orochimaru sama....." Kabuto hesitated by the doorway, peering into the darkened room. "What....are you doing, sir?"
"Leave, Kabuto. I want to be alone right now." Kabuto couldn't find the source of the voice in the gloom, straining his eyes as he looked.
"But, sir---"
"KABUTO. Go."
Kabuto stiffened, and whirled around, speed walking away from the room.
Orochimaru listened to the fading footsteps before his eyes fell back on the picture in his lap.
Red and black cloaks covered their bodies. A hyperactive blonde clinging to a bored red haired kid, a silver haired man fighting with a masked one, a plant man eating someone's leg.
The gold eyes fell on the man in the front row. Auburn hair, silver piercings, cocky smile. A blue haired woman clung to his arm, laughing.
"Always, Pein...." Orochimaru hissed, gripping the frame tightly. "Always, you picked her over me." His hand was shaking as he spoke.
Silence fell for a moment.
"It's almost that time again." Orochimaru's voice was soft as he spoke. "It's almost the anniversary of the day I left Akatsuki."
He studied the picture again. "Do you know why I left, Pein?"
The picture made no reply.
"It was because I was so sick of seeing you with.....with her. I can't see what the hell you like about that woman!"
His teeth bared in a silent snarl. "You never noticed me, because she was always in the way. Isn't that just how life goes, Pein?"
He smiled briefly, leaning his head back until it was resting on the wall. "That's how it always goes. The people you want to have notice you never seem to do, and the people you wish you never met hang on you like ticks."
The snake man snorted. "I wish I could forget about Akatsuki. Those memories are annoying...." he paused for a moment, before whispering again. "And they're painful." Orochimaru fell silent again, lost in his thoughts.
"I don't want to forget," he said quietly. "But I do." Sighing, he dropped the picture, face down, to the floor and stood up, popping his neck as he did so.
"And every day, those memories cut deeper than a knife," Orochimaru whispered. "Even with new playthings...."
"Pein, honey.....why do you still hold onto that old picture?" Konan asked, trying to pry the old frame out of Pein's hands.
He shooed her away, eyes still on the picture. "Konan, it's from the beginning of Akatsuki. It's....special."
She snorted as she went back to the table, picking up one piece from her stack of paper. "Special, yeah right. You're not sentimental, you don't care about those things....so tell me the truth. Why are you keeping it?"
Pein didn't respond for a long moment. Finally, he sighed as he set the picture down on his desk. "Konan....someday, I'll tell you. But not today. I have to go get cost estimates for the bathroom repair from Kakuzu."
With that, he walked swiftly towards the door, leaving the forever silent, forever motionless faces from the old picture staring after him.
Golden, snake like eyes that Pein had always been drawn to followed him around the room, and `even as the other people, in the old photo, went back to their glassy eyed smiles, the snake's eyes were forever watchful.
And forever lonely.
Author's Comments: ~Jashin-chan's request for winning second place in the contest. SHe wanted PeinOro, I am writing PeinOro, and I am going to go slam my head into a tree.
this is going to have AT LEAST five parts, so....yeah.
AND THIS PROVES I CAN WRITE CRACK! Just very bad crack....