Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who's the fairest of them all?
The hotel bathroom is painted dark shades of blue and gray, with no windows to let in any light. The mirror is dingy and I don't even want to know how long it's been since someone washed the sink.
Suigetsu and Juugo and Sasuke-kun are in the next room. I can hear Suigetsu's loud voice rising over Juugo's milder tones; no hint of Sasuke's voice makes itself heard.
I've always hated looking into mirrors. The many layers of my personality can be hidden when others look at me, because they only see one side of me. They see my messy-straight hair, my red eyes, my scars, my obsession with Sasuke-kun, but they never see anything but that.
Mirror, mirror, with eyes that see,
Do you see what's inside of me?
Anyone who's worked for Orochimaru for any length of time is going to be a bit…fractured. You could say I embody that. I am both sane and insane, and the people on the outside don't have the sense to know that the two can exist side by side.
I hide in my masks. I cloak my true face in fractured facets and never let anyone see what's down in my core. I lived in the same building with the Snake Sannin long enough to grow two entirely separate psyches (because that's just the sort of effect Orochimaru has on his subordinates), and I don't want anyone to know.
But the mirror shows me what I really am. I see my pale, drawn face, tired, heavy eyes and pallid skin, and I know that I will never be able to run away and I will never be able to keep up any sort of successful veneer, no matter what it may be.
Not crazy.
Not sane.
Not whole.
Not beautiful, not pretty, not normal in any way, shape or form. Not nearly as strong as I pretend to be.
Just small.
Just desperate.
Just human.
Just scarred.
Just fractured.
Just Karin.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who's the fairest of them all?
Definitely not me.