Non omnis moriar. And now I know that I don't know how to wish for worse, anymore. I also know that, when a God punishes you, He realizes you dirtier desires. And in that swish of wings, above - that there isn't an Angel, I know. But I, fighting, have gained you - and there is nothing else that I'll ever want.

A ray of light, cutting like a razor, first tried to and then failed in blowing a man's head off his neck.
The blade bent and lost its edge perfection, and then it returned a normal sword in a hand that sheathed it back.
The hand's owner said, "The light betrays me…"
The other man, adjusting his perfectly straight hair, answered:
"Today you're almost distracted. You are thinking about something. I don't know what –"
He disappeared –
"I don't give a damn. Stop. I'm here!"
He said, reappearing in another place near the armed one.
The guy managed to avoid the attack; however, he did it in the last moment.
He then stepped back and attacked the other himself.
"Ok, I must admit it. I'm thinking…"
The other dodged his blow, grabbed the sword's last end with his left hand and threw it away, on the ground.
"Huh".
His face meant 'Still you don't get that I don't give a fuck?'
The younger attacked him bare handed, kicking his legs and in the same time trying to get his throat.
He swept lower, near the ground, and ended up standing behind him.
"Snakes never fall, my dear…"
The younger repeated the attack, and this time he managed to take one of the other's feet out of position, and see him nearly sitting down;
But the man pointed on the other foot, bent the knee, put a hand on the ground and kicked him with the free leg, the right one, in the stomach.
"And when they fall, they do it right".
He laughed, a short laugh all in 'ku' (like a pidgeon), and moved swiftly to end up before the boy, looking straight in his eyes.
The boy looked still thoughtful, while (with a foot) he picked up his sword.
The man lowered his face nearer to the boy's eyes, and waited;
It seemed that he had, in the end, to listen to the 'child' whims.
"What's up, then?"
It was the boy's turn to laugh.
"I saw" turning suddenly serious "that young boy in the cellar"
The other, loudly and angrily "...'CELLAR'…"
"I saw you're quite interested in him. Some privilege, hereabout. Since I noticed you're spending more time in that cellar than with"
He tried to attack him with the sword, but the man blocked his hand and moved the head even nearer;
(His face said 'WHAT A PAAAALL…');
The boy, still seriously: "Me".
The man burst out laughing. "You're jealous?"
"I … but … you wish!" "HAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
Wait. A normal laugh on his side?
"You're jealous, face it. Oh, guy, I'm glad. This is the first time that someone is jealous of my attention"
"Not that. Time. We've got – I'VE GOT" (whims) "less time to train. And then, you're always tired…"
"I'm really not that healthy. That's why I'm looking after that guy; I need some of his cells."
"Got it. Go on?"
The man left him, stepped back, disappeared, reappeared in another place and attacked him.
While moving, he laughed in 'ku' again and said:
"You know, we could even train at night, to use all our time!"
The guy laughed again:
"No, wait, that's too much! You distract me!"
The man looked surprised –
"YOU – distracted? So it really upsets you!"
He stopped and stared for a whole minute at him, he smiled, disappeared and reappeared before him – he grabbed his face and kissed him.
Who stood still – not moving for some moments.
Then – since it was so, he decided to grab the chance – what wrong could come out of it?
He kissed him back.
Well, the man thought like a snake –
Look under each and every stone, there will always be something useful:
So he just caught the chance, exactly what the boy himself did – he, the hawk:
Predator. 'All preys are good enough for me. *All preys are belong to me.
Whatever I can have, to myself, it's worth getting it.
And, by the way, I don't give a fuck about hetero/homosexual to be, I just can say that he attracts me – it's normal.
He's a snake. He IS beautiful – and attractive – Magnetic.
I know, everybody always saw me cool' –
And what the man saw was a clean neat little cold black spot, like an eye's pupil; where the eye was he, Orochimaru.
His PUPIL – not PUPPY.
He left the boy's face and said:
"This will end up blowing up my plans. I can't reincarnate in your body if I want it with mine"
The boy didn't blush.
He was himself: way too cold to stand a warm-blooded person near, with all its needs for care and thinking, as if she wouldn't let HIM think of Himself; what this man surely would do.
Way too cold for a normal, warm-blooded person; perfectly what this man needed.
This man: perfectly what HE needed.
"That's what destiny is? If I didn't talk…"
The man answered: "I'd never catch it myself…" and kissed him again.
"You're going to kill Itachi and then come back to me then? You're going to stay?"
What? Sasuke was baffled. How could – HE – care for someone else?

Of course the boy was too young and too pussy to count a little 'Mind Theory' in his interests, OTHER'S MIND Theory, we mean.
We can quite easily see, that what moved Orochimaru in doing all those things was what we call 'Insecure Attachment Syndrome';
The snake itself is the one able to live without relationships, without needing them –
Because the human Orochimaru already knew that all relationships must end –
They will end; the other WILL go away;
That's something you two have no control over;
And it hurts so badly when the other goes away.
You know, and you're right;
There isn't a way to cure it, if you're intelligent enough to not let the truth you know be replaced with lies ('it will be alright').
The malediction of the intelligent people is the stupid ones they got around.
When you're more intelligent than the others, you only see the others fail, and fail, and fail again;
You can't trust anyone else than you.
It will all fail, with them, since they fail everything.
So, in order to protect himself from the pain –
The only relationship Orochimaru wanted to establish was the physically possessive/ psychologically dependant relationship – the one he had with Kabuto.
The only relationship which is totally under your control, so it can't break up if you didn't – FORESEE – it.
But as a foetus waiting to be brought to life – he only was waiting for the good chance –
And the good chance, in this state of things, could only be a cold-blooded careless independent murderer like him.
Like Sasuke.
Sasuke was the person that Orochimaru WANTED to be near him, next to him, WITH him, when things happened.
Cold-blooded minds never ask why.
They just check if the thing is alright, and then accept or refuse to do/have/be it.
So, once he checked it, he saw it was alright, and – accepted – it.
The same thing Sasuke did.
He was left blank staring at the other:
"I…stay… OH, YES!" He embraced him.
"But it's something we must have control over, right? Under hand. No higher".
Orochimaru laughed again.
Eventually, Sasuke blushed.
"But…you…I…let's go on training!"

Of course, the two of them thought separately and thoroughly of the subject.
Sasuke decided to see where this was going to end, but he had always 'to keep in mind'– he said to himself – that Orochimaru was 'like a snake; he could always lie about anything'.
Orochimaru himself thought that Sasuke was 'like a little parasite, more a vulture than a hawk'.
He would take all he needed, and then go away.
'I'll compensate his greed', thought the snake-like man, 'with breaking his heart. Couldn't I – make him being dependent on me – and then deceive him? Or lose interest in him? At least, then … oh, I didn't think of this. I can simply take out the best from him as long as I 'train' him, kills Itachi or not, and then reincarnate the same in him'.
That's what a snake thinks.
So, we have the certain proof that, as usual, Sissy was the straight pussy don't-understand-anything we could picture him to be before.
And he was going to get used – were they the only two interferer agents in material world things.
They weren't, we know.
They knew of course – you're cold-blooded since you ALWAYS perceive perfectly the actual truth.
Perfectly means completely – and only it, nothing else – purely, cleanly – the 'clear mind'.
It took some days for Orochimaru to picture the fact that they could EVEN have something else than kisses.
The 'age difference' problem was easily solved by Sasuke –
He simply turned his body into an elder boy's one – around 19.
Orochimaru appreciated the matter.
He was – of course – more beautiful; and he didn't feel the quite creepy sensation of being such a vicious bastard, who touches a teenager, being him about 50.
However, even after it, the physical side of their partnership took days to get figured out by him.
Cold blood had carved its way in his veins, freezing him almost dead-like – or well, stone-like.
It's just like the 'stream of consciousness' crystallized into diamond, a 'forgetting himself to marble' revised and improved in real life.
'Forgetting himself to marble' has been said of a great poet, who wrote the fall of angels and men and later the regaining of paradise; he wrote to 'justify the ways of God to men'.
In this case, the citation grows to metaphor of Orochimaru's case.
And his Eve, the Sasuke who still wasn't cold enough, yet, to forget physical impulses and needs of living beings, listened to the snake and called upon Adam (the man), but to regain the paradise lost of 'happiness' and take control over the Snake being.
And we write, to say, to justify the ways of hands via providing ground of data processing ways in the hand's rulers: brains.
Justifying the ways of brain, we justify the paths of hands, which – Maggie – like actions, 'will be your destiny'.
As we can easily predict, the relationship grew roots, grew higher and deeper and more powerful, strong, involving the two ones' minds almost completely – even releasing a spark in that dead place – the one the warm-blooded have as a fire, whom they call 'heart'.
The attention, the caring, not these 'cowards'-like things: the mind.
The thought.
Each one of the partners fulfilled the other's mind, was his only interface, his only peer, his only mate; psychologically, more than a relationship this was a symbiosis.
They poured each one's mind into the other's, they were always looking for another way – not to know each other, they already completely did – but to SHARE each other, to build a unique, common, shared mind.
They even quite managed to – they became so similar, that sometimes Kabuto talked with Sasuke and forgot he was not Orochimaru.
He would think of a mental possession of Sasuke from Orochimaru's mind, hadn't he clearly seen that Orochimaru himself did CHANGE – some things became the same as Sasuke's.
Some voice tones, some facial expressions, some gestures, even the posture – when he stood up, he did it like Sasuke, legs a bit spread, the back straightened, neck and shoulders contracted, head held high; not like he did before, the shoulders always relaxed and legs kept together, and the head always a bit lowered.
Of course Orochimaru avoided transforming himself into a giant horrible snake when he was with Sasuke, he always kept his human appearance - moreover, the one that Sasuke liked over everything else.
Sometimes – Kabuto laughed if he thought of that – Sasuke, while they were eating, talking, even training, stopped and stared for whole minutes at Orochimaru's face.
The same did Orochimaru; so, sometimes they were both still, frozen, silent, looking at each other – as they were drinking from a waterfall.
They actually ATE each other's data.
They were impressive; but for once, this was – not only sweet, beautiful, good-looking – this was, okay, good.
Good.
On Orochimaru's side – the good?
Could it really be that Sasuke was able to bring him home again, in the picture, to normality, to a normal life?
Sasuke himself looked stronger.
More faithful, happier, like everything was easier – in the last month he never said the word 'Itachi'.

Then Orochimaru put out the subject, saying "What will you do in the end?" after a quarter of hour of pure silence.
Of course, being them, Sasuke knew perfectly what he was thinking about.
"I think it's better to wait" he answered "I'm still not strong enough. I have to survive, you know…"
And the two of them laughed, while Kabuto, simply, smiled.
He always had to be careful; they could start quarrelling at any time.
And when they did it was really creepy for him;
If he stayed on Orochimaru's side, Sasuke would attack the two of them;
If he stayed on Sasuke's side, Orochimaru would get angry with him and treat him badly for days;
If he stood against Sasuke, Orochimaru would defend him – even if HE thought he was wrong –
And of course he never stood against Orochimaru.
But they didn't let him stay out of the quarrel; each one wanted him on his side to show the other he was wrong.
They never quarrelled on important things; moreover, they never quarrelled about THEMSELVES.
They were always fighting for the truth on subjects like "if DNA was implanted" or "if that weapon goes" or "if we attack it from this side".
It all ended up in bed, to be honest, like all of their nights.
Yes, we know Sasuke was far too young.
He knew too.
However, Orochimaru knew 'jailbaits' enough – he was a slaughterer…
The Orochimaru/Sasuke thing began to spread out in some way.
Someone simply noticed some – hem, behaviours – on Orochimaru's side (Sasuke never left their place) or it was even Orochimaru himself to talk too much, when he met Kakashi in one of his tours around Konoha.
However, the news spread.
And someone wasn't really happy of it – Naruto first… how could he expect – moreover, he still wanted to bring Sasuke back, but in this case – and with their own premises – okaay, 'best friend' but that kiss as they were kids…and couldn't someone cheat around it?
Luckily, Kakashi managed to shut up the whole thing, while:
'These were only "mere rumors" and -
No one should "believe such an absurd thing" -
Of course Akatsuki was trying to "take Sasuke away from Orochimaru, spreading the rumor that he cheats on Sasuke in such a way".
End of discussion.'
Okay, but Naruto still knew it. And he couldn't accept properly this – OROCHIMARU?

There was another person who didn't really like the state of facts.
It was Itachi.
He had managed to take out a lot of information from Kabuto, in a slight racket – "that's my brother; if I tell someone something I know about someone … like how Orochimaru could be easily erased … that's because you didn't tell ME everything about THIS".
He had the proof that Orochimaru himself wasn't just using his brother for amusement; he cared for him (at least).
But Itachi didn't give a fuck about it.
Loving him or not, his little brother SHOULDN'T simply even PICTURE being approached by a male being.
Moreover, Orochimaru was the less trustable person over the earth.
Itachi decided to move the Akatsuki definitely against Orochimaru, but to do it with surprise effect; and when it was done, it should strike thoroughly.
They were going to erase Orochimaru, none of his cells had to survive; this would have meant rebirth, for someone like him.
One final great stroke.
That was what they needed against him.
So he reached Kakashi and had a talk about the whole thing.
"You could even be freed from the reward on your head, if you help us killing him".
"I quite know. I'd like to come back, of course I won't be allowed to, but I'd like. That's a risk, however, that Sasuke kills me after we kill Orochimaru. If this is the case, let him do it, be quiet. That's what I always wanted".
Kakashi agreed.
After all, he didn't know anything about those brothers' case, nor was he interested in it, until it had something to do with the Leaf Village now.
They put down a plan, then gathered information, then checked up their allies and soldiers, then gave birth to a strategy; more or less ten Leaf Village shinobis were involved, with the whole Akatsuki.
In the last moment, Itachi ended up telling Kakashi that 'great secret' about Orochimaru.
The great secret was: try to kill Sasuke,
"I'll do it.
Orochimaru will be cut in two between the urge to protect him and the cold-blooded math of 'ME'.
I'll keep an eye on Sasuke; if you attack Orochimaru, for ten minutes, constantly and all together, his mind won't be able to react to all the blows.
You'll finally get him down if someone uses the BlackHole technique; I can trigger Sasuke to do the Chidori on me, then you can catch it and blow it up with the white chakra – we need the Jinchuuriki, the Kyuubi's chakra here.
The BlackHole's chakra mass must crumble in itself and implode in perfect time – we'll use some tricks to stand it.
And if we wrong for seconds – I have the Izanami. I'll fix it"
Kakashi stared at him and answered:
"Why didn't you use it before? Weren't you of the Akatsuki already against Orochimaru?"
"No. You wronged it, at all. We were trying to use him, as he did with us".
"I didn't think the Akatsuki could be more cold-blooded than Orochimaru"
"At least he is a snake, a living thing. Not weather" he had no expression, like always.
Kakashi didn't answer, he just thought a little about what he said.
Who was less reliable?
Uchiha versus Orochimaru?
We'd just say – Frenchcore.
If you really wish to picture the following battle thoroughly, since we won't describe it, just put on a good Frenchcore track and imagine following these basic principles: Orochimaru is the high sharp notes, Itachi the bass, the Leaf Shinobi are the rhythmic pounding and the voices are Naruto and Sasuke.
You can picture the BlackHole as the ear-cutting blast that surely will come out in some moment.
The end of the battle was predictable; Orochimaru shielded Sasuke with his body (one of his bodies, alright) and ended up being caught by the BlackHole (antimatter, after all) who deleted his atoms into nothing.
Forgetting himself to nothing.
Sasuke was completely upset, he of course tried to go after Itachi, whom Kakashi ordered to disappear.
Itachi did, we'll see why, in the end: the certain thing, for the moment, is that he disappeared. Or well, escaped.
Orochimaru's reasons for not defending himself were simple:
'Let Sasuke have a real, normal life.
Get out of his picture'.
The truth was that even Itachi relied on this will of his:
The truth was that Orochimaru LET them kill him, for the reason stated before.
That Sasuke could have a full beautiful life. Maybe even with 'his' – Jinchuuriki.
'C'mon, I've suffered enough.
Leave this world to the ones who deserve it'.
Good kills evil, you know.