01: Denial
Hogo Orochimaru
Orochimaru doesn't remember until one summer afternoon, the sun burning the pale skin as he tries to expel more food than there is from his system. There's a twisted burning behind his eyes that stops the retching, and then everything is clearer than the moment he saw the world for the last time.
"Orochimaru-otōto?"
It's a girl's voice, one forgotten in the reaches of his mind, buried by time and other imperfections in the human memory.
"Tsunade-ane?"
The response rolls off his tongue like it had when he was a child, as if all the years since then had disappeared.
"Sensei said you weren't feeling well."
As much as Orochimaru knows all of this is wrong, that it's all fake, the memories, a voice, fighting viciously claiming to be just a true. He's eight, his mother cooks his favourite food on Fridays, and he's no prodigy. And then there's the reverse, something that rings just as true. He's fifty-three, his parents are dead, and he's no hero.
"I'm not," Orochimaru replied thickly, "I can't..."
He's not a monster, but the snake, the angry old thing coiled in his mind claims he is, claims it to be true.
"I'm not!"
It's a scream, a desperate attempt to fight the monster, the thing trying to steal his mind away.
"I'm not! I'm not! I'M NOT! I'M NOT A MONSTER!"
The poisonous snake can barely fight, weak and defenceless, it fades.
"Believing in a lie is easier than believing in the truth."
- Unknown
A/N: Original this was going to be an Infinite Tsukuyomi, but I wrote the second chapter. The chapters only share the idea of Time Travel in common.
somedayisours