Hey, it's the one and only Abby K again, bringing you another of my too-long-to-be-a-oneshot-but-isn't-really-anything-else-so-deal-with-it fics. I wrote this a while ago, and back then it was only a collection of ideas molded into paragraphs in a haphazard matter. Now its has been molded into….this. A fic were Orochimaru isn't a heartless bastard. Shocking, isn't it? Hey, I like his character, and I've found it isn't a good idea to question the muse. You have been warned. Now please read.
The Demons We Become
I haven't changed much over the years, not like you have. You've become strong, so very strong. You've found a way to rationalize your existence.
I have not changed. I am what I have always been, and always will be: cold, distant, and lusting after power, the sweet venom that is never enough to suit my cravings.
Tsunade, no, you're Godaime-sama now, you've become the fifth Hokage. You hold the title I once wished for above all, the one thing in the world I could not possess. I wanted it once, but now? No, I do not want it now.
I though of you as a sister, when we were the Legendary Three, Konoha's pride, Konoha's greatest achievement. The three of us, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and myself. The slug, the toad, and the snake. We were like siblings then, the family I never had.
That was a long time ago.
We drifted apart, Tsunade with your grief, Jiraiya, well, I never really knew what you took when you left, and me with my ambitions.
Many years have passed, and the two of them have changed in so many ways.
Tsunade, the one I called comrade, friend, sister. You betrayed me, tried to kill me. If you had been another, I would have expected it, I would have seen it coming. But I did not see it coming from you, old friend. I did not lie, when I said I would bring your brother and your lover back to life. I did not lie, but you betrayed me nonetheless.It hurts, like I never thought it could, this betrayal of yours. It hurts, for I would never have betrayed you, or Jiraiya. I could never have betrayed you two. Because comrades never betray each other. Comrades may drift away on the current of life, the loyalty they once shared all but forgotten, but they would never betray each other.
I thought that once, but now? No. You have proven where your loyalties lie, Godaime-sama. Never will I make the same mistake again. Never.
Jiraiya, how cold you've become. I wonder what happened to the boy you used to be, the one who would pester me about not having any girlfriends. You're so heartless now, a true killer, like me.
On the outside, you're the same. The same annoying, white-haired boy who spied on Tsunade when she changed, the same boy I thought of as a brother, if an irritating one.
But on the inside, you've become something different. Something like me. It saddens me, to see my brother-in-arms turn into something like me. I didn't what that for you, for Tsunade. I tried to shield you both from it, but I couldn't.
In time, we become what we were always meant to be. We are shinobi. We are the Legendary Three. We are killers.
It took time for that to sink in for you two, but not for me. I always knew what I was, what I would always be.
We fought, and the two of you tried to kill me. As I tried to kill you. Comrades, fighting comrades. Siblings, fighting siblings. Always going for the deathblow, no hesitation, like we were taught.
Like our namesakes, we have become monsters, weapons with no masters but ourselves.
The demons we become, are they really us? Can it really be us?
Yes.
You see, my comrades, I was always a demon, a monster. You became demons as the years pasted us by. You have changed, I have not.
Though you must loathe me, I do not hate you. Even as you changed, I can still see who you once were.
So hate me as you must, old friends, but know in turn that I will never hate you.
Know, that I will kill you, if I must, just as you will me.
Know, that I will destroy you, if I must, just as you will me.
So hunt me and hate me, my dear comrades, my old friends, and in the end, kill me or be killed by me.
Demons we have become, demons we will be forevermore, and demons we will die.
Demons we may be but, in the end, we were once comrades. We were once friends.
For that, I thank you.
Goodbye, my fellow demons. Good hunting, better killing.
Tsunade rolled the scroll up; retying the red cord. She sighed, panning her eyes over the ruins of the Sound outpost ANBU had raided, killing all the shinobi who thought to fight rather than flee. ANBU had slaughtered them, on her orders, down to the last. Unbidden, she thought of Dan, and wondered if he would have done the same, if he had lived and come to hold the title of Hokage, the title she now laid claim to. She shook her thick blond hair, horsetails whipping round her face. It mattered not; the dead piled in the corner of the room she stood in were enemies of the Leaf, of Konoha, the village she had loved, hated, and learned to love again. The Hokage existed to protect, defend, and die for Konoha. She would do what she needed to do, for the protection of the Hidden Leaf.
The scroll had been found in the chunin vest of one of the dead Sound-nin, written in precise, deliberate kanji. Tsunade could recognize Orochimaru's handwriting anywhere, so much cleaner than her own. It was not addressed.
The Godaime Hokage wondered if the scroll would have found its way to Jiraiya or herself, had ANBU not ended the life of its carrier. Maybe, maybe not, but that didn't matter now, did it? There was no point on dwelling on the what-ifs when reality beckoned.
She wondered what, if anything, she should do about the scroll, or, more importantly, its contents.
"Hokage-sama?" a masked ANBU asked, stance wary. They were in the outpost of the enemy, after all, even if the enemy was dead. He wasn't worried about the Godaime; she could hold her own against anything thrown against her, barring hangovers, of course, but if the Hokage was wounded or otherwise marked in his presence, the others would never let him live it down. A truly dreary prospect.
She turned to face her cat-masked subordinate, face unreadable. She tossed the scroll up in the air suddenly, and began forming hand-seals.
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu," she hissed, spitting out a large fireball. The scroll didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of withstanding the signature technique of the Uchiha clan. Not even ashes remained when she was finished.
"Lets go," she said brusquely, brushing some non-existent dirt off her green coat as she moved towards the exit.
The ANBU nodded, stealing a glance back into the scorched room, wondering what had been on the scroll. He wouldn't ask, though. He was ANBU; it wasn't his place to know why.
Ahead of the ANBU in the cat mask, Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in Leaves, walked away from a former outpost of Sound village, her pretty face unreadable.
Please let me know what your opinion on this fic is by pushing the small button with the word review on it. If you hate it, fine, but I find flames to be useless things which take up too much space. However, if you truly think this fic is deserving of a flame, then by all means indulge yourself, and I will find time to in turn insult your horrible spelling and grammar and make you look like a total fool. If I cannot accomplish this feat on my own, then I will call upon the skills of one of my friends, and believe me, they know how to insult each and every person they deem to deserve one. You've been warned.