The thudding sound of shoes proved to be louder than the talking of others in the dreary, yet spacious waiting room of the village hospital waiting room. A young child, held by her father, peered over his shoulder, gazing at a nervous man who paced back and forth. The man stopped for a short period before starting up again, long black hair flying up from his back, yellow-green eyes narrowed with agitation. How much longer was it now? He had been waiting since sun up and now it was-
Glancing at the clock he knew it was now 10:45am. Was everything okay or was something wrong? Bad thoughts flooded his mind, not knowing he just maybe wifeless of worse, fatherless. That fact alone, the fact the wife he loved and the child he helped father maybe dead at that very moment, made him break out in a cold and clammy sweat. The two swinging doors opened and a doctor wearing the village headband walked out, smiling faintly.
"She's alright... you may see her now."
The nervous man nodded slowly and followed her to the last door at the end of the corridor, the only door that was open. He peered in, finding only one light on, casting a glow on the woman sitting in the bed, gazing at the bundel in her arms. The woman glanced up, a smile playing on her pretty face, dark eyes sparkling with joy.
"Tahashi... he's so beautiful."
"Like you, Miri," Tahashi said, gazing at the fragile child, touching his face with a gental hand- a hand that had seen so much blood- and smiled. "Orochimaru."
"Hmm?" Miri questioned silently as she gazed at her husbands face, overshadowed with consentration.
"We should name him Orochimaru, after my father."
"But, you hated your father... for leaving and not taking the Hokage postion when offered those years ago."
"Yes, but still... he was my father. I can't hate him forever and I can't hate my uncle for taking that job and running his own brother out of Konoha. I will work under him, as an apprentice, and expect nothing to come of it. I wouldn't want the position anyways."
Miri gazed at her husband, seeing all the hate in his eyes. She knew that this job would only put pressure on him, just like those years ago when his father left.
Orochimaru, Tahashi's father, should have stayed. It could have changed how he was now, and maybe, their son wouldn't see the hate he had for his uncle. Because that hate spawned in his own son, Orochimaru, and it would prove to be the death of him. Miri gazed down at her son as he began to cry, noticing how his face scrunched up in anger. Miri had a sinking feeling that with the birth of this beautiful boy, his beauty would only be as far as the eye could see, and that somewhere in the small heart of his, hearing the foul words his father spoke of his uncle would spawn something evil.
Miri held the crying child close to her chest and tried to ease it's sadness, not knowing that a gentle word calmed him down. And it was true that Miri loved her son from then on, only to live a short life, a life that meant so much to this little boy.