A/N: Not for any challenge, written on a whim. Orochimaru-centric.
Symbolism:
He was outside, watching one of the small ponds near his laboratory. There was a frog being devoured by a snake near the water's edge. The irony was not lost on him, but not a sound escaped his cold lips. His hands, bandaged and useless, hung limply beside him, driving him insane with his sudden vulnerability.
He concentrated, putting all of his energy into clenching his fist. Nothing. He cursed mentally, slinking into a sitting position on a large boulder. He closed his eyes, but then again, they weren't his, in a sense. He could sense a small presence in the back of his head, a small, pitiful mass of consciousness. His new body's previous occupant, Yoko, was still there, if it could even be called that.
His long black hair hung in front of his pale face, hiding him from view. Kabuto was off on a mission, and he kept most of his servants very, very, far away. It was at times like this… times when he was facing setbacks, that he wondered when he would obtain his goal, whether all of it was worth it at all. But those thoughts never lasted very long.
But when they did come, when the thoughts did creep into his head, seeping into his pitiful excuse of a heart, he truly did wonder. Oh, he desired power, but who actually wanted to live forever? He did. He loved setting things in motion, setting up his little dominos and then flicking one over, watching them all begin the fall.
But when all the dominos fell, he had to pick them all back up again, arrange them all again in perfect place. And that took time. But didn't he have all the time in the world? There would always be a beautiful body waiting for him, after all. But every now and then he closed his eyes and saw his Konoha laboratory, the dissected bodies, the organs, the blood, and didn't smile. He saw Tsunade, Jiraiya, the Sandaime… and he actually wondered.
What if I had become Hokage… instead of that brat? But always these thoughts quickly turned sour. I should have been the one chosen. I was the strongest, the most powerful… it should have been ME! He cackled then, his long tongue sensing the air. His bandaged hands hung suspended as he stood and laughed cruelly. There was a slug on the ground by his rock.
He plucked the hapless creature up with the toe of his foot and tossed it at the feasting snake. It snapped the slimy thing up in a single swallow and then finished devouring it's frog meal. He grinned. Orochimaru continued to laugh and then walked back into his laboratory, leaving just in time to avoid seeing an orange fox emerge from the brush and in turn to devour the snake.