I know, I know, it took me long to upload again and to make things worse, this will be the last chapter.

There are many reasons why I've chosen such an abrupt end, like stress in school, technical issues and a lack of motivation, but you are not here to read about my complaints, so please enjoy the last chapter and make sure to check out my other stories!

10 years later

Dear Keiko,

I hope you and Ryu are fine.

It's getting colder here, I think winter is near, but Suigetsu and Juugo are doing their best to collect enough wood to get us through this.

Next month, Akaya has his first birthday. Orochimaru and I are very proud of him, he is our ray of hope after all these dark years.

Do you remember the old times when we were his slaves?

You, Sarana and I, we've always been like sisters, doing everything together, talking about everything and being there for each other in hard times. It's sad that these times are over.

I know, you will never be able to forgive Orochimaru for everything and to be honest, the same goes for me. How can I ever forgive him for killing Sarana?

But he really has changed after his death, that's a fact you can't deny.

I often think of the events of back then.

He wanted to force me to marry him, but it wasn't a real marriage, then he used to rape me and experiment on me and lock me in a cage whenever I didn't obey.

These times were horrible, but I've never lost hope. Something deep inside me told me that Orochimaru will change one day.

After his death, I ran away as fast as I could. That was the moment you found me and brought me to Konoha where suddenly everyone cared for me.

I know that the Hokage wanted to save me earlier, however, that was simply impossible. That's neither your fault nor the Hokage's.

And then the fourth great shinobi war started. Ryu and you were able to fight and I had to stay in Konoha in case Orochimaru did something to me which would affect my fighting skills or would make me lose control over a power I might not know about yet. Of course I would rather have fought at your side, but I understood how dangerous this could have gotten for me and all the others if Orochimaru really had done anything in that way to me. I mean even today, I don't know what his experiments were for, he just doesn't want to tell me.

The day he came back to Konoha to reanimate the four former Hokage I accidentally ran into him. I don't even know why, but I was in such a hurry that I didn't realize there were people in front of me. We fell to the ground and the moment I saw his eyes and realized it was him, the first thing I felt was fear until he started smiling. He just seemed to be happy to see me so I was kinda happy too.

Orochimaru helped me get up and introduced me to the Hokage as his wife. I can remember clearly that my face turned red as a tomato at that moment because of this.

When they went away to help ending the war, I was really sad and afraid again. This time not afraid of Orochimaru, but of losing him.

I know that he has changed, I can see it every time I'm with him and our son. His dark side is still there, deep inside him, but he has learned to control his anger and even Kabuto was forgiven although he has been involved with the Akatsuki in the war, so why not forgive Orochimaru?

As I've said before, I will never forgive him for everything he has done, but I am happy with him, anyway and as long as he won't hurt me or my loved ones again, it will stay this way.

Orochimaru is such a good father, we even want to have more children once Akaya is old enough to not claim our presence every single minute of the day.

I miss you so much! Orochimaru promised me that we can come and visit Konoha in spring as long as Yamato and the Hokage allow it. Of course you can also visit us if you want to!

Kuraiko

What do you think of the last chapter? If you want to make me happy, you can leave a review with your honest opinion on the whole story and/or the last chapter :)

I don't think I'm going to start a new fanfiction soon, but I want to finish "'til the end". I don't know how long it will take me to upload another chapter for it, though.

See ya!