Suggested by Karkatsbabe(Author)

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Snakes and Wolves

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Inspiration:

"Rather Be" by Clean Bandit


He met her when he was little, barely a year old. He can hardly remember it, since he was still in diapers, but he will forever remember how she held him. So warm, comforting, softly, and without flinching. He remembers how she had smelled, like spring flowers and warm blooded canines. Her moves were even more graceful than his mother's, his mother the strong kunoichi, and her voice had a resonance to it that was even more comforting than her hold on him. He fell asleep in her arms, even though he only did that with his mother and her snake summons'. The feeling of being in one of the safest places on Earth was too much of a draw for his young body.

His mother and Morticia, as he later learned her name to be, went on many missions together. Most of it Anbu work, some of it simple escorts with his mother's genin team.

By the time he was three, so long ago that seems, the Hebi clan had dwindled from two small families to just him and his mother. It was just after he entered the academy, he was four, when his mother went on a suicide mission. Orochimaru had cried for days, barely consoled by the woman his mother had said would take care of him. Even now it makes his throat tighten and moisture come to his eyes. It wasn't until a month after that that he found the reason for her taking the mission, his mother couldn't live without his father. His father may have been simple stock from Kiri, average in appearance and a mediocre ninja, but his mother had loved that simple man dearly and had waited until he was enrolled in the academy to choose her fate.

He can, somewhat, appreciate that now. It's better than finding her still body, cold and with the wrists cut or a sword sticking out of her stomach.

Such thoughts remind him of his current love, Hatake Sakumo, and how that fucking idiot was about to commit seppuku. If Orochimaru had been even a second later, and Sakumo's resolve hadn't wavered for a nanosecond . . . it was just as painful to think about. He had broken his lover's wrist to get the tanto out of his vise like grip, and had punched him in the face before holding him tight and telling him he was a bastard and that he should never consider such a thing since he had a man who loved him and little Kakashi.

Kakashi found them still holding onto each other, both silently crying and more emotional than either had ever been before.

Orochimaru doesn't regret his choices in life, choices of others but never his own. He regrets that the woman, the only woman he is in love with, will never perceive him as a man and not the child she has taken care of for years. He regrets letting Sakumo argue, and winning, that he can do the mission by himself. He regrets that he has always seen Morticia as a woman instead of as a mother figure, despite that he says she is.

He is content, and happy most of the time, with his life. As long as he knows Morticia is in the world, and in Konoha, he can go on with the life he built from rejection.

However, the moment she leaves Konoha for good, he is convincing Sakumo and Kakashi to follow her with him. He doesn't need to convince Anko of anything, he tells her they are leaving and she asks how much she should pack. His apprentice is entirely too loyal, but she has grown on him in the years he has taught her and he now views her as a daughter.


Author's Note~

I love Orochimaru, if you look at how his life has been then you will realize that all the shit he did had a damn good reason. That poor snake bastard, he's had a hard life, and he deserves some good.

Despite being inspired by a song, and listening to that song while writing this snippet, I don't think I did the song or Orochimaru justice.

Please, tell me what you think of it.