There had been many bodies over the years... names, faces, they all sort of faded from his memory even as their spirits faded from his mind. They all tried to stay, unwilling or unready to give up and fade away, but in the end, he would end up alone and this was how he prefered it. He was hard on bodies, it was just unnerving to have a voice whispering to him, either begging him to be careful, or cursing him with the vigor of a spirit that needs no air nor food.

But Kimimaro was vastly diffrent. A willing and apt pupil, he had never flinched from his ultimate purpose, nor revealed weakness by begging to know more. He accepted his master's explanations of what would happen with interest, but no anxiety. Since the lucky day Orochimaru has stumbled upon him, Kimimaro had been almost like a phantom, requiring no more thought than a dream, but accepting training and orders easily and expertly. He did not fail, and he did not balk from anything.

Orochimaru found the child, and the young man he became to be good company, and unusual in that he did no tire of Kimimaro. Sometimes he wondered if he would miss him when the time came to take his body, but like Kimimaro, the thought brought no anxiety. even his fondness for him did not out weigh his pleasure at the thought of making the child's abilities his own. Privatly, he had a bit of hope that Kimimaro's spirit would remain long after he lost control of his body, but he knew that even if it didn't, he wouldn't care for long.

When Orochimaru gained his own village, Kimimaro seemed pleased, and as the village and the Kaguya child grew, Orochimaru waited paitently for the day to come that Kimimaro's body would be ready. When a sudden illness struck the boy, Orochimaru found himself mourning, not just for the loss of such a promising body, the last chance at the legendary Shikotsumyaku, but for the loss of the boy himself. Kimimaro had been a constant companion for so long, Orochimaru wasn't entirely sure what to do without him. The disappointment shocked him. He wondered if this was how a parent felt when confronted with the idea of outliving their child. This thought amused him. He was almost sure most parents didn't plan to "harvest" their children's bodies like so much ripe wheat.

In a way, Kimimaro's death had been a relief. Even as orochimaru privately mourned, in a way he was proud. Kimimaro hadn't died frail and wasting in a bed, he had died as a warrior, true to his clan and to his training. While Orochimaru was diappointed, it wasn't such a bad end, really.

Not bad at all. Any father might be proud.