[OOC] Memory Crystal #5: The Snake and the Hawk
(Dialogue reference: Naruto ch. 344)
"Orochimaru. You are weaker than me."
His voice crackled through the darkness, colder and more harsh than he had ever imagined he could sound. He could feel the power extending from his palm, lightning hardened and strengthened into a long, razor sharp blade that was pinning his victim and keeping him immobilized. His voice grew harsher, chilling even further. "There's no point in sacrificing my body to you anymore."
Oh my god...oh my god, what did I do...
"Big words from the leftover Uchiha." Another voice, this one sibilant and rough. Like a snake would sound if it had a voice, he decided. A cold hatred was coursing through his veins at the sound; a viciousness that was beyond what he'd thought himself capable of.
His own voice, now, the ice joined by a supercilious disdain. "Hmph. If I hadn't been so weak, I never would've sought you out, would I?" Sought out...another teacher? Something else? "You only wanted me because you couldn't handle Itachi." I know that name. That's my brother. "Right, Mr. Great Sannin? Perhaps the world at large would consider you gifted, but you're nowhere near the level of an Uchiha. Before us, the greatest genius in the universe comes off as barely average. And as someone who carries that name, from my point of view...your attempts to obtain our power are so disgusting they're almost funny."
Uchiha. I am an Uchiha. My family name.
"Saturating yourself with drugs and medicines? Transferring bodies? Your methods are pointless. Do you even have a goal anymore? You claim to be seeking the reason behind existence, yet all you do is make petty excuses for playing god with people's lives." His voice was getting flatter, colder; devoid of emotion save for that seething, unnatural hatred that he could feel but knew wasn't coming through his words.
"You sicken me."
The blade of lightning thrust forward, pinning the unknown to the wall. He could feel himself leaping, landing on something soft and yielding, a blade in his other hand pulled back for a fatal strike. My god, I'm a coldblooded killer? Before the strike could land, though, he felt a shift and knew that his enemy wasn't in front of him anymore. He felt his body turning, and his next words explained something that he'd felt for a long time. "So your true body is a scaly white serpent. You wanted to take over other people's bodies so badly you experimented on your own. You're a pathetic shell of your former self."
So that's why they make me so uncomfortable.
There was a shift in the air and he knew the snake was coming for him. That sibilant voice sounded again, this time almost insane in its fury and hunger. "Come, Sasuke-kun...GIVE ME YOUR BODY!"
Sasuke...yes. Yes. That's me. Uchiha Sasuke.
There was a flurry of motion; he felt himself jumping and twisting and evading attack after attack. Finally he came to rest and he could feel himself shifting again, shrugging out of a shirt that was far, far too loose. A moment later he could feel his body shifting, changing; what felt like massive wings were sprouting from his shoulders, his hair was lengthening. In a strange way, though, he knew that he could no longer do this...whatever it was.
"Though the snake dreams of soaring through the sky, it is forever doomed to crawl on its belly." The flat dismissal in his voice was full of unbridled arrogance, the sort of disdain most people reserved for bugs. Another brief flurry of activity and he felt the snake withdraw again; he stared the creature down as he spoke, the words reverberating as the memory faded out.
"You'll get your chance to fly, snake...in the talons of a hawk."