True Paradise
Title: True Paradise
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Kimimaro, mentions of the Sound 5
Theme: Paradise
He never expected anyone else to understand. To know and conceive of the way it had felt the first time that voice, that wonderful velvet tenor had spoken to him. They didn't know, after all. Didn't understand how it felt to be nothing. To be a hindrance, a danger. Something feared and misunderstood.
A child, locked in a cage, called freak by those of his own clan, simply because they didn't understand. And then, after so much unkindness, a face.
A face, peering down at him, smiling a strange, compelling smile, silken voice like the balm of sweet rain in a desert as pale white hands unlocked the chains binding his heart, the figure with the face of a serpent leaning down, stretching out one slim hand, offering freedom.
He'd taken the offer, greedily drinking up the knowledge, the companionship. For the first time in his life, he'd felt needed. Useful, and understood. Valued for what he was, even as he grew to understand that truly, he was little more than a tool for his master's sake.
It was in that vein that others didn't understand. They couldn't see, couldn't fathom how somoene who used him, someone who made no secret of the fact that he was a tool, could still hold such esteem in a simple boy's eyes.
But then, they were all like that. Every one of them. Children, men, women. Taken from the streets, from the ashes of their previous lives, from circumstances that many could have easily termed hell on earth. Taken from those individual pits of pain and given life. Given purpose and drive, and a reason to go on.
They follow the serpent with his apple of knowledge for one pure and simple fact. Whether they sold their souls for the knowledge or not, whether the cost was that of their very lives, he gave them what none could have hoped for. A reason. A reason for their very existence. And for that, they follow him into hell. Because he has given them somewhere to belong.
And that, to him, as well as to the rest of them... is paradise.
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Kimimaro, mentions of the Sound 5
Theme: Paradise
He never expected anyone else to understand. To know and conceive of the way it had felt the first time that voice, that wonderful velvet tenor had spoken to him. They didn't know, after all. Didn't understand how it felt to be nothing. To be a hindrance, a danger. Something feared and misunderstood.
A child, locked in a cage, called freak by those of his own clan, simply because they didn't understand. And then, after so much unkindness, a face.
A face, peering down at him, smiling a strange, compelling smile, silken voice like the balm of sweet rain in a desert as pale white hands unlocked the chains binding his heart, the figure with the face of a serpent leaning down, stretching out one slim hand, offering freedom.
He'd taken the offer, greedily drinking up the knowledge, the companionship. For the first time in his life, he'd felt needed. Useful, and understood. Valued for what he was, even as he grew to understand that truly, he was little more than a tool for his master's sake.
It was in that vein that others didn't understand. They couldn't see, couldn't fathom how somoene who used him, someone who made no secret of the fact that he was a tool, could still hold such esteem in a simple boy's eyes.
But then, they were all like that. Every one of them. Children, men, women. Taken from the streets, from the ashes of their previous lives, from circumstances that many could have easily termed hell on earth. Taken from those individual pits of pain and given life. Given purpose and drive, and a reason to go on.
They follow the serpent with his apple of knowledge for one pure and simple fact. Whether they sold their souls for the knowledge or not, whether the cost was that of their very lives, he gave them what none could have hoped for. A reason. A reason for their very existence. And for that, they follow him into hell. Because he has given them somewhere to belong.
And that, to him, as well as to the rest of them... is paradise.