Disclaimer: Orochi does not belong to me, adorable as he is. His mother does belong to me, because I made her up. Well, presumably he has a mother, but we don’t know anything about her, so… You know what I mean. And Hana belongs to Orochimaru, as you will find out.

Ecdysis

Orochimaru's fondness for all things serpentine had started innocently enough. One day, when he was around three years old, he had been playing outside (by himself, of course, for Orochimaru never cared much for his peers) when he suddenly burst into the kitchen, shouting for his mother's attention.

"What is it, Oro-chan?" she asked him, drying her hands before she went over to her son.

"Look what I found in the garden!" He brought his hands out from behind his back. "Isn't she beautiful?"

His mother gasped, quickly forming hand seals to create threads of chakra in which to hold the surprise. "You mustn't pick up snakes! They can bite you and kill you!" She did not feel the need to lessen the severity of her statement – he may have been a young child, but Orochimaru was mature enough to be told such a concept, even if he didn't entirely grasp it.

"But she's nice, Mummy!" Orochimaru protested. "I picked her up and all she did was lick me! She's so cute! Can I keep her?" He reached out and stroked the snake which did nothing but flick out its tongue. "See! Please?"

After a consultation with a book about reptiles (which agreed with Orochimaru in that the snake was harmless) and a rummage through a cupboard to find and old, unused, large fish tank to keep it in, Orochimaru's mother allowed him to keep the snake.

"As long as you look after it," she compromised as she put the lid on the fish tank.

"I will! But she's a girl, not an 'it'! I found her under some flowers, so I'm going to call her 'Hana'."

And so it came to pass that Orochimaru became incredibly attached to his pet. He loved to show her off to the other children, telling them that she was extremely venomous and that just one bite would kill them (Orochimaru liked to read books about snakes with his mother, so he knew the difference between poisonous and venomous). He laughed as the other children ran away in tears. Conversely, some of the older boys thought that the snake was wonderful and that Orochimaru was the coolest little kid around. Their parents, however, did not agree and told their children to keep away from 'the creepy little pale boy and his snake'. Orochimaru didn't mind – as long as he had Hana, he was happy.

One day, however, Orochimaru woke up to discover that something terrible had happened to Hana.

"Mummy! I think Hana's dead!" His mother came to him and put her arm around her son.

"Look closely, Oro-chan." His mother lifted off the lid, reached inside the tank and brought out what Orochimaru had assumed to be Hana. "It's just her skin! We read about that in your book, remember?"

"So she's OK?" Orochimaru looked worriedly into the tank.

His mother held back some of the vegetation out of the way. "See, here she is! She's fine!"

Orochimaru breathed a sigh of relief. "I would've been sad if she'd died, Mummy! But why did she get rid of her skin? Was something wrong with it?"

"Do you wear the same clothes all of the time?" Orochimaru shook his head. "Shedding her skin is like changing her clothes. When you get too big for your clothes, I have to buy you more. She’s just got some new clothes, that’s all!"

Orochimaru smiled, relieved that his pet was fine.

"Some people, however, think that every time a snake sheds its skin, it’s like it’s being born again – so if snakes keep on shedding their skins, they can live forever!"

Orochimaru's jaw dropped in amazement and he stared at Hana. "Really?"

His mother laughed. "Don't be silly, Oro-chan: you know that nothing can live forever. It's just a story that people tell."

"Hmm..." Orochimaru furrowed his brow. "Why can't things live forever? I want to stay with you forever, Mummy!"

His mother smiled at him and put her arm around him. "That'd be nice, wouldn't it? But we've got a long time yet, Oro-chan, so don’t worry."

"But if we could live forever, we'd have ages! I'm never going to die, ever!" He hugged his mother and watched as Hana slithered around in her tank.

“You try that then,” said his mother, stroking his hair.

Three weeks later, Orochimaru woke up to find that Hana actually had died.

In her honour, he really was going to shed his skin and live forever.