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When Orochimaru gives the snake summons contract to Sasuke, it lights an unending, envious burn in Orochimaru’s senior apprentice. Being passed over as the snake heir is far from the worst experience (betrayal) she’s faced, but Sasuke doesn’t even like the snakes, he considers them another source of power he can use up in his quest for vengeance — and she knows he won’t even bother to learn his summoned partners well enough to utilize them for maximum effect.
She hates him for it, although she’ll never act on it, and it’s not fair, but — Sasuke is safe to hate, unlike Orochimaru who controls every aspect of his apprentice’s life, and the pain of losing her chance to summon snakes is one she can acknowledge without allowing it to break her.
And maybe, if she plays her cards right, if she survives Orochimaru and outmaneuvers Sasuke, if she can successfully drag her village through the oncoming apocalypse, maybe one day she can steal the contract and add her own signature to it, and then she’ll get her old snake allies back (she will never have any of the friends and family of her childhood as allies again).
