Three
by: Karasu Kyra
I need to get away, I need to get away! was all that ran through Jaraiya's head. This accursed village, my village. I see him everywhere I go.
Without remorse, he fled his village. The pain of having lost Orochimaru left behind him in that village. Tsunade had already left the village, another gaping hole in his being.
He didn't tell people that his pain didn't leave, that fleeing the village had done nothing to help. Sometimes, he wished he was still there. But more, he wished he could see his teammates. He didn't need a village if he had them. Them and only them.
0o0o0o0
Orochimaru buried his pain under plotting. It didn't hurt him to leave that damned village. It didn't hurt him that he couldn't know anyone anymore. It didn't hurt him to be moving all the time, no place to call home.
It made drown in his pain, gasping for air and never getting any, that he left his teammates without a backward glance. Even now, twenty-three years later, he would not permit himself that glance back.
No, he doesn't regret fleeing his village.
0o0o0o0
The blonde stumbled. I don't miss it. I miss them.
Tsunade's pain wasn't very different. She missed them not her home. Could she still call it home?
She did, however, drown her pain with alcohol, numbing her mind.
Of course not! She'd never called it home. Home, to her, was with the two people she loved in the world.
Orochimaru, and Jaraiya.
0o0o0o0
Together they are the Three Sannin. Apart they are broken souls with the same pain.
They are three people, forever bound despite the distance.
Orochimaru is a power-hungry, almost apathetic human. He can't help but still feel the burn of losing his teammates.
Jaraiya is a shattered man, who had nothing to begin with and lost even more. Now all he has is the pain.
Tsunade is the woman who had everything and lost it all. Again and again and again. Can she still carry the pain?