Lonesome

Tsunade sat on a moss encrusted boulder. She hates this war. She hates the rain. She is beginning to really hate blood. With a sulky sigh she leaned her head back, letting the fat drops of rain splash her features. "Who's doing what?" Her voice is tired and cranky. The two men in the camp traded 'the look'. Tsunade, even though her eyes are shut, knows they're doing it. "Will you stop that? By Kami, I am going to ruin your chances at fatherhood if you don't stop it."

"Firewood." Jiraiya speaks up first, "I'll get a fire going. We're supposed to sit still for a day."

"Then, I'll get water, Tsunade-hime." Orochimaru has mastered the voice smirk, "And yourself?"

"Set up the tent, I suppose. Leave your packs, I'll get them set out." Tsunade's eye opened as she scanned her companions. "There's no surprises in them?" The eye narrowed. Last mission, Orocimaru's pack had actually made her scream in fright. Why the hell did that baka need to bring back trophies? It's creepy. Jiraiya's pack only contains the stuff every damn male seemed to need on a mission. Porn. She could deal with that, she had a brother and was just one more child in a family of shinobi after all.

Orochimaru frowned, "No surprises. You know that I was just going to study that hand. It was a kekkei genkai, and I've never seen one like it before." he shrugged, "I mean, why? What possible use is it to have an orifice in your hands? You understand, oh-so-great medic-nin."

Tsunade's eye closed as she tried to remove the image of a bloody hand with a tongue from her head. Damn. That vision is never going to go away. Jiraiya made gagging noises and muttered about stupid hobbies. As if he had room to talk. "No. I certainly do not understand. Get going," suiting her words the tired kunoichi put her feet back on the ground and stood. The men left in different directions. She unclipped the gear from her pack. She really should let Jiraiya carry the extras, but she liked knowing she could pull her own weight. There weren't enough of her kind of kunoichi, the kind who could hold their own against other trained shinobi. She had been pressing the idea onto her grandfather for as long as she could remember. Someday, Konoha would not look down on women in it's ranks. She was proud of herself, she was tough as old tree roots and a fine medic on top of it all. With a smile, she lay out two tents, and quickly assembled one. Orochimaru was back first, and he tossed her pack into the ready tent. He watched her quietly as she finished with the other, and grabbed the bed rolls off the forest floor.

"There's two."

"Yeah. You remember, we had this talk, boys and girls are different." Tsunade tossed off.

"Right, but there's only two bed rolls. Mine and yours."

Tsunade straitened from her crouch, "I'll kill him."

"Kill who?" Jiraiya's voice came slightly ahead of the jonin.

Orochimaru shrugged and gave a smirk, "Who does she always want to kill?"

"What'd I do?"

"I am not doing Tsunade sandwich." Tsunade's fist rose and her eyes tightened.

Jiraiya noisily dropped the kindling, "Sorry! I thought the pack seemed light. Heh, at least it's only for a night."

"No."

"No." Orochimaru echoed the angry woman.

"No what?" Jariaya's face dropped, "Seriously? It's gonna get cold, it's already wet, Tsunade, you wouldn't let me get hypothermia?!"

Orochimaru held his hand up, "Listen, as this mission's captain, I'll make the determination. We'll just make the watches so that everyone sleeps alone."

Jiraiya blushed furiously. Those asses think I did this on purpose. Well, It used to work. "How do we split the bed?"

"You've got to be kidding." Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"Oh, three part watch, right, ok." Jiraiya gave up, and grabbed a tin out of his pack. "Anyone for sardines?"

Tsunade sat before the fire. The sardines along with her special quick Miso-in-a-Cup made for an ok meal. At least it wasn't Orochimaru's turn to cook. She shuddered delicately. "Who wants first watch?"

"I'll do it. I'm not tired yet." Jiraiya stood and stretched his back with a series of pops.

"Fine. Wake me at midnight." Orochimaru took a deep drink of water, "And Tsunade, I'll wake you at four."

"Sounds good, Don't get eaten, Jiraiya!" Tsunade smiled at the white haired man.

Jiraiya's footsteps faded into the distance as he did his usual perimeter check.

"He knows you're getting married soon, Tsunade." Orochimaru's voice was low.

She shrugged, "So, he wants one more chance at me?"

The pale skinned man with exotic eyes shrugged back, "I know I wouldn't mind."

"Now, let's not go there, Orochimaru." Tsunade's mouth turned down, "You were drunk."

"You were drunk." his voice was laced with what Tsunade could only call petulance.

"And I still had enough sense to say no. If you cared, why did you wait until Dan swept me up to say something?" Her voice was now quiet.

"Stupidity?" She hadn't expected him to say that. "Arrogance?" That was more like it, "I might have been afraid. You did almost kill that stupid pervert and he only peeped on you."

"I could believe arrogance." Tsunade faced Orochimaru, "Stupidity? No, of everything I could use to describe you, stupid isn't even on the long list. Are you really saying…"

"I'd like to kiss you? To take you into the tent, and make you understand Dan isn't the right one for you?" Orochimaru turned his face, "To just have one night where I wasn't the lonely one?"

Tsunade's hand raised, and she almost touched him before drawing it back to her side, "I am lonely, too. So is Jiraiya." She knew she was purposely being obtuse.

"I have no family. No one waiting to greet me back home. Don't compare my loneliness to yours."

"I am so sorry, I can't give you what you want."

"I know." he breathed, "I'm sorry too." With that Orochimaru moved to the tent. "Good night, Tsunade-hime." She wouldn't hear it, she didn't need to.

Fin~

AN// Wah! Orochimaru is lonely. 'hime' means princess. Kinda like a grownup way of saying 'chan'.I was thinking of making this citrus-y, but I liked the sad angle better. And what the hell was Tsunade thinking? LOL I think her teammates are awesome, I am down with Sanin sandwich. I hope you liked this one-shot. Please feel free to review!