Title: Threads
Rating: G
Pairing / Characters: Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya
Word Count: 399 words
Warnings: Spoilers for the manga, chapters 345 onward, just to be on the safe side
Summary: Wherever they go, the lives of the sannin are woven together
A/N: I'm not sure this actually worked out the way I wanted it to, but it turned out of in the end, I think.
Tsunade hates snakes.
For as long as she can remember, the slimy, slippery creatures have made her nervous, even though she really doesn't know why. She supposes its because they remind her of Orochimaru. Whenever she sees them, she goes out of her way to avoid them. Jiraiya, on the other hand, kills them and leaves their crushed, bleeding bodies in the dust. His memories of Orochimaru are painful, because he tried, and failed to save him when it counted. Now, all he wants to do is break him in half.
Tsunade can't blame him, not really.
Sometimes, Orochimaru remembers the way Jiraiya's laughter sounded when he hears his hacking coughs in the darkness. When they were younger, Jiraiya laughed at everything, seeming to take life as a joke. It used to irk him until he realized that Jiraiya never found anything funny in the first place. Tsunade on the other hand, is a gambler. Orochimaru prefers her way of thinking, because if you don't take calculated risks you stand the chance of losing everything. His gamble on Sasuke-kun, Tsunade's gamble on Sakura, and Jiraiya's gamble on Naruto-kun is the one and only thing all three of them have in common. Orochimaru doesn't know why the thought makes him feel so sad.
Jiraiya doesn't like the darkness. That's not to say he's afraid of it, at his age it would not only be pathetic, but unheard of. No, he's just… wary of things that lurk in dark places. Orochimaru always hated the sunshine, preferring to hide in the shadows. Tsunade loves the sunlight. Everything about her is sunny, even her temper. When she gets angry… she's just too cheerful about it. Jiraiya always wondered why he was the odd one out in their little group until he realized that he was the barrier between them both.
Night and day, and the invisible line that divided them.
Together or apart, their lives have always been woven together. From the first moment that Sarutobi-sensei tried to make them a team, they have been a part of each other, regardless of whether they like it or not.
That's why, Tsunade knows how saddened she feels at the thought of Orochimaru's death, or why Jiraiya feels like someone has ripped out a piece of his soul.
Neither of them are to know that in his last moments, Orochimaru felt exactly the same way.
