One Week Later
[X]
"I have it from a reliable source that Orochimaru… is dead."
The mood of the four assembled jōnin in the Hokage's office shifted drastically. One of them almost cheered but Tsunade quickly continued.
"He was killed by three Akatsuki members. I am telling you this because it leaves us with a responsibility." She stood and walked around her desk. "Orochimaru was a Leaf ninja. It is, therefore, our responsibility to locate and investigate his hideout and experiments. Everything must be either retrieved or destroyed.
"Equally important is the capture of the rogue ninja, Kabuto. I am assigning the four of you to this S-rank mission. I'll expect regular reports. You leave immediately."
The four ninja nodded and disappeared and Tsunade went to the window. And when this is all over, she thought wearily. Maybe I'll be able to move on.
[X]
One day passed, then another, and a third, and Tsunade received no word back from the team she had sent. A unit of ANBU members had been sent as backup after 32 hours of silence, but they also made no contact with the village after being deployed.
Tsunade went to her room on the evening of the third day and collapsed on her bed with a sigh. She had a decision to make – send another team, possibly to their deaths, or call off the mission, thereby losing valuable information and allowing Kabuto to go free. It was an impossible decision. Without word from the others, she had no information to go on. She might have just flipped a coin to decide, but she knew, like all others, she was too likely to lose on this gamble.
"Ugh." Tsunade threw her arm over her eyes. Her mind was buzzing as she mulled over every scrap of information she had, but a soft click penetrated her thoughts. She held her breath when she first heard it, focusing on the sound in her memory, trying to identify it. She needn't have bothered. It came again, clear in the quiet room, and Tsunade opened her eyes to look around. A small bird was perched on her windowsill. As she watched, it turned its head and clicked its beak to the windowpane.
"What the hell?" She went to the window, opening it slowly, and the bird hopped inside. There was a tiny roll of paper bound to its leg and it stood still, waiting for her to take the note. As she carefully untied the paper, she realized that the bird was not a summon – it was just a common songbird that had been caught and trained to deliver messages. Prying perplexed eyes from the little bird, Tsunade carefully unrolled the scroll and looked down at it. The message was short:
You'll have to do better than that, Tsunade.
Tsunade dropped the paper and took a step back. She bumped into the corner of the bed and fell backward, still staring at the note on the floor. For several seconds she just sat there, shaking. Then, in an abrupt burst of clarity, she shot to her feet and slammed the window shut, trapping the bird in the room. It hadn't tried to fly off yet, but she wasn't taking any chances. She snatched up the paper next and took it to her desk, smoothing it out and examining it closely.
There's no doubt. This is his handwriting. She brushed her fingers lightly over the words. But… Tsunade closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I have to know."
[X]
That night, Tsunade prepared to sneak out of the village once again. It felt wrong. She didn't know where she was going or what she'd find, but she had to go. She was halfway out her window, the tame little bird perched on the sill beside her, when someone knocked. She almost left anyway, but Jiraiya's voice carried through the door.
"I know you're there, Tsunade. Shizune told me. Let me in, I need to talk to you."
"Ugh, Jiraiya…" She didn't move, thinking it over.
"Come on, Tsunade, I'm serious. It's about the mission. Just let me in."
Tsunade sighed and gently scooped up the bird, carrying it with her as she went to open the door.
"I was starting to think I was going to have to pick the lock," Jiraiya joked. Then he spotted the bird. "What are you doing?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
Tsunade thought about it for a moment then pulled the scrap of paper from her pocket. She handed it to him silently and Jiraiya's face went pale. He looked back up at her quickly. "Tsunade–"
"You know as well as I do, Jiraiya. I'm going." She snatched the paper back from him and turned to the window.
"Tsunade, stop," Jiraiya said. He reached out to grab her arm but she moved away from him. "You're Hokage," he tried again. "Let me go instead. You need to stay here."
"No." She turned her back to him and climbed up onto the window ledge again. "I have to see for myself. Cover for me." With that, she was gone.
"Dammit." Jiraiya went to the window and looked out at the still night. "So much for doing the right thing." That bastard… He's going to drag her into so much trouble, I know it.
[X]
Tsunade waited until she was out of the village and under the cover of trees before releasing the bird. She crouched down and set it gently on the forest floor, but still it did not fly away.
"Okay," she murmured. It hopped about the spot a little as it stared back at her. "You're waiting for a message to bring back then. All right." She had thought before that this might be the case and brought along a blank piece of paper to test her theory. She rolled it up and attached it to the bird's leg. Immediately it took flight.
Tsunade jumped up into the trees and raced after it. She quickly recognized where it was headed, but she did not allow this conjecture to encourage her hopes until she saw the tree she had knocked down during her fake fight with Orochimaru. They were close. Surely it was heading for that unfinished hideout, and if it was, no one else could have possibly sent that bird. She followed it through the night until it finally alighted on a rock formation in the middle of nowhere. Tsunade stopped and looked around but there was no one to be seen.
This is the place, she thought. "All right, Orochimaru. I can wait." She sat down and leaned back against the rock.
[X]
An hour passed and the sky began to lighten. Tsunade took out the message again. The handwriting, the wording… She glanced up at the bird. It doesn't sing. Even its strict training points to him.
She looked around again but she was still alone.
I'm not just looking for reasons it could be him. This is where that hideout is hidden. No one else knows about that. No one from my teams reported back. Kabuto's not that good on his own. Besides, it's Orochimaru. Of course he's still alive.
He'll come.
[X]
A short distance away, Orochimaru was approaching the unfinished hideout. He saw the bird atop the rock formation first, but as he got closer he noticed that someone was sitting around the other side of it.
"Hm," he murmured. "Who did she send to me this time?"
Orochimaru slowed to a stop a careful distance from the person. He targeted her and cast a genjutsu, then sank into the rocky ground.
Tsunade blinked, her thoughts suddenly scattered, and looked down. Three brown snakes, each as large as a person, were sinking their fangs into her shoulder, arm, and leg. She tried to remain calm, aware that their impossibly sudden appearance could mean an illusion, but the pain was real and she could not move.
Orochimaru emerged partially from the rock formation, intending to kill his target without so much as a struggle, but when he saw who it was, he stopped. Slowly, he stepped out of the rock and stood before Tsunade, looking down at her. She was still under the genjutsu and Orochimaru watched as she struggled to look around, but she could not see him.
"Orochimaru?" Her voice was hesitant and there was fear behind the name, but also hope. Orochimaru released the jutsu.
The snakes vanished, and the pain with them, but Tsunade still rubbed her shoulder carefully as if she did not trust that the damage had been only illusory. She didn't look up at Orochimaru until he spoke.
"Tsunade, what are you doing here?"
She scrambled to her feet, staggering slightly from the aftereffects of the genjutsu, and stared at him. After realizing that she had been doing so for an awkwardly long time she stammered, "You… You're alive."
"Of course I am," Orochimaru said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Didn't you get my message?"
"Of course I did," Tsunade breathed. "I'm here, aren't I?"
"Yes. You are. Why?"
"What do you mean 'why?'" she snapped. "I thought you were dead, then a bird brings a note from you to my window? What the hell did you expect?"
Orochimaru was looking at her strangely and she was growing irritated. "What?" she said. "What did I miss?"
Orochimaru shook his head. "I just thought you already knew. I let one of the ninja from your first team go so he could report back."
"…No one reported back," Tsunade said.
"He really died from those wounds?" Orochimaru sighed. "Pathetic."
"Orochimaru…"
"I assumed you knew and sent the ANBU unit anyway," he explained. "So I decided to play your game. I thought you were challenging me… Or you were angry."
"I didn't know," Tsunade said quietly. "I didn't know anything. Orochimaru, I thought you were dead when we left you behind. You were…" She trailed off as she looked at him again, this time with a practiced, analytical eye. He seemed perfectly healthy. "You… You were…" It dawned on her slowly, as if the thought was reluctant to form. She met his eyes. "Your body," she said. "The Uchiha boy?"
Orochimaru looked away. "No."
Tsunade moved so she could see his face. "But you did transfer, didn't you? Did you change your mind?"
"No," he said again, too quickly. Confused, Tsunade waited for him to continue.
"For some time I was concerned that he was not ready," Orochimaru said slowly. "But facing the immediate need for a new body, I realized that I am not ready. I'm still learning about the sharingan. I want to be prepared to use it to the fullest as soon as I take it. I might only have three years after all. I don't want to waste any time learning things I could be learning now."
"…Right," Tsunade muttered.
An uncomfortable silence fell between them and Tsunade thought about leaving, but the idea upset her more than she anticipated. She didn't want to go.
"Orochimaru," she said quietly. "Would you mind if we talked? Like before?"
"You're not mad at me then?" he asked.
"Haven't decided yet."
Orochimaru laughed, low and quiet and brief. "All right." He formed the hand signs and opened the entrance to the unfinished hideout. As they walked down the stairs, he asked, "What about Jiraiya?"
"I asked him to cover for me and left before he could argue." Tsunade sighed. "I guess I shouldn't have."
They went through the door at the bottom of the stairway and sat together again in the empty room. To Tsunade, it still seemed somewhat surreal, and she wondered for just a moment in the back of her mind when she would wake up.
"…Shouldn't have come?" Orochimaru asked.
"No, I had to come," she answered easily. "He could have come with me, I guess."
Orochimaru leaned back against the wall. "I know he's in on the secret now, but don't start thinking this will be like old times." He glanced over at Tsunade. "Are you sure he'll cover for you… and not the opposite?"
"He wouldn't do that," Tsunade said.
"You sound sure."
"You sound unsure."
Orochimaru turned to face her. "I remember that night very clearly, Tsunade. He didn't have any problem leaving me behind."
"That's not true."
"He may have hesitated at first," he conceded. "But I'm sure he realized it was for the best. And now…" He smirked at her. "You're back here anyway."
"You're still alive." Tsunade shrugged. "I never would have left you down there if I thought–"
"He didn't give you time to think," Orochimaru insisted. "He saw it as an opportunity to sever our ties and he took it. He was right to do so."
"Don't start that again," Tsunade complained. "I like coming to see you. I feel like it's the only thing I have to look forward to anymore…" She looked away from him, her expression troubled, and pulled her knees up to her chest. Orochimaru watched her quietly, hoping she would continue.
"Orochimaru…" she said unsteadily. "When I thought you were dead…" She put her head down on her knees. "You have no idea…" she whispered.
"Tsunade… I'm right here." He moved closer and touched her arm. When she raised her head and looked at him, her eyes were wet. "What's wrong?"
She shook her head, unable to speak. Then, hesitantly, she drew closer to him and gave him a fleeting kiss.
Orochimaru pulled back slightly, his eyes wide. "…Are you drunk?" he asked.
"No!" Tsunade got up and turned away from him, her face red. "I'm sorry," she said defensively. "I thought… Just forget it."
Orochimaru stood as well and went to her side. He turned her face gently toward his. "No," he said, and kissed her softly.
"Orochimaru…" Tsunade wrapped her arms around him and Orochimaru held her close.
"You're sure you're not drunk?" he asked again after a few moments of silence.
"I am not drunk!" Tsunade groaned.
"I know you, Tsunade," Orochimaru laughed. "And I'd rather be certain."
Tsunade rested her head against his shoulder. "Trust me; I know what it feels like. I think I drank all the alcohol in the village the night I came back."
"Tsunade…" Orochimaru scolded.
"You were dead," she countered indignantly.
"No, I wasn't," he sighed.
"…I'm… really glad you're alive," Tsunade muttered. She felt a little foolish saying it.
"Hm?" Orochimaru stepped back slightly and raised her face with a hand under her chin. "Is that why you kissed me?"
"No," she said. "Not exactly. Orochimaru…" She looked away from his eyes and focused on a spot on the floor. "I want to keep seeing you. I want to keep meeting with you and I was thinking maybe… not just as friends…"
He said nothing and she was afraid to look back at him to see his reaction.
"You've made a huge mistake," he said quietly.
Tsunade looked up then, startled, and Orochimaru pulled her closer. He stroked her cheek with the softest of touches and leaned down to whisper against her ear. "Now that I have you, I won't ever let you go."
[X]
One Week Later—Author's Note
Well, there you have it, folks! Orochimaru/Tsunade shipping! I'll warn you now, all of the rest of my works (in the Naruto-verse at least) will be with this pairing.
For anyone still on board, the next installment to this story will be another one-shot called "Loose Ends."
Thanks again for reading!
~DS