Thanks to those who reviewed. Keep in mind this chapter is from Orochimaru's perspective, and that it's not a repeat chapter. Enjoy.

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Teamwork -part 1-

"I can't believe I got stuck with you for a mission…" I muttered coldly, readjusting the pack on my back.

"Hey, don't blame me, I don't want to be with you either," Jiraiya huffed, indignant. "Blame Sensei, he's the one who paired us together for this."

"I already have. He should know better than to send a burden with me."

"Burden?! Yeah right! By the end of this mission, I bet you'll be glad you had me around."

"Yes, and if that's the case, then I'm sure we can go ice-skating in hell when we're done."

"Just you wait and see…"

Flashback

"Sensei, I see no need for Jiraiya to accompany me," I insisted.

"I realize that you're a talented shinobi Orochimaru, but these kinds of missions are never given to one person alone. You should know that by now."

"Yes, but why must it be him? He has no experience with this sort of mission."

"It's better for him to get the experience with someone who knows his strengths and weaknesses. Besides, by working together, maybe you'll bicker less?" I looked at him coldly and he shrugged. "It's for the good of the team, trust me."

"Have you told Tsunade about this yet?" I asked, wondering why he hadn't tacked her on as well.

"No…" he admitted slowly, "But she has been rather busy with her medical training, so I doubt she'd have the time to deal with this. That's beside the point. The two of you are leaving at sunset, so go get your things ready. And one more thing…at least try to make this mission work? It is important."

"I understand," I muttered, walking away before he could add to his pep talk.

End of Flashback

Coming out of my reverie, I noticed that it had gotten rather late. "It's time we stop for the night," I stated, stopping as I noticed a clearing. Luckily enough, Jiraiya had kept his mouth shut for the journey until now. Quite refreshing, I have to say.

He continued with his silent spell as we set up our meager camp. Everything in place, I rose to my feet, heading off towards the river I knew to be nearby.

"Oi! Where the hell are you going?" The twit speaks. Startling.

"There's a river nearby," I replied, not bothering to look back. That was enough information for him. He should be able to draw his own conclusions as to why I was going. We'd walked for quite a few hours and my feet were sore and tired. The water would be soothing and relaxing. It would be the perfect way to end a day that didn't start out on the best of notes.

It didn't take long for me to reach the bank. Taking a quick survey of the surroundings, I made sure it was safe. Not finding anything abnormal, I tested the temperature of the water, finding it still warm from the day's unseasonable heat. Slipping gingerly out of my robe, I got into the water, letting out a content sigh.

No Jiraiya, the moon was out, there was a gentle breeze…it didn't get much better than this. I closed my eyes, enjoying the serenity of the moment.

It was short lived, however. I instinctively froze, sensing someone's presence close by. I pretended to be asleep, hoping to catch them off guard. As they drew closer, the moon came out from behind a cloud and I could tell, my eyes barely open, by the slight shadow cast that it was Jiraiya sneaking up on me.

Lovely.

I continued to act as though I was asleep, wondering what he would do. Would he try to be cocky and put a kunai to my throat, or would he just be his usual idiot self and stare?

The latter proved to be true, and it began to annoy me.

"Idiot. You're staring," I said, clearly startling him. He almost seemed embarrassed and looked quickly away. Interesting…

"Yeah, and you take forever to do whatever it is you're doing in the water. Must be your hair, huh?" he mocked.

"For your information, which you don't in the least bit deserve, I was trying to relax, but for some reason, a white haired oaf just won't leave me alone long enough to do so," I shot back, glaring at him from the corner of my eye. I saw no point in facing him for a variety of reasons. It was bad enough that the closest clothing of mine was on a bush. Damn it.

"How could anyone relax in water that's probably cold?"

"It's warmer than it appears," I replied simply, turning my attention away from him, thinking that he'd leave. Like it would ever be that simple with him.

When he drew closer I hate to admit that I flinched, but I did. I went farther down the bank, trying to put some distance between us. He gave me an irritated glance that said: What the hell's your problem? before turning his attention to the water's surface. I bolted out of the water, drying as fast as was possible and managed to throw my clothing on all while he was testing the water. When a mildly surprised expression came to his face, I couldn't help but tease him for it.

"I told you so." He whipped around, startled to find me clothed, and mostly unruffled. I don't see why it came as such a surprise; you learn to be fast about things when you're a ninja. Deciding that his gaping expression was starting to be unwarranted, I spoke up, "I'm heading back to try and get some sleep. Please refrain from depriving me of that as well?" I muttered, walking away.

"You're the one depriving me of sleep," he insisted, catching up to me. Would he ever catch a hint? Honestly.

"Oh? Do explain, moron."

"I'm not about to go to sleep when a teammate is off somewhere else." I slowed for a mere second, contemplating what he said. Perhaps his badass attitude was simply that, an attitude.

"I would've been fine, you should know that," I countered, wondering why now, of all times, he had decided to show concern over my well being.

"Except you didn't know I was near you until I could've easily killed you." Just goes to show how well he knows me, I suppose.

"I knew full well you were there, I just enjoy surprising you, is all," I smirked, getting under the sheet of my bed roll. I have to admit, his shocked expression was rather entertaining. As to why he was blushing…that I don't entirely understand. Nor do I probably want to.

"Yeah, yeah, just don't go taking any more midnight rendezvous', okay?"

"Not that I should need your permission, but I won't."

"Good," he said, turning away from me. Within a matter of minutes, his breathing had slowed to that of sleep. I lay awake for a while longer, gazing at the moon and enjoying the quiet. Just as I was beginning to doze off, he mumbled something in his sleep. I couldn't quite make out what he said, but his expression seemed troubled and he was flushed again. I ignored his sporadic mumblings and managed to fall asleep.

I have a feeling it was because I saw him shocked and flushed twice that I ended up having dreams about him. Normally my dreams were cloudy, unfocused, all confusing. This one was different. It was still confusing, but it was painfully clear. For some unknown reason, I had been badly wounded, but Jiraiya had managed to stay unscathed. Well, it was a dream, so perhaps that's why it was so horribly unrealistic.

He had a horrified expression when he saw my state, and for some reason, I could hear his heart pounding. I couldn't understand why he looked so scared. His hands were shaking as he attempted to bandage some of my wounds. The most distinct thing I remember was the very end. His eyes were filled with tears and he kept saying that I couldn't have died, that I was too strong for that.

I woke with his pain stricken voice still ringing in my head. It was early, barely dawn. I was lucky enough to find him still fast asleep so I had time to compose myself. It took me a few minutes to get my breathing back to normal. I rose shakily to my feet and went back to the river and splashed my face with the now cold water. That seemed to do the trick. It had been a long time since I dreamt of my own death…

When I reentered the camp, Jiraiya was still asleep. Lazy oaf. Walking over to where he lay, still resting, I paused watching him breath slowly in and out. His expression so sharply contrasted the one in the dream that I almost had to hit myself to keep the images from flashing before my eyes again.

"Jiraiya," I started, calmly, keeping my voice level. "Get your lazy ass up." When he didn't really respond, I nudged him in the shoulder with my foot, hoping that would get him to at least sit up.

He did more than I expected. He nearly jumped out of his bedroll, his eyes a little wild. Perhaps I had woken him from an equally disturbing dream? Either way, he got ready quicker than he ever had.

Okay…that's a little odd.

He actually had to wait for me. It irritated me a little, but I kept any questions I had to myself as we started out. Surprisingly enough, he still hadn't spoken to me, whined or anything when we got on the road again. Odd thing number two.

Maybe I did wake him from a weird dream and he was still trying to get himself back to normal. At least his silence made it easy for me to plan what we would do when we reached our destination. If all went smoothly, we'd get there by sunset and have time to find somewhere to stay. It was after that that worried me.

As stated earlier, he has no experience with an undercover information gathering mission. I wasn't sure how he would do with it. He could be stealthy when he wanted to be – the women in the bath house certainly know that much – but would he be able to keep his cool the entire time?

I was beginning to see why Sarutobi had sent him on his first with me as his partner. I had the patience to deal with any mistakes he might make, whereas other ninja wouldn't. A relatively smart move, but if said mistakes did occur, it would also reflect on my record as a failed mission.

Great.

Speaking of failures, he still wasn't talking, and was getting close to noon. It was beginning to worry me. I didn't need him getting cold feet during a mission like this.

"You're being surprisingly quiet; you aren't feeling ill by chance?" I asked, glancing over at him with a questioning look. He did seem pale. He didn't reply so I pressed on, "Well?"

"I'm fine, just thinking," he said, avoiding my eyes. He seemed nervous around me. I hadn't done anything to intimidate him, so it was confusing. I decided to try and coax him out of it by trying to ignite his usual annoyance with me.

"There's a dangerous action, though, judging you, it's probably something explicit," I remarked tilting me head skyward. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him scowl.

"Yeah, you wish that was all it was," he shot back.

"Is that a threat, Jiraiya?" I asked coolly, looking at him.

"No, no! Don't get the wrong idea… I'm not plotting anything malicious, I just have stuff on my mind that I normally don't." Something other than a voluptuous woman? Oh my, the apocalypse must be coming.

"Care to share what that abnormality is with me?" I asked, skeptical. Was he worried about the mission? I hope not. Worry leads to indecision, something that can be fatal when you're undercover.

"Not particularly."

"I think I have a right to know if it's distracting someone who's supposed to help me on a mission," I pointed out. The last thing I needed was a spooked Jiraiya to screw everything up.

"I had a weird dream, is all."

"What was it about?"

"Why do you care?"

"For the same reason as I explained before, idiot. I could careless otherwise," I reassured. Well, that may have been a little lie. Whatever was bugging him clearly must be connected to me, or he wouldn't keep shooting me little glances out of the corner of his eye. Naturally, I'd like to know about things that are connected to me.

"All right fine, I dreamt that we made out and went a little too far," he blurted.

…Wait. What?

I stared at him for a moment as his lightly tanned complexion grew visibly redder. I wasn't sure what to think of that. Was it a joke, or the truth? Both seemed plausible from the way he was blushing. Either way, it was strange, even for him. I decided to write it off as just another of his bizarre and unreasonable jokes.

"Jiraiya, please refrain from your sick jokes and tell me the truth," I sighed, shaking my head, letting my hair hide my puzzled expression. I hoped it was just a joke. What if it wasn't? What would that mean?

"Okay…I dreamt that you, Tsunade, and Sensei got wounded really badly because of something I did…and its kind of bugging me," he said, casting his grey eyes downward. That caught me off guard again. It was eerily similar to the dream I had. I would like to say I was relieved that his first explanation had been false, but this didn't sit well with me either.

"Oh… Well, it didn't happen, so don't worry about it. You need to be focused on this mission, or what you dreamt may come true, got it?" Talk about being a hypocrite. I was still a little shaky about my own dream, so I really had no right to be scolding him, but it seemed to do the trick.

"Yeah, but who put you in charge?" he demanded, his usual self coming back.

That was close. I was worried he'd be weird the entire mission.

"I have experience with these kinds of missions, you do not. Seniority, Jiraiya." Sure, we were bickering again, the opposite of what Sensei wanted, but if it meant getting some normality back between us, it was well worth it.

"Fine, whatever."

"I'm curious…what gave you the idea for that ridiculous fake dream? Quite disturbing." Stupid thing to ask when things had finally seemed somewhat normal between us, but that response had just been too far out there. I wanted, needed, to know why something like that had even crossed his mind.

"That was the point," he said, grinning stupidly at me. That annoyed me, so maybe that's why I lashed back at him more cruelly than was probably needed.

"Or perhaps," I started, a smirk coming to my face as the perfect response came to mind, "that your level of perversion is so high that it has caused you to cross the line of hetero to homo, hmm?" I mocked.

"And you call me stupid…" he muttered, small amounts of red blossoming on his face again. That really confused me. I had just teased him, and now he was blushing? Could I have stumbled across something…?

"Yes, yes I do. Are you implying that I'm the same by making that remark?" I tried to steer the conversation away from something I didn't even want to consider, and it sort of worked.

"Duh, smartass."

"Oh, language. Have I hit a nerve?" The bad thing was that I was almost certain I had. A nerve I never thought Jiraiya would possess.

"Just shut up and go back to being freakily quiet, please?"

I shrugged, glad to have a reason to drop the topic entirely. I plastered on a fake look of smugness to hide my true confusion about the matter. Could my skirt-chasing teammate actually have those kinds of thoughts about me? I shuddered at the mere thought.

We remained silent for the rest of the trip. It wasn't until we reached the outskirts of the town that we even acknowledged each other. We had to make sure our packs wouldn't give away our true ninja identities. If they did, the mission would fail before we even had the chance to look for information. It wasn't much of a problem, but it couldn't be ignored.

"I think we should find somewhere to stay first, as it is already getting late," I suggested, breaking the heavy silence between us. I glanced towards the horizon, finding the sun fast approaching. Jiraiya merely nodded, choosing to keep his silence. Still touchy it would seem.

We entered the town and started our search for a place to stay. We had been to a few hotels, all full, and finally found one that had an opening, but…

"We do have one room, but I'm afraid it only has one bed. Will that be a problem?" the lady behind the counter asked, looking up from the registry.

"Thank you, but no, we'll keep-" I started, but Jiraiya cut me off.

"We'll take it." I glared daggers at him as the lady smiled and handed him the key.

"It's on the second floor, three doors to the left. Enjoy your stay." What was he thinking?! One minute he goes from being completely detached and mostly ignoring my existence, to accepting a room with only one bed? What's with him?

As soon as we got into the room, I let him have it. "What the hell were you thinking?" I demanded.

"Hey, we've already been to the nicer hotels in this town, and they had no openings. It was either this, or something sketchy, or no where at all. If it's such a problem, my prince, I'll sleep on the floor," he shot back. "Besides, it's cheaper if there's only one bed."

I let out a sigh. He had a point…but that didn't calm my suspicions. I was still leery of that "fake dream" and this wasn't helping matters.

"At least it's a large bed," I considered quietly, setting my things down. That was probably the only advantage. Had it been twin sized…who knows what would have happened.

"So you won't force me to sleep like a dog?" he asked. I felt a small smile tug at the corners of my mouth.

"We'll see."

"Jee, thanks."

"I guess its kind of late to start our mission for today, so you can do what you want," I said, glancing out the darkening window. "Just don't do anything stupid," I added as he practically lunged for the door.

"Yes mother, I'll be a good boy," he remarked, the door closing behind him.

As the room grew darker, I reluctantly got up and turned on the night table lamp, putting it on its lowest setting. I normally would've greatly enjoyed the silence, but that night, I found it disturbing. Too many strange things had happened since we set out. First, Jiraiya's odd reaction to finding me by the river…then our dreams…and then his uncharacteristic silence and drastic mood swings.

The silence gave me the chance to ponder these things. That wasn't something I wanted. In attempt to banish the thoughts from my mind, I kept myself busy, studying the map of the city, filling out the mission journal….etc. When 11 o'clock rolled around, Jiraiya still hadn't come back.

Not very surprising.

Letting out a sigh, I took a long hot shower hoping it would help me sleep. When I was finished, I slipped under the sheets of the bed, and it was then I was glad we chose the hotel. Moonlight was pouring through the curtains and I knew it would bring on rest quicker. Curling into a tight ball, I closed my eyes, hoping that the next day would be normal.

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