Disclaimer: Once again, the harsh reality hits me- I don't own anything that you recognize

A/N: This is a rather uncommen chapter, as the last chapters were focused on the younger generations...but this one is dedicated to Jiraiya-sama who lived through more hardship than any of the previous shinobis just yet. I don't know which impulsive nerve that I struck that day when I started this...but I must be feeling that I need to do this adorable yet perverted man some justice. I hope you like it. It is set just before Jiraiya actually appeared in the series (at the hot spring)...he's making his way back to Konoha.

Summery: The sea was vast and interesting...but the shore was always home. The Sannins would be home one day.

Links

He couldn't say he was surprised when what happened, happened. He supposed he had always known something like that would occur. Sooner or Later. One day. Some time…way into the future.

Just, not then.

The three of them grew up together. Literally. The Ninja Academy did not exist back then. From birth, the three of them were placed under Sarutobi-sensei. (The old man even changed their diapers!) Tsunade-hime, because her grandfather had been too busy building Konoha and her parents -like his- were killed in the war between the countries. Orochimaru…well, he was found in the arms of his dying mother in the woods. And Konoha took him in.

He didn't remember much of what occurred before his training which started when he was five.

But one thing he knew- they were connected. In some ways.

He couldn't really say that he believed in destiny. Not really. (After all, if there was such a thing as destiny, he'd surely be long dead.)

But sometimes, some things just had to be fate.

Like how they were linked.

The three of them were destined to be great. They were Sarutobi-sensei's students. The Sandaime's three. The old man was, after all, famous for being the Professor of the Fire country. But he had only taken one team.

His team.

They trained, ate, played and slept together because they were a team. Linked. (He swore Sarutobi-sensei would've told him that they'd bathe together when they were infants if Tsunade hadn't been behind the old man with a fierce glare ad her fist readied.) Because he knew them, Jiraiya knew what was normal. Normalcy couldn't really describe them for they were not. They were the Sannins. Normal, to them, was an entirely different thing.

It was normal for Tsunade-hime and Orochimaru to work well together in the bell retrieval. It was normal to have him tied up on the log at the end of the session. It was normal for Orochimaru to answer questions correctly even if Jiraiya couldn't fathom how the reply was related to the question. It was normal for him to make comments about Tsunade's breast or rather, back when they were Genins and Chuunins, the lack thereof. It was normal for Tsunade to get angry and then break one or two of his ribs with her punch because her breasts had always been a sore spot. It was normal for Orochimaru to smirk.

Normally, Orochimaru did not smile.

Then they'd grown up. Like they were meant to. Strong and renowned in their own field. Respected by all in the Shinobi word. Because they were the Sannins, the Sandaime's three. Only three.

It was normal for them to work as a team of three instead of four. It was normal for their missions to be more than difficult and successful. It was normal for Orochimaru to try out some odd justu that neither of his teammates knew existed in dire situations. It was normal for him to be an element of surprise; after all, Jiraiya was not called the 'wild man' of the village for nothing. It was normal for Tsunade to get pissed at both of them because they'd worried her and depending on whom; destroying a building or hitting hard enough to hurt for days but never crack a rib or injure an organ. It was still normal for Orochimaru to smirk.

That was why he should've found it odd that day, to see that bordered into a smile on his face.

They'd stood outside the room with a heavy coppery odor. He'd watched Tsunade, eyes wide, pale; ran into the building and stared. Her eyes brutally wide in horror and pain. She'd tried to walk into the room but he'd stopped her, saying that it was best if she didn't go. But Orochimaru, nearly smiling, had said that it didn't matter since she wouldn't be able to recognize the body anyways.

Tsunade probably didn't hear or noticed that smirk, bordering into a smile, on Orochimaru's face. She'd been too shaken by the blow of Nawaki's death. But he'd seen and heard it. He should've found it odd that Orochimaru had said such things. Yet he didn't. He had simply berated him. Because he too had been so lost in his teammate's grief and had thought it the same reason that those words sprouted from Orochimaru's mouth.

Jiraiya had never seen Tsunade that depressed. Her sadness was like rust on chains, spreading like a disease in their chain.

Then Tsunade met Dan. The only man who she'd shown more than a fleeting interest. Jiraiya had felt her love for Dan, and Orochimaru probably did too, because neither had made a crass or sarcastic comment about her relationship as they had always done. Tsunade did not question them; since they were a team, she knew their approval.

Half a year later, Tsunade had left on a mission with Dan, but not with them –their team which had a hundred percent success rate and a zero casualty count. Four had left but only three returned. One of them was not Dan. It hadn't even been a S-class mission. But then again, Jiraiya realized now, it had been a war; therefore making all grades of mission equally dangerous as S-class.

After that, Tsunade-hime's hands had ceased their work in Konoha. Taking away from the war-traumatized village not one, but two pairs of healing hands.

No one had asked why. Because they'd all known. Tsunade had never really recovered from the first blow. And the second blow was just too much.

Her link broke. Drifted into the vast sea.

The link snapped but the rust remained. Staining the rest. Sarutobi-sensei became busier as the death toll rise in the damn war. Orochimaru spent more time alone. Jiraiya hadn't known the reason then. He did, however, noticed that Orochimaru leered a lot.

One day, a Chuunin came pounding on his door in the middle of the night. He'd opened the door, and within seconds, he'd wished he didn't. Sandaime had summoned him for an urgent mission. An urgent mission that held many significance – "Retrieve Orochimaru".

Orochimaru had betrayed the village. His lust for power had corroded his link. And Jiraiya had gone after him hoping to bring him back. So he wouldn't lose another part of their chain.

"I thought we're a team. The Sannins' been best friends since childhood. Linked."

He remembered seeing that full fledged, crazed smile on Orochimaru's face.

Normally, Orochimaru did not smile.

In that forest, huge and dark forest, Orochimaru had smiled. He'd laughed, sneered and leered at him for his stupidity, idiocy. But not once, did he deny their link. Not once did he renounce himself as part on the Sannins.

Orochimaru had struck him down and Jiraiya had let him. Because he had held fast onto the belief that they were still a team, no matter what.

He'd watched, lying on the dirty ground, as the paler man left, not even sparing a backward glance. He'd waited for the searching party that he'd known the old man would send out and suffered in his pain. Not the physical ones that his comrade had caused him, but the self torture of enduring another link being ebbed away from shore, their team and Konoha.

The searching team found him quickly and had taken him back. Powerless and sedated by his thoughts.

His last S-class mission: failed.

He had handed in his withdrawal letter to the Sandaime the next day. The old man took it without any comments or objections. A father letting his children go. Only hoping that one day they'd return.

Wordlessly, the Sannins evaporated.

All in the dark sea of the world. Their only connection to home was their thread of memory. A thread that would surely take them back to Konoha.

Then twenty-five years since he'd seen or heard any of them, while he was roaming the countries and collecting delightful data for his ongoing series, through whispers and gossips, he somehow learnt things about them. Tsunade-hime had picked up a new interest (or rather an old hobby which he'd thought she abandoned years ago). Orochimaru had been sighted north of the Fire. And he was sure, if the two of them had paid attention, they would've heard about him too.

The Sannins had emerged once again.

He, again, couldn't say he was surprised when what happened, happened. He had always suspected that it will come to pass. After all, broken links were bound for shore. Sooner or later. One day. Sometime. They would meet again…when they felt like it.

Jiraiya continued his trudge down a familiar road.

It was a perfect day to collect data.


A/N: Okies, that's my Sannin Contribution for now...So how did you like it? Review, please? Just to tell you...I've got a Yashamaru done, a Kakashi hatchling...and an Anko egg! Well...when I'm done with them I'll get some other (NejiTen or SasuSaku or NaruHina) done...and if you wanna read them, I'm sure some review would get me going! -huge grins-

Okies...I'm under the impression that if I don't blackmail, I won't get much review...so, review if you want more?