A/N: 'Cuz I adore lynnxlady and she likes the sennin. So, set waaaay back when- before Orochimaru-kun got irreversibly fucked up, before Tsunade-sama's Dan got his sorry ass killed, and before Jiraiya-chan went all "no touchies village peeps stay AWAY." Let's say the sennin are maybe chuunin-level, jounin- level- probably in their late teens. I'm not sure how old any of them were when they bolted, so I'm assuming it was sometime in their mid-twenties.

*

*

"A Thousand Cups of Wine"

*

*

When Jiraiya and Orochimaru talk it's almost always a fight, and half the time it's all Tsunade can do to keep herself from flashing them both just to get them to shut up. She doesn't want to give Jiraiya the pleasure, though. And she's not even going to think about the little smirk she knows Orochimaru would put on before he very deliberately licked his lips. He KNOWS what that stupid tongue-thing does to her.

They're a weird little group. They don't really have any goals outside of getting stronger just yet- they're maybe still a little young or maybe just a little indecisive. Right now, they just want the same things most teenagers want: a little attention and to come out on top. Jiraiya wouldn't mind getting a girl somewhere in there and Tsunade'd like to make sure no one else dies the way her brother and Dan's sister did and Orochimaru has this weird obsession with learning every jutsu he can get his hands on no matter how useless or how difficult, but mostly, they're just kids. Most of their peers steer clear of them.

They were grouped together because, quite frankly, they were the freaks of their year and their teacher didn't know what else to do with them. That lazy bitch and that loud loser and that closemouthed freak that no one could put up with. They can't even put up with each other half the time. When Tsunade's being honest, Jiraiya is probably the most well-adjusted member of the group, and that's saying something.

Sometimes she really hates this team.

Sometimes she really loves it too.

Orochimaru licks his lips distractedly and Tsunade has to take a drink before she gets distracted herself, thanking God for cheap alcohol and places that don't check ID. Jiraiya is too distracted checking out the ass of the same waitress Orochimaru is to notice Tsunade's discomfort, but Orochimaru himself does and gives her a little smirk. She glowers at him and considers tossing her drink in his face, but settles for dumping it over Jiraiya's scruffy head and calling him a pervert.

He comes up bitching at her with all the usual insults and she bitches back the way she always does and flips her hair and flips him off while Orochimaru grins in that one way he does that creeps out everybody else and drawls out some sarcastic something or other and Jiraiya snarls at him and then they're fighting again but Tsunade's in on it too and okay, yeah, Orochimaru isn't really fighting, just kind of baiting the other two, but that's just the way he always is. Because they kind of like each other, and they kind of love each other, except when they hate each other. So maybe they're friends, and maybe they're not. And maybe a hundred years from now none of this will matter or the whole world will be changed by it.

But right now, it's three idiot teenagers squabbling in a cheap restaurant and waiting for their dinner to come and with ten thousand tomorrows waiting in the wings. And ten thousand other groups like this have done this ten thousand times and ten thousand others will do this ten thousand more, and maybe they'll all end up happy or maybe they'll all end up in hell.

Or maybe they'll all end up like this, getting drunk together and being almost-friends. Which, Tsunade would say if asked, is really all you can ask for.

*

*

* ende *

*

*

. : in the company of good friends, a thousand cups of wine is not enough : .