Tsunade stared in disgust at the door before her. Behind it stood the secret lab of Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru's student. A few weeks after the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha, the grey haired man left the village under suspicious circumstances. Orochimaru chased after their student but lost his trail near the border with the Land of Waves. After their return, the Yondaimes sent them and their teammates to investigate Kabuto's lab. And that's where they were now.
Behind Tsunade, Orochimaru stared at the door with a blank look while Jiraiya worked on the seal keeping the door locked. The blonde woman sighed and put her hand on their shoulder. The snake summoner flinched slightly at the contact before they looked down in surprise at their partner.
"It's not your fault Orochimaru. You couldn't have known." said Tsunade.
Orochimaru frowned but nodded. They weren't in the mood to discuss his feelings. Jiraiya sent them a crooked smile from where he was working on the door and Orochimaru rolled their eyes. Since Kabuto's deflection, their teammates tried to cheer them up at every occasion they had. It was greatly appreciated and very much needed. A few minutes later, Jiraiya finally cracked the seal and the Sannin entered the lab.
The room they entered seemed innocent. A normal lab you would see in the hospital with hospital beds, medical equipment and a wooden desk in the corner. Tsunade went to check out the equipment while Orochimaru rummaged through the desk. They opened case files and read through scrolls. For the most part it looked like innocent medicinal experimentation. Statistics on the success rate of new pills. Nothing suspicious.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya stuck his nose behind a weirdly placed heart monitor. All the other medical equipment was near the beds, but this one was on the opposite side of the room. He slowly moved the heavy machinery to reveal a closed trapdoor in the floor. He signaled to his teammates and they both came to check it out. Tsunade ripped the trapdoor open to reveal a hole with a ladder. They all nodded before climbing down.
The moment they reached the room underneath, the smell of rot invaded their noses. Jiraiya scrunched up his nose while his two teammates remained impassive. Already used to the smell of decay from their work in the medical field. They walked down a small corridor before finding a large lab that confirmed the Yondaimes' suspicions.
Several cylindrical tanks filled with a suspicious liquid lined the room. Inside it swam bodies connected to wires. Some were children some adults, all in varying stages of decay. One of the first tanks held a corpse so decayed you could barely tell it was human. It was missing limbs and part of it's abdomen.
Tsunade put a hand to her mouth in shock. She slowly walked forward towards one of the tanks and stared at the experiment. Orochimaru wordlessly passed her and read the report next to the tank.
”Experiment 0-9c-77-mk. Sex: female, origin: Yamanaka clan. Mokuton/Hashirama cell fusion.” read Orochimaru. ”Hime-”
But Tsunade already left his side. She stomped her way to one of the only empty tanks and punched it. The glass shattered into millions of shards, releasing the liquid inside. It spilled on the floor as Tsunade breathed heavily.
”I am going to murder that bastard when I get my hands on him.” said Tsunade in a low tone.
”Nobody will stop you.” said Jiraiya, putting a hand on the blonde woman's shoulder. ”Now come on, we have a job to do.”
Tsunade nodded and joined her teammates in looking through the lab. Orochimaru found where their student kept all of his files and started looking through them with a stony face. Jiraiya silently took a seat next to them and also read some of them. It spoke about the construction of artificially made Sharingan eyes using Uchiha DNA obtained from unknown sources. Tsunade joined them soon after and dropped a stack of files on the small office desk.
”These are all the files of the experiments in the tube. Although I think Kabuto stole his only successful experiment.” said Tsunade.
”What do you mean?” asked Jiraiya.
The blonde woman took a deep breath to calm herself. ”The tank titled 0-56o-700-mk is empty, however the report states that the experiment was a success. Whoever was in there managed to live through the Mokuton cell fusion.”
”I see...We'll have to tell the Hokages.” said Jiraiya in a somber tone.
Throughout the conversation Orochimaru was deadly silent. Their face was a stone mask as they read through the files before them. A normal person wouldn't be able to tell, but snake summoner was greatly affected by their student's actions. After all, the only thing that kept them from going down the same path were their teammates and Sakura-sama who, like with many others, was like family to them.
”You're nothing like him.” said Jiraiya, reading their thoughts.
”Am I though? I also do human exp-” started Orochimaru, only to get interrupted by the blonde woman.
”You experiment on voluntary given corpses. Not living, breathing humans. I'll admit, you're not 100% alright in the head-”
”Tsunade!” exclaimed Jiraiya.
”But! At least you know when a line needs to be drawn. That's what makes you different.”
Orochimaru stared at their teammates in silence. Their golden eyes seem to be searching for something in their teammates' expression. And when they found it, they nodded before gracing them with a small smile.
”Let's get out of here.” said Orochimaru. ”I think Hime needs some booze and to break something.”
Tsunade smirked. ”Damn right I do.”
...
After the talk with the Hokages, the Sannin returned to their shared house in the Senju compound. They moved in together after they decided to make their relationship official. Nawaki moved out after he got married before the third shinobi war, so it was just them. Tsunade already consumed her need to hit something after a brief sparring session with Sakura and the destruction of training ground 5. So they simply entered the house and attacked the liquor cabinet. Tsunade chose to drink directly from the sake bottle while Orochimaru, the only one with manners in this team in their humble opinion, poured himself a glass of vodka with juice. Jiraiya just laughed and poured himself a glass of whiskey on ice.
They spent the night drinking their minds away, before falling asleep on the couch in a tangle of limbs.