Characters: Temari
Summary
: Hiding your mouth behind a silk fan will do wonders for your desirability.
Pairings
: None
Author's Note
: Just an insight into the way being trained as a kunoichi might have affected Temari's mindset.
Disclaimer
: I don't own Naruto.


Smell the incense burning and the perfumes that cling to me like a sweet cloud. Behind it is poison and knives, but if I am careful you will never know till your heart stops beating and your eyes are like marbles on the stone floor.

She discovers it at fourteen, an awakening that comes to kunoichi truly absorbed in their tasks and dedicated to the art of war. It is like the blooming of a rose with its thorns, spreading petals crimson as fertile blood towards the sun and though Temari is precocious she is too young yet to sense that there may be any danger in this, in coming to this state so soon in life.

The art of bewitching a man or a woman with the body and yet still remain untouchable is a time-honored practice for kunoichi. Any woman who can master the art ought to be proud, and upon Temari's induction into this natural state of being she is no longer a child but a woman.

A woman.

A woman at fourteen.

A woman at fourteen who can send every head turning her way without ever saying a word. Her gleaming emerald eyes ensnare the hapless like flies in a gossamer spider web. The curve and sway of her hips as she walks turns hot, helpless eyes on her from all directions. Silk swishes and a full, triumphant laugh followed.

Temari's father and brothers hardly notice the changes in her. Her sensei does, casting a wary eye around because as aware as she seems to be, he's not entirely sure that she's aware of the extent of her power's reach.

Temari has no fear of overreaching, though maybe she should be. From what she can see, the worst she has to fear in this new world of incense burning and blood spilling over the glowing coals is losing to another woman that which should be hers.

Silk fan over her mouth, Temari, young as she is, always watches, keen eyes always open.

The world is full of hot sunlight, and she will use the desert's heat to great effect.