Author's Note: The challenge was make-believe.

Tayuya didn't believe in fairy tales or happy endings. She and her comrades weren't the guardians of a magical forest kingdom. Orochimaru-sama wasn't a just and honorable king. Kabuto wasn't a wise sage who would guide them unwaveringly on their path to save the world from evil. Kimimaro wasn't a kind and protective leader. None of them were going to die peacefully in their beds with a smile on their lips and peace in their hearts after a lifetime of joy and contentment. Life didn't work that way, especially for the inhabitants of Otogakure.

Tayuya didn't have any parents to rescue from a demon. She didn't have a knight in shining armor who would sweep her off her feet one day. All she had were a bunch of idiots she had been stuck with since she was six, none of whom were anything close to knightly, and chances were they were all going to die in some gruesome and horrible manner on some half-assed mission Orochimaru-sama sent them out on for a laugh, probably before any of them made it more than a year or two past puberty.

Tayuya wasn't an elven princess, with shining golden hair that hung past her knees and a marriage to a handsome prince in her future. She wasn't pretty. If anyone was to go by the insults Ukon and Sakon shouted at her back, she was barely even a girl. But sometimes... sometimes... Kidoumaru would smile at her after a mission, when they were all covered in gore and blood and usually at least one of them was hurt badly enough to have to be carried home. He would smile, and with the faintest hint of a blush that was barely visible against his dark skin, he would tell her that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. And every time, Tayuya would snarl some insult back at him, calling him an imbecile and a halfwit and three kinds of stupid. But somehow... it was the only time that she was able to make herself believe, even though she knew it was a fairy tale as foolish as all the others.