There were no bathhouses in Sunagakure. Not like this. The heat of the dusty desert air meant that the last place any of the citizens wanted to be was in heated water, choked by steam. All of the Suna baths were cold. But in Konoha, shinobi loved them. The air was different here; cool and fresh in the summers and with a biting chill in the winters. It was something her brothers would never understand, but Temari loved finishing a brutal training session or coming back from a long mission and sinking into the hot waters, letting the tension in her muscles melt away. There didn't even need to be an occasion: sometimes the Konoha kunoichi would get together for a day at the bathhouse for no other reason than enjoyment. Truthfully, it was one of her favourite things about visiting Konoha.
Temari let her robe fall at the side of the pool and stepped in to the water. The steam wasn't thick enough to hide the women's naked bodies from each other. When she settled down into the heat, she realised that they were staring at her.
"Temari," Ino placed a hand very cautiously on her friend's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
She didn't know what she meant.
Ino's eyes flicked downwards at Temari's body. "Do you need to see a medic?"
The girls were gathered round her now, concerned, and Temari needed to use her training to keep a smile from her face. She had no marks on her limbs or face, anywhere that would show, but on the areas that were normally hidden by her clothes, her skin was marked with wounds. Some had yellowed with age, some were in her favourite stage of vivid purple, some still red. They were bite marks on her hips, lashings over her breasts, bruises on her inner thighs. If she'd turned around, they would have seen the scratches down her back, the letter "N" carved into the flesh of her right ass cheek.
She reassured Ino that she was fine, and not to worry about it, her face as straight as she could keep it. But the girls wouldn't let it lie.
"If something happened on that last mission-," Ino pressed.
"Do you need a vengeance squad putting together?" Tenten seemed far too excited by the prospect.
"We can call Sakura-" Hinata offered.
"No," the Suna kunoichi raised her voice to silence them. She could have had Sakura remove the wounds at any point, but the secret truth was that she loved wearing them. "These are sex injuries."
The girls recoiled.
After a moment, Hinata ventured a follow-up question, but Temari cut her off before she could finish her thought. "He isn't…?"
"It's consensual, relax."
The women sat in silence for a long time, the Konoha girls lost to their imaginations and re-evaluating their life choices. Temari let her skin bathe in the hot waters of the pool, breathing in the purifying steam.
On the other side of the screen separating the pools, the Konoha boys were also enjoying a day at the bathhouse. They watched Shikamaru disrobe, letting the war wounds show before stepping into the pool.
"Temari again?" Kiba asked.
"Yup."
"Nice."