Author's Notes: Tenten has a phobia. Features childhood flashbacks and a slightly erotic description of Orochimaru's tongue.
And the Woman Said Unto the Serpent
"Snakes."
"There are no snakes in there, Tenten."
"Oh yes there are! They're just hiding under the water so you can't seem them." She moves sideways, a prancing step. "I don't want to get bit."
"You can't get bit, there aren't any snakes." Neji's voice is matter-of-fact for a nine year old and he's looking at the water with a concentration so terrible, she almost believes him. Almost.
"Lee saw one yesterday," she reminds him, as he moves closer to the water. She does not follow. She is still years away from becoming his loyal, steel-edged shadow and feels no need to guard his back. If he gets bit, it's his own fault.
"Lee is an idiot," he remarks, apparently feeling no need to elaborate as he crouches down on the bank, touches a finger to the water. The surface ripples outward and she watches the rings move away, watches Neji's long hair fall over his shoulder.
"That doesn't mean he didn't see a snake," she points out. She's pressing the issue, she knows it, but she can't help herself. She has nightmares about pythons under her bed. Her father thinks it's amusing, her mother doesn't and neither does Tenten. She hates waking with the phantom feel of squeezing coils around her waist.
Neji rises from the river, no longer interested.
"Let's go train," he offers instead, and despite the heat, Tenten agrees.
Orochimaru is the accumulation of years of dread.
Everything about him screams snake in the grass and she feels slimy just looking at him. There's a poison in him to rival any cobra and she has the urge to unsheathe her katana and cleave his head from his shoulders as one would kill a snake too dangerous to live. The thought makes her stomach turn and her head ache.
It gets worse when he dodges an assault from Gai and his tongue slips from his mouth like a serpent and wraps around her right arm, halting her sword inches from his neck.
She wants very, very badly to scream. She can feel it rising in her throat and clenches it tightly between her teeth, refusing to show her revulsion in front of her teammates.
She dreams about that moment later though, long after the battle is finished, only Orochimaru's tongue keeps going, sliding down between her breasts, over her hips, looping around her thighs until she can't move, can't breathe. Hot saliva burns into her skin and she wakes screaming, wild-eyed with terror and the urge to check under her bed.
If she's lucky, she'll be alone in her room with no one to witness her fear. If not, Neji or Lee will be there, too late to interrupt her nightmare but just in time to see the results. Lee is concerned and motherly, but Neji is always silent.
He remembers the river and the summer she stopped swimming in it.
She's a guest speaker at the Academy when the children find a snake near the building. It's a small, green thing, and harmless. Her bones are tight with the strain but she let's them play with it, hearing their laughter as it winds gently through their fingers. A few of the boys soon get bored, however, and get too rough. Tenten finds herself rescuing the animal before its crushed and letting it go in the tall grass behind the school. It slithers off and she sits there a long time, until Neji finds her and stops near her shoulder.
"You know," she says to his silent question, "not all snakes are bad."
He takes this in stride. "Neither are people," he answers.
The next day, she swims.
END.