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They never said "rematch," through all the fights over the years. At first they didn't have to, and then it became something more.

Temari wanted it as much as Tenten did, in a way: it had a different kind of reality than the fight beneath the eyes of all their teachers and fellow genin, in a room stripped bare of the environment that shaped their skills. When Tenten first approached her ("approached" being defined as "embedded a shuriken in a tree a whisper away from Temari's neck"), she laughed and accused her of masochism.

"No," Tenten said. "And you know better."

She didn't really, not at first, but it became plain to see soon enough. Temari and her winds were still a cruel match for Tenten and her weapons, but with the forests of Konoha all around them, the fight became a more elaborate thing. Even though she still won, sometimes, surrounded by trees (any one of which could be hiding a walking arsenal), Temari felt she was pinned to a wall with knives through her clothes, cold steel brushing her skin, immobilized and at the mercy of the other kunoichi.

The feeling passed quickly, but when it came, she never knew whether to be angry or excited. To be afraid never occurred to her. Long experience had taught her that there was only one thing she had to fear, and that was her brother. The rest of the world could not intimidate her.

They both fought from a distance, and so they never touched. Every so often Temari found a gesture, a movement, a stance peculiarly touching. When she caught a kunai by the ring, a single finger casually hooking into it. When Tenten dropped back to the ground after seeking the treetops to avoid a slicing blast, and for a moment she seemed like she was half-kneeling, fire in her eyes and knives in her hands. But those were illusions. They were apart. Walls of wind and shuriken barred them from each other.

One day, the walls shifted. Maybe they'd been shifting for some time now, and Temari simply hadn't noticed. That day, she casually lifted her fan to deflect a simple row of shuriken, only to realize too late that the trajectory of the shuriken was a little unusual. They twisted at the last moment and tore into the fabric of her fan. She stumbled, unbalanced by the attack on her weapon instead of her, and then the next wave came. This time it was more than shuriken; it was also darts and knives and spikes and everything at Tenten's disposal.

The barrage swept Temari off her feet and pinned her to a tree. She could feel a sticky dampness and pain where blades had cut through her skin. She made no noise, merely watched with narrowed eyes and a controlled expression as Tenten approached. The other kunoichi was quite composed herself. If anything, there was maybe a hint of satisfaction in her expression--but even that was hard to make out.

She removed the weapons one by one, setting them down on the ground afterwards. "Your jutsu aren't a problem," she explained briefly, without excess emotion, "when I'm using chakra to guide my shuriken in midair."

"I can counter that," Temari said. Blood flecked her lips and tongue as she spoke.

Tenten paused at the sight of blood there, glancing down the rest of her body to check for deeper wounds, then back up at her face. Finally, she said, "You bit your lip."

"I know," Temari said. She felt Tenten's hand on her thigh, bracing to pull one last kunai free of her skirt. Then she was free, and the touch vanished. She stumbled away from the tree.

"You should get back to the village before the blood loss gets much worse," Tenten said, "but I think you'll be all right." She paused, the set of her mouth and jaw hardening. "Eventually." She turned and knelt to start cleaning her weapons.

Temari did not ask her if this was about revenge, because she knew it was deeper and simpler than that. Instead she turned and walked back to the village, carefully putting one foot in front of the other, undeterred by the scattered pains digging into her as she moved.

When she got back to Sand, Kankurou asked her what thornbush had attacked her on the road. She shoved him for that, hard, because it was none of his business.

It was two months before she returned to their clearing in the forest, but when she did, she came on the same day of the week and at the same time as she always did. She was only a little surprised to see Tenten waiting there. But the other kunoichi was standing calmly at the center of the clearing, her hands free of weapons, her stance not yet combat-ready. Temari thought without meaning to of those hands on her thighs, and for a moment she paused in her approach. Then she started forward again.

"I wasn't sure you'd be here," she said with a smirk. "I thought you might have decided you were finished with me."

"After just one fight went my way?" Tenten smiled slightly. "There's a lot more to do."

"You think you'll catch up with me?" Temari shook her head. "Give up."

"I don't see you trying to maintain your record."

They were closer than they'd ever been, closer than Temari had realized at first. She wasn't sure how that had happened. "I can do that. But I don't see you going for your weapons."

"You first," Tenten said.

Temari started to go for her fan, but something about the way Tenten looked at her stopped her in mid-reach. She hesitated, and the other girl closed a hand around her wrist. "I tore you apart last time we met," she said, her voice low and intense. "Why did you come back?"

"I tore you apart first time we met," Temari said. "Why did you come to me afterwards?" She managed a smirk, although it felt a little less steady than usual. "Don't tell me revenge. If that was it, you wouldn't be here now. Besides, you're not the type."

Tenten's eyes narrowed. "How do you know me well enough to say anything like that?"

The way you smile when you finish a move, Temari thought. The set of your shoulders as you prepare to fight.

The way you exhale in controlled sighs at your failures, and the way you catch your breath at your narrow escapes.

The way you turn when I walk into the clearing. The way you hold your weapons before the fight starts.

The way you look at me.

She didn't speak. After a moment Tenten pulled on her arm, and she fell or threw herself forward. Their lips met and parted slightly. The kiss was wet and slightly awkward, and Temari did not know exactly what to do. Then Tenten caught her lower lip between her teeth and bit.

Temari did not draw away, but pressed her hands onto Tenten's shoulders and dug in her nails. Neither of them paused to think now, neither bothered to wonder how right or wrong this was. For once, they touched each other instead of each other's attacks, and neither wanted to stop.

Then Temari pushed her down, and Tenten sank back, pulling Temari down on top of her. At the last second, though, she turned, twisted around, and straddled Temari, pinning her down. She leaned over and pressed fluttering, furious kisses into Temari's exposed throat.

Temari thought of painted knives disguised as butterflies.

She slipped a hand into Tenten's pants and clasped her fingers tightly around the inside of a thigh. Tenten froze, and Temari took advantage of her sudden vulnerability to arch up from the ground and push Tenten down. She began to pull the other girl's shirt open.

Tenten got the better of her in this match: she simply tore down Temari's top (one strap burned as it dragged over her shoulder before snapping) and ripped open the mesh beneath. Temari pulled back as Tenten reached for her breasts. Instead she pulled open Tenten's shirt and fell upon her, trying to draw one breast into her mouth. In the end, she had to cup it in her hands first. In that moment of distraction, Tenten pulled the rest of Temari's outfit away, leaving only a ragged coating of mesh.

Still preoccupied with the feel of her mouth on the other girl's breast, Temari took a moment to split her attention enough to wrench down Tenten's pants. In that moment, Tenten put her hands on Temari's hips and rocked against her, twisting until they'd flipped over. Temari retaliated by biting down on the nipple between her teeth. Tenten's mouth opened, but she held back any sound. Instead, eyes narrowed fiercely, she reached down between Temari's legs.

Temari shivered at the touch and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Tenten started to smile, then caught her breath as Temari twisted beneath her and pulled herself up again. She started to push Tenten back down, but she could no longer muster the focus to do so, not with that hand between her legs and Tenten's body pressed against hers. She drew a hand up Tenten's thighs and into the slick place between them.

She thought, incongruously, that she had never felt more acutely separate from the other girl before, more aware of the different skins they wore. Then the heat from below swallowed that thought.

Temari had meant to hold herself back, to make Tenten come first, but in the end she wasn't sure who came first. In the fumbling intensity, with both of them choking on cries they wouldn't let out, it was too hard to tell. She only realized time was passing when she felt her hand cramping up, but she didn't dare stop first.

As it turned out, they only stopped when they fell over. For a moment, they were tangled, and then they pulled away.

Temari sat up. "You tore my clothes," she said, and she had the funny thought that in an hour she might as well have imagined this. After all, clothes could be torn while fighting.

"You shouldn't wear dresses and mesh bodysuits," Tenten said, attempting to do up the snapped ties of her shirt again.

Temari rolled her eyes and tied the broken strap back together for now. "You've got twigs in your hair."

"You have grass stains on your legs."

Temari shook her head and walked away.

As it turned out, she was wrong; an hour later, she could still smell sex and Tenten on her. She thought: This won't go away, then laughed to herself.

When she got back to Sand, Kankurou asked her if the thornbush had attempted to molest her this time, and she threatened to make toothpicks from puppets. And the next month, she came back to the clearing in Konoha.

Tenten was poised and ready when she got there, her weapons out. "I hope you've found a way to counter my new jutsu."

"I hope you've improved it," Temari said.

Kunai cut the air into pieces to get to her, but this time, she managed to deflect them. She smirked and look back at Tenten. Their eyes met, briefly, and Temari felt a small jolt. She thought, I still--

She did not think it. She thought, I always--

She did not think it. She thought, We are apart, and we are together, and we are not together. It was like this from the start.

And the wall of wind crashed against the wall of steel.