Temari fragment

I don't read Naruto fic anymore, but I'll read anything Sunfreak writes, especially if it's something new and full of eyeballs. (Shit! She beat me to it! XD)

Rather than rant about how much I hate Sasuke/Sakura, despite the fact that I have no interest in Naruto any longer, I give you this (I still like making shit up about Hidden Sand):

In Sunagakure, the word "kunoichi" is an insult.

Women cannot be shinobi in the desert; the sand strips away femininity the way it strips away skin- until there is nothing left but bleached bone. Those among the ranks of shinobi who happen to be female are as hard and weathered as the men, and as sexless as their weapons.

Temari bares her legs to the brutal desert sun and the equally brutal disapproval of her superiors, and hides the pale crosshatch of unburned skin on her thighs from her brothers and her father when she removes her skirt and mesh half-leggings. She ignores the whispers that tell her she should be ashamed, the voices that tell her to bind her breasts and cover her hair.

Temari is a shinobi, the equal of any man and the better of most; she is also a woman, and she will not let her family, her village, or the desert take that from her.

Women are meant to be protected, cherished. Shinobi are tools, to be used until they break.

Temari thinks of her mother and knows: she will not be protected, she will not be cherished, she will not be used.

And she will never break.
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AHAHAHADRIVEL *spontaneously combusts*