“You sure you want to do this? Last chance.”

“I’m sure.”

Temari chuckled at the swift reply, her expression betraying a confident smirk as she stood several meters away from the one she had humiliated all those years ago. For Tenten, while many details were different, the scene remained eerily similar to that fateful day back during the Chunin Exams. The day she and Temari were pitted against each other in mock combat. The day Temari had effortlessly beaten her. 

Much had changed since then. The both of them had matured out of their adolescence and were now well into their young adulthood. Temari’s black kimono now outlined the fully developed form of a woman and Tenten’s figure was much the same. Both had grown in ways both seen and unseen; they were taller. Stronger. Smarter. No longer children or mere Genin, but fully realized shinobi. Now, it was simply a question of if history would repeat itself. 

Times had since changed, of course. The villages of Leaf and Sand were now allies and this was but a friendly spar brought about by happenstance. A mission had sent Tenten to the Sand Village and a chance encounter at a restaurant saw her run into her old Chunin Exam rival. It was far from an unpleasant meeting. In fact, Temari proved instrumental in helping Tenten find her target and apprehending them. Then came a lovely chance to reminisce.  Once all was said and done, however, Tenten had issued her challenge. 

“You’re still sore about that?” Temari had laughed at the time, much to Tenten’s irritation. It was no doubt a trivial memory for the blonde Sand Ninja; but for Tenten it remained her first real taste of defeat. A blow to her pride as a ninja. There was no glory or prize to be gained from any of this. Just the knowledge that she would have finally surpassed her. Ultimately, it was a very selfish and arguably even petty request. There was no reason for Temari to indulge her. In fact, it came as a surprise when Temari grew quiet and smirked. “Sure, why not? Don’t think I’ll take it easy on you just cause our villages are allies now though.”

Thus had circumstances brought them back to this point. Just like the Chunin Exams.

The site of their duel was a tundra of desert and stone not even a hundred meters outside of the village walls. The heat was mild by the scorching standards of the wasteland. Wafting heat vapors created mirages of water in the distance and even the village itself almost seemed like an illusion from afar. Tenten paid it all little mind, her eyes squarely locked on her personal adversary. 

By any and all reasonable standards Temari was her natural enemy. Tenten was a master of projectiles and Temari wielded the wind itself. A fact that Temari was clearly aware of based on her smug exterior. It was that same matchup that saw Tenten bested before, but things were different now. She was different now. 

Silence soon fell over the pair. A breeze gently danced across the sand dunes and over them both, even Temari growing serious as the pressure mounted. Each moment passed in a long, tense quiet. Neither ninja so much as twitching a finger. Then, like the bottom fell out, both women snapped to action in an instant. Half a dozen kunai were drawn between Tenten’s fingers while Temari reached for the hulking fan along her back. Knives were thrown as the fan swept across the air, kicking up a sudden cyclone that batted aside the kunai with ease. Both women wore bloodthirsty grins directed at one another. 

Tenten was the first to follow up, unfolding a massive scroll that seemed to summon dozens of projectiles to strike at Temari from all sides. With her foe occupied, one final weapon appeared from the scroll: a bo staff. Tenten seized it and rushed in while Temari idly deflected the earlier weapons with another sweep of her fan. She’s wide open! Tenten’s weapon danced through the air as she jumped and readied a downwards strike. Far too quick for Temari to have enough time to use her cumbersome weapon a third time. The surprise on the Sand Ninja’s face said it all - Tenten had her. Even if she defended herself it would come at the expense of her precious weapon. 

“....hmph.”

Her surprise turned into annoyance. Temari slowly turned, her hands releasing her fan as Tenten had hoped. However, something felt…off. Temari made no apparent attempts to shield herself. Instead, her fingers came together in a hand sign. A sense of unease fell over Tenten as she did not recognize it. Wind Style, perhaps?

No matter. The young kunoichi was still poised to strike. In a ranged battle Temari would be unstoppable, but in close quarters Tenten would reign supreme no matter what was thrown at her. Whatever her foe had in store for her, she was ready. Though it wasn’t Tenten that appeared to be her target. Instead, Temari brought her open palms onto the sands below. A moment later the reason why became apparent. 

At Temari’s behest the individual grains of sand were kicked up and carried into the air. A few at first, but then dozens. Hundreds. A gentle breeze that swiftly evolved into a violent sandstorm cyclone with Tenten at its epicenter. Even with Temari within striking distance, Tenten’s staff crashed against the edge of the cyclone, her foe safely on the other side. Smiling that same smile as she had that fateful day years ago. Something about it sent chills down Tenten’s spine. A feeling that she had stumbled into a trap, but it was too late. The storm gained momentum, churning faster and faster until the outside world vanished behind a wall of dancing sand. No attack seemed to come for Tenten; and yet she couldn’t deny a sense that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. 

It began with her staff. A weapon she had trained with for hundreds of hours like all her weapons. She knew each of them as well as she did her own body; and her staff was definitely getting heavier. A subtle difference that soon became not subtle at all as the pressure continued to mount in Tenten’s hands. Her clothing grew loose and fluttered in the winds as she neared the ground - a ground that paradoxically seemed to be getting much bigger the closer she came to hitting it. Except, it still wasn’t getting closer at all it felt like. 

Some kind of weight-based jutsu? Some sort of Genjutsu perhaps? The possibilities raced through Tenten’s increasingly disoriented mind, but the constant that held her attention was scale. Not just of the ground but of…well, everything. The cyclone was rising all around her. The staff in her hands had somehow tripled in length. Her clothing had grown oversized and loose; and it continued to expand around her until her wardrobe invariably began to drift apart. The winds carried Tenten’s sandals away. Half a dozen pouches filled with all her weapons and tools fell along with her pants to the ground below. Her shirt was sent into the storm and lost to the intense winds. Even her bo staff grew too large to hold onto and she was forced to let go. She was robbed of everything in an instant, and the ground below had now become a vast desert all onto itself. Her own clothes had transformed into a landscape beneath her; and as the winds began to die down and the storm faded, Tenten was finally allowed to land upon the surface of her own white gi. The only thing she still had to her name were her undergarments. A mercy allowed by Temari, perhaps. 

This was impossible. It had to have been some kind of illusion! But her instincts told her this was very real, and there was only one possible explanation for this if it wasn’t an illusion; unfortunately, a thunderous crash from afar confirmed the worst fears Tenten had yet put to words.

“I was hoping to drag things out a little bit first, but you scared me there.” Came a booming, almost deific laugh from the heavens. 

There was another crashing sound. One that heralded a powerful tremor that sent Tenten spiraling within the folds of her clothes. A pitiful figure that now clawed blindly through this new alien world she found herself in, chasing the light that peeked between layers of cloth that enveloped her. It was like climbing her way out of a sort of cloth mountain, and the idea that Tenten once wore this mountain seemed absurd. Her mind raced trying to understand what had happened as she pulled herself out and into the open. There she was met with the reality of her situation - and the gulf between her and her supposed rival.

At first it was wholly unrecognizable. A wall of black that filled the horizon before Tenten. It resembled the village walls for a moment, but the differing details quickly caught the young ninja’s attention. Resting above that black wall were pillars of skin tone; and beyond that it rose even higher. Higher, and higher. Something so utterly, incredibly gigantic that it was unrecognizable and yet also impossible to mistake as anything else. It was… a foot. One that led into an even larger leg and up into a body that seemed to go on forever. Tenten’s eyes trailed further and further up, her neck beginning to ache and yet still she had yet to see the top. Once she finally did, the enormity of what she was looking at forced her to her knees. 

Towering far, far, far above her was Temari. No longer a mere woman, but a living, breathing landscape. A tall mountain that stood hundreds, perhaps even thousands of feet high; but even that wasn’t quite true. Beyond her, Tenten still saw the familiar desert all around them both. She saw her own equipment littering the area at a similarly titanic scale. Temari had not gotten bigger. Tenten had gotten smaller.

Temari eyed the speck trapped in the folds of her own wardrobe with thinly-veiled mirth, one hand settling itself on her hip as she tapped her foot. Each idle footfall was a crash and a tremor onto itself, dominating Tenten’s senses in a way she never could have imagined. 

“Pretty sure this means I win.”

THOOM…!     THOOOOM…!   THOOOOOOM….!

Every mere tap of Temari’s foot was greater than the most powerful earthquake. It made the world beneath Tenten shudder and tremble and sent the woefully small girl tumbling each and every time. The mighty impacts brought with them the noise of countless tons of sand crunching underfoot and forced Tenten’s hands over her ears lest they threaten to burst. Yet, even past all of that, Temari’s triumphant voice was inescapable. She. Had. Won. And she was making damn sure Tenten knew that. 

Tenten searched for her voice - for something she could say to bite back. She searched for some technique that could somehow turn it all around. Her mind raced while every tap of Temari’s foot made her heart quiver with a visceral terror. She’d envisioned this duel for so very long. She’d prepared for it. She’d trained for it. She’d planned for it. And in the end she was beaten just as easily as the first time. How?! What did - What kind of jutsu was this?!

“An old technique of Lady Chiyo’s.” Temari boomed in response to the question written on Tenten’s face. “They apparently used it to transfer the injured back in the day, but I figured it had some other uses. Wouldn’t you agree?”

With a conceited chuckle, the blonde titaness began to pace around the bundle of clothes Tenten was trapped on. A shark circling her prey. The situation more than spoke for itself as every step Temari took continued to send earthquakes out towards her bested foe. Minor sandstorms were kicked up each time her sandals crashed into the dunes and threatened to buffett and bury the shrunken kunoichi in a wave of sand. She clung to her monolithic clothing, frustration flushing her face a bright red as Temari basked in her victory. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! 

Temari did not seem to particularly care what ran through the smaller woman’s mind. She came to a stop and leaned forward, her body seemingly getting even bigger as it drew closer. Her shadow fell over Tenten and with it came a sudden visceral, almost instinctual urge to flee. To run and struggle and do whatever she could to escape no matter how futile it may have been. Yet, paradoxically it was that same fear that turned her legs to lead. Temari was all encompassing. Her crouched form dominated and filled the skies before Tenten and blotted out even the sun itself. All she could see was Temari. All she could feel was Temari. All she could think was Temari. 

Now that same titaness was reaching down for her. 

Finally finding the willpower to move, Tenten hurried in a mad dash to escape the incoming hand. A wasted effort that earned little more than an eyeroll and derisive chuckle from on high. 

“I know to you it probably feels like you’re making some serious progress, but from where I’m standing…” A wall of tan skin slammed before Tenten, the whorls of a fingerprint now wide enough she could reach an arm into them. “...You may as well be standing still.” Another finger came in against Tenten’s back and helped to pluck the woman up. She was little more than a flea between the unstoppable grasp of the giant who had done this to her; and no amount of fighting against the vast, unending walls of skin made any difference. 

A sudden, intense pressure overwhelmed Tenten at the next moment. Almost like gravity had spiked a dozen times over and a storm was slamming into her from above. Much to her surprise, that instant of incredible wind was simply Temari lifting her. To her, she merely stood and raised her hand. To Tenten she had soared what felt like miles in the air in seconds and the sudden motion left a sickening lurch in her stomach. One that grew exponentially worse as she found herself held before a single all-encompassing gray eye. One so dark it was nearing black; and whose surface was such a clear sheen that in it Tenten saw her own reflection. The reflection of a frightened, defeated and, as she now realized, woefully, pathetically small woman.

She was but a speck between the tan pillars Temari called fingers. Whereas Temari herself was a monolith. A landscape. A force of nature. Almost a blur in the distance. All of that and so much more. Up close her face dominated Tenten’s senses with a sprawling smirk, the smaller woman struggling to recognize the visage as a person.

“Scared?” Came Temari’s almost mocking, thunderously loud voice. “Don’t worry. We’re supposed to be ‘allies’ right? Or…maybe you’re worried I’ll add a bit more pressure and you’ll just…” 

Tenten’s eyes widened as she felt the weight over her body beginning to intensify. She had  been lifted with a surprising amount of care, she now realized. Care Temari was no longer showing as her fingers started to add pressure. Frightened cries escaped Tenten’s lips while Temari’s grin merely widened. The young kunoichi’s hands reached to the skies, palms sinking into the finger poised to end her. “W-Wait! Temari stop! This isn’t funny! You might seriously crush m-!” 

Too late. 

The blonde’s fingers pressed together and ground against one another with Tenten caught between them. It was an incredible pressure unlike any she had known before. Awesome, unstoppable weight smashed her from all sides and rolled her around fields of skin while Temari indulged herself with another booming chuckle. The shrunken kunoichi swiftly felt her body being pushed to its limits and knew this was to be her end. Intense pain overwhelmed her senses. At any moment her bones would snap and her body would burst into a tiny smear between Temari’s fingers.

Any. 

Moment…

…Now…?

Tenten blinked, very much still alive even as Temari’s fingers eventually parted. Aching and very much alarmed, but somehow…fine? She looked herself over as though trying to unravel this paradox when the finger she was on twitched and sent her flying once again out into the vast, open field of Temari’s palm. Not even a moment later came the roaring laughter that could level mountains - and it was one hundred percent at Tenten’s expense. The shrunken woman was left bewildered, stunned, and then incredibly embarrassed. Even in defeat, it seemed she just couldn’t win. 

Temari laughed and laughed for a good minute, the noise mighty enough to nearly shatter Tenten’s ears if she hadn’t covered them. She relished in the moment, eventually settling down and regarding the speck in her hand with no small amount of amusement. “Didn’t you hear me? This technique was used by medical ninja. Would kind of defeat the point if people could just get crushed.” She allowed herself another laugh and shook her head.

“It’s not that funny!” Tenten huffed at the vast visage in the distance. 

“It’s pretty funny.” Temari snickered. 

“You almost gave me a heart attack! For a second I thought for sure you were gonna…”

“Crush you?” Temari rolled her eyes. “Hardly. No offense, but you’re not worth that much of a headache. No. Short of something extreme, you’ll be fine no matter what I do to you.”

Well now Tenten just felt silly. In the heat of the moment she’d failed to consider so many other factors. Which no doubt made the situation even funnier for the one who had done this. Of course Temari wouldn’t risk everything over some mean fun. “Whatever. Just grow me back already! You win, okay?!” She groused, her face now an extraordinary shade of red. 

“Hmm…” Temari considered her for a moment. “...No.”

“What?!” Tenten blinked, suddenly realizing that the wicked look in Temari’s eyes had not yet gone away. “...What…are you saying?”

“I’m saying…” Temari began, a gust of wind escaping her nostrils and washing over Tenten as her palm lifted before her lips. The soft walls in the distance parted and allowed a leviathan of a tongue to slip past. It gently, slowly, and deliberately traced along the pink of the upper lip. Like a predator signaling her prey.

“...Make me.”

With a booming chuckle that assured she was far from finished, Temari’s mouth opened even wider and her tongue slithered out. Her palm began to tilt towards it as the tip of her tongue met with her wrist just ahead of Tenten. Fear and rationale warred within the microbial shinobi. Surely Temari wouldn’t eat her….right? It was another mean game - it had to be! She knew that, and yet her body moved with a very real desperation. Even when she knew otherwise, logic had no place at this size.

Tenten scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could. At this very instant all her years of training had abandoned her. Everything she once knew and understood meant nothing. All she knew was a pink, saliva-covered wall was encroaching behind her; and she had to do whatever it took to escape it. Another bemused chuckle rumbled from Temari at the futility of it all. Her hand had become Tenten’s world, and no amount of running across the rolling hills of her palm would change the fact that it was still just a hand. Tenten was fleeing with all the power and ability she could muster. Yet all Temari needed to do was merely…tilt her wrist. 

Simply by doing that, she had turned the ground under Tenten’s feet into a steep cliff. One she had no choice but to contend with as Temari’s tongue slowly continued its ascent. The sudden motion sent the smaller ninja tumbling downwards until she managed to find a handhold in the soft skin around her. Gasping for air and frightened, Tenten looked down below and saw the endless wall of pink approaching quickly. Its march was inexorable and it left rivers of saliva in its wake across Temari’s open palm. Nothing could escape it as it finally reached Tenten and the kunoichi was lost in the embrace of countless taste buds. 

“Mmmm…~”

A low, pleased hum reverberated across the giant’s mouth, the vibrations rattling the speck marooned on her tongue. Tenten slowly picked herself up and saw the cavern of Temari’s mouth fast approaching. “No…Temari stop! This is going too far!” It was doubtful Temari even heard her; and if she did - she definitely wasn’t listening. 

Her tongue returned to its natural resting place and introduced the shrunken ninja to a world unlike any other. Raw, fleshy pink walls dominated everything around her save for an array of towering ivory mountains. Streams of saliva oozed freely from seemingly every crevice and everything aside from Temari’s teeth appeared to subtly pulsate and move with a life of its own. Tenten struggled to stand on her uneasy footing, every fiber of her being screaming of the danger she was in. She turned, saliva drenching every inch of her small body, and saw the outside world only through the window of Temari’s lips. Compared to the darkness of her mouth it was almost blindingly bright, but that window was now closing.

“Wait! Temari you can’t! Please!” The pitiful tone she spoke with surprised even Tenten, but it did nothing to assuage her towering tormentor. She made a last ditch effort to sprint towards freedom only for the tongue to writhe underfoot and cause Tenten to slip face first. Even so, she lifted her head and saw the light beginning to fade, reaching out towards it. A final plea for mercy that was ignored. Temari’s lips closed, and then her tongue swished to and fro to savor the morsel who was now trapped within her mouth. 

There were no words to describe Tenten’s plight but pathetic. The woman who so boldly challenged Temari and was certain of her victory was now tossed in the dark, humid air of her rival’s maw like a crumb. Up became down. Left became right. Directions grew meaningless and without any light she had no idea where she was or what was happening. All she knew was Temari was relentless. Her tongue slammed Tenten into the rough roof of her mouth. Against her cheeks. Into her teeth. She rolled the pitiful speck around and let her fight against the tides of her saliva while a wicked chuckle droned across the mouth. She was a tired, battered, broken shell of a woman, her hair a matted mess with even her hair ties and headband lost in the chaos. All the while the poor, despairing microbe fought against the unstoppable. It never did anything of course. This ended when Temari said it ended.

It could’ve lasted a few mere seconds or several agonizing minutes. There was no way to know for certain. All Tenten knew was, eventually, light filtered back into her prison. She found herself in what felt like a lake of saliva beneath Temari’s tongue, the liquid viscous and thick and difficult to swim through. With virtually no strength left, Tenten barely mustered a cry as her personal lake was run along by the force of her captor’s mouth, swishing back and forth until it finally escaped as a globule of spit.

The ball of spittle shot across the arid desert air like a meteor, both it and Tenten crashing into the sands below with an explosive impact. Only then, at long last, did she have a moment to rest. 

Already, the saliva she was trapped in began to melt into the sand. Tenten barely managed to lift herself up between coughs and gasps for air. Her body continued to ache and now the heat of the sands burned against her skin, but despite everything she was still alive. Though a part of her perhaps wished she wasn’t. She welcomed the fresh air as her hand wiped matted hair out of her eyes. At least she was finally allowed a moment to try and process everything, but a moment was all it was.

Temari remained in the distance. Looming. Towering. Her every step a now-familiar earthquake. Tenten’s belongings were now tucked thoughtfully under her arm and her eyes honed in on the speck from afar. Despite the incredible size difference, she seemed to know exactly where Tenten had landed; and the look in her eyes suggested nothing that was far from a good thing.

Slowly, she approached. Every step meaningfully dragged out so Tenten had ample time to comprehend the awesome power her stature entailed. Temari stepped over sand dunes that rose dozens of feet high and her sandals flattened them to nothing, leaving behind only a craterous imprint of their soles. After all that had transpired the last few moments, Tenten had learned to dread the woman’s approach. The logical voice in her head that said this was all a mean game that would be undone was a lowly whisper under the terror and paranoia that now dominated the Leaf Ninja’s thoughts. It gave her new life as she ran and clawed at the sands to try and escape. All the while Temari’s looming figure drew ever closer. Inescapable. 

The ground frightfully shuddered with her every step. Soon a dark shadow fell over Tenten, and the blonde stood before her, blotting out the sun once again. 

“It really is an impressive technique, isn’t it? All of that and not even a scratch on you. Why I could even…” Her foot slowly began to rise, her intent dreadfully clear. “...And you would be fine. Isn’t that amazing?” Temari couldn’t even deliver the line with a straight face. Her wicked grin betrayed an almost perverse pleasure in what was happening, both in her victory and the absolute helpless state Tenten had been reduced to. The worn and dirty sole of her sandal hovered above Tenten like a divine hammer poised to offer judgment. Heaps of sand rained freely from the footwear and threatened to bury the shrunken Leaf Ninja anew yet again. It was a moment dragged out for as long as possible. Temari’s foot lingered in the air, dancing to and fro as though deciding when to strike. Taunting Tenten and feinting her, but never quite going through with it.

“D-Don’t you dare!” Came Tenten’s voice, a mere shell of the woman who spoke minutes before. “If you do I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Temari snorted. A tilt of her foot was all she needed and her sandal began to slide forward. Slowly at first, but then faster. Sliding…off her foot. By the time Tenten realized what that would mean, it was too late. The massive black sandal was already freed from Temari’s foot and descended upon the wayward Leaf Ninja deceptively quickly. Left with no choice, Tenten tried to shield herself from the unstoppable. The impact was an explosion that kicked up a fresh storm of sand and wind. Though, as certain as she was she would be crushed yet again, Tenten blinked, untouched as the crash happened just ahead of her. The sandal had narrowly missed, Temari’s upended insole looming as a wall onto itself. It completely blocked everything ahead of the young ninja, hammering in once again how woefully small she had become.

At that same moment, a shadow swallowed her as something truly massive soared overhead: Temari’s bare foot - now the sky above Tenten. It dominated her vision as it danced across the air and rained bits of sand that had clung to her skin. The shrunken ninja nursed her head, unable to look away from the enormity as it gently rested its toes against the side of the upturned sandal. 

It was a humbling sight. Even so, Tenten couldn’t deny a bit of relief. She breathed a bit easier. Even Temari wouldn’t be that cru-

The heel finally came right when she’d lowered her guard. The full, unmitigated weight of a giant bore down upon her as Temari twisted her foot. Her tan bare sole crushed her into the scorching desert sands, plush skin completely and utterly enveloping the microbial ninja beneath her heel.

“Told you I wouldn’t take it easy on you.”

She normally hid her thoughts and feelings well, but it was painfully obvious how deeply Temari relished every moment of this. For their first bout she had metaphorically crushed Tenten like a bug. Now she was quite literally doing it. Beneath her bare foot the tiny woman was despairing and in pain. Her body was tired and strained and slick with fluids not her own, but even then Temari did not relent. She drank in the moment for several long seconds, twisting her heel without relent as though dealing with a particularly stubborn breed of vermin. Though she didn’t so much as make a sound, Tenten knew Temari had the most wicked smirk on her face.  

She didn’t speak because she didn’t have to. What could anyone say that the situation didn’t say for them? Tenten had been bested. Easily. Brutally. She had been smashed, chewed up and spat back out and wasn’t even allowed that without an even more degrading followup. Temari’s bare foot devastating her was merely the latest in a frustratingly long line of humiliations.

If the giant had truly wanted to, that would’ve been the end for Tenten; and Tenten couldn’t decide if she should’ve been relieved that Temari had shown restraint - or terrified that this was restraint.

Either way, Temari did not care. The blonde lifted her foot with Tenten very much still embedded against her heel and gazed upon her from over her shoulder. “Gotta say though, this is a nice look for you. If the whole ninja thing doesn’t work out, I think you might have a promising future as an ant.” She let out one last amused chuckle, taking care to internalize the scene of Tenten buried against her foot; and likewise, Tenten had no choice but to commit the opposite to memory.

From where her brutalized body remained plastered to Temari’s almighty heel, she saw the landscape of her foot go on for hundreds of feet. Ascending past it and out into the heavens, the rest of her body remained untouched. Perfect, some might say. For all her efforts and all she had been through, Tenten hadn’t even scratched her. Her great accomplishment in this whole duel was when she scared Temari once. And for that she had been reduced and robbed of any dignity and agency. For that she had been humiliated and made into little more than a plaything. Forget being Temari’s rival. She was no better than Temari’s chew toy. 

“You know, as luck would have it my next mission is taking me to your village.” She boomed, offering Tenten one last domineering look. “And it can get real lonely on the road without a companion or two.” She said with a leading, almost musical edge to her voice. Temari arched an eyebrow suggestively and shifted her foot in the air, as though awaiting an answer to an unspoken question.

After what she had been through, it took the poor woman a moment to realize what Temari was getting at; and once she did, the color quickly drained out of Tenten’s face. “Don’t…Don’t you dare!” She blubbered, her voice pathetic and only serving to widen the grin on her tormentor’s face. 

Temari merrily ignored her, her foot swinging forward and slamming down upon Tenten and the ground below without care. “Relax, I’ll turn you back. After we get there.” She promised in between steps brutalizing the ninja underfoot. 

Closing in on her discarded sandal, Temari lifted it back upright with her toes and slid her foot back in with a practiced ease. The last thing Tenten saw was her well-worn insole fast approaching. “Temari…please.” She pleaded one last time before being crushed between Temari’s foot and footwear. The giant hadn’t even heard her.

With everything done and all of Tenten’s possessions secured, Temari turned to the village and took the first of many steps back home. It would take at least a week to reach the Hidden Leaf Village on foot. A week that would no doubt prove to be one of  the worst in Tenten’s life - and certainly the best one in Temari’s. 

“Heh, you should challenge me to duels more often.”