Onnagata

"You look like a girl." Jiraiya tells Orochimaru this when they first meet. Tsunade smacks him on the head for saying it and Orochimaru just blushes and weakly offers an 'I do not' as a defence. Jiraiya can be forgiven for being tactless: he's only a child.

"You look like a girl." They're older now, in their early teens. Jiraiya's lifelong obsession with women has already started and his words to Orochimaru are not intended as a compliment. Orochimaru insults Jiraiya in reply. Sarutobi has to step in before Jiraiya gets too wound up.

"You look like a girl." Several years have gone by and it's still not a compliment; it's an excuse. It's Jiraiya's reasoning for kissing Orochimaru. His hair feels like a girl's, his long fingernails feel the same on Jiraiya's skin and Jiraiya can easily wrap his arms around Orochimaru's slender body -- Orochimaru is every girl Jiraiya has ever gone out with.

"You look like a girl." It's a mistake, a regret. Orochimaru looks like a girl, but he's not. Many girls may have occupied the side of the bed on which Orochimaru is lying, but that does not make him the same. Jiraiya wonders how long he can keep up the pretence.

"You look like a girl." He says it affectionately now, as if it's a pet name. Orochimaru still insults him, but he smiles as he does so. Jiraiya feels the same way about Orochimaru as he has felt about many girls.

"You look like a girl." Jiraiya is choking back tears and he's embarrassed because of it. Orochimaru is leaving the village and Jiraiya can't stop him. Insult, compliment, it doesn't matter any more. Except that it still does to Jiraiya.

"He looks like a girl." Jiraiya is sitting in a bar with Tsunade, both of them drunk already. Tsunade finds it hilarious and so does Jiraiya. Fondness, regret, it's all still in there. Buried deep in the back of his mind, but it's definitely there.

"Well, I am a girl. I'm much better than him, right?" Tsunade grins, before falling onto Jiraiya's lips. She won't remember doing so in the morning.