Grasping at the Sky

Chapter 1: Introductions

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon"
― Konrad Adenauer

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The wind blew across the sand village tousling Kira's hair and grabbing the ends of the many strings in her hands, scrambling them. Frowning the teen brushed the grains of sand away from them, before continuing to weave the colorful earth tones together into patterns of knots and twists, her hands moving methodically with speed only known to those who have done the motions for years.

As her hands moved, twisting string this way and that, she listened for the door to open in the room she was sitting on top of. The Kazekage's tower was the highest point in the village and his office was at the very top, making it both a good vantage point and strategically vulnerable, Some Kira had taken notice of years ago.

"They should be done with the meeting soon, Kira."

She looked behind her from her seat on the roof, her black hair swishing as her ponytail brushed over her shoulder. Her two companions were standing, one stiff and straight, the other leaning forward slightly so she could look over Kira's shoulder. The girl was smiling, her blond hair rumpled by her ANBU mask sitting atop her head like a hat.

"Yeah. Thanks, Aya," Kira muttered, glancing behind her friend to look at the other person on the roof with them.

All three of them were ANBU, but the two girls were younger than the man behind them, who kept his almost plain mask, the bottom half covered in red cloth, in place. Shura was a stern man, something that two girls probably needed to keep them in line, even if one of them had been in the force most of her life.

Kira relaxed her neck again, going back to her belt in the making. There were twenty pieces of smooth twine in all – half of them were tan like the sand and half were dark blue. Her steady hands worked, taking the one section she had been working on – the middle – and finishing off another flat circle that was mostly tan with just one small blue bead in the middle. She was almost done, just another hour or so and she'd have a new belt for herself.

Even with her hands busy, she wanted to be done waiting. Her need to calm her mind was much greater than that of finishing her latest project. Her anxiety had been on high since they had gotten back.

They had just returned from a mission in the Land of Grass, and yet they had already heard enough to make her blood simmer in frustration and worry. Gaara, their Kazekage, had been kidnapped a week ago after single-handedly protecting the village, leaving him vulnerable. Thankfully, their allies in the Hidden Leaf were able to rescue him. Their team hadn't even known about it until today; no one had contacted them. She hadn't been there, and it made her feel a bit sick to her stomach thinking about it.

Of course, they wouldn't have made it back in time, but still...

She sighed, carefully rolling up her work and pocketing it in one of her pouches where a handful of glittering beads waited to be used as well. She tilted her head, turning around as she heard the door below them open and footsteps leave the room as the meeting ended. It had been about what happened, she assumed, as Gaara had only been back a few days and was recovering.

"Come," Shura's voice commanded from behind them and Aya smiled slightly before slipping her mask back on, a sad oni-like face replacing her ever-cheerful one. Kira had never understood that, how she could always smile, even after everything. Then again, she and Aya were quite different from each other.

Making sure her weapons were in place on her thigh, she pulled back on her own wolfish mask. She had learned from a teasing Aya that it was not actually a wolf but rather a desert coyote, though she still wondered if it had originally been a trophy from the Leaf before their alliance since most ANBU masks from the Sand were some form of oni or comprised completely of cloth like her two teammates'.