Grasping at the Sky

Chapter 20: Recovery

The restless tapping of her pen hitting the desk had become a common sound to her in the last hour of time. Kira stared at the blank sheet of paper, a neatly folded letter with a ripped open envelope sitting beside it. Tenten had written her a short letter checking in on her. Things had been so busy in the days following the war that a full month had passed since they'd last been able to talk. The letter had been brief, but still held more content than Kira's reply. She couldn't think of anything to write back to her friend; nothing had really happened that needed to be shared.

Kira sighed and rubbed her eyes, looking around her desk in hopes of inspiration. Her eyes skirted around the three photos and the small collection of books passively before coming to a rest on her tonfas. Kankurō had apparently found them and picked them up when she'd been rescued. One of them looked fine all things considered but its twin was another story. The wood was snapped in half, the hidden blade shattered, making it ready for the trash but Kira couldn't seem to get herself to throw it away. They'd been a gift from Kankurō and her very first real weapons. Even if they were unusable she wanted to keep them.

She'd have to get new ones either way.

Sitting next to her weapons was the half empty jar of face paint she'd used during the war. The paint Gaara had found and given to her. Staring at it, she could nearly feel the touch of his fingers on her face and her neck as he had painted her face for her. At the time she'd just seen it as him helping a friend out who was too worried to come up with anything to draw. Now though, the touch seemed more intimate to her, made her skin flush when she thought about it and a shiver run down her spine.

Grabbing the jar she quickly opened a drawer in the desk and stashed it there out of sight.

The quick movement jarred her leg and Kira winced, frowning down at her cast-bearing appendage as if it had offended her. A month of time had passed and Kira still didn't know how to deal with her injury. Everything else had healed; the stitches in her face removed two weeks ago, though it seemed the one that cut across here lip would leave a scar behind. The stitches in her shoulder and side had come out three days ago and while sore in places, her leg was really the only thing left hindering her. It would continue to do so for a while yet, dragging out her medical leave with it.

Kankurō had taken her place as Gaara's guard again for the time being. Even if the puppet master had broken his arm, it was healing much faster then her leg and didn't completely stop him from being able to do things. Hobbling around on crutches left her slow, unsteady, and bored. You could only do macramé for so long before all of the knots started to look the same.

Maybe she'd go see about finding a book to read. Nodding to herself, Kira set the pen down and pushed away from her desk, grabbing the crutches leaning against it. Maneuvering herself onto them even as her underarms protested, she got onto her one leg, thankful the cast had been done at a slight angle, just enough so her foot wouldn't touch the ground.

Leaving her room she passed through the Kazekage's home – her home now, she reminded herself – and headed toward the door to leave. The only sounds she heard came from the kitchen as per normal at this time of day. Everyone had things to do, jobs to take care of and Kira envied them just a bit. She would have done anything to be back to work; being bored out of her skull gave her too much time to think about things she didn't want to think about.