Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [2]

☾ 79 ☽

The week following the Fourth Great Shinobi War was quite as hectic as the battle – emotions were surging from losses suffered. People had passed on to the next world, and so many people had lost not only materials but their families. The sheer number of Konoha Shinobi that gave their lives in the war were given a joint funeral that was attended by the village.

It took a long time to think of things to be normal again yet Tsukiko found herself unable to sleep long hours without waking up in fear that she was missing something. She was not as injured as Naruto or Sasuke but her body felt fatigue very quickly. It had less to do with how much Chakra she was using to treat people and more to do with her intense emotions.

Both Tsunade and Sakura needed their rest after the war was over since they had given a bit too much of themselves up but Tsukiko was more than happy to take care of the medical care with Shizune while the two of them replenished themselves.

More importantly, Tsukiko wanted Sakura to recover emotionally and to deal with Sasuke, who was being kept in prison, and to not see Naruto recovering his loss.

Since both Tsukiko and Tsunade had moved into the old Senju home together, most of their long conversations went into the nights that Tsukiko was home, discussing the possibilities of giving some semblance of an arm to Naruto and Sasuke after them losing their arms.

In the end, the pair of cousins had come to the conclusion that using Hashirama's cells to cultivate an arm over Tsukiko's Shikotsumyaku bones to achieve that.

"You're working a lot, aren't you?" Sakura asked softly as she arrived into Tsukiko's office where the girl was looking through files. "I brought you some fruits, Tsukiko,"

"Thank you very much, Sakura," Tsukiko replied, giving her a tired smile. "It's the strawberry season, huh? I've always enjoyed them... but I suppose you already know that," She reached to pick one up to eat. "Were you visiting Naruto? He's usually asleep by now,"

"Yeah..." Sakura confirmed. "He was asleep when I visited... anyway, I decided to come and meet you instead. I'm going to come back to work from tomorrow,"

"I missed you around here," Tsukiko said, keeping everything light. "Let's work hard and get everyone feeling better quickly,"

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked, sitting down across from her desk. "Tsunade-Sama said you were just working all day and night. You should be taking some rest as well, you know? Have you had a full night's sleep after fighting that Kaguya woman?"

"Not full but I have been sleeping as much as I can," Tsukiko replied. "I just... feel horrible to be resting when my entire body is intact and I can move –"

"Most of the people are intact because of your continuous protection, Tsukiko," Sakura interjected. "I'm sure no one would mind if you were to rest a little more,"

"No... it's just that... I feel like I need to atone," Tsukiko muttered. "So much of this trouble came because of me, it extended because of me, and my ancestors played part in what brought about this suffering. I can't... sleep until I have fixed them all,"

"Do you want me to write Gaara a letter?" Sakura asked and Tsukiko flushed pink. "Come on, you always complained how it made you worry that he slept so little and now you!"

"I'm not tired, Sakura," Tsukiko whined. "I've got more Chakra than the average person, you know? I can handle staying up and helping out here –"

"No, you're going to bed," Sakura told her, pulling her out of her chair and dragging her out of the office, turning off the lights. "If you're really missing Gaara and want to cuddle up to someone, I can buy you a teddy on the way and you sleep the entire night!"