Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto or it's characters. What I do own is a nicely made e-tool and this hand braided lynching rope. I'm just waiting for Kishimoto's address or the next chapter of the manga. Whichever comes first.

Warnings: Spoilers for current manga.

Notes: Drabble request for Duelist off my LJ. S/he wanted TemarixKankurou and this is what came. I kinda like the way it turned out.

Painted Scars
by fairady

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At any given time you can see three different patterns on Kankurou's face. The purple colored design is the most obvious one and often draws attention away from the other two. He changes it on whim, but usually he settles on a design and sticks with it for a few months.

The second pattern can only be seen when you look at his skin and contrast the paler tones to the darker. It's the design of his previous lines worn long enough to make his face tan unevenly.

The third is even harder to see, and can only be seen up close and when his face is clean of paint. It's made of scars in the design he'd chosen when an enemy had thrown a corosive agent at him. The acidic liquid had stuck with the paint, just enough to burn away at his skin for several hours before he realised what was happening.

Temari carefully traces the edge of a scar trying not to let the cloth of her sleeve smudge it. It's harder to do than Kankurou makes it look, but he's had far more practice than she at it. She had no experience with it, she didn't even like to wear make-up. There's probably something wrong with the fact that her brother is more adept at wearing make-up than she is.

The Sand jounin shrugs the thought off as irrelevant.

Straightening Temari eyes Kankurou's face critically. Not too bad for her first try. The outline down his left check isn't as straight as it should be, but the scars she'd been using as a guide got blurry there. Something must've smudged the paint there on that mission. She didn't want to wash it off and risk ruining the rest as she just didn't trust her own free hand to be any better.

So, it would just have to look a little odd.

Satisfied she sets the thin brush down and picks up a larger brush. She leans down over Kankurou and uses it to begin to fill in the design she's traced. It took her a good twenty minutes to do the outline, this promises to take longer. She doesn't mind though. They both have time to kill and Kankurou just didn't look right with a bare face.

Kankurou slept on oblivious to the red eyed woman above him as his body continued to recover from the poison no longer in it, and the fever that had come shortly after.