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“Ino-chan, can I ask you for something?..”
She looks up at Naruto, who is smiling awkwardly.
“Yeah, sure. How can I help?”
“Do you know the language of flowers?”
Ino raises her eyebrows in surprise.
“Yeah, I know a bit...”
“There’s one special person I’d like to send flowers to,” Naruto begins. “I want to say a lot of things to this person — sincere and important words — so help me put together a bouquet...”
“Is that so?” Ino smirks. “It’s a girl, right? Spill it — do you want to give a bouquet to Sakura-chan?”
She laughs out loud, but seeing Naruto’s embarrassment, quickly apologizes — it’s bad business to lose customers.
“Look, I have a whole catalog,” she rustles the glossy pages. “What kind of feelings do you have for this person?”
“Something... very warm. I think about them a lot, it’s a flutter, it’s... a lot of tenderness. And also...”
“Is there room for passion in your head?” Ino winks.
“Maybe... yeah, just a little. But there shouldn't be too many flowers that mean passion,” Naruto stammers. “I don't want to scare them off. I want to say that I love only this person, that I’m devoted only to them...”
Ino smiles. She gathers the bouquet: plenty of Canterbury bells, two sprigs of lemon balm, a few tulips — a tulip in the shinobi world means love — and boxwood.
“I want to ask for forgiveness.”
One gentle pink lily.
“To say how loyal I am.”
A bundle of forget-me-nots.
“I hope for reciprocity.”
A complex acacia leaf.
“Hey, can I borrow the catalog for a bit? I need to write down some of the plants for myself, or I won't remember. I promise I’ll bring it back!”
Ino smiles indulgently — of course you’ll bring it back, or Sakura will flay you alive. She wraps up the beautiful bouquet and, at Naruto’s request, a couple of potted plants.
And after Naruto turns around and closes the shop door behind him, it suddenly dawns on her: “Wait... him?”
At home, Naruto writes out in his own handwriting what each flower means and attaches it to the bouquet. He ponders how to sign it so others won't find out who gave the Kazekage a bouquet. Let them think it’s some mysterious girl from Konoha. Naruto securely fastens the folded small slip of thick paper. Inside, a neatly drawn narutomaki showed prominently.
He looked at other people's flowerbeds, scanning the flowers in the bouquet, wondering if he had said everything he wanted to... His mind gnawed at him: “No, not everything, you forgot to mention something important.”
“Ino,” he asks, returning to the flower shop and ducking his head into his shoulders, his ears burning crimson, “please give me a rose. That one over there, the brighter one...”
“Lord Kazekage, you were asked to have this delivered. And a letter. They forbade opening it — it’s for you personally.”
Gaara tears his eyes away from the document, shifting his gaze to the bouquet and the pots...
“A vase with cold water, if you please,” he says.
“Right away, sir.”
In the letter, written in Naruto’s handwriting, it explains what each flower means in the language of flowers, and Gaara looks at them, examines them... clasping his head in his hands as he realizes something with horror.
“Temari, listen, here’s the thing,” he addresses his sister, “did anyone from Konoha happen to give you or show you any flowers? You’re there more often than I am...”
Temari is puzzled by the question at first, hesitating: “Well... what business is it of yours?”
“I was just... sent a bouquet from Konoha, and I’m trying to figure out what’s what,” Gaara says. “Just curious.”
“I see — so you’ve got admirers in Konoha too?” Temari smiles. “Look. This is lemon balm; you can throw it in tea. Someone made tea like that for me once...”
“Mutual understanding... that’s one thing he and I certainly have, yes.”
“A sprig of boxwood, see how it shines?”
“So, loyalty... To me? But what about Sasuke, I wonder? Well, let's see...”
“A lily.”
“Asking for forgiveness... curious, for what?”
“Acacia.”
“Hoping for reciprocity? I already answered him with the most sincere friendly feelings. Though some of them I would have preferred to bury deep inside myself...”
“Canterbury bells. Look how many there are!”
“I’m not the only one thinking about him constantly...”
“Tulips! These red ones.”
“Oh?..”
“And this is a rose. Look, it doesn't even have thorns. Crimson-red, just like your hair,” Temari smiles. “If someone gave you a rose, it means... Gaara, are you listening to me? Gaara, you’re completely red!” She snaps her fingers in front of his nose. “Gaara!”
He blinks, shaking his head.
“Did you zone out again from sleep deprivation because of Shukaku?” Temari asks.
“Yeah...” Gaara tells her, mentally adding, “Almost.”