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Ino loved Valentine’s Day. Not only because she would end the night with Sai, but because owning the flower shop in town, she was bursting with customers all day long. Business boomed; Ino got to help her friends, her mentors, her townsfolk all pick out the perfect bouquets for their partners. And if she heard some juicy gossip in the process, even better.
“What are you and Sai going to do tomorrow to celebrate the day of love?” TenTen asked, leaning over the counter. Ino was about to close the shop, so there weren’t many customers in the shop currently..
Ino smiled as she arranged a bouquet. “Sai’s taking me to a hot spring. What about you?”
“Oh, I’m not doing anything special. Hinata and I were thinking of doing the whole singles thing and going out for some fun, right?” TenTen winked at the quiet girl beside her.
Hinata fidgeted with the pen on the counter, “Yes, it should be fun.”
Temari wasn’t too far away, looking thoughtfully at the different flowers on display. “How do people pick which flowers to get?” she muttered.
“Are you buying Shikamaru flowers?” Ino asked her.
Temari looked a little sheepish. “I was thinking about it.”
TenTen laughed. “I can’t imagine Shikamaru buying you flowers. It’d be such a drag,” she mimicked.
“I say go for it. Not enough women buy their men flowers,” Ino encouraged her, giving TenTen a look.
“I agree. I bet Shikamaru would love it,” Hinata agreed.
“Hey, ya,” TenTen put her hands up defensively. “I think it’s a great idea.”
“I’ll help you pick out some flowers, Temari, just let me finish this order first,” Ino told her.
The bell over the door chimed, signaling that a customer had come in. She could hear him before she saw him. Naruto was standing at the nearest flower display talking animatedly to himself.
The girls giggled, and Ino handed off the order to her mother, who had come in through the back, her errands completed. Making her way over to Naruto, Ino stood beside him silently for a moment, listening to his ramblings.
“Need some help, Nartuo?” she cut in finally.
“Oh,” Naruto started before turning and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “A little. I’m just shopping for some flowers for Sakura, you know.”
Ino nodded, “I figured. Any idea what you want to get her? I could make a bouquet I know she’d like.” As Sakura’s best friend, it’d be a walk in the park.
Naruto shook his head, “I want to pick it out, but I’m just not sure what to get her, yet.”
Ino rattled off the different flowers they were looking at with each meaning behind them, which Naruto seemed to find fascinating. She was still rambling when Naruto stopped her, “I had an idea.” Ino frowned, not sure if she’d like his idea. “I want to buy enough bouquets to cover Sakura’s whole office at the hospital. Enough that she’d barely be able to move.” He laughed to himself like he was pulling the world’s funniest prank.
Ino sighed. Financially, this was a jackpot. But it would be a lot of work to get ready and deliver. “Can you afford that, Naruto?” she asked skeptically.
“I’ve been saving up,” he insisted. “But you don’t have to have a friend's discount, do you?”
Ino narrowed her eyes at him, and Naruto held up his hands defensively. “Okay, okay. Is there a discount if I deliver them all myself?”
“I’ll take off the delivery fee,” Ino nodded in agreement. One less thing to worry about. After she rang up Naruto and gathered all the vases and made sure all the arrangements were to her liking, Naruto made enough shadow clones to grab all the bouquets needed and scampered off. It was quite the site, like a plague of Naruto’s, escaping her little shop like a clown car.
When he’d left, Ino flopped into a chair. “That kid has more energy than he knows what to do with. I don’t know how Sakura keeps up with him.”
“I’m glad the two of them finally made it official,” Temari said, coming over with a vase and some flowers picked out.
“They were dating long before they realized that’s what they were doing,” Ino commented as she grabbed the flowers and arranged them with some greens, and grabbed some other flowers she thought would work with the arrangement.
“I didn’t think Sakura would get over Sasuke long enough to notice how she felt about Naruto, honestly,” TenTen shrugged.
“I think she would have noticed,” Hinata said quietly.
The girls all looked at her, knowing how she used to feel about Naruto. “Sorry Hinata if this is awkward for you,” TenTen said.
“Not at all!” Hinata was quick to reassure them. “I’m glad Naruto and Sakura are happy together.”
Ino knew she meant it. “I’d say they are for sure.”
“They have to be the happiest couple in all of Konoha,” Temari remarked.
“Hey, Sai and I are the happiest couple. Or what about you and Shikamaru?” Ino exclaimed.
Temari gave Ino a look, “You know what I mean. They’re both so outgoing and happy all the time. Sai and Shikamaru are not.”
“She’s got a point there,” TenTen agreed with a chuckle.
“They both deserve to be happy,” Ino agreed. “Especially after everything they’ve both been through.”
Valentine’s Day wasn’t something really special to Sakura Haruno. It was just another day of the year, a day the chocolate and greeting card companies created to rake in more money. Not that she had anything against the holiday, but pining after a boy who never reciprocated your feelings could really harden your heart. And she’d spent the better part of a decade doing just that.
It wasn’t until she had started dating Naruto that she could see what the fuss was about. The thing with Naruto was he didn’t wait for holidays to show her how he felt. He was such a stark contrast to what she had been used to. He wore his heart on his sleeve; Sakura never had to wonder where she stood with him, what he felt about her. He told her. A lot.
Sakura was learning to do the same.
On Valentine’s Day, they liked to do something different every year. Their first year together, they had gone to an arcade and spent the entire time seeing who could win the most stuffed animals from the claw machines. Another year, there was a festival in town and they kissed under the fireworks. This year, because they were engaged, they were going to get dressed up and go to some overly priced restaurant just because they could.
Normally, they would lounge together in bed in the morning, maybe get up to make breakfast together. Unfortunately, work beckoned. Fortunately, there were many other days in the year to make up for it.
This morning, Sakura turned her alarm off and rolled over in bed to give Naruto a quick kiss. He was a heavy sleeper, so he barely stirred. Stifling a yawn, Sakura did not relish getting up this early, but it would be worth it.
She took a moment to admire Naruto’s profile. Even with his mouth partly open and slightly drooling, he still made her heart flutter. She hoped that feeling never went away. She reached over and brushed his blonde hair out of his eyes, caressing his cheek fondly before scrambling out of bed to get ready.
She had to work a twelve hour shift, but she’d picked up an early start so she could leave early and meet Naruto at the restaurant. She’d have to get ready at the hospital, which was unfortunate, but she’d done it before.
Before she left that morning, Sakura had put post-its all over the bathroom mirror and the fridge with romantic pick up lines, puns, words of endearment, anything she could think of. On the kitchen table, she had placed boxes of his favorite ramen in the shape of a heart.
Satisfied, she grabbed her bag and left for work.
When she arrived at her office, the nurses were giggling after Sakura walked by. Confused, Sakura tried to ignore them as she opened the door to her office and found bouquets of flowers covering every surface. Sakura had gasped in surprise, and all the nurses flocked behind her in awe. Naruto’s gesture made her smile, and her office smelled wonderfully floral.
What was she going to do with all these flowers? She couldn’t even sit at her desk.
Keeping one of the bouquets for herself, she ordered the nurses to move the rest around the hospital into patients’ rooms to help cheer them up. Sakura knew Naruto would like that.
The day passed relatively quickly. Once her shift was up, she headed to the locker room, showered, and got dressed for her date. Wearing her pink hair long and straight down her back, she wore a white, form fitting, backless cocktail dress. She’d bought it ages ago but hadn’t found the right occasion to wear it. Until now.
Fashioning a black choker around her neck, Sakura slipped her engagement ring on her finger, and stuffed her bags back in her locker. She’d grab those tomorrow after work. With one last look in the mirror, she headed to the lobby, but as she neared the door, she heard her name paged over the intercom.
Hurrying to the front desk, a ninja had been brought in whose foot would need to be amputated. Severe. She turned to the nurse. “I’ll take this, but please get a hold of Naruto and let him know I will be late but I’m coming.”
What a lie that turned out to be. The surgery took longer than expected because the wound had been worse than first thought, and they’d ended up having to amputate almost the whole leg. His life as a ninja was over. That would take longer to get used to than the missing limb, Sakura thought. After giving final instructions, she called it a night.
Grabbing her coat, she headed for the door, glancing at the clock. The restaurant would be closed by the time she got there. She wondered if Naruto was still waiting or if he’d gone home. He’d wait for her as long as it took.
She practically ran to the restaurant in her high heels.
As she neared the restaurant, she saw Naruto pacing out front. He was in a suit and tie, something she’d never really seen him in, but the sight made heat pool in her stomach. He was too handsome to be real. “Naruto!” she cried out as she got closer.
He stopped in his tracks, and a look of panic overtook his features that he was at her side in a second before he just grabbed her and pulled her into him.
“Naruto?” she asked, they were stopped, hugging in the middle of the sidewalk. Thankfully, not too many were out and about this time of night.
“I thought that blood was yours for a moment,” he whispered, his hold on her tightening.
“Blood?” she asked confused, pulling away to look down at herself. Her coat hung open, revealing a giant blood stain on her abdomen. Groaning as this was a new dress, barely used, she huffed, “I had to do an emergency amputee. The scrubs I wore must have bled through.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Sorry about worrying you,” she squeezed his hand. “But I’m okay.”
Naruto leaned in to kiss her. “You hungry?”
“Isn’t it closed?” Sakura asked.
“I talked them into staying open a little later,” he smiled cheesily at her. “Perks of being the future hokage, you know?”
Sakura smiled and let Naruto lead her into the restaurant.
“Minus the blood stain that made me think you were mortally wounded, you look beautiful,” Naruto told her.
“You look pretty dashing yourself,” Sakura smiled up at him. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Naruto.”
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Sakura.”