A/N : Gift-fic for my friend, ChissySweetz. An AU where Tenzou had never been assigned to Team 7 and doesn't know the Konoha 11. Absolute crackidy-crack. Arigato and enjoy!.
…
A stranger.
Broad, tall, a solid oak tree against the crumbling green grass. He is kneeling, surveying Ino's patch of flowers. Rosemary, lavender, daisies. Chilled sunlight surrounding him like a cloak. A white, wooden mask on his face and a short sword slung across his lean, curved back. He didn't seem to have noticed her , just keenly fixated on Ino's lavender patch.
Ino stepped back, timid and testing. ANBU are no joke. The basket of seed in her hand is steady, her breathing normal. She steps back, slow, slow. She is a ninja too, a chuunin and she makes sure she had made no sound at all.
"Admirable dexterity."
Ino's light eyes widen as the stranger turns. Brown, spiky hair sticking up. Ino isn't sure how, but she's affirm he's smiling behind that ANBU mask. He spreads a gloved hand towards her patch of flowers, muffled warm laughter spilling out behind the wooden, stoic mask.
"I meant the arrangement. Lovely flowers." He sounds almost awkward, unsure. Like a gruff child. Ino's hand stops inching towards her kunai pouch.
"Oh? Well. How do you know I planted them?" Ino's voice rises, not threatening, she makes sure.
"Uh, I saw you trimming them the other day, when I was passing by. Have you not planted them?" He cocks his slightly, still sitting on the grass with nary a care in the world. Ino thinks he is nervous, but not lying.
"I have, yes." She sees no point in denying. Ino can make out brown eyes in the mask, curious and wide. She knows better than to initiate a conversation with this stranger and lets a moment pass by in heavy, palpable silence. She contemplates turning on her heels and back.
"You are a Yamanaka."
"How…?"
"Your earrings. I know in the current InoShikaCho formation, there are two boys. Nara and Akimichi. And a Yamanaka girl." He stands up, brisk and quick.
Ino takes a small step back but then his right wrist twists, and much to Ino's surprise, a sapling, tiny and solid appears, growing from his wrist. Like an almost afterthought, with a tiny yellow petaled blossom.
"Then are you a Yamanaka ?"
Ino's eyes are fixated on the sapling, roots clinging to smooth skin on a slender wrist. "Yes." She whispers. A breeze, and a feather flutters by, heart pounding, Ino looks up to see no mask. Amiable, walnut brown eyes, spiky brown hair and a chin and cheek protector. He is smiling. A leaf of a smile.
"Tenzou. Honour to be of your acquaintance, Miss Yamanaka."
...
"Thyme too, Miss Yamanaka?"
Ino smiles, looking over her shoulder. "Of course! It's a beautiful scent, isn't it?"
Tenzou is sniffing at a leaf, a petal, then, "I think I've positively overwhelmed my sense of smell. Everything smells the same."
Ino shakes her head, her ponytail swinging, but she is smiling still. Ino was tentative that day, justified so, he was a passerby. But now, he's more of a friend. Coming over every noon, asking her about her gardens and flowers. They don't talk much about anything else and Ino has never mentioned the sapling. He never calls her by her first name, a habit which Ino finds rather endearing.
"What about- aachoo!" he is wiping his nose, the pollen burst spontaneous and unexpected, and then laugh, his rolling, rich tide of a laugh. The glade-of-a-garden echoing with his rumble.
Ino thinks she likes his company.
...
Evening is upon them, in shades of lavender, hyacinths and morning glory vines. A lazy puff of a half moon and the woods loom over them, like pillars of dark ink. The sky is their canopy and the grass, their pillow. Ino feels Tenzou laying beside her, his presence strong and comforting, an arm behind his head, smiling up at the sky. Ino turns her head to look at the pane of his solid nose and the glint of his protectors. But she keeps on wondering...
"Tenzou?"
"Hm?"
"About that...sapling that grew from your wrist that day…"
He is quiet for a second or so. Ino worries her lower lip, she does not want to lose his company. Then he turns, smiling wider, and presses two fingers to the ground. A plant shoots up, green and robust.
Ino gasps, pushing up on her elbows, her open hair tangling with the grass.
"Tenzou." She says, gasping, her voice quivering.
"Miss Yamanaka." He teases, but Ino is scrambling to the plant. He has the power to bring life. And her eyes are damp as she fingers a leaf of the plant and inhales deeply.
"Miss Yamanaka?" This time, his voice is deeply concerned and a solid hand cups Ino's cheek gently, a thumb brushing a stray tear. "What did I do wrong? I'm so sorry-"
"No, no. Tenzou. You have done nothing wrong. This- your power-"
Ino stops, pressing into his rough palm, her eyes squeezing shut. Smiling.
"Oh."
"Yes, you big dummy, shut up."
…
Ino wears her pale yellow dress one day, a black clip to the side of her hair and clear lipgloss to the glade. She tends to her flowers for a while, her long hair, becoming sweatier by the passing hour. Her blue eyes flick to the woods over and over again, but no sign of Tenzou.
But then there is movement and Ino tenses, drawing her kunai. Just that second, the ground erupts and a row of small trees grow around her, the sound of the air slicing. They are perfect and lush. The glade seems to be fenced by them.
"Tenzou!" Ino calls out, her voice ringing with yearn and echoing across the glade.
A heartbeat, and he appears from the shadows, no cheek protector and he looks as strong as the trees around him. No Konoha vest, but a light blue shirt and plain pants. Crinkled eyes. He spreads his arms, his plain cotton shirt, rippling,
"For you, beautiful Miss Yamanaka."
Ino starts to sob, running up to him and crashing into his arms. He laughs lightly, warming Ino's thin body with his solid hands, a kiss on top of her head.
Ino could stay like this forever.
…
There is a tree in the Konoha woods. Tall and strong and old. One is often staggered by it's size and width to notice much, but to two people, the importance of it lies on the inscription on its lower branch. Not scratched out, no. It seems to have been grown with the tree, deep lines and soft write.
loving you, gave life.
…
A/N : Leave feedback for this minion pwease