This is the first oneshot in my The Language of Flowers series. It will be a series of interconnected but independent oneshots and drabbles about the kunoichi and flowers. First up is Daisy, featuring Shizune.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
A daisy means innocence.
Shizune sits amongst the field of daisies. They sway back and forth, white petals with golden heads like the sun.
Shizune is eleven years old, and is utterly innocent to the world's doings. She knows nothing of murder and slaughter. It can not be said that she knows naught of death, because her mother died in front of her and she and her brother were the ones who found their father's body, but Shizune does not dwell on this.
The wind sends up white petals all around, blowing Shizune's short black hair around her pale oval-shaped face. She sits cross-legged among the daisies, gently pulling at a flower she has plucked.
She is wearing white, soft and dove-like, snowy and pure. Shizune doesn't know why, but she loves wearing white. It isn't a good color for a med nin, who by the very nature of their profession tends to become covered in bodily fluids and grime. It isn't a good color for a ninja, especially a kunoichi, who by nature is steeped in sin. But Shizune wears a white dress to match the daisies for their pale petals.
Tsunade stands at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree, smiling softly. She sends Shizune out into the daisy field regularly, but for whatever reason does not choose to join her apprentice in the field. She doesn't feel right out in the flowers.
Tsunade lost her liking for daisies long ago. They are too fresh, too simple. They are alright for children, but Tsunade isn't a child. Shizune won't be a child for much longer, but Tsunade, for some desperate, primal reason that she doesn't quite understand (when she thinks about it, she realizes that it may be maternal love), wants Shizune to be a child for as long as she can be.
The wind raises the petals again. Shizune softly hums the words of a song her mother sang to her at night as a child, plucking at petals and reveling in the beauty of the meadow.
A week later, Shizune makes her first kill. A wash of red blood, stick, crimson, and sinful washes down the front of her white dress. Shizune discovers that no matter how hard she tries she can't get the blood off of her arms. Tsunade holds the distraught, bawling girl close to her chest, wishing that Shizune could have stayed a child for a little longer.
Shizune never wears white again, and the field loses another daisy.
Read close enough and you'll get the symbolism. Tell me if you understand.
