Characters: Ino
Summary
: She pales in comparison to them.
Pairings
: No pairings
Author's Note
: Another Ino character study here.
Disclaimer
: I don't own Naruto.


Ino wonders if any of her fellow kunoichi ever suffer from feelings of inadequacy the way she does. It's a language of silence, something no one ever talks about and does their best to hide, no matter what cost comes from concealing uncertainty.

To cover insecurity Ino inevitably overcompensates, and instead of becoming a beautiful rose she blooms riotously, a flower that is full and heady and distinctly overripe. Her body, intoxicating but lacking classical beauty, only serves to emphasize this.

What she wouldn't give to be like the others.

Like Hinata, who hasn't even bloomed yet, but Ino is sure will be a lovely sunflower when she does bloom.

Like Temari, a rare rose of the desert, singular and spectacular and impervious to all plucking and de-thorning.

Like Tenten, who maybe under-bloomed but is still exquisite in her own way, a fierce poppy that always rises towards the sun with bright petals.

And most of all like Sakura, who has bloomed fully, not too little or too much, the delicacy of the lotus flower with its intoxicating scent. Never has there been a more breathtaking flower. Not beautiful, but still charismatic in its uniqueness.

She pales in comparison to her fellow kunoichi, and Ino can only try to be like them.

She will linger on in a place for flowers, where there is no pain for insecurity, until a day when her second bloom may come, and heal her, turning her into what Ino knows she was meant to be.