happy thanksgiving everyone! this is just a short thing i wrote after pruning the roses, i don't even know what it is i literally just pulled it out of my butt. love you all and thanks for reading
When Inojin is five years old and his curiosity is beginning to bloom, he asks his mother a simple question. "Mama," he starts, "why do roses have thorns?" At twenty-nine years old, she suddenly slips into her eighteen year old self, feeling extremely helpless.
There was another boy who asked this question. Another boy with blonde hair, but his was as bright as the sun and his eyes were blue, too, but not this shade of cornflower blue. His eyes were as blue as the sea and his skin was as sun skinned as his hair. This boy was so much more loud and reckless than her son. Their only similarity would be that she loved both of them, she was going to make sure of that.
Naruto Uzumaki was a whirlwind of elementary questions and Ino was always willing to provide answers. It was hard for them not to be friends after all they've gone through, but what really brought them together was the wedding of their best friends (coincidentally, they both wanted their best friend's spouse for themselves but that was a far more difficult story). They both got extremely drunk and became the center of attention, the reason being obvious to all the other guests, so they ended up leaving and having ramen (which Ino regretted the next day because she was a hangry drunk). When they both woke up nursing their horrid hangovers, they figured that this friendship could probably work out.
Their afternoons were spent in her flower shop while he tried to avoid his training to become the next hokage. Much to her surprise, he actually knew quite a bit about gardening. After Shikamaru had hunted him down (and given them both odd looks) they'd meet up at Ichiraku's for dinner or Ino's house. The latter was less desirable because it was already enough for Shikamaru and Chouji to question her about it without actually saying the words, but her mother on the other hand would start squealing frantically the moment Naruto walked out the door. Ino remembers feeling her stomach churn once when her mother had exclaimed, "Your father would have been so proud!" And to this day it makes her stomach churn knowing that her mother didn't say that about any other guy that she brought home.
Despite all the speculation, nothing ever happened. Ino knew that he was destined for greater things. He was a hero, a legend, a sannin, and soon, a Hokage. There was nowhere for her to fit into his life. She was leading a small clan and second-in-command at Torture and Interrogation. In her mind, Naruto was the prince that she always wanted to marry, but for some reason, she had never grown up to be the beautiful princess that went through hell to deserve him. (So when things ended abruptly because of a Hyuga heiress, she wasn't the least bit surprised).
Inojin tugged at his mother's sleeve and ended her train of thought. "Mama?"
"Roses have thorns to protect themselves," she answers, ruffling his hair. "Roses are pretty flowers.. they don't want to get hurt," she whispered, repeating the same answer that she gave nearly ten years ago. "So be careful with them, okay?"
"Okay," he nodded his head and ran off. Inojin never asked about roses again.