Prompts based on the Japanese Hanakotoba (flower language)
Cherry Blossom - Kind/Gentle
Sakura's name always amused her, as she thought the flower's meaning and Forehead's personality couldn't be more different. But when her (ex-)boyfriend leaves her and Sakura is over in ten minutes with a tub of ice cream and a shoulder to cry on, she feels like she doesn't know the girl as well as she thought.
Daffodil - Respect
When she first joins Team Ten she is unimpressed. She was stuck with a lazy-ass and a boy who never stopped eating, and envied Sakura for scoring the teammate all the girls wanted. At some point between training and long missions and renewing old friendships, she finds herself not thinking of her team as a burden, but the people she can trust with her life.
Yellow Tulip - Unrequited Love
As a child she thought that love was a superficial, fickle thing that could be forced on someone else. If only he notices me, she'd think, he'd fall head over heels in love. She waited for him to open his eyes, but he never did, instead he ran off after ghosts and left his teammates lagging behind. It isn't until Ino steps back from his shadow and looks around, that she realizes just how blind she was.
Orange Lily - Revenge
She never thought of herself as a bloodthirsty or vindictive person. But when Hidan is buried alive in pieces and she hears him screaming under the rubble, she can't help but feel somewhat satisfied.
Narcissus - Self-Esteem
She sits in front of the mirror and stares at her flaws one by one, until they magnify in her eyes and block out everything else. She feels almost smug at seeing the change, as her reflection distorts itself to fit the image in her head. In the morning she'll be beautiful, but the doubt will gnaw at her until she gets home, and she'll wonder how she ever thought she could walk outside looking like that.
White Rose - Devotion
Part of her hates it when the romantic holidays come around. Not just the younger couples who pledge undying love in the doorway, but also when the older ones come in, holding hands and looking at each other with adoration that hasn't died down in decades. It makes her more aware of the men who call her pretty, the boyfriends who leave her feeling empty in a cold bed, because she wants to be sixty years old and have her own Prince Charming still buying her flowers.
Euphorbia - Self-Reliance
She went through a stage where she felt she was going to be left behind. Sakura was mending bones and breaking walls, and Ino decided she would find something to beat her at. She failed, miserably, but found that asking her friend for help was not as humiliating as she thought, and when she had to put Shikamaru back together on the battlefield, she learned that self-reliance isn't always the best course of action.
Erica - Solitude
Sometimes she has an unsettling thought that her soul, her very self, is more malleable then she thinks. With each body she controls, a part of her wonders if she brought a piece back with her. She has to take time alone, to listen to her own heartbeat, and remind herself that she is still here, still herself, still alive.
Morning Glory - Promises
There isn't enough time in the world, she thinks, when her father leaves his final message ringing in her mind. The world is going to hell and she's trying to keep herself from falling into pieces on the battlefield. But she remembers a promise she made to another dying man, and she lifts her chin and smiles, knowing that her teammates have her back just as she has theirs.
Red Spider Lily - Never Meet Again
When her mother once told her to always appreciate the present, Ino never really understood what she meant, because she was young and invincible and concerned with boys. But now, at twenty years old and feeling forty, she almost wishes she could go back to the past, apologize for being stupid, and spend more time with those who won't survive the future.