Author's Note: Here is the first installment for the Naruto Couple Event on Tumblr. Hope you all enjoy!
title: gillyflower
event: naruto couple's event 2018
prompt: favorite canon pairing / how they met
pairing: ino x sai
genre: romance / humor
summary: "First of all, a rat? Really, Sai?"
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
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"Mom?"
Ino looked up from the flower arrangement in front of her, blond hair bouncing with the sudden movement.
She glanced towards at the opposite end of the countertop where Inojin sat on a stool, sketchbook open in front of him, fingers dancing across the page in smooth, smudging strokes.
Sai bought him a new medium for his art, colored pastels, and her son had been inseparable from them since the beginning of the week.
"Yeah, hun? What is it?"
It was silent immediately following her question.
In that short pause, Inojin finished a part of his sketch. When the task was complete, he regarded his work with an inquisitive tilt of his head and a critical light in those pale blue eyes. Finding his art to his liking, Inojin gave a short, curt bob of his head and closed the sketchbook.
Ino fought down the smile that threatened to curl on her lips. It had become a pastime of hers to watch her son work. There was something about the concentration that marred his brow and the scrunch of his nose while he drew that Ino found adorable.
Though if she told her son that, he would turn beet red and say that she was embarrassing him.
Must be an artist thing.
When Inojin finally spoke again, he turned to regard her but seemed to hesitate once their gazes locked.
He blinked once, opened his mouth to speak, then closed it with an audible click of his teeth. Ino arched a brow in his direction, watching him struggle to piece together his thoughts before he felt brave enough to try again.
"How did you and dad meet?" He blurted out the question quickly, catching Ino off guard.
The inquiry was so out of left field, the blond couldn't help but giggle; a quick bubble of laughter that crawled its way up her throat, filling the silence of the room.
"Where did that come from?" Ino asked, turning back to the bouquet in front of her.
Nibley, she plucked a white lily from the pile of loose buds which resided on the counter. Placing the flower in the center of the vase, she organized some of the smaller blooms around it, framing it as a centerpiece.
When she was finished, Ino stepped away, moseying down to the opposite end of the counter where Inojin sat. She crossed her arms in front of her, leaning down so that her elbows were resting on the table.
Inojin eyed her sheepishly for a moment. "Well…with the new Ina-Shika-Cho training coming up, I thought it might be best for Chocho, Shikadai, and I to learn about previous members…that includes you and their parents."
Ino smiled at his response, all pearly whites, while pride nestled warmly in her chest.
"You shouldn't be uncomfortable to ask," Ino stated softly. "I'm glad you're that invested in your training, though I'm not sure what your father has to do with it."
"I want to learn new skills, different jutsus. If I know enough about you and dad, I can gauge what abilities I can bring to Ina-Shika-Cho."
At that moment, Sai chose to make his appearance.
He came out of the back room, carrying a large terracotta flower pot. He smiled at them briefly before crossing the threshold of the store to deposit the potted fern by one of the front windows.
"I met your father when he was assigned to you Aunt Sakura's team," Ino chirped, eyeing the subject of their conversation blithely. "I have to admit I was a little jealous at first. Forehead had a knack for getting 'lookers' on her team. First your Uncle Sasuke, then your father."
Inojin scrunched up his nose at the mention of his 'indirect' uncle.
He turned on his stool to regard his father then, watching as Sai shifted the potted plant on an angle that would give it the most access to the incoming sunlight.
"Dad, what did you think of think of mom when you first met her?"
Sai, who was regarding the fern like it was going to be the next subject in one of his paintings, turned his head to give them both his attention.
Before the dark-haired male could respond to his son's question, Ino sighed dreamily from her perch behind the counter.
"You can bet your mom knocked him off his feet," She stated confidently, drawing the attention of both men. "Your father called me beautiful the first time I met him. I might have even taken his breath away," she hummed with a wink.
"You can thank the Hag for that," Sai said, walking over to join the two of them. He stood next to where his son sat, eyeing his wife appreciatively.
"Her and Dic-…Naruto," He quickly amended seeing the older blonde's sudden glare. "Due to my previous lack of understanding emotions, I would say the first thing that came to my head. When they told me that I was insulting people, I began to say the opposite of what came to my head, hence me calling your mother beautiful."
It was eerily silent in the flower shop following the Sai's clarification. Inojin flicked his gaze between his parents shyly.
Sai, all smiles, seemed indifferent to the implications his explanation held.
Ino, stared at her husband incredulously, brows high on her forehead, and her lips parted in shock.
"…WHAT?!" She screeched.
-o-
A little while later, Inojin eyed his father's frazzled appearance before looking towards the front door that his mother just left out of.
"Are you going to go after her, dad?"
Sai huffed slightly, shoulders slumping marginally with the movement.
"Your mother is a…complicated individual, Inojin. She'll be back…I think."
-o-
Ino stomped down the street, keeping her head held high and nose in the air.
After expertly throwing her son's sketchbook at her husband's head, the blond had fled the scene to stew over the knowledge she had just been graced with.
Was she carrying on a little excessively? Yes.
Did she particularly care? No.
She didn't make it very far, about two blocks, before the first flower arrived.
A small snake cut off the path she was trudging along. Its lithe body slithering between her ankles, wrapping around her left calf.
Halting her movements so that she wouldn't stumble, Ino regarded the piece of art with pursed lips.
The blonde bent down, holding out her hand, allowing the snake to wrap its body around her wrist. Straightening, azure eyes observed the small ink creature in her hand, taking in the unique design drawn into its skin.
Though created in Sai's typical style, the snake had a flower etched into its body.
The black and white snake had a rose blooming on the back of its head, the leaves and stem running down the length of its onyx scales.
"A rose, huh?" Ino inquired, looking at the reptile with a tilt of her head.
The little creature mirrored her movement, patiently waiting to see if it achieved the goal it was created to do.
"Tell him to try again," Ino deadpanned, removing the small animal from her wrist and depositing it back on the ground.
-o-
The second flower came when she was having tea with Sakura.
While marching around Konoha with no a real destination in mind, Ino ended up at her best friend's apartment. It took a little convincing, and some psychical dragging, but the blonde got Sakura to join her for a much-needed vent session.
"Can you believe him Forehead?!" Ino groused, flailing her arms to emphasize her statement. "I thought that he was seriously into me!"
Sakura gave Ino a pointed look over the rim of her cup of tea, saying nothing as she took a sip of the caffeinated beverage. After replacing her glass on the table, Sakura leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms.
"You know you're acting like a child, right?" The pinkette inquired with a quirk of her brow.
The blonde grumbled under her breath, taking a sip of her own steaming tea. Ino knew that her best friend was correct, but her pride stopped her from voicing that thought out loud.
"After all this time together, you really want to get into an argument with him over something that happened, what, fourteen years ago?"
"It's our first impressions, Forehead!" Ino exclaimed. "When I look back on meeting Sai, I think about how taken back I was with his looks. He looks back and thinks about almost calling me ugly like he does when he looks at you! What am I going to tell my grandchildren!?"
"Hey!" Sakura started her reprimand but was promptly cut off by the sudden appearance of a pudgy, black rat that scurried onto their table.
It sat on its haunches in front of Ino, two black and white jasmine flowers tightly clasped between its teeth.
"Your husband is as subtle as a freight train," Sakura said, eyeing the ink creature warily.
Ino chose to ignore the rosette's comment, blue eyes scrutinizing the flowers that the rat held in his mouth.
"First of all, a rat? Really, Sai?" Ino questioned, flicking one of the petals with a manicured finger. "Nobility and elegance, huh? Still not good enough. Scurry on home and let him know."
"You're hopeless, you know that right? You're just picking a fight with him because you want to see what extent he'll go to apologize."
Ino took a small sip of her beverage before she responded, "Shut it Forehead and drink your tea."
-o-
Ino found the third flower waiting for her on the countertop of the flower shop.
The bud was drawn once again in Sai's traditional style, though what really caught her attention was the myriad of color it was painted with.
The white petals were speckled with varying shades of pinks and purples, meshing together for a gradient that reminded her of a sunset in the middle of a Konoha summer.
"A Gillyflower?" Ino asked softly, picking up the blossom and twirling it between her fingers. "Lasting beauty and happy life…I think I like the sound of that."
Suddenly, a warm body pressed against her back, slender arms wrapping around her waist, holding her close to a broad chest.
"I had Inojin color it. He seemed to be getting better at blending."
Sai's comment was in a nonchalant tone, but Ino knew better. There was a hint of pride in his voice that was easily distinguished.
It was quiet for a minute, Ino continuing to spin the flower between her fingers and Sai was content with merely having his wife in his arms.
"Are you done being mad now?" He asked after a few more silent moments.
Ino turned her head, leaning up to kiss the underside of his jaw.
"For now," she smartly replied. "But we really need to work on your approach to apologizing. Really, Sai? A rat?"
Thank you for reading!
word count: 1,821
last edited on: 05/17/18
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