Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, etc.

Summary: She understands why arranging flowers are an important thing. You want the graves to look pretty. ( Ino )

"We're going to arrange flowers today," she said aloud. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back, stopping at her shoulders from her high pony-tail. "It's very important," she told her students. "It's an important thing for a ninja to know."

A small girl pouted. "Not again," she complained. "Ninjas don't need flowers, they need weapons!"

The woman, Ino, shook her head. "No," she corrected. "It's important." She was determined to be patient with this weapon-loving girl.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Why?" she demanded.

"It…" Ino paused for a moment, wondering how to say it in a nice way. What did her teacher tell her back then? "… It just is," she finished awkwardly. "It just is." The words sounded strange in her mouth.

Another girl beside her looked up. "Is it fun?" she asked innocently. "Will we be doing it a lot?"

Ino tried to make herself the confident ninja she really was. However, she had always dreaded the beginning classes of flower arrangements. The light scent that she was so accustomed to in the shop made her feel sick at times. The light scent that she used to adore as a child.

"It can be fun," she answered, trying to make herself light-hearted. "And… And…" Her voice trailed off as she thought of another approach to the second question. "And you will be doing it…" The woman shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said. "You'll be doing it sometimes. But not too many times."

She didn't tell them that the more you do it you will hate it. She didn't tell them that you might be doing it two times. One for each of their teammates. She didn't tell them that even though two was such a low number, it'll feel like more than a thousand.

She didn't tell them that.

"That's a stupid answer."

Ino snapped up her head once more and tried to keep the smile on her face. She was wondering if the smile was convincing or not. Even though she was wearing the smile since the beginning of class – for five minutes – the smile already seemed branded on her face.

"It's not stupid," she said to the girl. She wondered if she was possibly this annoying when she was little. The girl's stubbornness reminded Ino of her own.

The small girl sighed. "Whatever," she remarked. "Where do we start?"

"In the fields," Ino said, walking ahead.

The grass pressed down lightly as Ino tread over it. She led the class to a group of flowers that she had spotted earlier in the woods. She bent down and stroked the petals like she always did before she lightly plucked the flower of its stem.

"Why are you doing that?" a girl off to the side bent down too. "It's just a flower."

She looked at the girl and began to protest, "It's not just a –" But she stopped herself and put her smile back on although she knew it was missing its brightness. The girl in front of her looked a bit shocked and Ino worked harder to keep the smile on.

"… Yes," she said slowly, agreeing with the child. "You're right." She sighed. "But it makes you feel better. It makes you feel better when you end such a beautiful thing."

Another girl spoke up. "But don't ninjas hurt people?" she asked. "If you care so much about a flower, then…" The girl cut off, not really knowing where she was going with this.

But Ino nodded, pursuing the subject although her mind told her not to. "Yes… That's why you have to treat them like that flower," she said. "Every life can be beautiful." She turned to the girl. "That's why you always look someone in the eye before you kill them," she stated gravely. "Always do that."

Silence. The children became nervous.

Ino mentally slapped herself. She had just mentioned… She mentioned too much. They're too young, she thought to herself wearily. They don't understand.

"But why?" The same stubborn girl from before, although her tone of voice lowered a bit more.

The woman debated whether or not to continue the subject. She didn't want to go too deep into it. It hurt them and… her, too. But Ino opened her mouth.

"It shows that you care," she explained quickly, trying to end the subject as soon as possible. "You never want to die without being cared for."

There was silence in the grove as Ino stood up, forgetting why she had gone there in the first place. The birds chirped every now and then and she felt the sun shine down her back as she pointed to another direction.

"Over there," she said.

She stopped on the top of a grassy hillside. "Now," she stated, trying to continue on with the lesson and try to make them forget about the previous conversation they had. "Flowers can be found anywhere as long as there's sunlight, water, and soil." She gestured to the hillside.

"Do you see anything?" she asked.

One by one, the girls looked over at the scene and then shook their heads. Murmurs of "no" and "not really" spread out of the group.

"There are flowers here," Ino said. "I've been picking flowers here ever since I was a child. And…" Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. "It's a good place to find flowers," she said instead.

She didn't tell them that she had spent five hours at the beginning, here, picking flowers for her teammates. She didn't tell them that when companions die, you know you'd want to find the freshest ones out there.

She didn't tell them that.

"Follow me," she said, leading them to a group of flowers behind a rock. Once again, she stroked the flower before plucking it.

"Does anybody know what type of flower this is?" she asked. She smiled as the children around her shrugged.

"It's a white carnation," she said. The woman paused and then quickly added, "Colors mean different things too." She twirled the stem in between her pointer finger and her thumb, making the flower spin. The smile on her face was genuine.

"All flowers have their meanings," she said. "People can create their own meanings or take them from someone else." She sat down on the grass. "It's important to know what kinds of flowers you're using," she continued. "You don't want people to get the wrong idea. The flower meanings are fairly simple."

"What does that one mean?" a girl asked.

Ino blinked in surprise. "This one?" she inquired. There was a momentary silence as Ino's eyes grew downcast and what shone in her eyes was nostalgic. "White carnations mean remembrance," she explained.

The stubborn girl snorted. "Who would want to use that?"

Ino gave a weary smile. "You might be using it more than you know."

She didn't tell them that she used more than ten in each of their bouquets. She didn't tell them that she was crying when she picked each flower – tears that she couldn't tell were from joy of remembering or sadness from wishing she could forget.

She didn't tell them that.

"I want you all to go search the hillside and find a flower that you want to know the meaning of," she said. "It can be anything. Bring it to me and I'll tell you the meaning of it."

The children departed and Ino watched them.

Her eyes lit up and her smile turned real, growing wider as she saw each child stroke the flower once before plucking it from the ground.

"What about this one?"

"A pink tulip… Hmm…" Ino grinned. "It can mean forgiveness sometimes… Caring… Friendship…" Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. "I'm glad you found one of these, Ayu," she said. "They're especially hard to find. You should keep it."

She didn't tell her that she had spent even longer than five hours finding six pink tulips. Three for each friend.

She didn't tell her that.

"And here's another one," the girl said, holding up her second flower.

Ino's eyes widened.

A cosmos.

"… Peace," she said. "And friendship… to me, anyways."

Peace…

She wondered if her friends were resting in peace.

"Ok. Time's up."

The group came together once again and Ino began to bid each of them farewell. "Thanks for listening to me," she said sincerely. "It's my first time teaching others about flower arrangement."

But not certainly her first time doing it.

The kids departed, each of them waving a good-bye.

Ino grinned as even the stubborn girl waved her hand good-bye and gave a quick bow.

It wasn't that bad, she thought to herself. She felt a burden lift off of her shoulders. Perhaps the conversations she had had with the children made it so. Conversations that she had locked up for a while inside of her heart.

But the pain was still there.

And the woman, too, went on her way, planning to go and rest in the hillside where she plucked flowers since she was a child.

But she stopped as three flowers caught her eye.

Zinnia…

Ino stroked each of the flowers before plucking it from the ground. She wondered why such rare flowers had appeared in front of her so easily without having to search for it all day. She smelled it and became surprised.

It wasn't the sick poisoning scent that she had smelled for the past five years since she was twenty.

It was the light scent that she had adored as a child.

"Zinnia," she said to herself out loud.

"Thoughts of friends," she answered back.

And Ino went to the graveyard that day.

She hadn't visited this place for five years.

But the girl still remembered the heavy steps she had walked. She still remembered how she was practically dragging herself over to the tombstones, still not wanting to believe anything. Not wanting to believe that they had died.

But she lit four sticks – two for each grave – and put them in front of the two tombstones who she knew belonged to Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji.

And in front of each grave she put a flower.

A zinnia.

She sat there in front of the two graves for the entire day while holding a flower, twirling its stem and making it spin.

A zinnia.

And as she made her way back to her apartment, she put a flower in a vase beside the window on the table where she ate breakfast every morning and drew the curtains back on the window to let the sun in.

A zinnia.

And everyday she would look at that flower and think of her friends. Everyday she would see the sun shine through the window and land on that flower. Everyday she would smell that flower and smile as the scent was the light scent she had adored as a child. The foul scent she had grown accustomed to vanished. She remembered.

Thoughts of friends.

She knew her friends were resting in peace. And now she was, too.

A/N. Hum… This is the first story I had to do research on with the flower meanings. I know that there are probably tons of different meanings for the flowers mentioned here, but I used the simplest source I could find.

And it's possible that zinnias and tulips and carnations do not grow in Japan. :D