This is a seedfic, meaning it's something I came up with off the top of my head and HAD to write, but have little to no intention of continuing. If you want to continue it from the endpoint here on, feel free. (The difference between an adoptable and seedfic: adoptables are removed from their original owner's pages and given to the adopter, seedfics stay on the writer's page are blatant encouragements to continue the created world for any authors that feel up to the challenge.)

Rules:
Write from the endpoint onward. OR:
Feel free to change a few things if you absolutely must, but mention what it is you changed (and why would be nice).
You link back to this fic or name it in the Author's note of the very first chapter so people can read the original.
Let me know when you take up the challenge via either review or PM so I can see what you've grown from the seed I planted~
And finally, have fun!

My Notes:

I saw one too many FemNaruto fics, and, as others before me, took it upon myself to make Naruto and Ino relatives~!

I've taken it upon myself to change Ino's mother. She's close enough to in looks to the one I was thinking of anyway... So, for the sake of this seed\fic, Inochi's wife is one Makoto Kino from Sailor Moon.

I'm not counting this as a crossover because I only have one character from the other world in here (and with no senshi powers\memory\whatever else), she's more of a cameo. But, that might change if anyone else writes from here on~

And this was all written just so I could write that last scene, which was inspired by the song Let It Go from the movie Frozen.

Other Possible Titles:
The Petal Storm Shinobi
Flower Petal Maelstrom
Bloom
Flower Girls
(Alluding to possible dual Affinities) Earth and Sky
(In reference to the inspiring song) Let It Go


Inoichi was the one to step forward, "I'll take her."

Hiruzen and the other clan heads all turned to him, but the blonde didn't back down in the face of all those stares- some confused, others frustrated.

"I'll take her. My wife won't mind another daughter, and I know Minato would have done the same for me if it was my child. So I'll raise her."

The Toad Sage, Jiraiya, handed the squirming, crying bundle over, and with the experience of a father, he shushed her. Baby blue eyes opened as, for the first time since they'd found out about her, she quieted. He tilted his head to get a better look at her whisker marks, smiling as she did the same.

Hiruzen nodded at him, cutting off Hiashi Hyuuga before he could protest and call -again- for the babe's death. Jiraiya stepped in front of him and spoke over his shoulder, "Go on and take her home, we'll deal with things here."

Inoichi quietly thanked him and left, shielding the newborn from the smoke rising from several still-burning fires. The village was still in crisis and the clan heads felt they had nothing more important to do than argue over the small Kyuubi-babe. Inoichi knew his own clan would be suffering in mourning in the coming days. But here, in his arms and tucked against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, was a shining bright spot in all the doom and gloom surrounding them. A little baby girl that slept peacefully and trustingly in his hold. He would not let her down.

There was no need for silence as he walked into the compound, shinobi around waiting in tense readiness relaxing at seeing their clan leader safe and back. He hesitated for only a moment on his own doorstep before entering, watching his wife rock their fussing young daughter, lines of worry around her eyes, until she looked up and saw him. She smiled at him, gratefully, joyously, happy to have him home, safe.

His own was less certain as she caught sight of the bundle he held, "Inoichi, what do you have there?"

"Eheh... Well, let's put it this way... It's my turn to surprise you with a daughter."

She nestled their daughter into the crook of her own arm and reached for the baby he was carrying. He obliged by placing her in his wife's free arm. She looked over the sleeping blonde, "Oh... She's precious." she cooed, expression softening. She looked up at him, "But I don't understand, where...?"

"Minato... he didn't make it."

"I see." She stared down at the baby girl snuggling herself against the warmth of the woman's side, "Well then, what are we going to name her?"

"Ino-"

"No." Inoichi froze, the aura coming from his wife making him glad her hands were full with children so she couldn't throw a vase of flowers at his head as she tended to do when he angered her.

"But-"

"No. You named our first child- unoriginal as it was, I let you because Ino is your heir. But I will be naming our new baby."

Inoichi, Jounin of Konohagakure, proud head of their clan, withered and pouted under his wife's stare, "Yes, dear..."

Makoto looked down lovingly at the little one, dropped into their lives like a whirlwind from nowhere, and smiled at her, "Let's see..." Even just a baby, Ino was a quiet child. Mindful, watching. She took in the world around her. Like a true Yamanaka: observant. This little girl, though, even now, in sleep, she wiggled about like she just couldn't sit still. Makoto giggled at her. This little girl, her second daughter, she wasn't going to sit calmly and watch the world pass her by, she was going to take it by storm, she just knew; mother's intuition. Yes, that works. "Her name will be Naruto."

"...The fishcake?"

Glaring, vivid green eyes had him backing up defensively and Makoto instinctively looked for the closest thing to throw at his big, fat head, "Not a fishcake! Maelstrom." She smiled down at her little girl, "My little sea storm."

Risking his wife's legendary anger, Inoichi crept closer to look at the little golden-blonde as she wiggled her way next to her big sister, a smile overtaking his face, "Naruto.'


"Kaachan! Kaachan!"

Makoto turned and dropped to her knees to receive her younger daughter, "What's wrong my sea little storm?"

Naruto looked up at her with ocean-blue eyes glassy with tears and a trembling smile, "I got p-picked on. These stupid boys called me n-names, and one pushed me. So I pushed back and beat them up! I w-won."

She ran a hand through the little girl's blonde bangs, no doubt Ino was already telling her father. "I'm so proud of you. Make sure you teach those little pri- ah, brats, that girls aren't weak little things to be picked on. Come on, let me see your battle wounds."

Naruto's little smile grew bigger and less wavery, pulling off her bright jacket to show some bad scrapes- most already starting to heal. But Makoto picked her up anyway and set her on the bench behind her, where she'd been working on their garden, kneeling down and reaching back without looking for the plant she knew was there. She brought it forward, nipping off the bottom and squeezing out the sticky, numbing sap to dab at the healing boo-boos. Naruto didn't even wince, the numbing ability going to work, but her big blue eyes at least doubled in size.

"Ooooohhh."

Makoto smiled up at her, "Magic flowers. Don't let any boy ever tell you flowers are useless."

Naruto nodded, "Got it~!"

Finally, Makoto leaned forward and kissed the tiny injuries, completing her obligatory mommy-first-aid duties, because any treatment was never finished without a kiss. When she stood up and held her hand out to help Naruto off the tall bench, they turned to see Inoichi and Ino standing by the gate, the younger blonde hiding half behind her father. He nudged her out and Makoto did the same for Naruto, "Go on, now, go play with your sister."

The little firecracker hugged her around her knees before shooting off towards her sister with a huge grin, erasing Ino's worries and potential tears as she gestured enormously around her and grabbed her hand, "Ino-nee! You shoulda seen it! Kaasan fixed me wif magic flowers! C'mon! Let's play!"

Inoichi moved next to her as their children took off, "Was she okay?"

Makoto cast her husband a scathing glance, "Of course she was. She kicked those little pricks' asses. What else do you expect from my daughter?" Inoichi facepalmed at his lovely wife. Makoto became more serious as she watched the young girls tumble about, "I should teach her more taijutsu."

"They're babies still."

She gave him a sharp look, "Even the toughest nut can be cracked, love. She needs whatever help she can be given. If someone tries to stomp my little sea storm down, the bastard's going to be surprised by the chestnut shell I help her build around herself. Naruto and I aren't Yamanaka by blood, and we can't cling to our names for protection all the time."

Inoichi looked down at Makoto and didn't see the loving wife and mother she'd happily become in the last few years, he saw the kunoichi that had first gotten his attention by utterly kicking his ass in a taijutsu match. He personally believed everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when Makoto had retired to raise their children instead of coming back from maternity leave. Makoto wouldn't coddle her daughters, she'd teach them to take life by the horns and put it down hard.

She watched Ino and Naruto as they laughed and played, "Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and force the world to notice you by sheer bad-assery."

Inoichi sighed and rubbed Makoto's shoulder as she planned. He felt a little pity for the next boys that picked on Naruto. Only a little pity, though, after all, that was still his baby girl.


Makoto snickered, watching Naruto give her damnedest to lift a rock and help her in her landscaping. She did this every spring: rearranged the entire garden, shifted the boulders around, expanding her already-vast repertoire of plants and vegetables. Some she sold at her flower shop, something she'd dreamed of owning since she was a small girl, and others she used as natural medicine, for her own clan and some select times for the hospital when they needed it. The vegetables all went into her outstanding -if she did say so herself, and she did- home cooking. No shinobi could train if they didn't have the proper diet.

Makoto took extreme pride in the fact that she could get Naruto to eat vegetables when no one else could. Inoichi couldn't get her to eat veggies if he used his mind-body transfer Jutsu. But Kaachan made them 'amazingly un-disgusting'.

She shook her head, stood behind Naruto as she tried to lift the boulder, bolstered her muscles with Chakra, and lifted, helping the little blonde move it across the yard. Naruto looked at the end result with her hands akimbo on her hips and nodded in satisfaction. Makoto held in her laughter valiantly as she watched. She giggled and fluffed Naruto's blonde hair, "I think that's enough heavy lifting for right now. How about helping me plant some new flowers?"

Naruto looked up at her and nodded happily, "Sure!"

Makoto led them over to the new bed she was making, plants already there. She let her chakra leak out into the dark earth, enriching it even more, and making it easier to move. She dug her hands into the soil and made a hole for the first of the flowers, absentmindedly telling Naruto all of it's properties as she went. The good and bad that could be done with just an unassuming flower. How the ones best for medicines usually made equally as potent poisons. This was Makoto's calling: her dual chakra natures so in tune with who she was. Earth and Lightning.

"Kaachan?"

She looked over at the suddenly lack-luster blonde, "Hmm?"

"Do you think... do you think I'm a failure?"

Makoto froze. Whoever had called her little sea storm a failure was going to see just what a 'retired' kunoichi could do to protect her children, "Where did you get that idea?"

"I can't do any of the clan Jutsus like Ino-nee can. Maybe I'm not Yamanaka enough like Neechan and Tousan."

Makoto's expression softened and she pushed the dirt from her fingers with a pulse of chakra to run them through Naruto's bangs, "You're not a failure. And you're just as Yamanaka as I am, so if you aren't Yamanaka enough, then I'm not either." She looked around obviously, then leaned in close and winked, "We can still kick their butts, though. I think that makes up for it."

Naruto looked pensive for only a moment more, then nodded determinedly and set about to planting the flowers with a will, as if she could make up for her lack of genjutsu with sheer determination in flower-planting. Makoto knew exactly what her daughter was feeling: she'd never been particularly gifted in genjutsu, either, getting next to no benefit from the Yamanaka clan scrolls that were hers by right through marriage. She'd always felt a little bit left out in the clan meetings, things going over her head that Inoichi understood perfectly. But Makoto had never let it -let anything- get her down, or not for long. Trouble-Maker Mako-chan, she'd push through. And when she was done reducing her enemies to a fine paste, they made an excellent mulch for her flowerbeds.

They tended the plants together and she went back to explaining their uses, the necessity of aloe for burns, even sunburn, the incredible potency -and potential dangers- of datura, the usefulness of marigold for keeping harmful insects off of other plants. How even dandelions were useful, their greens could be eaten -and Naruto nodded despite the face she made.

This was something she found Naruto and her doing more often these days, and it fit them both well. Makoto because of her connection to the land, and Naruto because of her boundless energy. A large garden to care for was perfect for the young girl. Something she could pour effort into and care for and then stand back and see the results of all that hard work. It wasn't like studying, which was boring and the only reward at the end was being tested and made to study more. That was more Ino's thing.

Naruto yelped and turned to her, "Kaachan! Kaachan, the flower bit me!"

Makoto jerked out of her thoughts and turned to her daughter to see her holding a bleeding finger aloft from where she'd been trying to plant a young rosebush. She shook her head and smiled, pulling a leaf off the flower she'd just planted herself and dabbing the seeping end on the tiny, already-closing cut, "There you go."

Ocean blue eyes glared at the poor plant, "Stupid flowers."

"Oh, don't say that. Here, watch." She expertly plucked up the young plant and settled it into the ground, then pulled out a kunai and clipped off a branch. She held it in front of Naruto and summoned her chakra, carefully pooling the energy into the severed limb, until in glowed with a green-pink light, and started growing before their eyes. Naruto watched with huge eyes as the small branch moved, growing other, smaller branches, small buds sprouting into existence and getting larger. She watched as they changed color and flourished, blooming in moments. She stared in awe at the glittering gold roses, reaching out to touch the soft petals.

Makoto huffed, personally displeased with the result, "No matter how hard I try, I can't take a rose from branch to bloom on chakra alone without it ending up gold from the excess energy. I can make a bud blossom red, but not from younger than that..."

Naruto honestly didn't care about that. She'd just seen her mother do magic right before her eyes, growing golden flowers with nothing more than her chakra. Her gaze fell on the small branch that had bit her on the ground and picked it up, looking at it hard and then to the roses. She nodded, her mind made up. Yeah, she was going to do that, too! She'd make magic flowers and give them to Kaachan since she was always using her own to fix Naruto's battle wounds.


"Psst. Neechan."

Ino opened one pale blue eye in the predawn light to see Naruto peeking up over her bed like a predator ready to pounce or flee. "Naruto? What are you doing up so early? Go back to sleep."

"But-but-but, but today's the day! Our first day at the academy! We're going to be ninja!"

"I'm going to go back to sleep."

"Neechaaaaaan!"

"Naruto! Shhhh! I mean it!"

The golden-blonde pouted at her sister, sticking her tongue out, then ducking the pillow thrown at her head. Ino might be the daddy's girl, but she'd inherited their mother's temper- and throwing arm.

Well, fine! If Ino was just going to sleep the day away, she was going to go watch the morning glories bloom. She'd already packed her bag, repacked it when she'd tried to stuff too much into it, then checked to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything- and wound up packing it again when she had. How could Ino stand to sleep, today of all days?! NINJA-hood was calling them! They were going to be as awesome as Tousan and as kick-ass as Kaachan! How could Ino sleep through that?

With a loud snore, as it happened. Oceanic eyes rolled as she pouted and went to check the garden.

She found Makoto already out there with a mug of something in her hand. She patted the spot beside her and Naruto flopped down without hesitating. Kaachan ran a hand through her bedhead, Naruto's blond hair not even up in its usual twintails. Naruto leaned into her mother's side and grumbled, snuggling close in the early morning chill. She was close enough to smell that the mystery liquid in the cup was coffee.

Makoto finger-combed her hair, "Ino-chan didn't want to get up, I take it."

Naruto huffed and burrowed deeper, making her mother laugh.

"Well we can't all be willing to get up and watch the world wake up."

"She's so... Ugh! Neechan's such a girl!"

That set her mother off and Makoto leaned forward to clutch her stomach as she laughed, "A girl, huh?"

"Yeah! Ino-nee's not like me an' you. She likes flowers, so that's good, but she hates getting dirty and sweaty and when she does she makes this face." Mako covered her mouth to hide her snickers at her daughter's impersonation. Naruto continued on with her complaints, "Then she takes perfectly tasty flowers and arranges them. What a waste! She puts them in vases around the house to wilt." She rolled her eyes in exasperation.

It was one of the key ways Makoto got Naruto to eat greens. There were flowers, and then there were vegetables. She'd eat the former, but the latter only if Makoto cooked them some way she liked.

Mako pulled Naruto closer, "So do you dislike your sister for wasting flowers and being different than you and better at the clan Jutsu?"

Naruto looked up at her, scandalized, and shook her head frantically, "No! Neesan is awesome for bein' able to do all the boring stuff I can't, and if anyone picks on her like they pick on me, I'll kick their ass, believe it!"

Makoto giggled and ruffled the young blonde's hair, "That's my girl. Go out there and give 'em hell. Show them what flower girls can do. Put 'em to the storm."

"I will, I will! I'll make you proud, Kaachan, promise!"

She smiled softly and pulled Naruto back against her, "I'm always proud of you. Stand up for yourself, for the ones you love, and what you believe in. Never back down or give up on your dreams, and you'll never disappoint me."

The little blonde nodded against her side as they watched the sun rising, the morning glories opening their petals for the day.

...

Ino shook her head, embarrassed as her mother carried her sleeping sister on her back as she walked next to her father, holding hands so she didn't get lost. She blushed crimson at the looks others gave them as they walked past. How humiliating, how childish, how... very Naruto. She sighed, dropping her head in her hand.

But Makoto didn't mind in the least. Naruto weighed nothing compared to the boulders she tossed around the compound, she didn't even have to use any chakra, her natural strength more than enough.


Makoto held in a giggle as Naruto made a face at her sister's flower arrangements. The little golden-blonde couldn't care less about how the flowers were arranged, she wanted to know what they did! She pointed at the purple flower in the bouquet, "That's clover, you can eat that!"

Ino rolled pale blue eyes right back, "It means 'prosperity, comfort, and a life of ease'. And this is a white stargazer lily, which represents chastity and virtue."

Naruto scrunched her nose, "...Lilies are poisonous..."

"And this is asphodel, which-"

"Is related to lilies and also poisonous."

"I'm not eating them!" Ino shouted, glaring at her sister.

Makoto couldn't help laughing at them then, ruffling Naruto's bangs and tugging gently at Ino's ponytail.

Ino pulled away, "You need to know this, Naruto! Hanako-sensei is testing us on this at the end of the week!"

Naruto scoffed and went back to caring for the plants around the shop, "Who the hell cares about what the flowers mean?"

"Naruto! Language."

Naruto and Makoto rolled their eyes at the exact same time. Mako hadn't done well at those 'proper lady' lessons when she'd been training to be a kunoichi, either. Looked like Naruto held them in the same high esteem as herself.

"Who cares what Hanako-sensei says? The woman's got an oversized thistle shoved right up her-"

"NARUTO!"

"Okay! Okay!" The golden-blonde winced and rubbed her ear. Ino snorted and turned back to her presentation, shifting the flowers around to better show them off.


Ino stopped by her sister, "...What are you doing?"

"I don't think Kaachan has this flower yet."

She facepalmed, "Naruto, are you even doing the assignment? We've got to turn in our bouquets and you're over here pulling things up by the roots."

"Well they'll be hard to replant without the roots."

Two shades of blue clashed in a fierce battle before Ino's shoulders slumped, her expression relaxing. This was her sister. Annoyingly early-rising- and forcing others to, then falling asleep herself. Over-enthusiastic, too energetic, unable to sit still or focus. No fashion sense to speak of and an unhealthy love of the color orange. Addicted to a million and two flavors of ramen and who wouldn't touch a vegetable with a ten-foot pole if their Kaachan didn't prepare it.

Also: loyal, steadfast, determined. Who would stay up with Ino under the covers with Ino when she asked. Who Ino could talk to about absolutely any problem at all, who'd thump Shikamaru for daring to call Ino 'troublesome' ("Show some more respect you lazy bastard!"). Naruto, who would help her pick her clothes and go shopping with her even though she hated both clothes and shopping. Naruto who would stand between her and whatever might threaten her precious Neechan even though Ino was the older sister.

That was her: Naruto Yamanaka, and honestly, Ino wouldn't trade her for anything.

She smiled and kneeled down next to her, "I have an extra vase. I brought it in case one of us broke ours. We can line it with soil and transfer the flower that way."

Naruto grinned at her in that way that took half her face, "Thanks, Neechan! I'll help you hunt up the prettiest flowers- even the really poisonous ones!"

Ino sweatdropped but helped her sister move the flower, accepting the offer of help for what it was, "Thanks."

Naruto stood up when they were had the little blossom potted, rushing the vase back to the class for when they were done and racing back, a little winded but not huffing and panting (and dying) like Ino would have been if she'd attempted the same sprint. Then her head tilted, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" She didn't hear anything.

"It sounds like... laughing."

"Isn't that good?"

"No, it sounds like the same kind of laughing as those boys who used to pick on me."

Ino's expression tightened at the unpleasant memory. She'd been helpless, standing there off to the side while her little sister was bullied, called names and shoved. Until she'd shoved back. Naruto had hurt those boys way more than they'd hurt her, but still... they'd hurt her. And Ino had been completely useless to do anything. She hadn't saved her sister, hadn't stepped in to help her, hadn't even fixed her up afterward. All she'd been able to do was run home and cry to Tousan while Kaachan fixed Naruto up.

She grabbed her sister's tanned hand and tugged, "Come on, then, we have to stop them from doing whatever it is that's making them laugh like that."

Deeper blue eyes stared at her, "Ino-nee... are you sure? You can still finish your assignment."

Ino knew exactly what she was being offered. Naruto was telling her she could ignore that sound, even pretend it didn't matter since she hadn't personally heard it, could finish her assignment, and let her sister go take care of it. Let Naruto take all the blame for the trouble that was about to go down- because it was always trouble when Naruto got herself involved. But the image of that day at the playground flashed before her eyes, Naruto scuffed up and bleeding, wincing in pain but still smiling at her and telling her that she was okay.

No, she wasn't going to stand aside like that again. She wasn't going to let Naruto down again. She'd protect her sister- her little sister, she wasn't going to let her go off alone into danger. Some things were more important than school assignments.

Her fingers tightened and her expression set into one of determination, "Let's go."

Naruto grinned at her and nodded, "Yeah."

It was a group of girls that were laughing, all surrounding one girl, who was shaking, "Please stop. Just go away..."

They laughed again, "What a cry-baby! Come on, Billboard Brow, show off that huge forehead to the whole world."

One of the others tittered, "That thing's big enough to house its own Hidden Village!"

Ino grabbed the back of her sister's burnt-orange teeshirt and dug her feet in fruitlessly, Naruto perfectly capable of dragging her along, two streaks of mud left behind her as her sandals tore up the grass as she attempted to be the emergency brake on her sister's temper. "Naru, I know, okay, I know. But these are girls. They aren't like the boys, they'll tell on you if you hit them."

"Not if I hit 'em hard enough..."

"If any of them are civilians, we can get our clan in trouble with the council for hitting them."

There was a pause and Ino breathed a sigh of relief. Naruto's next words, though, told her she'd done so too soon, "Don't worry, I won't hurt 'em... much." This, surprisingly, failed utterly in allaying her worries.

"Kami help..."

"Hey, you! What the hell are you doing?!"

Ino facepalmed. One of their first interactions with their classmates, and her sister was cursing like... Kaachan.

They turned around, "Why, we're not doing anything much."

Naruto snorted, "Well, yeah, that much was clear. I mean, look at you scrawny little twigs. You couldn't do much if you tried."

Ino went full-out and her other hand joined her first. She kind of hoped one of Kaachan's planting Jutsu would suddenly open the ground below her and bury her alive.

"And just who are you?"

"I'm Naruto Yamanaka and I'm going to be the first woman Hokage! And you-" she pointed to them all, "are nothing but a bunch of puny little bullying bitches."

Kami, just kill me now. Naruto sounded exactly like Kaachan when she was taking down one of the snottier Hyuuga at the market.

"Hey, I know you... Aren't you the Demon Brat? Yeah, I've heard of you, too. No wonder you're standing up for Billboard Brow!"

Ino's head whipped up, eyes blazing furiously at the girls. Okay, so maybe her sister and mom weren't very 'lady-like', and they cursed like they'd spent time in Anko Mitarashi's brain with their clan Jutsu. They got up way too early, and they liked dirt in a way Ino would probably never be able to comprehend, but Naruto was her little sister. She always had a new flower waiting for Ino when she got done with Clan Studies, helped Kaachan in the kitchen (even if the only thing she could make so far was ramen) but they were her family, the best family, and she wouldn't trade them for anything.

One of the girls' lips parted to speak and Ino struck, the flowers she'd collected (for Naruto) flying like senbon into the yappy one's big, fat mouth. Ino smirked nastily when they all looked at her, "Oh, I'm sorry, your mouth was so huge I thought it was a particularly ugly vase that needed some flowers to fill it."

She stomped her foot, "Why foo..."

Ino snorted, "By the way... that's aconite and milkweed. Not exceptionally poisonous, still, you might want to go wash your mouth out."

She spat out the flowers in panic and the rest of the flock took off to go help her. Ino squeaked as Naruto glomped her, "You used poisonous flowers~!"

Ino blushed, "Yeah... I picked them while you were running off the flower pot. ...Thought you'd like 'em."

They pulled away at the pink-haired girl's sobbing and Ino sat beside her, "What's your name?"

"S-S-Sakura." She introduced herself before bursting into a fresh bout of tears.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's with all the waterworks? They're gone now."

"I th-thought they were my f-friends!"

Naruto snorted and spoke before thinking, "Those little bitches were no friends of yours."

The pinkette wailed louder, "They ne-never were? They t-tricked me the wh-whole time!"

Ino cast her sister a glare and Naruto stepped back, hands raised defensively. She hadn't meant to make her feel worse! She wasn't Kaachan or Tousan: she didn't know what to say to make someone stop crying! She kinda sucked at talking, she did better with actions! Ac- actions... Naruto glanced around and looked at Ino, "Neechan, which of these is a sakura tree?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Because I work with ground-plants, not trees. The answer, please." She urged impatiently.

Ino rolled her eyes and looked around, "That looks like a stand of them over there."

Naruto grinned and gave her a half-hearted salute, "Thanks~!" she dashed off and left her to deal with the crying pinkette. Ino did her best, holding her close and patting her back like Tousan did for her when she cried to him.

Naruto came running back, holding... sticks. She'd obviously torn them from the tree, but what in the world was running through her mind? It was summer, the blossoms were long gone, and Ino didn't think naked twigs were going to much cheer up their new friend. Naruto held out her arm and stared intently at the sticks. Ino's stress was reaching critical and she was about to snap at her sister when she felt... something.

Ino kept quiet, watching as Naruto focused harder- and then started to glow. Her breath caught in her throat, "Wha-"

Naruto was bad at chakra control, it wasn't exactly a secret around the compound. She couldn't do even the easiest of the clan Jutsu because she had just no control. But what she lacked in control she more than made up for in quantity. Ino remembered Naruto running around outside in the winter with barely anything on while she was forced to bundle up, because her sister made and expended so much chakra she could keep herself warm by jump-starting her metabolism, all the adults said that that's where she got her energy from.

Naruto glowed as she expelled massive quantities of chakra from her entire body, but her arm glowed the brightest, and, though it might have been a trick of the light, Ino thought the branches started glowing as well. Sakura looked up with water-logged green eyes, watching just as raptly as Ino was, both uncertain just what in the world was going on.

They both gasped. The branches were glowing, what's more, they were moving! Like a strong wind blew them, they moved. Then they burst into activity, small shoots jumping forward in growth, months of time passing in the blink of an eye, they stared, completely entranced, as the branches quickly flashed through seasons, the leaves crinkling and dropping, leaving them bare, then buds springing into being before, at last, blooming in bursts of pale pink.

Naruto stopped glowing and panted harshly, harder than after her run all the way back to the classroom and back outside earlier. Ino couldn't even guess at how much chakra she'd put out, more than Ino would probably ever possess. In just a few minutes, and she was still standing. Naruto looked tired, but she didn't look like she was about to drop dead from chakra exhaustion. As her mother would say: Holy shit!

Naruto beamed and held out the now-flowering branches, "Here, sakura flowers for Sakura~!"

The pink-haired girl hesitantly reached out and took the bouquet, then held it close and hid her face in the flowers, "Thank you."

Ino leaned forward to get a better look at the girl while Naruto hopped up to sit on her other side. Ino reached out and pushed the pink bangs out of the way, "You know, those girls were bitches-" Naruto grinned at her for swearing, "-but they did have one point."

Sakura sniffled, "They... they did?"

She nodded, "You do have a big forehead-" Sakura flinched, but Ino went on, "-and you should show it off."

Sakura's head snapped up so fast Ino winced in sympathy for her poor neck, "What?!"

She removed her hand, and watched as Sakura's bangs fell down into her eyes again, then lifted them back up, "All this hair trying to hide it... It makes you look..."

"You look like a sheepdog." Naruto helpfully supplied.

Ino used her free hand to facepalm, "My sister's as ineloquent as ever, but she has a point. Here, I have just the thing." She was forced to let go again as she dug around in her pockets, coming up with cry of victory, holding a red ribbon, "There we go!"

Ino stood up with Naruto, the golden-blonde holding Sakura's hair back while Ino tied the bow. She leaned back to observe their work and nodded, plopping back down next to her.

"There, that's much better."

Sakura fidgeted, hand reaching up to touch her held-back hair, "You shouldn't waste that on me..."

Naruto snorted, "Waste? Please. This gives her whole new reasons to wring a shopping trip out of Kaachan. 'But Kaachan, I need this ribbon, it matches Sakura's hair!'"

Ino leaned around to glare at the other blonde, her sister just lucky she didn't have any more ammunition on her. Naruto stuck her tongue out at her. She snorted and turned back to Sakura, who was giggling, "Anyway, the point is that giving you the ribbon isn't a waste."

"But my forehead..."

"Don't worry about that! If anyone else picks on you for it, we'll just teach 'em a lesson!" Sakura's green eyes widened and she leaned away from the apparently-violent blonde, but Naruto went on, "Don't let them push you around. Sometimes you gotta kick some ass! Show them what a flower-girl can do!"

"Flower girl?"

Naruto grinned and held a thumb towards herself, "Yup! Our Kaachan runs the Yamanaka flower shop. We're flower-girls, and we don't let anyone put us down. Flowers are beautiful -well, most of them...- but deadly! ...Again, some of them. Lots of others only give you a stomach ache, and there are a couple that are safe and tasty..."

Ino sighed, "You lost your point in your argument... again."

Naruto blinked, "Oh! Well, anyway, I guess I'm trying to say we'll be your friends so we won't let nothing else happen to you~!"

Ino smiled at Sakura's startled look, "She may take the scenic route, but she does get there eventually. We'll be your friends. I'm Ino, and that's my little sister-"

"Naruto Yamanaka, future-"

"Hokage?" Sakura finished.

Naruto grinned at her, "We're going to get along just fine."

The alarm rang and they raced together back to the starting point, grabbing flowers along the way. The teacher gaped at them as the three girls stood together and proudly presented their bouquets, each of which were twined around a flowering, out of season sakura branch.


Naruto crouched in the snow below the tree. Sakura and Ino had been so happy to get paired together for their assignment. They were paired up for tracking in snowy conditions practice. Naruto was pretty sure her partner was intentionally not finding her. It had been over an hour now. It was cloudy and so cold. It was cold enough that she could feel it, even through her jacket. Their teacher probably wasn't looking for her, either, and Ino and Sakura likely didn't even know she was missing.

She hugged her knees closer to her chest and breathed out a frosted sigh. She hated winter. There was nothing to do, no plants to take care of unless it was in cramped greenhouses that always smelled funny from everything being so close together. She hated the smell of greenhouses, they made her sneeze like crazy.

Naruto sighed and stood up, shivering as a wicked-cold wind blew right through her orange coat. What was the point of staying still? It wasn't like anyone was looking for her anyway. She'd been so careful to cover her footprints at first, too.

She kicked at the snow, then turned and punched the tree she was under. Well to hell with them all! She eeped as the tree released its hold on all the snow in its branches and the mini-avalanche buried her. She popped up out of the top and huffed, then laughed.

She dug her way out of the snow and glared around at all the white stuff. Snow sucked. Her legs were too short to navigate it properly, and she had nowhere near the ability to do that awesome snowshoe Jutsu Tousan and Kaachan could do. It made pranking harder, it completely ruined her garden. And no matter how she begged, none of the other kids ever wanted to play with her in it. Naruto hated snow.

She wanted... spring. Fresh, clean spring air, bright little buds waiting to burst into flowery fireworks of color. Fun mud puddles and the scent of green things and over-turned soil. The feel of the sun warming her back as she carried water around the garden with Kaachan. Naruto wanted spring, not this wintry hell.

=-0-=

Makoto froze into wary, shinobi-stillness, "What did you just say?"

"We were out practicing winter tracking, and Naruto Yamanaka's partner returned without her."

"And you left?" Her voice was deadly calm, "Your student returned without their partner and you left? You lost my child and then LEFT HER THERE?! Are you fucking shinobi or not you useless ass-clown?! I'll be there in an hour and if my daughter -both of them- isn't there when I arrive, I'm taking it out of your ass!"

She slammed the receiver down in the cradle so hard she smashed the phone into little unrecognizable bits of machinery. She ignored it and turned on her heel, stalking to the master bedroom and throwing open the closet, grabbing her shinobi gear- and smirking in vindictive satisfaction that, aside from being slightly tighter around the chest area, it still fit her perfectly.

=-0-=

Naruto looked at the snow-covered ground thoughtfully, recalling what she'd done with the sakura blossoms. She could just do that again, couldn't she? Her chakra kept her warm, helped plants grow. So, if she just put out enough of it, maybe she could make it spring!

She smiled hugely and knelt down in the snow. Naruto looked at her mittens in frustration before pulling them off with her teeth and shoving her hands down into the cold. She stared at the spot between them, a frown of concentration on her lips, and tried to do the chakra-thing she'd done before.

She could feel it inside: her chakra like a great ocean within her center. She reached after it and pulled-pushed-poured, opening the floodgates and letting it pour out across the frozen ground. Her hands began glowing, bright, gold-white, and she could even kinda-see it through her jacket, thumping in time with her heartbeat.

Naruto stood up and took off her coat, not feeling cold at all. In fact, it was rather warm, so she struggled out of her over-pants, too, leaving her in just her house-shirt, shorts, and her boots- until she kicked those off, too.

Her whole body was glowing, even her hair, from her head to her bare feet. Feet that sank down into slushy mud. Naruto let out a purely childish squeal of glee. It was working! She was melting the snow, she was making it spring time!

Naruto was always being picked on, called weird, called a demon, freakish, strange. She saw the adults of the clan whispering about her when they didn't think she could hear. Well if this was what it meant to be weird, to be a demon, a freak, she'd take it.

A warm wind blew against her cheeks and sent her ponytails blowing out behind her. Naruto smiled and ran her hand across her cheek. She was doing it! She was even making the wind warm. This was exactly it, this was what she wanted! Stupid clan jutsu, stupid clan members, stupid teachers- stupid Hanako-sensei, especially. Let her see any one of them do this! But nope, only her, Kaachan had only shown her how to do it.

The melted snow was swiftly sucked into the rich earth as it quickened, awakened from its wintry sleep. Naruto laughed as little sprouts poked up below her feet, the melting area growing. The nearest trees had the last of the slush fall from their branches as they came back to life, pulsing with energy, limbs twitching with growth.

Naruto spun around in wonder, her small kingdom coming alive before her eyes. Grass sprang up between her toes and she danced around in it, arms out for balance as she moved gracefully around each new shoot, the trail of plantlife following her footsteps. She laughed, picking her way across the newly-revived ground, leaving rich topsoil in place of the light, clay-like ground that had been there before.

It felt wonderful. Naruto could feel it: the earth coming alive with every step, leaves budding on the trees around her, some caught by the warm wind playing with her and sending them dancing across the sky. She dug her toes into the dirt, feeling it respond, and then hopped back, watching as flowers rose and bloomed from the spot.

Her chakra poured out and saturated the area like a rainstorm unleashed, soaking into the ground and plants. Naruto smiled as she twirled around, touching down lightly before slipping away. It wasn't just the ground, or the plants; Naruto let her chakra go and she could feel it getting caught up in the air, like the leaves in the wind. The wind grabbed at her clothes almost playfully as she spun. It felt... happy. The earth, the sky, she felt them, saturated with her chakra, part of her, like her hands or feet.

Like her hair. She laughed as she pushed the blonde locks back out of her eyes, the warmth of the sun on her face. This was peace, this was who she was. She'd gone from being ready to cry to... being the happiest she'd ever been in her life. This was acceptance, this was love, watching before her eyes as her flowers -hers- bloomed for her. Naruto spun and raised her arms, the earth answering her and sending up shoots to brush against her thighs. With a thought, and spin, they even braided themselves together. Chakra control didn't seem so hard when she had aaalll this to help her control it.

Naruto stepped back with a smile, looking up at the braided sapling she'd just made. It was beautiful, all twirled around itself. If this was the joy Ino got from flower arranging, she'd never say another bad thing about it to her sister ever again.

She danced back away from the tree, spinning around and around to the music of the wind through her hair, the heartbeat of the earth below her, again and again: twist, twine, spin, twirl. Flashes of green, or pink, of bright red and pale blue, caught her as she moved. Star gazer lilies swayed contently at the bases of trees, tender morning glories happily opened their petals to the warmth of her chakra.

Naruto spun to the very middle of her little clearing and threw out her hands, reaching up towards the light of the sun overhead and panting. Then she recalled Kaachan's issue with being unable to grow red roses from anything but bud. She crouched down with a soft smile and placed her palm against the ground, feeling its surge of happiness, and asked for a rose bush. There was a seed in there that she could feel, one small little rose seed, and she poured more chakra into it, feeling it germinate and sprout between her fingers with tiny little leaves. Growing up and up. It flourished under her loving attention and focus, branches spreading out and leaves turned towards her instead of the sun above, shining with the light she shared with it that turned every leaf emerald and every branch topaz.

She frowned as her own glow flickered and darkened. So she reached deeper into the well of her chakra and pushed, the little bush shivering and making her smile as she saw the buds forming, fed on the energy of her body and soul.

Her glow dimmed again and she gave a scowl worthy of an Uchiha, digging, deep into herself, for more chakra, more light. She had to finish, had to make red roses for Kaachan! Something happened inside her, made her wince, but then her light was back and brighter than ever, a deep pink that tinted to her favorite orange at the edges. She poured it out into her little rosebush, urging it on and cooing as it responded, the buds large and healthy, twitching with the effort to blossom.

Naruto smiled softly even as she shook her head to clear it of the blackness creeping in. She blinked, but nothing changed, though she could still feel, feel the flowers bloom and open, the fragrance of roses filling the clearing as she finally broke contact with the ground and fell flat on her back, the sun overhead the only thing really visible.

Her chest heaved for breath, but Naruto had never felt more satisfied- or more tired. But it was done, she did it. She'd brought spring, she'd made roses for her Kaachan that she just knew were red. She didn't know why Kaachan wanted red roses, Naruto personally thought the golden ones were prettier than just red, but she was happy to do it.

"Naruto!"

And she was even here to see it!

"K-Kaachan! You came!"

There was a sound of crashing from her left, then silence for a bit, then she felt her mother picking her up, "Oh, my little storm, what did you do?"

"Isn't it pretty? I made spring. And- and I made you roses. Are they red? I can't really see anything. Are they red like you like them, Kaachan?"

Makoto nuzzled her head, "Yes, baby, they're a bright, gorgeous red."

Naruto smiled, snuggled into her mother's side, and went to sleep.


Makoto stared in awe at the clearing around her and her youngest daughter. It must have been a good forty feet across, with rich, dark earth. At one end was a braided sapling, bright green leaves reaching proudly for the sky, several of the full-grown trees around them brought into full bloom as if it were the middle of spring. The forest floor wasn't blanketed in grass, it was rather sparse, and in a very distinct pattern.

Makoto snorted and shook her head, smiling. From one end of the clearing to the other, there was an enormous Konoha leaf symbol, the stem coming from the bottom of the braided tree. And in the very center of the spiral, what had to be the healthiest rose bush she had ever seen, with roses bright, blood red. A moving, living red. A glowing red. ...Kyuubi red.

Mako held Naruto closer and rested her cheek on her daughter's head as the incompetant idiots who'd lost her child wandered into the small miracle Naruto had created, "Show the world what a flower-girl can do, my strong, proud, beautiful little sea storm. Rage on."