WARNING! SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 328!!!
You have been warned :)
A/N: Just a little drabble. Chapter 328 depressed me. Asuma was my favorite character :( I cried!! And forgive me, some of this may not be entirely accurate, but please don't crit too harshly, k? Thanks much :)
Eh, Enjoy.
Kurenai fingered the single rose in her hand, fingertips softly stroking the velvet petals. The rose was the type he used to give her all the time, whether because he'd returned from a mission, she'd returned from a mission, their students had passed another exam, just for the hell of it … he always found an excuse to buy her flowers. Now her flower vases were empty.
Slowly she took a deep breath, controlling the tremor fighting its way up through her spine. She felt tired, frustrated. Work had not been the same since his death. A dark, gloomy, rainy atmosphere blanketed Konoha and wouldn't let her relax, wouldn't let her forget.
Kurenai wished she'd been there when he departed. Shikamaru, with his cigarettes tucked away in his pocket, told her that his captain had passed away like a true shinobi, fighting until the end … how she wished she could have seen him fight. She knew he would have fought so well and so hard … She wished she'd been able to tell him how she felt, and vice versa, throwing away all the pretense and all the flirting and just getting down to the romantic and the nasty and the passion …
And now he was gone.
Slowly Kurenai stood. The stone monument in front of her was one name longer than it had been eight days ago. She placed the rose on the ground in front of the large stone. She pressed her fingers first to her lips, and then to the name Sarutobi Asuma on the stone.
Kurenai turned to make her way to the Yamanakas' flower shop. One more bouquet couldn't hurt.