Chapter 2: The Flower Selling Flowers
"Druj!"
"Yeah?"
"Take me to Hiru. I need to speak with him personally."
"Sure." With that, they both left the room as quickly as he had entered.
The old peddler waddled down the street, grinning from ear to ear and remembering his first sale.
"I'll get the scroll for her, old man," Kiba had said. "How much for it?"
"Ooh, better watch out, carrot-top. Wolf-boy's making his move!"
"What do you mean?" Naruto remained clueless.
"I'm selling this to the girl, you understand?" the peddler grinned as he handed the scroll to Kiba. "I can promise terrible things if you open it yourself."
"Yeah, yeah." Kiba took it, deciding at that moment not to take a peek before giving it to Hinata.
"No money, not from a sexy customer like her! I'm sure I'll get a fortune from you two while I'm here.
They both groaned, but both were secretly thinking of ways to make some quick money.
"When will you sell me your jutsu, old man?" Naruto demanded.
"I'll be back tomorrow, don't worry. Somewhere around here, I suppose. I only sell in the morning, remember that."
Kiba was thinking. "Old man, if the jutsu in this scroll is rare, how come you're giving it away for free?" He looked up, but the man and the cart were both gone.
"Now, to visit old man Hokage!" He kept going straight for a few more blocks, then stopped and sniffed the air.
"Ooh," he said to himself, "Old man Hokage would have to wait, if he knew I was coming." he turned and entered a flower shop.
"Good morning!" called the girl behind the counter. The old man took a step forward, tilting his head back and sniffing loudly a few times.
"I smell something wonderful!" he croaked, turning down a row. There were a handful of other customers who just looked at him and smiled. He sniffed around, passing different flowers and smelling them. Finally he turned and came up to the counter, still sniffing occasionally.
"Having trouble finding it?" she asked, smiling, "There are plenty of different flower smells in here."
"Hmm, yes there are, but this smell is different. And it's strongest when I'm standing right here."
"Eh?"
The old man leaned left, sniffed, leaned right, sniffed...leaned toward her, sniffed.
"Ah ha! I found the best flower of all!"
Ino blushed for a second, then remembered who was saying it.
"Ummm, I'm not a flower, old man." He pointed a bony finger at her.
"Now, who told you that? This old man should have a talk with them." he shrugged. "But that's okay, you can be my flower, eh?"
Ino shivered involuntarily. "Did...did you come in here to buy flowers, or not?"
"Welll..." he rubbed his hands nervously. "...no, I came in here to sell to one." She sighed.
"What do you sell?" The peddler's face lit up, and he pulled his cart out of nowhere, instantly setting it up in front of the counter.
"I sell jutsu, young lady. I'm sure I have one for a flower like yourself." Ino wasn't really interested, but she couldn't think of how to get rid of him.
"Let's see...a love jutsu? No...broom puppetry for cleaning up the shop? No...maybe something for combat, then..." the peddler tapped his chin and looked up, trying to raise thinking to an art form.
Ino's hand went to pull on her hair: she always did when she was nervous. Then she remembered that it was short now. Anyway, sooner or later he would have to give up...
"I have a hair-growing jutsu," the wrinkled old man offered.
"I'll take it!" Ino shouted, breaking out of her thoughts. Then she looked around, embarrassed. The store's patrons were watching with great interest: more than one of them tried to hide a chuckle.
"Ooh! We have a winner! A good hair-growing jutsu for the flower-selling flower." He reached down somewhere and pulled up a scroll.
"Well, I have to go! Got business with old man Hokage!" he said as he handed it to her.
"Don't you mean Tsunade?" but he was gone. "Old man? What about payment?" She thought about it for a second, then started to open the scroll.
"Ahem," a man said in front of the counter. "I'd like to buy these flowers, ma'am."
"Oh, right!" Ino threw the scroll behind her, to wait until she was done for the day.
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