04. Blooming Flowers

Families are like flowers, when there are a bunch of them, they'll live a happy life.

"We're off!" Sakura yells and closes the door behind her, Naruto waiting for her at the end of the driveway.

Saturday has arrived, and as promised, Sakura is taking Naruto out for getting something he already has. Naruto doesn't know what to think of and he's quite nervous about it.

"Okay, let's go~" Sakura sings and takes Naruto by the hand, leading him to his own car. "You're driving," she says, smirking.

Naruto walks around his car and steps in the driver's seat. "Yeah, yeah. I did understand that part," he says, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Every time they were going somewhere, it was his job to drive.

Sakura steps in and fastens her seat belt. "We have to go to Tokyo," she says and Naruto pulls up, driving away. She doesn't want Naruto to be angry at her for not fastening her seat belt. He did once, and she wasn't allowed to drive with him for at least a week for not doing so. She still doesn't know why he becomes angry, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she does have a small clue.

"So, what're we gonna do? Why all the way to Tokyo?" Naruto asks her. It's almost an hour driving now.

But Sakura shakes her head in response. "Nah-ah," she moves her index finger to the left and back to the right, "not telling you until we get there," she says. Naruto pouts and stops the car in front of the traffic lights. "By the way, how was finishing the project with Hinata? It was your fault that we – the girls and I – couldn't go shopping with her now." She sounded interested. Even though they live in the same house, and go to the same school, they hadn't had a proper time to talk.

Naruto snorts under his breath. "Well, I'm sorry," he apologizes sarcastically. "And we did fine, she invited me over to her house to finish it, and-"

"She invited you over?" Sakura interrupts.

Naruto nods while taking the road that leads to the highway. While speeding up, he starts to talk again. "Yeah, she did. Is that weird? We're lab partners, so why the fuck should that be weird. If we hadn't changed lab partners, you still were mine, and then we probably also had to finish it at home, which isn't weird. So why should this be?"

"Ah… That's true."

He grins at her defeat. "Anyways, I went home with her, and met her sister and dad. Hanabi was really interested in my piercings and tattoos." Before Sakura can say anything, Naruto continues, "Yes I showed her my tattoos. I told her the stories behind it, and she was even more interested in them than my tattoos. When I spoke, she didn't move or make a sound at all." Naruto chuckles, thinking back to last Thursday. "Anyways, her dad was really scary at first. He crept the hell out of me, he made a joke out of me, laughed, and invited me to stay for dinner – which I gladly accepted, and you already knew."

"Seems you had fun," Sakura muses, stomping her fist into his upper arm.

"Sure did," he tells her. "Turned out the old man and I like the same basketball team and also hated the same team."

Sakura laughs loudly, and letting it die with a chuckle. "And Hanabi seemed to have taken a liking towards you." She winks at him.

"As it seems," he says back. "When we were eating – their mom makes the best Italian pasta in the world, by the way."

Sakura chuckles. "I know she does. I've eaten it a lot of times."

"It was so good! Where was I talking about again?"

"Hanabi interested in your tattoos." Sakura suppresses a smile. Naruto can have his moments of short-minded.

"Right, thanks. When we were eating, Hanabi just couldn't shut up about them; she asked the ears of my body. But I was glad that she was so interested – hell, she even asked everything there was to know about Kurama. When I showed her a picture of the beast, she said she had fallen in love with the thing right away, and that when I had to work at the animal shelter again, she would definitely drop by." Naruto starts to laugh. "This is the best thing I could have ever imagined."

Sakura starts to laugh too. "That sounds like Hanabi, alright. She is always whining that she wants to have a pet herself. She's also really quickly jealous of someone who has one, so it surprises me she isn't jealous of you."

"What can I say, I'm irresistible," Naruto jokes, smiling a toothy smile.

"Very funny."

"But I do think she has taken a small liking to me." That surprises Sakura even more. "She invited me to come see her soccer game this Monday evening after she asked me if I liked a game of soccer."

Sakura chuckles. That also sounded so Hanabi-like. She had asked Sakura the same thing and invited her over, too. Even though Sakura dislikes soccer a little, she still came. "You're going, right?"

"Yeah, why not. I like the kid, shouldn't hurt to do something nice to her, am I right?"

Sakura eyed him and saw that his eyes were strictly plastered in front of him, on the road. But even though he was so concentrated, she could see a faint spark shimmering in his eyes. "Absolutely."

The rest of the drive to Tokyo is not really quiet, but also not really lively. Whenever a wrong song comes on the radio that Naruto hates, he moves his hand to the change the channel, but Sakura slaps his hand away, only turning it harder and singing along, really out of tune. And after the fourth song, Naruto turns the radio off.

"Hey!" Sakura pouts. "The song wasn't over yet!"

"We're here," Naruto shoots back.

Sakura twists her head to take a look outside, seeing the bright neon lights. He was right, they have arrived. Confusion hit her. How could Naruto know that this was the place? "How did you-?"

"How many times do you think I have been here," Naruto replies with a grin. "After you said we needed to go to Tokyo, I thought some things together. You've always liked mine, you yelled you wanted to get one yourself someday, and you were looking at your arm almost the whole drive to here. So it was only logical to think of you wanting to get a tattoo." He smirks at her still confused face.

Sakura's hand moves to open the door. "You got me," she muses, stepping out of the car. . "I knew you would know sooner or later, though. Thought you'd be smart enough." She bends her head down and looks at Naruto who's still seated in the car.

"Yeah sure," Naruto says, unlocking his seatbelt, stepping out himself. Sakura laughs, moving her head away and closing the door. "Be careful, though," he says to her out of concern. "You don't know who is walking around here."

Sakura shakes her and rolls her eyes. "Blah, blah. I've gone with you once, if you can't remember. When you were going to get the whirlpool, I went with you because you insisted I had to go with you, otherwise I would regret it my whole life if I didn't. And you had said you would hate me if I didn't." She starts walking away, heading for the row of tattoo shops.

Naruto makes a face. "What? Nah, I've never said that, have I?" But when Sakura bops her head up and down, repeating it, Naruto start to doubt himself. "Apparently I have."

Sakura makes a stop to wait for the blond. "It doesn't matter anymore. I wanted you to come with me because I forgot which shop you went to that time and those times after that." She moves her shoulders up a little and smiles innocently.

Again, Naruto is rolling his eyes. "Sometimes, and just sometimes, you make me so tired," he jokes. "Come, princess, I'll lead you to the castle with pleasure." He pokes his elbow out and invites Sakura to stick her arm through the hole that is created.

"Pleasure is all mine," Sakura says, returning the joke, and Naruto leads them to a shop just around the corner. "I knew it was something with a corner," Sakura tries.

"Sure you did." Naruto chuckles and receives a punch in his right side quickly after that. The shining green neon lights saying 'Akatsuki' flickers a little. He opens the door to the shop and for a moment there, Sakura hesitates. "Come in and don't go acting like a scared cat all of a sudden," Naruto says and grabs her hand, bringing her closer to his chest. His mouth rest next to her ear. "It'll be okay, I promise," he whispers softly. "I'll be here, next to you and I won't let go of your hand, 's that okay?"

When Sakura nodded faintly, he took her hand again and brought her into the shop. A bell jingles, announcing that someone has entered. A black-haired man comes in loudly from the back, grumbling and cursing when he knocks over a box. The duo flinches when the sound of shattering glass is heard. The man looks up and it seems like his whole world drastically changed when he laid eyes on the blond.

"Naruto, my boy!" he exclaims, throwing his arms in the air and walks over to them, engulfing the two of them in a big bear hug. "How've you been?" His eyes land on Sakura. "Who's the pretty gal? Girlfriend?" He sticks out her hand to her. Sakura eyes him from his feet to his head and pulls up her nose a little, almost unable to see.

"Zero, good to see you again! Doing fine, as always. Nah, not my girlfriend, but this's Haruno Sakura."

She accepts his hand and shakes it. A squeal escapes her lips when Zero suddenly pulls her up in a hug. When he lets go, she takes a deep breath and flattens her shirt. "Nice to meet you, Zero," she says politely.

"Nice to meet you too, pretty lady." Zero walks over to the counter and sits down on the big and puffy chair. "You sure you aren't his girlfriend?" His eyes fly from her to Naruto, to his computer screen.

They chuckle. "So sure as I can be," replies Sakura. "To Naruto, I'm more of an older sister-person."

"Ah, really?" Zero clicks a few times with the mouse.

"That's rude! I'm older than you," Naruto whines.

"Your point is?" she shoots back, punching his arm. "As a matter of fact, I'm the one who's always trying to keep you on the right path, like an older sister would do! And since you are in fact my only sibling who I actually consider as a real sibling, you should feel flattered that I care for you."

"Haruno Sakura, appointment at eleven AM," interrupts Zero Sakura before she could continue to speak.

Sakura already forgot that he was there and that she was in his shop to get a tattoo. She realizes that if Zero hadn't stopped her, she would have said terrible things to Naruto, without the intention to. She wanted to tell him that he should feel flattered because he doesn't even have a family anymore. That wasn't even the topic they were talking about…

She turns her head to Zero and nods slightly. "Yeah, that's me."

"Great," Zero grinned. "You said on the phone that you were bringing your own design?"

She reaches for her bag. "Yep." She takes a paper and displays it on the table. "This is the drawing. Naruto, you hadn't seen it yet, so what do you think?" she asks him.

But Naruto is unable to reply. Looking at the drawing in awe, he tries to collect words to say. "It's… beautiful," he brings out. "Sakura, I didn't know you could draw?"

That answer receives another punch from the pink-haired girl. "Hey," she bites. "You're not the only one in our house who can draw." She smirks at the boy.

"I can see." Naruto chuckles.

"Where do you want it?" Zero asks and Sakura exposes the place on her arm where she wants the tattoo to be. Zero places a paper over the spot and marks a circle. "Okay. I'm gonna draw it over and then let's start right away?" Zero proposes, looking at Sakura.

"Let's do it," she says, a little surer than she's actually feeling. Zero nods and disappears to the back again.

Naruto takes her hand again, and let her sit down on a random chair. "I can feel that you're scared. Why the flowers?" he asks, trying to change her mood. "I saw the cherry blossom." He grins at her.

Her eyes flicker up to him and she shows him a small smile. "I secretly searched through your drawings and found the design for the cherry blossom you have," she confessed. "I thought it was really pretty and wanted to get one myself too, symbolizing myself. The other two flowers are my parents, just like with you, I only drew them a little differently. Mom's a campanula, or bellflower, symbolizing gratitude, and Dad's is the white heather, symbolizing protection."

"What about the other one?"

"That's you," Sakura states seriously.

"What? Me? But why?"

Sakura playfully rolls her eyes, stands up and looks straight in his eyes. "Because you're family, that's why."

Naruto has to search for words to speak. "I barely can believe it… That's… the most amazing and most wonderful thing a person has ever done for me." He looks around, still not believing it.

"Well, you better believe it, because I seriously meant it." She smiles widely at him. "The blossom of a pear tree."

Naruto steps a little closer and surprises her with a hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much," he whispers in her shoulder. He lets go of her and bites on the inside of his cheek. "What exactly does it mean?"

Sakura pushes him away and laughs hard. Calmed down, she smirks at him. "Lasting friendship."

"Really?" Naruto asks sarcastic. When Sakura nods, he grabs the spot where his heart is, "Ouch. Friend zoned forever." Naruto's face is hilarious, which causes Sakura to laugh again. And because of Sakura's laugh, Naruto starts to laugh, too.

Rumbling of a falling box is heard and the two look up, abruptly stopping with laughing and shocked. Zero has come back and hit yet another box. He grins when he notices the duo glaring playfully at him. "Oops. Yahiko is going to be angry," he says between his teeth. "Anyway, ready to roll, Sakura?" He walks over to the place where it all happens.

Sakura nods, now surer than before and steps forward. "As ready as I am before an important debate," she jokes.

"Perfect. Come and sit down on the chair, lady." Zero pats the chair and sits down on his own stool. "No turning back now."

"I know." Sakura sits down herself and exposes her arm. "Let's do this."

When Zero places the needle on Sakura's arm, Naruto remembers something. "Hey, Zero," he starts, "where's Yahiko?"

"He and Konan went to visit Nagato's grave. Today's already the third anniversary since he passed."

Nobody makes a sound.

"Three years already, huh?" Naruto whispers softly. "I think I'm paying a visit somewhere this week, too."

Sakura doesn't dare to ask, but gives it a try anyway. "Sorry to ask, but who's Nagato?"

"Yahiko is this shop's owner. Konan is from a body pierce shop, a hundred meter away from here. Nagato was their friend and partner-in-crime back in the days. He died in an accident three years ago," Zero tells.

"He crashed with his car against a three when he wanted to turn right," Naruto continues, "He died two days later in the hospital. Cops still say it was a suicidal attempt. I don't believe shit of that."

Sakura is at a loss for words. "I'm sorry," she finally mutters.

"Enough talk about me," breaks Zero the silence. "Tell me, why the four flowers?"

"Sakura what did you do!?" Ino exclaims, carefully examining Sakura's arm. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Got a tattoo, what do you think?" Sakura replies, laughing and shining all over. Hinata takes a step closer to see what her pink haired friend did. "Remember when I said I was taking Naruto out somewhere this Saturday?" The two nod. "Well, there you go!"

"I think it's really brave of you, Sakura," Hinata says softly.

Sakura grins in return and looks through the corners of her eyes to Ino, who still is looking at the tattoo. Her eyes move back to Hinata and smirks at the girl. "So, Hinata. I heard you had a lot of fun with Naruto?"

As on cue, Hinata starts to blush and quickly looks at the ground. "Ah, no- I mean…"

"You can admit you like him. We already know you do," Ino says, looking away from Sakura's arm. "I just can't accept it. I mean, he's an ugly punk and damn, I hate his guts."

"Ah, no, I don't–"

"There you got the punk," Ino hisses, interrupting Hinata.

Hinata immediately stiffens and doesn't look at the direction Ino is pointing her pointed finger at. Footsteps are nearing and Hinata sees Sakura walking away from the group, in the direction of Naruto.

Ino slowly closes in on Hinata. "So how was friday?"

"It's all your fault that we had to finish it at home." Hinata's glaring at Ino, which surprises the blonde. Who knew Hinata could glare like that?

Footsteps are nearing and stopping next to Hinata. "Exactly. Say, ponytail, why do you hate me?"

Ino huffed. "Like I need to give an explanation to a punk like you. Unbelievable that you – a filthy freak – are partnered up with the sweet and innocent Hinata."

"Ho. Stop talking, now," Naruto hissed. "You have nothing to say about us as lab partners. Kakashi-sensei wanted it like this, so, so be it. And to be fair with you, Friday was great. Hinata's family is – aside from Sakura's – one of the kindest families I've ever met and-" Ino tried to interrupt him. "Hush it. You will never win this conversation." He looked at Hinata, who had started to blush the moment he mentioned her family. He smirked a little. Before turning away from the group of girls, he opens his mouth once again. "Oh, and Ino," she looked at him, with a pissed-off face, "you are one of the reasons that I hate basic richies like you." And with that, Naruto walks away.

Sakura bites her lip. "You can be so stupid, pig. Well, it's happened now, let's go to class." She makes an attempt to walk away, but waiting for Hinata to follow her. When Hinata has reached her level, they started to walk away together. Ino follows them from a foot or five behind. "Hinata, please tell me everything that happened Friday. Naruto didn't want to tell me all of it, but please do."

They see Naruto walking in front of them, bag hanging casually over his shoulder and plugging his earphones in his ears. Hinata blushes.

"Later," she says, pressing her lips into a firm line, trying to stop the blushing. Sakura is smirking at the sight right from her and then looks in front of her at Naruto, who turns to once again look at the trio.

"Oh, Hinata!" Naruto yells, and Hinata freezes immediately. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow!" He's grinning from ear to ear and then turns around to go to his class.

Sakura looks at the said girl and starts to laugh loudly. Hinata is frozen to the ground, head strawberry-red.