A/N: Time for season two! The love story that takes place while waiting for Sasuke to be less of a boob. For fair warning, this chapter probably has more mistakes than usual. I wrote it using an on-screen keyboard after my laptop equivalent went kaput.

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Instead of Kindness

Kino was alone and the places that once captured her attention and admiration looked little more than dull distractions to what was actually on her mind. She thought too much these days, and it never seemed to end. Not even in her sleep. She dreamt of the same things that she thought about, day in and day out, without fail.

She thought she'd spend more time thinking of Sasuke.

Instead, she thought about ROOT. Of Shin and her first master, and of Sai before and after they'd been changed. Memories and incidents she had made herself feel nothing for. Places and faces she hadn't thought at the time to pay closer attention to. Conversations and interactions that felt alien and uncomfortable then and even now. Even if she didn't like it, she couldn't escape. There was nothing left her to do but think now. Nobody to cook meals for and no one to distract her from herself.

Kino hadn't realized it could happen and she didn't know what was more surprising, that she couldn't seem to stop thinking about it or that she could somehow feel emotion even after she thought she had killed them long ago.

Even missions that she took more frequently didn't do much to change it. Everyone thought she was too weird to talk to and even if she managed to get a team with people who didn't mind, or knew her already, they left her alone after she spent minutes struggling to find suitable replies.

It was harder than it should be, to live in the present. So much so, that it became easier to be stuck in the past rather than try harder. There was no one there to tell her to do better. To demand it of her.

Kino hadn't realized until he was already gone how dependent she was on Sasuke. How kind he was, to have put up with her for so long.

So thankful. She was so damn thankful to him.

He never got to hear that from her.

Though she spent a lot of time thinking of things she couldn't change or moments she could never return to, Kino always fell asleep while thinking of him. It was how she managed to sleep at all and for that, she was in an even greater debt.

He was similarly the reason she got out of bed at all. He was her reason to improve herself, her motivation to inch towards habituating normalcy. She thought, strangely enough, if she became normal like everyone else while he was gone, he'd be proud.

But really, she just wanted him to come back. She wasn't a very noble-minded girl in the end.

この部屋は寂しいです。

Ino could barely recall a busier day at the flower shop.

She didn't know if anything especially important as of late was happening but regardless, sales were booming and she had not had a break off of work since the time they had first opened in the morning. If she would even get off before dinner time would be something of a miracle and to be frank, she was not in the best of moods. Her feet hurt, her eyes were dry, her hairline was coated in sweat, and she hadn't eaten anything except for a small breakfast she thought she had that morning but couldn't be sure.

Wilted is exactly how she felt, ringing up another customer and hoping it would end soon. She just wanted something to eat, and honestly—not like she would tell the boys—she wanted to have barbeque for dinner.

She salivated at the thought, waving a tired goodbye to a gentle old woman who had been stopping into the shop for years. Ino's brain was getting fuzzy in its recollection. She could remember the lady's order by heart and could recognize her face, but she couldn't at all remember her name. Whatsoever. Which was incredibly unusual for her, to say the least.

Ino took that as the first sign to what was to come.

The second one was Sai walking up to the counter, holding out money and saying, "Make a flower arrangement to cheer a girl up."

Ino stared at him.

"Am I abetting a criminal if I do?" She asked dryly after a full minute passed in silence.

He blinked. "I'm not a criminal."

"No, I know that. I meant, like, as a joke, y'know. Cause you asked for something to cheer a girl up with and it led me to think you broke someone's heart and became a criminal because of that, or something." She saw someone in the shop glance at her with a raised brow and it confirmed her suspicions. It wasn't just in her head that she sounded like a total dumbass just then. "Nevermind, it's not funny because I had to explain it." She said the last bit with a little more sass than she intended.

He gave her a weird look. "I didn't stab any hearts."

She breathed in slowly and exhaled with just as much forced patience. "Good to know."

"It's for Kino," he explained. "As her friend, I thought you could make something she'd like."

Ino had to smile genuinely at the sound of Kino's name, the image of a small and clueless girl coming to mind. It was very rare of Ino to feel attachments for people she hadn't known since childhood but one couldn't help being fond of a girl as cute as her. Though, it served as a reminder that she hadn't seen her in awhile, not since she'd started going on an insane number of missions that kept her out of Konoha.

"I can try to," Ino said.

She was already thinking of arrangements and flower meanings, sifting through her mental catalogue of what she had on hand in the store. As he was Kino's brother, he probably wanted to send reassurance and the feelings of a familial love to cheer her up. For that, she'd use verbena for family love, and to work off the coloring, she could use the kakitsubata flower to mean that happiness would come, and because she could never resist, she could contrast the two colors with white cosmos to reflect the sincerity of a young girl. She could already see how she could position the flowers, twisting the stems and laying them out in a way that Kino might appreciate.

"So, is it true?" Sai asked, drawing her out of her busy thoughts.

She leveled him with a flat stare, weary. "Hm? Is what true?"

"Girls liking flowers," he clarified. "I read about it in a book, that women enjoy receiving flowers even though they die fast and make a mess when the petals shed."

Ino narrowed her eyes at him. Normally, she could overlook a bit of rudeness for the sake of everyone getting along, even if it was directed at her. When she was younger this was less the case but damn it, she had grown up since the time she acted petty and doled out punishments for slighting her. Even if the temptation was still there. Damn, he had such a nice face and it was ruined when he opened his mouth.

But Ino had to remain firm. She wouldn't let his clueless insults get under her skin, no way.

"It's not just girls," she said. "Boys can like flower arrangements too. In fact, it's a practice that is very noble and, more than most people think it is, difficult. Meanings, flower seasons, flower character, actually growing the flower and keeping it healthy, cutting the stems, finally making the arrangement, and then attempting to make something that suits the client and receiver's aesthetic taste—all of this has to be taken into consideration at the flower shop. Because of that, I work hard, y'know and like you and that drawing thing you do, I think It's an art form, I tell you, an art form. Underappreciated and overlooked because of people like you who think they understand it even when they really don't."

Ino paused to suck in a breath and then caught herself flushing when she saw how carried away she had gotten.

"Teach me," he said.

She got flashbacks from when Kino had asked in a similar fashion, but the way he did it was decidedly less cute.

"Why?"

"Because I like art."

For a few moments, they stared at each other. Sai shifted where he stood, looking out of place in the shop, pale in comparison to the vivid colors that surrounded him. Her eyes kind of hurt trying to look at him but the image itself was funny enough that she considered for a second what it would be like to teach Sai about flower arrangements.

"No," she said immediately afterwards.

"Is it because you don't want me to find out arrangement making isn't an art form?"

She choked on her spit, making a high pitched groan in the back of her throat. "What do you care anyway?" Ino sputtered out.

"I take the spread of misinformation very seriously," he replied in a bland tone.

"It is an art form!"

"Then show me."

Ino growled. "Okay, fine. I'll show you but only the arrangement I'm making for your sister. Tell her later just how much fun the two of us had making it." Maybe then Kino would stop by for a visit.

Sai nodded. "Only if it is fun, Beautiful."

She felt a jolt in her chest at that. It wasn't a new thing, him calling her beautiful but in comparison to when she was fifteen and hearing it, she wasn't so comfortable with it now. Mostly because she knew him better and Sakura had explained that his nicknames for people was supposed to be the opposite of what he thought of them. Which gave a clear indication of his opinion on her.

Ino remembered being so damn embarrassed after Sakura told her, her being the only one out of the loop. She still felt so stupid for having preened vainly when he'd first started calling her that.

Ahh, it made her think she really was a bit ugly actually.

"Go wash your hands in the back," she ordered, both because of sanitary reasons and also because she didn't want to look at his pretty face anymore.

He did as told to and her evening carried on much worse than it had been before.

花は花屋

"It was fun making this with her," Sai told Kino as they sat in a booth at the BBQ place she'd felt an odd craving for. He passed over a large bag, careful as he moved it over the table. Kino blinked, surprised as she peeked through and saw the top of box. Perplexed, she peeled back the edges of the bag and popped open the box, only to see a display she hadn't been expecting.

"It's beautiful!" Kino was startled by the energy in her voice but smiled nevertheless. "Thank you."

The base of the arrangement was a gray oval disk with a circular hole on the left side. The flowers leaned inward, and twisted twigs and branches sprouted outwards in spiraled designs with a collection of flowers nested at the bottom. The cosmos flowers was what she could recall from Ino's explanations but the others were a new and welcomed sight, with a written note sliding off the top of the box to reveal the names and meanings. It must have taken a lot of patience to create.

"It took an hour," he informed her, his brows raised fractionally as if he were surprised by it.

"Have you developed an interest in it?" Kino asked, placing the box top back over so as to keep it safe.

"I asked her to teach me but she said no. I don't know why."

Kino didn't know how to explain Ino's actions any better. Ino had always been receptive to her whenever she had something to ask, had even taught her how to cultivate her own garden which she still kept up as a hobby.

"Try asking her on a different day. She might be feeling unwell." Though that was just a guess.

"She did seem less vibrant than usual," Sai noted.

"I was told making a meal for someone who is feeling upset will make them happier," Kino said in thought.

Sai and Kino gazed at the vestiges of the meal they had already eaten. Then they met each other's gaze.

"Tomorrow," the two of them intoned together.

大同小異

Language Guide;

この部屋は寂しいです。- kono heya wa sabishii desu. - this room is lonely.

花は花屋 - hana wa hanaya - for flowers, visit flower shops. A reference to the Japanese proverb 「餅は餅屋」(mochi wa mochiya), meaning something like "for mochi/rice cakes, go to a rice cake maker", which is generally meant as "visit people with professional knowledge" or "every person to their trade".

大同小異 - daidou shoui - great similarity, little difference; another proverb