Author's notes: I hope I didn't scare off too many people with my devilish plot twist… Anyways, this chapter was surprisingly easy to write and it gets back to the monster mystery and the Prince. Most of the chapters have been from Sakura's point of view, but this one is from Naruto's for a change. I hope those of you who are sticking with this story enjoy the new chapter.

Sakura and the Prince of Flowers
By Miss Angel Maxwell

Chapter 8: "Do You Hate Flowers?"

Naruto's eyes stared up through the darkness of his bedroom, focused towards the unseen ceiling overhead. According to his clock, it was past four in the morning, and yet sleep seemed as distant as that ceiling above him. The day had simply introduced too many changes and revelations for him to quickly digest them and fall asleep. The woman that he was in love with was going to have a baby that wasn't his. It wasn't even Sasuke's, for that matter. Of all the young men in Konoha, Sakura had bedded Rock Lee, the walleyed, fuzzy-browed enthusiast whom she had once dismissed as a loser. And now she was carrying his child.

But at least she decided to keep it, he thought. Sakura would never admit it herself, but she really is the mothering type. She's always taken care of me and Sasuke. Yeah, I shouldn't worry. I mean, I wasn't meddling… If Sakura had had that abortion she woulda regretted it for the rest of her life. And it's not like Tsunade and I tricked her. She made the decision on her own.

Of course, having Tsunade tell Sakura that she'd had a miscarriage had not been Naruto's first intention. As soon as the poor girl had spilled her guts, Naruto wanted to yell: "You're wrong, Sakura! It's not you're fault! Lee didn't run off because you hurt him. He went to hunt down a creature he thought was going to kill you! None of this is your fault!" But Tsunade's order had been not to tell her until they knew more. After they left Sakura's room Naruto even begged the Hokage to let him tell her the truth. She looked him sternly in the eyes and answered, "soon."

As he remembered the exchange, hot angry air snorted from his nostrils. The longer they waited to tell Sakura what actually happened, the longer she would go on blaming herself for what didn't. Before he left the hospital and came home, Naruto had tried to reason with her that it was he and Sasuke who left her behind, driving her into Lee's arms and setting the horrible string of events in motion, but Sakura wouldn't accept it. Her teammates hadn't forced her to have a one-night stand with her friend. It had been her own selfish choice.

One thing was for sure; Naruto did not want to picture Sakura and Fuzzy Brows making love. And although he was now wishing for sleep to somehow find him, he wished equally that his dreams would not he haunted by such images. Luckily, the young man soon got both of his wishes. Despite his overactive mind, Naruto fell fast asleep and into a world of dreams that had nothing to do with the unlikely lovers.

A vast meadow of yellow and white flowers sprawled across Naruto's field of vision and the sun was so bright he had to rub his eyes with child-sized hands. The four-year old laughed devilishly at his successful escape from the Konoha Orphanage. Finally, he could have some fun. Here was a field full of smiling little blossoms just begging to be crushed. Little Naruto ran about mindlessly, kicking and stomping as many flowers as he could, ripping them out of the ground along with clods of dirt and hurtling them to either side of him. He was so caught up in his joyful destruction that he didn't see the little dark-haired boy in time to stop, and ran straight into him knocking both of them onto their behinds.

"Sorry dude," Naruto apologized, eager to get back to stomping. But the mysterious boy he'd run into was staring at him with an inescapable sad gaze.

"Why are you doing that?" he asked softly. "Why are you smashing the pretty flowers?"

"Dunno?" the blonde boy shrugged. "I just like smashin' stuff."

"Do you hate flowers?" asked the sad-eyed boy.

Naruto's nose crinkled. "They're kinda girly. But I guess I don't hate 'em. Why?"

The little dark-haired boy smiled as he looked fondly into the distance. "I like flowers," he said. "But I would rather pick them than stomp them."

"What are you, the Prince of Flowers or somethin'?"

The child just smiled enigmatically at him. "Wanna join me?"

Naruto's brow furrowed as he thought about the offer. This kid was definitely odd. But he was the first kid who'd ever wanted to play with him. The other children at the orphanage acted like he didn't exist, and even the adults he met never seemed to want to be near him. "Alright," he finally answered.

Then the most unexpected thing happened, the little boy with black hair wrapped his arms around the runaway orphan and hugged him tightly. "I'm happy I got to meet you," he said.

Naruto felt warm all inside of himself. Had anyone ever given a hug before? He couldn't even remember. But the warmth quickly dropped away and was replaced by a blood-thickening chill. All of the sudden, Naruto was alone. Even the sun had left him. And all around him, the air was dense with the smell of rotting flesh. A scream that was liquid terror tore through the atmosphere, causing the young boy's heart to throb in his chest. It seemed ridiculous, but he could swear that whatever was making this awful sound was calling his name.

"Naruto! Naaaaaaaruuuuuuuuutooooooo!"

With a violent jerk, Naruto opened his eyes and shot upright in bed, his forehead scoring a direct hit with something hard above him.

"Dammit Naruto!" a disgruntled and familiar voice growled.

As Naruto's eyes focused, they confirmed that the object he had slammed into was Sasuke's nose, which he was now rubbing gingerly. Naruto was likewise rubbing his bruised skull. "You scared me, Sasuke. Geez, why the hell are you sneaking up on me in the middle of the night, anyways?"

"It's not night, it's early morning," the Uchiha huffed. "I came to get you, Naruto. Tsunade wants to talk to both of us in her office right away. So get dressed and let's go! I'll be waiting for you outside."

With tired, clumsy hands, Naruto fumbled to change out of his pajamas and into clothes. It was a simple task, but his mind wasn't on it. Instead, he was thinking about his odd dream. That horrible smell right before he woke up was just like the monster they'd encountered in the woods weeks ago. And that strange little boy was familiar, too. Naruto frowned slightly when he realized who that kid reminded him of. It's always Sasuke, he thought jealously. Once he was decently, though rather sloppily clothed, he headed out the door. And as his sleepiness wore off, his curiosity as to what Tsunade had to say began to grow.

The last time Naruto and Sasuke had visited the Hokage's quarters, they had been forced to wait a long time before she let them into her office. When they arrived outside her door this morning, however, they found that it was slightly ajar.

"Come on in," Tsunade said, sensing their presence.

Naruto pushed the heavy wooden door open and his eyes gaped at what awaited them inside. The voluptuous and stately woman was curled over her desk, on which several large scrolls were unfurled. There were scrolls everywhere, all over the floor, on the chairs and tables, and stacked several feet high in the corners of the room. "What is all this stuff?" he asked.

Tsunade looked exhausted, but she managed to smile at the young man, at both young men. "This is my research. I've been searching every document in Konoha for any information pertaining to your mystery monster."

"You mean the monster is mentioned in all these scrolls?" Naruto asked in awe. "You'd think that somebody in town woulda known about 'im if there's this much written on 'im?"

"Oh Naruto," Tsunade sighed pitifully. "These are just some of the scrolls I've been searching through. The ones here on my desk were the only ones with anything remotely useful in them. Come over and have a look."

Gathering around the Hokage's desk, Naruto and Sasuke saw that the scroll that was already open was not filled with words, but was covered in elaborate artwork. It was a very old looking scroll, probably made out of animal hide, and the art was in a primitive, stylistic technique. There were so many figures and details in the image that it was a bit confusing visually, but one image stood out boldly in the center, a huge fox-like creature with nine lashing tails.

"That's the Kyuubi!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Indeed it is," Tsunade coolly confirmed. "But check this out." From inside her desk she pulled out a magnifying lens and held it over a cluster of figures near the fox-spirit's feet.

Naruto squinted at the enlarged section of artwork. It had at first appeared to be a group of men, but now he could see that they had claws and hyena faces. "Those look like our monster!"

The Hokage nodded. "I thought so too. I managed to translate the hieroglyphics underneath them. Roughly interpreted, their name means 'The Children of the Kyuubi.' So I used that as the starting point for the rest of my search." Tsunade then unrolled another large scroll on top of the mural. "This is an excerpt from Konoha's official historical records from about seventeen years ago. Here, I'll read it out loud."

"The vanquishing of the Kyuubi has brought another unexpected reaction. Several small fringe groups have been proclaiming that the end of the Kyuubi equals an end to the Children. The Children of the Kyuubi, a race of savage beast-men who worship the Kyuubi, are believed by most to be fictitious, though their existence has never been confirmed or denied. Numerous texts on the subject have been written by…"

"Written by who!" Naruto stammered.

"The scroll is too damaged to read the rest of the entry," said Tsunade as she picked up another scroll similar in size to this one. "But I have an idea of who they're talking about. I'll read you another entry. This one is from about four years later."

"Good," the quiet Sasuke said. "The first entry really didn't tell us much of anything."

Naruto glared at the Uchiha as if he was being a terrible sport about all of this. His attention moved back to the Hokage, however, as she cleared her throat and began to read again.

"A tragedy occurred this week when a small child playing near her home was attacked by an unidentified assailant. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses to describe what happened. The little girl, who was critically wounded but not killed, was taken immediately to the home of Rock Shin, a respected healer and scientist who came to Konoha several years ago with his family. He is also the leading authority on the myth of the "Children of the Kyuubi." Luckily, he was able to perform a seal on the child that saved her life. Though he would not say what attacked the girl, he has reported that she is physically healed, but has been marked as prey. The seal, however, will keep her safe as long as she remains within the village of Konoha. To prevent emotional trauma, the child's memory of the incident has also been sealed." Tsunade paused. "And that's all I've found about your monster."

"Whoa…" Naruto marveled. "So that little girl who was attacked was…"

"Sakura," Tsunade finished.

"And the thing that attacked her…"

"One of the Children of the Kyuubi."

"So Fuzzy Brows was right," the fox-eyed young man concluded. "That thing was after Sakura. Wait a minute… Rock Lee? Rock Shin? Tsunade, was this healer guy related to Fuzzy Brows?"

Sasuke snorted. "Took you long enough."

"Yes, they are related," she explained. "Rock Shin is Rock Lee's grandfather. I've asked some of my sources and it appears that after the Kyuubi was defeated, Shin came to Konoha from the Northwest, along with his son and daughter-in-law and their only child, Lee."

"Heh, I had no idea Fuzzy Brows wasn't born here," said Naruto. "But this guy, Rock Shin, where is he now? I mean, is he even still alive?"

Tsunade sighed. "As far as I know he's still alive. But he no longer lives in Konoha. He stayed long enough to see his grandson graduate from the Ninja Academy, then he packed up and left, presumably back to his homeland. He took all of his writings with him."

"That was an awful jerky thing to do," the blonde boy sneered. "Now we need 'em and he's run off with 'em."

"Can you blame him?" asked the Hokage. "Everybody dismissed his life's work as mythology and superstition. They all thought he made it up, everything about the Children of the Kyuubi."

"Well," Sasuke began thoughtfully. "There is no doubt in my mind that Rock Shin is the man we need to talk to if we are going to find out more about these creatures and what happened to Sakura thirteen years ago. The problem is that we don't know where he is or if he's even alive anymore. The question is: should we go out looking for him?"

Naruto made his opinion loud and clear. "Of course we're going to go looking for him! What if there are more of these Kyuubi Children, or whatever they're called! This guy must know how to fight back! This guy will know how we can protect Sakura!" Tsunade was about to interrupt him, but Naruto continued his enthusiastic rant. "And don't try to tell me how foolish or dangerous this is, Lady Hokage! Because I'm going! And, Sasuke, you're coming too! And so is Sakura!"

Tsunade smiled oddly at the young man, who was breathing heavily with excitement. "Actually, Naruto, I was just going to tell you that when Rock Shin left Konoha he was headed northwest, towards the Village Hidden in Snow. I thought you would need to know that before embarking on this journey."

Naruto was shocked. "You mean… You mean you don't object to this?"

"She may not," Sasuke answered. "But I do. At least to one part of your plan. This mission could take weeks, months even, will it really be safe for Sakura to come with us?"

"I didn't think about that," said Naruto. "But we left her behind once and look what happened. Now I've promised myself never to do that again. Besides, this directly involves her. We're trying to learn more about an incident where she was attacked. I just think she should be a part of it. What do you think, Lady Hokage? Is it okay for Sakura to go with us in her… er… condition?"

The Hokage shrugged. "I can't say for sure. It's something Sakura will have to decide for herself. Some kunoichi go out on missions even up until their ninth month of pregnancy. I can tell you that your teammate is perfectly healthy now. In fact, she's free to go home from the hospital today."

"Really?" Naruto asked eagerly. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go tell her everything we know! Tell her about Rock Shin and our plan! Let's tell her that she didn't drive Fuzzy Brows out of Konoha! She'll be so relieved! Come on, let's go!"

Sasuke still seemed reserved. "I'm still not sure, Naruto, I think you're getting prematurely excited."

His best friend and romantic rival grunted. "You need to learn to take more chances when it comes to Sakura."

Tsunade accompanied the two young men on their trip to the hospital. She wanted to be there to help explain the situation better if the hyperactive Naruto went too fast or got her too confused or worked up. Enthusiastically, Naruto plunged in ahead of Sasuke and the Hokage as they walked through the hospital corridor. The door to Sakura's room was open so he burst in heedlessly.

"Sakura! We have a lot of things we need to talk about with you! You'll never believe this but… Huh?"

The hospital room was empty. Yellow morning sunlight beamed from the window into the room and onto the neatly made bed. Placed carefully on the cream-colored pillowcase was a single white envelope with the words 'to Naruto and Sasuke' written across it in Sakura's elegant handwriting. Without hesitation, Naruto tore it open and plucked out a single sheet of paper. As he read the letter, his heart plummeted into his feet.

"Is this the right room?" Sasuke asked as he and Tsunade finally arrived. "Where's Sakura?"

"She's gone," Naruto uttered. "Sakura is gone."

To be continued…