A/N: I was requested by Lord Yau to write "Jakotsu plz. With a cherry on top."
Hope you'll like it!

In A Cherry Garden

Was there something more serene than cherry blooms swaying on a gentle spring breeze? Bankotsu was sitting under a tree, his famous Banryū resting against its trunk.

The young man was looking up, to the branches of the tree,admiring the soft petals swirling and dancing on the wind, falling to the ground with gentle grace.

He was meditating, just like Renkotsu had told him to do. He was supposed to meditate until creating a perfect haiku for this day. He felt like creating a poem right now, but all words he could come up with were not coming together well. He sighed and threw away the stick with which he had been trying to create a perfect haiku for this evening on the soft ground in front of him.

It wasn't like he was a bad poet - he was a terrible poet, but not many dared to tell that in his face. Some brave ones would also add that he was bad at calligraphy. And he was suffering right now, having a huge headache. The leader of the famous Band of Seven was unable to write because he was constantly distracted by his fellow band member and his date.

The date of his friend was a pretty muscular male, former samurai and current ronin, and future monk Bankotsu wasn't too sure that being a monk was this man's karma, but didn't feel in the mood to tell him that. After all it was his band who made the man a ronin. Ginkotsu had pushed his master off a tall cliff a few days ago.

Totally by a - well planned by Bankotsu and Renkotsu - accident. Totally.

Now the whole band was enjoying the fallen daimyō's palace until their

"Oh, look, Tora-chan, look at that flower!" Jakotsu exclaimed. The man obediently looked.

"I see, Jakotsu-san," he said. Jakotsu smiled and with a fast, but sure movement of his hand sent his blade zig-zagging through the air. The spotted flower, falling to the ground, continued its descent in ribbons. "Oh, gods!"

See? How was Bankotsu to make a perfect poem with them two talking and showing off? They were too distracting, drawing his attention away from the fragile beauty of the fallen lord's garden, from admiring ornamental trees and rocks piled by a gardener in a fascinating structure near a pond with koi fishes.

Bankotsu gave up and turned his head to look at Jakotsu. His friend had his cheeks flushed, an excited smile on his face, cherry petals and their bits adorning his hair and falling around him like rain while he was cutting more and more of them, his sword shining in the sunlight.

And suddenly Bankotsu grabbed his stick, put the tip of his tongue between his lips and started to draw letters.

Soft betals dancing
Sword strikes like snake
The spreng brings changes

.

Renkotsu and Mukotsu looked at the sloppy letters. The rest of the group was gathered around their proud leader, showing them all his perfect haiku.

"Hm," said Mukotsu. "It's something different, that's for sure."

"Should we tell him he misspelled 'spring' and 'petals'?" whispered Kyokotsu as he leaned in to speak right in Ren's ear

"No, I think no," the other mercenary shook his head and turned to face their leader. "I see that you found inspiration in the garden. Did your headache lessened after you finished the poem and meditations?" he inquired.

"Not really. It was really irritating," confessed Bankotsu honestly.

"That's odd. My grandfather always used to say that creating a haiku was the best cure for headaches," Ren looked back to the poem on the ground.

"Okay, Ren's dumb idea didn't work," Jakotsu grabbed their attention by shaking his head and shaking off his head petals. "Now come and get drunk! Nothing cures a headache like a bottle of hot sake!"

"I second that!" exclaimed Suikotsu. The whole band, sans Renkotsu, went inside the palace to drink.

"I don't understand why it didn't work... Maybe it's because of the bad spelling?"

A/N: Look, this haiku sucks, but it's almost midnight and I'm no poet, so yeah. I'm totally on Ban's level.