A/N: Yet another writing prompt from Temple of the Toad Sage, this one from the Naruto section. Rather than basing this particular prompt from canon!Naruto, I used my Weapon-X verse. This is a hint at a possible future for that fic whenever my muse for that fic decides to grace me with her presence once more.

Prompt: Lavender

Uzumaki Naruto was contemplating his life to date, as he sat atop the Hokage Tower. In his hand was a sprig of lavender- the source of what began his contemplations. Or rather, the person who'd given it to him.

Things had changed since the day he'd met her. He had been a creature of rage incarnate- a demon in almost every sense of the word, fueled by hatred and revenge. Now, he was part of a ninja village, head of his own hunter-nin squad dedicated to taking down the most powerful shinobi groups not seen since the early days of shinobi life, before the establishment of the hidden villages.

Though he'd resisted, he had greatly changed since those days. His rage calmed, his anger tempered and even his reasons were no longer as insular as they'd once been. She had been a part of that. Not the only one, but one of the principles who'd seen through his anger and rage- beyond the animal, seeing that he could be more than a simple weapon.

He still thought she was naïve at times and that she was too kindhearted for her own good, but he wouldn't change that about her for a moment. It was that innate kindness that was so ingrained in her personality that soothed and calmed him. That helped him through his darkest hour when his lover laid broken and bleeding in his arms, her life fading. It was that kindness that guided him through his depression, making sure that it wasn't his fault that his mere presence had led his enemies to kill one of his sisters and made another lose her child.

He sniffed the lavender sprig, taking in its' scent, wafting through the memories that the two had shared together- the good and the bad. Everything that had led up to the moment he had been contemplating the last several days.

Something he wasn't sure he could deal with.

Her confession.

It startled him more than anything that a creature of such purity and beauty would feel anything of the sort about him. It also made him guilty as he was unsure about whether or not he could ever truly return her feelings. She was one of his closest friends... One who'd stuck by him through everything, when others could not. What he had with her wasn't something he wanted to lose, as it went far deeper than anything he'd shared with another.

Ino and Temari had been flings. Their relationships mostly physical. Shion... Their relationship had been much more, but neither one were willing to put aside their responsibilities. Their relationship had been doomed from the start, even if he had sired her children. And then there had been Haku, who had been nothing sort of amazing. She had been another one who could see through him from the beginning and may have possibly have been "the one", but her death had put an end to any such thoughts of happiness. Thoughts that had been reawakened by a tiny sprig of lavender...

A small feeling in the pit of his stomach was brutally pushed down. It was something he hadn't let himself feel since he'd lost so many of his friends to Akatsuki and Orochimaru.

Hope.

Hope for love, hope for happiness, hope for peace... Concepts that were foreign to him in practically every sense of the word. It was only then when he'd realized the hope a sprig of lavender had incited did he conclude just how tired he was of walking his lonely path of solitude.

His gaze suddenly turned upward from the streets below to the top of the Ninja Academy nearby and saw her standing there. His slitted azure eyes meet her unblinking byakugan ones and he knew she understood and that she would wait.

Forever if she had to.

He sniffed the scent that would forever remind him of her.

The subtle, gentle scent of lavender...