Water sprayed across the flowers, splattering across the petals like a sprinkler against a window, dying their vibrant colors a shade darker with wetness. They were a rainbow of reaching fingers, soaking in light and water at once, and green stems swayed like dancing hands, waving to the song of springtime.

Sasuke frowned at how utterly inappropriate the neat bed seemed here, backed into a corner by desolation, a meadow of dying grass that barely qualified as the yard of a dilapidated building that barely qualified as any kind of home. He leaned against a cracked doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest, the creases around his mouth deepening as he watched his teammate, whose thumb over the end of the hose caused the shower. "Flowers, dobe?"

Naruto's face was already set in a scowl when his blue eyes turned to glare at him. "Yes. Flowers. Got a problem?"

Thin shoulders shifted beneath a blue shirt, shrugging. "Flowers are for women. What's next? Baking?"
He ignored the goad, tugging a weed from the edge of the grass and stooping to turn off the hose. Stretching, he straightened, tossing a glance at his friend. "Wouldn't you want to do something to make this place look better?"

Sasuke's eyes wandered lazily over the terrain, and he had to admit, it was bleak. Even the sagging tree in the corner seemed tired of living, like it would collapse any moment. "Why not grow something useful?" he offered instead of agreeing with him.

"I do!" was the indignant counter, and Naruto's hand gestured at a spurt of green leaves spouting from a corner of his small bed. "I grow vegetables, some anyway. And they're good!" His smile was proud.

It faded as Sasuke scoffed. "That's not useful. You can go to the market and buy vegetables. How about herbs – poisonous or healing?" He shook his head. "And you call yourself a shinobi."

Naruto's response was, remarkably, silence, and he brushed past his teammate into the building, knocking his shoulder unapologetically, and muttered, "I'm going to get my kunai, then we can go."

He stared after the retreating orange figure, eyebrow cocked in surprise. What was that about? A tug on his shirt pulled his attention to a small girl whose brown eyes gazed up at him almost angrily. "Why are you mean to Naruto-chan?" Her voice sounded on the edge of a pout, her eyebrows drawn together.

The Uchiha snorted, tossing his head. "I'm not. I'm just honest. You'll understand the difference when you're older."

"If you're his friend, then you shouldn't say his garden is useless." She sat down in the grass, her plump finger pointing toward the plants in question. "Sometimes, when he hasn't been away much on missions, they're all he has to eat." Her face tilted, dirty blonde hair curtaining her face. "I asked Father once if I could take him part of my dinner, but he said that monsters don't need to eat." Her eyes lifted to his face again. "You're his friend. Is Naruto-chan a monster?"

Sasuke felt his heart sink deep into his stomach, a pebble dropping through water. He didn't know if the guilt he was feeling now was a direct result of his insensitivity, or of the fact that he had never known. He had never even thought that maybe Naruto had it harder than he let on. Why didn't he ever say anything?
"Okay, I'm ready." His grin had reignited somewhere between going to his apartment and returning. "Ready to be pounded into the ground, teme?"

The dark eyes rolled. "You wish, dobe." That gnaw at his conscience remained, but Naruto would feel worse if he mentioned it. Remembering the little girl's question, he looked down at her, and he shook his head, before following his teammate from the yard. "Naruto," he quickened his pace, so that he walked on past him. "I'm taking you for ramen tonight."

A befuddle gaze turned quickly in his direction, but he kept his own trained carefully before him, his hands shoved in his pockets nonchalantly. As he expected, Naruto seized questioning his motives in less than ten seconds, and a smile graced his face. "Sure, Sasuke, but you're paying."