Disclaimer: I do not own Ino, Sai, or any other character from Naruto

Author's Note: This is an Ino/Sai request for CrazyGirlOfManyNames, sorry it took me so long to get around to it. My ex (for lack of a better term for him) cosplays as Sai, so it was kind of hard for me to write…

Blue

The turquoise petals were soft. He ran his fingers over them, finding an odd pleasure in the texture of the plant. As his fingers pulled away, the flower looked brown. He frowned. Why was it that everything so beautiful and soft was so fragile?

"Sai," the pink haired girl called his name softly. He looked over and let the blossom slip through his fingers to the ground. It was already dead to him.

"Is he ready for us, Sakura-chan?" he wanted to know. They had been waiting for an audience with Kakashi, but he had of course been busy helping Naruto train. Sai didn't mind waiting, but Sakura had seemed rather anxious the whole time. Perhaps she was worried that Naruto would wear himself out during training, she seemed to worry more and more for the blonde lately. Sai didn't understand it.

She didn't answer him, but instead left. Sai had known her long enough to realize that she expected him to follow her, so he obediently got up from his seat under a tree and went after her. Kakashi, Naruto and Yamato were all waiting for Sakura and Sai in a clearing. Several scars in the earth showed that Naruto had made some significant progress, both Yamato and Kakashi looked worn out.

"Sai, Sakura, good. We're just about to get going," Kakashi smiled from behind his mask. Even Sai could tell it was forced. No one else said anything, they simply just turned and went with Sakura leading the way. Puzzled, Sai went along and remained silent, contemplating what this behavior meant. These Konoha folk really didn't fit any of the descriptions in all the books he had read, their habits really were unique and confusing.

It wasn't until now that he realized Sakura wasn't wearing her trademark red outfit. The same went for Naruto, his orange was definitely missing. In fact, they were all wearing black. Sakura was carrying a handful of flowers, at least twelve like the one he had been playing with when they were waiting for the others.

He soon saw a large group of people, all seemingly standing around something. Once again, everyone was in black and many people were carrying flowers. Sakura walked around the people and shoved her way towards the front while the others hung in the back of the crowd. Out of curiosity, Sai followed his pink-haired teammate.

Sai soon found himself stopped short when Sakura stumbled backwards into him. He said nothing, and just reached forward to steady the girl. Mostly so that she didn't knock him down. He really didn't feel like getting dirty unless it was due to training. Sakura seemed to be fine on her feet, except that she now had extra weight hanging on her. Ino had clamped her arms around the pink-haired ninja, her face buried in her friend's shoulder.

Bonds, thought Sai. There was obviously more than meets the eye here.

"Did you bring them?" Ino sniffed, releasing her grip on Sakura, wiping her eyes. Her face looked pale, almost as lifeless as a wilting flower. Sai realized she wasn't wearing any make up, and it made her look like a wholly new person.

"Right here, I grabbed twelve because I wasn't sure how many you wanted," Sakura held up the flowers she had been carrying.

"Thanks," Ino offered a weak smile as she took the blossoms. "I couldn't believe we were out of Forget-me-nots. My mom thought I was crazy for wanting those, but it just couldn't be anything else… Nothing else would have been right…"

Sakura wrapped her arms around her friend once more. Sai stared on blankly. She was this upset over some blue flowers? Well, no. She ran a flower shop, and they had been out of these blue flowers. It still seemed like an odd reason to be so upset. The meanings of the flowers perhaps?

"Forget-me-nots…" Sai thought aloud. "Those flowers mean 'true love', don't they?"

Ino loosened her grip on Sakura again and looked over at Sai, her face oddly blank. "For memories."

"Memories," Sai repeated.

"Yes, for all the good times and the bad," Ino sniffed again. "Daddy would get it."

Sai fell silent. Daddy… So her father would be getting the flowers. Why would that be upsetting her so much? Flowers should make people happy. They were a typical gift from one person to another to express joy in knowing the other person. Why would that make someone so sad?

Maybe because everyone seemed to have flowers. People don't always all get one person flowers unless…

Oh.

Daddy would get it.

That meant that Daddy wasn't here to get it. Or if he was, as Sakura had explained to Sai once, it was only 'in spirit'.

Suddenly Ino's watery blue eyes made more sense to Sai. She was grieving. One of her bonds had been severed, probably unexpectedly, by death. He also realized now, that Ino was the only person not wearing black. She was wearing a simple dress, but it was blue. And not just any blue, it was forget-me-not blue.

The crowd went silent and turned to face the front. Ino clung weakly to Sakura's arm, needing all the support she could get. Sai thought back to the forget-me-not he had been playing with earlier. The blue had been darkened and smeared when he had pressed too hard on the petal. The edges of the petal had started to dry out and turn brown. Yet it had still been, in essence, beautiful. It didn't lose its scent or element just because it had started to wither and die, wilting didn't change that it was a lovely flower.

He blinked, wondering why he was staring at Ino's naked, watery blue eyes. They looked darker than normal. Or was it lighter than normal? Sai couldn't decide.

A slight breeze swept through the area, making Ino's hair flutter in the wind and reminding Sai of a flower swaying in the breeze. It seemed so fitting, the flower girl as beautiful as a flower, lovely even when she begins to wilt. Sai turned and walked out of the crowd the way he and Sakura had arrived, silent and steady as he made his way past more grieving people.

He slipped past his teammates standing at the back, noting that even they were standing in silent reverence. Sai continued going, until he finally found the splash of blue growth near the tree he had been sitting under. He plucked three of the flowers, careful to get as much of the stem as he could.

By the time he had returned, the service seemed to have ended. The people were milling about, some walking past a table and placing flowers on it as they made one last prayer for Ino's father. Sai found himself in this line, tossing one of the flowers he had collected into the growing pile. As the line ended, he found himself face to face with Ino, whose eyes had dried by now.

"Sai? You didn't have to, you know…" She looked from the table back to him, seeming unsure of what to say. "Well, thank you."

Sai made no response, but just reached up and took a hold of her ponytail, sliding the second of his flowers into her hair. The blue stood out in beautiful contrast with her light hair, and it matched her dress and eyes as well as he had imagined they would.

"Forget me not," he said, before turning and leaving.

As for the last flower he had picked, it found its way home with him and into a vase that now sits in the middle of his apartment.