"Do you think she'll like these?" Hibari said, attempting to smell a stock of azaleas. "What color are they?" she asked her older sister, who was standing, arms crossed next to her. They were in the Yamanaka Flower Shop, surrounded by flowers of white and every shade of purple, pink, blue, red, yellow, and green imaginable. To their amazement there was even a stand dedicated to black roses.

As they had entered the bustling street of the market in Konoha after leaving their home, Hibari had suggested buying a bouquet of flowers for their mother, in the hopes of cheering her up. Hotaru had agreed and the two sisters had walked swiftly through the crowd, weaving in between and around the villagers before entering the store, welcomed by a wave of fragrances and the tingling of a little silver bell above the door.

Hotaru leaned forward and picked up a stem of the purple flowers her sister was now holding in her hands and inhaled deeply. She smirked.

"Hibari, you do realize these don't have a scent, right? If you're looking for something sweet, I wouldn't recommend these. How about lavenders? She might like those because they're the same as Father's eyes, and they have a very sweet smell." She walked over to the stand next to them and picked several of the pastel flowers to form a small bouquet and the two sisters walked over the counter. Ino smiled at the two girls as Hotaru gave her the flowers to be wrapped.

"Morning, girls. And just who might these be for?" she asked them politely as she cut the bottom of the green stems and placed them in decorative paper.

"They're for our mother. She hasn't been feeling well and we decided to buy her some flowers," Hibari answered the blond haired woman, shifting impatiently from foot to foot as she waited to leave, eager to give their mother their gift.

"I see, well may I make a recommendation then?" She asked them, looking slightly amused. The girls nodded. "Lavenders can represent distrust, so they might not be the best flowers to give your mother for a "feel better" bouquet…I have just the thing, be right back." Ino left the counter and walked around the shop collecting various colors of different flowers as Hotaru waited patiently by the counter and Hibari continued to fidget. When she returned she had a colorful bouquet in her hands. Pure white bunches of geraniums sat deep amongst pansies. The pansies were white, accented with vibrant royal blue splashes spreading out from the center. The bouquet was finished with bright green, long strands of grass, making the blue of the pansies look even more brilliant. The pansies gave off a vivid perfume, overpowering that of the geraniums.

"The pansies mean "loving thoughts" and the geraniums represent comfort. And if I know your mother, she'll love the scent. How about it?" Ino handed the bunch of flowers to Hibari who brought them up her nose and smiled.

"It's perfect," she said. Ino smiled and thanked the girls as they paid and left the building. Immediately the rich medley of aromas became lost in the scent of the dirt street and various cooked goods merchants were selling to the shoppers. A cacophony of sounds filled their ears, from storekeepers attempting to sell their wares, to children laughing, and to adults scolding; the sun was high in the air. They had spent a good hour in the shop, and afternoon was fast approaching as the two girls began their walk back to the compound. They walked in silence for awhile, each lost in their own thoughts. As they rounded a bend, leaving the busy street behind them, Hibari turned to her sister.

"Hotaru, you do think Mom will like these, right?" she inquired, gesturing to the bouquet she held up to her sister. Hotaru managed an affirmative "hn" without looking at her. "…And do you think Dad will like them?"

"Well it doesn't much matter if he likes them. They're not for him," Hotaru answered curtly, pursing her lips together.

She had become angry with their father; angry that he had kept the truth from them all these years. While she understood why he had done it, she did not appreciate his lack of confidence in them. Hotaru was not one that enjoyed being left in the dark and this matter had only served to deepen her dislike for him. For years he had been trying to shelter her from the world, always having to find things out for herself. This was just one more thing she could add to the list, even if he had finally told them the truth. They had deserved to know; deserved to know long ago, the moment they had been old enough to understand the significance of what it meant. Without meaning to, Hotaru had sped up as she thought these things, leaving her sister to follow the cloud of dust she was producing with each step she took.

"Hotaru wait up!" Hibari cried, jogging up next to her. Hotaru sighed and slowed her pace.

"Sorry, Hibari," she said, frowning and looking straight ahead. Hibari scoffed.

"Sure you are. Why do you always have to get like that when I bring up Dad?" she asked, cradling the flowers in her arms. "It's as though you hate the man…."

Hotaru cringed. Hibari was closer than she thought. "It's not really any of your business, Hibari," she said tersely and inhaled sharply, trying to catch her breath as her fists clenched at her sides. It wasn't really that she hated her father. To her, he was far too controlling. She had come to believe that her father had only told them about their brothers because he had felt the need to, or perhaps because their mother had told him to. She had made up her mind that he had never truly intended to tell them. What was more, she found his prying meddlesome. It seemed to her that he always found a way to intervene into her affairs and to try to solve her problems for her, when she found herself perfectly capable of handling them herself. In short, she could not understand the man.

Hibari sighed next to her. "You don't give him enough credit, you know. Isn't it obvious why he's been doing all that?"

"…Doing what?" Hotaru answered her, confused. Could Hibari read her thoughts?

"Don't insult me, Hotaru. I may be blind but that doesn't mean I don't notice the way you and Dad act around each other. I know you find his over protectiveness annoying. So do I. In fact he's more protective of me because of my blindness, but you don't see me and him arguing the same way you guys do. Still, think about it. Mum and Dad lost their first children. BOTH of them, when they were only babies. Doesn't it make sense that they'd be a bit overprotective of the children that came later? If it were me, I'm sure I'd be extra careful after something like that happened to me, too." She stopped in the middle of the path and looked blindly down at the flowers. "Shoot, I forgot…." she said under her breath. Hotaru stopped walking and turned to look back at her sister.

"Forgot what?" she inquired. Her sister looked at her, eyes growing frantic.

"I was supposed to meet my friends for training at ten! It's probably eleven by now...can you take the flowers? I need to get going!" She ran up to her sister and thrust the bouquet into her hands once she found them with her probing fingers before running off down the path, back the way they had come. Hotaru shook her head as her sister rounded a corner and was lost from sight. Hotaru had long since stopped worrying about whether or not Hibari knew where she was going; Hibari had memorized the length and direction of each path in the village long ago and was not one that got lost easily.

"That girl…," she thought aloud to herself before continuing back the compound. As she walked, she thought about what her sister had said, shuffling her feet along the tee lined trail. If her parents truly had experienced that kind of loss, then there was plenty of reason to believe that they would seek to keep their other children safe and close to home. It made sense to her, but at the same time she refused to believe her sister and forgive her father right away. Lost in her thoughts, she arrived at her home, and sliding open the screen door, stepped inside and removed her sandals. The house was unusually quiet as she walked into the kitchen, meaning to retrieve a vase for the flowers. Setting the flowers down on the spotless counter, she noticed a note addressed to her from her father attached to the fridge. She removed the paper and read the neat calligraphy.

"Hotaru,

I have gone out to a council meeting. I will be running some errands afterwards, so I will be home late. Please take care of dinner for Hibari and your mother; she is still sleeping upstairs.

Love,

Father"

Hotaru sighed and crumpled the note in her hands before throwing it in the wastebasket on the other side of the room. Proceeding to open the cupboards, she found a crystal vase for the bouquet. Another evening spent alone…she thought. Filling the vase with water from the tap and placing the flowers in it, she walked slowly upstairs noticing once again the eeriness of the home. It was too quiet. While her home was not usually bustling with noise, the strangled silence was beginning to unnerve her. She made her way to her parents' bedroom, casting furtive glances left and right in the hallway as she stepped along the creaking floors. Arriving at their doorway, she slowly slid open the door and stepped softly inside.

The room was dark, the pale yellow curtains drawn to block the window, sunlight vainly attempting to pour through it. A layer of dust covered the dresser and windowsill, indicating her mother had not attempted to clean it in quite some time. Hotaru noticed her mother, lying on the bed, covers drawn up to her shoulders, her breathing slowly and steadily causing the blankets to rise and fall. Stepping over to the nightstand on her mother's side of the bed, she placed the vase between the alarm clock and a picture of her family. She looked over at her mother, her deep set, baggy eyes closed. Her auburn hair was strewn about her face, her mouth sat slightly agape. Turning back to the nightstand, she picked up the photo frame and looked at its contents fondly. The photo had been taken nearly ten years ago. Hotaru, a girl of only 5 at the time, was sitting on her father's shoulders, waving and grinning at the camera. He was looking up at her and smiling, while her mother stood to his right, grinning widely, her hair loosely framing her face, and holding a baby Hibari. She smiled softly as their past selves looked happily up at her. But her smile soon faded as she heard a creak on the floorboards behind her.

"So you're their eldest…" Hotaru whirled around, dropping the picture to the floor, the glass breaking at her feet. Her Byakugan was already activated when she faced the direction the unfamiliar male voice had come from but no one was there. Hotaru glanced around with her eyes, seeing no one, worry beginning to rise in her throat. She glanced over at her still sleeping mother when she heard the voice again.

"Guess we'll be going then." Before she could do anything, Hotaru was hit hard at the base of her neck. Stars danced in her eyes before everything went black and she crumpled to the floor with a soft thump.

Note: The twins in this story are also the creations of ode2sokka, even though their names are the same as those of the actual twins in the series.