Chapter 44 - Pear Tree

She had asked him, the day before, when they were walking back home from their work together, if he wouldn't mind waking up a little early in the morning the next day.

"Well, I, I probably wouldn't mind so much… Though why are you asking?"

"We'd have to get up before sunrise. But if you think you're up to it, I'd like to take you to my favorite place."

It sounded wonderful. "Where is it?"

"A bit away from here. It's where the shop gets most of its flowers. I thought you'd like to see it."

It sounded even more wonderful. "I'd love to see it. We, we, we'd be, ah, leaving before sunrise, right…?"

"Yes. I'll wake you up and cook you breakfast before we leave."

Yakata could think of nothing better, and his smile showed it.

(And her smile in return was full of sweet satisfaction, and irrational relief.)

So even though, when Nadeshiko woke him up at 4:30 AM on Monday morning, his head hurting from drowsiness and his eyes dry and heavy, he couldn't be even remotely annoyed.

They were going to her favorite place, and she had asked him.

She'd already made breakfast, when she roused him gently on the shoulder. "Come down once you're dressed," she told him, with a soft voice, so he did.

The breakfast she had made was small, and it was simple, but it tasted good and had Yakata feeling much more awake after the fact.

(Then again, he couldn't tell if that was his excitement to blame, or some innate power that the food held because she'd prepared it.)

It was still dark out when they left the house. Nadeshiko closed the front door behind her, not bothering to lock it—(what fool would try to break into Uchiha Sasuke's house?)—and breathed in, deeply, as they passed the gate.

"We're going to the shop, first," she said. "Then to the garden."

"The garden." Yakata could almost smell it, in his mind, even though he'd never been. "I, I can't wait."

Quietly, the morning unfolded in its gradual loosening of stillness. Here and there were the sounds of setting up, and preparation; the sweeping of a storefront, opening windows, the metal creak and rattle of partitions being slid up. The sky covered the world and filled it with deep violets, and oranges and grapefruit-reds.

Nadeshiko took him to an alley behind the flower shop, once they arrived. She took a key out of her purse and opened the gate to a chained-off area, where vases and signs were kept, and that was where she took out the bicycle.

Yakata had seen a few bicycles, here and there, but he'd never actually ridden one. Nadeshiko's was painted a blackboard-green, and there was a cart attached to the back, with several large jars and boxes stacked up behind it. "Go ahead and sit on the back," she said, pushing it out of the alley, then locking the gate behind her. "This is how we're getting there."

"Oh, sure." Yakata pulled himself up onto the cart and sat with his hands holding the edge. His feet dangled in the air.

They began to move, slowly, and then gained speed. The gears of Nadeshiko's bike squeaked and rattled.

"So, um, what's the cart and, and everything for, Nadeshiko-san?" Yakata asked, looking over his shoulder.

The breeze and the motion blew her hair back, gently. "For keeping the flowers in. My grandfather used to do this by himself but nowadays it's my responsibility."

"Yours?" A pause, a thought. "Do, do you do this, um, every day then?"

"Most days I can manage."

Another thought. "So you'd always do this before… before picking me up?"

She just tilted her head slightly, still not looking at him. "Well, I have to. It makes things easier for everyone."

"She works so hard, that girl," Inoichi had said, and Yakata, his mouth curling into a little smile, had to agree.

The sun continued to rise, the sky fading into a butter-yellow precursor of a blue. Nadeshiko continued to pedal, onward, down the near-empty streets. "We're heading toward the old Yamanaka compound," she announced, after making a turn. "It's right by the Nara forest."

"Oh, uh, okay," Yakata said, quietly wondering to himself what a Nara was.

"The Nara clan had a forest gifted to them by the First Hokage for their services, generations ago," Nadeshiko said. "They've been linked to my mother's clan and another clan, the Akimichi, for quite a long while, which is why it's so close to the garden."

"O-oh, I see." A pause. "The, ah, Hokage… that's like Naruto-san, right?" He remembered the strange laughing man, hair like a dandelion, whom Sasuke had introduced him to. Yakata still didn't know what, exactly, to think of him. "Your father's friend?"

"Ah, so were you introduced?"

"Well… sort of…" It had been incredibly quick. "But he's… he's in charge of the village, right?"

"He is."

"Ah." He thought. "So… the very first one gave the forest to the Nara clan?"

"Yes. He founded the village, you know. Along with my… father's ancestors, actually."

He looked sideways, not quite over his shoulder, at that. "Really?"

"Mm. The Uchiha clan and the Senju clan both. They used to be at war until their clans formed an alliance, then they founded this village and named the Senju leader the Hokage afterwards."

It felt strange for Yakata to think of himself as a part of all that. "That's… that's really… something, I guess…"

She laughed, once, at his voice trailing off. "Sorry for the impromptu history lesson, there."

"No! No, it's fine, it's really interesting, actually." Yakata looked up, lacing his fingers together. "So… that first Hokage, the Senju leader? He gave a forest to the Nara clan? That's a bit of a… a strange gift to give a clan as thanks…"

"Strange, I suppose. The First Hokage grew it himself, along with the garden, using his Wood Release."

"Wood…?"

"He had a gift, they say. He could make plants grow just by thinking about it."

The thought took root in Yakata's mind and it ended with another smile blossoming on his face. "That, that sounds… that sounds like it'd be a wonderful thing to do."

"Wouldn't it? Apparently he loved giving people growing things as gifts instead of gold or other treasures. Of course," she added, quietly, her voice visited by a laugh, "not everyone appreciated that sort of thing, but some people did."

"Like, like your mom's family? The Yamanaka clan?"

The pause in her voice suggested a smile, and Yakata had to smile back at it. "Yes, I suppose so."

It was when they made a turn onto a dirt road, lined with trees on the left side, that Nadeshiko began talking again. "We're almost there. That's the Nara forest, on the left, there."

Of course, Yakata took a look. "That's a pretty big forest."

"I suppose. It's a hardy one, too. There's a secret to it."

Yakata's head whipped back a little further; his leg shifted so he could see Nadeshiko. "A secret?"

"Mm. Because the First Hokage made it, the trees are special. If you cut one down, it'll be grown back by the next day."

"Whoa, seriously…?"

"Mm. He put something in the soil so that the trees would always be there. He did the same thing with my family's garden."

"So that the flowers would, would always be there?"

"Something like that."

Yakata somehow got the feeling that Nadeshiko had more to say on the matter, once he actually saw the garden. A stone wall surrounded it, and set into the front was a high gate, with a lock. She parked the bicycle in front of it, and when Yakata got off the back, he saw her opening the lock with a key from her purse. The gate swung open, soundlessly.

It wasn't like he'd died and gone to some heaven, it was more like paradise had somehow been brought down to earth, and there it was before him, now.

"…it's beautiful, isn't it."

"Yeah…" He could barely hear his own voice.

He suddenly felt Nadeshiko's hand on his back, and she was smiling at him a little. "Come on, we have work to do. Go get two baskets; one for each of us, okay?"

"Oh, sure!" His face felt slightly warm as he shuffled around the boxes and got two woven baskets, with handles, from the back of the cart. He could just imagine how stupid he must have looked, standing at the gate of the garden; mouth wide open, probably…

…but he couldn't have helped it. He'd never seen a garden like it, all enormous rows of blossom, petals and leaves glossed with dew, a light mist still on the ground. His neighbor's garden paled in comparison.

Nadeshiko had produced two pairs of clippers in the meantime, and was holding them in her hands when he returned to the gate. "Thank you. We're just going to be refilling the stocks today, so nothing too special." She took a basket from him, and handed him a pair of clippers. "Follow me."

So he did, resisting every urge to trail his fingers against the leaves and the flowers. He could feel the cold dew in his mind, at any rate.

("Don't touch them, you dirty witch-boy!")

"It's just the basics today," Nadeshiko was saying. "Daisies, roses, carnations. No special orders, I'm afraid."

"Oh, uh, I see…"

"But." She stopped, and turned back to look at him. "If you want to see more, I won't mind showing you around."

"That'd be… that'd be really nice, Nadeshiko-san," he said. His shoulders felt narrow from holding his basket with both hands. He'd put his clippers in it, like Nadeshiko had.

"Well, then, come along."

Daisies, first; yellow-and-white, brown-and-yellow. Nadeshiko took out her clippers. "Get them from about a foot and a half below the shortest blossom," she said. "We can always cut them shorter, later."

Yakata was still, his own clippers in his hand.

("Witch-boy!")

Her hair was tossed over her back, and would have brushed the ground, if not for that. It fell slightly around her shoulders when she looked at him. "Yakata-kun, it's okay. Go ahead."

He reached out, felt the length of a stem. A foot and a half below the shortest blossom.

And he cut.

She smiled. "Good job. Just put that in your basket, keeping all the blossoms going one way."

So he did.

And then they were talking, again, as his hands loosened and his heart eased. "It's really quite remarkable, this garden. No matter how much we cut away there'll always be enough for the next day of business. I suppose that's why the shop's been around for so long," she was saying.

Yakata thought. "Because of, um. What, what the Hokage did?"

"Mm. It lets us have out-of-season flowers in stock too. Really, very useful, especially in the winter."

"In the winter? But, um, h-how does that work out? When it snows, I mean."

"We have a greenhouse that we set up over the garden. Grandfather has it sealed into a scroll. He takes it out in the fall. It keeps the flowers warm and safe from the snow in the winter."

"Oh, wow, I, I see." Yakata didn't bother asking how an entire house could have been sealed into a scroll, but then again, he was among ninjas. Another mystery half-solved.

At another bush, after they had loaded the daisies into boxes and gone on to another breed of flower: "We have an orchard in the far corner, you know."

"An orchard?"

"Mm. Mostly for blossoms, though you can sometimes find a fruit or two on there. They're strange trees."

Yakata cut another violet, at its base. "What, what sorts of trees?"

"Oh, the usual. Cherry, apple, plum. We have orange and lemon trees too, if you can believe it. They usually don't grow this far north, but then again…"

"Strange trees, right?" Yakata was smiling.

"Yes." A smile in return. "Exactly."

It worried him, how her hair brushed the dirt so freely when she knelt down to cut her flowers, and he commented on it.

(It was so beautiful and so long that it saddened him to see it treated so carelessly.)

"Why, why don't you, um. Just pull it back? It seems like it'd be easier."

Nadeshiko paused.

("Never wear your hair like that again.")

"…it's so long that it wouldn't make that much of a difference if I pulled it back or braided it. But it's okay, nothing a good brush and a good wash can't fix."

This was enough to soothe his heart, at least for a little while.

They saved the roses for last, and Yakata marveled at just how many colors there were. "Blue's not… not a normal color, is it?"

"No, it isn't. But there it is. Do leave it, though. We only have orders for the standard colors this morning. Red, pink, white, and yellow."

"Ah, okay."

Yakata still leaned in to smell it, and he touched it with his fingers. The sun had long ago risen fully.

"That should be enough for the day," Nadeshiko said, when they were back at the cart. She'd put the clippers away into a shed near the front wall, and locked the gate behind them. "I'm sorry we didn't need to get anything special this morning."

"No, that's… that's okay! Just seeing all the flowers was… nice enough." Yakata put the last basket of roses into a box, gently. "There's just so many, I'd probably overload my… my mind or something if I saw them all."

"Really." A single laugh. "Well, we should get back to the shop, put all these away and get ready to open. Hop on."

Yakata pulled himself up. "Okay!"

It was a fine ride, surrounded by the flowers, and he closed his eyes and leaned back on the palms of his hands there, in the cart.

Until Nadeshiko stopped. "Well good morning, Shikake-chan."

He opened his eyes, and propped himself over the side of the cart when he saw who Nadeshiko was talking to. There was a girl standing on the side of the road, by the Nara forest—well, he supposed it had to have been a girl, given the suffix and the silver rings in her ears, though she dressed and looked a lot more like a boy—with dark hair pulled back at the base of her neck. She had a shovel hefted over her shoulder.

"What are you doing up this early in the morning?" Nadeshiko continued, having apparently received some sort of greeting back that Yakata hadn't heard.

"Exploring. Dad's never up this early, so I got outta the house without any trouble."

She had, Yakata noticed, another person with her, with a shovel of his own; dark-haired, with the strangest eyes he had ever seen, a pure and pearl-like white. He looked nervous.

"Is that so. Exploring the forest with a friend?"

"Yep." Shikake tilted her head. Her own eyes were small, and sleepy-looking. Almost like Takeru's, Yakata had to think. "Who's that kid with you? That Yakata guy your brother keeps telling me about?"

"Yes. Yakata, this is-"

"Nara Shikake. We probably won't be seeing each other again so it's okay if you forget it."

"Oh, uh, okay…" Yakata managed to wave back at her. "Are, are you, um. Are, are you a friend of one of Nadeshiko-san's brothers?"

"Wow, you really do stutter as much as he says," Shikake replied.

"Ah, um, well, I, I, I…" Yakata pressed his nose to the wood of the cart. Nadeshiko didn't say anything.

"I'm in a team with Inou," Shikake continued. "He talks about you every now'n then. Where the heck did you come from, anyways? He sure as hell doesn't know."

"Um, Tamina…? In the, the, um. In the Land of Rice…? That's where my, my, my house is, anyways…" His voice burrowed into his chest like a mouse into a hole. It became harder and harder to look at Shikake.

"Huh." Shikake paused, scratching the back of her leg with her foot. "Weird. Oh well. I'm heading out. I'll tell Inou you said hi. If I see him."

"Have a good morning, Shikake-chan. And friend," Nadeshiko said.

"It was, um. It, it was nice meeting you," Yakata added.

Shikake just waved, grabbing her pearl-eyed friend by the wrist and dragging him into the woods with her.

Nadeshiko began pedaling on, and Yakata put his hands in his lap again, keeping his eyes on his knees.

"Interesting." Her voice was very quiet.

"What's interesting, Nadeshiko-san…?"

She began turning the bike. "Nothing, Yakata-kun."

"Oh, uh. Okay…" Yakata bit his lip, thinking. The silence here was uncomfortable, rather than peaceful. His shoulders tensed. "Um, Na-Nadeshiko-san?"

"Yes?"

"I, I, I don't, um. I, I don't… stutter that badly, do I?"

"No, you just take great care in choosing your words."

It was wonderful and it was soothing, the way that Nadeshiko always seemed to be able to know what to say.

"Nadeshiko-san?"

"Yes?"

"…thanks for… for taking me with you, this morning. I, I can see why, um. Why it's your favorite place."

"I'm glad you were there with me. It's nice to not have to work alone."

He closed his eyes again, leaning back. "Yeah, it's… it really is nice."

The smell of the garden was still hanging around them as they put the bike away and started carrying the cuttings inside, and with it, its peace.

"Going out to get lunch, any requests?" Inoichi had turned the radio off.

"Just the usual, thank you." Nadeshiko didn't look up from her work.

"I'm fine too, thanks!" Nadeshiko had put Yakata in charge of handing duty, as well as ribbon duty, by then. When calling for a spray of thyme or Queen Anne's lace, he'd hand it to her and she'd put it in place.

"You have an excellent memory. It's not easy to tell them apart," she told him, when he'd asked why she'd so suddenly given him that responsibility. "It takes a good eye to be a florist."

This had left him without words when he heard it, feeling them bundled up in his throat and chest. But it didn't bother him much any more.

"Well I'll be back soon. One of you mind the till, please!" And with that, he was gone.

Yakata looked up, and around. Nadeshiko wasn't getting up. "Um, who, who's going to…?"

"After this." She reached for a pansy. "I'll take care of it."

He looked around again. A curious and uncertain nervousness began to settle over him. "Um." He put the scissors down. "Um, actually, I'll, I'll go take care of it."

She looked up at him, there. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You're not done. I don't want you to, um, to hurry. O-otherwise it won't turn out as well." He was getting up off the stool. "Don't worry, I-I'll be fine."

She tilted her head, then nodded. She reached for the scissors. "All right, then. Call me if you need me."

Yakata left the back room, there, and rested his arms against the till. It was odd, the surface up to his chest. His arms, before long, began to feel tired.

He heard the gentle rustle of Nadeshiko reaching for another flower, and the snip of the scissors.

A transport whistle, in the distance, and a rumbling, gentle roar.

Time passed, slowly, and warmly. Yakata's eyes felt heavy, no longer preoccupied by work, finally feeling the weight of his early wakeup.

Therefore he was not terribly surprised when the baskets and bouquets of flowers in front of the store suddenly seemed to blossom over the edges of the front window. The smell was heavy, almost like rain.

Ah.

Evidently, it was not a daydream, because Nadeshiko suddenly came out of the back room, sighing.

"Oh dear…"

Yakata snapped up straight. "What's going on…?"

"It's Kotoji-kun."

"Kotoji-kun…?"

She was already out the door, and Yakata couldn't help but follow.

"Kotoji-kun, you know you can't go making our flowers grow like that. I've told you before."

A very small person had his head buried in the largest display, which had since sprouted to well over twice its size. He looked up with a shy expression on his face.

"But I like the flowers," he said. He pressed his cheek against the petals of a basket of trailing pansies.

"I know you do, Kotoji-kun. But I did spend a lot of time putting this together, and you making them grow like this is not a very good thing."

The little boy, Kotoji, pressed his face further into the flowers. His skin was a sandy tan. "I'm sorry…"

Nadeshiko's face softened and she gave him one of the warmest smiles Yakata had ever seen on her. She bent down to eye level with the boy, who had since hidden his face again. Her hair brushed the ground. "There, there, Kotoji-kun. It's all right. I know you can fix it." She did not touch him.

A single black eye peeked out. "For real?"

"Just put it back the way it was, and I'll fix the rest. Go on, now. I know it's not that hard for you."

He pressed his nose into the flowers, giggling.

"Come on, Kotoji-kun. Put it all back," she said, again, after some time had passed, with no apparent results. There was a soothing air of patience to her voice.

"Oka-ay…"

And, astonishingly, the flowers began to retract themselves, as if pulled back into their baskets and bunches by unseen hands. The trailing leaves and blossoms moved like living things.

And, suddenly, messily, the front display was back to much like the way it had been before, if not a bit more disheveled. The bouquets in their paper and plastic wrappings had loosened, and the flowers within them drooped.

"There, now. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Kotoji looked up again, and he smiled. There was a large gap between his two, little front teeth. "I did good?"

"You did very good," Nadeshiko said.

The little boy giggled and hid his face in the pansies again, which hadn't reduced themselves nearly as much as the other flowers.

It was then that Yakata noticed that, embroidered on the boy's shirt (which he seemed to be practically drowning in) was a little red-and-white emblem. He had, by then, seen it many times.

(In the gate above the Uchiha memorial; in the clothes that Sasuke and his children—but not Nadeshiko, nor Ino—wore; on the wall behind his father, his uncle, his grandparents.)

("Apart from him, and my children, he's the only living member my clan has left," Sasuke had said.)

Yakata tripped over his thoughts, already stirred by the flower-miracle. "Um, Nadeshiko-san, is this, um, is this a relative of yours…?"

"Oh, no, no. Kotoji-kun is the child of a family friend," she replied.

"Oh, um. Really." Yakata tilted his head, searching the boy's little face. "So… he's not an Uchiha."

"I'm a Senzu!" Kotoji declared.

"Not… quite, Kotoji-kun," Nadeshiko said. "It's… a bit complicated, Yakata-kun. But he's not an Uchiha."

"I'm a Senzu," Kotoji said, again. "Daddy said so. I'm three."

"Speaking of which, Kotoji-kun." Nadeshiko tilted her head. "Does your daddy know you're here?"

Kotoji hesitated, and then ran forward and buried himself in her dark grey skirt, his head to her knees.

"Kotoji-kun."

He wrapped his arms, lost in dark blue sleeves, around her legs.

"Kotoji-kun, did you tell your daddy you were coming here?" She put a hand on his dark little head.

"…nuh-uh. But I told Kakashi." His voice was muffled by the fabric.

Nadeshiko sighed, and she shook her head. With both of her hands she took Kotoji's arms from her legs and took one of his hands in hers. Her fingers completely covered his fist. "Come on, Kotoji-kun, let's get inside."

"Why?"

"You can look at the flowers inside. But don't make them grow."

He stayed very close to her as they went back to the shop together, and Yakata followed. She left Kotoji by the wall of flowers, and then picked up the telephone on the wall behind the till, by the refrigerated cabinet. It was a rotary phone, the same color as her bicycle.

Yakata lingered by the front window, hands clasped at his navel. He watched Nadeshiko dialing, then Kotoji with his head in a bucket of roses. The little boy had his eyes closed in a strange ecstasy for a child so small.

"Hello, Yamato-san? … Oh, Kakashi-sama, hello. … Yes, well, Kotoji-kun's made his way to the shop again. He, ah, showed his appreciation for the front display. … No, no, I got him to fix it. … Yes, he's with me now."

Nadeshiko's hand trailed to the phone cord. Her fingers played with it with slight, coiling movements.

"No, no, you don't have to come pick him up. I'll bring him home once my grandfather comes back. … It's no trouble, honestly. We won't be long. … All right, then. Take care."

She hung up the phone. "Yakata-kun, would you mind keeping an eye on Kotoji-kun while I go fix the front?"

"Oh, uh, uh, sure."

"Thanks. I'll be right outside."

Kotoji still hadn't moved from the wall and the bucket of roses, even after she left. Yakata, as promised, kept his eyes on the boy—he couldn't even snap them to the window at Nadeshiko. It almost alarmed him, then, how very still Kotoji remained, even in observation. He was a little statue in a shirt made for a boy twice his age, and in fact the only movement he made, after what seemed like an eternity had passed, was to tilt his head upward, almost longingly, to look at a beautiful marbled rose in a bouquet above him.

When the rose began to twist itself toward him it alarmed Yakata further. His hands knit themselves together over his chest and he began approaching the child, though his fingers were frozen from the lack of a plan. He used words, instead, and even then he was riddled with uncertainty.

"Aaah, um, Kotoji… kun, um, Nadeshiko-san told you… told you not to make anything, um, grow…"

Something vague and familiar stirred at the back of his head, when it fumbled for an explanation for this, for all the other little miracles.

Plants weren't supposed to behave that way, but the morning echoed in his mind and somehow it felt acceptable.

Kotoji didn't look at him, but the rose retracted and went back to its place in the bouquet. "I didn't make nothin' grow," he said. He turned around with an indignant look on his face. "Hey, where's Nadeshiko?"

"Oh, she… she's outside," Yakata said.

"Oh, okay." Kotoji thought on this for a moment before his face folded into itself, toward his nose. "Hey, who are you?"

"Oh, uh, me?"

"Yeah, I dunno you. Are you Nadeshiko's friend?"

The question, coming from such a young mouth, made him far more flustered than he'd thought was appropriate. "Yeah, I… I guess…"

"Can you be my friend too?" Kotoji's smile was small and very earnest. "I wanna be your friend."

"Oh, um, o-okay…" Yakata said.

Kotoji's smile increased. "Yay! So what's your name? My name's Kotoji. I'm three. But I'm almost four."

"Oh, um, my name's… Yakata. I'm… ten?" Yakata replied, smiling, almost uneasily.

"Yataka! That's a good name." Kotoji nodded, almost sternly. "Yep, a good name."

"Uh, it's Yakata, actually…" He didn't know where that unexpected laugh had come from. "I'm, uh, I'm glad you think it's, it's a good name, though!"

"I like flowers. You like flowers too?" Kotoji said.

"Yeah, I… I like flowers very much," Yakata said.

"My favorite flower is the narcissus." There was a slight lisp to the boy's voice. "But I like roses a lot too. What's your favorite flower?"

"Oh, um, I, I don't, I don't have a favorite, I don't think…" Frankly, Yakata was wondering how in the world a child so young knew what a narcissus even was.

"Come on, you have to have a favorite," Kotoji said. There was a desperate passion in his voice, as if this were the very most important thing in the world. (Which, to him, it probably was.)

"Well… I, um."

Yakata thought.

And the first thing he thought of, and the first thing he said, was, "I… I like whatever flowers people like giving me, I… I guess."

Kotoji considered this, and then nodded. "That's pretty good." He suddenly grinned. "You want me to give you a flower? That'll be your favorite."

Yakata blinked, a few times. "Uh, I suppose…? Though you probably shouldn't, um, shouldn't take one from the shop with, without paying for it, though…"

"That's okay. Here, look, look!" And Kotoji began rubbing his hands together, and suddenly there was a tall-stemmed flower in his hands, with white and yellow petals, and he thrust it Yakata's way. "Now your favorite can be my favorite!"

The flower wavered there in Kotoji's hand for a moment, paired with the gapped smile, the shining black eyes. And Yakata reached out and took it, and he held it close to his chest, a smile of pinched lips on his face. "Oh, well, thank you…!"

And logic once again rubbed against his mind, and not-entirely-remembered stories from the morning.

"Ah, Kotoji-kun, so… how did you do that? With the, um. With the flower."

Kotoji, who had dashed away, shyly, to the wall of flowers, looked over his shoulder. His collar hid half of his cheek. "Whatcha mean?"

"Where, where did it… come from, I mean."

"Oh. I just made it." He returned to his business, holding out his arms and running his little fingers over petals and leaves.

"You… made it?"

"Yep. Dintcha see? I gave you a flower. A narcissus. Your favorite."

Clearly fighting a losing battle, Yakata just held onto his narcissus and quietly admired its presence. "Ah, I… I see…" He figured he could just ask Nadeshiko about it later.

Inoichi came back before she could finish with the front display, plastic bags in hand. "Lunchtime! Oh, who's this?"

"Grampa!" Kotoji ran forward and at Inoichi's knees. The old man danced to avoid him, kicking his knees high.

"Whoa, hey, hey! Watch yourself, Kotoji-kun! When did you get here?"

"After you left. But I'm going to be bringing him home, now." Nadeshiko was in the shop, now, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "Come on, Kotoji-kun."

"Nadeshiko!" He ran forward and buried himself in her skirt again. "I gave Yataka a flower. It's his favorite."

"Really." Her hair fell over her shoulder again and it touched Kotoji's back. "We have to go home, now."

He looked up. "Go home?"

"Yes. I'm going to be taking you back to Kakashi-sama now."

Inoichi had set the bags down, by then, on the till. He leaned against the counter. "Ah, dear. He snuck out again, didn't he."

Nadeshiko nodded. Kotoji's face folded into the precursor of a cry. "But I don't wanna."

"Kotoji-kun, you can't go running off to our shop without permission."

"But I has permission."

"Do you know what the word permission means, Kotoji-kun?"

He answered with silence, and flung himself at Nadeshiko's legs again. She pulled him off, gently. "But I don't wanna go home!" he moaned. He flapped his arms at his sides.

"You have to, Kotoji-kun."

He scowled, deeply, and then rubbed his hands together, glaring at them. When he opened his palms, a squat little cactus rested there, with a bright pink blossom atop it. "But I made-ed you a flower. If I give you a flower will you let me stay?"

"Kotoji-kun, that's a cactus."

"It's a flower cactus."

She sighed, smiled, shook her head, and bent forward, her hands on her thighs. "It's a very nice flower-cactus. But I still have to bring you home, Kotoji-kun."

His eyes had little tears in them. "But I don't wanna. I wanna stay here with Yataka. He's my friend."

"You can always come back and visit later with your daddy. Yakata's going to be here with me for a while, I think," she said. She reached out her hands. "Here, I'll put the cactus in a little pot."

"One of those spineless wonders again?" Inoichi said, with a raspy chuckle.

Kotoji shoved his hands to his sides as soon as Nadeshiko had the cactus in her hands, and in the time it took for her to put it into the back room (and, presumably, into some sort of pot), he had taken refuge behind Yakata, much to Yakata's surprise.

"Kotoji-kun, come on," she said, when she returned.

"I'm not leavin' without Yataka. He's my friend." His hands tugged on Yakata's shirt, far harder than Yakata would have thought such little hands were capable of.

Nadeshiko had her head tilted sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Yakata-kun, I'll take care of it. He's just being stubborn."

"No!" Kotoji tugged harder.

Yakata's fingers rubbed the stem of the narcissus, gently. "Um, actually… Kotoji… kun, would, would you go home if I… if I went with you?"

Kotoji looked up at him and gave him a little frog-smile. "Yeah. I want you to go home with me."

The smile that Yakata gave Nadeshiko was almost rebelliously sharp. "Well that… solves our problem, I, I guess."

Her eyes were widened slightly, but then she smiled again, for only a second. "It does indeed. Come on, let's go. We'll eat lunch when we get back, Grandfather."

"Sounds good to me! Goodbye, Kotoji-kun. You stay out of trouble, now." He waved at the group as they left.

"Bye, Grampa!" Kotoji called. With one hand he waved back at Inoichi, and with the other he clung to Yakata, his new friend.

And Yakata, surprisingly less flustered, went with him.