I think we're overdue a little of actual interaction!

Enjoy!

Fennel

It has been four months today since they were married. Her little clinic has been quiet today, and she had hardly slept lately, so she decided to leave her two other medics in charge of wrapping things up for the weekend.

She has decided to go and visit the Garden - she had spent little time there over the last month. Every since her friends had returned to Konoha, she felt an overwhelming urge of loneliness there.

When she arrives, she finds her husband in her greenhouse. He is holding a dried-out pot plant. She is furious.

"What happened?!"

He looks shocked to see her, and stands in some kind of stupor holding her poor fennel. He is never a man of many words, so she is not quite sure why she expects an immediate answer. She pushes for one.

"Well?!"

"I forgot to water it." He states, plainly and calmly.

She is nothing less than gobsmacked. It took her another week to brave going to his office after the bitter realisation that her marriage would never hold any love. He was there, alone, and she gave specific instructions on how to care for the plant. He had outright ignored them. She flies in to an outraged rant -

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to grow that bloody herb in this bloody desert? Fennel likes mild climates. Wet climates! It thrives in my garden in Konoha! I practically have a forest of the stuff. It needs rich, moist soil! There is nothing but sand and dry, heated crap here! I brought that poor plant with me and it started to die as soon as we left the forest! It knew that we were leaving its home. I had to baby that plant back to life! And you! - " She shoves a pointed finger in to his chest. " - You! Have! Killed! It!"

They stand there in a paused silence. Her finger still pressed to his chest. She is standing on her tip-toes, for he is much taller than her. She is seething, and it makes him... laugh.

He bursts in to the same laughter she recognises from Hinata's visit. He cups her face in his hand as he tries to make himself stop. She falls on the balls of her feet and her face softens from anger to shock. He manages to compose himself for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't - " He chokes on his suppressed laughter. " - I didn't mean to kill your fennel. I can get some sent from Konoha for you?" He is looking down to her, her face still in his hands. He is smiling. A big, cheeky grin that she does not expect to see on his face.

Her finger changes to a hand; gripping his shirt. The smile falls off his mouth, but not his eyes. He is suddenly far closer to her, and his thumb is trailing along the edge of her lips. Both her hands are clutching him now, and his finds herself pulling him closer.

"Haruno-San!" One of her medics bursts in to the greenhouse. "There's an emergency at the clinic!"

She whips around, with now only thoughts of helping her patient in her mind, and rushes to follow her medic back to the clinic.

He is left standing dumbfounded. The pot of fennel lies broken on the floor.