A strange new life

Kunoichi 201 – Flower Arrangements

I raised my board, eyes defiant. We were in the classroom. Suzume-sensei had just left, but the gaggle of girls was still here. The numbered NPCs stood arrayed behind Sakura-chan, all interested in our face-off. Pretty, cute, Tsuntsun Sakura wasn’t going to intimidate me this time. No, I was going to hold my own. No more running off whenever she or Ino-chan even looked my way. It was time to girl up and face the truth. Not that I was going to admit I messed up.

I blamed Naruto for this. The sunshine brat dumbness infected me. That’s the only reason I could think of. Why else would I want to brag, of all things, to Sakura?

By the pink-haired girl’s side, Best Girl Ino rolled her eyes at the two of us. She tugged on Sakura’s arm. “Come on, you told me you’d help look after the store today.” She complained to Sakura, but was ignored. She looked at me, gave me pleading eyes. “Can’t you, you know, just drop it?”

I wavered, my confidence taking a critical hit. I still had trouble dealing with the star duo, and actually standing up to Sakura had been harder than anything else, but a direct request from Ino? Damn, it was super effective.

“Stay out of it, Ino-chan.” Sakura said, eyes still on me. She gave me a half glare, that somehow looked more amused than anything else. “Let’s see you do it then.” Sakura challenged me. The gaggle of numbers giggled behind her. “Tomorrow.”

I gritted my teeth, maybe swayed a bit. I wasn’t angry, I kinda wanted to do a happy dance. Maybe I should thank Naruto instead of blaming him? I mean, wasn’t this a wonderful opportunity? I erased the words on my board. Wrote others. “Tomorrow. We let Suzume-sensei decide who wins. And the loser has to do one thing the winner says.”

Sakura’s grin was fierce. She pointed down. “You’re going down! And when I win, you’ll have to give me a lot of cupcakes!”

I huffed. Turned around, marched out of the classroom. The gaggle giggled even harder at my departure. The gall of Sakura-chan! I mean, she didn’t need all of this for cupcakes. I was more than happy to part with my treasures. But now the bet was on.

Ino caught up with me not long after. “What are you going to do, Hinata-chan?”

I gave her a thumbs up, wrote on my board. “I have a plan. A secret weapon!” and ran ahead to start preparing stuff, leaving Best Girl Ino behind.

My track record might not be the best in the kunoichi classes. I know, I know. Like, I might have exploded the tea ceremony. Broken up a few music instruments. Got even Suzume-sensei angry with my ever increasing questions about infiltration. I might have totally overdressed for that disguise mission test— you can’t blame me on that one, how was I supposed to know we were to dress like civilians? No, I did my best to come up with a ninja attire, with black clothing and black bandanna face covering. I even managed to get one of those small swords and the like to tie at my back.

The point was, I wasn’t going to mess up this one. It was just flower arrangements. How hard could it be?

But to win this I had to be logical about things. I couldn’t jump the gun like the previous attempts. I… had to admit I had no idea about flowers and their meanings. I was sure I could create a pretty arrangement, but I don’t think that would be enough. Not to convince Suzume-sensei. It had to be pretty, it had to have meaning. Better yet if it was dangerous. Maybe poisoned flowers?

I ran toward my apartment, a quick dip to leave all the other unnecessary stuff there and to pick up some particular brand of cupcakes and tea, and out I went hunting for information. I knew where I was going, and what I was about to do.

My destination was the Grandma's Gossip Club aka GGC.

There was this house in the neighborhood where all the granny's congregated everyday to gossip and reminisce about the good old days. I knew that was just a front for some elaborate information gathering setup. Those old ones knew about everything and everyone! There was no way it wasn’t an information network hidden under the facade of cheerful, sometimes grumpy, old grannies.

But I knew their secret, and I wasn’t against abusing this opportunity for a chance to win. They were my secret weapon.

I marched to the house door. Knocked, loud, firm.

A toothy grandma, face wrinkled, eyes squinting, white hair tied in a bun, greeted me. Her voice was as wrinkly as her face. “Hinata-chan, you’re visiting again. Come in, come in.” The grandma waved me inside. I gave her a bow, a big smile and a quick hug.

Granny laughed, it was infectious, but before she could tousle my hair, I dodged the hand and slipped past her defences and into the information gathering center. Seated around the room in comfy chairs or cushions were the rest of my targets.

Chiyo-baa, a sharp-tongued old lady who was always “in the know” and loved to drop cryptic one-liners.

Tama-obasan. Sweet on the surface but had a knack for spinning exaggerated tales.

Natsu-baachan. She was warm and motherly, but her sharp eyes missed nothing; it was like she could even read my thoughts.

Mika-bachan. She always started her gossip with, “You didn’t hear it from me, but…”

The one who had let me in was the most fearsome of them all. Kiyo-Obacchan. The leader of the group. She had an infectious laughter and a talent for pulling juicy details out of even the quietest of ninjas. I would know. I was a mute and could barely keep my secrets from her.

I walked to the center table, placed the cupcakes and tea. These weren’t my favorite: sugarless cupcakes and bitter green tea. I mean, don’t judge me. I wasn’t going to give a sugar overdose to these grannies. I wasn’t a monster.

There was this round of thanks and more hair tousling hands that had to be dodged before the information gathering agents settled down. It was time. I paid the bribe. Time to learn the secrets of flower arrangements.

“Obacchan, teach me about flower arrangements! I need to win a bet against Sakura-chan!”

Natsu-baachan was the first to react. She chuckled. “Sakura-chan you say? Wasn’t she the little devil you said was so pretty you could hardly look at her?”

I staggered at the surprise attack.

Chiyo-baa didn’t let up. “What about Best Girl Ino? She isn’t in the picture anymore?”

I staggered two more steps. Damn, I forgot how insidious these grannies were. This was going to be a long battle.

---

It had been a brutal fight. It took all my cunning, guile and a copious amount of cupcakes to convince the gossip club. I even had to sacrifice my hair to appease tousling hands. But I persevered, and now I had the information I needed. There was… a lot more to consider regarding flower arrangement that hadn’t been covered in the Kunoichi classes. Was this a case of lack of time? From the brief glimpse I saw of grandma’s words, flower arrangement was like a vast, deep, unfathomable ocean.

But I had grasped a few essentials: flower type, color, balance, and presentation. I was ready to win. I took out the small slip of paper where I wrote the places to gather those flowers from. Kiyo-Obacchan was kind enough to list a few spots for me, and how I should arrange the flowers for the best effect.

Armed with knowledge, a plan and a recipe, I ran. Not for long, however. The last person I was expecting to see barred my path.

“There you are.” Ino huffed, pulled the hair out of her face. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

What was she doing here? Why? I took out my board, my hands shook just a bit. I wrote my question. “Shouldn’t you be helping with the shop?”

Ino-chan rolled her eyes. Walked closer, looked at the slip of paper I was still holding. “Mom’s mission was canceled.” Ino said like that explained everything. “I’m going to help you win that stupid bet. Sakura-chan went too far this time.”

I blinked, owlish and confused. Huh, what was happening? I mean, in the years since, I was on somewhat good terms with all the girls in the class. My early fangirling had mostly subdued, and I could say that if I wasn’t friends with Ino and Sakura, we were at least on good terms. I mean, I wanted to say we were friends, the silly bet was friends material right? But to have Ino take my side? Wasn’t she glued at the hip with Sakura-chan?

Ino plucked the treasure map from my fingers. “Nice choice of flowers.” She tapped her chin, gave me a complicated, mischievous look. Grabbed my hand, dragged me. “Come, I know where you can find these.” We had taken two steps when she stopped, looked at me, serious. “But it will take time to gather everything. I’ll prepare the tea. Can you get us something to eat?”

I nodded. I wasn’t even aware I was nodding. But then I nodded harder. Hell yes! Picnic with Ino? Yes! Please!

We parted ways for a few minutes. I gathered my supplies, got a few of my best cupcakes, an empty basket for the flowers. Skipped toward training field three. That’s where Ino told me to meet her. I arrived before she did, but Best Girl Ino didn’t keep me waiting for long.

She arrived running and panting. A small bag hung around her shoulders. “Sorry!” She said, hands on her knees. “Mom wanted me to look after the store. I had to escape again.”

I gave her a small wave. Escape again? 

Ino recovered quickly. She marched up to me, took my hand, led me away. “Come on, there’s a lot to do and we don’t have enough time.”

The first place we visited wasn’t one of the spots on my list. This was a small hidden patch of flowers a few minutes away from the training grounds. Ino knelt by the flowers, fingers tracing the petals. “Pretty aren’t they? Mom was the one who told me about this spot. It’s been hidden here for years. She found it when she was still a genin.”

I was crouched by her side, attention divided between Ino and the hidden blossoms. These weren’t the same on my list, but they looked pretty. Small, round like petals, nice smelling, red tinged color.

I nodded, extended my arm to pluck some. Ino grabbed my hand, shook her head. “Not these ones.” She said, “I know of better ones. Come.” She got up, still holding my hand, dragged me away again.

We visited a few more hidden flower patches, each with its own story from Ino, who seemed to know everything about their meanings. I knew her family was deep into the flower business, but I hadn’t known it was this serious. Did Ino have family lessons on the meaning of flowers? Was that a secret knowledge of the Yamanaka clan? I ended up not picking any of the ones she showed me. None of them were the ones on my list, and whenever I tried, Ino always dragged me to a prettier patch of flowers. Obacchan had been adamant that I couldn't change the flowers if I wanted to win the bet.

Now, we were at a large flower field. Ino had spread a piece of fabric on the ground, and we had an impromptu picnic. We had eaten, and were now laying on the ground side by side looking at the blue sky and the shape of clouds.

Ino raised her hand, like trying to grasp the sky. “What do you think the future will be like, Hinata-chan?”

That was a strange question. I knew what the future would be like. War, devastation, death, and ninja killing ninja. I don’t think that was what she was asking. I took my board, wrote my answer. “I dunno? Maybe we’ll become famous Kunoichi.”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Ino ruminated on that for a while. Turned on her side, looking at me instead of the sky. I did the same, our faces weren’t that far apart. “Mom always keeps saying I shouldn’t worry about it. Being a Kunoichi, I mean.” She huffed, annoyed. “That I’m too young to worry about the future. That the best thing would be to find a good husband to marry.” Best girl Ino rolled her eyes.

I made a face. That was annoying advice.

“Do you think we’ll always have to follow the paths our families expect of us, Hinata-chan?”

I shrugged. How was I supposed to answer that one?

“What do you think about Sasuke-kun?”

I tilted my head. Was she already developing a crush on emoboy? I scribbled my answer. “He’s annoying. I wish he’d leave me alone.”

Ino grinned, swatted my shoulder. We gossiped about this and that, talking about anything and everything. I learned a lot about Ino, things I had never considered. It was nice? I mean, I was happy, but also sad. At some point, the silence stretched and when I focused on the blonde, she was asleep. My hand moved on its own accord, pushing the hair out of Ino’s face. She mumbled something. Cute.

I closed my eyes. This was nice, peaceful even.

---

I woke up and it was chilly, aside from the nice flower smelling bundle of warmth resting against me. I blinked. Ino was nested against my arm, head resting on my shoulder, shivering from the cold early evening wind. It was almost night, sun already hidden behind the horizon. 

How was it this late already? I shook Ino awake.

She mumbled more, got up, with the back of her hand cleaned a bit of drool from her mouth. She looked around, then at the sky, back at me. Her face opened with a big smile. “That was fun. Let's do this again some other day, Hinata-chan.” She pushed forward and gave me a hug.

Under my bewildered eyes, she got up, waved and left me there dumbfounded. It was only when she had already disappeared that I came to my senses. I hadn’t picked a single damn flower!

---

The next day, I slumped over my desk. In front of me, a simple flower jar with a few basic flowers. It didn’t look good, nor was it any elaborate arrangement. I was super conflicted about this. On the one hand, a hangout session with Ino. On the other hand, my bet with Sakura. Why, oh why?

By the side, Sakura was gloating at me. Her arrangement looked beautiful. Purple and pink mixed with a few white flowers in an elaborate display. She looked smug. My shoulders slumped even more.

I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Suzume-sensei didn’t take long. She looked at the arrangements. Gave me just a nod. Sakura’s on the other hand, the woman gushed with praise. “Well done, Haruno-san.” The germaphobe sensei even smelled the flowers. The arrangement was that good. There was a moment of silence when she stopped by Ino’s display. I didn’t look, I couldn’t, really. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be mad or happy with Ino-chan.

“Who has the best arrangement, sensei?” Number Two, who couldn’t wait to see the result of the bet, prompted the start of my doom.

Suzume-sensei looked around again, her eyes ended up on Sakura’s arrangement. Yes, I know already, goddammit, why? Then, her eyes moved to a different one. Ino’s.

My eyes followed sensei’s. The arrangement looked familiar, the colors, the balance, the presentation. Wasn’t that what Obacchan told me to make? “Yamanaka-san is the best one.” 

The whole class gasped.

“But she’s from the Yamanaka clan. What are you all acting so surprised about?” Suzume-sensei said in a tired voice.

Ino jumped, cheered. She gave me a devious smirk. That cheating little!

“I won!” She approached, hands on her hips. Her smile was smug. “Now you have to do one thing I say.”

I raised my hands in protest, she wasn’t even part of the bet!

“What! No, Ino-chan. You aren’t even part of the bet!” Sakura echoed my thoughts.

Ino just shrugged. “The bet was who Suzume-sensei chose as the winner. I won.” Ino stuck her tongue out at Sakura. She turned back to me, eyes evil and menacing. “You will come to my house and bring cupcakes.” She ordered. “And stay for a sleepover.” She added as an afterthought.

Sakura ground her teeth. “No, she’s coming to my place!”

“Dream on,” Ino challenged. “You just want the cupcakes.”

Sakura pointed a finger at Ino’s nose. “Like you’re any different!”

Was this heaven? Had I died and gone to paradise? My ears burned.