Hello, there!!
This is my second fanfic, but the concept wasn't actually thought by me. This was a story started by Imina. The original author came up with the summary and the first two chapters and then gave the story up for adoption.
I gladly took it in.
Disclaimer: As it is, the plot (although not very complex) belongs to me. But not the characters or the events of the canon that I refer to. They are not mine and I'm not making profit of this story.
Rating: M (it used to be T, however I plan on making it a romance, so it is possible that later chapters are a bit more mature.)
Genre: Romance, Friendship
Summary: Someone is sending Naruto flowers! And only the youth of the village seem determined to find out who and why.
Warnings: Shonen-Ai, so please have that in mind if you start to read.
Note: All the text in italic on the first two chapters, and only in these two, were written by the original author.
This will be the only moment where I'm making reference to all the above explained, but it applies to all the story. Anything more I'd like to add, will be done in due time.
With that said, please enjoy the story! =]
Title: The Wishing Tree
It began with a small bunch of flowers.
Pansies to be exact, if Uzumaki Naruto wasn't mistaken. For several minutes he stared uncomprehendingly at the violet-coloured flowers resting on the bridge where he and the rest of his team met every morning.
For the life of him he couldn't fathom how they'd gotten there. Or why they were even there in the first place. And in all honesty he had almost stepped on them when he'd arrived a few minutes ago. They were after all in his place, resting innocently against the one spot on the bridge he claimed as his own.
As he picked them up Naruto glanced curiously around the empty training grounds, briefly entertaining as he did so the idea that they were of course for him. But even as he buried his face in them to inhale their sweet scent, those thoughts lasted only a few moments before he pushed them away.
So, who then? he wondered. And for whom? Well, the choices in his mind were fairly obvious: Rock Lee in an attempt to woo Sakura? Or one of Sasuke's fan girls?
The answer (well, maybe) came to him a few minutes later when Sakura appeared and after a brief pause of wondering why the blonde was indeed carrying a bouquet of flowers, snatched them unceremoniously from his hands.
Naruto watched wide-eyed and with a sheepish grin as she too inhaled their sweet scent, finding as he did so that he couldn't prevent himself from wincing out aloud (on the flower's behalf of course), at the way she all but crushed them to her chest in her excitement.
A few moments later his pink-haired teammate was cooing – yep, cooing – as the third member of their team, one Uchiha Sasuke, joined them. Naruto chanced a glance at the dark-haired nin as he too went to his appointed place on the bridge, wondering as he did so over what he believed to be a distracted look in the other boy's eyes when they met his briefly.
Sakura of course continued to gush over the beauty in her arms to the ever-silent heir, at the same time openly contemplating (quite suggestively, as was her way), as to who it could be who would possibly have left them for her.
Naruto wasn't surprised to see annoyance flicker briefly in Sasuke's eyes as she rambled on. This look and the very fact that he, Naruto now considered himself well-versed in the Avenger's expressions or lack thereof and therefore had a greater understanding of his hidden emotions than any other soul in Kohona, caused Naruto to grin openly.
Unfortunately for him it was a grin that did not go unnoticed by the Uchihan heir, and Naruto felt a pang of sorrow in his chest as he drew his gaze away from the anger he now believed he could see in the other's eyes.
Sakura continued for several more agonizingly slow minutes. Even Kakashi-sensei, who had arrived surprisingly early for once yet with his usual flair, was content to smile in amusement as she rambled on.
All of a sudden though Sakura fell silent.
Surprised at actually being able to hear the birds in the nearby trees for the first time since her arrival, Naruto turned to look back at his teammates.
To his surprise Sasuke was holding his hand up for silence. With a deft flick of his wrist he took from the bouquet a small white envelope that until now had gone unnoticed. He extended it towards Naruto. Naruto looked at him in confusion.
"Sasuke?" Sakura began.
The Uchiha heir's face was one again one of indifference, something for which Naruto was very grateful. While he considered himself an expert on the other boy's expressions that didn't mean that he enjoyed in any way, shape or form the coldness that was often directed toward him.
"It has the dobe's name on it."
A strange sense of anticipation fell over the training ground as Naruto opened the envelope and withdrew the card tucked neatly inside. Sakura was wide-eyed, a bizarre expression on her face that somehow made her forehead appear even larger than usual. Kakashi-sensei's one visible eye curved happily, although neither Sakura nor Sasuke spared any thought for why this was so. They'd long ago determined their sensei was, erm, a genius but crazy. Sasuke himself on the other hand looked politely interested in the expressions running across Naruto's face, and a twinge of something lodged into the Avenger's chest on seeing what he thought was hope reflected there.
For several long moments Naruto's brow furrowed hard in concentration as he read and then re-read several times the brief message now revealed to him. Then, as realization dawned as to what he was actually reading and what the card's author was happily suggesting, his eyes widened and a surge of heat flooded into his face. It was coupled closely with a huge grin and a shout of delighted laughter.
Before anyone could blink Naruto had flung himself at Kakashi-sensei and, while the sensei grinned beneath his mask and chuckled himself at his charges' behaviour this morning, he was momentarily shocked (yet even more delighted) when Naruto successfully snatched the golden-coloured bell hanging loosely on his belt as he did so.
Suffice it to say the excited and blushing Kyuubi vessel was very distracted for the remainder of the day, much to the amusement and eventual annoyance of others. And when questioned repeatedly on the card's contents, Naruto simply grinned and blushed even more, yet refused to answer. Although, if any soul had paid close attention they may have noticed his gaze and grin was more often than not directed at Kakashi-sensei, who returned the attention he was receiving happily.
Later, Naruto would go home humming merrily along the way, with a annoyed-without-a-reason Sasuke and a jealous Sakura. However none of this mattered to him, who was grinning as the day is bright, while the words written in the card kept crossing his mind.
For the friendship and love that you give to all, for you courage standing up for a friend, I express my deepest admiration, and…
I send thee pansies while the year is young,
Flowers of remembrance, ever fondly sung
Take all the sweetness of a gift unsought,
And for the pansies send me back a thought. (1)
Hatake Kakashi
1. This is part of a poem called 'Pansies', from Sarah Doudney. It was hell to find something poetic about pansies, that didn't refer to gay men and I was getting so annoyed. I could have written it myself, but I can't do poetics even if my life depended on it.
A/N: Pansies meaning is loving thoughts.