Curiosity

"...Huh?"

Ino couldn't help letting out a somewhat rude little gasp. Though she was the one who'd asked, she hadn't really expected an answer.

—and yet Naruto had gotten it right.

A wave of astonishment surged through Ino. She'd loved flower meanings since she was little, of course, and knew it was just her own small hobby. She'd never imagined that anyone else in her class would notice and remember the meanings of these inconspicuous flowers—and that person was none other than the usually loud and boisterous Naruto.

For the first time, Ino looked at Naruto with real attention. The boy was a complete mess right now, but perhaps it was the reflection of the setting sun: his sea-blue eyes seemed to glow. Only then did Ino realize that not only did they have the same hair color, but their eyes were remarkably similar, too.

"Um..."

Naruto had never been watched so intently by a girl before. He'd tried to act calm as soon as their eyes met, but in the end he couldn't help feeling awkward, with a faint tingling in his cheeks.

—So what did it mean that she'd just gone "Huh?" and then stopped talking? The comments were right: women really were impossible to understand.

Naruto, having recovered a little of his strength, turned his head aside to avoid the girl's searching gaze. "Did I get it wrong?"

"Ah! No, you got it right!" Ino hastily replied.

"Good." Naruto let out a small sigh of relief. "I thought I'd said something weird."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...?"

His relief evaporated as quickly as it had come.

Naruto turned his face away, looking utterly perplexed. He didn't know why Ino had suddenly fallen silent again.

Shouldn't Ino have laughed it off and said goodbye by now, leaving him to lie there in peace?

Why was she still staring at him?

Ino didn't notice the turmoil in Naruto's otaku heart.

Because once she recognized the long-overlooked fact that her eyes and Naruto's were so similar, she finally figured out what that persistent sense of incongruity she'd felt since they started talking was.

The Naruto at school was that carefree, immature dead-last idiot who liked sleeping in class and playing pranks.

The Naruto at the food shop was someone who could be shoved over and hated for no reason; who could stay calm even after striking back without showing the slightest weakness, yet before leaving had joked that his name was Sasuke, a joke nobody would believe. He seemed a little pitiful, but tough; mature, yet somehow a little unreliable.

And the Naruto in front of her now was so gentle.

He knew the meaning of a little flower, and he'd pushed himself until he could no longer stand. And if Naruto hadn't been lying, then the fact that he'd caused so much damage to the training ground meant his strength was nothing to scoff at...

It wasn't just Naruto. Ino didn't understand him anymore, either.

Which of these was the real Naruto? Or were none of them? Then what was the real Naruto like?

Only then did Ino realize that she'd never really understood Naruto. That was the source of her unease: the Naruto in her preconceptions and the Naruto she'd encountered outside school were practically two different people.

But come to think of it...wasn't it normal not to know him?

Ino hadn't bullied or hated Naruto like some of her classmates did, but she had no obligation to pay attention to him, either. As a girl who cared about looks, the only boys in class she'd ever paid attention to were Sasuke and her childhood friends Shikamaru and Choji. She and Naruto had always kept to their own sides.

But now things were different.

An unexpected, irresistible curiosity about Naruto quietly began to take root in Ino's heart.

Though half a month had passed since graduation, Ino was certain that half a month wasn't nearly enough time for someone to change so drastically. So there was only one explanation: Naruto had always been hiding his true self from everyone.

Why had he done that, willingly playing the fool at school? And why had he suddenly stopped hiding it from her? So was his crush on Sakura just an act, too? That Big Forehead had always complained to her about him...

"Um..."

Feeling as if Ino's stare was about to burn a hole through the back of his head, Naruto finally couldn't hold back.

"Could you stop staring at me? I only happen to know this one flower's meaning. If you asked me about any others, I wouldn't be able to answer."

"Oh, sorry. I got distracted for a second." Coming back to herself, Ino tried to suppress the questions piling up in her mind and casually said, "That's normal. It's not like your family runs a flower shop."

"Haha, yeah. It's just me at home, so we don't run any kind of shop..."

Oh no.

The weaker Naruto's voice got, the more he spoke. He realized halfway through that he'd said the wrong thing. His exhausted brain seemed to have lost much of its ability to manage what came out of his mouth.

The atmosphere did indeed stall for a few moments after Naruto said that, but unlike what he'd expected, this time the silence didn't last long. Ino smoothly picked up the conversation.

"Why don't you take these flowers, then? You know their meaning, so I guess it's fate."

Ino waved the bouquet in front of Naruto, deftly steering the conversation away from a topic that would surely make him uncomfortable.

"Huh? But I don't have any money," Naruto replied blankly.

"They're free! Dummy!" Ino couldn't help poking Naruto on the head with a flower stem again. "Like I said, the Yamanaka Flower Shop doesn't resell returned products!"

"Oh, right. Sorry, and thanks!"

Naruto realized what she meant, then hesitated. "But I can't move right now... Why don't you put them on the ground for now? I'll take them home and look after them properly... Uh, that sounded kind of weird..."

"Pfft." Ino seemed amused by Naruto, and her tone grew much lighter. "That won't work. They're already arranged, so they'll come apart if you put them on the ground."

With that, she sat down, cradling the bouquet on her joined knees.

"I'll wait until you've rested."

"Ah, you don't have to go to all that trouble..."

Naruto, who had never had anyone wait for him before, didn't know what to do. But Ino waved a hand and cut off his protest.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'd just be ordered around and put to work when I got home anyway."

Then she promptly changed the subject.

"By the way, how did you know the meaning of Nigella?"

"...I happened to read about it in a book once."

Seeing that there was no point in resisting, Naruto could only quietly accept it.

Fortunately, the evening breeze blew from Ino toward him, so his sweaty stink wouldn't reach her. Instead, a faint fragrance kept wafting into his nostrils... It was probably the flowers... Stop. Don't think about it anymore.

"Naruto, you actually read books??"

"...That's harsh."

"What kind of exclamation is 'harsh'? Hahaha! Hey, do you want to learn the meanings of other flowers? I can teach you."

"...Sure."

The conversation between the boy and girl carried on as the sun slowly sank below the horizon. Their shadows stretched longer and longer, while in the distance, the crescent moon hid behind a cloud and quietly crept closer.

It seemed the moon didn't want to disturb the scene unfolding below, either.