Naruto watched Hinata reluctantly lead Hanabi through the gates of the Hyuga Clan Compound, the younger girl rubbing her eyes and yawning sleepily. He had barely turned around when he spotted Ino leaning beneath a streetlamp.
The girl stood with her arms folded, the orange lamplight casting patches of light and shadow across her face. Her usually radiant expression was now full of resentment.
"Ohhh?"
She deliberately drew out the sound as she approached him step by step.
"So you used the language of flowers I taught you to comfort another girl?"
Before Naruto could speak, Ino had already grabbed his sleeve and tilted her face up to demand, "Have you already fallen for Hinata calling you 'Naruto-kun' over and over?
"Or do you just like those delicate, gentle girls?"
Naruto couldn't help smiling at her puffed-up cheeks.
With his other hand, he gently took the hand clutching his sleeve, a tender light filling his blue eyes.
"Yes! I like gentle people."
He admitted it readily and openly, his voice carrying a note of earnestness.
"Everything I know about flowers came from you, Ino, so I've always made sure to remember it. That's why those words just slipped out earlier."
"And speaking of being gentle..."
Naruto gazed into Ino's slightly widened eyes, his tone growing even softer.
"You might show a bold, spirited side sometimes, Ino, but you're actually a very gentle person, aren't you?
"Before graduation, didn't you always comfort Hinata and Sakura when they had setbacks during training? I noticed, you know."
Those words made Ino pause, and her grip loosened without her realizing it.
The night breeze brushed past, carrying a faint fragrance, as though even the air had softened.
With the distance between them suddenly narrowed, Naruto realized for the first time that the "scent of