February 14, Hidden Village of Konoha, Fire Country

"Wake up, Kankuro!" Temari said, shaking his shoulders, "We still have to train!"

"Can't we skip training today? We're great ninjas and all," Kankuro's eyes were still shut.

"No, we won't!"

Kankuro sensed that Temari was pointing something in his way. He felt it was a shuriken. It didn't scare him. But she was his older sister and technically the team leader - he had to listen to her.

He opened his eyes. It wasn't a shuriken, not even a kunai; it was a bunch of hawthorn flowers.

"What are these for? You can't extract poison from these." He was awake now.

"Just take them. It may sound stupid, but, if I don't give this to you today, bad luck will come to us," Temari handed him the hawthorns.

"That's stupid alright! We're ninjas, anything can happen to us and there's no such thing as luck, Temari."

"I know. It's just some harmless flowers, okay? Where's Gaara? You're supposed to be guarding him."

"At the roof. Where else will he be?"

"I overslept! What kind of ninja am I?" Hinata has just woke up. She got the yellow chrysanthemums and white larkspurs potted near her bed. She picked them from the vast Hyuga garden just the night before.

'I have to give these or else something bad may happen.'

She dressed up, forgot about breakfast, and headed for the Konoha woods.

"Watch out, Hinata!" Lee yelled.

Acting quickly as a trained shinobi should, Neji performed his newest perfected technique. "Hakke Shou Kaiten!" Heavenly Spin. He had just saved Hinata from Tenten's shuriken rain. His team was training.

"Good job, Neji," Tenten said, smiling at the Leaf's best rookie.

"Thank you, Neji-onichan, for saving me… again," Hinata bowed.

From the third elimination matches of the chuunin exams, Neji changed and made sure nobody noticed. He now protected her not because he has to, but because he wants to. Hinata is the most important person to him, and he will never let anything bad happen to her.

"It's my job to protect you Hinata-hime," Neji stiffly said.

Hinata-hime. Princess Hinata, that's what Neji called her. Tenten was hoping that someday, Neji will call her a princess, too. Someday.

Tenten saw the larkspurs.

'What is she planning to do? Give those to Neji? That's silly, he won't even accept them,' Tenten thought.

Hinata pretended not to notice her cousin's forced distant manner. "Uhm, Neji-onichan, these are for you," Hinata gave him the flowers, "Happy Valentine's Day."

Tenten didn't expect it to happen and she greatly regretted that she didn't do it, too, but Neji took it and said, "Thanks, same to you," Neji smiled and all ice barriers between him and his precious sunshine melted.

'If it came from somebody else, I would have refused. But, these are from Hinata,' Neji thought. He woke up from his momentary reverie when Hinata asked, "Have you guys seen Naruto?"

"I think I saw him heading for the Yamanaka Flower Shop," Lee said while stretching his arms.

Hinata took off in a second.

"I hope Sasuke sees the flowers I sent him," Ino said with a hopeful sigh.

"What! You gave him flowers too? What kind?" Sakura anxiously asked.

"Of course! How can I forget him? I sent him lilies," Ino answered.

"I sent lilies, too!"

"And I'm sure Sasuke will like mine better."

"No, he won't!"

Both kunoichi were engulfed in an imaginary ring of fire… At least that were what their eyes showed the two other people inside the flower shop.

"Oh, no. Here they go again," Shikamaru said. He was playing an ancient game of Go with Choji.

"They're always like that. We better get used to it," Choji was trying to focus at the game. But the focusing part didn't come for them as it was hard to think of anything while overhearing the two Sasuke-obsessed girls throw death threats at each other. The war was temporarily forgotten as someone entered the shop.

"Hey, Sakura! For you!" It was Naruto. He was holding up some violets.

"Uhm, thanks, Naruto," Sakura took the bunch and placed them on a table nearby.

Naruto was obviously mulling over the reasons why he couldn't get the pink-haired ninja to like him one bit, his right hand scratching his chin.

Ino was getting tired of watching the blonde boy. "Hey, Naruto! Take this." She gave him a poinsettia from a vase.

"I didn't know that you liked me, Ino. I must be really popular, huh?"

The blue-eyed lass retorted, "Idiot! They're not for you! Give them to somebody else!" Ino forced the poinsettia into Naruto's hands.

Sakura was beginning to understand what Ino was trying to do. It was like female instinct in action.

"Yeah. We know that she's expecting it, Naruto. You can at least make her happy with that," Sakura said while she was inspecting her violets. Lee gave her the same thing earlier.

Naruto had no other choice than to say, "Okay" because his teammate was already pushing him out the door.

He walked away and the two females resumed their argument.

"Kankuro!" Temari just came out of the shower. Her hair was still dripping wet.

"Wha-a-at?" Kankuro replied, making sure that his sister saw that he was disturbed.

"Where's Gaara!"

"Didn't I tell you that he was on the roof before? Now, I officially think that you're becoming stupid from our prolonged stay here," Kankuro said, not looking at Temari.

Temari was used to her brother's cruel words. This was not the time to fight over anything. Instead, she said, "Yes, you did. I came there before and he was still there, constructing his Suna Yoroi. But, I just came up there now, and he left his Suna Bunshin!"

Kankuro didn't speak. He didn't do his duty well. Gaara escaped from him.

"Go now and bring him back here! He might do something that'll stir the people of Konoha."

Kankuro was gone in a snap.

"Hi, Ino. Hello, Sakura. Has… Has Naruto been here?" Hinata was blushing – more of exhaustion from running than being embarrassed from uttering his name.

"You missed him, he just left," Sakura hid the violets.

"Do you… have any idea… where he went?"

"Sorry, but we don't," Ino covered up.

"What about you, guys?" Hinata asked the other two.

"Nope," Choji munched on potato chips.

Shikamaru just shook his head.

"But I have this feeling you'll find him soon enough," Ino winked at Sakura.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Hinata," Sakura said with a smile.

Hinata bowed and kept on looking for him.

"I'm very sorry!" Hinata apologized. She bumped into somebody.

"Watch where you're going… Hinata?" Shino was surprised to see her in town. He thought she would lock herself in the Hyuga dojo.

"Ruff ruff!" Akamaru greeted Hinata.

"Hey, Akamaru!" She patted the dog's head.

"We're going to the academy. Wanna come along? There's no one there today, perfect for mastering new techniques," Kiba was with Shino.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I promise I'll make up for it," Hinata dusted herself off.

"What do you think of these?" Kiba held up an arrangement of and hollies with a yellow narcissus in between.

"They're very pretty, Kiba. The person you're going to give them to will be very happy to receive them," Hinata said, studying it.

She was clueless about Kiba's feelings. The bouquet was for her.

She then asked, "Have you guys seen Naruto?"

"No. Maybe he's at Ichiraku Ramen. He hangs out there a lot," Shino replied before Kiba said something stupid out of jealousy.

"Gotta go!" Hinata dashed, "Oh, and… Happy Valentines!" Hinata said, looking back.

"To you, too!" Kiba tried to say, trying hard to hide the shade of red in his cheeks, but she was already gone.

"You blew it," Shino said looking at the direction where the Hyuga girl ran.

'You don't have to rub it in,' Kiba thought.

"Looks like you're up for another year of bad luck."

"I can track her down later."

They continued walking.

"What is taking Kankuro so long?" Temari thought as she fixed her hair into four ponytails.

She went closer to her puppet master brother's work table. The hawthorns were neatly placed in the middle of it. She put the flowers in a vase.

'The gladiolus and poppies would look nice with these hawthorns… if I accepted them,' Temari thought as she gazed at the arrangement. Earlier, Shikamaru offered her a bouquet and greeted her but she refused.

She put her 3-starred fan behind her.

"I'm going after them."

"…give them to someone else," Naruto repeated what Ino told him.

He was near the hot springs.

"To whom?" Naruto was confused.

"…she's expecting it…"

"What did Sakura say this flower was?" Naruto tried to remember.

Naruto repeatedly told himself that it was plain idiotic to ask the most perverted man in Konoha about the hidden meaning of flowers. But he had no choice. Duh. What would Sasuke know about flowers anyway?

"Ah, Naruto. A poinsettia I see. Who's it for?" Jiraiya appeared before him.

"I dunno. Someone."

"I already gave a lot to everyone today," Jiraiya said.

"Yeah, to every female in Konoha," Naruto whispered, but Jiraiya heard him.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto… giving away flowers is no ordinary thing," Jiraiya said with a knowledgeable look in his face. "For example, that poinsettia best suits someone born on December."

"December?" Naruto thought hard.

He knew whom to give it to.

"Iruka-sensei!" Hinata greeted her old teacher.

"Have you seen Naruto, Iruka-sensei?"

"I'm sorry, Hinata. I just came here," Iruka answered after sipping sake from his cup.

Hinata didn't notice Team 7's jounin sitting at the chuunin's left.

"He was here awhile ago," Kakashi said.

Hinata caught a glimpse of a bouquet of roses and another bunch of calendulas near Kakashi.

'They're probably for Kurenai-sensei and Anko-san. Kakashi-sensei should stick to just one,' Hinata hid her smile.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you… uhm… have any idea where he might be?" Hinata asked shyly.

"He did say that he's going to challenge Sasuke today," Kakashi said, in between gulps of ramen.

"Naruto didn't change much hasn't he?" Iruka asked, not expecting an answer.

"Sasuke's training at the Northern Mountains," Kakashi said to the Hyuga heiress.

"Thank you," Hinata bowed.

"This place is occupied… by me. Pick another place to train," Sasuke crossed his arms.

"Wait… Have… you seen… Naruto?" Hinata was catching her breath. It was hard climbing a mountain.

"No," Sasuke disappeared.

Still February 14, Hidden Village of Konoha, Fire Country

"…bad luck and disaster will befall those who offer not blossoms to the ones close to their heart at the fourteenth day of the second moon before the silver moon rises …as long as the leaves of Konoha sway in the swift winds …"

Hinata knew that it was silly, but a little tradition wouldn't hurt. Last year she gave the same kind of flowers to Naruto… sort of. She laid them at his doorstep but he didn't see them. This time, she wants to give it to him personally.

The sun was already setting. She was back in the Konoha woods and she was desperate.

"Byakugan!" White eyes. With it, she didn't find what she was looking for, but instead, found someone very unexpected.

"Come closer." Gaara was sitting under a tree, hidden well beneath its shadows.

She did as she was told. She could not escape. Gaara could kill her in a second.

"Who sent you?"

"Nobody. I came here looking for…"

"…then you will certainly not find it here," Gaara said.

"I… I know." Hinata was scared.

"Then go," Gaara saw her looking down.

She could not move because of the fear that was surrounding her.

"Sit down," He motioned her to sit beside him. He was not in a killing streak today.

Her fear instantly vanished. She sat down, her legs crossed.

"Take this. I have no use for it," Gaara gave her the primroses he received from Temari.

"T… Thank you," Hinata blushed.

'Gaara's not that bad. We saw him ruthlessly killing people at the chuunin exams and now he's giving me flowers…'

"Did you do some training today?" He asked.

"Actually, I missed the whole day," Hinata lied. This day was as hard as their team practice. Looking for Naruto proved to be very tough for her.

Hinata was watching the sun set as a full moon took over.

'Oh well… I couldn't locate Naruto but at least I have a possibility of getting along with the impossible…' The impossible being was Gaara of the Desert.

Gaara stood up. He performed hand seals.

"I'm developing new skills," he said, eyes closed.

Nobody – even his own siblings - dared to bother Gaara while he was meditating with his sand gourd… until this Valentine's Day.

"Can I join you?" Hinata asked behind him.

Gaara didn't say no. He didn't say anything at all.

Temari felt a presence in the steep cliff in which she was standing at the tip of. She didn't feel worried about it. The chi was very familiar. It belonged to Kankuro.

He was defensive, "It's not my fault, okay? In the first place, Gaara knew what he was going to do and not going to do. He put a paralyzing spell on me when I urged him to come back. I couldn't…"

She interrupted him. Temari put her right index finger to her lips. She handed Kankuro a pair of binoculars. Then, she pointed to the woods.

"So that's where he is! Hey! There's someone else with him! Aren't we going to stop him? Gaara could kill her!" Kankuro was surprised.

Temari smiled, "Look closer. Focus on Gaara."

He saw the Hyuga girl. He looked closer. This time, Kankuro saw a primrose sticking out of Hinata's pocket – a detail that was not quite relevant to their surveillance. He further focused the binoculars.

Kankuro froze. It was the first time he saw Gaara smiling. Gaara may be laughing at Hinata's mistakes in performing the techniques he was teaching her, but for now, the important thing is the fact that Gaara was not smiling over death and bloodshed. He was - simply put - just happy. Kankuro savored this precious scene… and thanked the silly Konoha tradition. If it weren't the flowers, what else could it have been that caused this smile to form on his little brother's lips?

'It's definitely those flowers,' Kankuro thought.

Meanwhile, Temari got another pair of binoculars and searched the area. She saw Naruto observing the unlikely pair: the Kazekage's son and the Hyuga clan's heiress. A wider smile swept across her face as she saw Naruto throw away a wilted poinsettia. Temari knew that Naruto was jealous.

"Cheer up, Naruto. Happy Valentine's Day to you." She took out the 3-starred fan.

"Kamaitachi no Jutsu." Slashing Wind Skill. The Suna pair had gone to another place where they can comfortably observe their brother's extremely rare happiness.

Shinobi Valentine in Konoha…!
Naruto
published: 03-29-06
edited 07-22-11

AN: Yes, how convenient that all flowers are in season during February in Konoha. XD