Stop and Smell the Flowers [OPEN]

The young woman felt lonely. It wasn't often she felt this way, to be honest. After all, he has her friends to keep her company. She also had her mother. Had. It was just 5 days past that she buried the last of her family. Ever since, the girl had been training hard. Practicing her fuinjutsu, studying her ninjutsu- anything to get her mind off her mom. Akane was all alone in this world now. She felt burdened by all the people showing pity for the poor girl's loss. She was tired of creeps trying to comfort her. She was tired of returning to an empty home. Akane was tired. So, she decided she needed to clear her head. That's why she was here, with all the flowers.

She closed her deep blue eyes and smelled the rose she stood in front of. It was... nice, she supposed. Mostly useless, however. The young woman second guessed why she even came here. "I need to train..." she muttered to herself, a soft frown on her face. Still, one of the last things her mother told her was to always remember to stop and smell the flowers. That's why she was here. She couldn't disregard her mom's words.

As she walked, she enjoyed the crisp air and the moonlight shining down on her. There were fireflies in the air, and honestly, Akane felt peaceful here. Her and her mom had often taken walks in this area, and it was a familiar sense of safety that permeated this place. “Mom,” she whimpered, tears filling her eyes. She glanced left and right, before wiping her eyes and suppressing herself. She had to be happy. She didn’t deserve to mourn. People relied on her. All this could wait until she got home. She placed a smile on her face.

((Sorry in advance if this is bad. I’m not in my right state of mind atm.))

“Ah!” the young woman gasped in surprise, her voice dispersing into the night air. A rabbit stood in front of her. A really cute girl rabbit! The very first frightening thought that entered her head was if this girl saw her little fit. Akane really hoped her eyes weren’t puffy from those few tears. Still, she put out a friendly smile at the rabbit girl. Her own eyes were still shiny with the leftover tears, and the light of the fireflies reflected off her cool blue orbs. Everything seemed to highlight this moment. The moon beaming upon the two- girl and rabbit. The fireflies dancing in the unseen breeze. Two souls standing face to face.

“Y-you!” The ‘girl’ exclaimed. Her voice was so cute! Akane liked cute things. It was a vice of hers. The ears on the rabbit’s head started twitching, and Akane twitched too. She wanted to pet the ears. Then the bunny asked her a question. Shinobi… Or civilian. It was an easy question. Akane could tell this one was nervous. She wanted to put them at ease and so she held her hands up, palms forward and fingers facing down. It was so show she was unarmed and wasn’t going to hurt that precious bean.

“I’m a ninja, but I won’t hurt you. I just wanted to see the flowers.” Blue eyes stared into blue eyes. It was then she heard a sound. Another youth stood not too far from them, bent over to look at the flowers too. She could hear him muttering something, but not what he was saying. Her ears were only human. “Ah!” she was surprised. “A bunny,” the man had a white rabbit on his shoulder.

The poor bunny girl was so skittish. Akane wasn’t sure what was happening, but she didn’t like it. She had seen lots of these bunny people around the village, but no one was as sad as this one. Hikari stepped away from Akane, but she just held her hands out still. “No, I don’t know- eek!” She was cut off but the rabbit flying to her. She braced herself as it landed on her shoulder. The fur… was really soft. Akane rubbed her cheek into the rabbit’s body. She was about to speak again, but before she could, Sojiro introduced himself.

“Ah, yes. I’m a Moon Ninja, like Sakura-san here said.” Akane would have bowed, but there was a bun on her shoulder. “It’s a pleasure to meet you two. I’m Akane,” she didn’t feel like saying her last name. She hated being judged by who her family was. “And you’re not bothering me. I just…” she trails off, “I just wanted to touch your ears,” she whispers, her face as red as her hair. “You’re as pretty as the flowers here, Miss.” She wasn’t flirting. She just liked cute things. She looks over at the dog-like man.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Sakura-san?” she is a bit hesitant. “Why is a Sun Ninja in our village?” She states to create an ‘us vs them’ atmosphere to further set Hikari at ease. She hopes that by saying it that way, the bunny knows they’re not alone here.

The bunny leaped from her shoulder after some cuddles. Akane was sad to see him go. “Auggie-chan is adorable,” she sighed to herself. It was then that she registered what the Usagi had said. She… was a he! Her face burned red and her cheeks puffed up as she pouted in emarrasment. “Ayuu!” she squeaked, covering her face with her hands. “I-I’m so sorry!” She bowed deeply. “I didn’t know you were a boy. You’re prettier than most girls I know!” She stood straight, fidgeting slightly. She was just given permission to touch the ears. Slowly, she inched forward to the bunny-boy presenting himself to her. “Auu,” she whispered, before making contact.

S-Soft!

She rubbed the fur with her fingers, gently petting up, then down. Her soft fingers gently grasped an ear each. “Wow, your ears…” She didn’t mean to, bt she was totally ignoring the other guy right now. She had never felt anything so smooth before.

Rub. Rub.

With a sigh, she released the ears and stepped back, her face flushed with embarrassment. “Thank you. Your ears…” She noticed the tail too, but refused to contemplate that. It was too close to a gross area. Ears were innocent. Cute, even.

Then she remembered Sojiro was there. “Ah, you’re… Inuyoshi? Was it? Sakura-san.” She bowed shallowly in greetings. “So you’ve helped us, huh? Thank you for taking care of my village.” She addresses both of them, “I hope to get along with you both!” She grins brightly at them.

Ah, so they weren’t real. Akane felt disappointment in that. Still, she was happy to have pet the ears. Little things like that can really make your day brighter. “Even so, thank you, Usagi-chan,” she stepped back, giggling. “I’d like to pet your summons one day too.” In the meantime, the white flying bunny made its way from the Wolf Nin, to the petite boy, then to Akane. Every time it came to her for cuddles, she would happily snuggle into its fur. She would pet the bunny whenever she could.

Sakura-san didn’t look happy with them. “I’m sorry,” she began, bowing again, “I’ll try to get it right next time, Sakura-chan.” She couldn’t help but use a feminine suffix- the way he was pouting was just adorable! Then he commented on talking about hunting to the rabbit nin. “I don’t think bunnies hunt?” She hesitantly added, cocking her head to the side slightly, her red hair falling over her face a bit. She was brushing it back behind her when she heard Sojiro speak up again.

She couldn’t help but freeze in shock. He was sorry for her loss? What!? How did he know her mother was dead? Her face flushed in embarrassment and shame. Did he know about her bones too? The kunoichi reacted on instinct, leaping back several times until she was 10 meters away. As she went, she pulled out a kunai in her left hand and held it horizontally in front of her. Her grip was shaky and her eyes a little wild. “H-How do you know about my mom!?” There was no way. “A-a-are you stalking me!?” She vaguely remembered the feeling of being followed at the funeral. At the time, she figured it was just her being paranoid about her ideas, but maybe it was him! “Did you watch me shower too!?” She was nearly hyperventilating now. She looked towards his bunny, wondering if it had been part of this. She knew ninjas could do crazy things. Was this cute little thing letting him watch her through its eyes!?

Akane felt like she’d never be clean again.

Akane was in shock. She was afraid and ready to defend herself when Hikari hopped in front of the two. He spoke a lot and claimed HE was the pervert instead. He defended Sojiro and the things he said… Maybe Akane was too hasty. She had been really jumpy lately, and her recent activities had left her paranoid, but she still didn’t understand what Sojiro know or didn’t know. She did know that Hikari wasn’t a pervert for wanting to be appreciated.

Her kunai was shaking in her hand, and she started lowering it when Sojiro spoke up. He defended the bunny, even! She listened to them both, and even she was starting to cry when listening to them. It sounded like Sojiro just had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth. She shouldn’t jump to conclusions so easily.

She started crying when he wiped away Hikari’s tears and put his arms down. From where she was standing, it looked like the two men were hugging. It was so romantic. She sobbed a little at the end. “I’m sorry, I jumped to conclusions. My mother died very recently, and you just startled me. I felt like someone was stalking me at her funeral and when you said you were sorry…” She shivered.

She looked at Hikari, pouting away the kunai and wiping her eyes, “You’re not a pervert. It’s never wrong to want to look cute and be appreciated. Every girl likes that, and I guess boys too?” She wasn’t sure how boys felt about cute things. She knew some guys hated it, but Hikari WAS cute. He was very cute. Cuter than most girls. She wanted to buy him kimonos and do his nails.

“You’d be a very pretty girl and its okay to want to flaunt that. When Sakura-chan said… I thought he was following me. I was freaking out about that. I’m sorry.” She bows deeply to the two. “Friends?” She adds, hesitantly. Maybe they wouldn’t want to be after all that. She held her arms out for a group hug.