Suteta - (Akatsuki fanfic)

Part 16

Hanaki sat at the small glass table in the garden, staring at the wildflower she found several days ago. It was much healthier now, the red petals strong and bright. Today it was going to be planted with the rest of the flowers since it had time to recover. She could hardly wait.

Zetsu told her to stay here while he stepped out for a moment, leaving the toddler to listen quietly to the endless voices in the garden. There was a sort of conversation passing between the wildflower and the others. The wildflower was talking about the person who tried to take her away, saying he threw it into the trash on purpose without the stand keeper knowing. Then not long after that was when she discovered it.

The other plants agreed, creating a small chorus of 'On purpose', 'Trap', and 'Horrible.'

Trap... Hanaki didn't know the word very well. Especially in this context. Did it mean something like 'trick'? Something about that seemed accurate and got her picture-book thought process going. It led her to wondering why the guy wanted to take her away. She didn't know him, did she? But then, why was he so scary and mean? Why did he try to pretend he was nice at first?

After a while of trying to think through it all, her head began to hurt. It's been like that for a while now. Whenever she thought about the incident she got a bad headache as if something didn't feel quite right. She didn't tell Zetsu though. He already looked stressed about something without having her little problems added to it all.

She heard a click as he re-entered the greenhouse and closed the door. Hanaki lifted her head to watch him while he took the flower, gesturing for her to follow him to the middle of the greenhouse to a nearly vacant flowerbed. As she scooted off the chair she asked, "Where'd you go?"

"I had an idea," he explained. "I wanted to discuss it with Konan right away."

Her curiosity nagged. "Why?"

"It is important."

"Oh." Hanaki sighed inwardly, knowing he was deliberately not telling her everything. She thought of asking again but she remembered how Miss Blue-hair said nagging was rude, which she also had to explain what 'rude' and 'nagging' meant.

The thought of Zetsu's idea being important was enough to spark her interest, and it made her want to know what it was. However... Not worth it.

Uh... Worth what exactly? The toddler's ears burned with anxiety and she paused as an image flashed through her mind. Some lady with a really mean look on her face. Like that guy from before.

Her head began to ache again only worse this time, and now she had a pretty good idea of what it meant. Something was familiar. It was the lady probably. But why? Who was she?

"Runt, get over here. We don't have all day." The dark voice grabbed her attention. Zetsu was kneeling on the walkway at the edge of the flowerbed. Earlier he said he would show her how to plant the flower and how to take care of it because she asked him to. And after all the headaches today she was happy to have a change of subject.

As she hurried over she rubbed her head to ease the pain. "O-okay."

Soon the flower was planted, and Zetsu left to tend to the rest of the garden. For a while Hanaki was poking its stem to see if it could stand any straighter because it leaned to one side. Maybe the leaves were too heavy. "You're floppy," she said to the flower as she poked it again.

'Stop that.' The wildflower's voice was stern.

"What?"

'The poking. Stop the poking.' Oops. Hanaki immediately withdrew her hand, brushing the dirt off onto her clothes in an apologetic fluster which turned to embarrassment when she heard a few of the plants giggle at her expense. She couldn't be sure whether they were mocking her or not. Gosh, it wasn't her fault she had such a bizarre fit of confusion. It was the constant headaches. At least some of the voices hushed the others in understanding of that. Then there was a thoughtful hum from the wildflower. 'Find support. Need support to grow better.'