The Anime Lover's Must Read: One-Shot Collection

Read My Lips ~Sai One-Shot~

My grandmother sighed in contempt as she looked outside at the pink trees that lined the streets.

"Ti Lin," My grandmother turned to me. "Can you do me a favor?"

I looked at her and smiled, giving a nod. My grandmother gave another happy sigh and patted my head, ruffling my black hair.

"Your such a good girl, helping your grandmother so much..." She smiled, and reached for her purse. Pulling out 50 yen, she placed it in my hand.

"Please run down to the market and buy some ginseng and tea for me? The rest you can spend on what you'd like!" She winked and a smile erupted on my face. I give her a tight hug, which throws her slightly off balance for a second before she returns it gently, patting my back.

I take a step back and wave goodbye before quickly bound off to the market place in Konoha.

~~~

I shifted the bag of ginseng and tea in my arm.Who knew ginseng was so heavy?!I thought as I rolled my sore shoulder.

I looked up at the shop sign hanging above my head: Yamanaka Flower Shop.

I walked in and examined the shelves of flowers that lined the walls, searching for a special flower out of the jungles of plants surrounding me.

"Hi, Ti Lin!" A perky voice sounded from behind me.

I jumped and spun around to meet Ino, who was behind me. She laughed at my reaction, and put up two hands to show she wasn't going to hurt me.

"Chill, jeez..." She smirked, moving her hands to place them on her hips. "Quit acting like I'm going to kill you or something!"

I smiled at her and give her a playful shove. She's always scaring me like that, taking advantage of the fact that I'm not a ninja and have some weird super sixth ninja senses or something.

"What flower are you looking for today?" She asked, gesturing to the wide assortment that decorated the store.

'I'm looking for spotted tiger lilies.' I signed to her.

Yes, you read right, Isigned. I'm mute, which is one reason I can't become a ninja. Mute means I can't speak, laugh, or scream. I've been signing all my life, and I'm lucky that most people I know can understand me.

Ino, being trained as a medical ninja, had to learn how to use sign language. She did it willingly though, taking it as a great chance to understand what I was trying to tell her when we were, or at least Ino was, talking. Bit o' mute people humor there for ya folks. But bad joking all aside, Ino and Sakura, who was also a med in training, taught all my friends how to sign to people.

"Okay, there over here." Ino led me to the lilies, the beautiful flowers appearing behind the next corner in all these different sorts.

'How much for two?' I signed to her.

"10 yen." She answered as I plucked two white tiger lilies with black spots from the vase that contained them.

I nod and place then ten yen in her waiting hand. Now I had about 15 yen left, with no clue what to spend it on. Well, I'll figure that out later...

"Thank you!" Ino chirped.

I nod to her and smile, which she returns. Giving a wave goodbye, I skip out of the shop, being stupid enough as not to watch where I'm going.

Crash!

I flew backward, the bags and flowers flying from my hands. I hit the ground with a thud, as did the person I ran into. Ino, who saw what happened, abandoned her store to help us up.