Uzumaki

Fireworks

"Orochimaru-sama wants to make you an offer. An offer of power."

"You have until tonight to decide."

--

Satsuki turned on her hot tap and let the water run. She left it on too strong; a fine film of water droplets was forming on the rim of the sink. She filled the kettle, turned off the tap, and put it on the stove.

She put the tea in the strainer, rinsed and dried the teapot and cups, and set it all out on her table. The windows steamed up somewhat as she poured the water into the pot.

Satsuki poured the tea slowly, a hand on the lid of the teapot as she did.

Standing up with her cup of tea, she felt the waxy leaves of her plant. It had bloomed. Tiny white flowers, but the true attraction was the papery shell around the budding fruit. It would never split, but decay, leaving a web-like husk to protect the fruit within. A rotten shell of a lantern. The lantern plant; hōzuki.

She sat on her windowsill, bringing her knees to her chest. The sun was rising over the stony heads of the Hokage.

'If I wanted to leave tomorrow,' she thought, the teacup heating her fingertips, 'I could.'

Satsuki heard people setting up for that festival. She didn't particularly feel like going. Not with Naruto there.

Thoughts of him came into her head, and she picked up that needle and thread again, working them through, over and over as she stared at the people propping up stands on the street below. She began to wonder.

'What would he do?'

Satsuki had picked at the thought, looking for guidance - but she didn't know anyway. Naruto's name alone made her feel bitter.

But what would he do?

Satsuki didn't think Naruto would leave. Naruto liked Sakura too much. And Ichiraku ramen.

And hated Orochimaru far, far too much to ever even entertain the idea. Surely.

Satsuki sipped at her tea, scalding her lips and swallowing it quickly. No, she decided. Naruto wouldn't go.

"Satsuki-saaaan!"

A bold, singsong voice sounded outside her door. She set down the tea, and the sewing, and opened the door with trepidation.

"Ino?"

She was clutching a big and well-stuffed bag, and she stepped in with confidence, taking off her shoes neatly. "Did you forget what day it is, Satsuki-san?"

Satsuki blinked, counting days in her head as Ino opened her bag and started setting up on her kitchen table. "The... 10th?"

"Mhm! The 10th! Today's the festival. And you, me, Sakura, and Naruto are all going to go together!"

Satsuki looked down. She was barefoot; her toes twitched as she looked at them, as though perturbed by her gaze.

"Ino," she said, as she clenched her fists, her toes curled a little into her feet. "Naruto can't even bear the sight of me."

"That's not-"

Satsuki grabbed the teapot - how it burnt her - and flung it at the window. It cracked in two, but shattered on the windowsill, tea dribbling down the window to join the spatters of it between the shards.

Ino froze.

"And I can't bear the sight of him!"

Satsuki stormed to the windowsill, scraping up painful handfuls of the ceramic and throwing them into a bag. "Don't try and comfort me."