On her way out Yoshino stepped into the evening garden close to the Nara woods and took a glance around.

The shrubby bushes and trees were in full bloom but her cherry tree had already cried all of its petals onto the meadow where they lay about desolated and forgotten. The grass had grown quite long too. Yet she hadn't got round to mow these days; there were too many and more important things clouding her mind so she let the grass be grass for a while.

Yoshino had a few minutes left before her appointment with the Hokage, though, so she indulged her whim, gathered her long black skirt and approached her lonesome tree until she could touch the dark bark and feel its texture beneath her fingers. The light fragrance of the already fallen flowers still lingered on in her memory.

She had been twenty and highly iritable with two hearts pounding in her body when she had insisted the five years older Shikaku better planted it; and she had done her very best to make sure her namesake's meaning came true with the tree there as a constant reminder to her ambition!

Even after seventeen years of being together it sometimes struck her as wondrous how she had winded up with that lazy, grumpy, impenetrable, ingenious, troublesome, strategizing, Jonin commanding good-for-nothing but make her happy husband of hers...

There was nothing that connected the both of them really, of which Yoshino was fairly certain; no job related points of contact, no shared hobbies, no common circle of friends, no topics to talk about. Yoshino was barely eighteen and Shikaku was twenty-three, she was a Chuunin and he made Jonin.

He was just some odd guy who on most days used to occupy the only decent sofa in the ready room all to himself when she entered early in the morning to scavenge a cup of tea before her missions, and he was still there all sprawled out and snoring when she returned late in the evening.

At first she didn't even notice he was there at all; but after weeks and weeks where she couldn't even find a fairly comfortable chair to flop onto after a rough day she got quite irritated with that lazy bum molten into the soft looking cushions of the sofa as if he owned the * thing and lived there.

Thus, on a particularly tiresome day Yoshino shuffled over and asked up front if he would be so kind and move a bit, please, so she could have a sit, too.

No reaction.

So she tried again, more forcefully and louder this time. But the lazy * didn't even stir and the blonde prettyboy and his fat companion already started to chuckle and snicker behind her back; and she would rather bite off her tongue and choke on it before she stooped so low as to give in to their childish catcalls and sit on one of their laps.

Instead the proud Chuunin kicked at the front of the sofa as hard as she could; and the furniture toppled over along with the supine idiot tumbling down the backrest with a startled grunt and a dull thud. After a second of mute surprise the ready room was filled with hollers and roars of laughter while Yoshino contentedly and demurely righted the sofa and comfortably sat on the now emptied space to enjoy her well earned cup of delicious victory-tea.

If Yoshino thought this incident might have changed anything, she would be terribly mistaken. When the Kunoichi returned to the ready room a few days later the very same situation as usual awaited her; and of course the lazy * was hogging the sofa and snoozing happily while his teammates were monkeying around again. At least, these guys knew her name by now, apparently, greeted her upon entrance and watched her intently from then on. The Kunoichi present were non the better.

Maybe they expected Yoshino to cause another scene like last time...

But once she got her tea she simply strolled over to the sofa and nudged its occupant. She knew his rank and reputation by now but that didn't mean she would back down an inch just because she was five years his junior, 'only' Chuunin from a less prominent family and not a freaking genius.

"Move, please. I want to sit", she stated with a minimum level of what was appropriate politeness. This time the Jonin let out an unintelligible grumble; but otherwise he stayed put.

'Stubborn, rude lazy brat', Yoshino thought, smoothed out her long skirt and turned around.

"Fine. Thanks for having me, then, Nara-san", she said and demurely sat down on his chest ignoring his grunt and sipping on her tea. Yamanaka-san and Akimichi-san could hardly contain their giggle fits but she didn't care as long as she drove her point home.

"Troublesome woman...", she finally heard a low voice murmur beneath her and she smiled into her cup when he deigned her with an opened sleepy eye. He didn't throw her off him, though; probably he was too lazy to move, so she stayed until she was finished.

When she was out with her friends later that evening Kushina proudly complimented her on her courage over sake, and Mebuki asked her why she even bothered to put up with the insuffrable troublemaker-trio; even Mikoto nodded in agreement and added she would be too shy to even try and raise her voice at them.

But Yoshino was just puzzled; she hadn't even wasted a second thought on what she was doing. It just felt natural.

"It was the only right thing to do", she concluded with a shrug, "I can't let them behave like monkeys all day as if we weren't in the room; I just have to stand my ground so they won't forget how to be humble and polite around women. We Kunoichi have to earn our due respect and every day we fight to be equal to Shinobi, but because I can fight and kill it doesn't mean I don't want to be treated like a lady anymore!"

They toasted on that and ordered another round.

But apparently all of her efforts fell on deaf ears; Shikaku wouldn't and wouldn't change his ways no matter what, and whenever Yoshino wanted to have so much as a seat she had to force the lazy-bones off the sofa to make him budge. Inoichi and Chouza even layed bets on what she would try next on a regular basis.

At least they greeted her 'good morning' and 'good night' whenever they met unlike their taciturn teammate.

Come February she was sick and tired of his attitude but she had been reluctant to just let him be. However, the snow dampened her mood and the cold weather drained all of her energy; and no amount of warming tea could change that. Huddling deeper into her Chuunin vest she begrudgingly decided not to waste any more breath on a rude, lazy * she didn't even care about aside from wanting to sit where he lounged about.

So her usual casual tea-time at the ready room became a silent acknowledging nod at the people present while she efficiently grabbed a tea-to-go and left without a second glance. Nowadays Kushina and Mebuki and Mikoto were hanging out with their boyfriends anyways; and she certainly didn't want to be the fifth wheel because she was still single.

Instead Yoshino took to ramp up her training schedule despite the incessant snowfall; and when she needed a break she would browse Konoha's various Kissaten for a secluded place to sit and enjoy the different brands of tea they offered. It was a nice change of routine despite the tiny bump in her purse because the tea in the ready room was a freebie for Shinobi; but this was nothing she couldn't afford and she quite liked mingling with the civillians once in a while.

Maybe she really could replenish her energies if she kept to herself for a while...only until it didn't snow anymore, the Kunoichi mused.

Valentine's passed by relatively quietly and uneventful, which Yoshino appreciated.

The Sandaime had been kind enough to grant most of his diligent Shinobi a holiday to be with their loved ones; and she had taken her chance to visit her parents and spend some time together. They had teased her a bit because she didn't have a love interest yet, though, but she had chided them that she simply took her duty to the village serious as long as she could still be usefull as a Kunoichi and soon after they had let it go and enjoyed her stay as much as she had.

By the time her unwelcome nineteenth birthday approached it was still snowing in Konoha and Yoshino still felt moody and cold. She disliked being born in the middle of winter while she was dreaming of warmth and sunshine; to her her date of birth was a curse, the curse of snow.

Her parents should have named her 'Matsuyuki' or 'Hyouko' instead; cherries just didn't blossom in the icy cold, only snowdrops and ice flowers did.

And if she ever, ever had children she would make sure they were born during Indian summer so they wouldn't suffer the same fate!

Sighing dejectedly Yoshino left her appartment and trudged through the unfriendly white streets of Konoha in search of a nice little Kissaten to spend lunch over tea. She had just settled on the one which brew the best yasemine-scented sencha in town when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks as if rooted to the ground.

"That's not the way to the Shinobi ready room", she heard a calm, yet guarded rumble from behind and she blinked in surprise and glanced to her still unmoving feet in the snow.

'Oh, now you want to talk all of a sudden...', she thought sarcastically.

"Smarty-pants. That's because I'm not headed there, obviously", Yoshino shot back, "Now, would you be so kind and release your Jutsu, please." She would have crossed her arms, spun around and glared at him if her body had obeyed her; since that was not the case she simply stood with her small back turned to him and waited.

"Even though you are on duty you haven't been there for about a month", he stated in his deep-levelled voice instead, which sounded completely observational and not accusatory. Yoshino's right foot made a forced step forward, then her left slowly followed; she frowned in disagreement but mimicked his unseen moves behind her.

"So what? If the Sandaime needs me for any mission he knows how to summon me; I'm not obliged to stay in the ready room all day, it's entirely optional as you should very well be aware of, Jonin-san. And unless you're here on Hokage's orders I don't see why you lazy bum should bother where or how I spend my time anyways", she retorted coldly like the weather while he carefully marched her through the streets on his *ed shadow leash.

"Besides I'm obviously not an enemy to Konoha. So let go, please!"

The * didn't listen, though, like he'd never listened when she had politely asked him to let her have a seat.

Yoshino was so annoyed she instantly dismissed the question of how or why he even knew the rotation schedule of a mere Chuunin like her for good. Instead the silence streched on like the snowfall and by the time they reached the equally snow-covered outskirts and passed the larger clan compounds via backalleys she grew impatient, too.

"Well?", she demanded in a much less friendly tone, and he finally slowed down on a clearing behind what she remotely recognized as the Nara estate. Somehow his shadowy hold on her seemed less and less irony.

"Well, indeed. You didn't even show up for Valentine's, troublesome woman", he hit back evenly as if this was some kind of interrogation with T&I and she was some S-ranked criminal with unmentionable cruelties to confess, "and I want to know why."

Yoshino blinked and stared in surprise; her mind pulled a total blank. With the Jutsu finally retreating she incredulously looked over her shoulder at his dead serious face.

"What's this, Nara-san? After ignoring me and being so rude to me all this time-... Don't tell me you expected something cute like home-made chocolates from me, the whole lovely package all * in a neat beautiful bow with a sweet pink heart-shaped, hand-written loveletter attached to it; that out of the blue I would come find you to confess my undying love or something... And now you're disappointed that I didn't? Some genius you are", she blurted with a still baffled expression and helplessly flapped her arms against her sides.

His sharp calculating eyes narrowed a bit and fixated her as if they were about to spar, his mouth small in a firm line.

"Well...yeah, Yoshino, given your personality, I did think you'd make a move", Shikaku admitted gravely after a brief silence and she didn't have to strain her ears to catch the slightly disapproving undertone, "one by one you stripped me of most of my pieces with your constant, yet clever vulgar moves in the opening, but instead of following through and taking what's yours you retreated to your castle and stayed there during the whole middle game and most of the endgame..."

She sighed and her shoulders sagged; this entire situation was just so bizarre and now that Shikaku finally opened his lazy trap he spoke in Shougi terms...

* genius, really.

"Excuse me, but I really don't get you! How am I supposed to fall for some handsome lazy * who gives a flying * about basic manners on how to treat a lady and who does absolutely nothing, nothing at all to be remotely likeable...and then how am I supposed to even know this handsome lazy * might be interested?", Yoshino asked rhetorically and shrugged. "Shikaku-kun, why didn't you say something sooner?", she automatically adapted to his more intimate form of address.

"Troublesome woman...I just didn't deem it necessary before, thought it was obvious with the way you used to act around me; but apparently I miscalculated or else we wouldn't have to be here now, would we?", Shikaku murmured somewhat bitterly and averted his gaze only to lock eyes again with doubled intensity and it sent shivers down her spine that had absolutely nothing to do with the cold.

"...But I'm going to correct our past mistakes now that it's my turn; and I won't let you get away from me so easily, Yoshino, not anymore!"

Yoshino's eyes widened at his declaration. And it only took the time her heart needed to skip a beat for him to close in on her, pull her flush into his embrace and press his lips to hers in a kiss so unexpectedly hot and passionate that the mere memory would still be able to sweep her off her feet years later.

Before long she clung to the plush fabric of Shikaku's deerskin overcoat, let herself be shrouded in his heat as they sank down to their knees and returned his kiss with just as much fervor of her own; she certainly wasn't cold anymore and her entire strength refreshened instantly beneath his touch.

It was her move again.

"Promise me, Shikaku...", she breathed clouds of temptation between their hungry lips, fists firm in his tamed black mane locking him in place and she denied continuation long enough for him to noticably long for it, "promise me you'll treat me right from now on...promise me you won't ever be rude to me and hurt me again...promise me you'll love me and make me happy instead."

Then she crushed their lips back together and claimed his tongue inside her mouth.

"Anything you want, Yoshino...", Shikaku all but moaned, "I promise I will...now and forevermore until the day I die."

And she knew he meant it.

Once his hairtie came loose beneath her imploring fingers and the silky raven mop fell frame around his handsome features she brushed downward to wrap around his strong shoulders and back while he encircled her slim waist; true to his words he instantly obliged her silent directive by shrugging off his overcoat and let her push him supine in utter surrender so she could make herself comfortable on his lap like she had never dared to back then on the comfy sofa in the ready room.

But here in the secret snowfield he was hers now, so Yoshino could finally do as she pleased.

Her passion flared as she looked down at him and finally saw his desire burn in the dark depths of his bedroom eyes, with which he took her in; his big warm hands found her knees burried in the fur of his coat and slowly trailed up her toned thighs, which held his hip in a tight lock of no escape until she allowed otherwise.

And just like that Yoshino let him ride up the thick black fabric of her long skirt while she flash-conquered Shikaku's mouth again and swiftly unzipped his Jonin vest so she could assault his abs and feel his hot skin against her fingers to her heart's content. His muffled moans and throaty gasps against her lips were her sweet reward; and she elicited her own wanton sigh when he bucked up his stil clad hard on against her crotch beneath the curtain of her skirt.

But swiftly these restraints were shoved out of the way by two pairs of covetous hands; they smiled at each other briefly, eyes filled with so much mutual love and want.

And even seventeen years later Yoshino would never forget the day Shikaku claimed her amidst the snow and showed her that for the first time this cherry could bloom beautifully in the middle of winter, too...

Sudden tears welled up in her eyes as foreign searing pain shot through her abdomen; but Shikaku was so apprehensive and as gentle as he possibly could, and she knew he would make her feel good soon enough, he promised. Besides, she was a Kunoichi and could take a lot more and a lot worse, either way, so she simply blinked them away and instead showed him a wicked smile as she clamped down on him hard when they started to move.

His answering groan was bliss in her ears; and a couple of exploratory thrusts later they found their rhythm so they could spur each other on and plow into the heights of enough heated passion to completely forget the freezing cold for a while. Until Shikaku couldn't hold it any longer and arched up against her when he came; they came to a breathless halt.

Yoshino was still simmering with unfulfilled desire but before she demanded of him to change that she flicked her tongue against her lips and needed to know: "...what the hell took you so long, lazy bum? Why only now?"

"That's easy, my troublesome love. I'd be a fool-... not to choose a time like this to mate..."

Shikaku then grinned lazily at her, rolled their still intertwined bodies around so now it was vice versa and her back pressed to the warm plush of deerskin and her smaller form trapped and shielded from the cold beneath his broader one for further play.

"Your words, Shikaku, you said it yourself: 'A sitting King is a sitting duck.'", Yoshino whispered in remembrance of that day in February; her eyes clenched shut and her breath hitched as she knellt on the very same clearing, fallen cherry petals *tered around her like the snowflakes back then.

"You knew this, you idiot lazy bum, you did!", she hissed defeated and heartbroken, "Then why? If you knew all this, why didn't you leave headquarters before the endgame?! Before it was too late..."

Then the strong Kunoichi broke down with only the bark of the cherry tree to lean on and allowed herself to cry for the last time before resuming active duty again for the first time in seventeen years.