The Grounds near the Stables, Thursday Early-to-Mid Morning

[intraspective]

Ino who mun nearly forgot zomg *facepalms* wasn’t in the best of moods, and was planning on ditching Liir later but all the same she’d promised Principal Winchester that she’d show her the garden today, and so was outside.

It was hard, at least, to be entirely brooding when she could kneel down and make sure her flowers were doing well. If nothing else, she had this. And her flowers didn’t care if she smiled or not. She loved them no matter what the expression on her face was, and they knew it through her touch.

She closed her eyes and smiled slightly. Then got up and went to look for daisies. She’d promised Grace a daisy chain, after all.

[For Zoe, please! And honestly, I swear, I’ve got the memory of a sieve some days. Ugh. *fiddles with the time, yeah*]

Comments

[bigdamnprincipal]

Getting Grace ready in the morning had been challenging, so Zoe hoped she wasn't too late when they finally got to the garden. "Good morning," she said in greeting, smiling as she looked around.

[intraspective]

Ino had spent the time making daisy chains but mostly just checking up on all her plants. She smiled, and looked up from her violets at the voice. "Good morning, Principal Winchester, Grace."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Ino was rewarded with a wave from Grace as Zoe looked over the garden. "This is amazing. I didn't know you could make it look so nice here."

[intraspective]

She blushed. "Just using what my parents taught me," she said, pleased. "That, and making sure to care 'bout them. That's more important than anything else for them really."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe set Grace down for a moment, and let her sit on the ground. "Your parents are gardeners too?" she asked.

[intraspective]

"My mom is, entirely," Ino admitted. "Yamanaka Flowers is one of the better known flowershops in Konoha. Dad does it when he's not on a mission, and I've grown up around it, so..." she shrugged a bit. "It's a family tradition, I guess?"

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Family traditions are good, as long as they're ones you want to keep. You clearly enjoy this, or everything wouldn't have turned out nearly as well." Gardens were a rare thing on most of the planets Zoe had been to; even now they still held a bit of wonder for her. "Are you thinking of adding anything else?"

[intraspective]

"How could I not love it?" Ino asked, honestly confused. "There's so much good about it."

She mulled over that question. "I've got a few more flowers in my room that are still too little to be transplanted," she admitted. "And there's several people who're looking into getting me plants from other worlds to add to the garden. But this is the basic end result, I think. In a year or so I'll see about my tree seedlings, but they're way too little right now."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"So you have plans for that far in advance?" Zoe said. "That's impressive. Is there anything you need from the school to keep things going?"

[intraspective]

That got a bit of a sheepish look. "I've got notebooks full of plans, really. Dad always said that there was no point to a garden that wasn't meant to last forever. I'm mostly paying out of my own pocket right now," Ino admitted. "Which isn't a problem for me since I don't spend that much money elsewhere, but it might be an issue if I've got to go away for a bit. I don't think I will be, but..." she shrugged. "Someone would have to take care of it if I'm not. And I'll probably need help getting them all ready for winter when that comes around."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"Well, if you can't find anyone to help you get ready for the winter, let me know, because I can think of two people who can certainly be enlisted," she said, thinking of the boys.

[intraspective]

Ino grinned. "I'll totally keep that in mind, Principal Winchester. I do like to boss people around."