He took her to the greenhouse because she wanted to look at the roses, and he had no complaints. He typically spent his time tending to the flowers, anyways. Zetsu watched as Sakura glided from flower to flower, gaping at all the colors and spending minutes just admiring each and every blossom she came across. .

It was common knowledge that he was the type of person to observe unique people. They were so hard to come across these days, especially when those he saw on a daily basis were all the same deep down: jaded and striving to survive. Why children were so different compared to everyone else, he couldn't say, but a mere five minutes in Sakura's company had him intrigued, to say the least.

Most children might be interested in a garden of flowers for a short while, but about half an hour had passed and this little girl still stared at a cluster of freesias like she was trying to pick apart all its secrets. He couldn't understand.

"What are you so curious about?" he asked. "They're just flowers. You can see them all the time."

"But-But they're bitty seeds! An' wi'water an' lotsa suns, they get big an' pretty!" she exclaimed without looking up.

"Yet they die even quicker."

"So I gotta 'ppreciate more, righ'?"

Zetsu hummed. An odd thought, he admitted. Certainly not something he'd expect her to say. When she finally looked away form the freesias, she toddled up to him and pulled on the sleeve of his cloak.

"Zet-san, if I'm scared, am I a scaredy cat?" she questioned quietly. All the shine from her eyes faded then, and he had to blink a few times to see if it was just a trick of the light. It wasn't.

"...That depends. What are you afraid of?"

Sakura looked down at her feet and clasped her hands behind her back. A few beats she spent fidgeting and puffing her bottom lip out, and when she glanced back up, those sad green eyes sparkled with unshed tears. "Zet-san... I... I don' wanna be a scaredy cat. But I don' wanna die too. Does dying scare you?"

His mouth opened but no sound came out in his confusion, but he quickly shook it off and answered honestly. "Death is... not something I would be afraid of. I've seen it too many times for me to start worrying. Everything begins and everything ends. You can't stop it even if you tried."

Her lips quivered and her arms fell numbly at her sides. He caught her easily when she launched herself at him and buried her face in his abdomen, tears leaking freely down her cheeks and wetting his cloak.

"Dr. Kei's really nice. She says s'okay to be a scared, but I don't wanna be. She was sad when she smiled at me... smiles aren't sad. They're not! But Mama an' Papa were sad too an'... an'..."

Zetsu's brow furrowed. "Why were you at the doctor's? Are you sick?"

The tears flowed faster down her face as she hiccuped. "Don' tell no one, Zet-san. Ev'ryone that hears gets sad. I don't wan' ev'ryone to get sad."

Something small and foreboding curled in the depths of his heart, but he pushed it aside and donned a painfully blank face. "I promise."

It was a promise he wished he hadn't made.

::

EDITED 2.28.18