Happiness was just in her nature. I had hardly seen a day when she was sad, or when she couldn’t pick herself up off the ground after something bad had happened.

I have always thought of her as a flame. It wasn’t because of her fire-red hair, or her obsession with fire itself. Her great, great grandfather had been from the Uchiha clan; because of her Uchiha heritage, she had always been very intrigued by the flames. Most of her attacks and defenses were based around fire. Even at the Academy, she would always have a lighter or a match book with her.

But those weren’t the reasons I associated her with fire… No, it was her happiness, the way she was always burning so bright with a joy that was never anything but warm and content. She could walk into a room and you could almost feel the warmth that radiated from her.

Caring, she was always putting others before herself. Like me, Miss Perfect, or so everyone said. In reality, I was nothing more than a boring, stale girl that everyone looked up to, but no one seemed to have the time to really get to know. But she saw me for who I was. Opened up to me, filling a part of my life I didn’t even know needed to be filled. She became my only and closest friend. We became like sisters.

I’ve been her best friend since the Academy. Even after we were put on different teams, we still stayed very close. I knew all her dreams, her thoughts, her crush (yes she DID like this one guy), and her fears. But above all else, I knew her love for her village, and only I knew the extent of that love. Because she gave her village everything, she gave her village something even more then death itself…

Because of her Uchiha history, she was the only one that our Hokage thought would even have a close chance at helping restore the Uchiha clan.

After being explained the problem, she ran to me. She told me everything, spilling out all her feelings about what she had been told. The next day, we had both went to meet this great Sasuke Uchiha; I was moral support.

In the Academy days, she had called him a cockatoo and told me he was the LAST person on earth she would like to marry. “I don’t see why all those girls are falling for him. Sure, he’s good looking and all, but he’s a block of ice and he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I’ll let those fluzzies have him; I sure as heck don’t want him.” We use to laugh and make fun of those girls…

So when she told me, I laughed, but she was serious, in her own joking way. “Maybe old Cockatoo has changed,” she told me on the way there. “He was, after all, supposed to be Naruto’s best friend…”

So then we met him. He was even worse than I had remembered; I could almost feel myself freeze over when I saw him. His eyes showed nothing, nothing at all, just dark black orbs of nothingness. All I could think of when I saw him was that one time I had asked her what kind of guy she would like to marry.

“I don’t ask for much in a man,” she told me, laughing. “Just someone who can make me laugh and is there for me.... I’m sure that’s not too hard to find…”

Of course, he wasn’t anything close to her two simple requests. In fact, he couldn’t be any further from them. That whole meeting was so awkward; she laughed and tried to strike up a conversation, while he answered her questions and asked far less about her. They were mostly about her training and family history.

He never so much as cracked a smile, even once.

I felt like a huge stone was lodged into my stomach; I felt like pounding the Hokage, yelling at her! My friend deserved a trillion times better than… than that boring block of ice. That self-absorbed freak!!!

On the walk home, she didn’t talk much; her bright green eyes were deep in thought. I let her think, only asking a few questions about her opinions. I was sure that she would NEVER go along with this; it was just so horrible. What about her dreams? What about that other guy she had liked? What about... what about her happiness?

It was only a few days later when she came to visit me again.

“He asked me to marry him… and I said yes.”

I have never seen her look so serious, yet so… so doubtful. I felt like grabbing her, yelling at her, shaking some sense into her head. Sure the Uchiha clan needed her, but do we need them!?! One less powerful clan to worry about betraying us, or becoming crazy killers! And even if the village needed that powerful clan, screw the village!! What about her happiness! What about her dreams!

But I couldn’t say it; something in her eyes asked me not to. It was painful enough for her to say yes to this whole screwed up thing. But she really truly believed that this was what she had to do. What she was meant to do.

So I went along with it, as excruciating as it was.

Yeah, the wedding was beautiful, if you don’t count all the fangirls crying and screaming. If you don’t count the sick feeling I had when I saw her. Sure, she looked absolutely gorgeous all dressed up, but I have never seen her try so hard to smile.

That say I think I cried harder then I have ever cried in my life.

I cried because she couldn’t.

But the next day, she was back to her same old self. Her husband had to go on a mission, so she spent the whole time he was away moving her stuff into his house. Of course I helped her and we spent the whole time as if nothing had happened. She was the same as always, laughing, joking, and just being herself. She made the wedding one big joke, teasing about how all those fangirls had bawled their “pretty little eyes out”; how Naruto had fallen into the cake; how Kakashi had gotten there at the very end, apologizing for being late; and all the other little random things that had happened. She made it sound more like a hilarious movie than a real wedding. I almost forgot about what had really happed and what was different about that day.

It wasn’t until much later that I noticed it.

Her fire was going out.

As time went on it seemed that she laughed less and less. I started to notice how dark rings were forming around her eyes; no matter how hard she tried to cover them up, I saw them.

At first I thought, hoped, prayed that maybe she could change him. Maybe she could bring the same warmth to him that she had given to me. It was apparent that he needed it. Maybe that fire that was always burning inside her would melt away the ice that was frozen around his heart…. But I was wrong.

Because yes, fire will melt ice, but ice will become water and put out the flames, turning it to ash.

My worst fears were confirmed when she stood on my doorstep late one night. Rain mixed with tears running down her face.

“I can’t do this,” she sobbed. “I’m just not good enough to be his wife. I just can’t do it. I’m so alone.”

Her worst nightmare had always been that she would be alone, left with out anyone who would be there for her. She was afraid that someday she wouldn’t be good enough to help someone and they would leave her alone. And that fear was not a reality…

She cried in my arms until she was so exhausted that she fell asleep. I had never seen her so broken, so miserable, so shaken up. I had never seen her with so much self-hate. So afraid that she had failed at life.  

Her freak of a husband was never around, and when he was, he barely talked to her. He was hardly in the same room as her for more then a few minutes. She had never told before that night how she felt, how she was sure it was her fault. That he didn’t think she was worth it, that she KNEW she wasn’t worth it.

You know what I think?

SCREW him!!!! He never deserved her!!! That cold-hearted, horrible, traitor of a man didn’t deserve ANYONE, let alone someone as wonderful as her! All he ever thought about was his revenge; all she wanted was someone to be there for her. She never complained. She worked so hard to make him happy, and he never so much as thanked her. She knew that she was only married to him so they could revive the clan, but he hardly even looked at her!

So when he came to get her I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Five months of bottling up all that frustration finally boiled over.

“Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve hurt her, far worse than any wound ever could! How could you, you worthless piece of $#*%!!! She gave you EVERYTHING!! Her dreams, her ambitions, her love!!! And you can’t even give her the time of day!!! You made her worst fears become a reality!!! She doesn’t think she’s good enough for you!!! She thinks you don’t think she’s good enough for you!! Well, let me tell you something, you traitor!!! You are not, and NEVER will be, good enough for her!!! In fact, you don’t deserve even one day with her!!!”

He stood, emotionless, as I vented my fury at him. Once I stopped, completely out of breath, he nodded.

“I know. How could someone as bitter as I am be with someone as beautiful and so full of joy as she is?”

I stood in shock as he walked past me to where she slept on the couch. He knelt beside her and gently, as if she could break, stroked her hair out of her tear-stained face.

“How can I make her happy? I can’t even make myself happy.”

He spoke more to himself than to me. I had never seen him like this before. His black eyes looked so intently at her sleeping face, as if it held all the answers. For the longest time we stayed like that; him watching her and me watching him. Finally, I spoke.

“She told me once that she learned how to be happy by making others happy.”

“Maybe,” he whispered, never taking his eyes off her. “Maybe I need to learn how.”

Then, gently, he picked her up. Turning to me, he dipped his head. “Thank you,” he whispered, “for always being there for her, being that person I wasn’t.” Then he walked toward the door.

“Uchiha.”

He stopped.

“If you ever need help making her happy, you can always ask me. I am, after all, her closest friend.”

“And how would I start giving her happiness?”

“Try telling her you want to make her happy. Go from there.”

He nodded and walked toward their home.

Fire may melt ice, but ice becomes water, and water puts out fire, making fire ash… But maybe, just maybe, with the water, flowers can sprout from the ash.  

The flowers of joy…