Red Is A Pretty Colour

20

Hiko's pov

I was quick to get out of the hospital and return home. I found out from Choji who got through and who didn't as well as about some of the more sever matches. Choji had been the only one to visit me in the hospital, I suppose who would want to visit me when the likes of Sasuke and Lee were there.

When I got home the place was empty, a mess had been left from whenever Naruto was last here but dust was begining to settle. On the table there was a note left from naruto.

'I'm off to train with the pervey sage be back soon -Naruto'

Not even a welcome home.

I sighed and tossed the note in the trash before I began cleaning up. Tossing the empty ramen cups away and dusting everything, cleaning something sticky off the floor, doing the laundry and the dishes and making his bed. I don't know how many nights he stayed here but you'd have thought he held a party with the mess he made.

The last room I had to tackle was the bathroom, which funnily enough was the cleanest. The only thing that really needed cleaned was the mirror which he always managed to cover in fingerprints.

As I cleaned the mirror I stared at myself, I wonder who the red hair came from or who's eyes naruto and I both got. Looking at myself now the only thing I disliked was my hair. It was too bright, tacky almost, it drew attention for all of the wrong reasons. I could see why Sakura and Ino and all the other girls from the academy made fun of it, it was horrendously ugly. I didn't care much for appearances but my hair had always bugged me.

I took a deep breath as I pulled my hair out of the hair tie and allowed it to drop down past my shoulders. It was really choppy, some strands hit my mid back while others barely hit my chin or sat just above my shoulders. That was my own doing ofcourse, every time I felt bad about my hair I'd cut a strand off and it would make me feel a bit better.

I grabbed a kunai Naruto had left lying around and then took a few strands of my hair, stretching it out and then slicing it clean off at chin height. I still felt bad so I did another and then another, tears of frustration begining to form as I still felt terrible.

I rolled up one of my sleeves and looked at my wrist. I had a few cuts there from previous times where my hair just wasn't enough. I didn't want to hurt myself but sometimes it helped me fell a little bit better in my own skin. My hand shook as I brought the kunai to my wrist but when I tried to press it in my body froze.

"What are you doing?" Shikamaru asked from behind me.

"Cutting my hair." I replied.

"That's not what it looks like from here." Shikamaru said.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked.

"I came looking for Naruto and it's a good thing I did because by the looks of it you were going to do something stupid." Shikamaru said.

"You don't get it. Nobody gets it. It's not easy for me to explain but I just- I'm- I don't try to be lazy it's just that- that I'm so fucking tired and I have no motivation to succeed. I don't even know why- I don't even know why this life is happening to me." I exclaimed as I began full out sobbing. It wasn't stupid, it was just a way of keeping myself here, of reminding myself I alive, of remembering that this wasn't some inescapable nightmare.

"Hiko if you talked about it maybe we could understand. If you just told us how you felt we could have helped you." Shikamaru said.

"I wanted to talk about it. I wanted nothing more- nothing more than somebody to understand. To notice. But... every time I tried there was always something more important so I kept my mouth shut. It's easier just to sleep through it. I just want to sleep until I feel better." I said choked out as my tears just kept falling, my vision of him in the doorway becoming blurry. "I just want to go to sleep and never wake up."

"But that's not going to fix anything. You're tired but it's a type of tired that sleep can't fix. You'll wake up feeling exactly the same as you did when you went to bed. You're right, I don't understand exactly how you feel. What I do understand is that you're so incredibly hurt. All I want to do is try and help you in a better way than you've been helping yourself." Shikamaru said. "Please let me help you Hiko."

I hadn't even noticed that he had released the jutsu and approached me until the kunai I had been holding was flung across the room and I was pulled into his arms.

"Thank you." I said quietly before I began sobbing into his arms, clutching onto him for dear life.

Time skip

After crying to Shikamaru for an hour or two he dragged me off somewhere.

"Hey, let me go! Shikamaru let me go home!" I said as I tried to tug my wrist out of his grip.

"Troublesome woman." Shikamaru muttered as he dragged me into a house. "Mum, Hiko needs some help with her hair. She tried to cut it herself and then cried to me for hours when it went wrong."

His mother who had been sat reading a book looked over at us and then offered me a smile.

"Let me guess, you tried that ponytail trick. It always makes the hair uneven. Not to worry though, come here and I'll fix it." She said, patting the spot beside her. "Shikamaru get me the scissors."

I moved over to her and sat myself down beside her. She immediately began running her hands through my hair.

"It's such a beautiful colour, it's a shame you've cut it short." Shikamaru's mother said. "Thank you Shikamaru."

She began pulling my hair out straight and cutting it to match the shortest piece.

"You had no reason to cry about it, it's an easy fix. It's a good thing Shikamaru thought to bring you to me though." She said.

Shikamaru's mum was quick to fix up my hair. It took her less than 10 minutes to have it how she wanted it.

"Now go show Shikamaru, his room is just through there." She said as she pointed down the hall.

"Thank you very much." I said to her before going to Shikamaru's room.

When I entered his room I saw him sat on his bed just staring at the wall.

"Your mum told me to show you my hair. I figured this is the bit where I say thank you before I go home." I said, drawing his attention to me.

"Your hair looks like it did when we were kids. It looks nice." Shikamaru said.

"Thank you." I said, looking away shyly.

"If you feel like that again come and talk to me. Don't try and hurt yourself." Shikamaru said.

"I will." I said. "Thank you for everything."

I then turned to leave, I've had a long day, I deserved some sleep.

"Hey Hiko, I think red is a pretty colour." Shikamaru said.