Red Is A Pretty Colour

23

Hiko's pov

It was the day of the final exam and I was at the arena bright and early. When I got there I saw Sakura and Ino for the first time since the whole thing with Shikamaru.

"Hiko, hey. Come sit with us." Sakura said as she motioned to the seat beside her.

"You cut your hair." Ino pointed out.

"What of it? It was getting too long and wild, figured it was time to chop it all off." I said.

"It isn't because of anything I said is it? I know I've said some mean things about it." Sakura said as she looked down at her lap.

"Do you seriously think you could get to me? The hair cut has nothing to do with you. If you really must know Naruto got gum in it and I had no choice but to chop it off. Him and his one braincell." I lied.

"Yup, sounds like naruto." Sakura said.

"All of us have short hair now, I guess that's the new style." Ino said.

"I have every intention of growing my hair long again, I just have to keep it away from naruto this time." I said.

"Is it because sasuke likes long haired girls?" Sakura said accusingly.

"I couldn't care less, Sasuke can love me or hate me that's his problem." I said.

"What!?" Ino asked shocked.

"Just because you two like Sasuke doesn't mean I do. I grew my hair long the first time because Choji said he though it'd look cool. He's my best friend so I took his word for it." I said.

Now I'm growing my hair long because I want to feel better about it, I want to fall in love with the colour red. That and Shikamaru said he liked red.

"Oh, so you don't like Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

"God no! Atleast not how you two like him, he's a decent friend but I'm not about to go nuts for him like you do." I said.

"Look, Naruto's just arrived." Sakura pointed out.

"About time." I said.

I smiled and waved down at him although I doubted he'd see me. Temari ended up waving back at me instead.

"Is it just me or is sasuke not there?" I asked, Ino and Sakura suddenly becoming gloomy. "What? Sore subject?"

"He's been missing for weeks." Ino replied.

"He's probably off training, I bet he's with Kakashi~sensei, he's always late." I said.

"Welcome all and thank you for coming to the village hidden in the leaves for this year's chunin selection. We have come to the final stages with the eight candidates that made it past the preliminaries. We ask that noone leaves until all of the matches have been completed. Now everyone enjoy!" Lord hokage's voice boomed throughout the stadium.

Time skip

Naruto had won his match against Neji, Kankuro had withdrawn meaning Shino would be moving on, Shikamaru quit half way through allowing Temari onto the next stages and now it was Sasuke vs Gaara. More people had shown up as the tournament progressed and I gave up my seat the second Lee arrived on crutches. I had to remind choji to put his rubbish away before someone, namely Lee, hurt themselves on them.

"Hello Guy, how are you feeling Lee? Are you alright?" Kakashi asked as he arrived.

"Kakashi." Guy said in greeting.

"Kakashi~sensei." Sakura said.

"Oh, right, sorry about that, you must have been worried. Sorry for not keeping in touch." Kakashi said.

"I don't mind, it's okay." Sakura said.

I recognised the tone, she wasn't very good at hiding it. It was very much a 'I have so much I want to say but I don't want to burden you' tone.

"I see you got a hair cut, it suits you." Kakashi pointed out.

"Why does everyone keep commenting on my hair? Was it bad before or something? I know it was a little uneven but jeeze." I said.

"I thought it looked nice." Choji said.

"Thank you choji." I said.

"Listen sensei, you know that there was a mark on Sasuke's neck, right? Well, is it..." Sakura trailed off.

"It's nothing to worry about." Kakashi said. "So thats that."

"Kakashi I'm going to be careful watching your pupil to see if your training is any good. After all I'm still you rival." Guy said.

"Hm? Sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi asked.

"You make me so mad Kakashi! Why do you always have to act so cool." Guy exclaimed making me giggle.

All of them turned to stare at me.

"Did you just...?" Ino began.

"Giggle?" Sakura finished.

"Yes... I'm sorry, why are you all looking at me like I killed your best friend and served them to you in a soup?" I asked.

"Oddly specific." Kakashi said.

"Am I not allowed to find things funny or something?" I asked.

"No I've just never heard you giggle before." Sakura said. "Or laugh now that I think about it."

"That's because you're ridiculously unfunny." I said making Ino, Choji and Guy hold back a laugh.

"Hey! Don't say that to the youthful flower that is Sakura." Lee defended.

"Sorry Lee but I don't let people get away with comments, not unless I like them." I said.

"That's enough Hiko." Kakashi said.

Time skip

"Kakashi~Sensei!" Naruto called, drawing all of our attention to him and Shikamaru who were both out of breath.

"What is it Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Sensei please, you just have to stop this match right away." Naruto said. "The guy sasuke is fighting is completely different from the rest of us! He's about as far from normal as you can get!"

"Naruto slow down, what are you trying to say?" Ino asked.

"He thinks his point in life is to kill people. Don't you see? If this continues Sasuke will die! You've gotta believe me!" Naruto said.

"Naruto I think everyone already knows that guy is a psycho. I mean, Guy~sensei was there when he tried to kill us all yesterday. Sasuke will have went into this knowing that Gaara plans on killing him. He probably has a plan." I said.

"Don't act so calm! This is serious!" Naruto said.

"Shut up and watch, have a bit of faith in our teammate." I said.