Red Is A Pretty Colour

68

Hiko's pov

The morning after I spoke to Shikamaru I woke up late to a note on my dresser. The note said that Naruto was leaving to train again. That wasn't that surprising as he was never home but I was still concerned that he was leaving so soon after such bad news. I got dressed as quick as I could and headed to the gates in hopes of catching Naruto before he left for god knows how long.

"Naruto!" I called as I ran towards him.

"Hiko." Naruto said.

I jumped on Naruto, hugging him tightly.

"I can't believe you thought you were leaving without saying goodbye you moron. Obviously your head still whistles in the crosswinds." I said. "Don't stay away for too long this time."

"I won't, I'll come home as soon as I've mastered this jutsu." Naruto said. "And then I'll avenge the pervy sage."

I didn't like the whole revenge idea, I hadn't been thrilled about Shikamaru going after the Akatsuki for revenge either but this was his choice. As long as he came home safe at the end of the day it didn't really matter.

"Good." I said.

Naruto grinned at me before turning away.

"See ya." Naruto said.

"Yeah, see ya." I said.

With that both Naruto and Fukasaku disappeared in a reverse summon.

Time skip

I didn't know why I wasn't used to Naruto being gone by this point. He was never home and never thought about inviting me. Sakura got more invites than me which I tried not to get too hung up on although that didn't mean it didn't upset me from time to time.

I was laying around our apartment, for once not having any chores to do. Naruto left before he could wreck my cleaning from the day before and I had done the washing up before I went to bed last night. I was reading, as I often did when I had nothing else to do when there was a knock at my door.

I hurried over to answer it and threw the door open to Choji.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked.

"A lot of us are going out to Barbecue, I thought you'd want to come." Choji said. "Shikamaru is paying."

"Sure, give me a second to grab something." I said.

I grabbed my purse, knowing full well that Shikamaru wouldn't be able to pay for Choji's eating habits and then headed out with my friend.

When choji and I got to the barbecue restaurant I immediately burst out laughing when I saw Shikamaru's look of defeat. The rest of our friends were sat around the table waiting and just shot me a weird look.

"Choji, I told you that you could invite Hiko, not everyone else." Shikamaru sighed.

"Hey Hiko, I thought you'd be moping at home." Sakura said.

"Don't bring that up, the wound is still fresh." I said as I sat down between Neji and Choji.

"Moping?" Ino asked.

"Naruto left to go train again." Sakura replied and I slammed my head on the table.

"I know it's selfish but I miss him. Why can't he stay at home for once?" I said.

"That's not selfish at all, you just want to spend time with your family." Tenten said.

"Just feed me before I have to go home and mope some more." I said.

"Hey, why don't us girls have a sleepover to take your mind off of it." Ino said.

"We could do it at my house." Hinata offered shyly.

"Then it's settled, after dinner we'll all stay at Hinata's." Sakura said.

"Us boys should have a sleepover as well! Let us enjoy the spring time of our youth!" Lee exclaimed.

"Yeah, I could ho-" Choji was shut up by Kiba shoving food into his mouth from across the table.

"Why don't you host Neji? I'm sure your house has plenty of room for us all." Kiba said.

Neji narrowed his eyes but nodded.

"I suppose I can host just this once." Neji said.

"What a drag." Shikamaru sighed. "I might as well come along."

"If only Naruto was here as well! He would surely enjoy this beautiful display of youth!" Lee said.

I glared at Lee and Tenten hit him on the back of the head.

"Lee, we just finished talking about how Naruto isn't a good topic right now." Tenten scolded.

"Let's just eat." Kiba said.

"Yes." Shino agreed.

We all looked down at the table only to see all of the food was gone.

"I guess fa-" Sai began but had his mouth covered by Sakura.

"What was that?" Choji asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing choji, just default being stupid." I said making Kiba, Shikamaru, choji and Tenten laugh.

"Default!?" Kiba wheezed.

"Yeah, does he not just look like anyone you meet on the street?" I said.

"That's the best one you've come up with." Kiba said.

"You're something special." Shikamaru said shaking his head.

I grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Anyway, I'll pay for this next round of food." I offered.