Red Is A Pretty Colour

Hiko's pov

It took another month to get all the paperwork done and move me back to the leaf village. Gaara insisted on sending Matsuri and her team with me to help move my stuff back in which made moving back a bit easier. When I returned to the village Naruto was away on a mission which gave me time to settle in again.

Since I was back now I had to get the apartment back in order. I cleaned the place up, did the dishes and the laundry and now I was on a grocery run. The only thing in the cupboards was ramen and the milk in the fridge was three weeks out of date.

"It's good to see you again kido, where have you been?" Ren, the old man that ran the grocery store asked.

"I was living with my boyfriend out of the village but we separated so I'm back." I explained as we packed my stuff into bags.

"I'm sorry to hear that, it's his loss regardless. You're a wonderful young woman, any man would be lucky to have you." Ren said.

"Thank you." I said.

"If you're looking for a new man my grandson is always available. Ken can't pick a good one to save his life. The first one robbed him, the second one was cheating and this last one told so many lies her nose could reach the moon." Ren said with a chuckle.

"I bet the flags were redder than my hair too." I joked.

"Oh you betcha." Ren said. "So, any room in your life for Ken?"

"Afraid not, I'm focusing on myself now. I want to get some training in, maybe learn a new chakra nature. This is me time now." I explained.

"It doesn't look like that right now, it looks like you're taking care of that brother of yours. How is Naruto anyway?" Ren asked as he handed me my bags.

"Same old, same old, working his ass off in hopes of becoming hokage. He doesn't actually know I'm back yet, he's out on a mission right now." I explained.

"Oh, so I'm the first to know then, lucky me." Ren said before looking behind me. "I swear, our chats make my lines take hours. Be gone troublemaker."

"I'm going, I'm going." I said, grinning at him.

As soon as I stepped outside the shop I spotted Naruto, Sakura and Ino. The first one to spot me was Ino.

"Hiko! Oh my god is that you?" Ino asked excitedly, pulling Sakura and Naruto with her.

"Yup, it's me." I said.

"When did you get back?" Sakura asked.

"Two days ago, I've been so busy the whole time too. This one had nothing but ramen in the cupboards and the fridge was empty, can you believe it? I just finished getting stuff to fill it. I also had to deep clean the entire apartment." I explained making ino and sakura laugh.

"Of course you did." Ino said.

"How's Gaara?" Naruto asked.

"He's alright, he just got finished taking a break from work so things are a bit hectic for him now." I said.

"So how are you and Gaara?" Sakura asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Actually we split up so... I'm here to stay." I announced, doing awkward jazz hands when I said I was staying.

"Oh Hiko, I'm so sorry." Ino said as she pulledvme into a hug.

"I saw it coming but it still hurt. It's funny how knowing its coming doesn't make it hurt any less. I'll be alright though, its already been about a month. It took a while to get all the paperwork done for me to come back." I explained.

"Why'd you break up?" Naruto asked.

"Gaara was always so busy and all the rules and expectations that came with being with the Kazekage just weren't for me." I replied making Naruto laugh.

"That's just like you not to follow rules." Naruto said.

"Says you moron." I said, smacking him on the back of the head.

"Sometimes you need to forget how you feel and remember what you deserve. You were the only one sacrificing in that relationship, why should he be allowed to have his cake and eat it while you had no cake at all? You need yourself a man whose willing to sacrifice and compromise for you, Gaara just wasn't willing to do that." Ino said.

"More like he wasn't able to." Sakura said.

"If you love someone you'll do everything to keep them, you know that better than anyone Sakura. If he cared as much as should have he would have quit as the Kazekage to make it work." Ino said.

"Let's just quit with that, it's over now. We're still friends so at the very least it didn't go horribly wrong." I said.

"Now that you're back us girls will have to meet up and do something together." Sakura suggested,

"Absolutely." I agreed.

"Hey! Don't you wanna spend some time with me first, I've missed you ya know." Naruto said.

"I know you have, which is why were having dinner together as a family tonight." I said.