Red Is A Pretty Colour

105

Hiko's pov

By the third week things had settled down to what must have been normal for the sand siblings. Gaara was working and Konkuro and Temari were away on a mission, leaving me completely alone in the sand village for the first time ever.

I took this as my opportunity to go out and meet some people. A chance to find a favourite restaurant, a local store, a place to relax, this was my chance to try and make this place really feel like home.

As I was wandering the streets of the village I had on odd feeling of being watched. Being in the crowded streets made it hard to sense if someone was watching me or not so I opted to ignore it for now. I spotted a small ramen restaurant and decided to try it out, it would never be Ichiraku but it could still be nice.

"Welcome! Welcome!" An old man greeted from the counter. "We're a bit packed at the minute but I'm sure we can squeeze you in somewhere."

"Thank you." I said.

The old man came out from behind the counter and led me around the restaurant for a moment before finding a few empty seats at the end of a table with a group of girls.

"Here we are, just let me know when you're ready to order." The old man said, pulling a seat out for me.

"Thank you." I said as I sat down.

I had barely sat down when the girls turned to look at me. They whispered amongst eachother.

"Hi, I'm Hiko I just moved here." I introduced.

"From where?" A blond girl asked, eyeing me up and down.

"The hidden leaf village." I replied.

One of the girls huffed before they all turned away from me. I guess they weren't huge fans of the leaf. I didn't blame them, we have had many scuffles with one another over the years.

I sighed before flagging down the old man to order.

"What can I get for you?" The old man asked.

"Miso Ramen with pork please." I said.

"That'll be right out for you." The old man said.

Time skip

The food was good and the old man was a delight but my actual experience there wasn't too great. The girls spoke very loudly about how scummy the leaf village was and how foreign people in the sand village were ruining their culture. It didn't help that the old man didn't charge me because of my relationship with Gaara which only led the girls to complain about me free loading. If I wasn't afraid of how my actions reflected on Gaara I would have argued with them.

The feeling of being watched never left me throughout the day. I knew it couldn't have just been the citizens either, whoever was watching me felt like a shinobi.

Walking through the streets people were moving aside to make room for me like they did with Gaara. It made it pretty hard to talk to people considering they were always moving away from me.

"Hiko! Hey!" Matsuri called as she hurried towards me with a smile on her face.

A guy grabbed her before she could get near me.