Red Is A Pretty Colour

108

Temari's pov

After a long conversation with Hiko about anything and everything on her mind I told Konkuro to take her out for ramen and left to talk to Gaara. Hiko was like my little sister and I was going to look out for her like she was, even if that meant upsetting my brother. I had never seen her so unhappy before and I couldn't ignore that just because Gaara was the happiest he had ever been.

"Gaara, we need to talk." I said as I burst into the Kazekage office, not even bothering to knock.

Both Gaara and Shira whipped around to look atbme, surprised by my sudden entrance.

"Temari, what's wrong?" Gaara asked urgently.

"It's Hiko." I said.

Gaara went pale and I had never seen him look so worried.

"Is she okay? What happened?" Gaara asked.

"It's something we need to talk about privately." I said.

Gaara nodded and Shira stood up.

"I'll come back later then." Shira said before seeing himself out.

"What happened to Hiko Temari?" Gaara asked as I sat down across from him.

"She tried to hurt herself Gaara. She's been so isolated and cut off from everything and she's just really struggling. I've never seen her this unhappy before." I explained.

Gaara's face took on a look of something almost like horror as his hands came up to tug at his hair. He seemed almost pained as he moved down to rest his elbows on his desk, his head I his hands. When he pulled his hands away to look back at me I saw that he'd pulled out some of his hair.

"If you're here who's with her?" Garra asked as he hurriedly stood up.

"Konkuro has her, they're out getting food. I thought it'd be best to get her away from everything and get her mind off of it." I explained.

"We should go and join them, she needs us right now. I can leave the council in charge for a while so that we can stay with her." Gaara said, already shrugging off his Kazekage robe.

"Gaara no, you can't leave the council in charge of anything. They're the cause of all this." I said.

Gaara froze, his robe hanging off of one shoulder. He slowly turned to look at me, pulling his robe back on in the process.

"What do you mean?" Gaara asked.

"I spoke to Hiko for a long time before I came to see you Gaara, she told me everything. The council have went behind all of our backs and took control of Hiko's life because they want you to marry her. That's why they've shot down her becoming a shinobi for months, they see her as some baby machine and nothing more." I explained, clenching my fist in anger. "They see her like mum."

"That's what caused this?" Gaara asked in confusion.

"No, that's one of the many things they've done that's built up over the months that led to this. Gaara they went to the Daimyo of the land of fire 8 months ago and demanded Hiko's citizenship in the land of fire be revoked. They threatened the hokage into sending her here to us. She was forced to come here, she had no choice in the matter." I explained.

"Why didn't she tell me? I could have helped her." Gaara said as he took his seat once more, resting his head in his hands again.

"Not only did they not consult you but their actions could have caused a war. Hiko didn't want to be the cause of a government collapse by telling us why she moved to the village. She didn't even tell Naruto about it because she knew he'd start a war to stop it if need be. She also didn't want to upset us. She saw how excited we were when she said she was moving to the village and she didn't want to ruin it for us. She decided to keep quiet and go along with it because she loves you." I explained, looking down at my clenched fists.

None of us ever thought to question why Hiko was suddenly moving in, we were just so excited to have her there. Maybe if we had stopped and asked about it Hiko wouldn't have gotten into the state I found her in.

Gaara sighed before running a hand over his face. I had never seen him so distressed.

"What else have they done?" Gaara asked.

"They've had a security detail following her around for months reporting everything she does. They've been stopping her from doing things the council don't want her to and making her so uncomfortable that she hasn't wanted to leave the house. They even stopped her going home to visit Naruto." I explained. "They're attempting to control every aspect of her life, telling her where she can and can't go, monitoring what she does and doesn't do, making her feel like she can't go outside, limiting her contact with her family, she has no freedom."

"What do I do Temari?" Gaara asked, his voice breaking.

"Gaara, she needs to be able to visit home and make her own decisions. It's up to you how you want to go about it but it needs to be done for Hiko's sake." I replied.