Red Is A Pretty Colour

117

Hiko's pov

It didn't take long to get everything cleared with Kakashi~Sensei. The five younger kids were taken in by Ren, the shopkeeper, and his wife who have a soft spot for kids and a large family to help take care of them. Akira, Toka and Itona had been given an apartment together in the same block as Naruto and I and were to be assigned a sensei. I was glad we were able to to help those kids.

Unfortunately for me after returning home from the mission Naruto couldn't sleep. He kept going on and on about how nice I was to offer those kids a new home. Naruto kept the two of us up all night and then dragged us out to Ichiraku as soon as the sun began to rise. We were just on our way home from the place when we spotted Shikamaru.

"Hey, Shikamaru, you're up awfully early, ya know." Naruto said, drawing his attention.

"Naruto, I could say the same about you." Shikamaru said.

"You can't be up early if you're yet to go to bed. This one has kept me up for over 48 hours now." I complained.

"That's not healthy, you should get some sleep." Shikamaru said.

"In my dreams I sleep." I said with a yawn. "Hopefully now the excitement from that mission will die down and he'll let me go to bed."

"We're just on our way home from Ichiraku Ramen." Naruto said.

"Really? Are they even open at this time in the morning?" Shikamaru asked in surprise.

"Unfortunately." I grumbled.

"They're open 24 hours a day now." Naruto said.

"Okay but still, who eats Ramen for breakfast?" Shikamaru said.

"I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think half my body is made of ramen by now." Naruto said.

"And that's the problem. Mum would have a fit if she saw your eating habits, there are foods other than ramen." I said, placing my hands on my hips. Naruto awkwardly chuckled, scratching at the back of his head in response.

Shikamaru made some kind of sound and smiled a little awkwardly.

"Is it the garlic?" Naruto asked as he attempted to smell his own breath.

"Oh, here, have one of these." Shikamaru said as he handed him a piece of gum.

I hadn't seen that brand since we were kids, the barbecue restaurant I used to go to with choji and his family handed the stuff out. We used to collect it and then bring out our whole stash when we were hiding in the gym with the others skipping class. I had to cut that gum out of my hair more times than I could count.

"Oh! I love this gum, it sure brings back memories." Naruto said, holding it up to examine it.

"The packaging is still the same, I guess some things never change. Remember when we dared Kiba to chew all of the packs we had at once?" I asked with a grin, remembering that particular day of skipping class as clear as day.

"Yeah! Kiba's mouth got stuck shut by it! We swore off of it for ages after that." Naruto said with a laugh.

"The only one of us that didn't get put off by it was Choji." Shikamaru said with a fond smile before his face dropped and he began walking away. "Well, see ya."

"Is it work?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, just a little." Shikamaru replied.

"You're gonna work yourself to an early grave Shika." I said in a warning tone.

"I'll be fine, it's you I'm worried about." Shikamaru said. "And hey, Naruto, don't just sit around eating ramen, be productive."

"Well, someone somewhere always comes along with some annoying mission for me. I've worked for six months straight." Naruto said.

"This is the most important time in your whole life." Shikamaru said.

"Yeah, I know, I know but-" Naruto began but was cut off when I hit him on the back of the head. "Oww! What was that for!?"

"Don't take that tone with him, he's right." I said.

"Everybody recognises your ability now, do as many missions as you can so people say 'I've got to have Naruto on the job'. If you think that they'll approve you just because you're a war hero think again." Shikamaru continued.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto said.

"Look, Naruto, you are going to become the hokage, don't ever forget that." Shikamaru said.

"Of course, because I never go back on my word, that's ny ninja way." Naruto said.

"Our ninja way." Shikamaru and I said in sync before Shikamaru took off.

Time skip

Later in the day I ran into Ino who was setting up flowers outside the yamanaka flower shop.

"Ino, hey! How are you doing?" I greeted.

"I'm pretty good, just busy. That team you assigned me are a real handful." Ino said and I laughed.

"Sorry, I thought you'd be perfect for such a wild bunch. Don't worry though, I'm getting my own team soon and this lot are the craziest of them all." I said.

"More work? I swear you never stop." Ino said.

"If you think I'm bad you haven't seen Shikamaru." I said in defence.

"You're right, I barely see him now. Who would have thought the laziest out of all of us would turn out to do the most work." Ino said.

"Hey, lazy people are the best workers, they always find the quickest ways to get things done." I said.

"You must be the laziest then because despite having so many jobs at once you still always have time for everyone." Ino said.

"No its because Shikamaru gets the recommended amount of sleep. I haven't slept in two days." I explained.

"Hiko! Why are you here talking to me then?! Go to bed!" Ino scolded.

"But if-" I was cut off by Ino grabbing my shoulders and guiding me away from the shop in the general direction of my house.

"No buts! Bed." Ino ordered.