Wow. I thought that by now this would have lost my interest but apparently not. I'm getting quite a bit out of it which makes me happy

Also, because I have waaaaaay too much time on my hands, I had decided to create an Akumako Reader's Guide. I know I use a lot of Japanese and such that people don't understand and I don't want to force them to flip up and down through footnotes and I don't want to take out the Japanese so this guide explains all of those little translations plus what I was thinking as I was writing. It goes into more depth and discussion about the things I use. I don't know if this will have an adverse affect though, I may start to use too much symbolism and rely on the guide to explain it rather then have the meaning be understood my the story only.

So in an attempt to minimize this I'm going to write the chapter as I usually do, proofread, proofread, butcher the story, proofread, proofread, change everything around again, proofread, then write the guide. It won't take longer or anything, just everything will be more thoughtful.

To get to the reading guide, go to my profile to my home page which is my live journal. Under my memories there is one entry, that is it.

CHAPTER 4

Naruto sat on a roof nearby as the three kids searched the stands around the ramen place, looking for him in vain. The blonde gave up first and left the other two. Deciding he had watched enough, he took off to the northern end of the city. He had his friends scorning the people of the city for Gaara, the only thing left was to look around the forest and the north was as good place as any.

He and Gaara went out and trained every so often, whenever the mood would strike, so he knew that Gaara was familiar with the surrounding forest. In the back of his mind he hoped Gaara was out there, meditating like he always did when something was bothering him and couldn't sleep.

It had happened twice since Sasuke and Kakashi had brought him to the village. The first time happened in the first week back. Naruto was still getting used to the red head trailing him wherever he went. He was still trying to figure out which shop owners decided they needed his money more then they hated him, which were too new to the country to know to hate him, and which had decided they hated him even more for not dying on his travels.

Gaara had no sweet tooth to speak of and coffee was still a luxury import. Very few stores sold it, and only two sold it as beans that could be made at home. Gaara's self-enforced insomnia was becoming harder and harder to maintain without the help of his Tanuki demon and no shop was open all hours of the night. Of the two one was a wholesale exotic import store that thought the prestige of selling imported goods made them able to inflate their prices beyond practicality. But Gaara wanted his coffee and Naruto was trying to find common ground for them to live with and they walked in.

Even Naruto had been unprepared for the shouting. At first he thought it was aimed towards him but the dark skinned woman was screaming and pointing at Gaara, her voice irritating and foreign to Naruto's ears. Disgusted, he turned to leave and saw Gaara's face. The other boy went pale, paler then his normal fair tone, and Naruto had to grab his elbow and drag him backwards out of the tent.

Gaara spent three days on the roof, sunken deep in a trance, not coming out for anything: food, water, or sleep. Finally, deeply sun burnt and shaking he crawled back into the apartment when he collapsed on the wood floor and slept for ten hours straight, his current record.

The second time was less severe. It had been a week ago and Gaara had finally tired of following Naruto on D-ranked missions (Naruto thought the final straw was when he and Gaara had to chase down an old man's pet pig and Gaara had face planted in a deep puddle of mud and spat wet sand out of his teeth for the next three hours. It was the first time Naruto had seen him curse.). Gaara refused to come with Naruto after that and instead meditated on the roof for a full day and night before Naruto managed to coax him back into the apartment with a promise of yakiniku. Three days later Naruto had left for his overnight mission.

He hoped that Gaara had just gotten tired of the headquarters, or maybe something had happened on the way home that no one saw and had just decided to take a break for city life. Naruto knew that Gaara was far from a considerate roommate and wouldn't even think to leave a note. Hopefully Naruto would find him lost in his thoughts and unmindful of the time.

Once he was far enough away from the village he found a quiet branch and settled down. He wasn't nearly as good at using his meditation to find people, like Gaara was, but he had to try at least.

It was easier to focus now that he was out of the city. It helped that though the Tanuki demon was trapped it was still there and Naruto's own Kitsune sought out it instinctively. Still, he had to focus really hard.

Sounds, feelings, started to drop away, he was letting them slide off his skin like water. He tuned out a group of jounin sparring near by. Then a class from the Academy was poking through the foliage, watched diligently by a chuunin. A bird called to his mate. A fish swished its tail in the stream under him. A rabbit dug a hole at the base of a tree. A squirrel gnawed through a nut a branch above him. The wind ticked his hair and mad ehim want to scratch. The sun was starting to burn through the leaves of the tree. The bark dug into him through his thick clothes. The sun made him sweat. The sweat trickled down his neck and started to slowly inch its way down his back-

Frustrated, Naruto's eye opened and the world he was trying so hard to suppress erupted in a loud clatter as he allowed his ears to hear and his eyes to see. He scratched his neck, finding relief from the sweat. He shed his jacket tried again.

This time the world slipped away faster and he sunk deep into himself. He retreated from the world, until his skin hummed and felt without him, and sank deep, deep into the clear blue inside himself.

There.

Naruto dropped back into himself, snapping his eyes open and was surprised to see the sun setting. But he had found it. He looked to the west. There. That faint twinge of red. It was buried under the hundreds of chakra signatures but now that he had it fixed in his mind it throbbed like a second heartbeat under his skin.

He stood and fell almost falling from the tree. He managed to catch himself by molding chakra on the bottom of his feet at the last minute. He started off to the west, before the sunset finally registered in reality. Crap, he needed to meet with the brats.

"Sorry Gaara," he said softly and turned to head back into the city.

He took stock of the sight in front of his door before making an appearance. His nerves were too wound from the intense chakra concentration to climb the stairs so he was perched on the five-story apartment building across from his own. He grinned.

All three of the kids were sitting in front of the apartment door. Blondie was slumped on the door, her neck tilted at an awkward angle as she slept and only the doorframe kept her from falling over.

The red head was curled on the welcome mat, her legs tucked into her dress for warmth so only her buckled shoes showed and she had her head pillowed on a stack of books.

The boy was still awake, struggling vainly to keep his head up as he sat leaning on the wall beside the door, under the light, surrounded by a jungle of ferns and flowers.

It was easy to jump from the fifth story roof to the railing on his seventh floor building and fun to see all three jump to their feet and scatter their treasure hunt items.

"You!" the blonde girl's hatred for him had only seemed to climb.

"Yup," Naruto grinned, still perched on the rail. "Me. So, who won?"

"Me," the boy was proud.

"I was second," the blonde glared at him. The last girl remained silent and stared at her shoes.

"Good for you," Naruto jumped to the ground and weaved in between them to open the door. "I'll show you where to put everything."

The boy huffed in irritation as he gathered up his plants that were now slightly trampled from when they had all jumped up with surprise. Blondie picked up her bag with a smirk at the other two and stepped into the apartment first. The last girl just picked up her heavy stack of books dejected.

The blonde stopped after kicking off her sandals as Naruto turned on the light. "You can't use that! She's almost naked!"

Naruto ignored her and went to open the fridge. His stomach was grumbling but the only things in there was a sorry looking carrot, some left over yakitori that was starting to smell, three cartons of milk he had been meaning to throw out and some sliced beef he had bought before he had left on his mission.

"Give me that bag," he gestured to the blonde who scowled and almost threw it at him. Her cheeks were bright red and she was steadfastly looking everywhere but the lamp.

Naruto started to throw out the rotten food and replacing it with the fresh produce from the bag. He could almost feel the three pairs of eyes glaring at his back while he took his time, but kept meticulously finding places for everything.

Finally, when he felt like he had annoyed them enough, he grabbed a few choice vegetables and the beef and put them on the counter. He called over his shoulder, "Put the books on the empty shelf and the plants can go over by that window. Once you're done you can all go."

"No!" Blondie almost burst out. Naruto didn't even pause. She stomped her bare foot on the floor. "I said no! We aren't going! You suck! We can't go back now! It's way to late to walk in the dark alone. What about Hanako and that totally bogus thing about the Academy? You can't send her back! I demand an explanation!"

"Fine, fine, have a seat," Naruto motioned to the three stools lined up along the counter. "I guess you all want dinner too."

"Araki-san serves dinner at seven and not after," Blondie scowled. "And you made us wait until eight! If you don't feed us we'll starve.""

The boy nodded and the other girl looked at her hands.

"Hanako's aunt and uncle aren't even home," Blondie supplied as well.

Naruto finished cutting up what he needed and placed them strategically around the pan. "It's going to take a minute," he sat on the kitchen counter and looked at the three kids sitting at the little kitchen island across from him.

"Does only Blondie speak or what?" he asked.

"They would speak if you would actually talk to us-"

"Other little girl," Naruto cut off the blonde before she started another rant. "What's your name?"

"H-hanako," she muttered. "Ishimoto Hanako."

"And little boy," Naruto glanced at him. "You?"

"Musad bin Suoud," the boy looked at him defiantly. "And I am not little."

"That's an unusual name," Naruto checked the pan, which was starting to shimmer. "From the Sand country?"

"Yes," Musad's voice was accented which made it sound deeper then a little kid's should be. "My father was a merchant. We traveled to many places."

It sounded like there was more to that sentence but nothing more was said, so Naruto turned to check on the food.

""My name is Kaida," Blondie burst out, not wanting to be forgotten. "Daida Kaida."

"I'll remember that," Naruto laughed. "It rhymes."

"What a genius," she muttered under her breath and the little red head, Hanako, hid a grin by ducking her head.

Naruto deemed the food ready and turned down the flames on the stove. He rummaged around for the plates, grateful that they had been forced to buy them in a set of four. He and Gaara had disagreed on the pattern. Gaara had walked around the store scowling and holding a set of plain, sky blue plates with matching chopsticks, bowls and rice bowls. They were cheap, efficient and impersonal. Naruto and him argued for half an hour: Naruto wanted a set of white dishes with a red spiral pattern that had been dusty and forgotten.

In the end, Sakura had had enough and almost broke both sets when she put them back and forced them into a set of pale yellow clay dishes with a single red line around the edges. Naruto handed those out to his students now and placed the hot pan with the sukiyaki on a towel in front of the three.

The pan was sizzling but that didn't deter them. Blondie grabbed a strip of meat and didn't bother to let it cool before stuffing it into her mouth. All four of them were ravenous, it had been a hard day, and before long all the food was gone. Naruto decided to be an even better host and started to seep Gaara's special store of green tea and, to the children's disgust, snipped some leaves off of the mint plants to soak in the water as well.

"Um, Sensei," Hanako's fingers picked at her faded yellow dress. "Are you really going to send me back to the Academy?"

Naruto was quiet for once and went to strain the leaves when he answered. "Why shouldn't I?"

"The test wasn't fair!" Blondie came to Hanako's defense before she could reply. "You gave her the heaviest!"

"So?" Naruto had to hunt for the set of guest tea bowls that Tsunade had given them as a house-warming present. They were sitting right next to the shot glasses she had also given them. Naruto rather liked them. They weren't a matching set and were hand crafted. One was reddish clay from a Stone country merchant. The edges were a little lopsided there was delicate red flower painted on two of the sides. Another was deep green with darker rings all around the bowl that showed where the potter's hands had trailed in attempt to make it smooth. The third was a blue so light it was almost white on the outside but the rim and inside was a deep ocean colour. This one had a painting on it too, a navy outline of a sea bird that wrapped around almost the entire cup. The last was Naruto's favourite, it was yellow and had been cracked twice. The cracks had been repaired with gold and the rim was also covered with the same gold.

He poured them the tea, passing the red one to the boy, the green one to Blondie and the blue to little Hanako.

Hanako sipped her tea politely and Musad stared into his but Blondie ignored hers in favour of more yelling. "If you send her back I'm going to tell the Hokage! Araki-san told me you're only a chuunin, you can't send us back because we had a jounin pass us and you can't disobey a higher ranking ninja no matter how much of a bad man you are!"

"Musad," Naruto made the boy jump a little. "Did you have trouble finding all those plants?"

The boy hesitated. "A little."

"And Blondie," she scowled at the name and muttered 'Kaida', "Did you have any trouble getting the vegetables?"

"Maybe," she mumbled. "I mean, who the heck knows what a," she checked her crumpled list, "Komatsuna is? I had to go to eight different stores and I couldn't exactly ask the grocers for help! I mean I did have to steal everything."

Naruto nodded with an air of seriousness. "So have you figured out my hidden meaning yet?"

All three looked at him with blank expressions. "Oh come on, it was genius! Guess, guess!"

Hanako and Blondie exchanged a look that clearly thought he was crazy. "Look," Blondie said slowly. "Me and Musad need to get back to Araki-san's. It's late and all."

Naruto frowned at them. "Oh come on, guess! Why did I make you guys get the things you did?"

"Sir, we're kind of tired," Hanako's voice was quiet but insistent.

"Oh fine, you guys are no fun," Naruto crossed his arms. "I'll just tell you. Look at Hanako's hands."

They all glanced down and she held them out for their inspection. "I don't see anything," Blondie declared.

"That's because you aren't looking close enough," Naruto leaned over the countertop and grabbed Hanako's wrists. She flinched and tried to pull away but Naruto flipped them over so they were palms up.

"All living things have chakra," Naruto felt like he should be in a classroom as Blondie leaned over so her nose was practically touching Hanako's hands and Musad was standing on his stool to get a better look. "All ninja, all animals, all plants and even all the villagers. No, seriously, don't laugh. Anyway, look at her hands. Lean back, Blondie no one else can see.

"Look here," he traced her lifeline, the thin line that ran around her thumb. "You can see the traces of chakra everywhere but this line is the easiest. It represents life, it reflects all that we touch and influence and are influenced by."

He laid Hanako's hand flat on the counter top between her cup and her plate. Her fingers curled so Naruto held them flat. "Now stare at that line. Forget the rest of the hand. Can you see it?"

All three squinted hard and the room was completely silent.

"No," Blondie sat back, breaking the tension. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Musad sat back on his stool and looked accusingly at Naruto. "You are trying to make us look stupid."

"All right, fine," Naruto sighed. "I suppose you are tired. But remember, today I was being nice. Tomorrow don't expect handouts. Now, come on, get your shoes on, I'll walk you guys back."

"We aren't children," Musad started to say but was cut off by Blondie's, "Well it's about time you behaved like an adult!"

Naruto went to drop off Musad and Kaida at their foster mother's house first. It wasn't too far, near the old Uchiha corridor. It was a skinny, three-story house crammed between a hotel and a used bookstore. The curtain on the second floor twitched as their guardian, a heavyset villager named Araki Midori, watched Naruto with narrowed eyes.

Hanako's house was much farther away, on the edge of the Hyuuga's isolated homes. The house was two stories and stood apart from the rest of the neighbourhood, the last on the road before it ran into forest. It was the only house without lights on and was surrounded by a rundown picket fence and gate that was missing several planks. It was hard to see in the dark but the modest plot of land was neat and blossoming with new vegetables.

"I'll see you tomorrow Hanako," Naruto waved as she opened the small picket gate and let herself into the yard. She nodded shyly and dashed into the house, sliding the door closed quickly behind her.

Even though it was dark and late, Naruto cut across the roofs of the town until he found Shikamaru and Ino's apartment complex. Ino looked less then pleased to see him at that late hour and let him in.

"Shikamaru is late," she was dressed in a housecoat and was obviously getting ready for bed as she poured him some tea. "There was a backlog at the office and the Hokage needs him to take care of it."

"I can wait," Naruto said and she scowled. Annoyed, she left him sitting alone in the small kitchen and went into her bedroom, banging things around as she cleaned.

Shikamaru showed up half an hour later. Naruto had had three cups of tea and Ino had rearranged the entire book collection.

"I found him," Naruto was bouncing in his chair; the caffeine from the tea had given him a boost of energy. Shikamaru on the other hand was slumped over the table, yawning, and not in the mood for games.

"Gaara? Good for you. Why are you here?"

"I found him but I didn't find him," Naruto explained. "I mean I found his chakra signature and I want to go after it tomorrow."

"Okay."

Ino took the last chair, her grumpiness increasing.

"He's west of the village," Naruto drummed his fingers on the table. "When I was coming home in through the west gates, but I had been traveling west to get to Konoha. I should have come through the east gates."

Shikamaru frowned, the lines under his eyes lifting as he thought. Naruto tapped, tapped, tapped on the table until Ino reached over and stilled his fingers. He ignored her and looked earnestly at Shikamaru, trying to convey his secret message. It was common knowledge that Gaara's Tanuki demon was sealed but the details of Naruto and his capture was classified.

For all Naruto lacked in secrecy and clarity, Shikamaru made up for.

"Kakashi and Sasuke's report said they found him near the west gates," Shikamaru said. "We didn't think much of it, he looked as if he was coming from the Sand country," Shikamaru looked at his hands the looked hard at Naruto. Naruto's enthusiasm waned a little. "You can't go alone. We still haven't found out who sealed his demon or what erased your memories. If they were strong enough to capture you and Gaara and then Gaara again you can't risk it by yourself."

"Who?" Ino looked from one to the other. "The one's who neutered Gaara? If you ask me we should be thanking them."

Shikamaru and Naruto glanced at each other then Naruto looked away.

"Give me a few days," Shikamaru said. "We need to inform the Hokage and start gathering a team."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto; studying him through his hooded eyes, trying to validate his gut feeling. He watched Naruto's eyes, his face, his bitten lip and finally the twitch in his fingers.

"Gaara isn't even a Fire country ninja," Shikamaru finally said, finding his answer. "For all we know he's a missing-nin and we've been harboring him for the past month."

"He's not a missing-nin," Naruto spat out. Ino stopped fiddling with her bracelet and started to watch Naruto's face like Shikamaru had been. Ino herself worked hard as a chuunin, teaching the youngest kunobi at the Academy while she trained for the jounin tests. She spent her mornings watching the faces of young girls and saw a range of personalities. There were girls like herself that worked in awe of the flowers, understanding the brief life of the ninja and the flower, determined to create something beautiful and pretending that it didn't wither as soon as it was plucked, pushing away that they, like flowers in perfect bloom, were plucked and used to create something temporarily beautiful. There were girls like Sakura who saw this and were fearful, who couldn't make something beautiful and despaired that their own end would result in the same. There were girls who didn't care, who wanted to fight and die all for noble causes but unmindful of the product they left behind. And there were the girls who refused to pluck flowers, who wanted to stare at them as they grew, bloomed and died, trampled underfoot as spring turned to summer, turned to autumn, turned to winter.

Naruto looked like all he wanted to do was to grab a handful of young sprouts and throw them in Shikamaru's face.

"Well he hasn't made an effort to contact his village since his release," Shikamaru pointed out.

"Neither did I when I was away."

"That's different," Shikamaru's voice didn't raise but it did get harder. "The Hokage trusted you. We know perfectly well Gaara is not well received in his home country."

"Why are you just deciding this now?" Naruto was getting angry and his voice was rising. "He's been here for a month! Hell, you let him look at classified ninja reports!"

"The Hokage trusted you," Shikamaru replied. "And she trusted your judgment," he prodded with his words, watching everything that Naruto did, everything he looked at, every breath he took. "But maybe she was wrong. Or maybe Gaara is playing us all for fools."

"He's not!" Naruto's face was red and he slammed his fists on the table. "He would never betray me like that!"

"We can't afford to take that risk right now," Shikamaru said. "Wait for the Hokage's orders. It's only been two days. If he is in trouble he is strong enough to last a few days more. If he's a spy then he has all ready reached Sand by now and the damage is done."

"Fuck you!" Naruto shoved the chair backwards so hard it fell over. Ino jumped, sitting forgotten at the top point of their triangle. Shikamaru stood to stop him as he stormed out of the door but he didn't follow as Naruto took too the roofs, heading in the direction of his own home.

Shikamaru gripped the railing of the balcony outside of the apartment, watching him jump from roof to roof and Ino slid out into the chilly night air. He didn't move when she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Shika," she said softly.

"I can't believe it," Shikamaru said softly but she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Can't believe what?" she asked.

He just shook his head and turned back into the apartment.

Don't forget to check out the reader's guide in my live journal under my memories. The next chapter should be out in a few weeks but I haven't started it yet. Thanks for all the feedback, to all the people who had added this story to their favourites and to their alerts!