Ok, a few notes. One, I'm sure some of you have noticed, the Uchiha massacre had already happened when Naruto had been driven away from the village at the beginning of the story, so in my story, it happened when he was four. The official age for entering the academy will be age 8, so they will finish when they are 12.
For those of you who haven't read this story before, I hope you enjoy. For those who have, Gomen. I just reposted these chapters to fix a few of the mistakes. If you readers find some more, please let me know.
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Nekomi walked with Naruto and Gaara into town. It was better than risking a teleport. She knew the area well, it was on the edge of the clan territory. She also knew that if she continued going as she did, she wound go closer into the grounds and fall into traps. They would have to take the path out of the territory. They would only have to take the path for about a mile before they were outside the Wara lands. She paused and looked at the boys. The only problem was that the path was surrounded by a genjutsu that made it seem like one who had entered upon the path blew up and there was a confusion genjutsu on the path that made ones who travelled on it get lost into the traps or worse.
It would not affect her, since she had created the jutsu to begin with, but the boys...the only way it would affect them would be if they were knocked out...but one could not sleep...She sighed. What then? She thought on the properties of the jutsu. Once one was in a stronger genjutsu, one could not be affected by a weaker one...she would have to put a genjustu on them to get them out of the lands safely.
The jutsu could be used as a devastating mental attack, tearing the opponents mind to shreds, or it could be used to calm frightened children into sleep. In this case, she would give them an awake dream, a pleaseant one. It would require more concentration because she could not use their own memories; she would have to create and keep the dream going. She would have to split her concentration between her mind and the outside world. She rubbed her temples. It would take up half of the energy she had stored up, but it was the only thing she could think of and it was worth it to keep them safe.
Naruto and Gaara had stopped when she did. Naruto asked "Kassan..."
Nekomi looked at him "Hai?"
"Why did you stop walking?"
Nekomi smiled and looked at him. She said "We're going to go over some difficult terrain. I'm going to carry the two of you for a little bit, ok?"
Gaara looked at her, question in his eyes. She smiled and picked them up. "Do you like it when mommy sings?" Naruto nodded. Nekomi said "Then listen well. I have a new song for you." Nekomi began the jutsu. To any listener not involved, it would have sounded like soft singing. Both boys' heads drooped on her shoulders. She smiled tiredly and split her consciousness.
Inside...
Naruto and Gaara looked around. They were on a grassy hill under a blue sky. "Where's Kassan? What happened?" Naruto cried. Then Nekomi appeared.
"I'm here."
"What happened?" Gaara asked.
Nekomi said "You're both having a dream."
Gaara looked amazed, then disbelieving "But I can't sleep."
"An awake dream."
"How?" He looked at her in confusion.
She smiled and said "Where we are now is like a dream that all of us share. I made this dream because outside, where we really are, there is a harmful jutsu that would hurt you two if you were awake."
"But not when we're asleep?" Nekomi could see the confusion evident on both their faces.
She said "Yes. It's an illusion jutsu. I'm using another one to create this dream. A stronger illusion jutsu will nullify the effects of the weaker one." They still looked confused.
Then Gaara asked "How long are we going to be in here?"
Nekomi said "Time is relative here. I can speed it up or slow it down as I see fit."
Naruto asked "What are we going to do?"
Nekomi answered "What would you like to do? We could to anything."
Naruto asked "Really?"
Nekomi said "Of course. It is a dream." She could see they really had no idea of what to do. She smiled and created a shady tree with a couple of swings. "How about swinging?" After a look at her, they both got on. Nekomi pushed them. Gaara was a little scared at first when he noticed that his sand didn't rush up to save him when he fell out. Nekomi caught him. She noticed his distress and said "You can't do that here, Gaara-kun, but you don't have to worry. I won't let anything happen to you. Do you want to swing some more?" Naruto fell out too and fell on his butt. His eyes teared up. Nekomi went over "Are you alright?" Naruto nodded. Nekomi thought 'What now? One one hand there's the lesson of teaching them to perservere, on the other...I don't want them hurt. The lesson can wait for later...' She looked back at them, having decided to switch the activity and saw to her amazement Naruto had got back on when she had been thinking. "Naruto-kun?"
Naruto said "I'll hold on tighter this time, Kassan. Let's do it again!" Gaara joined him with a look at her. She smiled. Perhaps no lesson was needed.
She said "Ok." She started pushing them on the swings again. They were halfway out. She sped up time in the dream. While the time seemed normal in the dream, it was really going faster than the outside time, allowing two hours in dream world for 30 minutes outside.
Nekomi watched the boys play tag and joined in after they asked her. They sure had a lot of energy. They started to wear down at the fourth hour, which was fine since they were almost at the end of the property. She sat with them in her lap. There, they hit the end of the property. She said "It's time to wake up now."
Gaara said "I don't want to."
Nekomi said "I have to let the technique go. The danger's over now and it makes me tired, but we can always come back here, ok?"
Gaara nodded slowly, after looking at her for a good minute. She dropped it. Naruto and Gaara opened their eyes to find themselves back on their Kassan's hips in the forest.
Nekomi's headswam. The jutsu...it had taken much more out of her than she had expected. Had she been so distracted that she had not noticed the extra strain? She was on the edge of blackness, but she tried to keep consciousness. Naruto was talking to her...
Naruto yelled "Kassan! Are you ok?!" He had seen her eyes close and her head shake and then she swayed. "Kassan!"
Gaara said "Come on. Jump down." Naruto did right after Gaara. His sand went up to catch her.
Nekomi felt herself falling, then something caught her and gently set her down. She opened her eyes and saw a blurry Gaara and Naruto. She had used up 90 percent of the energy she had with that technique. She needed more than ten percent to move around with. She could see she was alarming the boys, but she couldn't even talk intelligently right now. She needed Chakra, bad, so when Naruto grabbed her hand the transfer was almost automatic. She didn't realize what she had done until she was back to a normal state. She had taken a good portion of chakra, but he seemed fine, a little tired, but a normal person would have passed out. He must have huge chakra reserves...
Gaara was looking at her strangely. She asked "Yes, Gaara? You have a question?"
Gaara said "What was the blue spirals that went from Naruto to you?"
Nekomi said "That was a energy tranfer. I borrowed chakra from you, Naruto." She looked at him, then away a little, embarassed. It was an offense in her clan to just take energy like that from an ally "I'm sorry. I should have asked..."
Naruto said "It's ok, Kassan. Did it make you better?"
"Yes." Nekomi answered truthfullly.
"Then that's what matters!" Nekomi chuckled.
"You're a good boy, Naruto-kun." She turned "And thank you too, Gaara-kun."
Gaara smiled.
Naruto asked "How much farther are we away from the village?"
"About four miles."
"Still?!"
Nekomi nodded. "We've only gone one mile or so." She then frowned and said "Gaara."
"Hai?"
Nekomi warned "Try not to use your sand unless you absoultely have to, ok?"
Gaara cried "But Kassan..."
Nekomi explained "I know that you just used it to save me and I'm glad you did, Gaara-kun, but we're in disguise, so all of us have to be careful about using techniques."
"Sorry." He looked down.
Nekomi lifted his chin. She said "I'm proud of you, Gaara.Your control of the sand is a great tool and I'm glad that you have it and I don't mind if you use it when we're home, but we don't want bad people to see and come after us, do we?" He shook his head.
"Good boy. Now, let's get going again. Would you two like to ride or walk?" Nekomi asked as she rose from her sitting position.
Gaara said "Walk." He looked at Naruto.
Naruto said "I'll walk too." He thought 'If Gaara's gonna do it I can too.'
Gaara thought 'Good. Now Kassan won't get really tired again.'
Nekomi smiled down at them. She said "Thank you, Gaara."
He looked at her surprised. She smiled down at him. He put his hand in hers and so did Naruto. Nekomi smiled. Perhaps this wouldn't turn out to be such a bad day.
They made it to town with little further incident and as all three of their stomachs were growling at this point, they stopped at a little restauraunt. Nekomi ordered for the three of them.
The waitress looked at her in disbelief. She asked "Ma'am, you want five bowls of miso ramen, ten bowls of pork ramen and twenty bowls of the special ramen? That's 35 bowls!"
Nekomi cursed herself. No one else but her clan had such big appetites. She heard someone murmur "That's a Wara sized appetite." The woman beside him shushed him "It isn't kind to speak of the dead."
Another man at the bar said "It's not like you can't use the business, Shona-san. Business has dried up."
The woman blushed slightly. Her mother's stand really would close if it wasn't for regulars like the man who had spoken, even so, they would be hard put without the business from the Wara clan. They had been the main supporters of the shop.
Nekomi noticed the pause of the waitress and thought 'She seems embarassed. I bet business has been bad. It would be sad if they closed. They're the only good ramen stand in town. She said "Ano...I forgot to mention, It's to go. I promised I'd get orders for friends of mine too. It's alright to put it on the same order, isn't it?"
The waitress seemed to snap out of her thoughts and her face showed understanding now "Oh, of course. I see. Sure, it will take about an hour though."
"Hai. I have to do some shopping in town too. Is it alright if I do that and come back?"
"Sure." The waitress smiled at them. They left.
Naruto asked "What friends?"
Nekomi said "I just told her that. The three of us will eat the ramen."
"Why did you say it's for friends then?"
Nekomi looked at him and said quietly "Because, Naruto-kun, normal people would only eat maybe two bowls of ramen and we can eat a lot more than that."
Naruto asked "How many can you eat?"
"About twenty."
Both Naruto and Gaara's eyes widened. "Really?"
Nekomi nodded "Now, let's go shopping." They went into a scroll shop first and Nekomi bought a couple of medium sized scrolls, ink and a pack. Next was the clothing store. Nekomi browsed the clothing. It was regular clothes. No good kimonos or ninja gear here. She would have to go to another store for that in another disguise. She browsed and picked out a peaseant style dress for herself and a couple of pairs of black pants and two peaseant tops and sandals. For Naruto and Gaara she picked out pairs of black and brown pants, sandals, and let them choose the shirts. When they finished, Nekomi paid and they walked out. Next would be the store with the ninja stuff. Once they were out of the store, Nekomi found an alley and looked around. She'd have to make this quick. She spun out the scroll, painted the symbol for clothing on it, performed the handseals in a blur and the clothes dissapeared that she had been holding. She caught the scroll, which had closed and put it back into her pack and looked around once more. No one.
Naruto and Gaara looked at their new Kassan astonished. What did she just do? What happened to the clothes? Naruto opened his mouth.
Nekomi smiled. She said "I'll explain when we get home. Trust me for now, ok?" They nodded. Nekomi stepped closer to a door and behind a post as she came out, she now looked like a ninja, a male one.
Naruto looked confused and frightened. Nekomi said "It's me, Naruto-kun. I just have to go to another store."
Gaara said "The headband you're wearing. It's from Suna."
Nekomi said "There are no unkown ninja in mist. There are in Suna and Suna is close by. Can you two stay outside for a moment? I promise you can come with me to all of the other stores."
Naruto cried "What if the bad guys come?"
Nekomi tapped her head "I'll know. I won't let anything happen to you, got that?" She looked both of them in the eye. They nodded, reluctantly. "Good boys." Naruto and Gaara stood outside the shop, watching the passing villagers with distrust.
Nekomi was inside. She bought training clothes for the boys, kunai, shuriken and training clothes for herself, also the proper sandals for a ninja. She went up to the counter.
The shopkeeper said "Why is a Chunin from Suna buying gear in Ame?"
She looked him in the eye and said gruffly "Because I need a new outfit, I ran out of weapons on my last mission and I've got another on the way back and I promised my sons I'd bring them back something. Good enough?"
The man looked embarassed now "Gomen nasai. I was just curious."
She grunted and sealed the items after she paid for them and put the scroll back in the pack. When she walked out the door, she sidestepped Naruto and Gaara and into the shadows. She seemed to dissapear for a moment, then she reappeared and walked out as Nekomi. She walked back up to them and hissed "If I'm in a different disguise than my usual one, you don't know me unless I say so, understand?" They nodded, but still looked confused, and a little hurt.
Naruto said "Gomen" quietly. Gaara looked at her sadly.
Nekomi bent down and hugged them. She whispered "Mommy's sorry she was mean, but you'll remember, right?" They nodded. She put her hands on their heads and tousled their hair. "Good boys."
Naruto asked "Where are we going now, Kassan?"
She said "To get things for our house, and food."
Naruto said "Food!"
Nekomi thought with amuzement 'Can't keep Naruto down for long.' She smiled "Food for later, and after we do that, we'll go get the ramen, ok?"
Naruto said "But I'm hungry now!"
Nekomi said "It's not been an hour yet. Be patient." He looked down. Nekomi paused then added "Patience is a great skill to have, especially for a ninja."
Naruto looked at her in surprise "Really?"
"Yes." Nekomi smiled. It looked like he was really thinking about what she just said.
"Not even the pork ramen?" Nekomi almost facefaulted. Naruto giggled at her reaction. Nekomi sweatdropped 'The boy does have an appetite like a Wara. I'm going to need more money.'
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