First, though, I would like to give an explanation of names.
Kagomi is a generic name which fits as Nekomi wants to blend in as much as possible, but she was a little more creative with boys' names. Roughly translated, Akari means light and Banshou means sunset. She gave Naruto his new name because of his bright attitude and Gaara his name because she felt 'the sun had set on his old life' and he would now begin a new one, like her. Besides, they all need new names, they are trying to blend in, remember? They don't want someone recognizing their names and coming after them.
Also, because I think this will be easier, I will leave their names to Nekomi, Gaara and Naruto when they are by themselves, but when they are in public, they will refer to each other by their new names and those will be the names given. Tell me if you disagree with the way I'm doing this.
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Nekomi (Kagomi) panted. They had just made two more jumps and she was near her limit. The town was a couple of miles away. They would walk.
Naruto (Akari) asked "Where are we?"
"We're still in Rain, but we're not close to Ame anymore." She stumbled.
Gaara (Banshou) cried "Kassan!" His sand almost went to catch her before she righted herself with her next step.
Nekomi waved her hand at him, dismissingly, "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm low on energy but I'll be good after a night's rest."
Gaara looked at her still worried. She looked pale...He frowned as he thought over the events of the past few days. He had been ran out of the place that he had lived in for the first five years of his life. When he thought about it, he had never really considered the place a home. What was a home really?
Nekomi looked down at him. "What's wrong, Oboc-chan?"
Gaara looked at her with wide eyes. She had just called him son. That was the first time he had ever been called son. His father had never called him son, he would barely even call him by his name. He asked "What's a home?"
Naruto looked at her, interested in the answer too. Nekomi frowned a little. It pained her to realize that these boys had never really had a home with people who loved him. The loneliness that they must have had to endure that she only now was able to begin to understand. She said "A home is a place where you are with people who care about you, a place where you can feel safe and relax."
Gaara asked "So, it's a place?"
Nekomi smiled "It can be in any place as long as you are with people who care about you. It could be in a house, in the forest, anywhere."
Gaara smiled. He liked this definition of the word, but he frowned again as he went back to his previous line of thought. He had been run out of his village by the only man he thought of as a friend, then as he was wondering what was the point to living, here comes this woman. She wasn't like anyone he had ever met. She actually seemed to care for him and she wasn't afraid of him. He trusted her and thinking on it, it scared him a little. There was the worry in the back of his mind that she would betray him too, like Yashamaru had, but he still couldn't help it. Not even Yashamaru had shown affection to him.
Naruto thought 'If that's a home, then I've never had one. I know the orpanage was never a home, but the way she said it, Konoha didn't even count as a home.' Naruto paused and found he no longer had any loyalty to the village he had lived in for the first few years of his life. Everyone hated him there. He thought 'The only thing I've ever had that was close to a home is her...He then grinned and said "Kaaa-san! I've decided! I have a home" Both Nekomi and Gaara looked at him, surprised at his outburst. Akari continued "I have a home with you and onii-san."
Gaara was surprised again and the way things were going he was getting surprised so much he still didn't think he had adjusted. The other boy had called him brother, so soon after just being called a son. His eyes watered and to his disbelief, tears began to fall.
Nekomi looked down at him as she heard him sniff. "Gaara-kun, what's wrong?"
Gaara sniffed, not wanting to cry and not understanding why he was. Nekomi said "We'll take a little break here before we get to the town." She sat down on a stump. "Go on and sit." They hesitated for a minute. Nekomi pulled them onto her lap. It saddened her to see them hesitate. Her own boys when they were younger would practically knock her over jumping into her lap. Had they been so starved for love? She felt a heavy sensation as she remembered something that Sierra had said that had been bothering her ever since.
'They're not going to replace the ones you lost.'
Nekomi knew this and it wasn't what she was trying to do, she told herself. Gaara and Naruto would never replace Ryoku and Shin, but...they needed her, so she would take care of them and do the best she could to raise them as her own. She promised herself she would not let what happened to Ryoku and Shin and Dai and the rest of her clan happen to her new little family. This time she would die first.
Naruto coughed. "Ow, Kassan. That hurts." Gaara's sand had came up to protect him from the almost crushing grip of Nekomi, but it did not lash out at her.
Nekomi snapped out of her thoughts and realized she had clenched up with the boys still on her lap "I'm sorry, Naru. I was...thinking..." Nekomi swallowed, not trusing her voice to not crack.
Gaara looked at Nekomi. She was crying too. "Why are you crying, kaasan?"
Nekomi tried to manage a smile, but failed and said "I cry because I'm sad, Gaara-kun. Why do you cry?"
Gaara was suddenly embarassed. "Because...I...Noone ever...accepted me before." He looked down at his feet.
Naruto looked at him, then also down at his feet. "Me neither."
Nekomi smiled "Does that make you happy?" They nodded. Nekomi said "It's ok to cry when you're happy." They looked up at her again.
Gaara asked "Then it's not ok to cry when you're sad?"
Nekomi said "Only when you're really sad, then it's ok to cry a little, but not for a long time because then the sadness will never go away."
Naruto and Gaara looked at their new kassan. Naruto said "That means you're really sad, kassan?"
Nekomi said "I think I feel a little better now, how about you?" They nodded. "Then let's be back on our way to the little town." They got up and started walking again. Nekomi used a lot of self control not to stumble again. They made it to the town in an hour.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR The man with the hood threw his head back to smell the wind. A faint, faint sent...He felt around for energy markers. There were two, one faint and one fainter. He followed them. He was relieved by one thing though, he had spied on the grey nin from earlier. He was from Konoha as he saw when he finally got a glimpse of his forehead protector and he was going back toward Konoha. He had given up looking, that made less trouble for him. He didn't need the shinobi tailing him as he looked for her.
'It has to be her...no one else could have survived. She was the strongest.' The markers were so faint, it would still be very difficult to follow her, but follow her he would.
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Nekomi looked around in the town. It was small, but it had a inn. They went in and stood before the desk.
A old, bent lady shuffled up "Can I help you?"
Nekomi smiled at her "I would like to rent a room."
"Oh! A customer! I have a room for you young lady and who are those handsome boys with you?"
Gaara and Naruto blushed, unused to such treatment.
Nekomi smiled "My sons"
"They look just like you." The woman said looking between them. "Here, you're room is the first on the right."
"Arigato gozaimasu."
They walked to the room. Once Nekomi saw the bed she resisted the urge to fall on to it. The urge was so strong she shuddered to reject it. She sat down on it instead.
Gaara said "I'll keep watch, since I can't sleep."
Nekomi frowned. He had a point, he would be the best for the job since he couldn't fall asleep. She didn't like that, though. Everyone should be able to dream. Once they were out of harms way she would look at his seal. Nekomi decided she would only sleep lightly however, so she could wake upon a sign of danger. She nodded. There was a bed, but there was also a mat in the room. She saw Naruto drag out the mat. "Naru-kun, I'll..."
Naruto seemed to be able to read her mind. He said "The mat's mine. You take the bed, Kassan. You're bigger and tireder than me." He smiled.
Nekomi smiled back, touched by his concern. "Thank you, Naru-kun" She locked the door and window and pulled the shade then got into the bed and succumbed to her exhaustion.
Naruto looked at Gaara who sat on the floor. "How come you can't sleep?"
Gaara looked uncomfortable. "It's because of Shukaku. I can't sleep or he'll take over. My seal doesn't let me sleep."
Naruto thought. He said "Shukaku?"
"I have the racoon demon sealed in me."
"What's it like?"
Gaara looked at the boy in front of him. He asked "Naruto, how come they tried to kill you?"
Naruto looked down, sad. He sniffed "They all hate me."
"Why?"
Naruto cried "I don't know! They always used to beat up on me...they called me kyuubi-brat."
Gaara had heard about the other demons. He said "Kyuubi, isn't he the fox demon?"
"Yeah, he tried to destroy Konoha until the fourth hokage defeated him."
Gaara frowned. He said "The tailed demons can't be defeated. They're too strong. They have to be sealed away like Shukaku was sealed into me."
Naruto's eyes widened "So the Kyuubi was sealed into someone?"
Gaara said "You have whisker marks like a fox and they called you kyuubi-brat. It was probably you." Naruto's eyes widened as this sunk in. He yelled "Kassan!"
Nekomi jumped up with a kunai in her hand, facing the door. Then, as no danger was apparent, she looked sleepily at Naruto. "What's wrong, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto looked at her with wide eyes "Am I really Kyuubi?"
Nekomi yawned "You're no more Kyuubi than Gaara is Shukaku. You're their jailors to make sure they don't escape. You're not them." As she saw Naruto's eyes tear up as he realized why everyone had hated him, she said "Think about it this way, Naruto. Ramen is contained by a bowl. Does that make the bowl ramen?" Naruto shook his head. Nekomi continued "Now, people might pay more attention to the ramen sometimes, but if the bowl is well made and of good design, they might forget about the ramen in it and just consider the bowl." She noticed the lost look on his face. She said "I've known about both of you since I met you. It doesn't bother me."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked.
Nekomi frowned "I didn't want to hurt you."
Naruto frowned, then smiled a small smile. "Kaa-san?"
"Hai?"
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, now go to sleep. We'll be leaving early." She went back to bed, but Naruto still sat up for a minute.
Gaara asked "You really didn't know?"
Naruto shook his head. "No one ever told me."
Gaara said "Everyone knew who I was in Suna and they didn't care about letting me know."
Naruto asked "Don't you get tired, not sleeping?"
Gaara shook his head "I can regain energy while awake."
"Oh. Goodnight Onii-san." Naruto crawled under the blanket on the mat and fell asleep.
Gaara smiled and whispered "'night, otouto."
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I'm thinking of doing a time skip once they get settled in at kiri. Tell me what you think of the idea.