Naruto 1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own neither Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Well good day and welcome to the first chapter of this story. As we all know, is the home of millions of stories about pretty much everything, yet I can't seem to find any good Naruto/Avatar crossover stories (if you have then feel free to let me know). This is my own personal take on this particular concept and I hope that you'll be able to enjoy it. I'd also like to inform that this is the longest chapter I have ever written (23 pages and nearly 11 000 words!), and its just the introduction chapter of a new story! Well I won't keep you occupied any longer so Read and Review.

**Chapter 01**

**New Friends**

"Well Naruto, you've really done it this time," stated a voice dryly in the darkness of a completely isolated room.

The blonde shinobi of Konoha was currently stuck in what was probably the greatest pinch he had ever faced in his near sixteen year long life, and to make matters even worse, it didn't seem like there were any possible way out of it.

It had all started started with a simple C-ranked escorting mission. A merchant had come to Konoha in order to get some bodyguards to protect him while he traveled to the capital of the small Lotus country where he would later sell his goods. In the end it had been Sakura, Sai and Naruto himself who had been chosen for the mission and they immediately embarked upon their journey.

The Lotus Country wasn't that far away from the Land of Fire, and even when traveling by foot the trip there had taken barely more than a week. The journey itself had turned out to be rather uneventful and aside from a wandering gang of bandits, an obstacle that had been quickly taken care of thanks to the three teenagers superiour ninjutsu skills, there had been no direct threat to their client's health and they safely arrived to the small but beautiful Lotus Country.

Other than being a famous centre where merchants from all around the world could sell and trade their goods, the capital of Lotus Country was also a very popular tourist spot, attracting visitors from the whole world. With this in mind, Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha, had granted the three young shinobi a well deserved three day long vacation before having to start their journey back home.

After checking in at a cozy little hotel, run by a nice elderly lady, the teens had decided to go their separate ways after agreeing to meet up at the hotel later on in the evening.

Sakura instantly went for the shopping district to spend some of her well earned money that she had saved up from their previous missions. The pink haired girl could barely believe her luck, thinking she was in some kind of heavenly dream as she found store after store selling what could only be described as the most beautiful pieces of clothing she had ever laid her emerald eyes on in her entire life. It was safe to say that she would be busy for several hours to come.

Sai, on the other hand, had calmly strolled along the streets of the impressive city, taking his time to observe the happy citizens and the amazing architecture. Whenever he would spot something exceptionally breathtaking, the former Root ANBU would be quick to pull out his sketch book and with his artistic talents completely replicate whatever his trained eyes had seen onto the paper.

Naruto himself had chosen to do what he always did whenever returning to civilisation and went searching for a decent resturant that would serve his most beloved food in the whole wide world, the food of the gods that was called ramen. The mere thought about it having been enough to make him drool.

After having finished his sixth bowl of the tasty noodles, much to the happiness of the chef, the blonde Jinchuriki had happily exited the resturant with a full stomach and his wellknown foxy grin on his face, wondering what he was supposed to do now to pass his time. However, his train of thought had been interrupted as he spotted a dark figure on the other side of the crowded street staring right back at him. It was a tall man, dressed in a black cloak that covered his entire body and a face mask that only left his sharp eyes visible for the world to see. But what had really made Naruto tense up was the fact that the stranger had been wearing a headband with the sound insignia carved into the metal piece, marking the man as one of Orochimaru's Oto Ninja.

Nearly as soon as the two of them had looked into each others eyes, the unknown shinobi jumped into the air and launched a barrage of kunai in Naruto's direction. The young Konoha ninja managed to avoid all of the sharp projectiles, making sure to not harm any of the innocent bystanders in the process. He had decided that it was far too risky to engage his assailant in such a crowded area and left as fast as he could so that he wouldn't endanger any of the civilians.

The Oto Shinobi was quick to follow and in the end the two of them had ended up on the roof of one of the tall buildings in the city. This was the ideal fighting place for the Jinchuriki where he could go all out without risking hurting anyone except for his opponent. However, as soon as he started his assault on his masked attacker, he realized that this guy was completely different compared to the rest of Orochimaru's shinobi, who basically were little more than mere cannon fodder. He was clearly skilled and managed to hold his own against a dozen of Naruto's Kage Bunshin for several minutes, destroying a whole lot of them before the teen finally started to tear his way through the older ninja's defenses.

Naruto had just been about to finish his opponent off with a well aimed Rasengen when he felt something sting at the back of his neck. He had instinctively brought his hand up behind his neck to grab whatever it was that was there and took a look. He had known instantly what it was and he cursed silently as he eyed the small poisoned dart now resting in the palm of his hand. The man who had attacked him outside of the resturant hadn't been alone, and now he was surrounded by four other figures, all of whom were wearing the mark of Oto on their headbands.

The poison was quickly spreading throughout Naruto's body, faster than Kyuubi's chakra could clean it out, and it didn't take long before he started to feel the damaging effects on his body. The whole world seemed to spin around him, his legs could barely support his wheight anymore and it felt as if he was burning from inside out. He tried desperately to fight back but it didn't take long before he was overpowered the Oto Shinobi and knocked out cold.

He had later woken up where he was now, lying on his back alone in a dark room, most likely a cell of some sort. He had tried to move, but that quickly proved to be impossible. It felt as if he had been glued directly to the cold stone floor, sprawled out like a cross with his arms raised at his sides at ninety degrees and any attempt of molding chakra turned out to be completely useless. It was as if something sucked it right out of his body before he even had the time to make any use of it, just like the time he had his first run in with the shark-like Akatsuki memeber Hoshigake Kisame and his chakra eating sword Samehada. The icing of the cake was that he was now completely unarmed, leaving him with only his pants, sandals, headband and the necklace that had been given to him by Tsunade.

Naruto cursed at his own helplessness. He had no idea where he was, how long he had been out and how far he was from home. Why had the Oto shinobi attacked him? Hadn't they all been disbanded when Sasuke killed Orochimaru? And what could they possibly want from him?

Suddenly, a massive stone door was opened and the darkness instantly gave way for the intruding light. Naruto closed his eyes tightly shut, taking his time to make his eyes adjust themselves to the light and then hesitantly opened one to see who had opened the door.

"Well, how are we doing, Naruto-kun? I hope my men weren't too rough on you," came the voice of a lone, glasses wearing figure standing in the doorway. It was hard to properly distinguish any real features, what with the bright light being right behind him and all, making it look more like a dark shadow than an actual person, but those spectacles could only belong to one person.

"Kabuto," snarled Naruto with all the venom he could muster at seeing the spy and Orochimaru's former right hand again. "I should have known it was you all along."

"Oh, you are correct on one point Naruto-kun," answered the ominous figure as he removed his glasses with a chuckle. "This _is _Kabuto's body... but he is no longer in charge of it," he finished before taking a step forward, now making his pale face and slanted amber eyes completely visible for his shocked prisoner to see. The man who was standing before Naruto, dressed in a plain gray yukata, could be none other than the Snake Sannin who everyone believed to be dead.

"Orochimaru?! But that's impossible! Sasuke killed you!" roared Naruto.

"Yes he did," chuckled Orochimaru amusingly as his voice changed from Kabuto's mild one to his regular raspy voice that was more like a snake's than a man's. "Sasuke-kun did kill me when I tried to take over his body as he revolted against me. I don't remember exactly what happened that day, but it would seem as if my dear assistant Kabuto integrated the remains of my previous body into his own. The fool thought that he could gain power to become something more than a mere tool of others by doing so, when in reality that was the only thing he became. A tool of my own resurruction! The cells he injected into this body started to ever so slowly start to take it over, to convert it into a new body for me. I find the great irony of it all terribly amusing, but as you can see the transformation isn't 100 complete just yet," to point this out, he let a hand that hadn't yet gained his wellknown pale complexion comb through his hair that was still silver white instead of raven black.

"But what does this have to do with me?" hissed the Jinchuriki through gritted teeth. "What do you want with me?!"

"Isn't that simple Naruto-kun?" asked the body switching villain patronizingly. "You, my dear boy, have become a great obstacle in my plans of achieving absolute dominance over the world. As you are very well aware of, Akatsuki, the organisation of which I was once a member, are hunting down all the Jinchuriki in order to gain the Bijuu that are sealed inside of them. You are the only one left and it's only a matter of time before they get their hands on you. Now that is just something I cannot allow."

"Let me guess. You are doing this out of the goodness of your heart?" spat Naruto sarcastically.

Orochimaru merely chuckled at that remark before replying with his thin lips formed into a snake like smile, devoid of any warmth. "Of course not. I am merely looking out for my own interests. I know very well what my former associates are planning, but without you they would be completely incapable of going through with the final phase of their plan."

"I'm not afraid of Akatsuki!" roared the restrained Konoha shinobi in anger. "I'll take them all on if I have to! Release me now or so help me I will...!"

"You will do what, Naruto-kun?" laughed the snake master at the boy's futile attempts at intimidating him. "Take a look around yourself. I haven't left anything to chance and you're completely at my mercy," he stated as he made a gesture with his hand, urging Naruto to turn his head as best as he could to take in the cell of which he had been imprisoned in for the first time.

It was a large circular room completely made out of shining black stone, but what really caught the blonde's attention was the fact that nearly every centimeter of the cell's walls, roof and floor was covered in highly complex arrays of seals. He was lying in the absolute centre of the room and it seemed like all of the seals, no matter where they where, interacted with each other to form chains that in the end formed complex patterns all around his body. During his years of training under Jiraiya, the greatest Seal Master Naruto had ever met, he had learned quite alot of this mystical art, but it didn't take a genious to figure out that this was the cause of his unmovable body and his inability to mold chakra.

"So what are you going to do with me? Kill me?" asked the Uzumaki once he had fully understood just how bad his odds were. He hadn't given up yet, far from it, and secretly tried to come up with a plan that would help him escape from this situation, preferably one that would allow him to take down the villainous shinobi in the process.

"Despite how tempting that option is Naruto-kun, I have decided that a different course of action would be far more interesting," replied Orochimaru as he aproached his captive with arms neatly folded behind his back, a twisted smile playing on his lips. "You are truly a most intriguing specimen my dear boy and I am certain that, if I let you be, you will grow to become a serious threat to my goals in the future. The safest thing to do would probably be to slay you right now that you are completely at my mercy. However, if I would be able to come up with a way to control that delicious power you possess, you would become quite a remarkable asset to my cause."

"Do your worst Orochimaru, I'll never give in!" replied the young shinobi heatedly, small traces of red appearing in his cerulean eyes for a split second before the surrounding seals absorbed the demonic chakra that had leaked from the seal that covered his belly.

"Unfortunately, I am currently incapable of doing so," continued Orochimaru, paying no heed to his prisoner's outburst and instead started to go through an unusually long and complex series of hand seals, finally ending with the ox seal. "Therefore I have decided to simply keep you away until I have found the means necessary to tame you."

"W-what are you doing?" asked Naruto as he desperately tried to break free, but his body didn't even budge an inch.

"Now, now Naruto-kun, stay perfectly stil. I am sure that this wont hurt... Not alot at least," said the former Konoha ninja before slamming his right palm down onto the smoth, jet black stone floor.

In the next second, as if a switch had been turned, all of the seals lit up in a blinding light. Naruto barely had any time to ponder upon this however as excruciating pain suddenly surged through his entire body, forcing him to roar out in agony. The last thing he saw before finally losing consciousness, was a pair of golden snake eyes that seemed to bore their way into his very soul.

OoOoOoO

"Could someone please remind me what we are doing here again?" came the bored voice of a boy in his teens, currently holding a burning torch in a firm grip as he carefully walked his way through a dark tunnel.

"Come on Sokka, aren't you at least a little bit curious on what we might find down here?" replied a younger, and for that matter much happier boy.

"Not really. Every time we get into a dark and damp cave or tunnel, something tries to eat me and that's something I can do just fine without, thank you very much."

"Well, you could have stayed with Appa and Momo at the entrance if you didn't wan't to come and have a look around with the rest of us," stated his sister Katara.

"And leave three ridiculously powerful Benders to fend for themselves without my help? Not a chance."

It had all started like any other day for the small group of travelers consisting of Aang, the legendary Avatar and supposed savior of the world, the two siblings Katara and Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe, the young Earthbending master Toph Bei Fong and lastly their trusted animal companions Momo, the winged lemur, and Appa, the giant flying bison. They had all flown through the clouds atop Appa's back, searching from above for an ideal place where Aang could start practising his Earthbending, when suddenly a vicious storm had hit without warning, forcing them to land in the mountains in order to find shelter. Thanks to the remarkable abilities of Toph, the newest addition to the party, they had easily found an opening into the mountains, large enough to fit at least two more Appas without any difficulty, where they could safely wait until the terrible weather had passed them by. Using her sensetive feet, Toph had also quickly discovered that the mountain itself contained a series of interacting tunnels that all seemed to lead to one and the same place.

Showing his adventurous streak, Aang had instantly suggested that they should check it out. It wasn't like there was much else to do, reasoned the young Airbender.

"We're almost there," stated the blind girl as she picked up on the different vibrations that was reflected from all the stone and earth particles with every step of their feet. Even though she was blind, with her Earthbending she could "see" better than most seeing people ever could in certain situations. "Just pass around this corner and there you have it, a completely empty room," she said matter of factly.

And indeed it was. An empty cave that didn't seem to contain anything of interest what so ever. The only thing that made it stand out was the insane size of it and the fact that it didn't really seem to be a natural formation, considering the smoothnes of the walls and without the stalagmites or stalactites one might have expected to see.

"Well why didn't you say so earlier?" accused Sokka, irritated by the fact that he went all the way here for nothing.

"I was bored," she deadpanned with a shrug. "Besides, just as Twinkle Toes said, there's not really anything better for us to do until the storm's calmed down. Might just as well stroll around for a while and let the clothes dry."

"Well that's a bummer," muttered Aang as he started to walk forward, frowning slightly in dissapointment. "I had hoped there would be some kind of treasure or some..."

As soon as his foot touched the floor within the cave, strange glowing signs started to appear all over the place, turning the young Airbender completely silent as his eyes widened in bewilderment at the sight of this phenomenon. After just a couple of seconds, the light of the mysterious signs had intensified to such a degree that everyone except for Toph was forced to close their eyes.

"Aang, what the heck did you do?!" yelled Sokka as he tried to use one of his arms to further shield his eyes from the owerwhelming light.

"I didn't do anything!" replied the boy. "I was just going to take a closer look!"

However, just as fast as the light had appeared, it vanished, leaving everything as dark as it had been before.

While Aang, Katara and Sokka tried to rub away the colourful spots that danced infront of their eyes, Toph raised a hand, pointing into the cave and said hesitantly; "Er, guys? I don't really know how to put this but... the room isn't empty anymore."

"What are you talking about Toph?" asked Sokka as his eyesight started to slowly return. "We saw it with our own eyes, so how can there possibly be...?" The pony-tailed teenager didn't say anything more as he clearly heard groaning coming from within the room that had previously been completely empty.

It was Katara who first moved, hesitantly walking towards whatever made the sound.

"Be careful Katara, it might be some sort of trap," warned Sokka, but his sister paid no heed to him and continued on without pause and didn't stop until she had reached the centre of the room, kneeling down next to whatever it was that had appeared after the strange light show.

"Guys, come over here and bring the torch with you," she beckoned as she found everything to be perfectly safe. They all did as she said and soon they were all standing next to her, using the torch's light to take a closer look on what it was. To say that they were surprised at what, or rather who, they saw would have been a great understatement. It was an unconscious teenaged boy with spiky yellow hair and strange whisker like marks covering his cheeks, dressed in only a pair of orange pants and black sandals. A black head band was wrapped around his forehead with something that roughly resembled a leaf carved into the metal piece of it. Lastly, around his neck he was wearing a necklace containing a rather beautiful jewel.

"Okay... this sure was unexpected," said Sokka after a moment of silence. "Aang, you sure you didn't do anything funny?"

"I've already told you I didn't do anything... At least I don't think so," replied the Avatar while scratching his shaved head in confusion. "I was just going to go in and have a closer look when suddenly all of those strange signs started to appear."

"Maybe this is just one big hallucination caused by that weird light," suggested the pony-tailed Water Tribe boy as he started to lightly poke at the unconscious blonde with his club. "I mean people don't just appear out of nowhere."

"That would explain it all for the three of you. But something like that wouldn't affect me and my feet are telling me that this guy _did _appear out of nowhere," objected Toph.

After a couple of more pokes on the courtesy of Sokka, Katara was finally fed up with it. "Will you just stop that?" she hissed. "He might be injured," she continued in a much more worried tone. "I think we'd better take him to the entrance where I can take a closer look at him and see if there's anything wrong. Sokka, could you help me carry him?"

"Aw, c'mon sis. Are you planning to make a habit out of taking care of every strange guy you see appear in flashes of mystical light? Because if you do, I think we're going to need a bigger bison," complained Sokka, but wisely kept his mouth shut after seeing the way his sister glared at him. "Alright, alright. Here Aang, take the torch," he sighed grumpily as he caved in and did what he was told to do.

OoOoOoO

As Naruto ever so slowly started to regain conscousness, his senses started to take in the impressions of his surroundings. The first thing he registered was that his head and upper body was safely resting on top of something incredibly soft and fluffy, tempting him to just get back to his blissful sleep. But the smell of food that was being cooked and the sound of voices talking urged the blonde to fully wake up. Something that vaguely sounded like a giant that snored didn't exactly help his sleep either.

He tiredly opened an eye, only to immediately shut it again with a groan as the sun was shining right in his face. He could hear how the people who had been talking turned quiet, most likely turning their attention towards him.

"It seems like he's finally coming to," he heard the voice of a girl say.

Naruto hesitantly started to reopen his eyes, making sure to do so slowly this time in order for them to fully adjust to the light. Once that was done, he raised his head so he could better see the owners of the voices that he had heard. Around his lying form sat a group of no less than four people, two boys and two girls, all of whom seemed to eye him curiously.

The first one that cught his eye was a young boy who couldn't have been older than twelve. He was clad in a strange robe like attire, which was coloured yellow and orange and he had a long wooden staff resting ontop of his crossed legs. His head was completely shaved of any hair and in its place was a blue tatto that looked very much like the tip of an arrow. The boy's friendly hazel eyes and the small smile he had plastered over his face made Naruto feel a little more at ease among these strangers.

Next there was a fairly pale girl, looking to be around the same age as the boy with the shaved head. She was dressed in green and yellow clothes that looked like something that Tenten would probably wear and most of her jet black hair was tied into a fairly large bun, but not so much that it didn't allow alot of it to fall down her forehead. He also noticed that her pale green eyes didn't seem to focus on anything, just staring off into space, which made the blonde shinobi correctly suspect that she was blind.

Lastly, there were a boy and a girl that seemed to be a couple of years older than their companions, most likely being closer to his own age, speculated the newly awakened Jinchuriki absentmindedly. While the other two had looked nothing like each other, there was no doubt that these two shared at least some sort of family relation. They both had ocean blue eyes, dark skin that indicated a life in the sun and dark brown hair, in the boy's case tied back into a small pony tail and in the girl's it was braided into a long braid and into two... What could something like that be called...? Was hair-loopies a real word...? They also seemed to wear clothes made out of the same blue material. However, from what little he had learned when it came to reading people, it appeared as if they had pretty different opinions regarding him. While the girl looked as if she was happy to see him awake, a nice smile gracing her lips that seemed to brighten her pretty face, the boy eyed him with suspicion as he frowned disapprowingly.

But how the hell did he get here? The last thing he remembered before... And suddenly, with the force of a tidal wave, came all the memories of what had happened before his awakening back to him. The mission to Lotus Country. His fight with the Oto ninja. Him waking up to stare into the face of an enemy everyone had believed to be dead. The blinding light and the horrible pain that had come with it.

Naruto startled everyone around him as he suddenly bolted right up from his lying position into a sitting position. His blue eyes went left and right, nearly expecting Orochimaru to come crawling out of a shadowy corner at any seconds notice.

"It's okay, it's okay," said the dark-skinned girl as she held her hands in front of her in a calming gesture, showing that she didn't intend to do him any harm. "We aren't going to hurt you."

Naruto wanted to shout at her that it wasn't them that he was feeling worried about, but no words came when he opened his mouth. His throat felt as dry as a bag of sand and he nearly doubled over as a racking coughing assaulted him.

The girl scooted closer to the still coughing boy and hesitantly laid a hand ontop of his shoulder to steady him. She then started to quickly rummage through her things until she found what she was looking for. A water-pouch that she then offered to the blonde. "Here, have some water," she gently said.

He gratefully took what she offered and drank a couple of mouthfuls of the wonderfully cold water, feeling how it traveled down his throat and ended up inside his stomach. The blonde panted slightly as he tried to regain his breathing while he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Thank you," he rasped as he handed back the water-pouch. The water had been able to calm him down, allowing him to think rationally for a moment and he took another look around the place. He didn't seem to be in any of Orochimaru's dungeons anymore, what with him being able to look out and see a clear blue sky outside of the cave's opening. But how had he escaped from the snake's clutches? Had these people rescued him? He didn't think so. They didn't look like they were ninja, not wearing any headbands with the mark of any of the Hidden Shinobi Villages. There was no way, as far as he could see, that they could have broken into the stronghold of one of the most dangerous criminal minds that Konoha had ever produced and lived to tell the tale. But how had he come here then? No matter how much he thought about it he didn't seem to be able to come up with an answer.

"Are you okay?" asked the kind girl who had given him the water, slightly worried as he had started to stare off into space.

This brought Naruto back to reality and he shook his head from his thoughts, opting to find his answers later. He was free, and as far as he was concerned that was what was important. "Ah, sorry. I must have zoned out for a minute there," he said with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it. You've been unconscious since we found you so don't feel bad," said the boy with the shaved head as he plopped down right next to Naruto, at the opposite side of the girl with the braid. "My name is Aang, and these are my friends Katara, Toph and Sokka," he explained with a toothy grin, a grin that reminded Naruto very much of his own, while he gestured to all the people in order as he stated their names. "So what's your name?" Aang finally asked.

"It's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto," answered the blonde hesitantly. "But what do you mean by 'finding me'?"

This question caused the four friends to glance at each other, not really knowing where to start, but it was the girl who had given him the water, Katara, who finally decided to speak. "Well, it's actually quite a strange story. You see, it all started with... Momo, stop that right this instant! You'll just have to wait until the food is done like the rest of us," she suddenly said as she caught the glimpse of something moving at the corner of her field of vision before turning around to face it.

Naruto followed with his eyes where she was looking in order to see what it was that had interrupted her. He saw the small campfire everyne was seated around and the cooking pot that was hanging over it, no doubt the origin of the smell he had smelt earlier, but what caught his attention was what was currently standing right next to it.

It looked like some kind of small jungle monkey, it was covered in short white fur with patches of brown here and there, like its face and long tail. But what really made it stand out was the insanely huge ears that adorned its head. It looked pretty sheepish, with its small shoulders slumped and ears folded down its back, having been caught trying to grab a taste of the pleasantly smelling stew that was currently being cooked. Aang seemed to take pity on the small creature, taking out a nut that had been hidden behind his belt and then whistled to get the attention of his lemur friend who instantly cheered up. What came next made Naruto's eyes widen in surprise. Instead of simply running up to the boy as he had expected, the lemur unfolded a pair of batlike wings and flew skillfully through the air before landing ontop of Aang's shaved head.

It gratefully took the small treat that was offered to it, munching it down in just a couple of seconds. Once done, it turned its head to the side and looked at Naruto with its big and curious green eyes. Naruto looked right back at it, raising his hand into a greeting gesture and broke the silence by using a line commonly used by his sharingan-wielding sensei.

"Yo."

Momo seemed to only hesitate for less than a second before he jumped across the short distance between Aang's head and onto the blonde shinobi's shoulder and started to comb his fingers through the interesting stranger's unusually coloured hair.

"Hey, that tickles," laughed Naruto at the small creature's antics.

"It seems like Momo likes you, Naruto," stated Aang with a grin of his own.

"Well, we all know that Momo isn't really the best when it comes to judging people," grunted Sokka harshly as he sharpened the edge of his machete, never taking his eyes away from Naruto. It was as if he expected him to attack them at any second's notice or something.

"Do you have a problem with me or something?" asked Naruto as he narrowed his eyes in agitation, not liking the way that this guy was acting at all. "Because if you do I wan't you to say it to my face."

"Maybe I do, Goldie Locks," replied the pony-tailed teenager sternly as he stood up and pointed his sharp tool in Naruto's direction.

It was as if the temperature had decreased several degrees and the tension was so thick that it could have been cut by a knife. Momo didn't like this unpleasant atmosphere at all and decided to jump down from the golden haired stranger and took cover behind Aang. The young boy looked on in confusion between the two boys, hoping against all hope that this wouldn't have a violent outcome.

"Stop this!" yelled Katara angrily as she rose herself to her feet and faced her brother. "What's gotten into you Sokka? What's wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with me? I simply don't trust this guy, and neither should you," replied Sokka heatedly. "Just think about it for a minute will ya. I'm telling you there's something wrong about him, I can feel it. Don't you remember how we found him? We all saw what happened with our own eyes dammit!"

"I didn't," deadpanned Toph as she waved a hand in front of her pale eyes without getting any reaction out of them.

"That's beside the point," continued Sokka after the dark-haired girl's remark about her blindness. "We don't know anything about him. He could be a Fire Nation spy for all we know. Maybe even..."

"Now you listen to me!" growled Katara as she shook her fist at her brother in anger. "This is just your ugly xenophobia talking again. You accused Aang of the very same thing the first time we met him at the South Pole!" she reminded him as she pointed at said boy who was currently doing his best to keep himself out of this for as long as possible. "I honestly believed that you had learned your lesson to not judge people before you actually get to know them!"

"Guys," said Toph as she held the palm of her hand pressed to the earthy floor of the cave, her brows furrowed into a frown as if she was concentrating on something, but everyone was to much into the argument to pay any kind of attention to her.

"Xenophobic?! Me?! What about you and your overly naive optimism that you just have to exhibit towards every random stranger, huh?! Everyone isn't as nice as you make them out to be and most of the time it's just best to mind your own bussiness, especially considering the nature of this little trip we're on! Show some vigilance!"

"Guys."

"What's wrong with being optimistic?! And are you saying that if we happen to stumble upon an injured person, we should just leave him to fend for himself?! Is that what you're saying?!"

"Guys!"

"Of course not! But as you can see, this isn't exactly an injured person we're dealing with so we're not obliged to take care of him any longer. We should just...!"

"GUYS!!"

Everyone instantly turned their heads to look at Toph, who now had a quite irritated look on her face. "Now, if you're quite done verbally slapping each other, we've got some bigger problems to take care of. There are people heading this way. There's three of them and they're climbing the mountain ontop of some kind of animals and they'll be here shortly."

Naruto wanted to ask how she could possibly know something like that, but he never got the opportunity to do so as the rest of the group started to throw questions of their own.

"On animals? Can you tell us what kind?" asked Katara, sounding as if she had a pretty strong hunch on who they could be.

"I'm not entirely sure, but judging from the way that their feet are gripping the rock and earth, I would guess on large some kind of large reptiles," answered Toph hesitantly.

"Azula," hissed Sokka before looking back at Naruto, pointing accusingly with a scowl on his face. "What did I tell you all? He ratted us out!"

Before the blonde Jinchuriki could form any sort of retort to this accusation, the braided girl once again came to his defense. Katara took a deep, and very audible, calming breath and pinched the bridge of her nose before she felt that she could deal with her brother without resorting to physical violence. "Sokka, I know that you pride yourself with being the smartest of us, but now you're being so stupid that it's not even funny," she said as calmly as she possibly could. "Naruto's been unconscious for hours, when would he have had the time to signal the Fire Nation?"

"We'll have to deal with this later guys," declared Aang determinedly as he held his staff in a firm grip. "Right now we have to focus on dealing with Azula, everything else will have to wait. Does anyone have any objections?"

None of them had any, although Sokka looked as if he wanted to continue this, but in the end decided to let the issue slide for the moment. Naruto slowly raised his hand, gaining the attention of the four people he had just recently met and with a slightly sheepish look on his face asked: "Er... Who exactly is 'Azula' and what is this 'Fire Nation' you speak of?"

Judging by the extremely awkward silence and the fact that everyone (except Toph) looked at him as if he had just grown a second head, Naruto came to the conclusion that he had just asked a very stupid question.

"You're joking right?" asked Katara with an eyebrow raised after a moment of silence.

"Er, no. Not really," he answered with a really embarassed look on his face.

"Big nation of people who seem to have an odd liking of shooting fire at people while taking over the world, Azula being their overly psycothic princess who seems even more fond of said activities. Ringing any bells," offered Sokka sarcastically, but all he got in return was Naruto shaking his head with a look that screamed 'innocent ignorance'. The young Water Tribe warrior silently thought that if this Naruto-person really didn't know anything about the Fire Nation (very unlikely), then he must be one of the best actors he had met in his entire life.

"Guys, they're almost here," hissed Toph as she tried to hurry the group along.

"Right," replied Aang with a nod as he leaped into the air, jumping right over a stunned Naruto in a manner which no normal human should be capable of, as if he bended the surrounding winds to his very will to aid him in his jump.

This caused Naruto for the first time to actually look at what was behind him, and his eyes widened even more at what he saw. Right behind him lay the sleeping form of a very large animal that was completely covered in a thick layer of white fur, except of some stripes and a line of brown fur that ran along its back and ended on its head were it formed an arrow just like Aang's. A pair of pointy horns crowned its round head, three pairs of treetrunk like legs was atached to its mighty frame wich ended in a large and flat tail, something the blonde shinobi now realized had acted as his bed. This also explained where the loud snores he had heard earlier came from.

"Appa. Come on, wake up buddy," pleaded Aang as he tried to wake up the large animal. "You have to take us out of here." The boy's efforts seemed to prove effective and with a thundering yawn the bison rose himself onto his six feet.

"Alright, we're all done here," said Katara, having finished packing everything together. "Can you walk?" she asked Naruto as she helped him onto his feet.

"Yeah, no problem," he answered. "A good night's sleep is the only thing I need to recharge my batteries. But once this is all over, could you please explain to me what's exactly going on here?" he asked, earning a nod in reply from the braided girl.

"Good, then let's get out of here," declared Toph as she took the lead and headed straight towards the exit with everyone else being quick to follow. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how the young girl was able to know where she was suppsed to go without anyone to guide her, but decided that this was just yet another question that would have to wait for later.

Outside of the cave was a surprisingly large plateau that would have allowed at least a dozen large houses to be built and still have space over for more and gave everyone a perfect viw of the surrounding mountains. As soon as they got out however, this plateau was suddenly enveloped in walls made out of burning flames that came completely out of nowhere, making it impossible to go anywhere but up.

The now trapped group was well on their way to get onboard Appa, while at the same time trying to convince a sceptical Naruto that this was actually the best thing to do in this situation, when an opening was created in the flames and three figures entered calmly.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he observed these newcomers who were all dressed in varying shades of red. They were three teenaged girls, not older than he was, but he had long ago learnt that such trivial things as gender or age didn't have anything to do with neither strength nor power, and judging from the way that his new (was it too early to call them friends?) companions seemed to tense up as soon as they arrived, he came to the conclusion that he should be on his guard around these people.

"Looks like we caught up with them," came the cheerful voice of a smiling young girl with big brown eyes who was clad in a light-red, nearly pink, outfit that proudly displayed her belly and arms. Her long chestnut-coloured hair was tied into a long braid which fell down her back.

"Well, at least something happens for once," replied the extremely bored voice of her companion that looked like she wouldn't raise an eyebrow even if the moon suddenly fell from the sky (something that made Naruto suddenly think about a certain lazy-ass-ninja). This one was alot more elegantly dressed than her friend, being clad in a luxurious robe that still managed to look practical, her raven black hair tied into a tight bun excluding two long locks that flowed down her front.

These two walked at each separate sides of the clear leader of their small group, a girl whose entire presence screamed of unchallengable authority and nobility. Her entire body was dressed in something that could be best described as a battle uniform and her dark hair was tied back with a red piece of metal, obviously made to look like a burning flame that reminded Naruto of a crown, only allowing two locks to frame her aristrocratic face. Her amber eyes had the look of a predator who had just managed to catch its prey while an evil smirk tugged at her lips.

"Well, Avatar. It looks like we meet again," she said as she folded her arms behind her back. "Unless you would like to find out exactly how flamable a sky bison's fur is, I strongly advice you to step away from the beast." To back this threat up even further she raised a hand in which she quickly formed a perfectly round ball that was made entirely out of blue flames.

The large animal growled menacingly at the threat with Momo sitting perched ontop of his head, but stopped as soon as Aang gave him a calming pat on the head. The boy spoke into one of his ears and made him promise not to try helping them unless if it wasn't a dire emergency. He really didn't want her to act on her threat and in the end Appa seemed to agree to it but it didn't look like he was the least bit happy about it,

Naruto's eyes had widened slightly at her display of fire-manipulation, not understanding how she was able to create flames without using any hand seals. Then something else hit him. "Avatar? I thought you said your name was Aang," said the blonde as he turned to said boy.

Once again the blonde Jinchuriki was under the impression that he had said something incredibly stupid as everyone, including the trio of hostile females, looked at him weirdly.

"Seriously Goldie Locks, if you're going to make things up then at least make it believable. No one would buy that you're that ignorant," said Sooka as he removed his boomerang from its scabbard on his back without ever taking his eyes from the girls, preparing himself for battle.

"Leave him alone Sokka," said Katara as she eased herslef into a battle stance while facing the red clad girls, one of her hands resting on a bottle that was tied to her belt. "It's not exactly common knowledge who is the Avatar," she defended, although she did look slightly confused by the fact that the blonde, judging from his facial expression, didn't even seem to know what an Avatar was to begin with.

His outburst also caught the attention of a certain amber-eyed Fire Nation princess, now for the first time taking note of this strange new character among her targets and she sized him up with her scrutinizing gaze.

"Who might this be Avatar?" she asked with her red lips formed into a condescending smirk as she allowed the ball of fire in her hand to finally dissappear. "A new idealistic friend of yours who foolishly wishes to help you accomplish the impossible?"

"That's none of your bussiness Azula," stated Aang heatedly with his staff pointing in her direction. "Now how were you able to find us? I thought we made sure to not leave any tracks for you to follow after the last time we met."

"Well I guess you just weren't thorough enough," she replied with a barely noticable shrug. "Then there's also the fact that a flying bison really stands out and becomes quite the subject among gossipers and travelers. You would be surprised to know what exactly you learn when threatening to burn someone's face off," said Azula with her lips curved into an evil smile.

"You're sick," stated Toph as she cracked her knuckles before crouching herself into a stance with her hands raised into the air.

"Perhaps. Now, I'm going to give you all a very generous offer. Surrender peacefully and come with us to the Fire Nation where you will spend the rest of your pathetic existences in captivity, or resist and meet your ultimate demise right here and right now," she explained with an evil gleam in her golden eyes. "So, what's your choice?"

To answer this question, everyone simply stood their ground, each in an individual battle stance with a defiant fire glowing in their eyes. Naruto, who had just recently been set free, had no desire whatsoever to become someone's prisoner again and thought that it was only fair that he helped these people, who had helped him, to escape the same fate, and thus he got himself in line with his newfound comrades.

"Naruto, you shouldn't even be up yet, let alone fight. Stay back and let us handle this," said Katara in a low voice as her brows scrunched into a worried frown.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I feel absolutely fine," replied the blonde as he cracked his neck before glancing at her, giving her a wide foxy grin. "Besides, it's not really my style to just sit idly by when a fight's going on. And you did help me out before so consider this repayment. Well, that is if it's okay with Ponytail-Boy over there?" he asked with a nod towards Sokka.

Said boy, who was now holding both his boomerang and his battleclub in a firm grip, snorted slightly before answering. "As long as you have something to contribute and don't plan to stab us in the back, then I have no complaints."

Azula eyed her targets silently, not really expecting anyone to take her offer to begin with. "I figured as much," she smirked before she instantly brought her hands forward, unleaching a violent burst of blue flames towards her opponents, succeding in scattering them all over the 'arena' as they sought to evade the burning inferno. "Mai. Ty Lee. Get the Earthbender. Right now she's the most dangerous one of them all," she commanded and the two girls at her sides instantly sprung to action, heading straight for Toph as she herslef faced Aang.

Naruto's hand had instinctively drawn itself to his right thigh as he jumped to the side in order to evade the blazing blast of fire, only to silently curse as he remembered that his kunai/shuriken holster, along with all his other hidden weapons, had been previously consfiscated by Orochimaru. He looked up just in time to see Azula's two subordinates heading straight for Toph.

He was just about to go and help her when his eyes widened for the umpteenth time that day. It was as if the very earth and rocks of which they were all standing on had come to life and to make matters even more mind-boggling for the blonde, it looked as if it was Toph herslef who was causing it all.

She quickly extended her arms in front of her, palms pointing forward, and instantly the ground started to heave and ripple, like the waves on a tropical beach, towards her two opponents. The two of them didn't allow themselves to be hit however and jumped into the air in order to avoid the wave of earth that would have sweeped them of their feet.

The one called Mai then proceeded by launching a barrage of shuriken like objects while she was still in the air, intending to turn her assigned target into a human pincushion. But thankfully for Toph, her acute hearing made her able to hear the sound of the deadly projectiles that she couldn't see and she instantly brought her hands into the air and raised a protective shield, made out of solid stone from the ground before her, and caught the small blades before they'd managed to hurt her.

With a loud battle cry the young girl slammed her bare foot into the ground, causing the wall before her to jump into the air, right before she punched it and sent it flying towards her opponents who managed to dodge it just in time. Ty Lee was able to do so much easier than her stoic friend and when Toph started to launch boulder after boulder at the two of them, she got the perfect opportunity to test the true extent of her amazing acrobatic abilities as she ever so slowly started to shorten the distance between her and her Earthbending opponent.

Mai had decided to take this moment to provide cover for her cheerful companion from a safer distance, but just as she had been about to unleach a new volley of her weapons, she was forced to take a step back least she'd be immediately knocked out by a boomerang that passed through the space of empty air where her head had been not even a second ago. The dark haired girl slowly turned her head to the side to see the two Water Tribe siblings glaring back at her, just as Sokka effortlessly caught his returning boomerang with one hand.

With a quick movement by her thumb, Katara unlidded her waterbottle and with a graceful gesture by her hand it's content was brought into the air where it started to circle around her like an angry flying snake.

Mai sighed with a bored look on her face before she once again sprung into action.

OoOoOoO

It was air against fire as the intense Bending Duel between Aang and Azula raged on. Blasts of both of their native elements roared through the air as they exchanged blows upon one another, locked in a deadly dance of wind and flames. At a first glance, one would most likely assume that this was a fairly even match between the two Benders, but if one would look deeper it would soon become quite obvious that this was far from the truth.

While Aang was going all out, throwing everything he had at his opponent, Azula was merely toying with the boy like a cat would with a mouse right before eating it, her arrogant smirk never once leaving her face. It had been apparent right from the start when he had first met her in Omashu that she was far more skilled in the arts of Firebending than her brother Zuko, and the only reason that he had been able to escape from her clutches during their second encounter in the abandoned town was because of the aid of his friends. Now that he was forced to face her all by himself, his friends being occupied elsewhere and no Zuko to interfere, it was only all the more noticable just how large the gap between their levels actually was.

Aang cursed silently as he was just barely able to dodge a roundhouse kick that was instantly followed by a stream of blue flames, forcing him to use his Airbending abilities to jump back several meters in order to gain some safe distance between himself and his enemy. As the Avatar, Aang possessed the unique ability to bend all of the four elements and it was this ability that should have easily handed him the victory, but as it was right now he was forced to rely on only one of them. He had virtually mastered Waterbending already, but since the only water they had at the moment was being used by Katara, that option was out. He hadn't even been able to start practicing his Earthbending and the same could be said about Firebending, thus leaving him with only his native element, air, to use.

Another disadvantage that the young Avatar was facing was the fact that he deep down didn't want to harm anyone, not even the ruthless enemy he was now facing. Azula on the other hand had no such moral restrictions and didn't care the least if she accidentally killed her opponent, although she would prefer to take this particular one in alive.

Aang growled as he brought his staff down to the ground and unleashed an intense torrent of wind towards the smirking Fire Nation princess, but she just jumped into the air, bending fire below her feet to gain height, and let the attack pass harmlessly below her before she landed gracefully with her arms folded over her chest.

"Can't you see where this is all going Avatar?" she asked in a mocking tone. "If you come with us willingly you might actually postpone your deaths with several weeks. Maybe months. What do you say?"

"Never!" was his only answer to that question.

"As you wish," she replied with an evil smirk as she raised a hand into the air with index and middle finger extended, a perfectly streamlined blue flame steadily growing larger at their tips until it had gained the size of a large sword, as if her hand was a blowtorch made out of flesh and blood.

Aang steadied himself for the attack that was yet to come, holding his staff in a firm grip as he balanced his weight with his legs spread wide in order to attain a greater defensive stance. However, his eyes soon widened in pure horror as he noticed that his opponent's golden eyes weren't at all focused on him but on the dark-skinned Waterbender who was currently busy trying to deflect Mai's throwing knives on the other side of the plateau.

"No! Don't do it!" he yelled once he realized just what it was that she planned to do. But it was already too late, Azula having already turned herself around before the words had even left Aang's lips and then she fired a massive stream of incinerating fire that consumed everything that stood in its path as it burned its way towards Katara.

OoOoOoO

Sokka grunted in pain as he pulled yet another one of Mai's small arrows out of his arm.

When he and his sister had attacked Mai together, the Fire Nation girl had instantly made her intentions known by trying to make at least one of them unable to keep fighting. She was clearly not liking her uneven odds or the fact that she was being forced to fight two opponents who knew each other so well at the same time. So Sokka had been the one she focused her attention on first. With deadly accuracy she had launched her sharp projectiles from her sleeved in his direction, aiming for the arms and legs in order to render him harmless. At first he had been fully capable of deflecting the knives and arrows she sent his way, but after some time of relentless attacks, some of them started to slip their way past his defenses and dug themselves into his flesh which caused his movements to become noticably limited. He had stubbornly wanted to stay and continue fighting despite the pain but finally decided to retreat once he realized, bitterly, that he would only be a liability and possibly even endanger Katara if he did so.

With him out of the way Mai was now able to give the Waterbender her complete undivided attention. She kept her distance, knowing from first hand experience exactly what would happen if she tried to get too close. She continued to launch her projectiles only to have them batted away before they could get a chance to hit their mark as the water snapped through the air like a whip. Mai frowned as she realized that she would be completely out of weapons soon if things continued at this rate but... Her train of thought was suddenly halted as she looked past her opponent and saw what was coming towards them and instantly decided to get out of the way, not caring about the Water Tribe girl's surprised look.

Sokka was just as surprised as his sister when he saw Mai jump away. That is until he saw what was rushing towards Katara from behind her back, something that made all the colour drain from his face in terror.

"Katara! Watch out, behind you!" he yelled as loud as his lungs allowed, hoping that his sister would manage to get out of the way in time.

Katara raised her eyebrows in surprise at the urgency in her brother's voice. She turned around in order to see what all the commotion was about, only to stare wide eyed into the center of a blazing inferno that wasn't even seconds away from colliding with her.

OoOoOoO

A certain blonde gritted his teeth as he brought his hands together into a familiar seal as he sprung into action.

OoOoOoO

As Azula's attack made impact, it exploded into a massive ball of fire that forced everyone present to shield their eyes from the intense heat. Once everything had calmed down, everyone's eyes were instantly drawn to the spot of where the blow had struck, but no one was able to see anything except for a giant cloud of smoke and dust that obscured everything from view.

Aang felt completely numb, neither able nor willing to understand what exactly had happened. His staff fell with s clatter to the ground as he dropped to his knees, his legs not being able to carry his weight anymore. Tears starting to stream down his cheeks as realization finally hit.

"Wow, that certainly was impressive," said Azula in the same manner like one would when talking about the weather as she blew the smoke from her fingertips.

"Y-you monster! How could you do such a thing?!" shouted the young Airbender as he slammed his fist into the ground in grief.

"Please, don't make it sound like this is my fault," she answered disdainfully as she looked down at the Avatar with contempt. "You were the one who didn't wan't to give up and now you have to reap what you sow, it's as simple as that. Now, if you don't want me to..." she started to say as she turned her head to behold her handiwork, suddenly turning completely silent and her body stiffened at what she saw.

Aangs tatoos started to pulse, threatening to light up in the manner of which signified the almighty Avatar State, but the boy fought to stay sane, at least long enough for him to see what it was that had rendered his enemy speechless. With great effort he managed to raise his head and at first his eyes widened in disbelief at what he saw. At first he couldn't believe it, but as he looked around the plateau, he saw that everyone else was staring at the scene in the exact same way as he did and he realized that it was real and not some dream, allowing his face to light up in happiness.

The smoke and the dust had finally subsided, but instead of seeing the scorched remains of a young girl, they could clearly see that Katara was perfectly fine aside from a couple of minor burns. She was currently on her knees, sharing the same look of silent bewilderment as everyone else.

Right in front of her stood not one but two Narutos, each with an arm extended in front of them and holding onto a large blue sphere that looked as if it was entirely made out of solid wind. After a moment the sphere dissapeared and one of the Narutos poofed into nonexistense. The one that was left removed his headband before wiping his forehead from a decent amount of sweat with the back of his hand as he let out a weary sigh.

"That was a little too close for comfort," said the golden haired teenager before slowly turning around and locked his eyes with Katara's. "Are you okay?" he asked concerned, a question of wich she could only nod in reply to as she was unable to form any words yet. "That's good," he grinned. "As I said before; it's not really my style to just sit idly by when a fight's going on, but I'm sorry that I wasn't able to find a good opening to help you guys out until now."

He then turned around, instantly growing serious as he stared defiantly into the amber eyes of Azula. Her eyes being the only thing that betrayed her stoic demeanor as they burned with such an intense fury that they would have made most men cower in fear. But Naruto wasn't like most men and calmly retied his headband without ever breaking eye-contact.

"I might not know exactly what's going on here," he growled as he narrowed his eyes. "I might not have any idea what kind of strange powers you all have. I might not even know where the hell I am. But if there's something I do know," he started as he crouched with his arms at his sides, palms open and fingers bent like claws, "then that something is that I won't allow anyone to harm those that I consider to be my friends, no matter how little time I have known them. So, _Princess, _let's get wild," he finished as his lips split into a feral grin.

OoOoOoO

So what did you think? What was good? What wasn't as good? What can be improved? Constructive criticism is appreciated since it helps me to develop as a writer, but please, no flames. Those are just annoying. Anyway, I hope you liked the first chapter and hope that you'll stick around for more. This is ChaosGhidorah who's signing off.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 02

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either Naruto or Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Wow. First of all I'd just like to thank everyone for the kind words and the fact that so many people seem to like my fic. I never thought I'd get so much positive feedback. Secondly, I'm truly sorry for the long wait dear readers, but now I've finally completed the second chapter of Naruto: the last shinobi. The first chapter took about a month for me to write, so you might ask yourselves why I took so much longer when writing this. Well, there were quite a few different factors that played into this ecuation, such as writers block, insane amounts of school work, good old lazyness as well as some other things. For some reason I find it rather hard to write fight scenes and considering this chapter conatins a fairly big one, the long wait could partly be blamed on that as well.

Anyway, now to answer some commonly asked questions without revealing too much of the story. This would take place after Sasuke managed to defeat Orochimaru and everything up to that point is canon for the story (including the fight between Jiraiya and Pein as well as the things that are currently being revealed about Madara and the Uchiha clan as well as Naruto's parents). It however diverges from the manga since here, Naruto and the gang didn't instantly run after Sasuke once they heard what happened in Oto.

Furthermore, Naruto's awakening in the Avatar-world would take place some unspecified time between the two episodes "The Chase" and "Bitter Work", just so you know.

I've also recieved alot of questions regarding any possible pairings. Naruto will hook up with one of the girls from the Avatar-world, but there's still a loooong time left before that happens. I will also point out that most of the pairings that I regard as canon will remain unchanged, such as Sokka/Suki and Zuko/Mai.

Anyway, with all that said I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and I'll be waiting for those Reviews.

**Chapter 02**

**Unknown Power**

Naruto had interfered just in time to stop Azula's attack from burning Katara's body to crisp. After summoning a shadow clone to his side, he had quickly performed _kawarimi no jutsu_ in order to instantly appear in front of the girl, switching places with a couple of small rocks that had been laying around. Once there, he and his clone had stared right in the eye of the blazing blast of intense flames that had been fired by the Fire Nation princess, watching as it kept coming closer and closer. They'd only had a couple of seconds at their disposal, but that would simply have to do as Naruto and his clone instantly got to work.

He doubted normal Rasengan wouldn't be enough for an attack of this magnitude and he feared that a Rasengan infused with his wind chakra would just fuel it further. Naruto had instead decided for a different aproach. Just as he and the girl he had met not even twenty minutes ago were about to get completely incinerated, he and his clone quickly extended an arm each towards the incoming attack, their hands united in a large sphere of quickly rotating chakra that only kept growing larger and larger.

During the short second when the focused blast of fire finally made contact with the Oodama Rasengan, time seemed to nearly stand still for both Naruto and Katara. The blonde shinobi wondered if his technique would really be enough to shield them from harm while the female Waterbender stared wide eyed at the scene unfolding before her, silently wondering how the heck _two _Naruto had managed to suddenly appear right out of nowhere.

When the attack struck the Oodama Rasengan, it was just like a flood that smashed right into a dam and the glowing orb of Chakra forced it to split into two separate directions. It all happened with such force that Naruto and his clone were forced to anchor themselves to the ground with Chakra, least they'd be blown away like leaves in a storm. All of this happened during merely a couple of hundreds of seconds, wich was enough time to make the blonde shinobi sweat profusely due to the extreme heat (making him absentmindedly wonder if it was a good or a bad thing that he didn't have a shirt on), before the fire ball finally detonated in a massive explosion.

Thankfully, Naruto's technique had been enough to save both himself and Katara from certain death, merely leaving some minor burns here and there on them that bore witness of what had taken place. He had sighed in deep relief once all the smoke and dust finally started to subside, proving that at least this situation was safely over and done with. However, his eyes narrowed as he looked across the plateau and stared straight into the golden eyes of the person responsible for this attempt of murder.

OoOoOoO

To say that Azula, princess of the grand and glorious Fire Nation, was angry would have been a grave understatement. She was furious beyond comprehention.

Ever since she was but a young child, she had relentlessly drilled herself towards absolute perfection and would settle for nothing less from neither herself nor those that served her. Unlike the rest of the young girls of the court, she had held absolutely no interest in wasting her time by playing around with stupid games or giggling about tales of strong and handseome warriors saving damsels in distress.

She had instead been much more interested in power and the means necessery to obtain said power. Just like a moth that was being drawn towards a flame, so too had the young Azula been drawn towards the mystical arts of Firebending, being absolutely enthralled by it and what it was capable of.

Even in the earliest stages of her training, it had been clear right from the start that she was something completely out of the ordinary. Everything had seemed to just come naturally for her. Like a fish in open water, it was as if she just knew instinctively what to do and like a sponge she was able to absorb move after move, technique after technique with such ease that it rendered her tutors speechless with amazement while her father couldn't be more proud of his little prodigy.

Azula's already impressive ego could only grow because of all the praise she recieved, especially since she knew very well that she was already far ahed of her older brother Zuko in terms of both skill and power at the time. But because of the fact that he held the status of oldest son, thereby ensuring him the right of becoming the next Firelord after their father's future retirement, or death, the knowledge of being superior to him only served to push the princess to new limits. Instead of just cursing the horrible bad luck she'd been dealt by fate and do nothing about her situation, she instead completed training after training, the one harder than the other. She refused to end her days as having merely been known as "the sister of the Firelord" or being married off to some old military officer. No, she had far greater dreams for herself and she fully intended to make them come true. One way or another.

But now, yet another obstacle had decided to interfere with her plans. The reason behind her fury was quite simple. She hated surprises, and now she had been absolutely dumbfounded by a person who she had at first immediately written off as a blabbering idiot with strange yellow hair. But this same idiot had managed to not only save the girl she had intended to kill in order to mentally break down the Avatar, but also succeded in blocking one of her most powerful attacks by using a strange technique of which she had never even heard about before!

Still, controling her emotions was an easy task for the ruthless princess and after merely closing her eyes for a short moment she soon had them back under her control once again. She was quickly back to being her normal nearly emotionless self and her red lips formed themselves into the ever present smirk that adorned her face as she coldly eyed the young man who had just finished his little speech and declared his challenge to her.

"Looks like we'll have to finish things a little later than I had expected, Avatar," she said as she glanced at Aang before turning her attention back to Naruto. "It seems to me that your new friend here has an unhealthy wish of getting burned, and who am I to deny such a request?" she finished with an evil smile as she eased herself into a battle stance while facing her new opponent.

Aang gritted his teeth in frustration as Azula dismissed him like he was nothing. He refused to believe this duel to be over and he was just about to voice his objection when Naruto suddenly called out to him.

"Aang, let me handle her," he said without ever letting his blue eyes leave their focus on the Fire Nation princess.

"I can't let you do that," replied Aang heatedly as he brought himself back up onto his feet, his staff once again in a secure two-handed grip. "You don't know what she's capable of."

"From what I've seen I think I know exactly what she's capable of," answered the blonde shinobi grimly as he recalled what Azula had just tried to do. Even though he was a ninja, a person who was supposed to be taught to kill, these sorts of things still really got to him. Why anyone would try to kill a person when they didn't even pose a direct threat to either you or your allies was something that the young Uzumaki still couldn't understand to this day.

"Katara!"

Naruto and Katara turned their heads around as they heard the voice of Sokka. The young warrior of the southern Water Tribe was limping his way towards them as fast as his injuries could allow. Once there he dropped to his knees and embraced his already kneeling sister in a bear-hug.

"I thought that I'd lost you," he admitted hoarsly with his eyes tightly shut. Katara blinked before a small smile appeared on her face as she returned the embrace. The siblings continued to hug each other in silence for a couple of seconds before Sokka finally broke the embrace. He then proceeded by placing his hands on Katara's shoulders and... started to violently shake her back and forth while simultaneously yelling at the top of his lungs; "Don't you ever do that again! Do you have any idea how scared I was?!"

Katara finally managed, with some difficulty, to utter an incoherent apology and her brother soon let go of her.

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of their antics, the entire scene oddly reminding him of how Sakura would occaisonally act towards him in similar situations (sadly without the hug-part though).This earned him the attention of the two siblings. He quickly noticed that Sokka seemed to be unable to look him directly in the eye for some reason and that he had a slightly guilty look on his face. The Jinchuuriki didn't bring this up however and instead flashed them with one of his fox-like grins.

"You should probably try to back away a little," he said as he looked back at Azula. "Things might get a little rough from this point."

"You mean you're actually serious about fighting Azula?" asked Katara with her eyebrows raised as she got to her feet, helping Sokka to do the same while offering her shoulder for him to lean onto. "Naruto, that's madness! Aang's right about this. You have no idea just how powerful she really is."

"I'll be fine, so don't worry about me. Just try to think of a way that'll take us out of here as fast as possible. Besides, things like not fully knowing what I'm up against has never really stopped me before." he replied with a grin as he brought his hands together in front of him, the index and middle fingers of both of his hands joined together in a cross. As always when he started to mold his chakra, the seal that kept Kyuubi trapped inside his body appeared on his exposed abdomen before he finally uttered the words that usually were the last thing people heard before he beat them into a bloody pulp.

"**Kage bunshin no jutsu!**"

Eveyone's eyes, including Azula's, instantly widened in astonishment as no less than four exact duplicates of the golden haired boy appeared all around him, each of them announcing their precence with a poof of white smoke.

"Alright, let's go!" roared the original Naruto, raising a closed fist into the air to punctuate his words, right before rushing off towards his waiting opponent. After a brief shout of 'yes boss', his clones were quick to follow their creator's action and sided up with him on each side.

Sokka was the first one to break the thick silence as the two Water Tribe siblings stared disbilievingly at the shrinking back of the mysterious person who they had discovered in the cave during the rain storm.

"We sure stumbled upon a strange guy, didn't we?"

And for once, Katara couldn't help but agree with her brother completely.

OoOoOoO

"You know, that new guy is kinda cute," mused Ty Lee absentmindedly as she dodged yet another boulder that had threatened to knock her head clean off from her shoulders.

"Ty, you can ogle boys later. If you haven't noticed, were're a little busy right now," sighed Mai annoyed as she tried to get a clean shot with a rather vicious looking shuriken-like weapon at a certain Earthbender. This wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do since the female shuriken master at the same time had to avoid getting her bones crushed by the large boulders that were currently being launched at her by said Earthbender.

Mai had decided to return to assisting her bubbly friend after Azula had tried to fry the Waterbending girl. Using their previous tactic, Mai was giving Ty Lee cover from a slight distance away while the former circus-acrobat would attempt to get close enough to hit their opponent's pressure points and by doing so also nullify her bending, rendering her completely defenseless. However, they seemed to have just as little luck now as they did before, but although their number one priority right now was to neutralize the young Earthbender as a threat, keeping her occupied and stall time until Azula had finished playing with her own opponents was just as important.

Toph cursed like a sailor as she hurled boulder after boulder at her assailants, while at the same time did her best to avoid being hit by Mai's deadly projectiles. Keeping track of Ty Lee wasn't exactly an easy feat either since the agile Fire Nation girl had a highly annoying tendency of often leaping into the air. Since Toph was dependent on the vibrations of the earth, she could only sense someone's prescence as long as they had contact with the earth itself. Normally this wouldn't have been much of a problem at all since her unique ability allowed her to predict attacks like very few ever could and she had also trained herself to quickly react to them with less than a second's notice. But Ty Lee was moving so fast that even her acute senses had trouble keeping up with her.

It was also thanks to her ability to "see" through the earth that had allowed her to know how the others fared in their own battles. When Naruto had saved Katara from getting incinirated by Azula, right before appearantly multiplieing himself, Toph had almost gotten herself killed because of the pure surprise she had felt when she sensed the act taking place. But if there were one thing the young Earthbender trusted in this world then that thing was her senses, and if they told her that the strange teenager that they'd found in the cave now was at five places at the same time, then he really was at five places at the same time. Any questions could wait for later as far as she was concerned.

With that said, and the others being busy elsewhere, that left Toph to singlehandedly deal with Azula's companions/body guards. These would normally be the kind of odds that she would be more than thrilled to face, but the ever increasing frustration that she felt towards the two dodging Fire Nation girls was really starting to get on her nerves and she wasn't above letting her irritation to be heard.

"Will you just stand still so that I can freaking hit you already!" she hollered at the top of her lungs, while at the same time trying to knock her opponents off their feet so that she could finish them off.

"Now what would the fun be in that?" chirped Ty Lee as she used her incredible circus acrobatics to practically dance her way around the dangerous boulders that kept flying her way, her happy smile never leaving her face even once.

Toph snarled in anger and slammed one of her bare feet onto the ground before quickly bringing said foot backwards, using her Earthbending to manipulate the surface of the earth to shift in the same direction as her foot, litterary pulling the earth backwards.

Ty Lee had expected to see yet another large piece of solid earth being launched at her and was as such not prepared for what actually happened. The female acrobat yelped in surprise as she felt the ground pull, nearly knocking her off balance before she managed to catch herself before she fell. She quickly looked up as she heard a sound that she'd become quite familiar with by now and almost instinctivaly let herself fall backwards, allowing her hands to stop her fall, effortlessly bending her back in an upside down U arc.

The distraction that Toph had utilizied aginst her cheerful opponent had almost been enough to hand her the victory, but because of Ty Lee's quick recovery she merely felt the swoosh of the large piece of rock against her exposed stomach as it passed over her.

"That was a close one," the acrobatic girl said after uttering a deep sigh of relief. She was just about to jump right into the game again, but then she noticed something else that managed to catch her attention.

Right in front of her face sat a small and fuzzy creature with large ears that stared curiously into her grey eyes with its own big green ones, all the while letting its long tail slowly wag from side to side.

With a gasp of delight, Ty Lee was up in a heart beat and quickly grabbed the lemur in a hug. "How cute!" she loudly exclaimed as she rubbed her cheek against the poor creature that was currently trapped in her tight embrace, shrieking in panic as it desperately tried to free itself from the grasp of its captor. Considering her personality, it shouldn't really come as a surprise for people to learn that Ty Lee was a real sucker for cute animals in all shapes and sizes, and the Avatar gang's own little mascot was a very cute animal by her definitions.

As the pink clad Fire Nation girl was busy cuddling with the lemur, she failed to notice the earth moving around her feet until it was all too late. As if the soil had turned alive it quickly grabbed a hold of her ankles and securely anchored her to the ground. Forced to let go of her little play mate, Ty Lee made a few futile attempts of freeing herself but it appeared as if she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this little pinch that she'd gotten herself into for some time.

"Aw, no fair," she declared sullenly with a pout as she crossed her slender arms over her chest.

Finally free, Momo ran as fast as his little legs could allow towards Toph and quickly took cover behind the powerful Earthbender.

"Aw, is that the sound of a sore loser I hear?," asked Toph with a smug smirk on her face and her hands firmly placed at her hips. "Thanks for the help Momo," she grinned as she squatted down and lightly patted the winged lemur's little head.

Momo wasn't exactly sure what he'd done to help, unless being caught by a loud and scary human female counted, but was pleased by the praise and the knowledge that he'd been able to contribute with at least some sort of assistance for his friend nonetheless.

"Oh, Ty," sighed Mai in exasperation as she pinched the bridge of her nose, deeply irritated by the fact that her friend had been outdone in such a humiliating manner. Being fond of fuzzy animals was one thing, but to be distracted by the mere sight of one in the middle of a battle was beyond infuriating.

Ah, well. It wasn't as if she really could do anything about it she supposed. There weren't many things the gloomy Fire Nation girl liked in this world, but her bubbly companion was one of those few exceptions that seemed to be able to brighten her days (a certain scarred prince being another). This was just another one of those quirks that was part of her friend's unique personality and she wouldn't want to change that for anything, no matter how annoying it could be at times.

But still, this meant that Mai would have to fight the young Earthbender completely on her own.

Reaching into the large crimson sleeves of her robe, Mai pulled out a new set of deadly blades and let her body relax itself into a loose battle stance that would allow her to immediately react at any second's notice. There was no way she would allow herself to be taken down the same way Ty Lee had.

Toph merely smirked as she eased herself into a stance of her own. She had to admit that these girls, despite not being Benders, had performed outstandingly well. Far greater than she'd first given them credit for and that had almost cost her this fight. She reasoned it was about time she wrapped things up and to show them the reason why she'd earned herself the nickname of "The Blind Bandit" during all those underground tournaments she'd secretly participated in before she joined Aang and his friends.

Her face took on a look of utmost concentration as she focused on the earth around her. She raised her hands into the air, her palms facing downwards, and suddenly slammed her foot down onto the ground. The sound of a minor explosion could instantly be heard as rock and earth crumbled into tiny, dust-like particles that all became part of a mighty torrent that burst forth towards Mai, completely enveloping her in a giant cloud of dust.

Toph didn't need her eyes in order to "see", but her opponent sure did and now she had effectively taken away the sense the Fire Nation girl needed the most in order to make full use of her special skills.

Mai coughed violently as she tried to wave away some of the dust in front of her in a futile attempt to regain her visual of her Earthbending adversary. This wasn't good. Not good at all. One of the disadvantages of her preferred style of combat was that she would most often be required to rely on her eyesight in order to nail a target. Now that she only had her ears to guide her she knew that she wouldn't be able to perform nearly as well as she usually would.

Hearing the faint sound of footsteps to the left of her, Mai quickly turned herself around and threw her blades at the spot where the sound had originated from. But the only thing she heard was when they inbedded themselves into the ground, indicating that she'd missed her target.

Once again she heard footsteps, this time to her right and she didn't hesitate to fire a small barrage of those fletched stilletos she always kept spring-loaded in the holsters around her wrists. But she failed to hit anything this time as well and she narrowed her eyes as she tried to make out any new sounds that could lead her to her enemy.

But everything had turned deathly quiete around her. No footsteps. No flying boulders. Nothing.

"Having trouble seeing?" came the mischievous voice of Toph as she stood right behind the now wide eyed Mai.

The shuriken-master quickly spun around in order to attack her younger opponent, only to stare dumbfoundedly up at a large triangular wall that had suddenly sprung up from the ground and reached above her head. The same thing happened behind her, then twice at both of her sides before thei tips of the walls joined together right above her head, trapping her inside a cage made entirely out of rock and earth.

Mai let out a sigh of annoyance as she sat down with her legs crossed, chin resting in the palm of one of her hands.

"Azula is so not going to like this," was all she said in a bored voice.

OoOoOoO

At the same time as Toph's battle was taking place, Naruto and his four clones were quickly aproaching Azula on speeds that no normal human could possibly match. The waiting Fire Nation princess couldn't help but frown as she watched her new enemy, or rater enemies, coming closer and closer. She briefly wondered if her mind was playing tricks on her since she knew very well that what she had just seen was a physical impossibility. She knew that no one could simply create perfect copies out of thin air, but she quickly crushed such thoughts and focused on the present. Every question she wanted answered could wait until the interrogation. ...If her opponent survived for that long that is, she thought with a malicious smirk as she unleashed a blue fire ball at him.

Naruto and his clones saw the incoming burning projectile. It was nowhere near as massive as the earlier one had been, but it was nevertheless still very impressive and as it aproached them they instantly started to put Naruto's plan into motion.

Naruto's skills as a ninja had certainly improved since his early genin days. The most obvious developement having taken place during those years of which he had travelled around the Elemantal Countries and trained under the tutelage of the legendary Jiraiya, one of the three Sannin that had once been taught by the Third Hokage himself.

The Toad Summoner had been a harsh but fair teacher and had done everything he could to prepare his newest apprentice for the bitter challenges that lay ahed of him (whenever he didn't spend his time trying to peek at girls that is). This often meant that he literally beat the knowledge into his student's head and sometimes even forced him to face intense life or death situations that would have broken most people both physically and mentally. But Naruto's indomitable spirit would always prevail in the end, to the great pride of his teacher.

Jiraiya had made it quite clear right from the beginning that he wouldn't really teach Naruto any new jutsus during their travels (except for trying to help him gain more control of Kyuubi's Chakra and during the development of the Oodama Rasengan) but to rather help him fully master what he already knew, teaching him how to better utilize his unique qualities – such as his enormous chakra reserves and his insane stamina - and to rid him of the blatant faults in his style and skills. Essentially to help him learn how to take care of himself in his future encounters with Akatsuki.

For example, one of the first steps had been to do something about his sorry excuse of taijutsu and during the years that they spent away from Konoha, it had evolved into something much more refined and fluent. While it was clearly nowhere near the Hyugas' Jūken in terms of elegance or grace, it was still a vast improvement compared to his earlier "style" that had looked more like something that a regular street fighter or thug would use.

His terrible chakra control was also something that had been greatly improved. While it was still below average at best, it now allowed him to execute his ninjutsu easier and much more effectively than ever before. Creating a flawless single handed Rasengan was like a piece of cake for the blonde shinobi by now and he was also capable of summoning toads that were up to the size of an elephant without having to resort to using his demonic chakra.

He had also learned how to use his Kage Bunshins in a more effective way than before. In his early teens he would have simply just created as many clones as possible and then hope for the best. Although stuff like that still happenend, now he would be more prone to just create a small number of clones where all of them would hold a specific purpose. The fact that Naruto gained all of their memories and experiences once they were dismissed or destroyed served to only further sharpen his skills. Using this advantage, and given enough time, he could gain a better grasp of how his opponents fought and how to better act against them. This had been one of the key elements behind his victory over Kakuzu of the Akatsuki (another being his newest and most dangerous technique, the Fuuton Rasenshuriken).

While the young blonde ninja was still very rash and would often run headfirst into dangerous situations without thinking, his sometimes uncanny ability to come up with nearly brilliant strategies as he went along wheighed up for this.

This was one of those moments.

Once the fire ball was so close that they could actually feel its heat upon their skin, they broke their formation. The two clones that were running at the left and right sides jumped aside while the original Naruto and the two copies that were closest to him leaped straight into the air, everyone effectively dodging the Fire Nation princess' attack.

Orochimaru might have taken all of his weapons away from him, but who said he couldn't just create new ones, thought Naruto with a smirk as his clones brought their hands together while they were all still in midair. They started to go through the seals necessary for performing the Henge no Jutsu and in a poof of white smoke, they both turned themselves into a pair of giant shuriken of which the blonde Konoha ninja was quick to grab onto, right before sending one of them spinning towards his enemy with a mighty throw.

Azula had followed her interesting new target with her golden eyes and although she couldn't help but be surprised of the things he had done, her red lips curved themselves into a smirk as she watched the incoming weapon that would most likely be able to decapitate her.

She simply took a step to the side and thus managed to avoid getting her head cut off, but her smug smile quickly faded once she heard a sound that she had only just begun to become familiar with. A distinct "poof" that seemed to follow every trick her strange opponent pulled.

The shadow clone, now back in its usual form, had used the ground as leverage and was now flying through the air and well on its way to make its knee connect with the back of Azula's head.

But Azula wasn't called a genious prodigy for nothing and managed to narrowly avoid the attack, while at the same time using it against her adversary. During the short time required for the clone to regain its momentum, the raven haired girl didn't hesitate to deliver a vicious roundhouse kick, followed by an intense arc of flames that brutally connected with its temple.

The clone was immediately destroyed. The quickly dissapearing white smoke being the only evidence that it had even been there in the first place. Azula narrowed her eyes as she briefly pondered upon this strange phenomenon. Not only had the boy with the marked cheeks and strange hair managed to duplicate himself, but the duplicants had then transformed themselves into weapons. At first the princess had considered the option that perhaps they were simply just illusions, tricks designed to fool the senses of a human, but her kick had immediatly put an end to that theory.

The feeling of her heel connecting with the doppelganger was unmistakenly real. But while these clones were indeed physical entities, the way it had "died" prove that they weren't exactly made of flesh and blood either.

Azula had fought and triumphed over Benders of all the remaining elements. She had crushed warriors that had mastered the most devestating martial arts this world had to offer. But despite all of her knowledge and experiences, she had absolutely no idea whatsoever what it was that she was up against now. She hadn't even heard of anyone practising arts that even remotely resembled these.

She would have to think about this later, she concluded as she eyed two of the remaining doppelgangers as they quickly aproached her from different angles. Each one of them were holding a smaller version of the weird sphere that had managed to stop her attack in their right hands. Although Azula didn't know what it was fully capable of, she wasn't willing to be on the receiving end of it.

One of the clones thrusted its arm forward, Rasengan swirling in hand, but cursed as it failed to hit its intended target. The agile Firebender who had managed to skillfully avoid the powerful ninjutsu, now somersulted through the air while simultaneously sending bursts of compressed blue fire into the unprotected back of the Kage Bunshin, destroying it just like she had done with the other one.

She barely had time to breath once she had her feet on the ground, before the third one pounced on her. It had come so quickly that she barely even had time to take note of it and was only saved because of the impressive reflexes that she'd acquired after several years of intense training as she used the clone's shoulder as leverage to jump away during its attack. If she had reacted even a tenth of a second slower than she actually did, it would have been her and not the ground that would have been hit by the bunshin's Rasengan.

Azula's eyes widened in a short moment of shock as she witnessed the amount of damage that the seemingly insignificant blue ball had managed to inflict upon the ground. Upon impact it had torn into the solid surface of stone and earth with a loud explosion, leaving behind a decently sized crater that was still smoking. If this was what it could do to such solid material, then she had absolutely no intention to find out what the same attack could do to human flesh.

The Firebender was however brought back from her thoughts as Naruto's doppelganger instantly went on the offense once it had gotten its bearings back in order. Using its hands as leverage, the clone jumped back onto its feet right before spinning around and aimed a swift kick to connect with its female opponent.

Azula brought her hands together and raised a protective shield made entirely out of flames in order to halt the incoming attack.

The clone cursed audibly, but still managed to avoid burning itself on the scorching barrier in the last second by altering its movements while still being in midair. After spinning itself around, the bunshin then proceeded by slamming its foot down onto the ground. And with the help of some strategically applied chakra, leaped into the air, flying straight over Azula's head before gracefully landing behind the very surprised Fire Nation princess.

With a snarl she quickly turned around, reshaping her shield with a couple of swift and simple hand gestures before finally releasing it in the form of a blast of blazing fire right at the blonde duplicate.

With less than a second to act, the clone managed to form a Rasengan just in time to defend itself from the fiery attack. The spinning orb of chakra effectively halted the intense flames' aproach, forcing them to split into two separate directions around it, just like the Oodama Rasengan had done before with the significantly larger blast. However, this also put the clone in a rather compromised position. During the seconds it took for it to stave off Azula's fire blast, it was left momentarily unprotected and the young Firebender saw her chance.

Azula didn't hesitate for even a second as this opportunity presented itself for her and she quickly sprung into action. Like a silent predator she pounced her prey and unleashed a rapid, and deadly, combo of fire empowered punches and kicks upon the shadow clone's body. As the furious attacks hammered its body and fire burned its naked arms and chest, there were little more it could do except crying out in agony before being ultimately silenced by a final blast of fire delivered at point blanc range to its face.

As the white smoke quickly started to dissipate into the air, Azula's golden eyes examined her surroundings, searching for the original blonde and she didn't have to wait for long at all before finding him.

Having had three of his four shadow clones destroyed, the true Naruto finally entered the battle. With a loud battle cry he descended upon Azula, his huge shuriken/kage bunshin being held in a firm grip in his right hand.

The princess narrowed her amber eyes and jumped back just in time to witness the weapon sink one of its four deadly edges into the spot where she had just been previously standing. Without wasting a second, the dark haired girl brought her hands up in front of her before landing and fired a rapid barrage of compressed fireballs upon her attacker.

With a grunt Naruto pulled the shuriken out of the ground and quickly used it as a makeshift shield to deflect the incoming white hot projectiles that threatened to singe his hide. Once they were all out of his way, and he finally had a clean shot, the blonde shinobi hurled the shuriken with all the power that his right arm could muster at his opponent.

Azula watched how the deadly weapon spun through the air on its way towards her. She quickly raised her right hand and with a look of utmost concentration, the Firebending prodigy formed a sword made entirely out of brightly burning blue flames. It extended from the tips of her index and middle finger and with a mere flick of her wrist she cut the shuriken cleanly in two, the heat of her blade melting its way through the faux metal like a hot knife through butter. The two separate pieces continued on their way for a split second before finally bursting into a cloud of white smoke that completely eveloped the young princess and at the same time effectively obscured everything from her view.

With an irritated gesture of her hand, the female Firebender easily dispatched the annoying veil that had been cast over her eyes and she was once again ready to take on the mysterious boy who was standing in her way from completing her goal of capturing the Avatar.

The only problem was that he was nowhere to be found.

With an uncharacteristically surprised look on her beatiful face, Azula started to look all around herself, wondering where the hell the blonde could have gone until her gaze was once again brought back to the place where she had last seen her opponent. This time however, she finally noticed something that her hawk like eyes somehow had managed to miss at first. By craning her neck slightly, she now saw that on the exact same place that Naruto had been previously standing, there was now a fairly large hole that went straight into the earth.

For a split second, Azula did nothing but stare at the sight in confusion before her golden eyes lit up as all the pieces suddenly fell together. As quickly as she possibly could she jumped back, luckily for her just in time to see the whiskered teenager burst through the ground in front of her with a raised fist that would have connected with her jaw if she had moved any slower. The uppercut couldn't have missed her by more than a couple of centimeters and judging by the wind that came in its wake, lightly slapping her in the face, she came to the conclusion that the punch most likely would have shattered her jaw if it had been allowed to hit its intended target.

Time seemed to almost slow down around the two of them for a moment as they flowed through the air. They were both so into this duel that they hardly even noticed anything that took place around them, being solely focused on each other. Sharp and hawk-like golden eyes stared heatedly into intense sky blue ones as each of their respective owners pondered their next move.

Azula was the first one to act. Without even as much as blinking she quickly summoned her fire blade and ruthlessly struck her opponent with it, effectively cleaving the blonde's body into two halves from right hip to left shoulder.

The onlookers that had all been anxiously following every single second of the brethtaking battle so far, were rendered completely speechless by the dreadful scene that was currently taking place before their very eyes. Katara quickly brought her hands to her mouth as she tried to stifle an audible gasp of horror at the sight of the appearant death of the strange boy they'd found in the cave. The boy who had just recently saved her life.

Azula couldn't help but feel incredibly satisfied by her work as she observed the Avatar and his rag tag team of friends. Not only had she beaten an extremely challenging enemy, once again proving her superior status to herself, but the look of utter despair that she saw on her targets' faces made her feel incomparably warm inside. Although it was truly a great pity that she hadn't been able to find out the secret behind her opponent's strange abilities, she couldn't help herself as her luscious red lips formed themselves into a triumphant smirk as she eyed the corpse of her fallen enemy.

...That is until the body suddenly burst into yet another cloud of white smoke that quickly dissolved into the air.

Before anyone could even voice their shock, the ground behind Azula exploded with a loud bang and the real Naruto revealed himself, perfectly fine, as he jumped out of the hole he'd created. Once again he'd proven himself worthy of the title " world's most surprising ninja" and all eyes where on him as his feet made contact with the ground, right before he rushed forward with remarkable speed.

"I've got you now princess!" he declared triumphantly as he came face to face with the female Firebender, a newly formed Rasengan in his right hand.

Azulas golden eyes widened in terror as she eyed the sphere of energy coming closer and closer to her while a feeling she wasn't entirely used to, yet hated, started to claim a hold of her heart. In a desperate attempt to at least dampen the impact, she fired a blast of compressed fire in the very last second before the Rasengan would hit.

Her attack did manage to move Naruto's hand sligthly out of course, but despite her best efforts, she was still hit with enough force to be sent spinning through the air before finally hitting the ground nearly ten meters away.

After silently lying on the ground for a few moments, Azula started to ever so slowly force herself back up again. It was a pretty drawn-out process, her entire body aching terribly to such a degree that she couldn't help but let out a couple of pained groans. She couldn't remember a single occasion during her entire life when she'd been in more pain than right now. If she didn't know any better she could have sworn that she'd been run over by a tank.

With some great effort, the princess was finally able to once again stand on her own two feet, but she was far from being in her best condition as she wobbled from side to side. Her mind was in a daze, her clothes had been torn and ripped in several places, her body was covered in bruises and her topknot, wich carried the royal insignia that normally kept her beautiful dark hair in order had been destroyed, making her raven coloured strands fall down her face in an uneven mess.

Luckily for her, she didn't have any broken bones. The reason behind this was that Naruto simply hadn't put everything he had behind his attack, but this was something she didn't know, and ,ost likely never would.

Suddenly, the dark haired girl felt something wet trickle its way down the side of her mouth and she slowly brought one of her hands to her lips, curious to see what it could possibly be. Finding what she was looking for, Azula brought the hand in front of her face and couldn't help but let out a shocked gasp at what she saw covering her fingertips. A crimson fluid she knew only all too well.

It was blood. Her blood to be precise.

The realization that someone had actually managed to hurt her enough to draw blood made something snap inside the princess. She closed her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white, completely ignoring the pain that her claw like fingernails caused as they embeded themselves into the palm of her hand, her face contorting into a mask of utter rage. Azula hardly ever lost control of her emotions, but for the first time in her life, her normally calm and calculating mind had been turned into a raging inferno and she could only blame one person for this.

Quickly turning herself around, she heatedly stared back at the one who'd dared to do something like this to her, golden eyes ablaze with fury and hatred as she looked at him as if she wanted to eradicate him from the face of the earth with her will alone. How did he even dare to do something like this to her?! Didn't he know who he was dealing with here?! She was Princess Azula! A member of the Fire Nation's royal family, keepers of the most noble bloodline in history and soon to be rulers of the entire world!

This mere boy that stood before her wasn't even fit to breath the same air as her, let alone defy her.

But he had done it anyway, and it was the way he did it in that infuriated her the most. He had managed to overpower her in a manner that shouldn't even have been possible! Azula had thought that she knew everything there was to know about the different combat styles this world had to offer, but nothing she'd ever read or experienced came even close to describe neither a technique that allowed its user to split himself into several doppelgangers, nor creating a force powerful enough to turn stone to dust without the use of Earthbending. She didn't understand how something like that could be physically possible.

Azula swore she would make him pay and suffer for this unforgivable insolence. Oh, he would suffer dearly. She would crush him in battle on this very plateau, and then personally drag his broken body to the Boiling Rock where he would get to spend the rest of his miserable existance under lock and key inside the most tightly secured prison the Fire Nation had to offer. Day and night alike he would know nothing but the pain she would inflict upon him, subjecting him to the most excruciating of torture she could possibly think of, never stopping until he finally begged her to end his life.

The Fire Nation princess was brought back from her malicious thoughts as she saw how her blonde opponent made a beckoning gesture with his outstretched arm, a smug smirk tugging at his lips as he eyed her knowingly.

At first she'd been just about ready to launch herself at him and tear his thoat out with her own hands, but then she immediately halted herslef once she realized something that made her mentally slap herself. Despite all her strict discipline and self control, she had allowed her emotions to get the better of her, and to only make matters even worse she'd also allowed her inner turmoil to become visible for her opponent to see. This was something she would have expected from her foolish older brother, but never in a million years did she ever believe that someone would've been able to make her lose her cool. Even if she'd lost an arm or a leg, a reaction like this was unexcusable from her. She cursed silently as all this sunk in and did her best to get her breathing and raging emotions back under iron hard control, just like her masters Lo and Li had taught her to do.

Once that was dealt with, Azula forced herself to smirk as she calmly raised herself to her full height in a as dignified a manner as possible, all of her pain seemingly forgotten as she now looked back at Naruto with her amber eyes. The same eyes that had seconds ago been burning with a violent fire were now once again as cold as ice.

"I've got to hand it to you," she started as she nonchalantly brushed some hair to the side of her face. "No one has ever managed to take me by such surprise before as you."

"I tend to get that a lot," replied Naruto with a chuckle as he flexed his right arm in a circular motion, quickly ridding it of any tension that might have developed in the muscles. While he was fairly confident that his clones had allowed him to get a fairly good grasp on how his opponent fought by now, he still held a suspicion that she hadn't shown him every trick she might keep up her sleeve. As such, despite his appearant care free look, he was still very much on his guard and anxiously awaited anything she might try to pull.

"Oh, I'm sure you do," Azula said in the same condescending tone as before. "You've done very well, but I'm starting to grow impatient here. Therefore I'm now giving you your final chance of getting out of this alive. If you and the Avatar surrender without a struggle, I'll consider the possibility of maybe sparing your lives along with your friends. I seriously suggest you to take this offer since I will not give it again."

"Sorry, no can do, princess," was all Naruto had to say to this. Having just been released from the captivity of one of Konoha's most dangerous enemies, not that he was sure how that had happened exactly, he had no desire whatsoever to just walk right into a new one. Not even the fact that the ones who were after him this time were a trio of extremely attractive girls managed to tempt him the least bit.

They also seemed to be after Aang, who they for some reason kept referring to as "the Avatar", whatever that meant. Although he'd just met Aang, Katara and the others, the blonde shinobi felt that he just couldn't leave them to fend for themselves, especially not after taking care of him after finding him.

"Well, at least I warned you," stated Azula with a smirk before her expression turned completely blank, negotiations clearly being over and done with. She spread her legs just enough to gain an even footing as she slowly brought her hands up in front of her.

Suddenly, the very air around the female Firebender started to crackle with intense energy as she moved her arms in quick circular motions. Her fingertips, by now completely enveloped by deadly electrical energy that was visible even to the naked eye, danced through the air as Azula continued guiding the lightning that kept building up.

This was one of the very reasons why Azula had trained so hard during her life in order to control her emotions. While it was true that ordinary Firebending could take great benefit from intense emotions such as rage, anger and hatred, using them to fuel the flames to all new levels of power, Lightningbending, on the other hand, was a different matter alltogether. The ability of generating lightning was one of the most powerful and complex secrets the Firebending arts had to offer, and only a select few possesed the qualities necessary to master it. "The cold-blooded fire", as it fittingly was called, required a complete absence of emotions and peace of mind, something very few of the generally hotblooded Firebenders could summon even for the shortest of moments.

But Azula was one of those select few, and she fully intended her opponent to receive a taste of what she was capable of.

"Oh, shi...!" was all Naruto managed to blurt out before his female enemy struck. He'd realized all too late what it was that Azula had planned to do. But even if he had, there'd been little he could have done to avoid being hit by the blinding bolt of lightning that she fired in his direction.

After all, no matter how much anyone claimed otherwise, no man could possibly outrun lightning.

The bolt hit Naruto square in the chest and he was now sent flying back by the incredible force of the blast. He roared in excruciating pain as the electric energy surged through his entire body, setting every nerve end on fire and making his muscles spasm uncontrolably before finally landing in a smoking heap on the ground.

Even though a single shot of the bolts produced by her Lightningbending was enough to slay most people, or at the very least mortally wound them, Azula wasn't actually that much surprised to see her prey groan in pain and then try to get back up again, although with some great difficulty on his behalf. So many things she'd thought to be impossible had happened during this strange day that one more barely even managed to faze her at all. While the first blast had failed to permanently end her opponents life, the young Firebender surmised that a second one would be more than enough to finish the job.

She quickly went to work with producing another surge of electric power, but was suddenly stopped when the voice of a certain Air Nomad interrupted her concentration.

"No! Leave him alone!" roared Aang as he summoned a powerful gale of wind that slammed into Azula's side, taking the Fire Nation princess completely by surprise and even managed to send her flying off her feet.

Azula snarled in agitation as she eyed the young monk, cursing her own carelessness for allowing him to sneak up on her. She made an attempt to turn herself around in midair so that she would be able to safely land on her feet, but Aang quickly put an end to that idea. By using his staff in order to amplify his already impressive Airbending abilities, the yellow clad boy created a small, but powerful, twister that served to keep Azula in the air for as long as possible.

With that done, Aang instantly went to Naruto's side to see if his newfound friend was alright after having to endure Azula's last attack. He turned the groaning older boy around so that he would be able to see his face, wincing involuntarily after seeing large nasty looking wound where he'd been hit. The skin around it had taken on an unhealthy black tinge and the pungent smell of burnt flesh was evident in the air. Shaking his head clear from both nausea and any feelings of guilt he might have had, Aang reached to check the blonde's pulse and was deeply relieved to find a beat that seemed to get steadier by each passing second

"Naruto, get a hold of yourself," urged the Avatar as he shook his shoulder, hoping to get at least some sort of reaction out of him to know that he was okay.

After a couple of seconds or so, Naruto finally raised his head, his spiky blonde hair standing completely on end, still faintly buzzing with electricity. His eyelids slowly fluttered open but his eyes seemed very unfocused, mostly just rolling around inside their sockets rather than fixing themselves upon Aang's worried face.

"...Kakashi-sensei... I've told you I don't like vegetables..." was all he managed to mumble out before the back of his head once again hit the ground with a light thud.

"This is so not helping any," complained Aang as he let out a deep sigh of frustration. "Come on, let's find the others and get out of here," he said as he as gently as possible placed Naruto's arm over his shoulders and stood up. He made a mental note to make sure Katara checked the older boy for any internal injuries he might have suffered once they were all safely away from this place.

"You're not going any where if I have something to say about it, Avatar," came the angered voice of Azula, making Aang turn himself around to see the Fire Nation princess as she walked towards them with slow but confident steps. Her entire posture practically screaming silent fury and her golden eyes glared daggers at him. She had wasted way too much time here and fully intended to wrap things up before anything else decided to drop in and make her day even worse than it already was.

Aang cursed inwardly at this turn of events, having believed that his tornado would have at least bought them some time to escape. The chances of him defeating Azula at his current level were slim at best, adding the fact that he now would have to look out for an unconscious Naruto made the possibility practically non-existant.

"It ends here, Avatar," said the female Firebender with an evil smirk as she formed a burning fire ball in her right hand. "It's game over for you now."

Beads of sweat started to form on Aang's brow, slowly running down his face as he started to mentally go through what possible options he might have in this situation. Everything seemed as grim as they could possibly get right now, but after catching a glimpse of something behind Azula's back, all his fears were put to ease.

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that, Azula," stated the young Airbender as he closed his eyes and gave her a wide grin that managed to reveal all of his sparkling white teeth, trying to look as innocent as one possibly could. "Something tells me that I'm not as cornered as you'd like to believe."

The raven haired girl raised a thin eyebrow in curiousity as she processed the Avatar's words. She couldn't understand why he all of a sudden seemed so sure of himself, when he only seconds ago had looked very much like a terrified rodent being caught by a sharp-toothed predator. She silently wondered what could have caused this change in her prey's demeanor, when she suddenly found herself in a brand new predicament.

Without even as much as a warning, the ground underneath Azula's feet opened itself like a large animal's maw and swallowed her whole, completely trapping her underground once the earth reformed itself around her. Before she even realized anything had happened, she was buried from her neck and down.

A low clapping sound could be heard as Toph calmly removed the dust from her hands, a very satisfied smirk being plastered on the young Earthbender's face as she calmy allowed her presence to be known to the now trapped Firebender.

The whole scene would probably have looked rather dramatic if a certain lemur hadn't been clinging onto the back of the girl's head.

"I just wrapped things up with those dolls of your's before I headed here. You really should have picked yourself another place for your little ambush, don't you think?" she grinned smugly as Momo chirped, neither of them paying any heed to Azula's angered growl whatsoever. "I thought you might be in the need of some help Twinkle Toes," she continued as she placed her closed fists on her hips and turned her attention to Aang, "and it seems like I arrived just in time to save your butt from getting toasted."

"That's one way to put it, but yes," replied the boy as he sent his Earthbending teacher a relieved smile. "Man, I can't wait to get this Earthbending-training started. It would sure come in handy," he said as he cast a sidelong glance at Azula, which she returned with a look that under normal circumstances would probably have made him quiver in fear.

"Don't worry, Twinkle Toes. We'll start as soon as we find some place where there's not that big a chance that we'll be interrupted," answered the blind girl. "By the way, how's the new guy?" she asked as she pointed a thumb at the blonde in question.

As if directly on que, Naruto raised his head, half lidded eyes still rolling and a silly grin on his face. "I command thee to bow down before the almighty Ramen King;" was all he said before his head once again rolled down, his chin resting on the top of his chest.

"I'll take that as a 'not so good'," stated Toph with a deadpanned expression after a short moment of silence. "I suppose we'd better get out of here and have Sugar Queen take a look at him. I had a quick chat with her and Sokka before I got here, and they should probably be here with Appa any second now."

"Don't you dare think this is over, Avatar," hissed Azula through clenched teeth, once again gaining the attention of her two enemies. "The very moment you least expect it, I will be there to get you and end this war. Mark my words."

"Well, something tells me that it will take quite some time before that happens," retorted Toph with a smirk as she lightly tapped one of her bare feet to the ground to emphasize her point. She was immensely entertained by the thought that when Mai and Ty Lee finally frees themselves, they would have to spend a fair amount of time trying to dig Azula out of the ground.

"Aang! Toph!"

Hearing their names being called, the two young benders turned their heads upward and (at least in Aang's case) saw how Appa, in all his massive and fuzzy glory, quickly made his descent towards the ground. It was Katara who had been calling out to them as she sat behind the flying bison's horn-crowned head, holding his reins in one hand while she used the other to wave at them. Although she was deeply concerned due to the state Naruto was currently in, she couldn't help but smile over the fact that Aang and Toph were both okay.

Sokka had taken a seat in the large "saddle" atop Appa's back, trying his best to get into a position that wouldn't cause all too much pain in his wounded arms and legs. Although his injuries felt worse than they actually were, Katara hadn't been able to heal them yet due to the simple fact that most of her water supply had been vaporized because of the extreme heat that had been caused by Azula's giant fire attack. Instead she had simply been forced to bandage him as best she could, but seeing that his friends were okay was enough to ease his physical pain somewhat. But the young Water Tribe warrior couldn't help but feel guilty over the harsh words he had uttered earlier as he took in the sight of Naruto's unconscious form. So much in fact that he hardly even noticed the state Toph had put Azula in, something the ponytailed boy under normal cicumstances would have found immensely entertaining.

As soon as Appa had landed on his six tree-trunk like legs, Aang went to face his big friend who greeted him with his usual low grumbling and a lick of his enourmous tounge.

"It's good to see you too, buddy," replied Aang as he patted his Sky Bison between his large, inteligent looking eyes. After spending several years together, Aang didn't really have any trouble understanding what was on his six legged companions mind, easily able to translate his low grunts and body language.

The massive animal hadn't been happy at all to be left out of the battle, always wanting to stand by his friend's side and protect him from harm. It was only because Aang had begged him personally to stand down that he had, although he wouldn't have hesitated a second to rush head first into the conflict if he'd been needed. Luckily, his human friends seemed to have managed to handle things perectly fine without his involvement, much of which was thanks to the strange, golden-haired human Aang was currently supporting.

Aang noticed what Appa was looking at with his large, brown eyes and flashed him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about Naruto, Appa. Katara will fix him up as good as new."

With that said, Aang used his Airbending to propel the two of them into the air before softly landing atop of Appa's back where everyone were now patently waiting for them. The young monk then proceeded with gently laying the blonde down in the passenger seat and then swtched places with Katara so that she would be able to inspect their newfound friend's wounds while he handled the steering.

With a tug of the reins and the uttering of the words "yip yip", the mighty beast that served as the group's main form of transport quickly took off into the air, leaving behind their beaten opponents without even as much as a last glance.

Safely back in the air, the element of which Aang felt the most at home in, the young boy couldn't help but smile happily at the familiar feeling of wind against his shaved head. Nothing could ever beat this incredible feeling of freedom that came with travelling freely though the sky, completely unhindered by gravity.

Katara, on the other hand, was solely focused on her task of examining Naruto, making her completely oblivious of anything happening around her as she wholeheartedly took on the role of a healer. However, despite the current situation, the young Water Tribe girl couldn't help but blush slightly as her hands gently traced their way across her patient's toned upper body. One thing was sure, the boy who was currently lying before her certainly was in great shape to say the least.

Katara's ocean blue eyes lingered for a split second on the beautiful necklace hanging around the whiskered teenager's neck, absentmindedly where he could have gotten something like that, but her gaze was soon drawn to the strange tatoo she'd briefly seen before that once again was present on his abdomen. This was something she couldn't wrap her mind around, no matter how much she tried. How, and why, did a tatoo suddenly appear when there'd been nothing there before? Hesitently she brought her fingers to it, greatly surprised to feel an unnatural warmth originating from it that seemed to spred to the rest of the body.

"So, how's he doing?" asked Sokka suddenly, effectively breaking her sister out of her reverie and making her look up at him. She was surprised to find a look of honest worry on her brother's features, allowing a brief smile to appear on her face as she realized that perhaps her brother wasn't a lost cause after all.

"Well, I'm not sure," confessed the Waterbender after a short moment of silence as she furrowed her brow in deep thought. "How was he hurt, Aang?" Katara asked as she looked over her shoulder. She hadn't been able to follow everything that had taken place, what with having to tend to her older brother's wounds and trying to convince Appa it was time for them to leave.

"Azula shot him with a lightning bolt shortly after he managed to blast her with one of those insane ball thingies he used to save you with. The bolt struck him right in the chest, leaving behind that nasty looking wound," explained Aang with a grimace as he clearly remembered the foul stench of burnt human flesh that had previously filled his nostrils.

After hearing this short explenation, Katara's eyebrows reached her hairline as her face took on a look of shock, for more than one reason. "Aang, are you sure that's what you saw," she asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice.

"Of course. I saw it with my own two eyes," replied the boy. "Why are you asking me this? Is there something wrong with him?"

"Well, I don't really know if 'wrong' would be the best term to use, just very weird," she stated as she shared a look with her brother, who right now shared the same confused expression as his sister. "Aang, that wound you mentioned, I cannot find it anywhere."

This was something the young Airbender never had expected to hear, causing him to quickly turn around in his seat. "What?! It's in the middle of his chest, as large as my hand. You couldn't possibly miss something like that," he said as he raised a closed hand to properly emphasize his words.

"Have a look for yourself then," was all she said and it didn't take long before Aang left his place behind Appa's head, now looking over Katara's shoulder to see what in the world she was talking about.

What he saw made his jaw drop.

The horrible wound he'd personally witnessed being inflicted by Azula's deadly attack, was nowhere to be found. Where it should have been there was now nothing but completely undamaged skin, lacking the slightest trace of even the smallest scar.

"B-but that's impossible," was all Aang could say as all eyes were on him now. "It was right there. I know it was"

Everyone shared the same look as they pondered this strange phenomenon, all of them silently wondering who exactly they'd brought with them.

Who, or what, was Naruto?

OoOoOoO

Once again, sorry for the late update. I hope the third chapter won't take as long to write, I keep a list of my current projects on my profile and how much I've progressed with them so check those out before you ask me when the new chapter will be out. Until then, this is ChaosGhidora who's signing off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I don't own neither Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Well, after several long months, I have finally completed a new chapter. I'm sorry that you had to wait so long for this, but I seriously had a lot of trouble writing this chapter for several different reasons. Sometimes to the point that it almost felt like I was putting together a puzzle.

With that said, I'd like to thank you for your patience and I hope that you'll be able to enjoy this chapter. Read and Review.

**Chapter 03**

**A Moment of Peace and Quiet**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes as he finally found himself returning to the land of the living. The young ninja remained lying on his back for a moment, allowing his head to clear and his memories to come back to him before he forced himself into a sitting position. This caused the blanket that had been covering his frame to pool over his lap, exposing his chest.

Raising a hand to his upper body, he touched the spot where Azula's lightning-attack had managed to hit him at the end of their fight. The skin was slightly sore compared to the surrounding tissue at the moment, but other than that, it was completely healed. He knew from previous experience that the soreness would pass before he'd even notice and despite the fact that the fox inside of him had made most of his life a living hell, Naruto couldn't help but to once again feel slightly grateful due to the amazing regenerative abilities that he possesed thanks to it.

He noticed that it was still sunny, although the sun itself seemed to now be closer to the ground than Naruto remembered it to have been, and after a quick look around he instantly saw that he was not at the same spot he had been when his lights went out. 'Damn, it seems like every time I close my eyes, I end up somewhere else,' he thought somewhat dryly as he took in his current surroundings.

He appeared to be in a clearing out in the woods, surrounded by tall oak-trees with thick branches that almost looked as if they were trying to reach for the sky above. The huge six-legged creature that had served as Naruto's bed when he'd been in the cave, who he remembered Aang had referred to as Appa, was currently enjoying himself with some bushes, as well as some of the younger tree-plants not too far away. The massive animal was chewing down leaves in large mouthfuls all the while humming contentedly to himself.

The giant saddle that had previously been covering the bison's back was now lying on the grass, right beside the various packs that the blonde had seen being placed in it before they were forced to face Azula and her companions.

Naruto frowned when he came to the conclusion that none of the people he'd met, and later also fought alongside with, seemed to be anywhere around. The fact that Appa, as well as their belongings were present managed to calm the Jinchuuriki's mind somewhat, but he still wanted to know where everyone could have gone to and if they were all okay.

He strongly considered the option of simply getting up and look for them himself rather than just wait and see if anyone showed up, but that train of thought was quickly halted when the blonde heard a faint chirp coming from above.

It was Momo, the little lemur thet he'd previously been introduced to, who was now sitting atop a branch in one of the trees and holding some sort of object in his small hands that seemed to interest him quite a bit.

At first Naruto was unable to figure out what exactly it could be, but soon his eyes lit up in recognition. The fact that he didn't feel a certain piece of cloth that would have normally been covering his forehead only served to further confirm his thoughts.

Up in the trees, Momo was carefully examining the forehead-protector he held in his paws. The lemur was immensely fascinated by his slightly distorted reflection that stared back at him from the metal, and by the fact that by turning the object around in different angles, the reflection would change into different shapes.

"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!" came a voice from below, urging the big-eared little animal to look down to find the source of it. He instantly spotted the human with the facial markings and strangely coloured hair that had managed to evoke his interest when the furry creature had first seen him.

The boy seemed to have just woken up from his sleep and noticed that his head-band was missing. Without hesitating for even a split second, Momo jumped down from the branch and unfolded his hidden bat-like wings before allowing gravity to swiftly carry him to the top of Naruto's head where he decided to land.

The blonde grinned, taking back the forehead-protector when the lemur offered it to him by holding it down right in front of his eyes. Once he finished wrapping it around his head, the young ninja reached up and scratched the funny little creature behind one of his big ears.

"I guess Aang was right. Momo does seem to have taken a liking to you."

Hearing the familiar voice, Naruto looked to his side to see Katara aproaching him with a kind smile on her face. She was holding onto a medium-sized pot that appeared to be almost filled to the brim with water, splashing from side to side with every step she took.

"I guess I just happen to have a way with animals," replied the blonde, giving her one of those fox-like grins only he seemed capable of. "How long was I out this time?"

"Not that long actually," answered the young Water Tribe girl as she put the pot aside before sitting down next to the slightly older boy. "We just got here a while ago after we managed to escape from Azula, so I think it shouldn't have been more than just a couple of hours at the most."

"How are the others?" asked Naruto suddenly. "Are they all right?"

"They're all fine. From what I could tell, Sokka was the only one who received any real damage. Nothing serious, just some flesh wounds, and they have already been taken care of," she said as she filled a cup with water and handed to Naruto, which he gratefully accepted.

While he was occupied with gulping down the cool liquid, the braided girl couldn't help but cast a glance at him, thinking back to her and her friends' shock when they couldn't find any visible trace of the attack that had struck him. She now also noticed that the tattoo-like markings she'd seen on his abdomen were once again nowhere to be seen.

Once Naruto had finished his drink, Katara quickly looked another way, hoping that he hadn't caught her staring she continued telling him about what was currently going on.

"He's fishing for dinner in a nearby lake just as we speak and Toph is out in the forest, searching for things that we can add to whatever it is that Sokka manages to catch. Aang, on the other hand, is out scouting the nearby area, but they should all be back soon so that we can all set up camp for the night."

"That's good to hear," said the ninja as he let out a small sigh of relief, before allowing himself to form a smile. Being finally able to hear that they were all safe and sound managed to remove that weight from his shoulders. "So I take it everything turned out okay then?"

"You could say that," answered the young Water Bender as she recalled the events that had lead to their succesful escape. "Aang and Toph managed to outsmart Azula in the end, but I think much of it was thanks to you wearing her out. She's one of the toughest and most ruthless Benders I've ever had to face, but I have never seen anyone take her on the way you did. Come to think of it, I have never even seen anything like what you were doing back there. It was amazing!"

Naruto couldn't help but blush slightly at the praise, scratching the back of his head in mild embarrassment as he turned to look another way. Three years ago, any form of compliment would have surely gotten to the blonde's head, causing him to loudly brag about his own awesomeness until someone finally had enough and bopped him on the head. He guessed much of the way he'd been acting was because of his less than ideal childhood. But during the time that had passed since his graduation from Konoha's ninja academy, after which people had finally started accepting him, the notorious prankster had actually managed to gradually mature.

Well, to a certain extent at least.

"I don't know if I'd go as far as calling it 'amazing'," the genin finally said after a short moment of silence. "I mean, I lost in the end, didn't I?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You did save my life back there and that's got to count for something, right?" Katara said with a warm smile.

The girl's friendly expression proved to be infectious, bringing Naruto's grin back to his face where it belonged.

"I guess you're right," he chuckled in reply.

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a rustling in the bushes at the other side of the clearing. This caused the two teenagers to turn their heads just in time to see Toph emerging from the lush vegetation, carrying a filled bag over her left shoulder as she headed straight towards them.

The black haired girl was currently in the middle of wolfing down an apple, spreading crumbs all over the lower part of her face as she seemed to nearly shove the fruit down her throat. Once nothing but the apple-core remained, she nonchalantly threw it over her shoulder before letting out an audible burp.

Katara could practically feel one of her eyebrows twitch in irritation as she witnessed the display of the young Earth Bender's lack of manners. Seriously, sometimes it was almost impossible to believe that she actually came from a very noble and prestigious family.

"Very nice, Toph," commented the Water Tribe girl dryly as her friend leisurely seated herself on the grassy ground.

"What? I was hungry!" Toph retorted defensively as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "It's not exactly my fault that we had to skip dinner," she muttered grumpily before turning her attention to Naruto, who had remained silent during the girls' brief exchange.

Out of all the people in the gang that Naruto had found himself in, Toph was the only one he hadn't spoken directly to. As far as he'd seen to this point, she seemed to be a fairly tomboyish and brash young girl who clearly wasn't afraid to speak her mind. But what had shocked the blonde the most was when he witnessed her apparent great efficiency with Doton, and the fact that she, just like Azula, had been perfectly able to execute her techniques without even using a single hand seal.

He also idly wondered how she could pinpoint people the way she did despite her blindness, remembering how she was the first person to know that Azula and her companions had been about to attack, way before they had even seen them.

"So it seems like sleepy-head finally decided to wake up... Again," said Toph as her lips turned into a toothy grin.

"Yeah, I guess you could say it's starting to become a bit of a habit," replied Naruto with a grin of his own, scratching the back of his head as they shared a laugh at his own expense.

"By the way, Katara. I managed to find the stuff you wanted me to get," the Earthbender suddenly said as she turned the bag she was holding upside-down, spilling its contents onto the ground.

All of it were things a hungry person might hope to find in a forest. There were apples, nuts, berries and mushrooms, all of which looked to be perfectly edible save for a few exceptions in the last category.

Some of the mushrooms were suspiciously colourful and could have practically had tags saying "poison" attached to them. Katara was thankfully fast enough to snatch a particularly red and spotty one from Momo's paws before the lemur even had a chance to stuff it into his mouth, puttting it away along with the rest so that no one would have to suffer from any painful stomach-problems (or worse).

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto let out a yawn before he decided that he'd had enough rest for the moment and raised himself onto his feet, causing Momo to jump down from his new favorite sitting-spot atop the blonde's head.

"Naruto, I don't think you should be up so soon after what happened," said Katara with a slight frown as she looked up at the boy who had just started to do some light stretching movements.

"Don't worry about me, I feel fine," he replied as he rolled a shoulder that had gotten a light stiffness in it.

"Yeah, Katara. Don't be such a mother hen," said Toph as she lay on the ground, allowing one of her feet to dangle over a knee while she had her arms comfortably folded behind her head. "Didn't you say it yourself that you couldn't find anything wrong with him?"

Katara looked like she wanted to object, but was interrupted when she caught sight of something in the sky. The Waterbender's face lit up when she realized that it was the Avatar with his glider who was coming in for a landing.

"Aang is back," she exclaimed, causing Naruto to turn his head in the direction she was looking.

The blue eyes of the shinobi widened in surprised shock as he took in the sight of the young monk. The reason was that said monk was flying unhindered through the air, performing a perfect loop before finally landing softly on the ground, as if he'd created an invisible cushion to soften his descent.

With that done, the boy simply tapped the bottom of the glider to the ground, causing its orange, fan-like wings to instantly retract into a wooden staff that had served as the glider's base.

The young Air Bender's eyes instantly lit up when he saw that Naruto had finally woken up from his slumber, and by the looks of it appeared to be perfectly fine.

"You're alright!" happily exclaimed the Avatar as he rushed forward to greet the blonde. The difference in their height forced him to look up at the older boy, who was quite a bit taller than him. "When Azula hit you, I thought you were a goner for sure but boy, am I glad I was wrong."

"Er...Thanks... I guess," replied Naruto as he scratched the back of his head, unsure on how to answer the enthusiastic boy who grinned at him. He oddly reminded the teenaged shinobi of a younger version of himself.

"Aang, did you see anything special when you were out?" asked Katara, anxious to hear if her young friend had managed to gain any new information during the time he'd spent scouting from the clouds.

"Oh, right," started Aang as he thought back to what he had seen from the clouds. "Well, I have some good news. I happened to spot a village that isn't that very far away from here. It's not very big, but we should at least be able to stock up on supplies once we head there."

"That's great, Aang. But I think it would be for the best if we do as we said before and stay here for the night and head out early in the morning. After all, the sun should set soon and I bet we're all pretty hungry after such a long and eventfull day," spoke Katara.

As if directly on que, Naruto's stomach decided that it was time to let itself be heard. Letting out a loud growl that everyone was able to hear, causing them to burst out in laughter.

"Sokka's on his way," Toph yawned on her back once everyone had calmed down, and true to her words, the young warrior soon emerged from the bushes, coming from the same direction that Katara had previously done.

"Behold! The great hunter returns!" exclaimed Sokka triumphantly in an overly dramatic fashion as he marched into the clearing. The fishing-trip had obviously gone well and the young Water Tribe warrior proudly carried his catch. Four trouts that were pierced through the neck atop his spear, dangling lifelessly from side to side with each step that he took.

"Nice, Sokka. I'm impressed," said his sister truthfully. "That sure was fast. I mean, you've only been away for a little while and have already managed to catch four of them."

"Well, I guess some of it was due to luck since we seem to have arrived right in the middle of their mating season," the pony-tailed teenager confessed as he handed her the spear along with their upcoming dinner. "There were so much fish that all I had to do was basically pick and choose the four fattest ones. One for each and... every... one of us..."

Sokka's voice started to trail off as the words of that last sentence passed his lips, suddenly remembering that they weren't just four anymore.

He hadn't really forgotten that Naruto was among them, far from it. It was just that he sometimes seemed to overlook certain things when his mind began to wander, and this time he'd had alot of things to think through.

First there was the matter regarding all the incredibly mind-boggling things the blonde had done at the battlefield. Stuff that Sokka's logical mind couldn't even begin to wrap itself around. He had tried to come up with a lot of different theories in order to explain what he had seen, but any way he tried to look at it, it just didn't make any sense!

Secondly, and far more importantly, was that he had really started to think through the way he had been acting towards the strange fighter when they first found him. Just like when they had first met Aang that fateful day at the South Pole, he had accused him of being an enemy that they all should stay as far away from as possible.

And then said 'enemy' went and saved his sister from certain death.

That, and the fact that he then decided to take on Azula in a one on one battle (something he actually managed to pull of rather well all things considered), certainly convinced the Water Tribe boy that the guy was neither bounty hunter that the Fire Nation had sent in order to collect their heads, nor a person that they should fear.

It had also convinced him that he had managed to make a complete ass of himself.

Again.

He knew he should try to apologize for the way he had been acting, but a small part of himself wished to rather pretend that it had never even happened, hoping for everything to turn out okay completely on its own. But as things were going now, that wasn't very likely to happen.

Aang looked from one of the older boys to the other. He didn't want things to end up like they had in the cave, with his friends being angry and screaming at each other. But thankfully, Sokka seemed to have forgotten about another thing, something that had happened a couple of times before, and the Avatar thought he could use that to avert a social catastrophe from repeating itself.

"Great, you finally remembered that I'm a vegetarian. I had almost started giving up hope that you would ever learn," said Aang, hoping to sound as happy as possible and added a huge smile just to be on the safe side. Judging by the look on Sokka's face, he had indeed forgotten about that little detail again, but he instantly caught on to what it was that his friend was trying to do and played along.

"Yeah, well you know me. I'd hate to see a humble monk suffer from having a nice and juicy fish's life on his conscience," he said, silently thanking Aang as he lied through his teeth, trying to look anywhere but at Naruto who eyed him sceptically with his arms folded over his chest.

Despite Aang's attempt of easing the mood, the air surrounding their little group still remained pretty tense and that, frankly, was starting to get on Katara's nerves. She looked from her brother to Naruto, her pretty features slightly contorted into a scowl as she contemplated on how to end this silliness once and for all.

"Sokka, would you please gather some firewood. I don't think anyone would fancy eating raw fish for supper, do you?," she asked, feigning innocence as she started to remove their meal from the spear, smiling inwardly at the plan that had formed in her mind.

"Sure thing, sis," said Sokka with a grin as he immediately started to walk towards the trees, glad that he would be able to postpone this whole mess until he'd have an idea on how to properly deal with it. "I'll just head out and be back in--"

"And bring Naruto with you," she continued in a sugar-sweet tone, causing her ponytailed brother to stop dead in his tracks and Naruto's eyebrows to rise in surprise.

Sokka quickly turned around, looking as if he wanted to form some sort of objection to Katara's instruction, but the stern look on his sister's face had him remain silent. The look in her ocean blue eyes clearly told him that this subject wasn't up for discussion and he could do nothing more than slump his shoulders in defeat and accept it.

"Fine," he muttered as he once again started to head for the forest, this time with much less enthusiasm than before.

Naruto remained still for a moment before he finally decided that it would probably for the best if he did as Katara said and simply follow Sokka. He knew perfectly well from first hand experience that it was not at all wise to try a woman's patience, having suffered dearly for such mistakes in the past.

Once the two teenaged boys had dissapeared among the trees, Aang hesitantly aproached Katara with a slightly worried look on his face.

"Er... Katara. Do you really think this is such a good idea? Leaving the two of them alone I mean."

"It was the best thing I could come up with at the moment, Aang," she replied as she sat on her knees and began preparing the fish without looking up at him. She tossed her braid over her shoulder so that it wouldn't be in the way before she continued. "Sokka has always had a problem when it comes to apologizing to people or admit when he's been wrong or stupid, especially when other people are watching. This way he'll be able to say he's sorry and we can all have some peace again."

"What if they don't settle things then?" asked Toph as she raised herself onto her feet. Momo, who had been sitting next to her, climbed up her tunic and took a seat on her shoulder, looking to be far more interested in the food than in their conversation.

"Then _I _will settle things," she declared, punctuating her words by cutting of the head of one of the trouts with her brother's machete in a single swift chop.

OoOoOoO

To say that the situation was awkward for the two teenaged boys, was a big understatement.

They were doing what Katara had asked them to do, searching for any fuel that could serve as firewood. But that wasn't really all that simple, considering the fact that everything had gotten completely drenched during the storm.

They both walked under a rather tense silence, neither saying a word to the other as they searched for anything that was dry enough to actually burn. One could have very well been able to hear a needle fall to the ground and the tension was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife.

However, Sokka would occasionally open his mouth, only to close it again a couple of seconds later. It was as if he wanted to say something, but decided against it at the last moment before any words could get the chance to pass his lips.

He would continue with this for some time, until Naruto had finally gotten fed up with it.

"Is there something you want to tell me, or something?" he asked, annoyance clear in his voice.

The blonde's sudden question managed to catch Sokka completely off guard, nearly causing him to trip on a small rock in the process. The troubled young warrior had silently been trying to formulate a way in which he could properly say everything that was on his mind, but all of his careful planning had practically been blown out the window when he was finally forced to speak.

"Er... Well...Thats is... Your hair... is it a natural colour?" was what he finally said, making him want to punch himself when he realized what he had said.

The ponytailed boy's unexpected words caused Naruto to stop and slightly tilt his head as his eyes squinted in that fox-like fashion of his, clearly confused by what he had just heard.

"You want to know about my hair?" he asked incredulously, not sure if he had heard right.

"Well, it's just that I haven't seen anyone with yellow hair before. Although I did know this one girl at the North Pole who had completely white hair, but she wasn't an old lady or anything--"

Sokka continued to ramble like this for a while, only stopping when he noticed that Naruto was looking at him as if he had a couple of squids sticking out of his ears.

The ponytailed boy let out a tired sigh, deciding that it would probably be for the best if he just got everything over and done with.

"No. That wasn't at all what I wanted to say," he started in a somewhat sheepish tone as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I want to – damn why is this so hard! What I meant to say is that I think we started off on the wrong foot."

"Yeah, if I remember correctly, I think it was something about you saying that I was some kind of threat that shouldn't be trusted," Naruto deadpanned with his arms folded over his chest. One of the things the blonde genin really didn't like was when people slandered him for things he would never do.

Sokka cringed at that remark, but continued on.

"I know," he said, letting out a deep sigh before fixing his eyes on a nearby bush that suddenly seemed to be one of the most interesting things in the whole world.. "That was wrong of me, and I want to... apologize for it. I shouldn't have accused you for those things and I'm sorry for what I said. I guess my sister is right, that I am a little too paranoid and that I ought to trust people a little more often. You've certainly earned it," he added, the last part barely audible.

"It might be a little too much to ask for, but if you'd be willing, I'd like to start things over," he finally said as he turned to face the blonde and extended a hand in front of him, hoping that the strange fighter would accept his apology and take it. "I'm Sokka, son of Hakoda, and warrior of the Southern Water Tribe."

Naruto eyed the offered hand for a second as he quickly thought things through.

The guy appeared to actually be genuinly sorry for the way he had been acting, and Naruto had never really been capable of holding a grudge against anyone for an extended period of time in the first place. As a matter of fact, many of the people who he at first had wanted as little to do with as possible, were now some of his dearest friends who he wouldn't hesitate to protect with his own life.

'Ah, what the heck,' he thought with a shrug before a grin formed on his face and he grabbed onto the other boy's hand in a firm handshake.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Shinobi of Konoha and future Hokage."

Sokka blinked at that declaration, not having the slightest idea what a shinobi or a Hokage could possibly be, but decided to not ask anything about it at the moment. He was just relieved that he had been let off the hook so easily and didn't want to screw it up by asking to many stupid questions.

This time the stupid questions could wait for later.

"Now, I think we'd better start looking for that firewood that Katara wanted. I know she might not look like it, but believe me when I say that you do not want to get on her bad side. It simply wouldn't be healthy," he said, shivering slightly as he recalled the event that had led up to the two of them finding Aang in that iceberg he had been floating around in for the past century.

"Well, that's something I can relate to," laughed the blonde as they went back to their given task, now with much higher spirits than when they set out.

OoOoOoO

However, this was something that pretty soon proved to be easier said than done.

"Man, it's impossible to find anything dry around here," growled Naruto. They had now been searching for almost half an hour without finding anything that hadn't managed to avoid being hit by the raindrops, and the young ninja was growing increasingly more irritated after each passing second.

"I know," replied Sokka who had become just as agitated during their fruitless search. "If only there were some kind of way to..."

The Water Tribe boy then turned silent for a second as the gears started turning in his head. He then slammed a hand over his face as he let out a loud groan of exasperation.

"Why didn't I think of this from the start?" he muttered to himself. "Come on, let's just grab wathever we can find and then have Aang and Katara take care of it when were back. I don't know about you, but I'd rather relax around camp than spend another second trying to find a single dry twig in a soaked forest."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his walking companion's sudden declaration. He was just about to ask how they would manage to do something like that, when another growl from his stomach convinced the blonde Jinchuuriki to keep his mouth shut.

The sooner they returned to the others, the sooner he would be able to stuff his face with grilled fish. Sokka probably knew what he was doing, so with a shrug he bent down and started to collect all the wood he could find, although he couldn't imagine anyone being able of making a fire with fuel as sour as this.

Once they'd finally gattered enough of it, they headed back for the clearing where everyone was waiting for them.

The walk back was definately more pleasant than when they first had set out. Where before there had only been tense silence between the two teenaged boys, they were now both openly chatting and joking amongst themselves and this didn't pass unnoticed when they were finally back at camp.

Aang and Toph had just finished putting up the tents when they all noticed that Sokka and Naruto had returned, thankfully without tearing each others' throats out. This caused the young Airbender and his friends to let out a shared sigh of relief once they realized that Katara's plan had worked like a charm.

With a wide smile on his face, Aang brought himself up onto his feet and went to meet them.

"So, how did things go?" he asked as he eyed the fuel that the two older boys were carrying.

"Well, we couldn't really find anything dry, but I thought you could do something about that," grinned the Water Tribe boy before dropping his share of the cut-off-branches at the ground, urging Naruto to mimic his actions.

"Sure, no problem. I'll get right to it," replied the Avatar happily as he squatted down and brought his hands in front of his mouth. He then proceeded with partially closing one of them into a fist, before taking a deep breath that filled his lungs almost to the brink of their capacity.

When Aang finally let his breath out, it was as if a powerful gust of wind had been released. It was so intense that it managed to cause their clothes and hair to flutter in the miniaturized hurricane.

After a few more seconds, it finally died down and Aang reached out to touch the largest piece of wood in the heap. Just as he had expected, it was now completely dry and the young monk couldn't help but smile as he beheld his handiwork.

"As good as new," he said before standing up.

"How the heck did you do that?" exclaimed Naruto.

"Just some simple Airbending," replied Aang with a wide grin. Although it greatly pained the boy to know that he was the last living Airbender, getting surprised reactions like these from people always managed to bring a smile to his face.

"Air-what-you-called-it?" asked the Jinchuuriki confusedly. He remembered hearing the term 'Bender' a couple of times already, but he still had no idea what exactly it entailed. "How does it work? Is it some kind of special technique or something?"

"Well, it allows me to control and manipulate the air-currents around me to a certain extent. I guess you could say it's a technicue, but it's more like an ancient, mystical art that has been passed down through the generations of my people," answered the young monk after a couple of seconds while scratching his shaved head. Although he knew no one had witnessed Airbending during his one-hundred-year-long hibernation, making some puzzled reactions to it something to be expected, he was slightly taken aback by Naruto's reaction. It was almost as if he hadn't even heard of it at all.

The blonde genin was completely oblivious to what was going through Aang's head, but this new piece of information managed to convince him that whatever this Bending-stuff was, it was clearly not ninjutsu. He faintly remembered something Jiraiya had told him once during their travels, that ninjutsu wasn't the only powerful form of combat in the world and that there were people who drew their strength from other sources than just chakra.

"What about Toph and that fire-chic? Are they Benders as well?" he then asked, having had a couple of seconds to try and think things through. Just like Aang, neither of the two had used any hand-seals as far as he had been able to see.

Aang glanced at Sokka, who just shrugged back at him, not knowing what to say, before answering.

"Yeah, they are," the monk said hesitantly. Thinking that the answer to that question was pretty obvious. "Azula is a Firebender, Toph is an Earthbender and Katara, although you may not have seen it, is a Waterbender."

"Speaking of which, if it's okay with you, I'll just take the firewood and bring it over to her," Sokka injected as he nodded in the direction of where his sister was preparing the food.

"Oh, let me give you a hand with that," Naruto offered quickly, bringing his hands together in front of him and formed the seal of his most used technique. After silently whispering the name of the jutsu, a perfect clone of himself poofed into existence right beside him.

If it had been anatomically possible, both Aang's and Sokka's jaws would have been dropped to the ground because of what they had just seen. Sure, they had all witnessed the blonde when he had created copies of himself in the battle with Azula, but it was just as mind-boggling as it had been the first time around, and seeing it happen up close, with a mind clear from adrenaline, just seemed to add to the experience.

"Alright, now help Sokka carry the firewood," ordered the young shinobi, pointing at the now dry pile of tree-based fuel that lay by their feet.

"Why the heck do _I_ have to do it?" asked the bunshin with a scowl as it crossed its arms over its chest in a slightly rebellious fashion.

"Because I'm the original, and whatever I say goes," declared Naruto sternly, starting a short staring contest between himself and his clone before it finally gave up, muttering about slave-drivers and clones' rights as it began collecting its burden.

"Hold on a minute here," said Sokka as he aproached the shadow clone, intending to find out the secret behind this obvious crime agains the laws of physics. He circled around it, poking it a couple of times, something that greatly annoyed the clone. This at least proved that it was a physical manifestation and not just some hallucination, but he still wondered...

"Wow...! How do you do that?" asked Aang, an awed expression on the young Avatar's face.

"Pretty cool, huh?" replied Naruto with a wide grin. "It's amazing what you can do with just a little bit of chakra."

The Airbender tilted his head slightly to the side, a confused look on his face, while Sokka massaged his temples. "Alright, this is seriously starting to give me a headache," he said. "Let's just get this stuff to Katara so that we can finally have something to eat. I'm starving here."

While the real Naruto tried his best with explaining the basic concepts of chakra for Aang, his clone and Sokka headed towards the centre of their campsite. Appa was now lying on his side, chewing the cud of his meal while Toph was sitting crosslegged, leaning against the large animal while she chewed lazily on a piece of straw.

"Here you go Katara", said Sokka as he put down his share of the load in front of his sister. "I hope it's enough for you."

"Don't worry about it. I think all of this could very well last throughout the entire night if used properly," replied the young Waterbender with a reassuring smile.

With its work done, the clone asked the two siblings if there was anything else that needed to be done. Receiving a shook of the head from the girl as a response, it excused itself and promptly dissappeared in a poof of smoke.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing that," stated Katara as she watched the last remains of the white smoke dissipate into the air with wide eyes.

"Couldn't agree more," replied Sokka with a nod. "But just think about the possibilities!" he exclaimed, suddenly becoming visibly excited. "I mean, just think about it. If Naruto stays with us, I wouldn't have to lift a finger to do a single chore for the rest of this journey! As long as he keeps making those copies of his, I could just sit back and relax until...!"

At this point, the young warrior finally took notice of the stern look his sister was giving him and decided it was time to shut up.

After a couple of seconds, Katara couldn't help but smirk at her older brother. "Look who's had a change of heart. I take it things went well?" was all she said.

"Well, I guess so," Sokka replied as he rubbed the back of his neck before letting out a deep sigh. "Come on. Just say it." Seing his waterbending sister blink in confusion at what he had just said, he decided to elaborate. "We both know that you're just dying to say 'I told you so', so spare me the agony and just get it over with."

"Oh, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, Sokka," she said in a sugar-sweet tone, feigning a look of complete ignorance when she caught onto what her hot-headed brother was saying. This, of course, caused said hot-headed brother to pull at his own hair in frustration.

Katara couldn't help but laugh at her brother's antics as she allowed her gaze to wander to Aang and Naruto. The young Airbender seemed to have been in the process of introducing the blonde to Appa, who was now covering his new human acquaintance in a thick layer of bison-slobber, much to the displeasure of the ninja.

"So, did you ask him where he came from?" asked Sokka suddenly, bringing Katara out of her reverie.

"No. No, I didn't." The female Waterbender let out a sigh as she continued. "It's not that I'm not curious, I just didn't really get the chance to do it."

"Fair enough. We could always give it a shot during supper," replied the young warrior.

"Do you think he'll stay with us?" wondered the girl, not taking her eyes away from the scene before them where Aang and Naruto were now laughing together.

Sokka remained silent for a moment, watching as the object of their conversation had now suddenly started chasing a certain lemur who had once again stolen his headband. "I don't know. But I'm starting to hope that he will," he admitted truthfully. "The way he handled Azula back there could sure come in handy where we are going."

"Sokka?"

"Yeah, Katara?"

"... I told you so."

OoOoOoO

"Man, this is good stuff," exclaimed Naruto heartily after swallowing yet another bite of his portion of freshly roasted fish.

"I second that," said Toph as she dug into her own serving with equal gusto.

The sun had finally set, casting the area in a dark blanket that was only held at bay by the small campfire that the group was now sitting around. They leaned against the snoring frame of Appa, the Sky Bison's furry hide acting as a comfortable pillow as they savored their supper while listening to the crickets that played their usual music. This day had truly been an eventful one, but now everyone felt as if they could finally let go of their worries and simply enjoy each other's company.

"Thank you, Naruto," smiled Katara as she gave another nut to Momo. "I'm sorry if the taste is a little bland, but we're almost completely out of spices at the moment. I'll have to see if they have any for sale in town tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it," he replied, waving her off. "Compared to the stuff that Ero-sennin used to cook up back when we were on the road, this is definitely five-star-material."

After having mentioned Jiraiya, Naruto couldn't help but feel the familiar sense of sadness as he thought about the now deceased Toad Sage. The death of his mentor was still fresh on the young Konoha ninja's mind and he could barely believe that he was actually gone.

The aged Sannin had taught him so much during their travels together, not just about ninjutsu, but about other things as well. True, he'd had his fair share of faults, but during the time they'd spent together, Naruto had come to view the older, and much more experienced shinobi, as something of a father-figure. Even though the boy had often talked badly about him, and enjoyed to poke fun at his bad habits, he had always held a sense of admiration for the wise old ninja.

The young Jinchuuriki knew that death was a natural part of a shinobi's life, but to him the old man had seemed almost invincible, like an unshakable pillar of strength who would always be there to guide him when he was lost. He had almost taken him for granted and the news of his death had shaken him just as much as the Third's had.

Although Naruto didn't know it, one of the major reasons why Tsunade had given his team such an easy mission, plus a couple of days off in Lotus Country, a famous tourist resort, was so that he would get some time to take his mind off Jiraiya's death, even if it was for just a little while.

"Naruto, is there something wrong?" asked Aang in a concerned tone.

"Hm? No, I'm fine. I guess I just zoned out there for a moment" replied the genin as he tried to shake the depressing thoughts off his mind, forcing a grin to appear on his face. Although he rarely ever had to fake his emotions anymore, the practice he'd gotten as a child came in handy when he didn't want anyone to unnecessarily worry about him.

The Avatar and the two Water Tribe siblings seemed to accept it, but Toph was clearly not convinced by his act. The young Earthbender's ability to sense the vibrations through the earth was one of her greatest assets. Not only did it allow her to take in her surroundings in a way that no one else could, giving the blind girl a great advantage in battle, but she could also use this "sense" in other situations as well.

She was capable of feeling even the faintest change in the vibrations of a persons heartbeat and breathing patterns, essentially making her a human lie-detector. Toph had no idea why the older boy would lie over such a trivial thing as whether he was fine or not, but she made a mental note of it for later use. It was probably nothing, but still...

Sokka glanced at his friends, but when no one else seemed inclined to to start asking the questions they all wanted answered by their strange, new friend, he decided that it was up to him to move things along.

"So, Naruto. Could you perhaps explain to us how you ended up in those caves?" he asked. This was probably one of the things that the science-interested boy wanted to know the most, apart from the secret behind the blonde's mysterious techniques. He still hadn't managed to come up with a logical explenation that would answer how he had been able to seemingly materialize out of thin air, and what the heck had those weird signs – or letters – been that had almost blinded them?

"I thought you guys brought me there," replied Naruto with a greatly puzzled look on his face.

This revelation caused the Avatar and his friends to look at each other in bewilderment. They had all hoped that Naruto would be able to at least shed some light over the strange phenomenon that they had witnessed, but he seemed to be just as ignorant about it as they were.

Naruto had been told several times that he wasn't one of the most perceptive people you could find, but he would have to be as dense as a rock to not see that there was something that they weren't telling him.

"Alright, what exactly is going on here?" he finally asked, a frown on his face as he put what was left of his food away. "You said before that you would tell me once everything had calmed down, so spill it. For starters, why were those girls after you in the first place?"

Aang remained silent for a moment, having been slightly taken aback by Naruto's unexpected response. In just a matter of seconds the tables had been turned and now they were the ones who were being questioned. But then again, they did promise him...

Aang let out a sigh before he began to speak.

"I am the Avatar," stated the young Airbender, his tone becoming serious. A sharp contrast compared to the boy's usual happy-go-lucky demeanor. "I'm currently on an important quest to master all four elements so that I can fulfill my destiny of restoring the balance of this world after an entire century of war and suffering."

"The Fire Nation, for obvious reasons, doesn't want Aang to succed with his task and has sent numerous people to eliminate the threat that he pose to their plans," interjected Katara. "Azula and her companions are merely the last in a long line of enemies we've had to face on our journey."

"But if I'm not able to master the elements before the end of the summer and defeat the Fire Lord, Sozin's Comet will arrive and grant him and his Firebenders enough power to finally win the war and take complete control of the world," Aang finished gravely. He now had a deep frown on his face that was only all the more highlighted due to the shadows created by the flames of their campfire. He was holding onto his staff in an unsteady grip, perfectly mirroring his state of mind at the moment. He knew what he had to do, but whenever he thought about this great burden that had been bestowed upon him, he doubted if he could ever succed.

The responsibility just seemed too much for a twelve-year old boy.

Katara could practically feel how troubled her friend was at the moment and reached out, placing a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. She didn't think she could ever truly realize just how hard this whole thing must be for Aang, knowing that the entire world depended on him, and what would happen if he failed.

She was just about to say some words of encouragement , when someone else spoke.

"Excuse me but... what the heck are you guys talking about?" asked Naruto. Confusion was clearly written all over the shinobi's face and the question managed to snap everyone to attention, causing them to look directly at him. "I mean, what war are you talking about? And what's the deal with this 'Avatar-stuff' everyone keeps bringing up?"

"You've gotta be kidding, right?" was all Sokka managed to say after a few seconds of silence, perfectly summing up the group's thoughts in a single sentence.

"Should I be?" replied the blonde hesitantly with a quizzical eyebrow raised.

"Unless you've lived you're whole life under a rock, then yes, you should," deadpanned Toph. Naruto merely blinked at her, unsure on how to respond to what had just been said to him, but he didn't really need to. The young Earthbender was already picking up on the vibrations he was emanating, trying to sense the familiar feeling of a person lying, but she couldn't help but have her unseeing eyes widen when she didn't find it. "You really don't have a clue, do you?"

It was more a statement than a question, and Naruto was growing increasingly more uncomfortable by each passing second. There were obviously something they expected him to now, something they thought were of common knowledge, but he just had no idea what that could possibly be.

"How do you fail to notice a war that has been going on for the last one hundred years and that has affected the entire world?" asked Sokka.

"Hey, I know that things aren't exactly the most peaceful in the world today, especially with Akatsuki messing things upp, but I think I would have at least heard about a war that had been raging across the globe for as long as you claim it to to have been," huffed Naruto in annoyance before a thought struck him. "By the way, where are we exactly?"

"We're in the southern part of the Earth Kingdom's mainland," replied Katara hesitantly after a couple of seconds.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the name. "You wouldn't happen to have a map, would you?" he asked.

"I have one, just hold on for a second," replied Aang as reached into his clothes, finding the piece of paper which he then handed over to Naruto.

The blonde shinobi looked over the map for a brief second, but what he saw caused his eyes to nearly bulge out of their sockets.

During his travels with Jiraiya, Naruto had often gotten stuck with the task of reading the map. It wasn't that the Toad Sage couldn't do it himself, on the contrary, he could practically find his way in the world as if it had been his own pocket, but he'd thought it would do his young apprentice good to learn how to properly orientate.

It had been tedious and just overall boring. But if there was one thing the blonde had managed to learn, then that was how the world looked like.

However, the map that he was currently holding in his hand didn't look remotely like anyone he had ever seen before.

Naruto looked at the map for a couple of more seconds before letting out a sigh of exasperation. "Alright. I just know I'm going to regret asking this, but what exactly does this map show?"

"Er... well, it's a map of the world," said Aang, scratching his shaved head in confusion.

"If that's so, then where the hell are all the Shinobi Nations?!" he snapped, holding up the map for them to see while he pointed angrily at it.

"Hey, take it easy, man! You're not making any sense," frowned Sokka.

"I'm not making any sense? You're the ones who aren't making any sense!" growled the ninja back at them as he suddenly stood up. "You all keep talking about Benders, Avatars, wars and now you expect me to believe that the world concists of just four nations?!"

"Naruto, please calm down. Why are you getting so upset?" spoke Aang as he held up his hands in a what he hoped to be calmative manner.

But Naruto wasn't listening anymore. The young Jinchuuriki clutched his head in his hands as his thoughts raged inside his head. "What the hell did that damn snake-freak do to me?!" he roared before storming off into the woods.

"Naruto, wait!" called Katara, trying to reach out to him, but he was already too far away to even hear her.

An uneasy silence followed the blonde's hasty departure. The young travelers just looked at each other, no one really knowing what to say in this situation.

After a moment, Sokka finally opened his mouth. "Now what the heck was that all about?"

"I have no idea," said Aang. "It must have been something we said. I just don't have the slightest clue of what it could have been." The young Avatar wondered what could have caused the older boy to act this way. One minute he'd been laughing alongside them as if he had no care in the world, the next he'd been absolutely livid. "And what in the world was he talking about?"

"Well, he didn't tell a single lie. He was truthful throughout all that rambling," said Toph. The blind Earthbender didn'need to see in order to know that all eyes were fixed on her right now, waiting for her to explain herself. Before anyone had time to say anything, she continued. "Or more likely what he believes to be the truth. I don't know how to say it, but I think Azula scrambled his brains pretty bad back there."

"That would certainly explain things," muttered Sokka as he rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "But still. He was acting pretty weird even before that happened."

"Whatever the cause might be, we can't just leave him here," said Aang. The young monk raised himself onto his feet, looking his friends in their eyes. "I'll go after him. Maybe is I talked to him I could find out what's troubling him."

"Actually, Aang. I think I should do it," said Katara suddenly, causing all heads to turn to her this time. "I might be wrong... but I think I might have a better chance of reaching him than you."

"Let me guess. You're going to expose him to that naive optimism of yours, aren't you?" said Sokka with a smirk.

The young Waterbender glared at her brother for a second until she noticed the playful glint in his eyes, causing her pretty features to soften. "Well, it's worked so far, hasn't it?" she chuckled lightly. With that said, Momo once again made his prescence known by quickly climbing up Katara's clothes before taking a comfotable seat atop her left shoulder. "You want to come too, Momo?" she asked, earning a couple of chirps in reply.

"I don't know, Katara. Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" asked Aang as he watched her take a hold of a torch that Sokka had just fished out from one of their packs.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," she said with a smile. "I'll be back with Naruto before you've even noticed that we were gone."

Having said those words, the girl turned around and with confident steps headed off in the direction of which Naruto had just gone.

OoOoOoO

**A/N: **I had originally intended to make this chapter longer and include the part where Katara catches up to Naruto and have a talk with him, but since you've all been waiting so long I decided to save it for the next chapter.

Considering this chapter was more or less a breather for the characters, there weren't really any action in it. However, if everything goes as planned, the next chapter will have some more of that.

I've realized that I need to plan ahed a lot more when it comes to my writing, if only for the fact that there won't take half a freaking year between each update. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you have any questions related to the story, feel free to let me know.

Until the next time, this is ChaosGhidorah who's signing off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own neither Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Well, I'm back people. I hope you all had a happy holiday and everything thereafter. I know I did since I'm typing this on my own, brand new lap-top. Along with it I've finally managed to acquire a functional English spell-checker, and that means that my chapters will contain significantly less of those pesky spelling errors that seems to pop up whenever you least expect it.

As such, I hope that the quality of my writing will increase. I'll also eventually go back to previous chapters and correct some of the more blatant errors, as well as some minor sentences in the story. Nothing major, just some things like, for instance, in the last chapter where Aang managed to spot a village that I, in this chapter, changed to a town.

And since I have my own computer to play with, I should theoretically be able to write more often since I don't have to mind anyone else who wants to use it. Thereby updating more often. *CLANG* Ouch, who the heck threw that?!

Anyway, I'm not going to keep you up any longer other than to say that I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 04**

**Festival**

Katara let out a groan as she pushed yet another low hanging tree branch out of her way. Once that obstacle was dealt with, she moved her torch in front of her, illuminating the path before her as she attempted to find the traces of a certain blonde teenager that she had been trying to follow for the last half hour.

"Where could he have ran off to?" asked the young Waterbender to no one in particular before letting out a sigh of frustration. This was proving to be harder than she had initially thought and she started to wonder if she was actually going to be able to find Naruto. Maybe she should have brought Sokka along after all. Her brother had always been a better tracker than her.

Katara's lemur-companion silently observed her from his position atop her left shoulder. His head was slightly tilted to the side as he looked at her with those big, green eyes of his, when suddenly, something managed to catch his interest. Momo's tiny, but sensitive, nostrils flared as he recognised a familiar scent that lingered in the air.

The Avatar gang's smallest member then jumped down from Katara's shoulder and started to scurry along the forest floor, trying to get a lead on the scent. While Momo's sense of smell wasn't as potent as other species', it was still adequate enough.

"What is it, Momo?" asked Katara as she squatted down next to her furry friend. "Have you found something?"

Momo raised his head, taking a final sniff of the air, before bolting off in a certain direction. He only stopped for a brief moment to look over his shoulder back at Katara, wordlessly telling the girl to follow him, before he was off again.

Getting the hint, Katara quickly followed the lemur, trying her best with keeping up with the speedy little animal.

Once the two of them were finally on the right track, it wasn't all that hard to figure out which direction Naruto had taken. A quick look at the surrounding vegetation was all it took in order to see were the blonde had headed, since, in his current state of mind, Naruto had simply forced his way through the forest, completely ignoring any bushes or plants that had been unfortunate enough to stand in his way.

After a few more minutes of running, the girl and the lemur soon began to hear something up ahead. It was faint, but it was enough for Katara to quicken up the pace of her steps.

The closer they got, the louder and clearer the sounds became. Judging by the storm of curses that Katara was hearing, Naruto had apparently stopped running, something the girl was grateful for since she hadn't really looked forward to the prospect of having to comb through the entire forest in order to find him.

After taking a slight left-turn after passing a couple of particularly large oak trees, Katara and Momo finally came to a stop when they found the boy they had been searching for in a small clearing. It was just big enough to allow the moonlight to filter through the treetops and reach the ground.

Naruto currently had his back facing them and seemed to be right in the middle of beating a tree to death with his bare hands. He was hitting it with such force that it not only visibly shook from the powerful impacts, but also caused splinters to fly in all directions, seemingly without a care of how the whole thing was affecting his knuckles.

Whether it was a conscious decision or not, he didn't bother to enhance or shield his punches with chakra. Using the added pain in an attempt to clear his head from the raging thoughts that kept plaguing him.

If any of Naruto's friends were to see him now, they would most likely have scolded him for both his outburst and for the fact that he left in way that wasn't at all becoming of a ninja. But to be honest, he wouldn't really have given a damn about any of that at the moment. Everything just kept spinning in his head and the young man desperately needed an outlet for his frustrations, a job this tree was perfectly suitable for.

Hearing laboured breathing coming from behind him, the blonde Konoha ninja quickly spun around to face whoever it was that had come to disturb him.

Katara took a step back and was just barely able to stifle a gasp when she saw the nearly feral look on the male teenager's face. The effect was even more pronounced due to the combined light that her torch and the moon was emanating, causing the boy to actually look quite frightening.

Momo uttered a frightened squeak and hid himself behind Katara's legs while the girl in question could merely stare at the ninja with wide eyes.

Naruto's cerulean orbs widened as well, and his features instantly softened when he recognized the young Waterbender. The look of anger that he'd had on his face was quickly replaced with one of embarrassment and shame once he realized what he had just done.

"Sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean to scare you," he said as he looked another way, unable to look her in the eye.

Blinking a couple of times, Katara tried to figure out what exactly had happened just now. She silently wondered if she had just imagined things since it had only been for barely a split second, but during that short amount of time that it had taken place, she could have sworn that she had seen Naruto's pupils turn into slits. She was, however, brought out of her reverie when she caught sight of the blonde's hands, or more specifically the bruised and bloody knuckles, that were hanging limply at his sides.

Without even thinking about it, the medic in her had completely taken over and she rushed the last couple of meters to where Naruto was standing, leaving Momo behind. She briefly stopped for a second in order to stick the torch into the ground before she quickly took a hold of both of his hands and started looking them over. "What were you thinking?! Look what you've done to your hands!"

"H-hey, you don't have to...," Naruto protested and made an attempt to extract himself from her hold, but Katara would have none of that and kept his hands in a firm grip that would have even made Tsunade nod in approval. Without as much as batting an eye, the girl removed the lid on the water-bottle at her waist, bending the contents of it until she had covered her entire right hand in the liquid.

Naruto wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen next, but as soon as Katara gently grasped his damaged knuckles in her water covered hand, he instantly stopped struggling. He blinked a couple of times as he felt a distinct tingling sensation where the water came in contact with his battered skin.

Once the Waterbender was sure that her "patient" wasn't trying to escape, she started to move her hand with slow, circular movements. The effect was nearly instantaneous and before Naruto even had the time to think about it, the bloody knuckles began to heal. The bruised skin returned to its usual lightly tanned complexion and the splinters seemingly extracted themselves from his flesh.

Naruto was surprised just how nice the procedure felt. When Katara healed him it wasn't at all like how it was when Kyuubi used it's demonic chakra to regenerate him, something that always managed to leave behind a lingering, unpleasant burning sensation. The feeling reminded him instead much more of medical chakra, while still managing to be distinctly different.

She then repeated the procedure on his other hand and once she had done her work and let go of them, they felt as good as new.

"So, would you mind telling me what exactly happened back there?" Katara asked after a moment of tense silence.

Naruto let out a sigh as he leaned his back against the tree that he had been giving a beating just a few moments ago, allowing himself to slide down it until he was seated on the damp grass in front of it. "Yeah, sorry about that," he said, still not completely able to look at her. He took a deep breath, taking his time in an to attempt to sort his raging thoughts out and try to come up with a way to explain his previous actions.

"I don't know. This day has just been so damn weird that I don't know what to make of it. And after all the things you told me, I guess I just sort of snapped." Naruto let out another sigh before finally looking into Katara's ocean blue eyes. "I didn't mean to take it all out on you guys."

Katara gave him a small smile before taking a seat right next to the blonde. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. "If there's something that's bothering you, I don't think that you should keep it bottled up inside of you like this. Now, I know we have just recently met each other, but if you'd let me, I would be more than happy to hear what you've been through."

For a moment, all Naruto did was staring up at the starry sky above, causing Katara for a second to believe that he wouldn't say anything. However, before she even had the time to apologize for saying something that she believed to have been out of line, he finally opened his mouth and began to speak.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Well I... I guess I'd like to know a little more about you," answered the girl hesitantly. "For starters, where are you from? I think it's safe to say that you're not really from around here."

"You've probably got that right," laughed Naruto as he though of everything that had happened. He then pointed at the symbol on his head band, using his thumb. "I'm from Konoha. The village hidden in the leaves."

"Right... And that would be where, exactly?" The name didn't say her anything, but the blonde had said it with such passion, like it was something that everyone should know, making Katara almost feel embarrassed to ask about it.

Naruto looked at her oddly for a second, blinking a couple of times. "In the Land of Fire, of course," he continued.

This revelation was really not what Katara had expected to hear, causing her eyebrows to practically reach her hairline in shock. She nearly instantly rose to her feet, taking a few steps back from Naruto, but never once leaving his confused blue eyes with her own. "W-wait just one minute here," she stuttered. "I thought you said that you weren't from the Fire Nation. The way you talked before, it sounded like you hadn't even heard of it. Was all that just a trick?!" she accused, her tone continuously rising in volume as she went on.

"I would never trick anyone like that!" retorted Naruto heatedly. "Everything I've said to you guys have been true. I don't know what this Fire Nation is, but it sure as hell isn't where I'm from!"

"But you just said..."

"I know what I said, just..." The blonde took a deep breath and combed his fingers through his spiky hair, giving his best to put his thoughts into proper words. This was something he'd always had trouble with in the past (although he was getting increasingly better at it, despite what everyone were saying) and the current situation wasn't exactly helping matters any.

Katara observed the blonde for a brief moment, silently trying to decide what exactly she should believe. She didn't know what to make of the things that he'd said, but she could clearly see that this whole thing was troubling him immensely. Furthermore, he had done nothing to harm any of them, on the contrary he had gone so far as to go head to head with Azula when they'd been in trouble, despite the fact that he hardly even knew them.

Katara allowed herself to let out a sigh before hesitantly returning to her seat beside Naruto. She figured the least she could do was to hear him out of what he had to say and give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Al right, let's see if I get this straight," the Waterbender began. "You say that you're from the Fire Nation, but at the same time you're not?" Katara couldn't help but let her disbelief be heard in her voice.

"No, no, no. That's not what I'm saying at all," replied Naruto in slight frustration. It soon became clear to the young shinobi that in order to get the girl to understand, he would have to take everything from the beginning.

Despite never had much of an interest in history, often having fallen asleep during Iruka's classes in that particular subject, he still came to spend the following half hour giving Katara a brief lecture about the Elemental Countries and his home, Konoha. He also ended up bringing up the subject of chakra and ninjutsu and what it could do, as well as telling her a few things about his life and his own part in the village. He did skip over a whole lot of details, especially those concerning a certain nine-tailed engine of destruction that happened to reside within his belly.

While the fact that he was a Jinchuuriki didn't bother him as much as it did when he was younger, having accepted it as a part of who he was, it was just one of those things that you don't tell people that you've just met.

During his story, Katara didn't do anything but listen attentively to every word that the blonde was saying. She had mixed feelings about the whole thing, though. Everything Naruto was saying just seemed so unbelievable and alien to her, as if he was describing a completely different world than the one she was living in. But on the other hand, he spoke with such passion about his home, that a part of her couldn't help but believe him.

"- then, when we had basically finished our mission, I was captured by that bastard Orochimaru who used some sort of weird technique on me. After that, I woke up in that cave with you guys, and the rest you know."

Everything was silent for a while after Naruto had finished his tale. The only sounds that could be heard were the crickets' nightly song, and Momo munching down said crickets like it was a buffet, having long since grown tired of listening to all the jibber jabber.

"That's... quite a story, Naruto," said Katara, breaking the silence between them. "But that still doesn't explain how you ended up in the cave."

"You mean you didn't get me out of the snake-bastard's lair?" asked the blonde.

"Eh, no," replied the Waterbender hesitantly, wondering how ever she was going to explain this. "You see, when we found you... you sort of just... materialized out of thin her," she finally said, emphasizing her words with a few gestures of her hands.

"Wait, how could I have-?"

"I have absolutely no idea," said Katara, knowing full well that what she said didn't make any sense. "One second there was nothing there, then, in a flash of light, we found you lying on the ground in front of us. I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's how-," Katara then paused in her explanation as she looked over at Naruto, nearly having to bite down a laugh that threatened to escape her lips when she saw the look on his face.

The young man's eyes were closed in that fox-like fashion of hisit was done in such an exaggerated way that she could practically see and hear the gears turning inside his head. The Waterbender nearly lost it then and there before she managed to catch herself, hoping that he hadn't noticed.

"Maybe it was some kind of space-time jutsu... like a reverse summoning or something," Naruto said as he scratched his head, more to himself than anyone else. "Dammit, why didn't I pay attention when Ero-sennin went through all of this?!" He then leaned back against the tree, once again looking up to the stars before letting out a sigh of frustration, "And how the hell am I supposed to find a way home if I don't even know where, or how far away I am?"

Katara frowned sadly as she watched Naruto's troubled expression. She thought about everything that had happened during the last 24 hours, and it didn't really take that long for her to make up her mind and come to a decision.

Naruto blinked a couple of times as he watched the girl by his side rise to her feet. She then turned to him, a gentle smile on her face, "Why don't you come with us then? I won't pretend to understand everything that's happened to you, but I do believe that you are a good person and I'd rather have you with us than on your own."

"I don't know. I really don't want to be a bother, and-" it was at exact this moment that Momo decided to plop down onto blonde boy's shoulder, effectively cutting him off in the process. The lemur then stared into Naruto's eyes for a short moment, right before letting out a yawn that was promptly followed with him curling himself around the young shinobi's neck, falling asleep within seconds.

"See, even Momo agrees with me," giggled Katara. "And besides, if you come with us, you might have a greater chance of finding your way home."

Naruto looked from one to the other before chuckling to himself. "Well, I guess I really don't have much of a choice then," he finally said with a big grin.

OoOoOoO

"Man, this is awesome!" cheered Naruto loudly as the wind blew through his blonde hair. "Do you guys always travel like this?" he asked over his shoulder to the rest of the group.

"Most of the time," replied Sokka with a shrug. "It saves time and it sure beats walking all the time."

"Well, I for one prefer to have my feet safe and secure on solid ground," muttered Toph as she held onto the side of Appa's giant saddle like her very life depended on it. She had yet to grow comfortable with this type of transportation and couldn't wait until they finally landed.

The sky bison flew swiftly through the air. A feat he accomplished with far more grace than one would have expected considering his very impressive size. When Naruto had first been told of how exactly they were going to get to the town that Aang had found the day before, he had been pretty sceptical to say the least. But once his new companions had finally managed to convince him to take a seat atop Appa's back and taken off, he had, after getting over the initial shock, quickly adapted to the new situation with his usual enthusiasm.

When Naruto and Katara had returned to camp after their little talk, the first thing the blonde had done was to apologize for his previous outburst to the rest of the group. But to his great surprise, it seemed like no one really held it against him and everything was quickly forgiven. Sokka had just been happy to finally be able to go to sleep after having to sit up and wait for them.

"Wow. Everything looks so small from up here," stated the shinobi in awe as he looked over the edge and down onto the ground. He had thought that the view from Gamabunta's head was impressive, but this was on a completely different level. Never in his life would he have guessed that he would be able to gaze down at the earth from the clouds like he was doing now.

"Be careful," warned Katara. She was glad over the fact that their new friend seemed to enjoy himself so immensely, but did he have to lean himself over the edge like that?

Naruto merely turned around, flashing a wide grin. "Don't worry. Until I've become Hokage, I won't let something as silly as a fall kill me."

"I remember you mentioned something like that before, but what is a 'Hokage' exactly?" asked Sokka curiously, putting away the map he'd been reading up until this point. "Judging by the way you talk about it, it sounds like something pretty important."

If it was even possible, Naruto's grin seemed to get even wider at the mention of his number one goal in life. "You bet. The Hokage is the title of the leader and most powerful ninja of my village," he explained passionately. "It's always been my dream to become one and I won't stop until I've made that dream reality."

Katara couldn't help but smile at her new friend's spirit, having heard him talk about his dream in much the same way the night before.

"Well, that sure sounds like an impressive thing to aspire for," said Aang with an honest grin from his place behind Appa's head. "I'd love to hear more about it, but that will have to wait, because were finally here." The young Avatar gestured to the ground, urging his friends to look were he was pointing.

Down below was the town that Aang had found the day before. It was located right next to a large river that, if followed, would lead one right out onto the open sea. As such, it wasn't all too surprising for the group of youngsters to spot a fairly large number of boats and ships to be anchored in the town's harbour.

But as Appa went in for a landing, giving them all a much closer view of the town, they were all a bit surprised by the cheerful atmosphere that met them. Without them originally having even known about it, it would appear that they had managed to arrive right in the middle of a grand festival. Decorations and banners of every kind were everywhere. Musicians played beautiful songs that only served to further contribute to the mood. And the streets themselves were practically filled to the brink with people, wandering between the countless booths that lined them in search for goods, food and entertainment.

"Whoa, Aang, did you know about this?" asked Sokka, unable to tear his eyes from the spectacle below.

"No, I had no idea," replied the young monk with wide eyes. "They must have raised everything last night when we were asleep."

"What? What's going on?" wondered Toph who, for obvious reasons, had yet to figure out what all the fuss was about.

Down below, people had started to take notice of the Sky Bison's presence. They pointed and cheered loudly at the sight of the large animal and its occupants, causing said occupants to give each other a shared look of bewilderment.

"Well, it looks like we've come to one of those towns were you're quite popular, Aang," stated Sokka with a smirk as he gave his friend a thumbs up.

After a successful landing on one of the significantly less crowded streets in the outskirts of the town, Aang and his friends dismounted from Appa. They were just about to have a look around and ask someone what the occasion was about, when they noticed someone approaching them.

It was an elderly man, probably around his mid 70ies, dressed in a robe made in the customary green colour of the Earth Kingdom. A neatly trimmed beard covered his chin and a kind smile was placed on his wrinkled old face, making him fit the image of the kind grand father to a T. Once he had come close enough to them, he gave Aang a respectful bow.

"Greetings, young Avatar," he said in a friendly tone. "My name is H'u Xū, and allow me to be the first one to welcome you and your companions to our humble town of Gang Kou."

Aang smiled and gave the old man a bow in return, "Thank you, we're very glad to be here. I'm Aang, and this is Katara, Sokka, Toph and Naruto. May I ask you what it is that you are celebrating?"

"Why, certainly. But I am afraid that we'll have to move. Your bison is blocking the path and the people driving the bigger carriages might get impatient," he answered apologetically. Aang and his friends took a quick look around and just as he'd said, Appa great size was taking up a lot of space ."Walk with me to my inn and I'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions."

After coming to a wordless agreement, the group decided to follow the old man, who started to tell his story as they walked.

"Today marks the first day of Kuruk Week," stated H'u Xū with a smile. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed an identical set of confused looks on the youngsters' faces. He let out a small chuckle before deciding to elaborate. "Nearly five hundred years ago, this town was nothing but a small, but slowly growing, fishing village where only a few people actually lived. One day, catastrophe nearly struck the village when a tsunami appeared out of nowhere and threatened to completely destroy the little community. However, as fate would have it, it turned out that none other than the great Avatar Kuruk just so happened to be in the area. He easily dispatched the tidal wave, saving the village and its people from certain doom."

"I've heard of him," said Katara as she recalled some of the stories that her grand mother had told her when she was a child. "He was the Avatar that preceded Avatar Kyoshi and was born in the Northern Water Tribe, wasn't he?"

"Indeed he was," continued their guide. "Avatar Kuruk's heroic act gave the village the chance of blossoming into the the town that you see today. We celebrate this festival that draws people from all over the world, not just in Kuruk's honour, but for all the Avatars through history that gave their best to make the world a better place for the people living in it. As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise for you to learn that the townspeople here holds the Avatars in very high regard."

"What about these past hundred years?" asked Aang with a great deal of hesitation. It was no secret to his friends that he felt deeply ashamed due to the fact that he hadn't been around during the past century to stop the Fire Nation in their goals of global conquest. While he was in no ways at direct fault for the state of the world, he still felt very responsible for it, wondering what would have happened if he hadn't ran away from the monks that night.

"Ah, yes. Those were some sad times indeed," replied the old man with a hint of sadness in his tone. "With the Avatar gone, a lot of people didn't see the point with continuing with the festivities any longer." He then turned around and gave Aang a reassuring smile. "But some of us remained hopeful, and as soon as the news of your return reached us, we immediately felt it was high time to reintroduce the festival again. To shed some light during these dark times."

With those words said, the group had finally arrived at the old man's inn. It wasn't a large establishment by any means, just a regular wooden, two stories house. But as soon as they set a foot inside, they could instantly feel the cosy atmosphere. Everything was clean and tidy and the pleasant smell of a home cooked meal lingered in the air.

After having said a polite hello to H'u Xū's wife, who was sitting behind the check in counter, they were given a quick tour around the building.

"When you're all done for the day, please return here and stay the night as honoured guest," said the old man with one of his friendly smiles.

"Wait just one minute here," drawled Sokka as he eyed the old man suspiciously. "You seem almost _too _nice to be true. You're out for something, aren't you?" he accused.

H'u Xū merely threw his head back and let out a bellowing laugh that shook his thin frame. "Nothing escapes this young man, eh? Fine, you got me," he confessed, still chuckling. "It is true that I have some selfish reasons for taking you in like this. You see, when people finds out that the Avatar stayed at my inn of all places, my profit is sure to shoot through the roof."

After having been shown where they were going to sleep for the night, they all headed out. They were anxious to see what this festival had to offer, but first they had to say a quick goodbye to Appa who would have to stay behind.

The Avatar's Sky Bison had found his place by the inn's stable, allowing himself an early lunch alongside the few Ostrich Horses that occupied it. Naruto had never seen animals like these before, resembling a cross between the two animals of which they were named, but since no one else seemed to pay them any real attention, he simply shrugged as he figured them to probably be a common part of this place's fauna.

...That and having seen a giant, six legged buffalo that could fly really put everything else in perspective as far as weirdness was concerned.

"Sorry, buddy," said Aang apologetically while patting his large friend on the head. "It seems like you'll just have to stay here for the time being. But I'll try to find something neat to buy for you."

Appa hummed in a tone that almost sounded dismissive before taking a mouthful of hay that the innkeeper had been generous enough to provide. The sky bison had gotten used to the fact that there would be situations were he wouldn't always be able to accompany his partner, and this was one of them. But hey, as long as there was food for him to eat, who was he to complain?

"Do not worry, Avatar Aang," said the elderly man as he gave the boy a short but respectful bow. "It will be an honour for me to keep a watchful eye out for your bison during your absence."

After saying their thanks, Aang and his group of friends began to walk their way back down the more crowded streets. The old man hadn't been joking when he said that the townspeople didn't have anything but the utmost respect for the Avatar. They never had to elbow their way through the masses, basically because practically all of them simply allowed them to walk before they did, most often nodding their heads in a court bow as they did so.

There were even a few instances where a person would walk directly up to the Avatar to either ask him a question, wish him good luck on his difficult journey, or just tell him how all around awesome they thought he was.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at all of this. He couldn't help but find it a little strange to see people give a twelve year old boy the same level of respect that one would often reserve to the likes of a Hokage or a feudal lord. But then again, judging from what he'd heard from his new friends and old man H'u Xū's tale, being the Avatar did seem to be quite a big deal to these people.

As Aang was currently held occupied talking to an old woman, who wanted some advice regarding an argument she'd apparently had with her grandson, Naruto allowed his eyes to wander lazily for a minute. That was when he noticed something that caught his interest.

On the other side of the street stood a pair of teen aged girls that kept pointing and stealing glances of him, all the while whispering and giggling amongst themselves.

After allowing a foxy grin to form on his face, the blonde boy raised an arm and waved at them. This in turn caused the girls to freeze up for a second and blush an identical shade of red, before sharing another fit of giggles as they quickly began to happily wave back at Naruto.

"So, what should we go and check out first?" asked Aang, turning to his friends once the old lady had finally left.

"How about we try to find a new set of clothes for Naruto?" suggested Katara a bit dryly. The young Waterbender frowned at the way those two town-girls kept sizing up the blonde's top-less, and well built, form. The way they looked at him reminded her of how her brother would often look at a particularly fine piece of meat, and she didn't really like it at all.

"That might be a bit of a problem," stated Sokka suddenly, causing all heads to turn in his direction to see him hold their very empty looking money-pouch. "I'm afraid we seem to be a bit short on cash at the moment."

"Well, how much do we have left?" asked Aang.

Sokka turned the pouch upside down, spilling it's contents into his left hand for all of them to see. "We seem to be down to one measly copper-piece, three useless rocks and a couple of nuts." Sokka was barely allowed to finish his sentence before one of Momo's hands shot forward, grabbed onto the previously mentioned nuts and showed them into his mouth.

"Correction. Make that one measly copper-piece and three useless rocks," dead panned the young Water Tribe warrior before letting out a heavy sigh.

The depressing revelation regarding their economic situation caused most of the youngsters to slump their shoulders in defeat. But just before the sombre mood had had any real time to set, all attention was directed towards a snickering Toph, who, for some unfathomable reason, seemed to find their predicament extremely amusing.

"Would you mind telling us what's so funny, Toph?" demanded Sokka with a sour look.

"Oh, nothing," replied the blind girl casually, her wide grin never once leaving her face. "I was just thinking about just how lucky you guys are that I decided to tag along on your little Sunday picnic," she continued as she brought out a rather heavy looking pouch from her backpack that she'd decided to bring along. A pouch that produced a certain sound, like small pieces of metal were grinding against each other, when she began to toss it between her hands.

Aang, Katara and (especially) Sokka immediately recognized the green sack of money that Toph was currently juggling with. "Is that...the prize money from the Earth Rumble tournament?" asked Aang, voicing what they were all thinking.

"Didn't we hand it back over to Xin Fu as ransom when he and his Earthbenders kidnapped you and Aang?" asked Katara as she recalled the events that had led up to Toph joining their group in the first place.

"Yeah, but I decided to snatch it back after I kicked their sorry behinds," grinned the young Earthbender, chuckling at the memory. "Besides, it's not really stealing when you think about it. The prize money belongs to the champ, right?"

"Hey, if that's the case then I should have the money," protested the Avatar. "After all, I defeated you, remember?"

Toph merely scoffed at that. "All you did was knock me out of the ring with a wind puff, so you lost by default," she rebuffed while jabbing lightly at his chest with her right index-finger. "The tournament was called Earth Rumble VI, not 'Air Flair Extravaganza'."

All Naruto could do during their exchange was to look from one to the other, scratching his head in confusion. He was clearly missing out on something here.

"Calm down, you guys," admonished Katara and placed a gentle hand on both Aang's and Toph's shoulders. "Since we're in this together, shouldn't the money be spent according to the needs? Now, why don't you two take Naruto and have yourselves a quick look around, while Sokka and I go take care of the groceries. Does that sound fair to you?" she asked before taking a few coins from the bag.

"Hey, why do I have to do that? I wanted to check out that guy back there who swallows swords," complained Sokka as he used his thumb to point over his shoulder to where, not that far away, a man was indeed swallowing a variety of bladed weapons in front of an awed audience. But once his sister gave him "the look", he instantly quieted down and slumped his shoulders in defeat. She had started to do that a lot lately...

After agreeing to meet up at the same spot in about an hours time, the youngsters went their separate ways. Aang, Toph and Naruto to check out what the festival had to offer in terms of entertainment, while Katara and Sokka went to stock up on food and other essential supplies for their journey.

However, what neither of them realized was that they were being watched by a shady looking individual. Once he saw the kids part their ways, said individual was in a great hurry to tell his boss of what he had seen and ran towards the docks.

After Sokka had been walking/dragged around for a while, having quickly grown bored with having to check if a vegetable was fresh enough for consumption, or if a particular spice was too strong to be used in a dish, his mind started to wander.

"What were you and Naruto doing last night?" he asked his sister out of the blue.

"Oh, nothing. Just talking," replied Katara without looking up, currently being too busy checking out the prices for turkey duck eggs. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason really," the pony-tailed boy replied, his hands placed behind his head as he absent-mindedly glanced over at a booth right next to them that appeared to be selling a wide array of exotic weapons. The sword collection in particular managed to catch his attention before continuing with the conversation. "It's just that you two were away for quite some time. He didn't try anything funny with you, did he?"

"No, Sokka. All we did was talk," Katara said as she let out a sigh of annoyance. Honestly, she loved her brother, but sometimes he could just get a tad too over protective. "He actually told me a bit of his home."

"Really? Like what?" asked Sokka, suddenly becoming a lot more interested in this conversation.

For a moment Katara contemplated whether she should tell her brother of the things that Naruto had told her or not. She wasn't sure if it was her place to tell, but on the other hand she figured he would find out sooner or later so he might as well learn of it now. It couldn't really hurt that much, could it?

Having made up her mind, she turned to her brother with smirk, "I'll only tell you if you carry all the supplies when we're done."

"Urgh... Okay, deal."

OoOoOoO

In another part of town, Naruto suddenly let out a sneeze.

"Are you feeling all right, Naruto?" asked Aang, concern evident in his voice as he looked up at the older boy. "You're not coming down with a cold, are you?"

"Nah, it was probably just a bug or something that flew under my nose," replied the blonde with a dismissive shrug. As far as he could recall, he had never really suffered from a cold during his entire life, which was one of very few things he guessed he could thank a certain fur-ball for. "So, where are we going now?"

"I don't know. There's just so much stuff going on here, I have no idea where to begin," replied the young Airbender with a wide smile as he eyed his surroundings until an ongoing puppet-show not too far away caught his attention. Momo, having up until this point been sitting atop Aang's shaved head, unfolded his wings and decided to have a closer look.

"Well, you better take your time enjoying yourself while you can, Twinkle Toes," stated Toph as she picked out a small fish-bone from between her teeth, the damn thing having bothered her since breakfast, before wiping her hand on her beige tunic. "As soon as we leave this place, it's high time for you to start practising your Earthbending. Now, I don't know how Katara's handled things, but you can bet your ass I won't go easy on you," she finished with an intimidating grin.

Aang visibly gulped at this, fearing for a second over what exactly his imminent training might entail. However, this train of thought was abruptly interrupted when he felt Naruto's hand suddenly plop down onto his shoulder. The young Avatar turned his head in confusion, looking up into the blonde's face that now sported one of his foxy grins.

"Training, eh?" said Naruto excitedly. "Now that's something I can get behind."

With that said, the trio followed the lemur as they continued to explore the town.

OoOoOoO

The door was kicked open with such force that it nearly fell of its hinges as the man walked into his personal cabin, an angry snarl on a weather beaten face that had endured countless years on the sea. He unceremoniously plopped down on a moth-eaten old chair behind a work desk that had also seen better days, before taking off his hat which he placed in front of him. He then let out an exasperated sigh as he combed his fingers through his long, grey hair, wincing slightly as he touched the bald spot on top of his head that only seemed to be growing wider by each day.

"What's a pirate got to do in order to earn some money around these parts?" grumbled the captain while handing his trusted pet a piece of meat that had passed it's due date a long time ago. The reptile bird merely took a sniff at the bad meat before turning its head away in disgust. "I know m'boy. I know," sighed the old seafarer as he patted the animal. "These past few weeks haven't been too kind to us."

That would have been the understatement of the year, he thought bitterly. Everything just seemed to have gone downhill since they had left the North Pole. First of all, when he and his crew of pirates left the Northern Water Tribe after a little "job" , they had nearly been sent into the depths of the ocean when an enormous tidal wave unexpectedly hit them from behind. They had then decided to take a short cut to the grand city of Ba Sing Sea through the Serpent's Pass, only to find out that the name wasn't just for show. And to top of this series of setbacks, they had just recently been caught in a storm that not only managed to rob them of most of their cargo, but also the money of which they'd earned after getting rid of a certain crown prince of the Fire Nation (who, as it later turned out, wasn't actually quite as dead as they had thought).

The captain was interrupted in his moment of bitter reflection when his first-mate suddenly barged into his cabin. Usually when they where on dry land, the lanky man would spend most of his time drawing in potential customers into their mobile boutique. But as things were right now, they neither had anything worth to sell nor had they really had the the time to acquire any new merchandise through their "high-risk-trading".

As such, the captain couldn't help but notice that the goofy grin that was normally present on his second in command's face, something that he'd seen notably less of during these past weeks of hardship, had now returned in full force.

"Good news!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Guess what I found, cap'n! It's somethin' that will cheer ya right up."

The old pirate rolled his eyes at his underling's enthusiasm, "Let me see. It wouldn't happen to be a barrel of cheap alcohol to drown our sorrows in, would it?" He could sure as hell need a drink right now.

"Ah, _that _would be truly good news. But no," he replied as he adjusted the green head band that kept his messy brown hair out of his face. He then inched closer to his captain, gaining a certain gleam in his eyes as he started speaking in an overly conspiratorial manner. Hand cupped by his mouth and everything. "It's somethin' _far _more profitable, if ya catch my drift."

The captain raised an eye-brow at this, having had his curiosity piqued by the ramblings of his lieutenant, "I'm listening."

"Well, me and one of the boys were out checking things in town. But guess who we happened to lay our eyes on just when we were about to steal something to fill our bellies with."

The shady old man slammed his fist down on his desk, causing his pet to utter a frightened squawk as he growled, "Just get to the frickin point already!"

"It was the Avatar," said the skinny pirate, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Ya know, the same Avatar that the Fire Nation is prepared to pay a generous amount of money for if delivered."

For a minute, all the captain did was sit there in silence before his lips twisted into an evil smirk. "Well, that _is _good news, laddie." He then raised himself from his seat, his trusted animal companion returning to its rightful place on top of his shoulder as he put his hat on and calmly walked towards the door. Without turning around to face his underling, he said, "Would you mind gathering the boys? We've got ourselves an Airbender to catch."

OoOoOoO

**A/N: **Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know there wasn't really any action in this chapter either (unless, of course, the case with the tree-assault counts), but it all builds up to the next chapter where the pirate crew makes their spectacular come-back. Maybe then we'll finally find out the answer to the ancient question whether ninja or pirates are better?

Anyway, until next time, this is ChaosGhidorah who's signing off.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own neither Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Yay, it's time for an update! I'm not going to waste your time any more than I have to, but I'd really like to thank Stalker of Stories for being so kind as to having beta read this chapter.

**Chapter 05**

**Yarr! Here there be pirates!**

"Okay, Katara. Let me see if I get this straight," said Sokka in a dead pan tone.

The two Water Tribe siblings had just finished stocking up on some supplies a few minutes ago. And, as per their agreement, Sokka was now stuck with carrying the collected load while Katara went through the things that Naruto had told her the night before.

By the looks of it he seemed to take it just as well as someone would have expected him to.

"You're telling me that you believe that Goldilocks is from some kind of other world than ours, am I right?"

"Right."

"You're also saying that in this _other _world, people use this weird power, called 'chakra', that makes them able to do all sorts of things? Like climbing walls with just their feet, blow stuff up in a variety of flashy ways and summon giant, city stomping monstrosities to do their bidding?"

"Right."

"And a crazy, evil criminal from his home village, who has an unhealthy fascination with snakes, sent him here so that he wouldn't interfere with his big, evil plans?"

During their entire exchange, Sokka had used the same monotone, talking in a way that clearly said; 'you do realize that this sounds completely insane, don't you?'

Katara knew that what Naruto had told her would sound a bit (or rather very) far-fetched to anyone's ears, but she just couldn't help herself but to believe in the blond's words. When she had heard him talk about his home, she hadn't been able to distinguish any deception or trickery in his voice, only the love and happiness the young man seemed to radiate when he talked about the mysterious place which he came from.

There was the possibility that he might not be quite right in the head, but she sincerely hoped that that wasn't the case.

"Right," answered Katara a final time, almost dreading the rant she knew was bound to come any second now. She could already hear her brother go on and on about how naïve and gullible she was to believe in such irrational and crazy nonsense. Or that this was just like the time with Jet, when he had lied about his plan of "saving" that valley from the Fire Nation soldiers that had occupied it, and that she would just end up getting hurt again.

There was a moment of tense silence, during which the two of them did nothing but look at each other as people passed them by.

Finally, after what had felt like an eternity for the girl, Sokka let out a heavy sigh, lightly pinching the bridge of his nose before uttering a single word.

"Sure."

"I knew you wouldn't listen! You're just far too stuck in your own little world to even contemplate the chance of-!" The young Waterbender suddenly silenced herself in the middle of her angry outburst, blinking a couple of times as her mind finally seemed to process what exactly her brother had just said. "Wait, what?"

"I said '_sure_.' I believe you," answered Sokka with a shrug before trudging past Katara, carrying the simple bag that contained the stuff they'd bought over his shoulder.

For a couple of seconds, all Katara did was to stand rooted to the spot, silently wondering what had just happened, before she hurried to catch up with her brother. "That's it? No long winded speeches about how insane you think all of this is or that you can't believe how I could ever fall for such a story?"

"Nope."

"Why?" Katara asked as she stopped walking. She was unable to wrap her head around her brother's strange behaviour.

Sokka let out a yet another sigh before he too stopped and turned around to face his sister, who now had confusion written all over her pretty face. "Look, sis, this isn't exactly easy for me to say, but we've been on this little trip of ours for a while now. We've all seen some pretty strange stuff since we went fishing that day and found Aang, basically becoming a big, collective weirdness magnet in the process." Seeing that he had her undivided attention, the young warrior then held up two fingers for what he had to say next, "The way I see it, I have two possible options here. I could call Naruto crazy and try to have him committed to a nut-house or something like that. But judging from my experience, you would just find a way to prove me wrong in the end, making me look like a jackass and having another thing to hold over my head."

He shifted the bag over to his other shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck before continuing. "On the other hand, if I just skip all of that, and instead try, although a fair bit reluctantly mind you, to accept what you've just told me from the start, I'll save us all a lot of time and trouble that could be used for more important matters, like helping Aang master the elements so that he can take out the Fire Lord."

After Sokka had finished, Katara just blinked a couple of times before tilting her head slightly to the side. "Who are you and what have you done to my brother?"

"Ha ha, very funny, Katara," Sokka muttered sarcastically. "But seriously, however strange his claims might be, Naruto is still an okay guy as far as I'm concerned. Weird as hell, but okay. Besides, as I said before, we've all been trough some pretty strange stuff as it is," he said as he raised a hand and started to count down on his fingers. "Just to name a few; one of our closest friends is the latest incarnation of the Avatar, a protector of the world destined to bring balance to it. We're constantly riding a giant bison that defies all the laws of gravity. I was once abducted into the Spirit World by an angry forest spirit. And last but not least, my first girlfriend became the freaking moon!"

The Water Tribe boy's voice had become increasingly louder as he went through all the things that had happened, almost to the point of yelling as he angrily shook his fists at the sky, nearly threatening to drop the bag that contained their newly acquired purchases as people around them gave the siblings odd looks.

After a while he managed to calm down, slumping his shoulders as he let out a heavy sigh. "Why does the universe like to mess with me so much?" Sokka whined as Katara patted him reassuringly on his shoulder.

OoOoOoO

"Anyone know what time it is?" Naruto asked as he took another bite out of his piece of rock candy.

The blond had found himself feeling slightly peckish during their walk around the festival, so the three of them had stopped by a booth that happened to be selling this particular kind of sweets. The corpulent merchant had proudly claimed it to be the best Jennomite that the city of Omashu had to offer. While they looked just like ordinary crystals, only in a myriad of different colours, Naruto was pleasantly surprised to find them rather tasty. The only complaint he had with them was that they seemed to have a tendency to get stuck in his teeth.

"Well, I think it's about time to meet up with Katara and Sokka," answered Aang while at the same time handing Momo what was left of his own piece of the sweet mineral.

"Already? But we haven't even gone through half of this place yet," complained Toph as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Don't worry about it," said the young Airbender with a smile. "We aren't going to leave until tomorrow morning so we still have the whole day to have fun."

"Fine," huffed the blind girl as they started to head back to the point of town where they had split up with Katara and Sokka. "But we'd better not miss out on anything, Twinkle-toes, or else I'll hold you responsible for it."

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the two pre-teens' antics. He had found himself really enjoying this festival and spending time getting to know his newfound friends.

From what he could tell so far, Aang appeared to be, in many ways, a lot like himself. He seemed to be a happy and fun-loving kid, with a nice sense of humour that made him very easy to talk to and laugh along with. And just like Naruto had been when he was younger (although many people he knew would rightly say that he still was), he was easily distracted by all of the new and exciting things that was going on around them.

Naruto didn't have all that much experience when it came to monks, having only briefly met the imposing warriors dedicated to the teachings of the Fire Temple, but he had quickly deduced that the young boy, with his seemingly carefree attitude, was a completely different kind of monk than those he had met at home.

Toph, on the other hand, like the element she wielded, was much more blunt, something he had found out fairly early on during their time together. From what Naruto had seen, the blind girl was definitely not the kind of person that beat around the bush when she had something she wanted to say.

With that said, it didn't at all mean that she wasn't fun to be around. As she ever so slowly began to ease up around him, she started to show quite a humorous streak of her own. Although her sense of humour seemed to be just a tad bit meaner than Aang's and a lot more physical.

His arm was still a bit sore from when she punched him.

The trio, plus Momo, was now walking by a series of houses that were, unlike H'u Xū's inn, made completely out of rock. When Naruto asked about this, Toph just said that since they were in the Earth Kingdom, it was rather obvious that Earth Benders at some point must have been helping out to create cheap homes for the expanding population. A common and cheap procedure at some places.

It was during this small exchange between the two that Aang abruptly stopped dead in his tracks in front of them. Momo tilted his little head and gave the boy a confused look.

"Hey, is there something wrong, Aang?" Naruto asked while giving the young Avatar a confused look after having walked up to him. For some reason, the younger boy's body had completely stiffened in mid step, almost looking like a human statue.

"...Can't... move...!" Aang managed to say through teeth that were clenched tightly shut, panic being clearly shown in his grey eyes.

The Jinchuuriki furrowed his brow, wondering for a second what was going on with the boy, until he laid his blue eyes on the small dart that was embedded in Aangs left shoulder.

It didn't even take a second for Naruto to realize what was going on, having suffered through a nearly identical experience not too long ago. He immediately tensed up and was just about to try and find out where exactly the dart had come from, when suddenly, a small, brown ball hit the ground by their feet and promptly burst into a cloud of white smoke.

Before they even had time to react, Naruto and Toph nearly doubled over as they inhaled the foul gas. It caused their eyes to burn with tears, their nostrils to sting horribly and their bodies to heave uncontrollably as they were assaulted by cough after cough.

After a moment of feebly trying to clear the air by waving his hands with little to no avail, Naruto got an idea. Raising his shaking arm, he did his best to ignore the pain and to focus his chakra into his hand. With as much concentration as he could offer at the moment, he finally managed to form a Rasengan laced with his own wind natured chakra.

As the spinning white blue orb of energy gave of a low screech in the palm of his hand, the cloud that surrounded him and Toph quickly began to dissipate, making them able to finally breath in a healthy dose of fresh air.

He rubbed the salty tears from his eyes with an angry growl. Momo's shrieks could be heard as the lemur flew around in circles above their heads while the blond seemed to be slowly regaining the use of his senses. He made an attempt to have a quick look around and once he opened his bloodshot eyes, the young shinobi could see the people gathered around them, murmuring worriedly amongst themselves.

But Aang was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto went to help Toph back up onto her feet, but the younger girl merely swatted his hands away, telling him that she was fine and that she could handle herself. "Naruto, some people jumped down from the roof and ran away with Aang," said the young Earthbender after having finally stopped coughing and trying to get her breathing back under control. "I could feel them, but I couldn't stop them!"

The ninja's eyes widened before he quickly turned and pointed at the nearest bystander. "You, there!" Naruto barked. "Did you see where they took off?!"

The poor man raised his hands in a defensive gesture, not wanting to incur the wrath of the angry looking teenager. "That w-way. D-down the street and to the l-left between those buildings over there," he stammered while pointing out the direction he had seen the kidnappers take when they ran past him, nearly knocking him over in the process.

Before the man even had the time to finish, Naruto was already off, closely followed by both Toph and Momo as they sprinted down the designated path. If they hurried they would still be able to catch up with them! They then turned left between the before mentioned buildings and ran down a seemingly deserted pathway, before ending up on a large open, but insanely overcrowded street.

Naruto wanted to scream in frustration. How the hell were they supposed to find the kidnappers among all these people?

Just as the blond was about to dive head first into the crowded mass of people, Toph held her arm out in front of him, effectively keeping him in place. "Don't get your panties in a twist," she stated calmly without even facing him. "I'll handle this one."

The young Earthbender seemed to concentrate for a brief moment, right before she in a swift motion slid her bare feet over the ground outward from her centre, while simultaneously thrusting her open palms out from her sides. In just a second she had cleared a pathway for them, doing so simply by manipulating the top layer of the earth in order to force all the people to the sides.

Well, all people except for four suspicious looking individuals that seemed to be in a whole lot of hurry. The largest of them carrying a bag over his shoulder that seemed to be large enough to contain a certain twelve year old Airbender. After having noticed that it had suddenly become significantly less crowded, the kidnappers slowly turned themselves around and fixed their gazes on the people that had been following them.

The pirate most commonly referred to as "Barker" by his fellow crew-mates (due to his certain knack of drawing in potential customers to their business) scowled at the sight of the two kids that practically oozed trouble.

Everything had gone smoothly, without any unnecessary altercations up until this point. The long haired man and his fellow pirates had silently been stalking the Avatar, making sure to not draw any unwanted attention to themselves. When they first spotted their ticket to living the good life, they realized, to their surprise and glee, that the kid was not in the company of the two Water Tribe siblings that they clearly remembered from their previous encounter.

Instead of the skilled Waterbending girl and boomerang wielding boy, the monk had instead been walking around town with two people they had never seen before. A young girl that appeared to be roughly around the Avatars own age, dressed in traditional Earth Kingdom clothing, and a shirtless teenager with spiky, yellow hair.

It was all so perfect. Once they had made sure that they were out of sight or hearing range, they had struck. Paralysing the Avatar with the stuff that their captain had given them before taking his two buddies out of the equation. Then all they would have to do was grab the kid and run as fast as their legs could carry them.

But now here they were, staring down a couple of snot-nosed brats that should still be lying down, coughing their lungs out. He had made sure to check those damn gas bombs before heading out... But what use was there complaining about it now, really?

"All right. You three keep these kids entertained while I deliver the package to the cap'n," commanded the headband-wearing pirate as he took the bag from his muscular crew mate. He managed to hoist it over his own shoulder without too much effort and started running, only glancing over his shoulder with a grin to say, "But make sure they don't have _too _much fun."

With that said, the three remaining pirates eased themselves into position and brought out their weapons, preparing themselves for battle. The tallest, and most muscular of the bunch, held a halberd in a tight, two-handed grip without letting a single emotion show on his face. One of his crew mates wasn't nearly as composed, growling angrily and showing off the few teeth that still remained in his mouth while a slight breeze blew through his single tuft of blue hair. In his hands he twirled a pair of daggers, with edges that gleamed threateningly in the sun's light. The last, and also shortest, of the trio had an almost maniacal grin plastered on his face as he showed of his skills with his nunchacku, clearly looking forward to what was to come.

Realizing what was about to happen, most of the surrounding onlookers decided that it was time to get the heck out of there. Some of the braver or more curious people merely took cover behind a booth or something of the like. All so that they would be able to get front row seats of the action that was sure to begin any second now.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Toph asked in a somewhat bored tone while cracking her knuckles.

"Eh?" Naruto answered intelligently as he glanced at the younger girl.

The Earthbender let out a sigh of exasperation. "Which one of these goons do you want to beat up?"

"Actually, I planned to take them all on," replied the blond with a small frown.

"In your dreams!" Toph retorted heatedly. "I've been itching for a fight all day, and I'll be damned if I let you hog all the action for yourself!"

As the two youngsters began bickering amongst themselves, all the three seasoned, battle worn pirates could do was to watch the strange scene unfold before them with clearly bewildered looks on their faces.

"... Hey, Smitty?"

"Yeah?"

"What are them there kids doin'?"

"Looks like they're arguin' to me... No, wait. Now they appear to be playin' rock-paper-scissors."

The blue haired pirate grit his teeth as his left eyebrow twitched violently. He was clearly agitated by the children's obvious disregard of their presence, treating them like they weren't even worth their attention. "Don' you dare take us lightly, ye damn kids!" He roared before he and his comrades sprung into action and attacked with their weapons raised.

Naruto blinked once before his mouth tuned into a toothy grin. He then easily dodged a vicious knife thrust by simply leaning to the side. "Well, I guess we'll just have to share then," he said cheerfully.

What followed next was probably one of the most humiliatingly one sided fights in history. While the three pirates gave it their all, using all their wit and fighting techniques that they had accumulated over the years, the shinobi and the Earthbender just toyed with them.

Toph didn't bat an eye and barely even moved as she dealt with the largest pirate. When he lunged at her with his halberd, she just used the same technique that she'd previously used to move the crowd out of their way, easily making him miss by a large margin.

The muscular pirate had a look of utmost surprise one his face for a good second, before he finally managed to recover and make a second attack. Toph then proceeded with making him go all over the place in a series of quick twists and turns that nearly threw the tall man off balance. She then mercilessly let him spin round and round at the spot for a few seconds, making his face almost take on a sickly green hue, before stomping her foot down onto the ground and raised a pillar of earth directly under the pirate's feet, topping the whole thing off by sending him flying into the air.

He landed roughly a block away from the fight, fortunately having a cart filled to the brim with cabbages present to break his fall.

The cart's owner on the other hand wasn't nearly as pleased, being forced to see his precious vegetables completely squished under the pirate's heavy weight. Despite the distance between them, Naruto and Toph could both clearly hear the man's horrified screams of anguish as he was forced to witness the brutal fate of his goods. "Noooo!! My cabbages!!"

The shortest of the three pirates smirked smugly as he locked eyes his with Naruto. He slowly raised his weapon in front of him, holding a handle in each of his two hands as he yanked the chain a couple of times. His face then suddenly turned serious, right before uttering a shrill, high pitched cry.

He then started swinging his nunchacku in a long series of swift, fluid and extremely flashy motions. His arms were moving so fast that they almost appeared as a blur to an untrained human eye. And all the while he was doing this, he kept on shouting at the top of his lungs in that same grating, high pitched tone.

After doing this non stop for about fifteen seconds he was thankfully finally silenced when Naruto's right fist connected with his face. The pirate instantly dropped like a sack of potatoes, entering a state of blissful unconsciousness without even having landed as much as a single hit on the blond shinobi. Or even attempting to land a hit for that matter.

"Damn, will you just shut up!" Naruto roared at the knocked out man as a bulging vein pulsated at his temple. "It's freaking annoying!"

Naruto was then brought back to the present situation when he was forced to dodge a new knife attack, courtesy of the last pirate that remained standing after his comrades had both lost. The blue haired man snarled, with rage burning in his eyes as the blond just kept avoiding all his advances, seemingly dancing around his every move with ease.

And doing so with that infuriating grin ever present on his whisker marked face!

With a loud roar he charged, fully intending to cut down the impudent brat who's very existence he deemed an insult to his person. This time Naruto was just standing there, but just when it seemed like the hot-headed seafarer's daggers were about to stab into the young man's flesh, he grabbed a hold of his opponent's hands, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

The pirate tried to pull himself free, but Naruto's iron hard grip didn't allow him to budge even an inch.

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at his opponents struggle, seeing the rage and frustration grow in his face. "Say, those are some nice knives you've got there," said the blond in a friendly tone, managing to catch the pirate of guard as he eyed his weapons appreciatively. From what he could tell, they seemed to be an identical twin-set, nicely crafted out of a black metal with slightly curved blades that were just slightly longer than his usual kunai, and that suited the shinobi just perfectly.

"You wouldn't mind giving these to me, would you?" Naruto asked with one of his foxy grins.

"Keep on dreamin' ya brat," snarled the pirate. "I stole 'em fair and square and I ain't gonna hand 'em over to some little upstart who hasn't got smarts enough to show proper respect to pirates!"

At the word pirate, the young Jinchuuriki's cheek made an almost unnoticeable twitch, and his cheerful demeanour suddenly became awfully strained. "You're pirates?" Naruto asked with another twitch.

"Damn straight we are! We travel the seas, plunderin' an' pillagin'! All over the world, people cower in fear whenever they hear the name o' the-!"

Whatever he was about to say would remain a mystery as he was promptly knocked out by Naruto. The blond in question had unceremoniously headbutted the blue haired pirate right in the face, defeating him in a similar manner like that of his crew-member not even one minute ago.

"Hey, are you all right?" Toph asked as Naruto muttered a series of curses under his breath after letting the unconscious man fall to the ground.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered. "Just had a flash back from my training trip when me and my master had to deal with some pirates just outside the Land of Water. Let's just say that ever since then I've had somewhat of a problem with them." He let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "Some damn fine ramen was lost that day," he spoke in a sad tone, talking like he had lost a dear friend.

"Ah well, at least I won't have to feel bad about taking his daggers any more," he said, instantly reverting back to his usual cheerful self. He then quickly strapped the knife sheaths to his pants and gave his new weapons a little twirl, testing their weight and how they felt in his hands before putting them away.

"If you're quite done, maybe we should, oh I don't know, chase after that last guy," said Toph with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, right. Sorry, sorry," said Naruto while rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment. He then brought his hands in front of him, forming the usual seal for the Kage Bunshin technique and then proceeded with creating about two dozen clones. "All right, guys! The guy that took Aang went that way, but split up and spread out just in case he tries to be sneaky!"

His duplicates all made a mock salute, accompanied with a loud "sir, yessir"in stereo, before jumping into action. "That should speed things up a little," stated the blond with a wide grin.

"So, are we just gonna sit here and wait for them to come back?" Toph asked once all the clones had left. "Instead of wasting time, we should be out there as well."

The blond teenager just grinned. "Don't worry. I gain all the memories of my clones when they dispel themselves. Which means that as soon as one of them finds Aang, we'll know exactly where he is."

"That's... really convenient," said Toph after a brief moment of silence. "Say, how many of those guys can you create anyway?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment, trying to remember the times when he had really gone all out using the technique. "Hm... I'm not entirely sure. One or two thousand maybe. But I hardly ever create that many at once any more, unless the situation really calls for it."

They were quiet for about a minute, but then, all of a sudden, the look on Naruto's face suddenly changed. His eyes widened in horror as the memories of one of his clones returned to him.

Sensing that something was wrong, the young Earthbender was just about to ask what was the matter, when the older boy suddenly, and without warning, threw her onto his shoulder and took off. "H-Hey! Where's the fire?!" Toph yelped at this unexpected turn of events. "What the hell is going on?!"

"No time to explain!" Naruto shouted as he acrobatically leaped from building to building, basically using the same route that his clone had taken during its search. He kept pushing more and more chakra to his legs in order to make his jumps reach longer, hoping that he would be able to reach his destination before it was too late.

Not even two minutes later, the blond genin somersaulted down from the last building before landing at the docks, almost giving an old fisherman a heart attack when they suddenly plopped down beside him right out of nowhere. Naruto then gently let a disoriented Toph down before looking out to the sea, growling in anger at what he saw.

"Damn it! We're too late!"

"What? What's going on?" Toph asked, unable to see what was upsetting him so.

"It's the pirates. Their ship has already departed and they're escaping quickly!" Naruto roared as the ship in question just kept getting farther and farther away on the waters. It would seem like they had indeed arrived too late for saving their friend, but being who he was, the young Konoha shinobi had _not _given up yet. He was just about to run after the ship, the water not being a hindrance thanks to his ninja training, when the younger girl once again held him back.

"Hold your horses for just one second, Naruto," the young Earthbender said in an iron hard tone that managed to direct the blond's attention completely to her instead of the pirate ship. "Tell me exactly where the ship is right now."

"Toph, this isn't the time for-!"

"**Shut the hell up and just point me in the exact direction of where it is!!**" Toph bellowed, using a tone that made it quite clear that this wasn't up for discussion. Naruto was silent for a few seconds, giving her an odd look before he begrudgingly did as he was told (more like commanded!). With his seemingly meaningless task done, the blind girl said; "All right, now how far away are they?"

The Uzumaki boy blinked in confusion before taking a look and making a quick estimate of the distance. "Three hundred, maybe three hundred and fifty meters I guess. But listen, we don't have time for-!" Naruto instantly became quiet when he turned around and took note of the mean grin that was currently present on the girls face. He was just about to ask her about the reason behind it, and also why she had one of her feet raised into the air, when his train of thought was interrupted as she spoke.

"Brace yourself," was all she said before slamming her foot down onto the ground.

The ninja didn't even have the time to raise an eyebrow before he was sent flying and screaming through the air, heading straight towards the pirate ship at high speed. Where he had been standing barely a second ago now stood a tall pillar of solid earth instead.

Having finally managed to catch up to them, Momo plopped down on Toph's shoulder. He gave the girl a curious look with his large, green eyes as her toothy grin only seemed to widen while she listened to the fading sounds of Naruto's panicked screams.

"You know what, Momo? It's at times like these that I almost wish I could see."

OoOoOoO

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the almighty Avatar," mocked the pirate captain as he looked down at the paralysed form of Aang. "It's awfully nice seeing you again. Especially considering the fact that we parted on such bad terms."

After Barker had come aboard with their catch, they had immediately began to set their sails in order to depart from the harbour-town's docks as quickly as possible. There was no reason to sit around just to wait for the boy's friends to try and rescue him and as for the guys they were had been forced to leave behind... well now they had three shares less to worry about.

"What... did y-you... do... to me?" Aang managed to hiss through his teeth that were just as tightly shut now as they were when he had first been shot.

"Oh, that? You're currently under the influence of a rare poison I managed to get my hands on during a little trip to a small island in the Fire Nation," answered the Captain with a smirk. "It's called the 'Dragon's Spit' and was made by a man who's considered by some to be the greatest poison maker in the entire world." Seeing the panicked look in the young boy's eyes only served to make the old pirate chuckle in amusement. "Oh, don't you worry. It's not lethal. This agent was designed to specifically target the receiver's muscles, paralysing the body while leaving the internal organs completely unaffected."

"The effects aren't permanent and will disappear in just a few hours, but that won't help you. I've got enough of this baby to make sure that you'll remain completely immobilised for the duration of our journey to the Fire Nation. I intend to personally hand you over to Fire Lord Ozai and collect the fat bounty that he's placed on your shaved little head."

Aang could do little more than stare angrily back at the man responsible of kidnapping him. He could clearly feel the frustration and anguish well up inside of him as he contemplated the possibility that his quest of saving the world might end right here and now. And there didn't seem to be a single thing that he could do about it!

Then, right out of nowhere, the entire ship suddenly shook as if it was struck.

OoOoOoO

The men at the upper deck wasn't sure what exactly had hit them, having been far too occupied with celebrating their victory to really care what was going on around them. What little booze they had left were quickly brought out and shared amongst everyone as they started to dance and sing merry old pirate songs. With the Avatar's insanely large bounty looming at the horizon, the pirates all felt as if the long series of setbacks and misfortune that had been plaguing them had come to an end. That things finally seemed to be looking up for them.

Well, sometimes things just don't go as you want them to.

At first, they had just heard the sound of someone screaming for dear life. The next thing they knew, something fell down from the sky, right onto the ship with enough power to actually make it quake on impact. They were lucky that none of them had been hit by it, and after the initial shock had passed by, they decided to have a look on what it could be.

To their great surprise and confusion, it turned out to be a boy with spiky, yellow hair. He lay sprawled out with his face down on the deck, not moving an inch just long enough for the surrounding pirates to wonder if he was dead. He then started to slowly pull himself back up, right before clutching the visibly growing bump on top of his head and letting out a storm of curses that caused even a few of them to blush.

"Dammit, that hurt!" Naruto finally growled once he was done swearing. "I'm so gonna get you back for that one, Toph." He then blinked, having finally noticed at this point that he was surrounded by a large group of shady looking men that all gave him wary looks. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be the guys that took Aang, would you?"

"What if we are?" snarled the pirate that was standing closest to him, drawing out his sword threateningly while giving him a cold glare. "Did'ya plan to do somethin' about it, boy?"

"Well, I kinda came to free him," Naruto answered simply.

This caused all of the pirates to burst out in mocking laughter. "And how, pray tell, did ya plan to do that?" asked the same man with a smirk, taking on a much more laid back stance as he looked down at the obviously suicidal boy.

Ignoring the laughs, Naruto just gave the pirate a foxy grin before replying. "By kicking all of your asses, of course."

Before the swordsman had any time to react, he was suddenly met with an uppercut to the chin that managed to immediately knock him out cold.

The laughs instantly died in the pirates' throats at the sight. For a moment they were unable to do anything but stare in utter shock as their brains were far too occupied with trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened.

With that done, they all roared in rage and rushed at the boy. The first one of them pulled a knife and tried to stab the Jinchuuriki, but was swiftly kneed in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain before he had any time to even land a hit. The second one was met with a foot to the face, being used as leverage in order for the teenager to jump high into the air, doing a somersault before landing gracefully atop of the ship's figurehead.

Naruto crossed his arms over his bare chest, unable to contain a chuckle as he watched the looks on his opponents faces, ranging from rage to disbelief. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, **HEY!** You pirate punks sure have some nerve kidnapping one of my friends!" Naruto bellowed, causing the entire pirate crew to halt in their steps and just stare at the grinning blond in bewilderment. "That's one thing I really don't take too kindly to."

"Oh yeah?! Then what'cha gonna do abouth it?!" shouted one of the pirates angrily. "Are ya seriously going to take us on all by yourself, kid? Just who the hell do you think you are?!"

Hook, line and sinker, thought the young ninja. He had waited for someone to ask him something like that. "That's right, I haven't told you who I am yet. Well then, clear those ears 'cause I'm only going to say this once." He then pointed at himself with his thumb, his grin turning almost maniacal in nature. "The name is Uzumaki Naruto, and you'd better remember it! Because it's me you're going to be thinking about after I send you all to the nearest hospital!"

With introductions out of the way, Naruto went right back into business, jumping down and dropkicking two of the pirates with enough force to send them flying into the blue depths of the sea. Things quickly escalated from there as he found himself on the receiving end of a duo of fighters that were both wielding some nasty looking, bladed weapons. Acting purely on reflex, thanks to several years of intense training, Naruto's hand instantly went to his side and brought out one of his newly acquired daggers, blocking the first attacker before doing the same with the second. Not giving them any time to recover, he headbutted the closest one in the face, freeing one of his hands and thus enabling him to punch the other one square in the gut.

"_That's two more down,_" he thought to himself as he re-sheathed the knives while at the same time dodging an attack from a staff user with greasy hair. When the pirate tried another swipe, Naruto grabbed a firm hold onto the wooden weapon, grunting as he gathered his strength before hauling the larger man overboard. "_On second thought, make that three,_" he mentally added after hearing a satisfying splash.

His opponents were quickly dwindling in numbers. It didn't take long before only a little more than half of them remained standing, but none of them looked like they were ready to give up any time soon. Naruto cracked his neck before raising his hand in a beckoning gesture, wordlessly telling them to come and get some more.

The remaining pirates were nearly frothing at the mouth at this point. Having seen their battle seasoned comrades fail so humiliatingly easy against this little punk was beyond infuriating. And the fact that he wouldn't wipe that insufferable grin off his face just made the whole thing even harder to take!

They were all just about ready to launch themselves at the blond, when suddenly the door that lead below deck opened and Barker's face poked out.

"Hey, what's with all the commotion? Cap'n wanna know what's goin' o..." The long haired pirate turned silent when he noticed the bodies that lay sprawled everywhere, groaning and moaning in pain. His gaze was then drawn to Naruto who looked back at him. Everything was quiet as the two of them stared at each other. That is until suddenly...

"Hey, you're that guy from before!" the two of them shouted at exactly the same time, while pointing accusingly at each other.

"So you managed to get past the guys I brought with me," the lanky pirate mused while rubbing his chin. He was honestly impressed by what this boy had accomplished, seeing the results of his violent onslaught lying all over the place. "But how the heck did ya get aboard our ship?"

"I flew," Naruto answered simply while elbowing a guy that had tried to sneak up on him in the face.

Barker was just about to ask the blond another question, but remained silent when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. After giving a brief glance over his shoulder, he stepped aside without a word in order to allow his leader to walk past him and onto the deck. He let out a sigh since knew that the Captain wasn't going to like what he was about to see.

The Captain let his eyes wander for a moment, ignoring the squawks of his lizard parrot as he took in the sorry state of his once proud crew. He was visibly turning red and it almost looked like his eyes were about to pop right out of their sockets at any moment.

"What in the name of all the hungry beasts of the sea happened here?!" he roared at the top of his lungs, causing everyone in his crew to flinch at his outburst.

There was a tense silence. A needle could have been dropped and everyone would have been able to hear it clearly. Everybody that were still conscious and present then turned and pointed at Naruto who, in turn, raised his hand in a form of greeting. "Hello, my name's Uzumaki Naruto. It's nice to meet you."

The Captain's left eyebrow twitched violently as he stared at the young man.

"Kill him."

The remaining pirates were only happy to comply and jumped right back into the battle, hoping to regain their crew's tarnished honour. But the whole thing continued in pretty much the same way as it had before, with Naruto painfully outclassing his numerous adversaries. While their technique and fighting capabilities might have been pretty impressive by a normal human's standards, they simply were no match against a trained Konoha ninja.

The Barker was just about to join the fray by throwing a few of his patented smoke bombs in the boy's general direction, when he suddenly halted his hand in mid motion, blinking as something suddenly occurred to him. He remained still for a moment as he had a quick look around, noticing how all of his crew mates' attention were focused solely on the blond hurricane that was right in the middle of handing them their asses.

The long haired pirate's lips split into a wicked grin as a plan was taking form inside of his head, and after having another quick look around, the thin man silently sneaked away, going back below deck without being noticed by the raging fighters.

The only one who had managed to see anything was the reptile bird sitting on top of the Captain's shoulder. The avian creature tried to warn his owner, but the grey haired man merely waved him away. "Be quiet and keep yourself out of this, Polly!" he snarled as he drew his sword from the scabbard at his side. Without any more words, he then charged Naruto with a loud battle cry, attempting to behead him with with a swipe of his sharp blade.

The young Uzumaki only grinned as he once again quickly brought out one of his daggers, blocking the sword mere inches from connecting with his neck. In a show of strength, the blond then forcefully shoved his opponent back before going on the offence. The older man could barely keep up with Naruto's insane speed and tempo, having to use all of his years of experience just to keep blocking the boy's attacks. And the damn kid wasn't even fighting him seriously!

This kept on for a few minutes, the old pirate growing noticeably tired as the time passed, until he was heaving for breath and his face was dripping with sweat. He looked as if he was about to keel over at any second now but he just refused to give up. Seeing the young man in front of him completely unaffected by their duel, he growled and summoned his last bits of strength, once again charging at his adversary before making a slash with his sword.

Naruto had seen the strike coming and gathered his chakra into his legs, avoiding the attack by simply jumping high into the air. It was up there, after having nearly passed the top of the main mast, that something out of the corner of his eye managed to catch his attention. His eyes widened momentarily before narrowing at what he saw, but he was glad that he had managed to spot them before they'd managed to get too far away to follow.

"Sorry, guys," said Naruto as he looked down at his opponents down below. "It doesn't look like I've got time to play around with you any more, so I'm afraid I have to start wrapping things up here." With that said, he started charging up a Rasengan in his right hand, allowing the ball of chakra to charge up to maximum power as gravity pulled him back down.

"**Rasengan!"**

The Captain only had enough time to let out an "oh, shi-!" before the blond Jinchuuriki slammed down on them like a comet. He pierced through the hull of the ship, splitting the whole thing in two with enough force to send the pirates flying in all directions.

The Captain breached the surface and latched onto a nearby plank for dear life, breathing heavily as he watched his pride and joy sink to the depths. His reptile bird then flew down and landed on the bald spot on top of his head and let out a squawk, his hat currently on its way of joining his ship on the bottom of the ocean.

"Not a word, Polly. Not a word," grumbled the old pirate.

Not that far away, Naruto stood atop the water's surface with his arms folded over his chest as he beheld his handiwork. "Well, it looks like my work here is done. Time to get Aang," he said to himself before running off.

OoOoOoO

The Barker hummed a happy tune to himself while rowing the small life-boat across the waves. He was almost giddy with excitement at the thought of collecting that huge bounty all for himself, unable to contain a wide smile as he looked at the still stiff form of Aang at the other end of the tiny vessel who glared daggers back at him.

He had always considered himself to be more of a thinker than he was a fighter. That wasn't to say that he couldn't hold his own in a scrap, he just knew his limitations a little better than some of his more hot-headed crew-mates did (well, that would be ex crew-mates now, but that's not the point). After having seen his comrades being defeated one after another, it really didn't take him all that much effort to come to the conclusion that he would most likely end up the same way.

That was when he had gone to thinking about how he could make the most benefit out of this fiasco and not end up being humiliatingly beaten into a bloody pulp by a teenager. He found out that it had come to him surprisingly quickly.

Snag the Avatar and get the hell out of there when everyone else were to busy fighting to even notice. Brilliant!

He was jolted out of his happy thoughts when he heard something that almost sounded like an explosion. It had curiously enough come from where he'd left the ship, but before he'd gotten any chance to make sure what it was, his attention was once again directed towards his unwilling passenger.

"You won't get away with this!" Aang hissed through his clenched teeth, the infuriating poison still active in his system. Not only was he completely at the mercy of the pirate in his current immobilised state, his nose had started itching like mad too!

"Ah, but that's where I have to disagree, my dear Avatar," replied his captor in a happy sing song tone. "As far as I see it, there's just a single boat ride between here and a life of luxury for me. A very long boat ride mind you, but a boat ride none the less. And as long as I have these darts with Dragon's Spit, you can't do a single – Is that kid running towards us on top of the water?" he suddenly said with a puzzled look on his face.

Aang raised an eyebrow at what the pirate had just said, wondering if he had misheard him. But after hearing the faint sound of splashing coming from behind them, the boy forced his neck through sheer will power alone to turn just enough so that he would be able to glance just barely at whatever it was that caused it.

To his shock and joy he saw none other than Naruto sprinting towards them, running across the water's surface as if it was solid ground.

For a short moment, it almost seemed as if the pirate's mind had been frozen, making him only capable of staring with his mouth slightly agape as the blond came closer and closer. Then, almost as if someone had pulled a switch inside the engine room, the Barker shook his head and resumed rowing for all he was worth.

But Naruto was quickly closing in on them, and after having seen what he was capable of, the long haired crook could clearly imagine what would happen to him if the teenager finally caught up with them. Being beaten into a pulp was really not something he was looking forward to, so in an act of desperation he grabbed onto Aang and held a knife to his throat.

"Take just one step closer and the boy here is going to find himself one head short," he threatened darkly.

Naruto halted himself almost immediately, glaring angrily into the eyes of the man who was using Aang as a human shield. The young ninja silently wondered how the hell they were going to get out of this situation, when suddenly, an idea that just might work occurred to him.

The blond allowed himself a small smile as he straightened himself and slowly held up his hands in front of him.

"Hey, no funny business," warned the pirate.

"No funny business," Naruto repeated and crossed the index and middle fingers on each hand in front of him, seemingly to emphasis what he had just said.

The only one who suspected that he was actually up to something was Aang, having seen the older boy make the same sign before. He just hoped that Naruto knew what he was doing.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Barker smirked. "You just stay good and we'll all get out of this happy and unscathed... Well, until I hand the kid over to the Fire Nation that is. But that's beside the point! If you as much as...!" The pirate turned silent when he suddenly felt a wet hand grab onto his right wrist. He then yelped in pain as his knife hand was twisted away from Aang's neck and forced him to slightly turn around, his eyes widening in disbelief when he saw who it was that had sneaked up behind him.

There behind him, holding his arm in a painfully firm grip, stood the dripping wet form of the blond boy that he had just been talking to. The only problem with the whole thing was that said blond hadn't moved an inch from his spot! Somehow there were now two of them!

However, Aang's kidnapper didn't get that long to think about this strange turn of events. The Kage Bunshin wasted little time and promptly knocked the man out with a well aimed left hook before poofing itself out of existence. A puff of smoke being the only thing left behind to tell that it had even been there in the first place.

Naruto met Aang's confused stare with a grin before calmly walking up to the boat, explaining himself on the way. "I made the clone appear directly underneath me, then all it had to do was to simply swim underneath you and sneak up behind the guy when he least expected it." The blond then proceeded with picking up the still paralysed Aang under his arm. "Now, what do you say about going back to the others?"

Despite it being a bit difficult in his current state, the young Airbender forced a smile onto his face. Right now he was really glad that they had decided to seek shelter from the storm in that cave.

"You know, Aang... You make a really good statue," Naruto commented.

Had he been able to, Aang would have hit his rescuer.

OoOoOoO

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. As usual, if you have any questions regarding the fic, please feel free to let me know any time.

Well, that was everything for this time. Until we meet again, this is ChaosGhidorah who's signing off.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own either Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **Well, I guess you guys want an explanation as to why it took me so damn long to update. To make a long story short I was hit by the biggest case of writer's block that I've ever had. Several weeks could go by with me sitting in front of my computer, trying to work on a particular part of the chapter, but the words would simply not come to me. You have no idea how frustrating that was!

I finally managed to write the sixth chapter and I really hope that the block is behind me. I'm not going to bore you more than I've already have, but I'd just like to give a special thanks to Stalker of Stories for having once again agreed to beta-read this.

**Chapter 06**

**Some Well Earned Rest**

"Okay. Now try wriggling a bit," urged Ty-Lee hesitantly.

"Ghu. After this is all over you are so buying me a new set," Mai drawled as she and her normally peppy friend kept digging in the hot afternoon sun.

Azula, princess of the Fire Nation and Fire Bending prodigy extraordinaire, was in an even fouler mood than usual at the moment. But considering the fact that she was hot, sweaty and had been completely buried from the neck down in hardened soil since the previous day, perhaps that was somewhat understandable.

Not too long after their defeat at the hands of the Avatar and his friends, Ty-Lee had been the first one to break free from the holds that a certain young Earthbender had put on her. She had then pretty much immediately gone over to Mai and spent some time helping her gloomy friend out of her earth made prison.

However, the two of them would soon find out that they had gotten away lucky compared to their leader who had basically been completely submerged into the ground. Since none of them were Earthbenders, it didn't exactly require a genius to figure out that getting Azula out would be both a time consuming and back breaking chore. After all, the only tools available to them were Mai's weapons, which weren't exactly suitable for digging to begin with.

But the two girls didn't really have any say in the matter and had obediently (albeit quite a bit reluctantly on Mai's part) gotten to work, only stopping for the occasional short rest before getting back to it again.

Almost twenty four hours had passed since their battle with the Avatar before Azula was finally pulled out of the hole in the ground. She eyed her ruined uniform with disdain and tried to brush some of the dirt out of it, but soon realized that it was a lost cause and gave up. She silently swore that the next time they crossed paths she would make sure to "repay" the detestable little Earthbender that had dared to do this to her.

Trying to at least regain some of her dignity, Azula straightened herself up and silently took in the sight of the surrounding area, or more specifically, the damage that had been done to it during the battle.

The ground was scorched in several places, but all flames, including those she had used to encircle the plateau in order to trap their targets, had long since burned out. Her eyes then hardened as she stared down at the large crater that her blond opponent's attack had etched into the earth.

She barely managed to suppress a shudder as she could clearly imagine what would have happened if she hadn't been able to deflect the spinning energy ball at the very last minute. But even though it had missed, the shock-wave had still been powerful enough to send her flying. The memory of the incident was enough to turn her beautiful face into an angry scowl.

During the long hours that she'd spent buried in the ground, she'd had plenty of time to replay the battle in her head over and over again. The young man she had originally written off as little more than a grinning buffoon had quickly proven himself to be unlike any opponent she had ever faced before in her entire life.

The abilities he'd displayed in their battle were things she would never have believed possible hadn't she been there to witness them for herself. Not to mention the fact that during their whole encounter, he'd continued to do nothing but catch her by surprise.

That was probably the thing that irked her the most. His unpredictability. Add to that the stunning realization that there wasn't anything about him that she could actually explain. He wasn't a Bender, that's something she was definitely certain about, but that was pretty much it. He was a total enigma to her and that was something she, a person so used of being in complete control of every situation, couldn't tolerate. And yet still... for that very same reason, he intrigued her to no end. There were so many questions she wanted answered. Who was he? _What _was he? Why did he help the Avatar and where did he come from?

She let her golden eyes wander to the place where she had struck him down with her lightning, allowing a small but triumphant smirk to grace her lips as she recalled the end of their duel. Despite everything that had happened, at least that managed to soothe her bruised ego to some extent.

"Hey, what's that?" Mai suddenly asked while pointing at something in the sky, effectively breaking Azula out of her reverie.

Ty-Lee squinted her eyes, trying her best to make out the shape of whatever it could be, before her chocolate brown orbs widened in recognition. "It's one of our messenger-hawks," she declared.

"Call it down here," ordered Azula immediately.

Doing as she was told, the former circus performer put two of her fingers into her mouth and blew, letting out an incredibly high pitched noise that sounded almost exactly like a hawk's cry. The trained bird immediately responded to the call and changed its course, now heading straight towards the three girls before landing on top of Azula's outstretched arm.

The hawk bowed forward, showing off the canister on its back that contained its cargo. As Azula laid her eyes one the sealed scroll she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when she saw the black band that was wrapped around it. Messages that carried the Black Ribbon held an extremely high priority and were intended to be read by the Fire Lord himself. It was obvious that whatever had been written was of great importance to the homeland.

The princess pondered for a split second if she should really be reading it or not before finally giving a shrug, deciding that her father surely wouldn't mind. She then wasted little time to remove the message that the hawk was offering her. With her prize in hand she nonchalantly handed the creature over to Ty-Lee while she removed the seal wrapped around the scroll.

As Azula read the message, she had to make a small double take when she was about halfway through, her eyes widening in slight surprise at what exactly was written. She went back to the beginning, going through the whole thing a second time, and as she carefully read it word for word, her lips slowly started to curve upwards into an evil smirk. Once she was finally done, the Fire Nation princess slowly turned towards her companions with a most pleased look on her face. "Well, ladies, it seems like there's a slight change in our plans."

"W-What do you mean, Azula?" Ty-Lee asked as she absent-mindedly stroked the hawks crimson feathers.

"According to what's written here," she said while holding up the document for the two of them to see, "it would seem as if our dear War Minister Qin have managed to develop something quite interesting during his time here in the Earth Kingdom. He claims to have found a solution to finally rid ourselves of one of the greatest obstacles to our victory in this war. A way to breach the impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se."

Both Ty-Lee's and the usually stoic Mai's eyes widened at this revelation. During all of the one hundred years that the war had lasted, nothing the Fire Nation had tried in order to conquer the great Earth Kingdom capital had met anything but complete and utter failure when faced with the famed walls that protected it. Nothing they had thrown at it had worked and even General Iroh, the legendary Dragon of the West, had been forced to admit defeat after his 600-day long siege of the city.

If what Qin said was true, that he had actually found a way to get past the walls, it would be a major breakthrough in their war effort.

"So what are we going to do now?" Mai started hesitantly. "Do we go after the Avatar or...?"

"There will be other times to for us to go after the Avatar and his ragtag team of misfits," stated the raven haired girl with a shrug and a smirk. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love nothing more than to pay them back for this humiliation, but I do feel that Qin is more deserving of our attention right now."

Azula took a small stick off the ground and burned the tip of it, turning it into a makeshift charcoal pencil. She then proceeded with writing down a brief message at the bottom of Qin's scroll, telling her father that he wouldn't need to bother sending anyone since she would go and inspect the War Minister's claims personally. The princess would have preferred to use some more proper tools for an important message such as this, but since none were available she was forced to improvise.

With the task done she re-wrapped the ribbon around the scroll, put it back inside the hawk's canister and sent the bird off to continue its journey towards the Fire Nation.

"Well then, girls, what do you say about giving our dear old War Minister a visit?" Azula asked in a feigned cheerful fashion. However, as soon as she said that, a lock of her black hair fell down in front of her face, reminding the princess that her current state of appearance was, well to put it mildly, a real mess.

Ty-Lee couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the sight, but stopped right away when she saw the look on Azula's face. The golden eyed girl's face had darkened instantly and one of her eyebrows twitched in barely restrained anger. Mai and Ty-Lee stood there in tense silence, dreading the eruption that was sure to come any second now.

But it never came. Instead Azula suddenly seemed almost unnervingly calm as she looked at them with eyes as hard as steel. When she finally spoke it was in a cold, nearly emotionless voice. "Ty-Lee, find our Mongoose Dragons. If we're lucky they shouldn't be too far away from where we left them," she said to the former circus performer before turning to the other girl, addressing her in the same manner. "Mai, go and check if there's a lake around here somewhere so that I may wash myself."

Mai and Ty-Lee briefly looked at each other, before hurrying along to perform their assigned tasks. None of them really wished to try their luck here, both preferring to do as they were told lest they'd incur the wrath of the seriously ticked off Fire Nation princess.

With her cohorts gone, Azula turned to look at the horizon. She narrowed her amber eyes as her thoughts were once again centred on the blond, grinning fool that had now joined the Avatar. She swore to herself that the next time they crossed paths, she would make sure to not repeat her past mistakes and deal with all of them.

Permanently.

OoOoOoO

Naruto let out a contented sigh as he leaned himself back in his seat, rubbing his belly with a happy smile on his face. He and his new friends had just finished eating a fabulous home-cooked meal at the inn, made by the loving hand of Mrs. H'u Xū. While he didn't think it was as good as Ichiraku's ramen (but really, what in the world was?), it sure came pretty damn close.

About an hour had passed since he, Aang and Toph had finally met up with Katara and Sokka after their violent encounter with the pirates. The young Waterbender had nearly blown a gasket once she'd seen the state Aang was in and had heatedly demanded an explanation.

After they'd managed to assure the girl that Aang was fine and that his paralysis would go away by itself in just a couple of hours, they'd headed back to the inn where, to their delighted surprise, a nice meal was being prepared for them. Then while they ate, the three of them went through everything that had happened while they were away. Each of them took turns in filling in the gaps, with the two Water Tribe siblings sitting at rapt attention, listening intently to every detail.

"I can't believe you took on a whole crew of pirates by yourselves and blew up their ship," said Katara with just a slight bit of awe.

"Damn it. I can't believe I missed out on a nice brawl fest just because those cowards were too scared to stay and fight on dry land. Some guys just get all the fun," grumbled Toph with a mouth full of food. After swallowing, however, she seemed to instantly perk up, sporting a wide grin. "Then again, I did get the pleasure of hearing Naruto scream like a little girl when I launched him at them," she laughed loudly while nudging the blond in the ribs.

"Oh, so you thought that was funny, huh?" Naruto said with a forced smile as his left eyebrow twitched. He definitely hadn't forgotten about the ordeal that Toph had put him through. Using the speed he'd gained after years of hard training he reached out to the girl, catching the startled Earthbender off guard and quickly got her in a headlock. The ninja chuckled evilly at her futile attempts of getting free and raised his free hand into the air.

Toph might have won the underground Earthbending tournament at her home town, beating the snot out of grown men more than twice her age with little to no difficulty. But she had _never _before in her life been on the receiving end of an Uzumaki styled noogie!

"Ha ha! Payback's a bitch, ain't it, Toph? Now say uncle!"

"In your dreams!"

"Say uncle!"

"Never!"

"Say uncle!"

"Forget it!"

"Come on, you know you want to," Naruto said in a sing song voice as he intensified the rough treatment of her scalp.

Toph's head almost felt like it was on fire and she growled in frustration before finally shouting, "All right! Uncle! UNCLE!"

The ninja grinned triumphantly as he let go of the young Earthbender. "See, was that so hard, Toph?"

Her answer was to jab the blond hard in his bicep. "Try that again and I will _hurt _you," said the blind girl grumpily while rubbing her head.

Naruto just chuckled and, to Toph's great annoyance, ruffled her hair affectionately before turning to the others at the table. "So, now that we've eaten, what are the plans for the rest of the day?"

"Well for starters, you and I are going to go out and find yourself some new clothes," answered Katara with a smile. "You can't continue running around in just a pair of pants, now can you?"

"I guess not," he replied with a sheepish smile while rubbing the back of his head.

"And me and Toph planned to go and check out all the street performers," stated Sokka with a wide grin after having cleaned his plate off of every single grain of food.

"That sounds great," said Aang. He was really looking forward to get back outside and enjoy the festivities. "You can definitely count me in."

"Oh, no you don't," said Katara suddenly, causing everyone to look her way. The girl had her arms folded over her chest and looked at her young friend with disapproving eyes. "I don't think that you've recovered nearly enough to move around on your own yet. It would probably be best if you just stayed here and got some rest until the toxins are completely out of your system."

"Aw, come on Katara," protested the young monk. "I feel fine. Here, I'll show you." Using all the concentration and willpower Aang could muster, he ever so slowly began to raise himself onto his legs, shaking like a leaf until he'd finally managed to force his body into a standing position. He breathed heavily for a moment before showing the Water Tribe girl a wide grin.

That is until he fell flat on his face with a loud thud that made everyone else in the room wince.

Katara was instantly by his side, helping him back to his seat and started to examine him for any injuries he might have gained from his stunt. "Well, I don't really want to say 'what did I tell you'... but I guess I just did," she said with an apologetic smile while treating a quickly forming lump at the top of his head.

Aang pouted sourly and looked the other way.

"Hey, don't feel bad, Aang," said Sokka. "We'll tell you all about the fun we had when we get back. Won't we, Toph?"

"We sure will, Sokka," replied Toph, whereupon the two of them grinned brightly and gave the young Airbender a thumbs up each.

"Not helping, guys," muttered Katara while giving the two a dirty look before turning her attention back to the young monk, taking a reassuring hold on his hand. "Aang, I know you're upset about this, but you have to understand that your health is much more important than a few hours of fun and games. So please don't be mad."

The Avatar let out a heavy sigh before forcing himself to give the girl a small smile. "All-right, I'll stay put. But that doesn't mean that I have to like it."

"Don't worry, Aang. We'll try to not be out for too long, and if you get lonely you've always got Momo to talk to." The lemur in question was currently sniffing at the boy's leftovers, snagging some of it when he thought no one was looking. "And tonight we'll watch the fireworks that Mr H'u Xū told us about."

With that said, the Avatar's friends headed out, promising the young Airbender that they wouldn't be out for too long, and that they would bring something back for him.

Once they had left, Aang let out a sigh before turning to Momo who was sitting on the table in front of him.

"So, Momo. Anything you'd like to talk about?"

The little animal just silently looked at the Airbender before letting out a drawn out yawn. He then curled himself into a ball and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

Aang sighed as he leaned back in the chair, staring up at the ceiling and having only two words to describe his current situation.

"This bites."

OoOoOoO

"Okay, but thank you for the help anyway," said Katara as she and Naruto left yet another booth.

That was the sixth clothes-salesman they'd been to in the last half hour, and none of them seemed to have anything that even remotely managed to catch the interest of the blond at her side. At one point she'd suggested him to try out some traditional Earth Kingdom clothes, but he had quickly dismissed that idea, saying that green wasn't really his colour before shuddering for some strange reason.

She also found it a bit annoying that he seemed to be far more interested in what was going on around them than what they were actually supposed to be doing. She couldn't help but wonder if all boys were like that, or just the ones she knew.

"You could at least try some of the clothes out before completely dismissing them," sighed Katara as they walked down the street.

"But Katara, what's the point in trying out something if I can already tell that I won't like it?" Naruto asked innocently with his hands folded behind his head.

"I suppose you're right," she said with another sigh. "But what exactly are you looking for anyway? I'm not a mind-reader so I can't really help you if you're not telling me, can I?"

"I guess not," the ninja replied sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.

He knew he should act more interested when she'd offered to help him out, but he just couldn't help it. He'd always thought that shopping for clothes was, well for the lack of a better word, boring as all hell. That was one of the main reasons why he had a tendency to run around in the same clothes for several days on end.

But that was certainly no excuse and he realized that he really should put some more effort into the whole thing. He turned to Katara and offered the girl an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Katara," he said. "I'll try to be more interested. I promise."

The young Waterbender felt her annoyance disappear and allowed her lips to turn into a smile of her own. "That's what I wanted to hear." She then suddenly grabbed onto his hand and started dragging him down the street. "Now come on. We don't have all day on our hands."

"Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this?" Naruto whined as several bystanders gave them some amused looks. Honestly, what was the deal with girls and shopping anyway? He just hoped it wouldn't end up like that one time when Sakura had dragged him out of his apartment (in a manner very similar to this one actually), claiming that he seriously needed to extend his wardrobe. Everything had been fine and dandy until they'd run into Ino who, after having heard what they were doing, had said that she was far better suited to help Naruto out since Sakura, apparently, didn't have any real taste to speak of.

The end results hadn't been pretty and he still had nightmares from that particular event.

The two of them continued on in this fashion for some time, wandering in comfortable silence with Katara scanning through the different stalls while Naruto obediently followed in tow. It didn't take all too long before the girl's blue eyes landed on a booth that seemed to exhibit a wide array of different clothes. After getting the attention of the topless boy at her side, the two teenagers went to check it out.

They had just barely begun browsing through the displays when the owner approached them. She was a rather attractive woman that appeared to be in her early thirties, clad in a stylish, yet practical, kimono with her dark hair flowing down her shoulders. Her face showed just the slightest hint of make-up and she offered both of them a warm and inviting smile.

"Why, hello there, darlings. My name is Sichou and welcome to my humble boutique," she said with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Well, we're looking for some new clothes for my friend here," answered Katara while pointing at Naruto. "We haven't had much luck so far and hoped to find something here."

"Don't worry," Sichou replied with a wink. "I've got clothes from every corner of the world. If you can't find anything you like here, then you might as well stop looking." She then turned to Naruto, giving the blond her full attention. "Now, honey, tell me exactly what you had in mind."

"Well, I'd really like something orange," answered Naruto hesitantly. "And something black in there would be nice too."

"Alright. Hold still for just a second, okay?" Sichou asked before whipping out a measurement-tape and started taking the boy's measurements. With that done, the woman tapped her chin and hummed while giving the young ninja another quick once-over. Her lips then turned into a grin. "I think I have just what you've been looking for," she said before turning to her goods, digging them through in search for what she had in mind.

"Here. Try these on and see if they fit," she said and handed Naruto the clothes she'd picked out. "I really think you'll find them to be to your liking."

Naruto looked first to his right then left before replying. "Where am I supposed to change? You can't possibly expect me to get naked out here on the street."

Katara blushed while the sales-woman just laughed melodically at the boy's words. "Oh, don't be silly, honey. I've set up a make-shift changing room behind my booth so my customers can have all the privacy that they deserve."

"Oh. Thanks, lady," Naruto smiled brightly before going to try on the clothes.

Just shortly after the blond had left, Sichou let out a low whistle. "Mommy knows what she likes and mommy likes what she sees," she grinned lecherously before letting out a sad sigh. "If only I was ten or fifteen years younger." She then turned to Katara with a conspiratorial smile. "You really should hold on to that one, girlie. He's got quite a body for someone his age. It's almost a shame having to cover it up."

"Wh-What?!" Katara sputtered in shock at the older woman's comment, her cheeks suddenly burning with one of the most intense blushes she'd ever experienced in her whole life. "We're not like that! We just met yesterday!" she nearly shrieked, scandalized by what the woman had just implied.

"Really? Well, that's a shame," Sichou stated. "You two make such a cute couple."

Whatever retort she was about to say was interrupted when Naruto returned, dressed in the new clothes.

His pants had been swapped for a pair that was of a slightly darker shade of orange than his old ones, held securely in place by a black cloth tied around his waist. His previously naked upper body was now covered by a common, short sleeved Earth Kingdom tunic, with the only difference being that instead of the usual green, yellow or beige colour, it was white. And to top the whole thing off, over it he wore a black and orange over shirt.

"So what do you think, honey?" asked Sichou with a playful smirk on her face while holding up a mirror she'd kept nearby.

Naruto remained silent for a moment, taking his time to check himself out in his new attire. "I like 'em," the blond concluded with a wide grin, actually pretty satisfied with the clothes. The saleswoman obviously knew her stuff. "Hey, Katara. How do I look?" Naruto asked while striking a pose.

"You look great," replied the Waterbender as she couldn't help but smile at his antics.

It was soon wiped from her face, however, when Sichou bent forward and whispered into her ear. "He sure does, doesn't he?" She teased with a mischievous smirk, making Katara glare angrily back at the woman.

"Hey, is something wrong, Katara?" Naruto asked, having noticed the sudden change in his friend's mood.

"Nothing, Naruto. Let's just get out of here," muttered the young Waterbender as she handed the smug looking Sichou the money they owed her, while at the same time trying to make sure that the boy didn't notice her blush. Honestly, the nerve of some people!

"Are you sure? You seem a bit upset," insisted the blond boy as they started to head back to the inn.

"I told you it was nothing!"

OoOoOoO

"I still don't get what's so great about fireworks," grumbled Toph sourly. "If I wanted to listen to a bunch of loud bangs I could just as well have gone to the nearest sleazy bar and busted some heads instead."

"Aw, don't be like that, Toph," said Sokka with a grin. "We wouldn't dream of missing out on your charming company."

"If that's sarcasm I'm hearing, you're going to be waking up without your front teeth."

As evening finally came, Naruto and his new friends found themselves sitting atop the roof of H'u Xū's inn, waiting expectantly for the fireworks to finally begin.

"How are you feeling, Aang?" Naruto asked as Katara tried to help the young monk take a seat. The last thing they wanted now was to have him fall down and beat himself half to death after everything that had happened.

"Much better," stated the Avatar with a wide grin as Momo climbed onto his shoulder. "I've regained most of my mobility, but my legs still feel a bit wobbly and I've got this really annoying tingle in my feet. But other than that I feel fine."

"Great to hear that, buddy," smiled Sokka. The Water Tribe boy reached into the bag sitting beside him and pulled out a smaller one, made out of paper, which he then tossed to the recovering Airbender. "I got you some snacks. Hope you'll like 'em."

"Thanks," replied Aang happily before throwing a few of the crunchy goodies into his waiting mouth. He chuckled at his lemur companion who had decided to mimic his actions. "So, er, how was the fair?" The young boy asked hesitantly as he turned to his friends, a forced smile present on his face. "Did you guys have any fun?"

"Did we ever?!" Sokka exclaimed, brimming with barely contained excitement. "There were enough games, food and street performers to keep me occupied for days." The teenager raised a hand and started counting down on his fingers. "There were platypus-bear tamers, boat races and a magician that ate his own head. They even had a tent with belly-dancers. Belly-dancers, Aang!"

Sokka turned silent when he noticed the slightly forlorn look on Aang's face, not to mention the glare that his sister was sending his way. He slumped his shoulders with a guilty look on his face.

"I'm sorry. Aang," Sokka said remorsefully. "I know you really wanted to go."

"No, it's okay, Sokka," replied Aang, trying to wave the whole thing off. The boy forced a smile, but everyone could tell it was far from genuine.

The Water Tribe siblings looked sadly at each other, wondering what they could do to cheer up the boy. But before any of them had time to say anything, the attention was suddenly drawn to Naruto when he suddenly slapped Aang on the back. The force of it almost caused the Airbender to fall forward and made Momo let out a frightened shriek as he jumped off the boy.

Aang curiously looked at Naruto who simply grinned back at him in that fox-like way of his.

"Hey, drop the long face, Aang," said the blond. "I'm sure that once you've beaten that Fire Lord you were talking about, people are gonna throw you a party that'll make this one look like Wednesday-tea by comparison."

"You make it sound so simple," frowned Aang while rubbing his back (he wouldn't be surprised if it was going to leave a mark). He really appreciated the blond's attempts to lift his spirits, but if there was one person he'd rather not think about right now, then that person would have to be the malevolent ruler of the Fire Nation.

"That's because it is," insisted Naruto as he leaned forward and looked into the young Airbender's grey eyes. "I'm still new to this place and might not have all the details, but I've managed to catch on to a few things. This Firelord is a pretty bad guy, right?"

That's got to be the understatement of the year, Aang thought. "Yes. He wants to conquer the whole world," he answered hesitantly.

"And he's really strong, isn't he?"

"Yes. He's supposedly the most powerful Firebender in our time."

"Then all _you _have to do is to get even more powerful than he is and kick his ass," Naruto finished while pointing Aang in the chest, grinning from ear to ear. "It's as simple as that."

"No, it's not!" Aang frowned, gaining a look of frustration as he couldn't help but start thinking about all the things he would have to do if he was to ever save the world.

What many people seemed to forget was that while Aang was indeed the current incarnation of the Avatar, with all the duties and responsibilities that that title entailed, he was also still just a child. Having the fate of the entire world resting on your shoulders would be unbearably tough for anyone, let alone if you where a twelve year old boy who should be enjoying his childhood to the fullest.

"First I'm going to have to start learning Earthbending. I've still got a whole lot of Waterbending to perfect before I'm done. I have to find a Firebending instructor that's actually willing to teach me and not toast me on sight. Do you have any idea how hard that'll be in this day and age?!" And once I've actually mastered all the elements I'll have to -!"

Naruto then suddenly and unceremoniously bopped the Avatar on the head, much to the boy's (and all of his friends') shock, effectively shutting him up in the middle of his rant.

"N-Naruto?!" Katara nearly shrieked.

"What? He was starting to hyperventilate," stated the blond innocently before once again turning his attention back to Aang, who was now silently rubbing his head while pouting sourly at the ninja.

"I said it was _simple_, not that it was gonna be _easy_," Naruto said before getting himself back up on his feet, his eyes remaining locked with Aang's.

The Avatar and his friends eyed the blond curiously as his face split into a wide, toothy grin. He then suddenly pointed down at Aang, startling the boy and causing him to flinch back just a bit. Before the boy had time to voice a question, Naruto started talking in a loud and commanding tone.

"Uncork those ears of yours and listen well, Aang! I know that you've got a lot of stuff on your shoulders right now, but you can never give up. Even if everything feels unbearable or impossible to you, even if it feels like the whole world is falling apart all around you, you can never ever run away! Because as long as you put your mind to it, have the will to work hard and never give up on what you believe in, then there is nothing in this world that is impossible for you! NOTHING!"

The Gang could do little more than stare in silent bewilderment as the whiskered teenager continued on with his impassioned speech, the tails of his headband fluttering dramatically in the evening wind.

"Is this guy for real?" Toph whispered with a raised eyebrow, but was quickly hushed by Sokka.

"And until I manage to find my way home," Naruto now pointed at himself with his thumb, his blue eyes burning with a seemingly unquenchable fire that spoke of his fierce determination, "_I_ am going to help you with your quest in every way I can! Believe it!"

And, of course, it was at exactly that moment, when the blond had just finished talking, that the fireworks decided to start.

After the spectacular light-show had ended, the Avatar and his group of friends walked down from the roof, heading towards their rooms in order to get some well deserved sleep before their departure in the morning.

However, they soon stopped in their tracks when they heard the voices of Mr and Mrs H'u Xū coming from downstairs. Although they couldn't quite make out what they were saying, other than some sporadic bits and pieces here and there, there was no mistaking it that it was a rather heated discussion.

After briefly looking at each other, they all wordlessly agreed to go down and find out what exactly was going on. As they walked down the stairs, the voices got clearer and it became much easier to hear what was being said between the elderly couple.

"...no harm in asking," spoke Mrs H'u Xū. "If anyone can help it's him."

"Oh, but I don't want to bother him with our troubles," replied her husband. "He already has enough on his shoulders to deal with."

When they finally entered the dining hall, they couldn't help but notice the way how the elderly couple sitting by the table instantly turned silent when they saw them.

"Oh, hello there, children. Did you enjoy the show?" Mr H'u Xū asked with a smile. However, unlike his usual smile that seemed to be full of humour and mirth, this one seemed awfully strained for some reason.

"Is there something wrong, Mr H'u Xū?" Sokka asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wrong? Whatever are you talking about, young man?" The old man asked while raising himself onto his feet, that same smile still present on his face. For some reason he seemed to refuse to look anyone of them in the eye and his wife kept frowning at him. "Everything is fine."

"You're lying," deadpanned Toph, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. The blind Earthbender had immediately been able to pick up the vibrations that the old man was giving off, letting her know that he wasn't telling them the truth. "What is it that you're trying to hide, old man?"

There was a moment of tense silence in the room that only ended when the lady of the house decided that enough was enough.

"Go on, dear, tell them," she urged her husband. "They can help."

"There's obviously something bothering you, sir, so please tell us," implored Katara. "If there's anything we can do, we'd love to help."

H'u Xū looked a bit hesitant at first but gave in once he realized that nothing he said would manage to deter the youngsters standing before him.

"Well, all right then," he sighed. "Please, have a seat and I shall explain everything."

His wife gave him a small smile and squeezed his shoulder before leaving the table. "I'll go put on some tea," she said.

Having grabbed a chair each, Naruto and his new friends waited expectantly for the old man to tell them all what exactly seemed to gnaw at him. He wrung his hands for a bit, seemingly to compose himself, before he took a deep breath and finally looked up at them.

"In the mountains, not all that far away from here, there's a village called Cai Kuang," he began. "For generations our two settlements have enjoyed a close relationship that benefits us both. They mine the mountains that are rich with numerous kinds of ore, which we then here in Gang Kou later help ship to different parts of the kingdom, providing a good source of income for us all. We visit each other all the time and a lot of us have started families together. My best friend, who I've known for pretty much all my life, lives there."

The old man's face then turned despondent, making him actually look his age for the first time since the youths had met him.

"But suddenly, around three weeks ago, we just stopped hearing from them," said H'u Xū as he rubbed his wrinkled forehead. "No messages. No travellers. Nothing."

"Have you made any investigations?" Sokka asked while stroking his chin.

"Yes. Some of the men and I actually went to check if everything was all right with them, but we weren't even able to get there," he explained. "You see, between Gang Kou and Cai Kuang there's a deep and wide ravine, and the only way of crossing it is by using a certain bridge that we built over two hundred years ago. But once we finally got to it, it had been completely and utterly destroyed."

"Could it have been worn out due to natural causes, or do you think that there's some kind of sabotage involved?" Katara asked

"There was definitely nothing natural about this, believe me," stated the old inn keeper grimly before taking a sip of the cup of tea that his wife handed him. "We had brought an Earthbender with us, and he tried to create a new bridge so that we would be able to walk across. But before we even had time to set a foot on it, it started crumbling and shattered into pieces before falling into the chasm right in front of our very eyes. We tried the same thing about three times but got the same result."

The old man's face was scrunched into a mask of frustration as he stared down at the table.

"I don't know what's happened, but I'm certain that something bad is going on in the village and I'm at a complete loss of what to do."

Naruto frowned and was just about to say something, but was stopped when he felt a hand on his arm. Looking to his left he saw Katara who shook her head at him before giving a nod towards Aang, telling him to remain quiet and wait for Aang to make his own decision.

Everything was silent for a moment as the Airbender had his eyes closed, appearing to be in deep thought. However, none of them had to wait long before the young monk's lips spread into a wide, lopsided grin. "Don't worry about it, Mr H'u Xū," he said. "We'll go check things out for you. After all, it's the Avatar's duty to help people in need wherever he may find them."

"B-But what about your quest?" The old man stammered. "Surely you have-" he began before he was cut off by Sokka.

"It's not like we have to follow a schedule here," said the young Water Tribe warrior before he folded his arms over his chest and smirked. "The way I see it, as long as Aang manages to master the four elements and beat the Fire Lord, I think we can allow ourselves a slight detour on our way there."

"And besides, if we're heading for the mountains it would be a great opportunity for me to finally start drilling some Earthbending into Twinkle Toes here," interjected Toph.

"Seems like you're gonna get some help whether you like it or not, old man," stated Naruto with a toothy grin. "If I were you I'd just be happy and accept it."

H'u Xū looked speechless for moment as he stared at them, looking from one to the other. But soon a wide smile started to form on his wrinkled face, more than twice as big as the one he'd worn when they first met him. "I... I thank you, Avatar Aang," said the old inn keeper and bowed before them. "Your kindness truly knows no limits."

"H-Hey, you don't need to do that," stated Aang as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I can't save the world without taking time to save the people living in it, can I?" The boy slightly turned his head towards Naruto, catching the older boy's gaze. "I'm just doing what I believe is right."

The two of them shared a grin as no more words needed to be said.

The moment was broken when Sokka suddenly yawned loudly while stretching his body. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get really tired," he said. "What do you say about hitting the sack and getting some shut-eye?"

"Sokka's right," Katara agreed. "It's been a long and eventful day for us all and we'll need our sleep if we're going to leave early in the morning."

They all bid the elderly couple a good night and once again went upstairs, heading for their rooms. Naruto chatted happily with Aang and Sokka as they walked towards their room that was located at the opposite side in the hallway of the girls'.

"Wait, Naruto." Katara called out to the blond, catching his attention and stopping him in his tracks as she approached them. "Could I speak with you for a second?"

Naruto nodded and told the guys to go ahead before him, including Momo who simply jumped from his head and onto Aang's. "What is it, Katara?" he asked, turning around to face the girl as she walked up to him.

"I just wanted to thank you," she said with a smile.

"For what?"

"Well, for saving Aang for starters," Katara answered with a chuckle. "If you hadn't done what you did, I don't know what we would have done. I don't know what _I _would have done," she added before looking down at the floor, her face sombre as she couldn't help but think about what had almost happened.

"Hey, don't mention it," said Naruto, making Katara look up at him. "Aang is now a friend of mine and I _never _abandon my friends."

The blond was once again giving her one of his usual foxy grins, something which the dark skinned girl had started to find oddly comforting in the short time they'd spent together. It was more than enough to silence the worries of what could have been and returned her smile to her lips.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for what you did. I really am glad that you decided to come with us, Naruto."

The blond shinobi rubbed the back of his head in mild embarrassment. "H-hey, I was just doing what anyone of you would have done."

"Well, good night, Katara," said Naruto, offering her a last smile.

"Good night, Naruto," Katara replied. She watched his back as he walked down the hallway before finally disappearing into the room he shared with the other boys for the night. With a smile placed firmly on her lips, Katara went to her own room at the opposite end.

She opened the door, finding Toph already sound asleep and snoring away as she lay sprawled across one of the two beds. The Water Tribe girl couldn't help but smile at the sight and looked forward to actually be able to sleep in a real bed for once. They had all been camping for so long that she almost felt like she'd forgotten what it was like.

After closing the door behind her, she moved silently into the room, taking extra care so that she wouldn't awaken her friend from her slumber. The young Waterbender undid her hair from its braid, undressed and folded her clothes in a neat pile on a nearby chair, before finally climbing into her bed.

As Katara closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to claim her, she couldn't help but reflect upon the strange events of the last few days and wonder how the mysterious blond boy would further come to affect their journey.

OoOoOoO

**A/N: **Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. The next one shouldn't take nearly as long and the fact that it will mostly revolve around an already existing episode may help things along. Which one you may ask? Why, "Bitter Work" of course! It's finally time for Aang to begin his Earthbending training.

Until next time, this is ChaosGhidorah who's signing off.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **I don't own either Naruto nor Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.

**A/N: **First of all I should probably apologize for the god awful long time it took to finish this chapter. I really should have had this done months ago, but due to a combination of various things, like stuff in real life, a whole bunch of distractions and my good old enemy writer's block, things just seemed to grind to a halt as far as my writing was concerned.

However, now I've finally got a new chapter to show you and I hope that there's at least a few of you out there left that are still interested in reading it. I know it's short, but that's because I decided to save a good chunk of what I had originally written for the next chapter, just so that I could have this out sooner and let you know that I'm still alive. ^ ^;

So without further ado, here's the seventh chapter of Naruto: The Last Shinobi. Please enjoy.

**Chapter 07**

**Bitter Work**

Naruto couldn't help but let out a small groan when his face was suddenly touched by the first rays of the day, the sun slowly rising itself from the horizon. It coaxed the young man to return from the land of dreams, something which was only further helped along by the heavy snores of Appa laying nearby.

They had set out from Gang Kou the previous day, but not before Mrs H'u Xū had managed to convince them to stay and enjoy a breakfast big enough to sustain a small platoon. After having made sure that they had everything they needed, and made a few last-minute purchases from the ever busy marketplace, they'd said their goodbyes to the kind, elderly couple and left the harbour-town at noon.

They had then spent most of the quiet afternoon travelling through the air on Appa at a leisurely pace before finally setting up camp in a rocky quarry, which would serve as Aang's training ground the following day.

Naruto briefly considered the option of simply turning around and get back to sleep, but stopped himself when he heard the sudden rustling of fabric as someone went out of their sleeping bag. After letting out a yawn, the young shinobi opened a tired eyelid, curious to see who could be be willing to get up at such an early hour.

"Today's the day!" Aang exclaimed happily as he jumped high into the air before landing on the ground next to Naruto and Sokka. "Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting Earthbending. And this place is just perfect!" he cheered while wildly gesticulating at the vast, rocky environment that surrounded them.

Naruto would have normally complained about Aang being so loud this early in the morning, but he couldn't help but grin at the younger boy's antics and enthusiasm. He was completely able to relate to the excitement that the young monk was feeling at the prospect of learning a new, awesome technique.

The blond teenager let out a loud yawn before sitting up from his sleeping bag, stretching the last bits of tiredness from his body. "Excited, huh?" Naruto asked with a grin while reaching for his new over-shirt.

"You bet I am," replied Aang with a beaming smile as the older boy rose himself onto his feet. "With this I'll be one step closer of mastering all the elements. Just thinking about all the cool stuff that I'll be able to do is nearly giving me goose-bumps."

However, not everyone took being woken up so early in such a stride, something which they found out when they heard the sound of a low, angry grumble. The two of them turned their heads in its direction only to see Sokka glaring up at them with tired eyes.

"Oh, were you still sleeping, Sokka?" Aang asked with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

The young Water Tribe warrior was way too tired to give either of them any of his usual witty and sarcastic retorts. Instead he simply decided to pull the cover of the sleeping bag over his head before burying his face as far into the soft fabric as he could while letting out an exasperated groan.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling shook the ground, causing everyone to turn their heads just in time to see the stone walls of Toph's Earthbent made "tent" explode with a bang, stirring up a big cloud of dust. Once it finally died down, it revealed the young Earthbender standing with her fist pumped into the air.

"Goo~ood morning, Earthbending-student!" Toph exclaimed with a wide grin on her face.

"Good morning, Sifu Toph," greeted Aang, giving the girl a respectful bow as she walked up to him.

"Hey, you never called me 'Sifu Katara'," stated the freshly awakened Water Tribe girl tiredly as she sat up in her sleeping bag and folded her arms over her chest.

"Well, if you think I should..." Aang replied sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

Sokka suddenly bolted into a sitting position, glaring at them all while grumbling angrily. Honestly! The sun was barely even up yet and people still thought that it was a good idea to start making as much noise as possible, completely disregarding those that still wanted a few more hours of shut eye. The nerve!

"Oh, sorry, Snoozles. We'll do our Earthbending as quietly as we can," Toph said, ending her words in an exaggerated whisper. The blind girl's lips then spread into a wide, shit-eating grin right before she slammed the heel of her foot down onto the ground, causing Sokka, still inside his sleeping bag, to be unceremoniously shot straight upwards into the air, screaming for dear life all the way.

"Ah, so that's what I must have sounded like," stated Naruto thoughtfully as he observed Sokka's rise and inevitable fall. He winced in sympathy when the boy finally hit the ground with a thud.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to have been hurt at all as he quickly jumped up onto his feet and skipped over to Toph and Aang. Looking as intimidating as a guy still inside his sleeping bag could, he glared angrily at the two of them while muttering out a long series of incoherent grumbles before finally hopping off, giving them the bizarre impression of a caterpillar that had been raised by kangaroos.

"So what move are you going to teach me first?" Aang asked, quickly getting to the matter at hand as he walked up next to Toph, his eyes filled with excitement and an eager smile spread across his face. "'Rock-alanche?' The 'Trembler'? Oh, maybe I can learn how to-!"

Aang was promptly cut off by Toph as she simply held out a hand, silencing the exuberated boy just as he was about to start suggesting even more crazy, high-level techniques that it was obviously way too early for a newbie like him to even attempt. "How about we just start with 'move a rock'?" she dead-panned before walking off, expecting the young Airbender to follow her.

"Sounds good. Sounds good," said Aang, barely missing a beat as hurried to catch up with his new teacher.

"Hey, Toph, is there any way I could help?" Naruto asked with an eager look on his face, causing the younger girl to stop and turn to face him.

"Hm, let me see," said Toph as she feigned a thoughtful look. "Do you happen to be able to shoot boulders and reshape the earth with nothing but your will and a simple motion?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Er, no," he replied while scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Then I'm afraid you won't be of much use right now," Toph answered bluntly with a shrug. "But if we ever happen to need a moving target, I'll let you know," she added with a smirk and continued on her way. Aang offered the older boy an apologetic smile before following her.

Naruto pouted childishly as he watched them go. While the girl may have had a point, he couldn't help but feel slightly put off by the rejection. The young shinobi didn't have much time to dwell on this however, his attention being drawn elsewhere as Momo suddenly climbed up onto his left shoulder, holding the blond's forehead protector in his paws.

"Hey, thanks, Momo," he greeted the lemur with a grin before patting him on the head. "Want to go and see what those two are up to?" Taking the low chirp as a yes, he tied the headband around his head as he turned to Katara. The young Waterbender seemed to have put away her sleeping bag and was now currently in the process of braiding her long hair. "Hey, Katara, do you want to come with us?" asked Naruto.

"Sure, just give me a minute," she replied with a pretty smile.

Naruto's attention was then once again directed elsewhere when his stomach suddenly let out an audible growl. "Guess it's time for breakfast," he chuckled lightly as he met Momo's curious gaze.

He walked over to their collective luggage, being careful so that he wouldn't wake up Appa, and started rummaging through their bags in search of something to eat. It didn't take long before his hand brushed over something that managed to bring a grin to his face. "Jackpot," he said as he pulled out a bag filled to the brim with Mrs H'u Xū's home made rice cookies.

They'd had the fortune of trying them out the day before as the kind, elderly lady had made an extra large batch, just for them, and insisted that they took what they couldn't eat in one go with them on their journey. The mere memory of the taste was enough to make his mouth water.

Without another word spoken he opened the bag, handed one cookie to the lemur on his shoulder before they both started crunching away on the tasty goodies.

"Starting the day off with sweets, are we?" Katara asked with an amused smile as she walked up to them, having just put the finishing touches on her hair-loopies.

Both Naruto and Momo, their cheeks filled to the brim with cookies, gained a nearly identical look of sheepishness on their faces. They glanced briefly at each other before wordlessly reaching out and offering what was left in their hands that they had yet to stuff their faces with.

Katara just waved them off with a smile. "No, I'm fine. But you should probably save some of them for Sokka. He managed to down an entire plate all by himself yesterday and I figure he'd like some more."

Once they were done and had joined Toph and Aang, the blind Earthbender had already begun the preparation's of Aang's first lesson. She'd formed a pair of large boulders which they were now both standing behind and once the spectators had taken a seat at the sidelines, the Avatar's Earthbending training could now officially begin.

"The key to Earthbending is your stance," Toph began explaining before easing herself into a stance with her legs spread and her knees bent, giving her better stability and balance, while raising her closed fists just above her hips. "You've got to be steady and strong. Rock is a stubborn element, so if you're going to move it you've got to be like a rock yourself."

"Like a rock. Got it," he replied as he tried his best to mimic her.

"Good. Now, the actual motion of this one is pretty simple," Toph said as she raised herself to her full height, turning her body parallel to the rock while still facing it.

In a flash, Toph bent her knees and thrust her fist forward, punching the massive boulder dead on. The rock was sent hurtling across the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake before it finally smashed itself against the cliff side with a loud bang.

"Okay, are you ready to give it a try?" Toph then asked as she turned to an awed Aang.

He took a deep breath to steady himself. "I'm ready," said Aang while easing himself into the same stance that Toph had shown him. The young Avatar narrowed his grey eyes, staring intently at the boulder in front of him as he focused himself before making his move.

However, when his fist connected, instead of moving the rock like Toph had done, he instinctively used Airbending instead of Earthbending and hit it with a blast of wind. He let out a startled scream as it propelled him backwards, going at an incredible speed until he was finally stopped by slamming into the large frame of the still sleeping Appa.

"You know, I'm new to this whole Bender-deal," Naruto said as he turned to Katara, "but something tells me that that wasn't supposed to happen."

The female Waterbender didn't respond as she immediately rose herself to her feet and ran to see if Aang was okay. Naruto shrugged before following her.

After having helped the disoriented Airbender back onto his feet and dusted him off, they walked back to Toph and the rock which hadn't even budged as much as an inch.

"I don't understand what went wrong," stated Katara, her brows furrowed in confusion. "He did it exactly the way you did."

"Maybe there's another way," said Aang with a thoughtful look on his face as he began to approach the rock. "What if I come at the boulder at a different angle?"

"No, that's the problem," stated Toph flatly, stopping the boy in his tracks by grabbing a hold of the back of his clothes. "You've got to stop thinking like an Airbender. There's no different angle, no clever solution and no trickety trick that's going to move that rock. You've got to face it head on. And when I say 'head on', I mean like this!"

Toph roughly shoved Aang out of her way and jumped, throwing herself at the rock with a roar. Without hesitating for even a second, the young Earthbender bashed her head right down against the large boulder and smashed it to pieces.

Naruto let out an impressed "whoa" at the sight and Aang couldn't help but jump back at the sudden fierce display of his Earthbending teacher's aggressive attack. However, once the surprise had died down, feelings of disappointment over his own failure started to well up within the boy and he gained a very unsure and dejected look on his face.

Katara frowned when she saw this and went to follow Toph as she started walking away, wanting to share a few words with the younger girl. "I've been training Aang for a while now," Katara said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. "He really responds well to a positive teaching experience. Lots of encouragement and praise. Kind words. If he's doing something wrong maybe a gentle nudge could help him in the right direction."

"Thanks, Katara. A gentle nudge, huh?" Toph folded her arms behind her back as she appeared to actually consider the things that Katara had just said. "I guess I could try that," she finally said as she offered the older girl a small, innocent smile.

While she hadn't thought it would go so easy, Katara was nonetheless pleased that Toph was able to see things her way and returned her smile. However, as soon as she turned her back to the young Earthbender and started walking back to Aang and Naruto, Toph flashed the two boys a wide, toothy and almost sinister grin.

Naruto glanced at the Airbender by his side, noticing the nervous sweat starting to form on his brow and hearing him let out an audible gulp.

"She's going to kill me, isn't she?"

"It looks that way, Aang," replied Naruto sagely while patting the uneasy Avatar on the shoulder. "It looks that way."

OoOoOoO

"Keep your knees high, Twinkle Toes!" Toph roared as she egged Aang on.

If Toph was actually indeed following Katara's advice of being more gentle with Aang, then she most definitely had a very different definition of the word than most people.

During the hours that followed in the canyon, Toph drilled Aang through the basics of Earthbending by engaging him in several rigorous activities involving the element; like carrying heavy boulders on his back, punching solid rock and balancing on tall stone columns, while at the same time trying to keep his balance when his young teacher made an attempt to throw him of.

Toph was actually pushing the boy to such a degree that Naruto didn't have that much trouble picturing Rock Lee doing the same kind of exercises as part of his regular routine.

At first Aang was clearly having a tough time, having to grasp and get used to a way of thinking that was the complete polar opposite of what he had grown up with. But after a few (or rather a series of) initial failures, Aang was actually gradually starting to become more and more successful with the many different training activities.

The young monk's progress didn't go unnoticed by Naruto who couldn't help but feel impressed by just how quickly he seemed to get the hang of the exercises that Toph was putting him through.

"He seems to be getting better," he commented as he was sitting cross-legged against a rather large rock, his over shirt unbuttoned as he basked in the sunlight.

"I suppose so," replied Katara while absent-mindedly scratching Momo behind the ears, the lemur having taken a comfortable seat against her lap. "I just hope that Toph doesn't push Aang too hard."

"Nah, I'm sure he'll be able to handle it just fine," Naruto said with a grin. Despite all the excitement that the last few days had offered, seeing the two younger kids working so hard was starting to make the blond feel slightly restless and made him want to do some actual training himself. He had yet to find a way to make his Rasen Shuriken safe to use without causing massive damage to himself and he wondered if he would be able to come up with a solution before he managed to get home.

He was suddenly brought out from his reverie when he noticed Sokka walking up to them with heavy steps and a noticeably sour look on his face. "Can you believe her?" Sokka grumbled as he polished his battle club with a rag. "Toph took my club and had Aang play whack-a-rock rock with it!"

"So?" Naruto asked with a shrug. "I thought that the whole point of a club was to smash things with it."

"Well, that just shows how much you know," stated the young warrior dryly. "This happens to be a fine instrument, designed and crafted to crush the skulls of both your enemies and your prey," he held it up in front of him and pointed at it like he was explaining things to a three year old, "it was NOT made to be used as a tool for turning rocks into a fine powder!" He then got a thoughtful look on his face, examining the club from a few different angles before turning to his sister. "Katara, do you think that this looks like a crack at this part here?" he asked in a somewhat worried tone.

"It looks fine, Sokka," stated Katara after barely giving the weapon a glance before turning back to look at Aang's training.

Sokka pouted until his eyes fell on the bag between Naruto and Katara and his mouth instantly watered as he recognized it. "Rice cookies!" he exclaimed happily as he reached for the it, licking his lips wolfishly in excitement. However, once he'd actually grabbed a hold of it, he frowned when he felt just how light it was. He held out his hand and turned the bag upside down, but to his great dismay all he got was some crumbs.

"Where's all the cookies?" he asked, his voice a bit hollow as he stared at his hand in disbelief.

"Oh, sorry about that," Naruto apologized with a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "I guess they were so good that we just sort of happened to eat all of them. Sorry, man."

"I told you we should have saved some of them," chided Katara.

"Who told you you could eat my cookies?" Sokka roared as an almost comically large vein started to throb at his temple.

"I said I was sorry and..." Naruto paused and blinked for a second. "Hey, what do you mean about _your_ cookies?"

Thankfully, before a fight had time to break out, the sound of a burp drew everyone's attention to Momo. The lemur was lying lazily on his back, resting one of his small paws on a very clearly noticeable pot-belly while looking tiredly at the very last rice-cookie which he was currently holding in front of his face. He then turned his head and locked his big, green eyes with Sokka's, starting an intense battle of wills.

"Put that cookie down! NOW!" Sokka demanded angrily after a moment of silence.

Without skipping a beat, the lemur immediately put the whole cookie into his mouth, chewed a couple of times before finally swallowing it down with an audible gulp.

Everything was silent for a few seconds. Katara and Naruto glanced nervously at Sokka, waiting for the inevitable eruption to occur. It started with his right eye twitching, but it didn't take long before Sokka started pulling at his hair, his eyes looking like they were just about to pop right out of his skull as sounds that wouldn't normally be considered human escaped his throat.

"Sokka, take it easy now. It was just some cookies," Katara said with a hint of worry in her voice as she tried to reason with her brother's better side.

"I'm sorry, Katara," Sokka huffed before sticking his nose in the air, "but I'm just far too upset at the moment to care. Instead I'm going to deal with my problems the same way any mature and reasonable young man would."

"Oh really now. And what would that be?" Katara asked flatly with a single eyebrow raised.

"By going out and kill me some food," answered her brother matter of factly. "And when I do, I won't be sharing it with any of you," he added, pointing at them all with his club before stomping off towards the sparse forest just outside the quarry.

Katara couldn't help but slap her palm against her forehead and let out an exasperated groan over her brother's childish behaviour.

"Um, is he going to be okay?" Naruto asked. He really didn't want to have caused something that could potentially make things awkward and unpleasant between them down the road.

"He's fine," Katara grumbled with an annoyed frown while folding her arms over her chest. "He'll be back in a few hours after he's had the time to cool off that big, stubborn head of his. Don't worry about it," she finished, offering the blond a comforting smile to ease his concerns.

About half an hour later, Toph called things to a halt. Truth to be told, she was actually pretty pleased with how well her student had managed to handle her little "warm ups" so far. At first (even though she would never admit it) she had actually been a bit worried about how long it would take for Aang to get the hang of things, not really looking forward to the possibility of having to spend weeks on repeating the same baby-stuff they had been doing over and over again.

In fact, he was coming along surprisingly fast so far. But being the Avatar, having already mastered all of this well over a thousand times in his past lives, may have had something to do with it, Toph shrugged inwardly.

Anyway, she thought it was about time that she took her pupil's training to the next level.

"This time we're going to try something a little different," she began explaining to them all. "Instead of moving a rock, you're going to _stop_ a rock. Now get into your horse stance!"

After Aang had done as he was told, Toph pointed up at a slope in front of them. Or rather, to be a bit more specific, the massive round boulder that stood at the top of it. "I am going to roll that boulder down at you and if you have the attitude of an Earthbender, you will stand your ground and stop it."

While Toph described her plan, all colour drained from Aang's face, his eyes seemingly widening to twice their size as he looked up at the large, foreboding rock.

"Hm, this actually reminds me a little bit of something that my own master put me through a couple of years ago when I had some major trouble learning a technique," mused Naruto.

"And what was that exactly?" Aang asked expectantly, hoping to get some form of advice from the older boy.

"He pushed me down a ravine," answered the blond with a wide foxy grin, causing everyone present to make a double take. "Yeah, he probably figured that all I needed was some proper motivation in order to get the hang of things. I can't really say I appreciated it at the time, but thankfully I managed to pull the technique off and save my hide."

If it was even possible, Aang suddenly looked even more nervous now than he did before as he couldn't help but notice the sudden thoughtful look that Toph had gained while rubbing her chin.

"I'm sorry, Toph, but are you absolutely sure that this is really the best way to teach Aang Earthbending?" Katara asked with a hint of dread in her voice as she glanced up at the large boulder. She was understandably worried about Aang's well-being and definitely didn't want to see him get injured due to some freak training accident. "There has to be a better way."

"I'm really glad you said something there, Katara" replied Toph with a small smirk before suddenly yanking Aang's sash off from his body and tying it around his head, effectively blindfolding him. "This way he'll really have to sense the vibrations of the boulder in order to stop it," she explained before giving the older girl a thumbs up. "Thank you, Katara."

"Yeah, thanks, Katara," Aang stated flatly with just a hint of bitterness in his voice, at which Katara could only give a sheepish smile in return.

"Hey, don't worry, Aang. I know you can do this," Naruto said cheerfully before giving the younger boy a slap on the back. "Break a leg!"

"That is really not the best choice of words in this situation, Naruto," Katara grumbled as it didn't exactly help to lighten her anxiety.

With all that said and done, it was time to begin. Naruto, Katara and Momo were once again standing at the sidelines as they waited for things to get started. The young Waterbender had her hand tightly clasped together and a worried expression set on her pretty face. Naruto spared her a sideways glance before fixing his eyes on Aang, hoping that the boy would be able to pull this off.

Beads of sweat were streaming down Aang's face as he sensed the boulder rolling closer and closer at an incredibly high speed. He could hear the way smaller rocks were being crushed under its weight and how the earth trembled beneath his feet as it approached him. But just as it was about to hit him...

He jumped out of its way.

It continued to roll past him for a couple of seconds until it was finally stopped when it crashed into a rock wall. Aang removed the blindfold from his eyes only to see Toph, stomping towards him with a look of barely restrained fury on her face.

"I... I guess I just panicked. I don't know what to say," Aang said hesitantly.

"There's nothing to say!" Toph spat angrily. "You had a perfect stance and a perfect form, but just when it got right down to it you didn't have the guts!"

She jabbed Aang in the chest, causing him to slump to the ground and look up at the girl with a defeated look on his face.

"I know. I'm sorry-"

"Yeah, you are sorry," growled Toph with an angry snarl as she got right down in Aang's face, cutting him off mid sentence. "If you're not tough enough to stop the rock, then you could at least give it the pleasure of smooching like a jelly-boned wimp!"

"Now, do you have what it takes to face that rock like an Earthbender?"

He remained silent for a few seconds, before averting his eyes from her face as he finally answered her. "No. I don't think I do."

Naruto couldn't help but frown at this. Not only for what the young monk had said, but also because of how defeated he had sounded. "Come on, Aang. You can't give up now," Naruto said as he walked up beside the boy. "Give it another try. I'm sure you'll be able to do it if you just give it another go."

Aang averted his gaze, unwilling to look the shinobi in the eye and see the disappointment lying therein. He closed his eyes and remained silent, even as Naruto called out to him a second time.

However, this only served to agitate Naruto. As he looked down at the boy, a scowl crossed his face and he clenched his fists at his sides. "Fine," he nearly growled. "You don't want to say anything? Fine! I know things may be tough, but you can't just throw your hands in the air every time something doesn't go right! If you act like this during training, then how the hell are you going to-"

The young Jinchuuriki turned silent when he suddenly felt someone take a sharp hold on his arm. As he turned around, he was surprised to find himself face to face with a very angry looking Katara. For the first time since he'd met the girl, her warm, inviting eyes had become cold with disapproval, aimed specifically at him.

"Naruto, not now," she said to him with an unmistakable edge in her voice before turning to Aang and helped the boy back up onto his feet. "Aang, it's no big deal," she said, now in a much gentler tone while offering him a comforting smile. "You'll take a break and try Earthbending again when you're ready. Besides, you've still got a lot of Waterbending to work on. Okay?"

"That sounds good," he quietly replied, his eyes still focused on his feet, as Katara lead him away.

"Yeah, whatever. Go ahead and splash around until you feel better," scoffed Toph as they left. Without saying another word, she angrily went her own separate way, leaving Naruto as the only one behind at the training site.

The young Jinchuuriki let out an exasperated sigh as he moved a hand through his spiky hair. "Well, that could have gone better," he stated bitterly.

OoOoOoO

**A/N: **Well, that was chapter seven. Since I don't have a beta at the moment it may not be as polished as the previous few, but I still hope you enjoyed it. As I stated at the top, a good chunk of what's to become chapter eight has already been written and I'm seriously going to try and get my act together and write more. ^ ^;

With that said, this is ChaosGhidorah signing off.


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