Crossover Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ NAvatarUTO ❯ Of Benders and Ninja ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter Five: Of Benders and Ninja

The next day, team seven arrived to show the Avatar and his friends around Konoha. “So… what are we supposed to show them?” Naruto asked. “The best place to get ramen?”

“How about the library or the communications tower?” Sakura offered.

“Absolutely not.” Sasuke chided. “These people are outsiders. We're not just going to show them our intelligence center. In a hidden village only clients and other ninjas are supposed to know where it is. I don't see why we should trust them,” Sasuke said bluntly.

Toph stepped in saying, “We never asked you to trust us and just so you know, I don't give a bear's egg where you get your mail.”

Sakura nervously stepped between the two. “Hey guys, just calm down. We were instructed by the hokage to make these people feel welcome. I trust in lord third's decision. Besides, If Aang truly is the Avatar, then there is nothing to worry about.” She reasoned.

Naruto cocked his head to one side. “Ava-what?”

Sasuke turned his attention to Aang. “You,” he said, “prove that you are the Avatar. Show us that you can use all the elements.”

Now Katara was getting mad. “Don't order him around!” she demanded. “Aang is the Avatar and he doesn't need to prove it to the likes of you.” Suddenly the group felt a slight breeze as Aang prepared an air scooter and rode around them. He explained that he had not mastered all the elements yet, but him being an air bender should be proof enough.

Naruto let out a noise of frustration; “argh! Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on? I thought these guys weren't ninja, so how can the bald guy fly? And what does that have to do with if he's trustworthy enough to see our mail and what the heck is an Avatar?”

Now it was Sakura's turn to be frustrated. “Did you sleep through all of our history classes? Uhg, you are such an idiot Naruto!” She exclaimed. “The Avatar is the one being who has the ability to learn to bend all the elements. It is supposed to be a great bridge from this world to the spirit world and keeps balance between all the nations.”

“Isn't that what the ninja villages are for?” asked Naruto.

“Yes. For the past hundred years the Avatar has been missing and the hidden villages were formed to keep a balance of power between each nation's feudal lords and the people.” Sakura answered.

“Ahhh! I still don't get it,” Naruto moaned. “What does that have to do with riding on air?”

Sakura sighed. “You really don't know anything, Naruto? I guess that I will just have to start from the beginning.” Unbeknownst to any of the characters, a giant scroll showing simplified diagrams appeard behind Sakura to act as a visual aid to her speech. “There are two main kinds of people in this world: benders and nonbenders. A bender is born with the ability to control an element such as water, earth, air, fire, or lightning. Their physical movements are what cause the element to do their will. Therefor, benders are not able to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu, but rather, only taijutsu.”

“Bushy brows!” Naruto exclaimed. “He must be a bender!”

“Lee is not a bender. We know this because he has chakra and benders do not. Now shut up and let me finish.” Sakura continued. “The Avatar is a being who, like I said before, has the potential to master all the elements. The Avatar is meant to keep balance and peace between nations because benders of each element have formed into separate countries. This being is immortal and is eternally reborn after death. Each new Avatar is born to one element but must learn all the rest. This does not happen randomly however. There is a cycle of elements that each Avatar will be born into. A hundred years ago, the Avatar was to be born an air bender. However, our Land of Fire felt threatened by the Wind Country and feared that they would use the Avatar's great power against them. So, the Fire Nation killed off all the air benders. We know that Aang is the Avatar because he is the last air bender. In the hundred years since the massac-air, there has been great unrest without the Avatar. There were constant wars between clans and countries until the clans finally were able to become allies and form villages. The hidden leaf was the first village of this kind, started as a weak truce between the Senju and the Uchiha. The Fire Nation has grown strong in the century without the Avatar. There are rumors that the fire lord plans on dominating all the five great nations. Having an Avatar in the picture would make that goal much harder and that is why the fire lord may seek to have Aang captured or destroyed.” Sakura concluded. “Did I leave anything out?”

The gaang looked at each other and agreed that nope, she pretty much covered it all and more so.

Naruto put his hands in his pockets and squinted. He nodded vigorously so as to pretend that he understood. Then he put his hands behind his head and asked if the history lesson was over so that he could go train. Sakura punched him in the arm and Sasuke said how Naruto was such a loser, he didn't expect he would even have any jutsu to practice.

“Oh yea? I'll show you!” Naruto shouted as he put his hands together in his telltale sign. “Harem Jutsu!” In a puff of smoke, there were instantly ten nude female Natutos. Sokka screamed and fell on his butt, Katara covered Aang's eyes after she got over the initial shock, Sasuke rolled his eyes, Sakura clobbered Naruto in the head and Toph just picked her nose. Once Naruto was back in his original form, albeit with a new large welt on his head, he asked how on earth Toph was able to remain completely neutral throughout his jutsu.

“I'm blind!” Toph said with an exasperated sigh. “But not as blind as you are for not noticing. I guess I should take it as a compliment really. I can preform just as well as anyone who can see because I can feel vibrations in the ground. For example, my feet `see' four people up ahead.” Sure enough, further down the path stood some figures that no one recognized. There was a boy with purple face paint carrying what looked to be a mummy, a girl with four blond ponytails and a short red haired boy with a giant gourd on his back. As the group approached the three strangers, Sakura noticed that the symbols on their forehead protectors showed that they were shinobi from the village hidden in the sand.

“Why are there people from Wind Country here in the Fire Nation?” Aang asked.

The outsiders from the sand turned to see who was talking. The boy with the face paint smirked. “These must be the leaf genin. What a bunch of wimps.”

“What did you call us?” Naruto yelled, running towards the trio. With the twitch of a finger, Kankuro tripped him with one of his chakra strings. Sakura demanded the strangers state their purpose for being in the Leaf Village. The blond girl rolled her eyes and said that besides being wimps, these genin were obviously ignorant too. Temari explained that they were there for the upcoming chunin exams. The red haired boy gave some sort of silent signal and the three of them disappeared.

Aang ran over to the spot the sand shinobi had been just seconds ago. “Why would citizens of my Land of Wind come to enemy territory just for an exam?” He asked.

“They're not citizens of Wind Country exactly,” Sasuke answered, “They're shinobi from the Sand Village which is located in the Land of Wind. The Land of Fire and the Land of Wind may be at war currently, but the sand and Leaf Villages are still allies. It has been a tradition for years that allied ninja villages conduct shared chunin exams in order to maintain the balance of power and keep up good relations.”

Sokka stroked his chin and asked what these exams entailed. When learning that it was a competition between genin for the title of chunin, he smacked his fist against his palm. “I'm in! I just got to fight Shikamaru. I'll show that no good stuck up lazy jerk a thing or two.”

Naruto scratched his head. “You want to join the chunin exams?”

Aang smiled. “This would be a great opportunity to get to know people of all different backgrounds. As the Avatar, improving relations is part of my job.”

“I'm always up for butt kicking,” Toph said as she cracked her knuckles.

Katara looked nervous. “I don't know, you guys, I think that would be a bad idea.” She said.

Toph laughed. “What, is miss fussy britches scared of getting in a tussle?” She mocked.

“No!” Katara said indignantly, “I just think we should try to keep a low profile.”

“What she really means,” Toph replied, “Is that sugar queen hates having fun.”

Sakura eased in between the two furious girls' stare down. “Hey, calm down,” she said, “there's no point in arguing about it when we haven't even talked to the hokage. Not even every genin gets to join the exam. I'll file your request and have it sent to lord third.” The group continued down the path as a blue mask-wearing figure stepped out from behind a tree where he had heard everything.