Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Summary: The the world of Avatar and the world Naruto are not as distant as one would imagine: They are, in fact, one and the same.

A/N: My crazy crossover theories ate my brain again.


20 Truths: The Avatar/Naruto Connection

1

Five hundred years after the lifetime of Avatar Aang, the fire nation was split into five smaller countries following a dispute over who would be the Firelord's heir. Each of the Firelord's children received one of these territories to rule. Hearing of this, The Earth Nation led a full-scale assault on the newly-weakened Fire Nation. The Water Nation was accused of conspiracy by both sides. What followed was the bloodiest war ever seen in the history of the world. Benders were targeted viciously, and most of them were killed. Entire libraries were burned to the ground to ensure that more could not be trained. In the aftermath of this fifty-year war, the art of bending was almost completely destroyed.

2

Nowhere in the world was the art fully recovered, but new techniques, ones utilizing both spirit and body energy, were developed in the area the had once belonged to the Fire Nation. No longer identified by the element of their bending, each territory adopted one of five new elements, the largest of them retaining the identity of fire. The energy that had once been used for bending was renamed 'chakra'. This lead to the development of the shinobi arts. The five territories closed off their borders to all but each other. After another four hundred years, the hidden villages were established as their primary sources of military power.

3

Some of the few remaining benders tried to keep their art alive, often forbidding marraige to outsiders. The loss of documented knowledge was too great, however. Despite a herculean effort, they too eventually lost the knowledge of bending, but the genetic recessives created by their inbreeding held interesting results when coupled with chakra. The decendants of benders often became clans possessing bloodline limits, and were reviled and feared by those around them.

4

The Hyuuga were the direct descendants of Firelord Ozai.

5

The Avatar still existed, although the absence of bending made its power unrecognizble. Its spirit settled in the hidden village of the Fire Country about sixty years after the village was established.

6

Prince Zuko was reincarnated into one of his decendants: Hyuuga Neji.

7

Iroh was reincarnated as Neji's father.

8

For the first time since the existence of Avatar Aang, Zuko and his former sister were born in close proximity to one-another. Azula was now Hinata, who bore a terrible burden of guilt for crimes she did not remember committing. Through many trials, she was able to repay the karmic debt she owed to Neji.

9

This was part of the reason why Neji had so much trouble forgiving her.

10

Despite what might be expected, the Avatar was not reborn into Uzumaki Naruto. Rather, Naruto was the rebirth of Bumi, the man who ruled over the once-great city of Omashu. He retained his fondness for pranks.

11

Likewise, Katara was not reborn as Sakura, but Tsunade.

12

Sokka's reincarnation died when he was a young child. The loss of his life left a permanent scar on his now older sister.

13

The reason why Lee had so much trouble with ninjutsu and genjutsu had absolutely nothing to do with an inability to manipulate chakra. In fact, he was very adept at chakra manipulation. What really held him back was the fact that some fundamental part of him rebelled whenever he tried to mold chakra in the way necessary to perform a shinobi art, and it always made his attempts at ninjutsu fail. However, he didn't have any trouble isolating chakra in a certain part of his body, even before he met Gai, and was one of the youngest people in known history to open the first five chakra gates. At the age of thirteen, he was well on his way to being able to open all eight (though it would be an action that, if used in battle, would assure death). This achievement was accomplished through both innate skill and hard work, even though he didn't realize that the former came into the equation.

14

All of this was so because Rock Lee was, in fact, the Avatar.

15

Unfortunately, that didn't mean much in a world dominated by ninja.

16

Consistant with expectations, Mai was reincarnated as TenTen. As with her previous life, she had a crush on Neji.

17

Once, after a vivid, memory-like dream, Lee asked Neji if the two of them were friends. Neji gave him a blank look and didn't reply, but Lee knew the answer anyway. He joyfully challenged Neji to a 'duel of exploding youth'. It was that day that he beat Neji for the first time.

18

Even before she was taken under Orochimaru's wing, Anko had a terrible fear of the dark. With time, she managed to get over it, but she still got jumpier when she was alone at night. She was also terrified of becoming blind.

19

She would never admit it, but Anko had a bit of a soft spot for Rock Lee. Out of all the new genin, he was her favourite. Hinata, however, was her least favourite.

20

Jiraiya, who was the reincarnation of one Jeong Jeng, was the only person who actually consciously remembered anything of his past life. He thought that he was alone in his rebirth, and never spoke of it to anyone (except Tsunade when they both very, very drunk-- but that didn't count). He did not remember much-- just that he had tried to attain enlightenment...and failed. In his new life, he didn't even bother to try to attain it again.