=2=
Lazuline eyes opened slowly as Naruto shivered when his mind registered the cold his body was feeling, for a sleepy moment he wondered if everything he had seen and done had been a dream. At least he wondered that until he saw leaning lazily against the back of what seemed to be a very large, rounded seat as he sharpened his machete whetstone. The young blond gave a small grunt as he closed his eyes momentarily and tried to shake away the strange waking dream, only to find that Sokka was now right in his face and grinning.::
"Crazy ninja guy! You're up!" He declared, causing Naruto to jump slightly.
"Ohayo Gozaimasu Sokka." Naruto mumbled just loud enough to be heard. "How long have I been out?"
"About three days." Katara's voice answered from his other side, drawing his attention to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Pretty good all in all." The blond answered as he saw up, noticing he was wearing an over-sized blue shirt. "A little stiff, a lot hungry."
"Well, the hunger is a good sign." The dark-skinned girl said with a nod.
"Where are we anyway?" He asked after a brief silence.
"We're over the ocean at the moment, on our way to the city of Gaoling." She answered, watching as he looked over the edge of Appa's massive saddle before grinning when he saw they were flying over the ocean.
"This is awesome!" The blond exclaimed, his bright eyes widening a moment before his stomach growled when he saw something break the surface of the water. "Anou, where's my weapon pouch?"
"Right here." Sokka said, holding up the durable bag. "What are all those little stary-thingies for anyway?"
"They're called shuriken, mainly people just use them to distract their opponent because of how small they are." The blond answered, pulling a small gray bag out and eating one of the pea-sized brown pill inside.
"What was that?" Katara asked curiously.
"Soldier pill, they contain a special mix of nutrients and enzymes that can help to restore or temporarily boost a person's chakra- supposedly a person can run for three days straight after eating one, but, personally, I don't really buy that." He said with a shrug. "They're not much of a substitute for food, but they can, in theory anyway, sustain a person for several days longer than they would normally last before starving."
"Wow, that's amazing." The young water tribe girl remarked. "I never thought something like that existed, I can't imagine what your world must be like."
"I read on time that about an eighth of our global population is made up of various types of warrior." Naruto said quietly. "Granted this was about six years ago, but there hasn't been anything recently that would be large enough to change that number much, not to my knowledge anyway. Imagine, a world full of soldiers where the greatest source of income comes from conflict and strife."
"Are you serious?" She asked, raising a questioning eyebrow toward him.
"Deadly, why else would there be academies dedicated teaching kids to fight from a young age?" He huffed as he leaned back. "Where I come from, war is part of everyday life. Even times of peace are spent working to make your village and country stronger while making your enemies weaker, if not through outright conflict then through political means."
"How can people live like that?" Sokka asked to breakup the gather silence. "Wars are terrible things, why would anyone want to make more of them?"
"Why else? Personal gain." The blond shinobi stated as he drew his legs up to rest his arms on his knees. "Too many people look out for only themselves instead of giving thought to those around them. Far too often, the most ruthless men and women rise into positions of power over other people and once they have a taste of power, more is never enough. They take what does not belong to them simply because they want it, obviously that causes trouble with the people they took it from. Sooner or later, they'll step over their own limits and step on someone they shouldn't, and that's when all hell breaks loose."
"Wow, that was really, bleak." The brown-haired boy remarked.
"Well, after a while, people get tired of fighting each other and they become more willing to start fixing things." He pointed out with a grin.
"You know, I can't tell if you're a pessimist or an optimist." The eldest of the three boys stated as he gave Naruto a strange look. "It's like you've got a switch or something in your brain that lets you be both."
"Hmm, honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be too surprised if I did." Naruto said amicably as he squinted his eyes while nodding.
"Hey, Naruto, why did you pass out in the swamp when you were saying how you got away from the snake that ate you?" Katara asked him after another silence.
"Heh, I'm not exactly well known back home for knowing my limits," Naruto started with a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head. "I passed out because I didn't have much chakra left and the Shadow Replication Technique uses a lot of chakra. Sorry if I worried you."
"It's no big deal, though you would have come in handy yesterday." Sokka spoke up, getting a curious look from the blond.
"Why?" He asked. "Did I miss something?"
"We had a little bit of trouble in the town of Chin, nothing we couldn't handle, but it would have been nice to see what you can do in a real fight." The Water Tribe boy pointed out with a small shrug. "Plus it would have been funny to see you versus a komodo rhino."
"Komodo rhino? You guys have the strangest creatures." Naruto sighed as he scratched his arm. "Oh, hey, what happened to my jacket anyway?"
"We've got all your stuff over here." Sokka stated, lowering his knees so Naruto could see his belongings. "I don't really know why you would want it though, I mean, seriously you've got two huge holes burned all the way through it."
"It's not the jacket I'm worried about, it's the crest that's on the shoulder." He remarked before leaning back again.
"Why? It looks kind of old and beat up." He commented.
"It's the only thing I have of my mother besides my name." The ninja answered as he stared at the sky.
"Sorry, I didn't mean..." Sokka started before Naruto held up a hand and grinned at him.
"It's not big deal, I know what my crest looks like, I think it's old and beat up to." He smiled as his hand came to rest on his arm again. "Doesn't mean I don't like it though, it's kind of relaxing to look at."
"You are a strange, crazy little ninja, you know that right?" The young warrior asked, arching a dark brow.
"At least I don't wear green spandex and scream about the 'Flames of Youth' like a couple guy's I know." He smirked in response to the jab.
"What's spandex?" Both of they siblings asked after a quick glance to each other.
"Trust me when I say, you do not want to know." Naruto deflected the question shuddering at the unbidden mental image of both Lee and Gai doing the Nice Guy pose. "Hey, where's Aang anyway, I haven't seen him since before I passed out."
"Up here!" He heard the monk call out to him from Appa's head. "Is this your first time flying Naruto?"
"That depends," Naruto stated as he quickly made his way to the front of the saddle to speak to the bald kid more easily. "Does getting thrown off a cliff count?"
"N-no, I don't think it does." Aang answered with a shake of his head. "Why? Did that happen to you?"
"It was a finger flick actually." He grunted. "Ero-sennin did it to teach me how..."
"How what?" The monk pressed.
"Is there someplace we can land? I can show you if there is." The blond responded.
"Well, it is almost lunchtime, what do you guys think?" Aang called back to his other companions.
"I vote for early lunch!" Sokka exclaimed quickly as he threw up his hand like he was in school
"Sure, lunch sounds good actually." Katara put in, causing Aang to smile as he shifted himself slightly to guide Appa back towards land.
"So, what are you going to do Naruto?" Sokka asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence throughout the group.
"Well, I'm not sure if it'll work, but I'm going to try to do a summoning." He answered, glancing over his shoulder and smiling when he saw that they were quickly approaching the land that had previously been on the distant horizon.
"Summoning? What are you going to summon, a big evil spirit monster?" Sokka asked, getting a small smirk from the boy before looking somewhat worried. "It's not a big evil spirit monster is it?"
"No, nothing like that, just a toad." Naruto stated with a shake of his head. 'One big evil spirit is enough.' He thought quietly as he closed his eyes.
"Toad? You mean a skunktoad right?" Aang asked, glancing back at him as he shook his head and said 'no'.
"Or a lizardtoad?" The older boy asked, getting the same response as Aang.
"What about a mongoosetoad?" His sister asked, Naruto sighed as they started to debate what he meant by 'toad'.
"Hey, get ready, we're about to land." Sokka said, shaking Naurto slightly to get his attention as Appa started to slow down. "You should probably hang on to something, the touch downs are a bit jarring."
"Thanks for the warning." The blond said, not bothering to move from his postion as he locked himself into place with his chakra.
"Seriously, you should hold onto someTHING!" The warrior squawked out the last part, gripping the saddle as he was lifted off of it as the giant bison dropped the last few inches with a heavy thud. "Hey, how come you didn't get lifted out of the saddle?"
"I used chakra to hold myself in place." He answered, flipping to his feet to look around. "Hmm, it's more open that the forests back home." The blond commented as he looked around at the pine forest they had landed in. "Say, I could go for some fish, who else wants some?"
"Fish sounds great." Katara responded, watching Naruto set his hands in a familiar position. "Hey, are you sure you should try that so soon." She watched as another pair of Narutos appeared at his side.
"I'm fine, I only passed out last time because I was almost completely out of chakra." He remarked as one of his copies grabbed a couple kunai and a roll of wire from his pouch before both disappeared in streaks of blue and orange aimed for the shore. "Normally I can make hundreds of clones without a problem."
"Really, how much of this 'chakra' stuff do you have?" She asked.
"Heh, I was called a stamina freak for good reason." He grinned before jumping down from Appa and landing on his feet. "Feels good to move around again."
"So, Naruto, what did you mean by 'toad' anyway?" Sokka finally asked as the three started to pull their possessions off of Appa.
"I'll show you." The blond stated as he began molding chakra before biting through the pad of his thumb with one of his pronounced canines to draw blood.
"What are you doing?" Aang voiced the question they all were wondering as the trio gathered around Naruto.
"This." He answered, quickly slapping his hands together in the proper seals before slamming it into the ground and releasing his chakra.
The three watched with curious anticipation in their eyes as his palm struck the ground, holding their breath as a web-like pattern of illegible black script spread out where he touched the earth. A cloud of smoke blocked their vision for a moment as Naruto drew his hand back, looking on with as much anticipation as his newest friends as he waited for the smoky haze to dissipate. A dark cloud fell over Naruto and the other three almost face planted when they saw a small polliwog where his hand had been.::
"That's it?" Sokka asked, being the first of the group to recover enough to speak. "I was expecting something, oh I don't know, bigger maybe."
"Yeah, so was I." Naruto agreed, his nose twitching slightly when he caught the faint smell of blood and fish. "Well, the food is here, I'll go get some firewood and try again after lunch." As he spoke, he walked off into the forest."
"Wow, he looked kind of disappointed." Aang remarked as the sole returning clone passed a man-sized shark off to Sokka before dispersing itself.
"Hey! A little help here!" Sokka demanded as he hugged the large shark to his body while trying to keep upright.
"He caught a shark." Katara stated, looking shocked and mildly disturbed at the revelation as she grabbed the tail to help her sibling.
"Okay." Naruto said, drawing out the word numbly as soon as he saw his clone's catch before looking down at the small pile of twigs in his arms. "I think we're going to need some more wood."
"I'll help you." The Water Tribe maiden offered, dropping her end of the dead shark and trotting after him as he walked back into the woods.
"Katara!" Sokka cried out as the sudden increase of weight and momentum took him off his feet.
"Hey, Naruto, wait up!" Katara called out after the blond, getting him to pause long enough for her to reach him .
"Do you need something Katara?" He asked, looking over at her.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." She said, keeping pace with him as he began walking again.
"Really? About what?" The blond asked, sticking his hands into his pockets lazily.
"I wanted to apologize for the way I acted in the swamp." She said slowly, grasping her hands together slightly. "I should have listened to what you were saying and I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it." He said with a smile. "I didn't really help matters much with the 'assassin' comment, so I'm sorry too."
"Well, that was faster than I thought it would be." She commented, looking over at him again. "I kind of expected you to lord it over me like Sokka would have."
"Meh, I'm not much one for holding a grudge." He stated with a shrug.
"I'm glad to hear that." Katara said with a smile of her own. "Though I'm curious, why do you have all those scars?"
"You do realize you've left yourself open for a smart-ass answer with that question don't you?" Naruto asked in return as his smile changed to a smirk.
"You're avoiding the question." She stated firmly.
"Yeah, I know." He retorted as he came to a stop, creating nearly a dozen copies of himself that scattered into the woods without a word.
"Why?" She pressed him, taking a step closer.
"Because I don't want to answer it." He answered obviously. "We all have our secrets Katara, maybe someday I'll tell you mine."
"I... can respect that." She nodded after a small pause. "So, how did you manage to catch a shark anyway?"
"I'm not really sure, it was my clones that caught it- not me." He stated with a shrug. "Say, what did Aang mean when he called me an Earthbender anyway? I've never heard of such a thing."
"Wow, that's probably the easiest question in the world and the hardest to answer." Katara said with a small, oddly cute scowl as she took a seat. "I mean, honestly it's something people never really think about. Everyone knows what the bending arts are."
"Not me." The blond said pointedly as he dropped to the ground with far less grace. "I'm pretty new to the world after all."
"Alright, I guess I should start with the basics then." She said with a nod. "In our world, there are four separate nations, the Water Tribes, where Sokka and I are from. The Air Nomads, where Aang comes from. The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, where I accused you of being from. The reason for the division is because in our world, there are people called benders who can manipulate the four elements." She explained, looking up to him and watching as he nodded before continuing. "Each nation is named for the element they bend. There's only one person who can control all for elements, and he or she is called the Avatar. Every time the Avatar dies, a new avatar is born into the next nation in the cycle, water, then earth, then fire and air before finally returning to water."
"So, I'm guessing Aang is this Avatar then?" He interrupted questioningly.
"Yes, he is, but how did you know?" She asked in return.
"Not hard to figure out, you said that the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads, but you also said that Aang is one of them." He said slowly. "Plus I needed some kind of, anchor point, I guess you could say, to bring myself to this world after I was injured- and while technically it could have been anything alive, it had to be something powerful enough to draw my chakra to it so I could latch on."
"So, you used Aang." She said, causing him to nod slightly. "But I thought you didn't know how you got here."
"It has something to do with my secret." He said after a moment. "Please don't ask me to say more."
"Alright, I won't." She agreed with a small nod. "Anyway, back to what I was saying."
~*~*~
"Finally! Where the heck have you two been?" Sokka demanded as Katara and Naruto walked back into camp together. "We've been waiting for almost two hours!"
"Sorry Sokka, it's my fault." Naruto spoke up first. "I kind of bugged her into giving me a brief history lesson."
"You call two hours brief?" The older boy asked, his eye twitching slightly.
"Considering it covered the pretty much the last hundred years, yeah, I call two hours brief." He confirmed, noticing the large pile of wood his clones had brought back to camp. "Hmm, maybe I went overboard with the firewood."
"Yeah, just a little." Katara remarked with a small chuckle. "So, is the shark ready Sokka?"
"Yep, there's enough meat here to last for a couple days." Her brother confirmed with a nod before looking to Naruto. "How did you catch a shark anyway?"
"Dunno, my clones caught it, not me." He answered with a shrug.
"Point taken." Sokka said amicably before holding two plates of shark meat, some strange red nuts and purple berries out for them to take. "Well, eat up before it gets too much colder."
"Thanks." Naruto said before eating clearing the plate with enough speed to make the others stare at him. "What?" He asked innocently when he noticed.
"Are you even chewing?" Sokka asked after a moment of awkwardness.
"Heh, sorry, this is the first real food I've had in a few days- soldier pills will give you energy, but they are far from filling." He said with a nervous chuckle, lower himself to the ground and continuing to eat at a more sedated pace.
"I imagine something that small wouldn't be." The Water Tribe boy said with a nod. "So, you two seem to be getting along pretty well now."
"Yeah, well, you know- life's too short to hold grudges." The blond said with a shrug after he finished his food, setting the plate down on the ground before standing up and taking a couple steps away from the group.
"Is something wrong?" Aang asked as Naruto pressed his hands together so that only his index and middle fingers were erected.
"Nope, I'm just going to try to something a bit bigger, and it looks like it'll take more power to summon anything useful." He answered, getting nods all around.
The Avatar and his friends watched on in a quiet group as Naruto stood perfectly still, holding his eyes loosely closed as he began to gather his body's energy. His lips tugged slightly at the sides as he resist the urge to smirk at the shocked gasps he hears as his power began to make the air around him ripple slightly. In a motion the trio could barely follow Naruto brought his thumb up to his mouth and nipped it with his feral teeth to draw out the blood he needed before he went through the three familiar hand signs and releasing his chakra through his palm as it raced toward the ground. An audible popping sound rang through the small clearing as the blond drew his hand out of the alabaster vapors that had formed.::
"Hey, give me a treat if..." An orange toad about the size of a man's head in a blue vest started to say as the smoke cleared, stopping when he saw the smiling blue eyed blond in front of him. "Naruto!"
"Hey Kichi, long time no see." Naruto said with a small smirk.
"I thought you were dead! Everyone thought you were dead! Dad and Jiraiya both broke down crying when the pervert delivered the news" Gamakishi exlaimed, tackling the boy as best something his size could. "Where the hell have you been?!"
"Sorry, it's a bit of a long story." He apologized, glancing towards the now speechless group on the other side of the campfire. "Anyway, I'd like to introduce you to my newest friends."
"Eh? Who are they?" The toad asked, turning around to see the bald kid and the two dark haired teens beside him as all three stared at him with eyes the size of dinner plates.
"Gamakichi, meet Aang, Katara, and Sokka." Naruto said, pointing to each respectively for the summoned toad. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Gamakichi."
"What's up, got any sweets?" Gamakichi asked as he lifted his one of his front feet to wave at them.
"That frog just talked!" Sokka finally managed to exclaim as the shock settled.
"Oi! That's insulting!" The small amphibian huffed, crossing his arms over his chest in an annoyed fashion. "I'm a toad, not a frog."
"Frog, toad, same difference, you've all got brains the size of peas anyway." The brown haired boy said and Naruto's eyes widened slightly.
"Sokka, you really shouldn't..." Naruto started to speak.
"Oi now! No need to get jealous because my brain is bigger than yours!" The young toad cut him off.
"Nevermind." The blond sighed, walking over to Aang and Katara and the toad and warrior got in each others faces.
"What was that you orange freak of nature?" Sokka demanded.
"What, are you deaf and stupid too?!" Gamakichi shot back, the three onlookers could swear they saw a small arch of lightning pass between their eyes as the insult war began.
"Do you think we should do something?" Aang asked, glancing at the other two.
"Probably," Katara said with a nod. "I can't believe my brother is losing to a frog."
"Toad." Naruto corrected before walking over to the verbal combatants and lifting them both off the ground by the necks of their blue clothing. "Alright you two, that's enough."
"But he..." Both Sokka and Gamakichi started to protest before his eyes narrowed in a deadly glare. "Sorry."
"Don't tell me." The blond said in a warning tone.
"I'm... Sorry I called you a frog and said you had a brain the size of a pea." Sokka said first under a moment of Naruto's pseudo-parental gaze.
"I'm sorry I insulted your hairstyle." Gamakichi said, earning a glare from both humans before he reluctantly added. "And that I said your brain was smaller than a pea."
"Good, I'm glad to see you two getting long." Naruto grinned, releasing both so they dropped to the ground while idly wondering why the taller boy didn't just lower his legs when he was first picked up.
"Wow, I thought only Gran Gran could do that." Katara chuckled at the sight of her brother being put in line by the shorter blond with only a look. "Maybe we should send you up against the Fire Lord instead."
"You mean like this?" Naruto asked, performing a few hand seals before he was engulfed in white smoke and turned into a stern-looking old woman and spoke with a voice to match. "Young man, you end this war right now!" 'She' said to an imaginary Fire Lord Ozai, shaking a wrinkled finger menacingly. "I don't care who started it, I told you to end it! Right now mister! Don't you grumble at me, do I have to get my spoon?!"
"That... was... great!" Aang managed to get out between fits laughter so hard they made him cry.
"How the heck did you do that?!" Sokka asked, appearing at Naruto's side as he released the transformation.
"Just an academy level transformation, it's not that impressive." The blond answered with a shrug.
"Oi, Naruto, not that I'm not happy to see you and all, but why did you summon me?" Gamakichi asked, interrupting the brunet before he could press for details.
"Oh, right." He mumbled, returning to the toad. "I actually summoned you to see if I still could. I wasn't really sure if I could after my fight with the bastard, he really did a number on me. I'm not sure on specifics, but the furball did something after the second chidori was put through my chest, I was so close to death I didn't even have a chance at resisting him."
"Do they know?" The young toad asked, glancing at Naruto's new friends.
"Not yet, but I'll tell them- just not now." He answered, not needing to look behind him to know that all eyes were on his back. "He's not exactly the best thing to drop on people."
"Wait, what are you talking about. Who is this 'He' guy?" Sokka demanded to know.
"Sokka, I've already asked him." Katara said softly, setting her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Naruto will tell us when he's ready."
"You know nee-chan, I think I like you- even if you are traveling with the idiot over there." Gamakichi said with what passed for a grin among toads.
"Hey!" Sokka protested.
"Kichi, be nice, Sokka's not that bad." Naruto said, flicking the toad lightly on the forehead.
"Oi, since you've got me here, do you want me to deliver a message to Jiraiya for you or something?" The toad asked after rubbing the stinging point with one of his hand-like forefeet.
"Actually, that's a great idea, tell him that I'm alive and doing pretty well all things considered- hmm, ask him if he could send me a couple training scrolls next time too." The blond said, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "A few changes of clothes wouldn't hurt any either."
"Uh, Naruto, how are any of us supposed to get this stuff to you?" Gamakichi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, right, uh, I'll summon you again in three days, do you think that will be enough time?" Naruto asked, tilting his head off to one side.
"Better make it four days, just for safety, the pervert'll probably want to send you a letter with the care-package." He responded with a nod.
"Yeah, make sure he tells Baa-chan I say 'Hi'." He said with a nod of his own. "And see if you can find out how the rest of the retrieval team is doing, we were fighting some pretty tough guys."
"Any other messages, what about Pinky?" The amphibian pressed, noticing Naruto's head lower visibly at the mention of Sakura.
"N-no, for right now, just Tsunade and Jiraiya, maybe Boss too." He said after a long silence filled with racing thoughts. "At the moment, fewer people who know I'm alive is probably better. I have no idea where I am now Kichi, I may never be able to get home again. It's probably only luck that I'm still able to summon toads, it took nearly ten times the usual chakra just to summon you."
"Guess that means bringing pops here for a visit is out of the question." The toad joked, only getting a half-hearted laugh in response. "I'm off then."
"Later Gamakichi." He said a moment before the orange toad disappeared, standing up and turning around with a smile on his face. "Well, that was fun."
"It was definitely different." Aang said with a nod. "Can all animals talk where you come from?"
"No, it's mostly just the summons that can, though some ninken can learn." The blond answered, getting raised eyebrows. "Dogs, trained to work alongside ninja."
"You come from a very strange place crazy ninja guy." Sokka said with a shake of his head, resisting the urge to ask exactly what the blond meant by 'dog'.
"I'm not crazy." Naruto stated firmly. "I'm just highly eccentric."
"Right, what did Gamakichi mean about you not being able to bring his dad here?" Aang asked.
"Well, it's kind of hard to explain," Naruto started simply. "Hell, I don't even understand most of it to be completely honest. The basics of it however come down to a simple concept of sacrifice to bring the desired object to you. It requires a small amount of blood or some kind of marker to designate where you want the summoning to arrive, and a certain amount of chakra based on the size and-or power of whatever it is you're trying to bring to you. Normally distance isn't a problem because it's a space-time technique, but I'm so far away from home that distance seems to have become a factor in what's required."
"So, it takes more of this 'chakra' stuff that you normally use?" Sokka asked, getting a confirming nod. "So, how's that stopping you from summoning Gamakichi's dad?"
"Gamabunta..." Naruto's breath caught for a moment. "Well, Oyabun is about thirty stories tall, he's the most powerful toad I've ever been able to summon."
"Th-thirty... Stories?" Sokka repeated, looking upward as he pictured exactly how tall that would be- paling sligntly as the blood drained from his face.
"Yeah, it takes a lot out of me to summon him just from Myobokuzan to Konoha- I'd kill myself just by trying to summon him if Gamakichi was anything to go by." He said with a nod.
"What did he mean when he called me 'nee-chan' anyway?" Katara asked.
"Nee-chan is just an honorific, it basically means 'big sister'." He answered, noticing Aang had a serious look. "Something wrong Aang?"
"I'm just wondering, if you can summon the toads, why can't they summon you?" The hairless monk asked, scratching his arrow.
"Normally they can." Naruto answered slowly. "But I don't think they'll be able to this time."
"Why not?" He asked.
"I told you that the amount of chakra it takes to summon something depends on the size and power of it, how it normally takes an equal amount of chakra," The blond got nods to this. "I also said it's taking about ten-times the usual chakra to summon anything." Nods again. "There-in lies the problem."
"What do you mean?" Sokka asked, looking him over carefully. "You don't look all that powerful to me."
"In terms of raw power potential, I have been at Kage level since I was young- which is why I've had so much trouble with my chakra control while I was learning." Naruto said, getting curious looks. "And seeing as I haven't told you too much about my world, I guess I have to explain. Alright, there are a few different ranks for shinobi. Academy students are shinobi-in-training, and they're considered the weakest of the grouping simply because their age limits their power. Next up are Genin, like myself, genin basically means 'lower ninja', depending on how long and hard they've been working with their jounin instructors, they can be just as weak as academy students to just as strong as full-blown chunin, with some exceptions of course. Following up the Genin, the next highest level is Chunin, or 'middle ninja', they are generally more experienced and powerful than genin are and they are usually chosen to lead some of the higher difficulty missions. Jounins or 'upper ninja' are the highest ranking of subordinate ninja, they are usually chosen to train teams of genin and lead the highest difficulty missions- though many of them prefer working alone. At the top of this little hierarchy is the Kage, or Shadow. There are only five Kages in total, the Hokage or 'Fire Shadow', the Kazekage or 'Wind Shadow', the Raikage or 'Lightning Shadow', the Tsuchikage or 'Earth Shadow' and finally the Mizukage or 'Water Shadow'. Each of the Kages is the head of one of the five main villages, and they are without a doubt the single most powerful shinobi of that village."
"Wait, when you first woke up, you said that you're the future Hokage." Katara pointed out slowly.
"Yeah, that was my dream, to be the greatest Hokage ever." He said with a sad smile. "I've always had the raw-power for the job, but I need to get some experience under my belt before I can take the hat from Baa-chan."
"Baa-chan?" Aang said in a questioning tone.
"Right, I guess I should give her full title. The Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama of the Legendary Sannin, but I call her 'Baa-chan' because she's old and it annoys her." He said with a grin. "If I was anyone else, she would hit me for it."
"That doesn't sound all that bad you know." Sokka pointed out.
"She's a world renowned medic where I come from, and she's also a famous gambler- mainly because she's the worst gambler in history, which is how I got that necklace of mine." He said, pausing to chuckle at the memory. "But the thing she is most famous for is her strength."
"Okay." The ever-sarcastic pessimist said at length.
"I fought her once, after she insulted all of the previous Hokages, all she used against me was one finger." He said, holding up his own index finger. "Being impulsive as I am, I naturally charged right at her because I thought she couldn't do anything with one finger and I was pissed at her for not taking me seriously."
"And then what happened?" The tattooed Airbender asked.
"She flicked me." He paused, leaning it to flick Aang in the forehead lightly. "Just like that."
"And?" He pressed.
"I got knocked ten meters back, lost my headband and the weapon I had in my hand." He said plainly, watching everyone's eyes widen. "And she also took the time to steal my wallet while she was at it."
"Jeez, are all of you ninjas freaks?" Sokka asked, getting hit in the arm by his sister.
"No, just a good majority of us." He corrected with a small shake os his head. "Normal for us is abnormal."
*~*~*
A small red notebook lay abandoned on the ground among the empty sake bottles surrounding a white haired man as he rested against a tree. His dark eyes momentarily settled on the tiny figures playing in the hot springs below before he lost interest in them, opting instead to fall back into his depressive state. Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh as he fiddled with his brass telescope unconsciously, he just hadn't been able to find any of the enjoyment he had previously gotten from peeping on the girls since the death of his most recent pupil- a wound made worse when no one had been able to find his body. A loud pop nearly made the old pervert jump out of his skin before he turned to see the kill-me-orange toad named Gamakichi sitting beside him.::
"Yo! Pervert, I've got a message for you!" The young toad announced, hopping closer to the long-haired man.
"What does your father want?" The somewhat drunk sage mumbled as he eyed the amphibian.
"Nah, it's not pops who sent me- give us some cover before I deliver the message, it's pretty important." Gamakichi said, getting a curious look from the middle-aged human. "I'm serious you old pervert, I'm not telling you anything until we're the only two who can hear it."
"Fine." Jiraiya sighed, biting his thumb and performing the proper hand seals for the Toad Mouth Bind. "Happy now?" He asked when they were completely surrounded by the thick pinkish-red walls.
"Yep." He said with what passed for a toothy grin. "Guess who I just had a talk with."
"Gamakichi." The old sage warned menacingly.
"Sorry, jeez, you're no fun." The orange toad sighed as he shook his head. "Anyway, I just came by to deliver a message from Naruto."
"That's not funny." Jiraiya stated bitterly.
"I'm not joking, Naruto is alive." Gamakichi said firmly. "He wanted you to know he's alive and well, and he also wanted me to ask you to send some training scrolls and clothes. He also wanted to say 'Hi' to the Old Hag and find how the rest of the team sent after Sasuke was doing- he looked kind of worried when he asked."
"H-he's alive?" The Sannin asked, swallowing slightly before breaking out into a wide rrin when the toad nodded again. "He's alive!"
"Yeah, but he didn't want it spread around." The toad responded, getting another curious look. "Naruto is pretty sure he's stuck wherever he is, said it took ten times the usual chakra to summon me."
"Where is he?" Jiraiya asked slowly.
"I dunno, he was in the middle of a weird looking forest when he summoned me, all the trees had needles instead of leaves." He answered with a small shrug. "He's traveling with three other kids too."
"Three kids?" He repeated slowly.
"Yeah, a short bald one with some blue tattoos on his head and arms, a cute girl with dark skin and brown hair and an older boy with dark skin and a Mohawk-ponytail kind of hairstyle." The toad answered, describing Naruto's newest companions. "Oh, and they had this six-legged white bison sort of thing with them and a little monkey with wings and huge ears."
"Have you been eating strange mushrooms again?" Jiraiya asked after a moment of awkward silence.
"No! I told you that I didn't know what they were!" Gamakichi shouted defensively.
"Never mind." Jiraiya said as he rubbed his forehead. "So, Naruto is alive huh? Should have known he'd be too stupid to just die."
~*~*~
"Are you sure you don't have a cold?" Sokka asked after Naruto sneezed again.
"Yeah, I honestly don't get sick Sokka." The blond said, sniffing loudly.
"The sneezing says otherwise." The warrior voiced his opinion.
A/N: Well, that's it for this chapter, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I am actually considering a relationship between Naruto and Toph, and I have considered it since I started simpley because of how I think they'd interact. And for those wondering. Yes, Naruto is both smarter and stronger than he is in cannon, though I hope not ridiculously so. Also, to Shinen no Hikari, I really do like Part 2 Naruto better as well, but he just didn't fit in with the story- I mean honestly, he would just cut through half of the Fire Nation alone in Sage Mode. He's about as smart in this story as he is in part two, at least I hope he is, if not, the intelligence is close. Also, he does know a few more jutsu in this story- I thought Katara getting buried up to her neck like Sasuke was amusing which is why I'm saying Kakshi taught him the Inner Decapitation technique in this. That's about if for now, thanks to Yuya, Vash3055, Kai Dragoon Shinen no Hikari jingo4754 and K,T,M for the reviews. So, sorry for the delays, and I hope you enjoy the update. Later, 24CC.
Next Chapter: Shock and Outrage! The letter from home.