Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I did I would have made the Sakura vs Sasuke fight a little more epic and find some way of shutting up Zutara fangirls by say… giving Aang and Katara a child named Tenzin… oh snap.
Chapter One: Questions
Aang never liked waking up after falling unconscious. Whenever that happened something strange went on in the time he was out. Several times he had gone into the Avatar State and woken up later to unbelievable destruction. After going into a three week coma after the fall of Ba Sing Se he woke to find himself on a Fire Nation ship, bandaged from head to toe. Now, he was lying face down in what appeared to be sage brush. Not the most pleasant taste to wake up to. He got to his knees and slowly collected himself, trying to keep his head from spinning. What had he done before he was knocked out? He started thinking about the previous day. He had checked up on Teo to see how his designs were coming, did some light training with Katara, talked strategy with Sokka, and attended a map room meeting with the Gaang. His eyes shot open as he remembered the meeting. That stranger had abilities that didn't exist in his world. Had it not been for… what was it that ended the fight?
Aang finally brought his head up to take in the scenery. Despite having been a nomad before being frozen and a travelling rebel after he was thawed and that he had seen most every important land mass in the world he had absolutely no idea where he was at that point. Looking around he noticed he was on a flat area of a mountainous region. Directing his eyes near the base of the hill he saw a forest that looked like it went on for miles. He then started looking farther outward and found one thing in particular caught his eye. On the side of an adjacent mountain five faces were carved into the side of the rocky land mass; four men and a woman. Aang was sure he would have noticed something like that during his travels but no adventure came to mind.
The young Avatar decided looking for his allies was his best course of action and slammed his fist into the ground, sending out vibrations. He could not use this technique as well as Toph could but it gave him fair detection abilities within a quarter mile radius. He took about thirty seconds to take in all the data from his search. There was movement everywhere, mostly from the various wildlife that inhabited the area. However, there were strange bits of movement in different parts of the trees. They were there for a fraction of a second and then gone, light as ghosts. The fourteen-year-old airbender continued to ponder this strange development when suddenly he felt similar vibrations coming his direction.
The next thing he knew he was surrounded by four masked men. Three of them wore black cloaks but the fourth wore white, likely the leader. All of their masks were based off of animals; eagle, wolf, lion, and boar. Aang resisted making any sudden movements as he noticed the tantos strapped to their backs. One of the followers calmly but rigidly ordered him to identify himself.
"My name is Aang," he responded clearly as he kept his gaze on the leader. Secretly, though, he was tracking everyone else's vibrations with his earthbending.
The one in white spoke next, "What is your purpose here?"
Aang thought a moment since he had no idea how he had even gotten there. "I have no purpose here, I'm just a lost traveler," he decided on.
The men made no change in body language to merit an emotional response but the leader, Eagle, let out a hollow chuckle. "No one with chakra reserves as high as yours could possibly come near Konoha without any intentions. Now we shall ask you a second time. What is your purpose here?"
Aang was slightly alarmed that these men had somehow detected his abilities but stuck with his first response, "I am a lost traveler. I simply wish to find a way back to my family."
Eagle still had yet to move but it was clear he had enough of this nonsense. "If you will not speak with us, then maybe your tongue will be looser when speaking with Lord Danzo. Lion, arrest him," he ordered with a slight wave of his hand.
Lion sprung forward, ready to grab a hold of the monk's arms. Aang would have none of this, however, as he side stepped gracefully out of reach, causing the agent to alter tactics and draw his tanto. As Lion brought the short sword down Aang quickly caught his wrist, stepping to the side to disarm the man. Aang then back flipped out of the man's reach and looked over his four opponents. Even though they could somehow tell that Aang was a strong fighter they didn't seem to know about his bending abilities or his status as Avatar and the teen planned to keep it that way. The three opponents still armed surrounded him again in the blink of an eye, each about a foot and a half away, drawing their short swords to strike him down. Aang ducked quickly, satisfied when he heard the clash of the three blades getting in each other's way, and spun in his crouched form, trip kicking Boar and Wolf and then mule kicking Eagle. Lion rejoined the fight, trying to knock Aang senseless with a brutal flurry of punches, all of which were dodged and occasionally countered by the bald teen. Aang quickly somersaulted over Lion and stuck to his back as Wolf began peppering Aang with kicks and swipes. Eagle was next back into the fight, wielding his tanto backhanded and trying to disembowel his increasingly skillful opponent. Aang kicked Wolf out of the way and met Eagle's tanto with his own, entering a quick struggle for dominance until he noticed Boar engaging in an aerial scissor kick aimed straight for his head. Aang grabbed Lion by the hood with his left hand and shoved him into Eagle, cart wheeling out of what would have been a tremendous headache. The agents recovered before they even hit the ground.
They looked at each other and nodded, deciding a course of action. Boar and Eagle started flashing through what looked like hand gestures. That was very strange to Aang. What were they up to? Suddenly a trail of earth spikes sped towards the teenage Avatar. He utilized his speed to quickly avoid them by jumping high into the air when he noticed something even stranger. Emerging from where Eagles mouth would have been was a very powerful and concentrated stream of air headed straight for where he was falling. Breaking his no bending plan for the fight he altered his course with a quick jet of fire, rolling as his feet touched the ground. He stared back at where his opponents were, both sides waiting for the other to make a move. Aang went over what he had just seen; the extremely fast movements, the unfamiliar landmarks, and the very strange form of bending. This place wasn't what it seemed and he needed to learn more. Slowly, he raised his hands over his head and took a kneeling position. Eagle gestured to Wolf, and within seconds Aang felt himself fade into the world of sleep. Great, he thought, I get to wake up in another weird place.
X
"Sasuke-kun. I've come to join you," Sakura called out to her heavily exhausted former teammate. One look at him and she knew what she had to do. He wasn't a villain, a selfish schemer. He was a mad dog. His sharingan eyes were strained beyond imagination, glazed over in a sense that he had lost touch with reality. His lips were curved in a smirk that spelled out insanity. Everything she saw filled her with pity for the pathetic ghost of the rouge nin she once knew. He was a danger to everyone he had ever known in Konoha as well as the hundreds he didn't. Sakura kept with her plan, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Sasuke narrowed his crimson eyes in suspicion, he may have been exhausted from his battle with Danzo but he was far too cautious to simply believe his old teammate, a Konoha nin, wished to aid him in the destruction of their native village. His eyes flickered towards Karin, lying on the ground with her midsection covered in blood and her eyes staring into nowhere, still clearly in shock. His smirk grew darker. A little test was required to see if she truly was loyal to him. "You're a medic nin now?" he speculated, pointing to the medicine pouch that sat below her chunin tanto, "Tell you what. With your healing abilities you are the perfect replacement for Karin over there. Kill her and you can join me."
Sakura's eyes widened for a second as she looked over at the injured girl. She calmed herself quickly, remembering that she had to do whatever it took to stop her maniacal friend. She began walking forward, unsheathing her tanto slowly. The short sword was special. When it was forged Shizune had helped her imbue it with a fast acting and very lethal poison meant to kill a target within minutes if the slash or stab didn't kill them faster. If there was one thing that could make her the deadliest kunoichi of her age it was her medical expertise. She had been trying to keep people from dying long enough to learn far too many ways to kill them. She knelt next to Karin, raising her blade and aiming at the redhead's heart. Sasuke stood behind her, staring intently at the two. Just as the roseate was about to spin around and slash her target's throat her instincts screamed at her and without thinking she leapt out of the way of the rapidly forming chidori aimed for her heart. Had he been at full power Sasuke would have literally killed her in the snow. But on that day she was the stronger, she was the one with the power to end the fight.
Sakura engaged in rapid spurts of hand to hand with the rogue Uchiha, slashing and stabbing at him with her poisoned weapon. Despite being injured, Sasuke was stilled remarkably fast, evading and blocking each strike with great skill. For the first few seconds he tried countering her strikes but soon found himself being pushed back by Sakura's swift attacks. She slashed upwards and he leaned back to avoid the blade as it caught a few strands of his hair. As he tried to regain balance Sakura spun around and delivered a powerful roundhouse to his chest, sending him flying towards a heavy piece of the now destroyed blue bridge. Sasuke crashed into the rubble, his body experiencing several types of very strong pain. Sakura appeared before him suddenly, tanto at his throat. She looked into his eyes in a moment of humanity. That was her mistake. The second her eyes met his sharingan she felt completely paralyzed. Sasuke might have been hurt but he had more than enough chakra for a genjutsu. Sakura could break out of almost any genjutsu in seconds but the delay was all her opponent needed. Sasuke yanked the weapon out of her hand and grabbed her by the throat, hoisting her in the air and preparing to kill the pink haired beauty with her own blade.
"Put her down Sasuke!" rang out a familiar voice.
Sasuke turned to see yet another of his severed bonds; cloak blowing in the wind, forehead protector covering his left eye, Hatake Kakashi stood. His usual air of aloofness was thoroughly discarded as he stared down his old student with his visible eye.
"Oh, Kakashi," Sasuke called out, returning his attention to the barely conscious girl in his grasp, "You'll have to excuse me; I'm in the middle of something." Sasuke brought up his commandeered blade to Sakura's breast with the intention of stabbing her in the heart. Before he could make another move a thin stream of ribbon lightning knocked the tanto from his hands and sent it flying twenty yards before it stuck in the earth. Sasuke looked back at Kakashi, who held two smoking fingers out, with a look of annoyance. His eyes had landed on the silver haired jounin's now exposed sharingan. He tossed Sakura to the side and glared with an alarming amount of malice. "How dare you use that which only an Uchiha should possess! You bring complete dishonor to my clan!" Sasuke's sharingan pattern morphed into a six pointed design, "For that I should kill you!"
X
Naruto sped through the forest at the highest velocity he could, surveying his path with golden eyes lined in red. Using his sage mode he found the three chakra signatures he was hoping for. The problem was that they were all in the same area and one of them was rapidly fading. He somehow found more chakra and pushed himself to go faster. He wouldn't have his family killing each other. A few minutes ago he had passed by the unconscious forms of Sai, Kiba, and Lee. He couldn't believe the extremes Sakura was going to trying to take care of Sasuke herself. If he didn't intervene as quickly as possible one of them wasn't going to see tomorrow.
Everything he had heard that day was cycling through his head.
"I will kill Sasuke. It's your job to stop it at that!"
"You and Sasuke are destined to battle. Just like the two brothers."
"Naruto, if you keep going after Sasuke you're going to get killed!"
"She means to kill him herself."
"If you are prepared to bear the title of kage then you must do what you must as Sasuke's friend."
Everything seemed to be working against him all of the sudden. No matter what he did something got in the way. Hell, he had converted Pain and yet that seemed to make no difference. Exit Pain, enter Madara. Exit his conflictions about revenge, enter his one sided battle to save his best friend. That was what it would be like for probably the rest of what would likely be his short life. Now all he could hope for was to make the best of what he was giving, and that meant keeping the team that was his family alive. As he traipsed through the trees he could only hope he was strong enough to do that.
X
A somewhat unpleasant splash of water to his face awoke Aang from his forced slumber. He coughed out the small amount of liquid that entered his mouth and looked around to the extent his bound form would let him. The room was dark and filled with many, many sharp and painful objects. One other figure occupied the room. He was and imposing one, his face covered in scars and a bandanna covering his head that likely held more scars. He wore a long black coat and a sort of gray uniform underneath. Aang didn't scare easily but this man had him a little uneasy already.
"You know you have got to be the fifth anomaly we've dealt with this week," the man stated with a sense of exasperation. "You just appear out of nowhere in a brilliant flash of light. An ANBU squad is sent out to engage you and you tell them that you have no business in the Land of Fire. After giving them nothing but your name you single handedly dominate a close quarters fight with them, who happened to be ROOT agents and without even breaking a sweat I might add, and then after evading their ninjutsu with little effort you just give up. After taking you in we search your person only to find more anomalies." He pointed to Aang's staff and the leather holster he kept it concealed in. on the table between he and the man there also lay his bison whistle, the piece of crystal he had retrieved from the cave of two lovers eight months back, and a small scroll with a painting of his group inside it; everything he had on his person. "Sans the picture, lovely by the way, the materials you possess are completely foreign to us. The staff is clearly broken into six parts and concealed in this holster, but it's completely solid, your method of collapsing is unknown. The stone it is made from is of an unknown variety but has shown to be light, durable, and conductive to electricity. Where did you get this?"
Aang was still dazed but the mention of the Land of Fire did not escape him. He opted to stay as vague as possible. "I made it" he answered plainly, staring at the open scroll and hoping his family was all okay.
The man didn't seem all too satisfied, "Would you care to elaborate on how you synthesized a completely foreign and extremely durable compound?"
Aang brought his head up to meet the man's eyes. "I experimented," he replied curtly.
The large man seemed to smirk at the last airbender's response, "My aren't you a spirited one. Such a shame it's against protocol to use my tools during… current events but Inoichi should be more than capable of finding out everything we need to know," at that point another man dressed almost identically to the first entered the room. He had blond hair, Aang had never actually seen such a hair color, tied up into a long ponytail that reached his shoulder blades.
This newcomer, Inoichi, did not look as gruff as the first man but still held a professional air around him. He and the first man traded a few glances as if coming to an agreement. Inoichi looked towards Aang with a slightly friendly expression, "Terribly sorry about Ibiki, he's just mad he doesn't get to torture anyone for a while. Now if you would just cooperate with me this will go by a lot faster."
X
Kakashi dropped his cloak on the cold ground and assumed a fighting stance, "No matter how far Orochimaru fell, Sandaime-sama never stopped caring about him. I know what I have to do."
Sasuke's rage seemed to grow at this declaration as an extremely dark chakra began emitting from him. Within seconds Susanoo, with a new layer of armor, formed around Hatake's former pupil. The monstrosity's right arm shot out, thrusting the dangerous Totsuka sword towards the silver haired acting-Hokage. Kakashi leapt diagonally to the left, watching the large blade seal his cloak into the world of drunken dreams. The leader of team 7 attempted to counter with a lightning hound, only for his attack to be brushed off by the massive body that shrouded his student. Attacking Sasuke in this form was looking completely useless. Kakashi ran through every technique he had made or copied throughout his life. Nothing in his very large arsenal seemed capable of even scratching that chakra armor. For about a minute he kept dodging the sake blade, just keeping Sasuke busy so he didn't get bored and kill Sakura. Suddenly the chakra shroud shimmered and receded, revealing a pained Sasuke, clutching his eyes in agony.
Kakashi saw this as his chance but noted someone else did as well. Sakura had recovered slightly, recollected her poisoned blade and charged towards the last Uchiha. Sasuke recovered quickly and noticed his former ally charging. She was still slightly slowed from the paralysis and that was all Sasuke needed. As she closed the distance Sasuke dropped down with a trip kick. As she fell Sasuke grabbed the blade out of her hand ad when she hit the ground he put his foot over her throat, readying another execution strike. Just as he brought the weapon down an orange flash appeared out of nowhere. This orange flash promptly grabbed Sasuke by the ankle, tripping him off of Sakura, and snatched up the pink haired kunoichi before retreating to a spot a few hundred feet away. When Sasuke got up and looked towards the offending interruption he saw Naruto Uzumaki doting over the girl in his arms. Perfect, Sasuke thought as he looked over his old team. "So this is what they call a heartwarming reunion."
X
It was peaceful on top of the sub, betraying the chaos that was to happen in a few minutes. It was a tense moment between the only two left on the surface. This was the first taste of true battle they would have and they weren't sure how it would turn out.
"Aang, I've watched you grow up so much. You're not that goofy kid I found in the iceberg. I guess I'm saying that I'm proud of you."
"What if I don't make it back?"
"Don't say that, you'll-" she was cut off as he closed the gap between them in half a second, his lips meeting hers in an act of desperation. Everything around them disappeared for a few seconds as-
"Argh!" Inoichi grunted as he stumbled backwards in shock. There were very few people with mental defenses strong enough to break his mind searching technique and none of them were as young as this boy was.
Aang looked up to meet the man's eyes as he panted heavily, "What… did you… just do to me," he demanded in between breaths. He had seen a lot of strange things in his life, what with being the bridge to the spirit world, but he hadn't known a non-spirit that could peer into his mind. He didn't like it either. Every experience he had was precious and that man had almost seen them all. He had almost seen Aang's memories of Katara and that was what alarmed him the most.
"I searched your mind. First time, huh?" Inoichi could hardly believe that the kid had never had someone try to search his mind before but still had stronger mental capabilities than the head of the Yamanaka clan himself. "All I'm trying to do is see what you know. That will help us see if you can be trusted. Just open your mind and tell me how you appeared in the forest."
"I don't know how I got there, I was just fighting this man when suddenly he did… something. There was a bright light and I woke up in the dirt."
"Okay, just let me into your mind again. I promise I won't look through anything personal," Inoichi stated as he placed his hand on the teen's bald head again. Luckily, unlike Ibiki, Inoichi knew how act around children, since he had a daughter himself. This boy was quite mature, he only required a little reasoning and he was ready to surrender the necessary memories. Clearing his thoughts he delved back into the boy's mind. The required memory practically highlighted itself as Inoichi moved forward to examine it. Placing his hands on the illusionary scroll he closed his eyes, ready to solve his mystery.
Everything seemed to slow as the man in the cloak turned to face Aang. The minute his eyes met the man's single visible he felt a surge of familiar energy course through his body. The room was slowly filling with light and in his peripheral vision he could see Suki and Toph running towards him. The light was getting brighter, so bright to the point where he could barely see anything. Right before the light blocked everything out he committed what he saw of the man to memory. He memorized the pattern of the orange mask the man wore and he memorized the very strange crimson eyes that was visible through the hole in the mask.
That was all Inoichi needed to see. He disengaged the jutsu and called for a chuunin to deliver a message for him. This may have been the miracle they were waiting for. Chained up in that chair was a very skillful, extremely powerful enemy of Madara. If there was any chance of winning this war it was with that child.
X
Naruto gently lowered Sakura to the ground, being sure to mind her now very bruised neck. He turned back towards Sasuke, fingering the thin gash on his cheek. A little souvenir from the exchange he had just been in with Sasuke. "Sasuke," the blond started, "Sakura is part of team 7, just like us."
The black haired lunatic seemed amused at this statement. "In case you forgot, I'm ex-team 7" he proclaimed.
Kakashi stood in front of Naruto protectively, "Is that proof enough for you Naruto? Sasuke isn't the same person anymore."
Naruto didn't look perturbed, "Sasuke, Tobi told me the truth about Itachi. I understand why you did what you did."
Sasuke's bleeding eyes widened in rage, "I told you before. You never had any siblings or parents. So shut up YOU OUTSIDER!" he screamed at his old friend. He seemed to calm suddenly. "You know, I just got revenge on one of those that made Itachi suffer, he was a man named Danzo," the rest of team 7 looked in shock at that declaration. Another insane grin broke out on Sasuke's face, "It was a high like nothing I've ever felt before! Like I was purifying the Uchiha name from the corrupt shinobi world! In a sense, exactly what Konoha wants. After rejecting my clan for generations, I'm just going to wipe it from your memories," Sasuke started barking out laughter, "By killing all of you until Konoha falls! That is how I plan to revive my clan!"
Kakashi stepped forward, waving is students to leave as Sasuke started running forward with a chidori ready. Without a word Naruto summoned five clones. Four of them restrained his sensei and the fifth followed behind the original, spinning a sphere of chakra into his palm. Chidori and rasengan met once again, blinding everyone with the blast.
Naruto and Sasuke now stood in an empty, white void. Naruto looked upon his old friend with a solemn expression, "We've done it Sasuke. We've become powerful enough to know each other just through fighting. Remember back in our genin year? When we were still on friendly terms. We both wanted to get stronger for our own reasons. I craved acknowledgement and you wanted to kill your big brother. It's funny what happens after we meet those goals, isn't it? We amassed so much power that after the first goal is done we don't know what to do anymore. I bet that's happened to every great ninja who ever lived. It used to be I wanted nothing more than to be better than you, to be stronger. But now, all I want is for things to go back to how they used to be. I know how childish that sounds but it's true. No matter what, though, I just want to tell you something; I'm glad that I met you."
Sasuke's expression stayed even throughout the speech, "Naruto," he sighed, "Nothing you can say will change me. No matter what I'm going to kill every last person in your beloved home. It's time to make a choice. Either kill me and become a hero to the village or die by my hand and be just another one of my victims."
Naruto kept direct eye contact with Sasuke, "Neither," he replied. He touched his cheek again, knowing that he had been cut by Sakura's blade, knowing that he was being poisoned and the kyuubi wasn't in the mood to fix it. "Sasuke if we fight now, both of us die!"
X
And there we have it chaper one is ready! I know my action sequences weren't particularly epic but these are sort of warm up fights. The truly awesome stuff will come later. At this point I'm keeping the avatar world at Aang's point of view until he meets up with his friends and then I'll likely have flashbacks about how they acted during their first few days in the Naruto world. Now for the response to my first review.
BahamutX978: Thanks so much for pointing out that my word program was an idiot and didn't show my line breaks. If you look at the prologue you'll see that it's fixed now. And in response to your suggestion I love Killer Bee too and was planning on giving him a badass two on one fight scene. However he will not be quite as important as some other characters in the story.
