World Hoppers

Chapter 3 – The Avatar World (Part 3)

Disclaimer – Nuts to your lawsuit!

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

Okay so here's what happened with the polls. We have a winner for the first one. The second, I'm saying fuck it, there's not gonna be enough chapters for any romance. After this, there're only 1 or 2 more parts in this world's story. NEW POLL AT BOTTOM! And yes, I'm trying to get an even 'word count'.

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The group had, after a while of searching, found an earthbending teacher for Aang. It was a young blind girl named Toph. She had tried to teach Naruto… but to no avail. He simply wasn't an earthbender, and that could mean only one thing. Firebending. It was the last option. The Avatar was reluctant to learn; Toph was a hard taskmaster. He eventually got the hang of it, and they moved on.

It was a slaughter. Princess Azula; Prince Zuko's younger sister, had shown up and attempted a coup d'état in the Earth Kingdom capitol. She had succeeded… until the Princess had run into Aang and the rest. Toph and Sokka had gone to free the Earth King, so Aang, Yoru, Naruto and Katara were left to deal with two firebending masters, and a platoon of earthbending experts.

Now, normally Yoru would just blow the shit out of them all and be done with it. Thing was, they were in a large cavern. Any noise could potentially bring the spiky ceiling down on their heads. So, Katara dealt with Azula, Aang fought with Zuko, and the shinobi began dispatching the 'Dai Lee' as the earthbenders called themselves.

(With Katara)

The young waterbending girl was hard-pressed to even keep up with the firebending Princess. 'Her fire… It's hotter than normal! If there wasn't this river here I'd have already run out of water…' Katara thought as she blocked several streams of Azula's blue fire.

After many minutes of fighting just to keep from being burned, Katara decided to go on the offensive. She blocked a fireball, turned, and shot a tendril of water toward the surprised Princess. The waterbender thought that she was about to win, when Azula flipped over her water-whip and shot a blue stream of fire at Katara from point-blank; less than ten feet away. Unable to dodge, the young girl shut her eyes and waited for the agony that never came. "Can you do anything without our help?" a voice asked. She looked up to see a whiskered, smiling face.

"N-Naruto?" she asked in disbelief. The mysterious young man had saved her… and she was still in his arms. She fought back a blush at the thought of being held by this gorgeous man. 'I-I like someone else, I like someone else, I like someone else…' she repeated in her head like a mantra.

"Shh! No time for conversations; we're still fighting Azula!" he hissed, leaping to the side, avoiding a fireball. Naruto set her on the ground. "I'll take care of her." He said before vanishing.

Azula was shocked when the orange-haired teenager had vanished before her eyes. She frantically spun, searching for her enemy. The Princess ducked just as a fist sailed above her head, and she blew a stream of fire into the arm above her, setting it ablaze.

Naruto was confused. First Azula dodged his punch, then she caught his bandaged arm on fire, and it didn't hurt a bit. "…That's interesting." He mused, waving his flaming appendage before him, slowly. As the flames burned down, he sighed. 'I guess they get to find out. …Damn.' He sighed again as the fire disappeared and revealed his Kyuubi arm. Both Katara and Azula stared in shock, confusion and fear. "This… Is my power, and my curse. If you are wise… You will leave us in peace." He said, youkai seeping from his body and deepening his voice. The youkai began to take shape around him, forming a vague animalistic form with a tail and long ears. "NOW!" he growled, sending Azula tripping over herself to get away from the horror she had faced.

He dispersed the demonic essence and turned to Katara. Naruto's eyes became downcast when he saw that she was shivering in fear. He took a step forward, but stopped as she flinched. He could see that she was terrified of him. "Katara, I…" he couldn't finish the sentence.

"Just… Just what are you?" The waterbending girl asked. "When I saw you… Just then… I realized… We don't actually know anything about you… Where you come from… Exactly how you got here… How you can do what you do… And now… This… This… Horrible power you have… What… What are you? …Both of you! What are you?!" she screamed as she began to cry.

"I… We… I don't know what we are anymore. We will tell all of you… everything. I promise. But not here, not now. It's not safe yet." Naruto said, leading Katara from the cavern.

(With Aang)

This was not looking good. Aang had fought Zuko before, and won… but he was different this time. He fought with a fierceness that he hadn't shown before, and the Avatar was doing his best to keep the battle a stalemate until someone could help. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that would change the tide of the fight. "Zuko!" he yelled. "Why are you doing this?!"

The Prince paused to answer, and found himself tied to a stalagmite. "W-What is this!?" he roared. "Release me!!" A piece of paper was held in front of his face. "Don't mock me!!" was responded to with a slap to the back of the head.

Yoru walked to Aang and placed his hand on the Avatar's shoulder. Aang felt a need to say some rather specific words, and looked to the silent shinobi, who nodded. "Yoru says… Answer the Avatar's question, if you please."

Zuko growled; this was humiliating! …But they had him right where they wanted him, and they seemed to want to end this peacefully. "Grrah… Fine. I'm doing it to regain my honor."

"Yoru says… You believe that what you are doing is honorable? You have seen your father's tyranny in the Fire Nation; you wish to subject the world to that?"

"I…" Zuko was at a loss for words. He wanted to argue, but what the Avatar, what 'Yoru' was saying made entirely too much sense. "…If I capture the Avatar, then I will be welcomed home, and once my father dies, I'll be able to fix his mistakes!"

"Yoru says… You really think that he will make you the Fire Lord when he dies? I have observed you, and during your travels you have become a halfway decent person. Your sister on the other hand, is entirely too much like your father. It would be logical for him to declare her his successor, and dispatch you. Come with us; once we defeat your father and sister, you will be fire lord, and we can work together to fix this world!"

"I… I don't know… For the last several years it's been my purpose in life to capture the Avatar… I can't change that on a whim!"

Yoru removed his hand from Aang's shoulder, and showed the Avatar a paper. The bald boy looked uncertain, but eventually nodded. "We'll release you then. You're so good at finding us, I'm sure you'll be able to get in touch with us no matter what your decision is! Well, be seeing you!" The arrow-tattooed boy exclaimed as he leapt with Yoru to the exit of the large cave.

"Wait!" Zuko yelled. "Grrr… COME BACK AND UNTIE ME!! Wha-?" he noticed a paper lying on the ground.

It read 'You weren't tied up in the first place!' with a little smiley and a musical note in the corner. He lifted his arms and found no resistance; he wasn't tied up, he was just sitting against a stalagmite, and the seat of his pants was wet. Zuko stood, brushed himself off, and left to find his uncle. He had some thinking to do.

(With everyone)

"So… That was you?" Sokka asked. "We felt that from all the way in the King's palace!"

"I know you all have questions. About our origins, and our power. I don't know Yoru's story… But I'll tell you mine." His eyes became glazed. "It all started the day I was born. A demon, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, was attacking our shinobi village, Konohagakure no Sato. Our ninja were doing their best, using their most powerful jutsu to stop the beast, but it was like an ant attempting to kill a man. Our leader, the Yondaime Hokage, had devised a way to defeat the Kyuubi. He rode into battle on his summon, Gamabunta, the boss toad, a warrior the size of a very small mountain. The Hokage, a man by the name of Namikaze Minato, sacrificed his life to summon the Death God, the Shinigami, the mortal plain to seal the Kyuubi into his only son… Namikaze Naruto.

But it didn't stop there. Many people died that day, and their families and friends saw me not as the holder of the beast, but the beast in human form, and they sought to kill me. That very day there were more than one hundred attempts on my life. I was sent to an orphanage where I was beaten, shunned and hated until I was four years old, when they left me on the street. The Sandaime Hokage, the man I saw as my grandfather, bought me an apartment to live in. Still, I was given rotten food, and beaten daily by the villagers.

This lasted until I was twelve years old; when I graduated from the shinobi academy… and when I learned of the Kyuubi. One of my sensei tried to kill me and my other sensei. I stopped him, and for that I was given the rank of gennin. Until my teammate, the village prodigy, left for power, all of my accomplishments were given to him. I left to train with my father's sensei. I came back at fifteen. The Godaime Hokage, Tsunade, told me about my parents.

A year later, I fought my former teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. Somehow we ripped a hole in space-time, and I was brought to the 'Hall of Worlds' or HOW, where I met Yoru. It was an endless hallway lined with doors that led to different worlds. We went through the door that led to this one, and that's how we got here. While I was unconscious from being ripped from my world, the Kyuubi made several changes, awakening my bloodline, raising my intelligence, and giving me this arm. Because of that though, he was destroyed and I was left with his power."

By the time he finished his story, the native boys were in shock and the girls, even Toph, were crying. This man that sat before them had gone through so much in his life. They had all thought that their lives were hard… but they might as well have been royalty.

Yoru placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "…My story may not be as hard as Naruto's, but I believe it holds a certain pain. I was born nearly two millennia before Naruto, in a world of both technology and chakra. My clan has the ability that you have already seen. Most get this during puberty, but I was born with it. Because of that, I was alone for nearly my entire life. My parents only visited me to teach me how to use my power. I suppose that saved me though. When I was eight years old my clan was killed, but I was hidden away. I left and wandered the world, learning from different sensei to use weapons and chakra. On my sixteenth birthday I blacked out and awoke in the HOW.

That's how I ended up here. In my clan I was both the prodigy and the pariah. I was never taught to speak, only to sing and play, and my music brought death. I was also blind, in the normal sense. My eyes work much the same way Toph sees, merely through the air and not the ground. But I digress. The first time I was let out of my cell was when I was seven years old, but the children made fun of me for staying quiet. I couldn't talk back or yell because I would kill them. I didn't leave my cell again until my clan was killed." He released Naruto's shoulder.

"So now you know our secrets. We are outcasts of society, mocked and hated for something we were practically born with. Do you hate us, as our world did?" the now completely serious Naruto asked.

"I don't speak for everyone… But I don't hate you at all." Toph said, tears still running down her face. The others, not trusting their voice, nodded their agreement.

Naruto began tearing up, and cried as he hugged his companions for this world. The more stoic and socially inexperienced Yoru settled for a warm smile. "There is something that you should know though…" Naruto began, still crying. "Once you complete your task… We'll have to leave."

"What? You can't leave!" the group shouted in near unison.

"I'm afraid we'll have to. We don't know for sure; we've never done this before… But that's what we're guessing. We'll find out soon enough though."

The group flew in relative silence for the remainder of their current trip.

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Well, another chapter under the belt. Sorry about the long wait, but the less you review the longer it takes! So if you want another chapter sooner rather than later, then review! REVIEW LIKE THE WIND!!

POLL!!1!

We are approaching the end of this world's story. Where should they go next? TELL ME IN A REVIEW!! IT CAN BE ANY ANIME, MANGA OR TV SHOW!!