Well, here is the second part just like I promised. Before we go any further, I would like to announce that I have picked up a second beta. Vandenbz will be going over my chapters for me to help catch the mistakes Serradragon and I let slip through. Now for reviews!
Dawn of Daybreak: Yours has got to be one of the most thought out of the reviews I've received. Thank you for the complements by the way. About the flashbacks; I originally planned to use italics for them, but then I ran into problems whenever I had thought dialogue. I'll see if I can't distinguish them more though.
Millionth Guest: I haven't come to a decision about bijuu mode yet, beyond that it won't be involved until the end. At the moment, I'm considering a sort of imperfect bijuu mode. But I likely won't make any final judgment until I actually reach that point in the story.
Orillion: Thanks for the advice. Consider the all caps dropped. As for the rest, please note the above author comments.
Anonymous: I hope this satisfies you. I'm still trying to figure out how to write good fight scenes.
EVA-Saiyajin: The way that I write most of my material is by taking the scenes from the show and dropping Naruto in the middle. I sit there and try to imagine what his presence would mean and write accordingly. I know some things come out almost identical to the original but that is because I don't think Naruto's presence would actually change it.
Sparklybutterfly42: Yah, I'm working on that.
Blinded in a bolthole: Hey, I said that I was a slow writer. 0)I honestly haven't thought that deeply about it. It's enough for me to simply say that they are two different universes. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea but it would be difficult for me to write it in smoothly and I'm not sure it would be worth the extra effort. If anything, I would suggest writing your own story around it. 1) Sleep is my personal favorite pass-time. 2) Again, I haven't thought that far. I'm pretty much just making this up as I go. 3) To Toph!*clink*
Naruto frowned as he looked at the variety of knives and swords that littered the walls around him. After Team Avatar had been escorted out of the swamp by the… interesting people that lived there, it had taken them several days to find civilization again. They had all immediately sought out the nicest hotel that they could afford and rented a room. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. They had all been overexposed to the wilderness over the last few days and were eager to enjoy the luxury of agood bed. Katara had made a B-line to the bathroom to draw a bath and was not seen again until hours later. Aang, though he had been initially interested in the room, had eventually wandered out into the hotel's garden where he enjoyed a less hostile side of nature. Sokka and Naruto had found a common interest in their love of sleep.
They had enjoyed themselves and would probably make the same decision given the chance, but that self-indulgence had left them short on funds. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. They could gather their own food and sleep in tents if it came down to it, but certain supplies needed to be bought and that required money. At the moment, Naruto was looking at one such purchase.
Though Sokka had not brought it up again, Naruto remembered what he said about training the WaterTribe warrior and the conflict in the swamp had only served to reinforce the need for improvement. He still didn't have a concrete plan, but he preferred to play things by ear anyway. But he did have a couple ideas of where to start. First would be weight training. Sokka's arms were woefully underdeveloped for a close range fighter. Then, he would need to find the teen a decent ranged weapon. The boomerang was agood start, but he needed other options to fall back on if he ever lost it in battle or if it simply wasn't enough to get the job done. But those things required money. And money was hard to come by these days.
"Naruto, did you find what you were looking for?" Naruto looked up as his friends entered the shop. He shrugged.
"Sort of. They have what I'm looking for, but it's all too expensive. What about you guys?"
Sokka shook his head in the negative. "Same problem. This town has plenty of stores, but we can't afford anything they're selling. It's like the whole town was built to cater to rich people." He walked further into the weapons shop and began to peruse the wares. "So what were you looking for anyway?"
Naruto grinned. "Actually, I was looking for training equipment for you," His grin turned teasing. "or are you chickening out?"
Sokka blinked as he recalled the conversation that they had had before entering Omashu. If he were to be perfectly honest, he had forgotten about it. It had been overshadowed by the whole "the Fire Nation has conquered one of the Earth Kingdom's last great strongholds" thing. But he was still willing and able to learn. In fact, knowing what they did now about how close the Fire Nation was to victory in the war, the need to grow stronger had only increased. He began examining the weapons with a renewed vigor, excited at the possibilities they held.
"So what are you getting?" Sokka asked.
Naruto just shook his head. "I'm not buying anything. We don't have any money, remember?" Sokka deflated significantly at the reminder of their financial situation, but perked up at Naruto's next words. "But that doesn't mean we can't start training anyway."
"Oh, what are we going to work on?" Sokka was practically jumping off of the walls at this point, "Stealth training, how to read your opponents, or how about-"
"Running?!" Sokka's voice was tinged with disbelief and more than a little disappointment as he looked at the track in front of him. After leaving the weapons shop, Naruto had lead the group to a lake located just outside of the town's walls. Well, he had led Sokka to the lake. Aang and Katara had followed out of curiosity. "I ask you to train me and you give me running?!"
Naruto frowned at his friend's rant; both because it made Sokka sound like a spoiled brat, and because it reminded him a little too much of himself in his early genin days. "How did Kakashi ever put up with me?" After another minute of listening to Sokka complain, he decided to speak up. "Look, you need to increase your endurance if you want to do anything more advanced. All of the fancy moves and clever tricks in the world won't help you if you don't have the muscle to back it up. Don't worry. After you can run a few laps around this little track, we'll move on to other stuff." That "little track" happened to a hiking path that followed the four mile circumference of the lake. Somehow, Sokka was not comforted by the ninja's words.
"Good luck, Sokka. We'll see you later." Aang said cheerfully; glad that the attention was on someone else for a change.
Sokka snapped out of his despair as Aang and Katara began walking back to the town. "Wait, where are you guys going?"
He had been silently hoping that they would stay and share in his misery. Alas, Katara just gave a smile that was mildly apologetic at best and said, "We're going to try to find some money." She paused a moment before adding in a false thoughtful tone. "Unless you want to sleep on the cold hard ground after all of your training." She didn't wait to hear her brother's response before walking off. Sokka just sighed in defeat as he resigned himself to his tedious and likely exhausting task.
For the next several hours, Naruto watched as Sokka ran laps around the lake. He started off fairly strong and only seemed to be slightly winded at the end of his first lap, though you would have suspected that he was being subjected to the worst forms of torture from the way he complained. However those early results quickly proved to be misleading. By the end of the second lap, Sokka's breathing was labored and his face had noticeably reddened from the effort. Sokka was visibly struggling and was literally crawling on his hands and knees when he completed his fourth lap and finally collapsed.
Naruto strolled over to the fallen warrior and casually kicked him until he rolled over onto his back. "Well, I give you an 'A' for effort." Naruto tried to keep the grin off of his face.
"My… lungs… are… on fire!" Sokka groaned from where he lay, and this time Naruto didn't even try to fight his smile. How many times had it been him lying there on the ground, exhausted from whatever crazy training program his teachers had thought up? It was rather nice to be on the other side for a change.
Tossing Sokka a towel, Naruto continued speaking as if he had not heard him. "But you have a long way to go if you want to do the kinds of stuff that I do. Take a few minutes to catch your breath and then I want you do pushups and crunches – fifty each." Sokka just groaned in response.
Naruto sat back and watched as Sokka's breathing slowly evened out. He was fully prepared to kick the young warrior until he resumed his exorcises, but was pleasantly surprised when Sokka got up on his own. Oh, he grumbled and complained and used some words that Naruto was sure were inappropriate; but then he got down and started doing his pushups, counting each one out loud. Content that his new student wasn't going to shirk his exercises, Naruto allowed his mind to wander. Inevitably, his mind strayed to the events not two days prior.
…(flashback)…
Naruto stood in the middle of an open meadow as he prepared to hopefully summon his toad companions and finally get some answers. It had been a couple of days since Team Avatar had left the swamp and he thought it was past time to get into contact with his home world. Truthfully, he had wanted to try summoning the moment that they left the swamp, but had decided to hold back. What he was about to do, was largely experimental. He could summon Fukasaku like he hoped he would, or he could summon one of the larger mountain sized toads, and everything in between. Hell, with the amount of chakra he was about to pour into this technique, it could just as easily explode, taking out anything within one hundred yards. So now he stood in an empty field with no trees or buildings in sight and his friends all standing some distance away.
Naruto sat down in his usual lotus position and began drawing on the energies around him. He took a moment and let the comforting chakra calm his nerves. There was a lot riding on the summoning jutsu, not the least of which was his ticket home. Naruto didn't consider himself to be an idiot. At the very least, he had come a long way from the "dead last" of his academy days. But he could safely say that he was a long way away from understanding intra-dimensional travel. That coupled with this world's lack of jutsu knowledge, meant that it would be mostly up to his friends and colleagues to get him home again. If he couldn't get into contact with them, then he was effectively stuck where he was.
Setting aside his worries, Naruto stood and began to go through the required handsigns. He worked slowly – focusing on each sign and how they molded his chakra. After a full minute of tense concentration he finally slammed his hands to the ground, followed by the usual cry of "Summoning jutsu!" As with his previous attempts, a cloud of smoke erupted from underneath his hands, accompanied by the usual "poofing" sound. However, this time it was followed by another sound; on which Naruto had never been happier to hear.
"Naruto-chan?" an aged voice called uncertainly from the smoke as it cleared to reveal the form of a small toad. Naruto smiled in relief at Fukusaku, more commonly known as "Pa", and his teacher in the sage arts. His smile was quickly replaced with an angry frown when his head came under sudden assault from the same toad.
"Ow! What the hell, Pa?! What's wrong with you?" Naruto cried as he tried to fend off the smaller sage.
This seemed to only enrage him more. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?! What took you so long to summon me?! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!"
Naruto's anger evaporated in an instant. Pa was just worried about him. When he spoke next, his voice was calm and hinted with affection. "Sorry Pa, but it took a lot more chakra to summon you then I thought it would. Heck, I had to use sage mode to finally get it to work!"
Fukasaku let out a long sigh. "I understand. I forgive you."
Feeling that he safe from his teacher's wrath; Naruto allowed the last of his nature chakra to leave his system, and turned to greet his friends as they moved to cross the field now that the danger had apparently passed. But the moment he took his eyes off the small toad, he had to catch himself as something impacted the back of his head. He turned around to see Fukasaku standing there, holding the stick that had been used during Naruto's sage training in his hand and a smug look on his face.
"Ow! What the hell?! I thought you said that you forgave me!" Naruto shouted as felt the back of his head for the bump he was sure was developing.
"I did. That one was from Ma." Pa calmly explained, never losing his smug smile.
Before Naruto could make a snappy comeback, he was cut off by the arrival of his friends. Sokka was the first to speak as he poked and prodded their visitor from various angles, still fascinated by the idea of summoning. "So, I guess it worked huh? What did you do different?" When Fukasaku grew tired of the annoyance, he swung at the offending appendage, forcing Sokka to abandon his studies in favor of self-preservation and eliciting a laugh from most of the group.
Naruto however, was eager to get back to the reason he had brought Fukasaku to this world in the first place. "So, what good news did you bring me? Am I going home or what?" He asked hopefully. Whatever hopes he had were crushed with the downturn of Fukasaku's eyes.
"I'm sorry. The toads are looking, but so far we haven't found anything that could safely bring you home." Fukasaku said, hoping Naruto wouldn't ask further. He was thoroughly disappointed.
"Just the toads huh? What about my friends in Konoha? They didn't forget about me already, did they?" Though his tone made the question sound light-hearted and joking, Naruto felt a cold pit of worry settle in his stomach as the images that he had seen in the swamp came back to the forefront of his mind. That cold pit quickly turned into ice as Fukasaku's posture seemed to slump even further.
"Naruto I…" For the first time in many years, the elder toad found himself at a loss for words. How do you tell someone that their home was essentially gone – reduced to a pile of rubble? He could still remember his visit, as he walked through a village trying to recover from the devastating blow that it had been dealt. Thousands of civilians constrained to a few hundred emergency tents; medical tents overflowing with the sick and wounded; Ninja scrambling to maintain some semblance of order despite their devastated ranks. It had taken the better part of a day to finally find the Hokage to get some answers… only to find her in a coma. Thankfully, her apprentice, Sakura Haruno, and his own wife had been there to give him all of the information he needed.
Deciding that it would be best to be blunt, he took a bracing breath, "Naruto-chan, Konoha has been attacked." He paused to let Naruto, whose face was now set in a blank stare, to absorb that fact. "The Akastuki leader attacked in hope of capturing the Nine-Tails. Once he realized that you weren't there, he launched one final attack that destroyed the village and left. I won't lie to you; Naruto-chan. Konoha is in shambles. A lot of people are dead."
"What about my friends?" Though Naruto asked the question, his face had not changed and his voice had been so quiet that Fukasaku would have almost believed that he had imagined it.
"Most of your friends are fine. Though some were severely injured, they should make a full recovery in time."
"…most?"
Fukasaku sighed. This was the one thing he wanted to keep from his student beyond all else, but Naruto had asked and he would not lie to the boy. "Tsunade-chan and your teacher, Kakashi, are both in deep comas. We do not know when or if they will recover. And… Shizune-chan is dead. I'm so sorry, my boy."
Naruto did nothing for several seconds, though it seemed like hours. Finally he said, "I…see." and vanished in a burst of speed.
"Naruto!" The shouts of Aang, Katara, and Sokka as they made to go after him caught Fukasaku's attention. Honestly, he had forgotten that they were there. Seeing that they were going to try to find his distraught student, he intervened.
"Wait." He spoke in what he hoped was a calming voice. "Leave him be. He needs some time to come to grips with what he just learned."
"Are you crazy?!" Katara's voice was filled with a mixture of incredulity, panic, and worry. "He shouldn't be alone when he's in a state of mind like that. What if something happens to him?"
"Trust me. I've seen what that boy is capable of. He has a strength of will that far exceeds anything I've ever seen before. Give him some time, and I guarantee he'll come back better than ever." The others seemed doubtful but Fukasaku had spoken with such conviction that they couldn't find it in themselves to disagree. A distant explosion shook the ground. "Besides, you really don't want to be anywhere near him right now. Like I said, I've seen what he's capable of."
Without another word, the group left to go make camp for the night. Fukasaku decided to join them, stating that he would stay until he was sure Naruto was okay. No one spoke that night. They pitched their tents, made their fire, and ate their dinner all without uttering a word. And when they went to bed, they did so in complete silence sans the distant explosions and cries of a man in mourning of everything he helddear.
…(end flashback)…
He hadn't returned to the camp until morning. And then he hadn't spoken until that evening despite his friends' best attempts to cheer him up. He was sure some time in the distant future, others would be joking that it was the longest he had ever gone without talking. Naruto suppressed a laugh as he remembered the startled reactions he had gotten when he finally did speak. It had been rather… sudden.
"I am going to kick. His. Ass!" That single declaration, shouted in the dead of night, perfectly summed up all of his ambitions for the near future. He was going to get stronger. He was going to get home. He was going to hunt down the man who had dared to attack his home. And then he was going to beat him up to and within an inch of his life. Then, if he was feeling merciful, he would haul what was left back to Konoha to officially pay for his crimes.
His friends, of course, had agreed wholeheartedly with his plans and had promised to help him in any way possible. Fukasaku in particular had been eager to help. It was odd because the elder toad had never seemed like the vengeful type. But according to him, it wasn't about revenge. The monster known as Pain had become a plague on the world and he was sure Konoha had only been the beginning. He needed to be stopped before the damage became irreversible. Avenging his fallen student was just a bonus. That thought brought him to the day before they had arrived in town and the latest of his growing list of problems.
…(flashback)…
Fukasaku ducked under the foot of his apprentice only to immediately jump away to avoid the fist that followed it. Flipping in mid-air, he landed at the edge of the crater Naruto had just created and readied himself for the next onslaught. After Naruto had declared his resolve to bring Pain to justice, the elder toad had informed the group that he would be staying one more day before returning to Mt. Myoboku, to help Naruto get started with his training. The next morning, both sages had been up and sparring before dawn. Of course, training had only been an excuse – a thin veil to cover the true purpose of the sparring session.
Naruto had spent several hours working through his anger and frustration, but the near destruction of his home had left him with a lot of grief and destroying lifeless boulders only went so far. In the end, the teen was still left with a lot of rage, though he did an admirable job of hiding it. Under normal circumstances, Fukasaku might have left the boy to work through his issues on his own. But isolated as he was, he feared Naruto would only suppress his rage and try to pretend everything was ok. Such denial was dangerous – doubly so for a jinchuuriki. At the same time, Naruto could not simply vent his frustrations on just anyone. There were few people in the world that could stand up to the full strength of a sage. It wasn't arrogance, it was fact. And there were even fewer who would willingly subject themselves to that strength for anything less than a matter of life or death. So Fukasaku had decided to fill that particular role and proposed an early morning spar.
It would seem that he had made the correct decision as it was only now, several hours later, that Naruto's attacks were slowing – his blows losing their intensity. Finally, after delivering one final axe kick which succeeded only in further scarring the land, Naruto backed off and allowed himself to drop out of sage mode. For a moment, teacher and student simply stood there and stared at each other as Naruto tried to convey through his eyes the gratitude he could not express verbally. However, Naruto was quickly forced to break eye contact as he was hit by a sudden wave of nausea. He closed his eyes and fought to stay upright as the ground seemed to sway beneath his feet.
Fukasaku automatically stepped forward in worry as he took in Naruto's swaying form and increasingly flushed appearance. "Are you alright, Naruto-chan?"
"I-I'm fine. Just a little tired." His excuse sounded weak in his own ears.
Fukasaku put a hand up to the boy's forehead and cringed when he felt the heat radiating off of the exposed skin. He had spoken briefly with Tsunade before he had taken Naruto for his sage training to learn a little about his new pupil. One of the first things to come up had been the Kyuubi and the effects that it had on him. It was quite the impressive list: increased stamina, rapid healing, and chakra levels that easilysurpassed a kage. Then just recently Tsunade had documented another side effect of Naruto's jinchuuriki status. Living so long with the beast sealed inside of him for so long had granted Naruto a measure of immunity to its toxic chakra. This allowed a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra to be present in his body which would act almost like a second immune system, attacking any foreign entities in his system. As a result Naruto was rarely sick and never seriously so. For Naruto to become so sick so suddenly… it was worrying.
"No, Naruto-chan, you're not. You're burning up. Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?"
Naruto almost flinched at the hurt tone in the toad's voice. They hadn't known each other for all that long, but they were practically family. Fukasaku was upset that his surrogate grandson would lie about his well-being. "I was feeling fine earlier!" Naruto almost shouted to cut off that chain of thought. "It just sort of hit me when I dropped out of sage mode."
Fukasaku narrowed his eyes at the revelation. It was possible that it was just a big coincidence but… "I want you to avoid using sage mode for a while. Okay?"
"What?" That intelligent response was all Naruto could manage. All of that work to master nature chakra and now he was being told not to use it? "Come on, Pa. Don't you think you're overreacting. It's not that serious is it?"
The elder toad fixed Naruto with that look that all grandparents seemed to keep in reserve for when their children/grandchildren were being particularly dense. "Naruto-chan, I'm sure I don't need to remind of the delicate situation you're in. There are no medic-nin in this world. The people of this world simply do not know enough about chakra and its properties to properly heal a ninja. You need to be careful right now." Fukasaku watched as the truth set in and Naruto's mood dropped accordingly. He sighed, the boy was so emotional. Honestly, it was a miracle that he had managed to master sage chakra at all. He decided to offer some conciliation. "I'm not telling you to completely abandon your sage training. And this could all turn out to be one big false alarm. But just in case it isn't, please just hold off on it for a little while. Save sage mode for emergencies, at least until we can be sure that it's safe."
Naruto's shoulders drooped a little more as he finally accepted the truth. Stuck in another world, hishome attacked, and now afflicted with some mysterious illness; it just seemed to be one thing after another. The feeling of something impacting with the back of his head snapped him out of his depressing thoughts. He looked down at Fukasaku who was once again brandishing what he had now official dubbed "Pa's hitting stick" in his own mind. "None of that!" The elder toad spoke in a stern tone. "I will not have any apprentice of mine moping around like a child." Naruto instantly straightened at the commanding tone. Fukasaku nodded approvingly. "Good. Now here is what you are going to do. You're going to get up, train, and grow stronger until you can crush any obstacle in your way; because you are Naruto Uzumaki, my apprentice, and you aren't capable of anything less." He grinned as the fire seemed to return to Naruto's eyes. "That's more like it. Now, as long as we're talking about training…" He said slyly as he pulled out a scroll from behind his back. I think it's time we advanced you to the next level." The old toad almost laughed as his apprentice whooped for joy. The boy was just too easy sometimes.
…(end flashback)…
Naruto reached into his back pouch and pulled out the scroll he had been given. Inside was a number of the toads' jutsu and beginner's instructions in the art of sealing. Being who he is, he had naturally been excited at the prospect of learning new techniques and growing stronger. But when Fukasaku had revealed that the scroll was the very one used in Jiraiya's training, he had almost started training right then and there – happy to have found another way to emulate the old pervert that had somehow earned his respect. Fortunately Fukasaku had knocked the sense back into Naruto and told him to return to his friends at the camp, lest he worsen his already questionable condition. Then he had made Naruto promise not to start on the new training for at least twenty-four hours to make sure that he was fully recovered, knowing that Naruto would never be willing to break a promise. The fact that he had informed the others about Naruto's strange ailment and left them with strict instructions to inform him if Naruto attempted to train too soon didn't help matters. Still, Naruto's sage training had taught him nothing if not patience. If it meant getting the strength he needed to avenge his home, he could wait a few measly hours… especially with Sokka offering such great entertainment.
Speaking of his new student, Naruto must have been daydreaming a little too much, because when he looked up again, Sokka had just finished his last set of crunches and collapsed onto his back. If the teen was tired before, then he was exhausted now. He was completely red-faced from exertion and he was drenched head to toe in sweat. Naruto's lip pulled up in a cringe as an awful smell assaulted his nose. He certainly smelled like a hard day's work. "Alright," Naruto said, "take a minute to catch your breath and then cool down with some stretches. Then you can call it a day."
"Too tired, can't move." Sokka spoke without moving.
Naruto just nodded. "Which is exactly why you need to stretch your muscles out now. Trust me. If you don't, you'll regret it tomorrow when you're too stiff and sore to even get out of bed." He broke into a sadistic grin and something mischievous could be heard in his voice. "And you'll really regret it when I make you get up anyway and you have to do this all over again."
Sokka managed to pull himself into a semi-upright position with some effort. "…I'm starting to regret asking for your help."
Naruto just shrugged unapologetically. "Maybe, but it'll pay off later when you're kicking everyone's asses. Now do your stretches."
"Sokka! Naruto!" Both boys looked up as they were approached by an excited Aang and Katara. As the two approached, they took note of Sokka's distressed appearance. It was Aang who decided to comment. "Geez, Sokka, what did Naruto do to you?"
When it appeared that Sokka was too tired to talk, Naruto decided to answer for him. "Nothing much, just some basic exercises. Sokka's just being whiny." The others looked a little dubious, so he decided to quickly change the subject. "So, what were you two so excited about?"
"Oh yeah!" Katara said happily, producing a small flyer. "We may have found someone to teach Aang earthbending! Or, at least we found somewhere to find a teacher."
Taking the flyer from the waterbender's hand, Naruto read out loud. "Earth Rumble Six. Come watch the world's greatest earthbenders battle it out in the world's greatest underground earthbending tournament… what kind of underground tournament hands out flyers?"
"Who knows?" Katara said as she took the flyer back from Naruto. "I got this one from a couple of boys in town. They were talking about it out in the open so it can't be that big of a secret. They probably just said that it's underground to make it sound better."
Naruto nodded approvingly. That would make sense. Aang spoke up. "The flyer says that the tournament finals are tonight. I know that if we go, we can find an earthbending master to teach me."
Naruto just hummed in response. He stepped over to Sokka, who was still refusing to move from his spot on the ground, and gave him a healthy kick in his side. "Ya' hear that, Sokka? Looks like we're going out tonight."
Sokka, being Sokka, gave the wittiest response he could think of at the time. "Unnnnn…"
"Maybe they call it an underground tournament because the stadium is literally underground?" Sokka, newly recovered from his training session, questioned as he stared at the stone structure before them. Row after row of stone bleachers raised several stories from the ground; all surrounding a rectangular central arena in which the contestants would do battle. The whole area was lit by a mixture of mounted torches and what appeared to be giant glowing crystals. All in all, it was quite the impressive sight, even more so because the whole stadium seemed to have been carved out of a natural cavern. It would have taken quite some time to create, even with earthbending. Once more, the entire stadium was full. Everywhere people yelled and shouted, cheering for their favorite fighters and demanding that they come out and fight for their entertainment. Every so often, a fight could be seen breaking out between two fans who got just a little too excited.
Carefully, Team Avatar wormed their way through the crowd until they managed to arrive at the strangely empty bottom rows. They were just about to sit down when a particular cry reached Naruto's ears over the roar of the crowd.
"Bets here! Place your bets here! A few measly copper pieces are all that stand between you and a life of luxury."
Naruto searched for the source of the rough voice and spotted it near one of the stadiums many entrances. There, there was a seeding looking man behind a portable counter, shouting to draw in customers as they walked to their seats. Despite the man's beady eyes and dirty appearance scaring off some of the gamblers, there were still a lot of people rushing to make their fortunes. Naruto folded his arms and thought. He had a few copper pieces still left in his pocket that he had set aside on the off chance that he found some ramen, or at least something ramen-like, in this strange new world. On the one hand, the odds displayed on the bookie's counter were fairly good, and there was the potential to win a large sum of money if someone was willing to take a few risks. On the other hand, this was his ramen money he was risking. If something went wrong and he lost what was left of his money, then he would have nothing to use during the ramen emergency that he was sure was coming. Should he keep the bird in his hand; or risk it all for the two in the bush?
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Katara's voice drew him from his internal debate.
Making a snap decision, he formed a quick handseal, confident that no one would notice the small puff of smoke or the sudden presence of an extra person in all of the chaos. Handing his money to the clone, he gave it instructions on what bets to make and watched it start making its way through the crowd before finally taking his seat. He turned slightly in his seat so he could face Katara. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."
The waterbender raised an eyebrow at the evasive answer but didn't comment further. A moment later the sound of the ground of the ground rumbling drew both of their attentions down to the arena where, much to Naruto's surprise, a man with long black hair and dressed in nothing more than a green vest and pair of pants literally popped out of the ground.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I am your host, Xin Fu; and welcome… to Earth Rumble Six!" The man's low rumbling voice was still barely audible over the roar of the crowd. "Tonight you will watch as the greatest earthbenders in the world battle it out for the title of Earthbending Champion!" Xin Fu punctuated the statement by punching the air. "The contestants will enter two at a time and fight to push each other out of the ring. The first one to touch the ground outside of the arena loses, while his opponent advances to the next round. The last man standing will earn the right to face off against last year's champion and the chance to earn the title of Earthbending Champion!" Again the man's voice was drowned out as the roar of the crowd rose to almost deafening levels. "Now, help me welcome the first two combatants: The Bouuuuulder! And The Big, Bad, Hipppooo!"
As he called each name, another man appeared in his own unique show of earthbending. The first – The Boulder – was the definition of "meat head". His brown hair – a typical color in the Earth Kingdom – was done up in the usual top knot and his beard was rough and un-kept, likely because he thought it made him look manly. He was also very large and his shirtless attire showed off a myriad of bulging muscles. But as large as he was, he only came up to the shoulder of his opponent. The Hippo was simply enormous. However, unlike The Boulder, he was covered in fat – not muscle. The crowd favorite was instantly obvious as the majority of the crowd cheered for The Boulder and chose to boo The Hippo.
Xin Fu seemed ready to continue his monologue but was cut off by The Boulder. "The Boulder hassomething to say!" He yelled obnoxiously into the microphone. He faced The Hippo and stood on his tiptoes to get more into his face. "You'd better give up now, Chubby. The Boulder is going to crush you and grind you into itty bitty pieces. The Boulder is to chew you up and spit you out. And then, The Boulder is gonna walk all over you all the way to the finals!" At the end of his speech, The Boulder turned to the crowd, raising his hands in a silent signal to cheer more loudly. Had he been a wiser man, he would not have turned his back to the giant whom he had just insulted. Had he been a wiser man, he would have stayed facing his opponent long enough to see his face contort in rage and pick up a sizable chunk of rock from the arena floor. Had he been a wiser man, The Boulder may have been able to avoid the boulder that struck him directly between the shoulder blades. But he wasn't; and so he didn't; and so he was sent careening to the ground, landing ungracefully on his face. Taking this as his signal, the host quickly jumped away and made room for the two combatants to do battle. He stepped out just in time for The Boulder to pick himself up and launch his counterattack. And just like that, Earth Rumble Six was underway.
Despite the impressive preamble, the fight was over fairly quickly. Only a few glancing blows were exchanged as The Hippo was forced to the edge of the arena before being forced out when The Boulder literally took the ground out from underneath his feet. The crowd cheered as Boulder advanced to the next round. This pattern continued on for some time. An opponent would be introduced. They would fight. And eventually The Boulder would emerge victorious before advancing to the next round.
As they approached the finals Katara spoke up. "What about him, Aang?" She said, gesturing to TheBoulder as he tossed a strange, mole-like man out of the arena. "He seems pretty good."
Aang didn't seem so convinced. "I don't know… Bumi said that I should find someone who listens to the earth. I think he's just listening to his muscles." Naruto couldn't help but agree. These people were good but they were too showy. Their moves were overly complicated and exaggerated, leaving plenty of openings for anyone who was willing to exploit them. It sort of reminded him of himself when he was younger – all too concerned with appearances and not concerned enough with staying alive. Had it not been for the Kyuubi, he likely wouldn't have lived long enough to wise up and get serious. With the things Aang was facing, he definitely didn't need that kind of teacher.
"And now we come to the main event!" The announcer's voice cut off any further debate. "On my right stands the challenger. He's big. He's bad. He's the one, the only, Bouuuulder!" The crowd was beside itself as their champion-to-be practically danced around the arena. After giving the crowd some time to quiet down, the host continued. "You've watched as he rumbled, and tumbled, and stumbled all the way to the finals. And now he stands before you, ready to face our reigning champ. Please join me in welcoming our reigning champion – the unstoppable, undeniable, the unbelievable, the Bllllllliiiiiiind Baaaaannndiiit!" The champion received an almost identical welcome as The Boulder but that was not what caught the attention of Team Avatar. No, what caught their attention was that the Blind Bandit could not have been any older than them. In fact, she looked like she may have been one or two years younger than Naruto.
She was fairly small, with short cropped black hair and pale eyes that reminded Naruto vaguely of the Hyuuga clan. All of these things made it difficult to believe that she was a fighter – much less a champion – and having a title like "The Blind Bandit" certainly didn't help. Katara voiced her thoughts, and indeed the thoughts of everyone in the stadium. "She can't really be blind… can she?"
"No. I think she's really blind!" Aang spoke with no small amount of amazement in his voice.
The crowd broke into hushed murmurs as most of them had never seen the champion before and doubted the legitimacy of her title. Things like "There's no way she's blind. It's totally a gimmick," and "That's the champion? Man, The Boulder has this one in the bag!" and other such sentiments could be heard amongst the whispers.
The Boulder certainly didn't seem impressed. "What is this? You expect The Boulder to fight a little blind girl? Go home, little girl, before you get hurt." He bowed up and moved closer to emphasize his size advantage.
If his tactics intimidated the girl at all, she did an excellent job of hiding it. She simply "looked" him in the eye before letting out a hardy, exaggerated laugh. "You, hurt me? That's a good one, 'The Boulder'." She said his name with almost tangible sarcasm. She smirked as The Boulder's face reddened in rage. "Aw," she spoke as if she were talking to an infant, "are you gonna cry? Maybe we should call you 'The Baby' instead."
That taunt was more that Boulder's fragile ego could take. He snapped and lashed his foot out to catch the girl in the head. His foot never connected as The Bandit used her smaller stature to duck neatly beneath his kick. She followed with a kick of her own but aimed it at the ground. At the point where her heel connected, a small pit – maybe an inch deep – formed in the ground as the earth caved in. In the same instant a small piece of earth, the same size as the hole, rose underneath The Boulder's heel. With his other foot still in full extension from his kick, The Boulder was easily pushed off balance and sent stumbling forward. He didn't get far before Toph brought her fist up and along with it, a single cylinder of rock. Because of her small stature and still crouched position, the stone pillar impacted squarely on The Boulder's groin; simultaneously launching him from the arena, breaking his pelvis, and ruining any plans of reproduction that he may have had for the near future.
There was a deathly silence as the audience tried to wrap their minds around what they had just seen. The fight had ended so… quickly.
"What happened? I blinked and I missed it." The anonymous cry seemed to be the trigger as the entire crowd suddenly went into an uproar. Some cheered, appreciating the show of skill for what it was. But the overwhelming majority screamed in outrage – using a myriad of boos and hisses to express their displeasure at the abrupt end to their entertainment.
"How did she do that?" Katara asked as she tried valiantly to ignore her brother who was demanding a rematch next to her.
"She waited. She waited and listened." Aang could barely contain his excitement. This was exactly what he was looking for. The Blind Bandit fitted the qualities King Bumi had described almost perfectly. She would be the perfect teacher, he just knew it! Now he just needed a way to approach her…
As if on cue, Xin Fu's voice broke through over the noise of the crowd. "You want more? Fine! Which one of you wants to challenge our champion? No takers? What if, on top of the title, I throw in this big bag of gold? What do you say now?" Xin held up a sizable bag of gold in an attempt to lure out any reluctant contestants.
Aang stood as quickly as possible, determined to be the first one to confront The Blind Bandit and perhaps discuss training. But as quick as he was, he was still not quick enough. No sooner had he finished standing did he hear Xin Fu.
"It looks like we have a taker!"
Aang looked to the arena below and was more than a little surprised to see none other than Naruto eagerly waiting for his fight to start. Startled, he snapped his head to the side where the blonde had been sitting not moments before, only to find it empty. "Wha – when… how did he do that?!" Aang shouted as he turned to his equally startled looking friends who could only shake their heads in response. They all knew that Naruto was fast, but not that fast! Aang frowned as he sat back down. Naruto may have just inadvertently ruined his chance to find a decent earthbending teacher.
Down below the Earthbending Champion, known to most as The Blind Bandit and known to very few as Toph Beifong, raised an eyebrow as she "watched" her opponent. Of course, she couldn't actually see him. She was, after all, blind – just as her title suggested. Instead, she used her connection to the earth to feel her opponent through the vibrations he created. It was rather advantageous in a way. Eyes were often easy to fool and mislead. Her feet, however, never lied; and right now her feet were telling her some very interesting things.
Her opponent did not move like a typical earthbender should. Most earthbenders had very heavy, firm footsteps – being so used to dealing with unforgiving stone. Nor did he have the fluid motions of a waterbender or the sharp movements of a firebender. His movements were light and carefree… almost airy. If she didn't know any better, she would associate such movement to an airbender. But, of course, the only airbender left was the Avatar and that would just be absurd.
Up in the stands, Aang nearly fell out of his seat as he was beset by a series of powerful sneezes.
"No," Toph thought, "it's like he's not a bender at all." Did this guy really think that he could win without any bending? He certainly didn't seem nervous in any way. In fact, he was literally bouncing with excitement. Was he really that eager to fight?
"Well, well, well, someone is eager to get his butt kicked." She spoke as haughtily as possible. It never failed to drive her targets mad – being talked down to by someone they perceived to be a weak girl. But to her surprise, the person across from her showed no signs of anger. Being blind, Toph had never had the advantage of being able to see facial expressions and had to develop her own ways of reading other people's emotions. Through trial and error, she had discovered several subtle signals that people unconsciously gave off in response to certain emotions. Breathing patterns, slight inflections of the voice, perspiration; she could even use her earthbending to feel the changes in a person's heartbeat. But this guy… His heartbeat remained unchanged. His breathing remained light. And when he spoke, his voice revealed only pure anticipation.
"Are you kidding? After the fight I just saw, I'm so pumped! Nothing beats a good brawl!"
A moment later Toph's eyebrows shot into her hairline in surprise. She didn't need any of her sensory techniques to know that her opponent was giving her an enormous smile. She didn't know how she knew. She just… knew. She could actually feel his smile. It gave off this strange, almost alien kind of warmth. The only thing she could think of to compare it to would be the feeling she got while basking in the sun. His smile… was the sun.
She shook off the uncharacteristically mushy thoughts and got back to the matter at hand. "Alright sunshine, let's see what you've got." Her voice was just as confident as before as she got into her fighting stance. Warm fuzzy feelings or no, this guy was going down.
Naruto stopped bouncing when he saw Toph prepared to fight and quickly settled into a loose stance for basic taijutsu. Frog Kata would do him no good here. Not only could he not use sage mode, but he doubted that a blind fighter would fall for the style's feints and distractions anyway. No, he was better off using the basics; not exactly the strongest fighting style, but it would allow him to adjust on the fly, which was exactly what he needed.
There was no signal or announcement, and many would later argue that the fight had been scripted as the two fighters simultaneously moved. Toph started by testing her opponent with a volley of differentlysized rocks and was pleased when Naruto easily avoided the projectiles. She felt him bob and weave through the hail of stones. His movements were smooth and natural without being forced at all, even when he was forced to bend at odd angles to avoid a particularly well placed blow. He definitely had experience – enough that he could feel completely at home on the battlefield. Maybe this wouldn't be so boring after all.
On the other end of the attack, Naruto was starting to run into trouble – not with avoiding the stones being hurled at him. The fact was that the rocks were larger, slower, and easier to track than most kunai. Avoiding them was simply a matter of keeping a calm mind and not allowing himself to be forced into a corner. No, he was having trouble remaining patient as he waited for an opening. He didn't know how the girl managed to so accurately pinpoint his location without the use of her eyes. But from what he had seen from her fight against The Boulder, she would exploit even the slightest mistake with excellent efficiency and excruciating results. He had to wait for the right moment, catch her off guard with a burst of speed, and then hope his reflexes could keep him out of trouble.
"I don't get it. Why isn't he using any of his jutsu?" Sokka asked in confusion. They had all seen some of the techniques that Naruto was capable of unleashing. Any one of them could help him, and yet he wasn't using any of them.
"Sokka," Katara spoke patiently, "I doubt anyone here has seen the kind of things Naruto can do. What do you think would happen if he – say, created a clone with everyone watching?" Seeing realization dawn on her brother's face she continued. "That's right, they'd freak out. Naruto isn't using his jutsu because he doesn't want to create a panic."
"So basically he has to beat a champion earthbender and he has to do it at half strength." Sokka summarized.
"Basically."
"Huh. Well, better him than me."
Naruto nearly cried in joy as he finally found an opening large enough for him to exploit as Toph shifted her position ever so slightly to change the angle of her attack. In that brief moment, Naruto built up the chakra in his legs and unleashed it in a burst of intense speed.
"Fast!" That was all Toph's mind had time to process before Naruto was on her. In a purely reflexive move, she raised a stone wall between her and her charging opponent mere moments before he struck. She clearly felt the fist that impacted her barrier as well as the resulting spider web of cracks. She felt a mixture of shock at the strength that the man before her possessed and relief that she had not felt that strength first hand. Her relief vanished when she felt his feet leave the earth andanother hand impact on top of the stone and push off. The crazy bastard had jumped over the wall! She swore vehemently as she felt for his landing spot. He landed in a crouch directly behind her and lashed out with his foot in an attempt to catch her in the back. Toph didn't bother turning around as she neatly side-stepped the kick. She flinched slightly when the offending foot impacted on her stone barrier and a section of it – already weakened from absorbing the first punch – crumbled away.
"This guy's really trying to kill me!" she thought as she frantically avoided a series of kicks and punches. Still, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. When was the last time she really got pushed to her limit in a fight like this? She never got to use her more advanced earthbending in her so called "lessons" and most of the competitors in the tournament were just amateurs with overinflated egos. It was only rarely that she got a real challenge. Maybe she could convince him to be her permanent sparring partner. She wasn't usually one to use her family connections but everyone had a price. It would be worth it if she could have this kind of fun all of the time.
She finally earned some space when she liquefied the ground underneath his feet and prepared to make her winning move. She was holding her own but she didn't how much longer she could keep it up. Several minutes of intense fighting was beginning to tire her out, but her future sparring partner didn't even seem winded. She could keep going for a while, but she was running out of time.
She very nearly had a heart attack when Naruto pulled his feet free and proceeded to stand on the still liquefied earth. He was now standing on what was for all intents and purposes quicksand as though it were solid rock. Pointing an accusing finger in his general direction she shouted "How are you doing that? You're cheating! Aren't you?" "Of course he is." She thought bitterly. She should have known better than to hope for an honest challenge for once. Enraged at the idea of being cheated, she began her attack with renewed vigor.
Naruto didn't have time to feel insulted by the girl's accusations. He was far too busy running for his life. "Why is it that every other girl I meet tries to kill me?" he thought in misery as he twisted to avoid yet another spike that sought to impale him. Things had been going so well too. After his initial charge, he had made sure to keep the earthbender on the defensive and to not allow her to hit back. He encountered a minor snag when she decided to turn the ground around him into mud, but he had quickly rectified that with some water-walking. He realized his mistake all too late when the girl had immediately accused of cheating. Of course, before he could defend himself, she had retaken the offensive; only now she was using lethal force. Cylinders that used to push out of the arena had become deadly spikes. And he was certain that the earth was now trying to crush him, instead of just trapping him as it had been. He didn't know why the girl was so upset but knew he needed to draw the fight to a close for the sake of his own safety.
Taking a few smoke pellets from the pouch on his hip, he threw them and covered the entire arena in a cloud of thick black smoke. The smoke wouldn't do anything to hinder a blind opponent, but it wasn't her sight that he was trying to block. Free of the prying eyes of the crowd around him, Naruto quickly produced several clones and charged. The smoke would not last long and he did not feel like explaining to hundreds of strangers why there were now ten blondes in the fight instead of just one. As he drew closer, he noticed the girl's dumbfounded expression. No doubt, she was having trouble with the sudden appearance of so many people. She managed to shake herself free of her shock just as the first clones reached her. She stomped and a jagged wall of earth extended out from her foot and towards the approaching group. The clones did not even slow down and five of them were instantly dispelled for their trouble. Their sacrifice was, however, not in vain as Toph was left defenseless and the balance of the clones reached her completely unharmed. She managed to destroy one more with a swift kick to the groin before two clones grabbed her by either arm and easily flung her from the arena just as the smoke began to clear. Their task completed, the clones dispelled themselves – their tell-tale smoke easily blending in with the last of the smoke screen.
The crowd was in an uproar; both excited at the unexpected outcome and outraged at not having been able to actually see it. Xin Fu didn't even try to shout over the noise – instead opting to just begrudgingly hand Naruto his winnings and take his leave. Naruto barely made it two steps before he found himself surrounded. Hundreds of people struggled to get closer to him; some trying to offer their own congratulations, others asking questions while seeking to be heard over all of the others. It was several minutes before he was able to find anyone whose opinion actually mattered to him.
"That was an amazing fight, Naruto!" Katara exclaimed as she and the others finally made their way through the crowd. Naruto just scratched the back of his head, still unused to receiving such praise.
Aang however seemed to have other concerns. "What happened to The Blind Bandit? I want to ask her to teach me earthbending."
Naruto blinked a couple of times before trying to look around. It was difficult to tell with such a large crowd, but it seemed that The Blind Bandit had already left. She had likely left shortly after the match had ended. He supposed that he really couldn't blame her. Not many would be willing to sit around and watch as everyone celebrated their loss. "Huh, I guess she already left…"
Naruto trailed off at the irritated glare Aang was directing at him. "Did you at least get her real name?"
"Uh… oops?"
Well, there you go. No big announcements or rants. Oh, before you say anything, I know Xin Fu was out of character so don't bother mentioning it.
I have not received any pics, so I am obviously still accepting them.
Next time: the conclusion of "The Blind Bandit" episode. Look forward to it.
