AN: Hello readers, and welcome to the second arc of The Avatar's Will of Fire! Let me explain: the past chapters have been meant to serve as an introduction to this story's world as a whole; you know, bringing Naruto to Korra's world and setting up all the characters and what have you. I'm aware that the first arc does have some problems, to which I can only attribute my inexperience as a writer, but, now that I actually have some experience, I will hopefully be able to wirte a better story for it.

I will tell you that this arc is going to focus on the changes to Korra's universe and how it got to that point. And by the way, these sparring sessions and training where there dosen't feel like any real danger? To paraphrase Family Guy, "Enjoy them now, because they're going the hell overboard!"

That said, I do deeply appreciated the support and feedback from those of you who have enjoyed the story so far, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy it.


Once again, Beta'd by Vandenbz.


Chapter 8: Cries of the Past


Taro liked the new base.

Whereas the Equalists' former headquarters was stationed on an island, an island which would have been spotted by just about anyone with a small amount of effort, the new headquarters within the vast networks of underground tunnels beneath the surface of Republic City negated that little concern. In addition, the Equalists could now carry out any future operations more effectively.

Overall, he couldn't complain about the place.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about their new 'ally'.

Taro had never liked Hiroshi Sato from what he had read about him in the papers, and after meeting the man, he disliked him even more. To Taro, everything about Sato just screamed weakness.

Well, the businessman was one of their main economic sources, so Taro could put up with him for as long as he had to. Though he still wanted to kill the man every time Sato started talking. Like he was now.

"You assured me that our people would be prepared to fight a war. We haven't even put a dent in our enemy's forces." He said in that self-assured, pompous way that Taro had quickly come to hate.

"My people. Remember that you were the one who came to me." Amon shot back instantly. Apparently Sato tested even his patience.

Sato clenched his jaw, but accepted the rebuke silently.

"And it is not something you need concern yourself with." He continued. "Once you deliver the rest of your weapons, things will change."

It was utterly patronizing, and it served to remind Sato of his place, and the man left as quickly as possible, fists clenching in anger.

It was some of the best entertainment Taro had had outside of a fight in years.

He became serious again when he felt Amon's gaze land on him.

"We're almost ready." He said, and Taro was sure there was a hint of excitement in his voice.

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought we were going to wait a few more months." While he had no doubt they could at least do some serious damage as they were now, he had thought the plan was to wait until they had gathered more of their forces.

"The situation has changed." Amon answered.

Taro had no response to that, and so waited for him to continue.

"The metalbenders have our people," Amon began, and Taro had to fight the urge to grind his teeth at the memory that sprung up so he could focus on what his boss was saying. "I believe we need to correct that."

000

Naruto had to say, the metalbenders had some good training grounds. Maybe not quite as good as the ones back home, but very close.

In fact, they were surprisingly similar to Team 7's old training area. Apparently some things really didn't change, even in different worlds.

He was broken out of his musings when one of his shadow clones charged towards him, kunai drawn and aimed at his throat. Naruto sidestepped and drove a fist into the clone's chest, which would have immobilized any real opponent, but simply caused the clone to disperse.

Which meant now he only had to deal with the eight—formerly twenty—clones remaining.

He wasted no time and dashed to the other clones surrounding him. He would not be using any jutsus or weapons during this spar—aside from the obvious. For now, he wanted to focus on his stamina, speed, and endurance, which for some reason seemed to have weakened a bit ever since he had first come here. He still hadn't worked that one out.

At the edge of the field, two metalbenders had wandered near the training ground he was using, drawn by the sound of the (very) intense fighting that had been going on for the past three hours, and were now watching the struggle before them in slack-jawed astonishment.

"Hey, Min?" One of the metalbenders asked his partner, still not taking his eyes off the fighting blondes. "Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing this. Because if I am, then I'm going to have to quite the force."

No response. "Min?" He asked again, still unable to tear his eyes away.

His partner replied dazedly "I want to say it's real, but I'm afraid of what that would mean."

Before either man could do or say anything else, they were jolted back to reality by a curt "Gentlemen."

The two turned, startled, to find themselves face-to-face with Lin herself, staring down at them sternly. "Don't you two have jobs to do?"

While neither one of them really wanted to leave just yet—if their chief wanted to talk to the odd kid personally, it must have been for something good—they both knew there was no arguing with her, and so gave her crisp salutes and made their way back to the station. They also knew that whatever it was that had just happened, the chief would kill them if they ever spoke about it to anyone.

For his part, Naruto had known that he was being watched—he was a ninja, how could he not?—he had known that they weren't threatening, and so chose to ignore them in favor of his training. When Lin had shown up, however, he knew that she wanted something, and since he had apparently just gotten off her bad side, he felt that it wouldn't be wise to keep her waiting.

Time to finish this, then.

As one of the two remaining clones got within range, Naruto grabbed its arm rather than destroy it, twisting the arm within his grasp and forcing the clone to release its kuani, which he grabbed and threw towards the final clone, slamming his knee into the captured clone's gut.

Slightly out of breath from the three-hour training session, Naruto turned his attention to Lin, looking her in the eyes. "Did you want something?"

Lin's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything about whatever it was that had bothered her. "Actually, I wanted to know if you would be interested in a spar." There. That was done.

Naruto blinked, surprised. He certainly hadn't been expecting that. While he normally may have jumped at the chance—clones were a poor substitute for an actual sparring partner—he couldn't help being wary as he recalled Lin's suspicions of him until recently. "Why?"

The older woman paused before answering, as if she was struggling to come up with the right words. Naruto tried to apply what knowledge of body language he had, but he couldn't find any signs of aggression. At least, not aggression aimed at him.

After a lengthy pause, she told him, "As you know, I was the moderator for your spar with Korra. I was impressed. I wanted to see how I would measure up against you." Naruto wasn't sure what to make of this. A few days ago she had all but hated him (okay, maybe that was a bit strong, but still), and now she wanted to spar with him? There had to be another reason, but for the life of him he couldn't think of one.

Perhaps picking up on his hesitance, Lin sighed. "Look, kid, there's no hidden agenda here. I'm not trying to exploit you, I'm not going to "interrogate' you—"Naruto couldn't help his sheepish smile at that—"I'm just offering a spar. Nothing more."

Naruto still didn't quite trust her, but he figured he may as well give her a shot. "Any conditions?" He asked, curious to see if she'd make any concessions.

"No… techniques." She responded quickly, for some reason hesitating mid-speech.

Okay, he could work with that. "And what about weapons?" He persisted, subtly glancing towards his kunai.

Her answer this time was far more assured. "Blades would be permitted."

So, she had weapons of her own, huh? Well, that made things interesting.

Naruto grinned, excited at the prospect of another spar despite still having misgivings about the earthbender. "You're on. I could use a good cool-down anyway."

Lin only gave a brief nod, though Naruto could swear he saw a flash of eagerness in her eyes as she moved to the opposite end of the training ground.

Naruto prepared his kunai, but frowned when he saw the older woman just standing there, waiting. "You sure you want me to use a weapon?"

Now Lin smirked, and Naruto knew that he hadn't imagined that eagerness. "You might want to get another another knife." She said, almost smugly.

He was about to correct her (they were kunai, dammit!) when gave a quick flick of her wrist, revealing two solid-steel blades that extended slightly past her forearms.

Rather than feeling intimidated by the sight of the weapons, Naruto grinned widely before taking Lin's advice and drawing a second kuani, preparing himself. Now things got interesting.

That was his last thought before Lin charged towards him, wrist-blade lashing out, which Naruto met with his own kunai in a shower of sparks.

Lin quickly retaliated, bringing her other blade to his mid-section, which he parried just as quickly.

Naruto aimed a low kick at her knees—despite what some people (mostly civilians) seemed to think, things such as high kicks usually did little more than leave a whole sweep of openings for an opponent to exploit—forcing her to leap back, where the two eyed each other warily before meeting in the center again.

As had become something of a habit he had picked up from the war, a distant part of Naruto's mind began analyzing the older woman's fighting style. She was good—very good—but from what little he knew of Lin's style of fighting, she was no expert. Probably because she didn't have to use her weapons as much as her earthbending abilities. She wasn't as fast as some people he had encountered who used similar styles, but what she lacked in speed she more than made up in strength.

Every time he blocked her attacks, Naruto felt the jarring impact travel through his arm down to his body. The whole thing reminded him of his encounter with that earthbender who attacked the Island when he had first woken up, but it wasn't the same. Lin wasn't anywhere near as tough as that guy had been, and even if her strikes had a similar strength behind them, even without reinforcing his body with chakra, Naruto could bear it. He'd have to look into it later.

There was another thing, though. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, but it felt like there was something… missing from the earthbender's attacks, almost as if she wasn't focusing entirely on the spar. But then what was she thinking of?

His unasked questions were shortly answered when Lin actually spoke mid-attack. "So, kid, what's your home like?"

Naruto was so startled by the unexpected question that he almost missed another strike, this one aimed at his arm, as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Pausing before he even attempted to answer her, Naruto looked into Lin's eyes as the two traded attacks and counter-attacks with each other, neither one anywhere close to overpowering the other.

As a shinobi, Naruto had been trained since a young age to read the body language of others, subtle signs that were incredibly difficult to control and which any ninja worth their salt would use to try and anticipate what that person was thinking. While he had absolutely flunked that part of training in the academy, Naruto had learned its uses while he had trained with Jiraiya, particularly during combat, when manipulating those signs would be even more difficult, if not impossible.

He was able to use this same skill now, despite the fact that he and Lin were still lashing out at each other at speeds that the untrained eye would be hard-pressed to track. Lin would be able to hide nothing from him at this point, and he could see nothing but pure, honest curiosity.

Was that why she had wanted to spar with him? She could have just asked, but he supposed this was more entertaining if nothing else.

Noticing Lin was waiting patiently for a response (while they were still fighting) Naruto answered. "If you mean my actual home, it's a great place. If you're talking about my world, it's nice enough when people aren't trying to kill you."

Naruto thought he saw Lin's lips twitch upward, but he couldn't be sure since he had to dodge her sweeping slash.

"You mentioned some kind of war?"

Naruto frowned; he thought that she'd finished the subject the other night, but once again, this time she simply seemed curious. "Yeah."

Lin attacked again with three quick jabs, all of which Naruto deflected with his kunai before giving her a strike of his own, which Lin blocked. "Care to talk about it?" Despite the still-rapid pace of the fight, Naruto thought he could detect a hint of concern in the question.

He sighed internally; he had known that at some point someone would ask him questions about the war, but that didn't mean he had been looking forward to it. The war wasn't something he liked thinking about, especially the catastrophe during the last month before the end. Still, Lin seemed to be making an effort to get to know him, even if it was somewhat unusual, so he could make an effort as well.

"I guess it was similar to your hundred-year war a while back; some lunatic who"—Naruto blocked Lin's strike to his chest—"wanted to bring everyone under his control"—another attack aimed at his knee—"and was willing to kill anybody who disagreed with him." As he finished, Naruto retaliated with jabs of his own, forcing Lin back on the defensive.

"It can't have been that simple." Lin noted as she dodged his attacks.

"It wasn't." Naruto agreed, not relenting. "But that's about as much as I can get out right now."

Lin broke away from him and put as much distance between them as possible, and the two fighters began circling each other, waiting for one of them to make the next move.

"How were you trained?" Lin asked again, still staring him down.

Naruto wasn't thrown by the seemingly abrupt change of subject; Lin must have picked up on his hesitance to talk about the war. If nothing else, he supposed he appreciated it. "I went to the academy when I was six and became an actual ninja when I was twelve."

Lin's eyes narrowed like they had when he had brought the war up the other night, but again without any hostility. "You've been training to kill since you were six years old?" Her tone was an odd mix of anger and something else he couldn't identify, though he wasn't sure what she was angry about.

Still, no point in hiding anything from her now. "Of course not; they didn't get into that part of our training until I was nine."

Lin frowned again, still appearing angry, but shifting her stance for another round. "And your parents approved of this?"

Naruto prepared himself as well, though he would wait for her to make the first move; since she seemed to be at her best when he was attacking her, Naruto would let her come to him this time. "My parents died the night I was born; their permission wasn't really an issue."

Lin paused, and again Naruto couldn't gauge her reaction before she acted, this time moving in to attack.

There was a lull in the conversation as they both chose to focus on the fight, though Naruto would be willing to bet that it was for different reasons. He just wanted to take his mind off the war and his past; he wasn't sure what Lin was thinking at the moment.

Eventually, the frenzied-yet-controlled attacks were broken by Lin again. "So how old are you, anyway?"

Naruto's answer was immediate as he deflected an attack aimed at his shoulder. "I turned seventeen about a month before I came here."

Lin paused, which Naruto took immediate advantage of to launch a series of continuous slashes targeting various vital points on Lin's body, forcing her back bit by bit.

The tables turned again, though, when Lin was able to counter his last attack, allowing her to regain her footing.

"So," she started again, and Naruto noticed that she was panting slightly, "You have any idea what Korra's working on?"

Naruto paused again, and attempted to read her body language once more, but again found no hints of an ulterior motive. "Meditation."

Lin raised an eyebrow, raising her blades again as she recovered her breath. "And how is that going?" The question contained more than a little skepticism, and Naruto couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

"I'd imagine she's very frustrated right now."

Lin smirked for a brief moment before they clashed again.

000

Korra was incredibly frustrated.

She had been trying to meditate—or "find her center," as Tenzin had put it—for a little over three hours, and she had gotten nothing!

No matter what she did, no matter how she started this exercise, Korra would invariably be in the same position as when she had started.

By this point, Korra would usually be venting her frustration—typically with something involving fire—but she tried to calm herself.

Korra knew that Naruto wouldn't allow his frustration to get to him like this, and he was technically her teacher, so she supposed she should try and follow his example.

And it wasn't as if this was pointless; aside from maybe unlocking her airbending, if even half of the things that Naruto had told her about that… 'Sage Mode,' she thought he called it, and she could manage a fraction that, it would be more than worth the frustration.

That still didn't help her right now, though.

Korra had known from the start that meditation didn't have any 'tricks' to it; there would be no shortcuts, no convenient loopholes that she could use to get it down faster, but she hadn't anticipated making no progress at all in over three weeks total!

Korra sighed, opening her eyes. This was a lot more difficult than she would have thought.

What would Naruto do?

The question came almost without any conscious thought, but it was still a good one, and Korra knew the answer almost immediately.

Naruto wouldn't just sit there and whine. He wouldn't waste time feeling sorry for himself or blame his problems on anything else.

No, Korra knew on an almost instinctual level that Naruto would try and try again until he got it right.

So Korra took her previous position—a very rough imitation of what Tenzin had shown her—and tried again, attempting to ignore the heat rushing to her cheeks as she thought of Naruto.

Maybe she should talk to somebody about that. It had been happening far too often lately.

XXX

Later, Korra would never be able to tell anyone who asked when exactly it had happened. For a long while, she wouldn't even be sure what it was, because something told her that it wasn't what she had been trying to achieve.

But in the end, it had been far eclipsed by everything that would happen next.

XXX

An unknown period of time later, Korra opened her eyes to see that the world around her had changed.

She was no longer on the Island. Now she was in a vast, open plain, green grass spreading as far as the eye could see, interspaced with various different rock formations scattered throughout. The sky was a clear blue, with no clouds in sight.

Korra glanced around to see that she was alone. In fact, there was no sign of life around her at all.

"I don't think this was what Tenzin meant," She muttered out loud. There was no way this could be the whole "achieving balance " thing that Tenzin had always lectured her about.

"Indeed not." A wizened voice came from in front of her, despite the fact that she knew nothing had been there a moment ago.

Turning quickly at the sound, Korra's eyes widened when she saw who was standing in front of her.

Long silver hair and traditional Fire-Nation robes, he looked exactly like he had in her vision.

Roku.

He gave her a small smile as Korra desperately tried to get her mouth to work. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Avatar." He greeted formally, though not coldly.

Korra found the ability to form words again, but unfortunately had not gotten to the point where she could control them, because the first words out of her mouth were "Actually, I'm not the Avatar. Yet." Korra realized what she had said a moment too late, and immediately felt the urge to smack herself. This would probably be one of the biggest meetings of her life, and she just made herself look like an idiot.

Roku only chuckled in response, breaking Korra out of her thoughts. "I am grateful to see that the current Avatar is an honest one." He said warmly. "It is an admirable quality."

Now Korra finally felt ready to speak without making an idiot of herself, and she decided it was time to get down to business. "What do you want?"

Roku's features grew grim. "To warn you."

Well, she wasn't expecting that. "About what?" she asked, bracing herself for whatever his answer would be. If it was big enough that Roku had to tell her personally, it had to be serious.

"The boy. Naruto Uzumaki." What? Korra blinked, confused; what did Naruto have to do with any of this?

Roku locked eyes with her. "The boy is dangerous, Korra." What?

Before Korra could protest, Roku continued. "You may not want to believe it, but every moment that boy is here in our world, he puts all those around him at risk….

Korra felt her anger rise as Roku spoke, his words fading out as her was drawn back to what had happened just the day before…

Korra smiled as she saw the normally composed and quite Jinora all but bouncing on her feet. "Is he here yet?"

Korra chuckled. "Asami and the others are bringing him Jinora; I'm sure he'll be here soon enough."

The young pouted at the answer, still barely containing her excitement. She supposed the same could be said Ikki and Meelo as well, although since that was how they normally acted, she couldn't really see much of a difference.

Korra couldn't blame the kids for being excited. If she had to be honest with herself, she was too. She hadn't really taken part in something like this before.

"Korra? Why are holding that so tightly?" Pema asked from beside her, and Korra looked down to see that her grip on her particular gift was a bit strong.

Forcing herself to relax, Korra grinned sheepishly at Pema. "Just nerves, I guess."

Pema smiled warmly at her. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

The conversation was cut short by the sound of Naruto's voice from outside. "Alright Asami, you said the others had something I needed to see; what was it?" Korra thought she could hear a trace of exaggeration in Naruto's voice, even as she felt her heartbeat speed up.

Asami giggled as she opened the door, leading Bolin and Mako into the room after her. "That would ruin the surprise, silly!"

Then Naruto entered as well, "Yeah sure—"

"SURPRISE!" Naruto was quickly cut off by Ikki and Jinora—Meelo had fallen asleep again—and he jumped, startled, before he realized the source of the sound.

"Uh, hi?"

Chuckling, Pema quickly took charge. "We do have something to show you, Naruto. Something we've been working on for quite a while, I might add."

At Naruto's obvious confusion, Pema smiled and gestured to his gift.

Naruto saw what she meant, and Korra couldn't help thinking how cute he looked when he was confused (she quickly did her best to force the thought out of her mind).

"Are those my clothes?"

"…There are those who believe that his kind should have never been allowed to exist—"

"Shut. Up."

Roku blinked, clearly not expecting the interruption (Arrogant bastard) "I beg your pardon?"

"I said shut up!" Korra barked. She knew it was beyond stupid to piss of a sprit like Roku, but she just didn't care at this point.

"You think Naruto's dangerous?" she continued, hands clenching into fists, "Well, let me tell you something; Naruto is the only reason I'm still alive right now! If it wasn't for him, I would have been crushed less than a week ago! Not to mention that he saved Aang's family and just about everyone else when he first woke up here! So yeah, I can't say Naruto would never hurt anyone, but would you mind telling me what makes so dangerous to me?"

When she had finally finished, Korra paused, waiting for Roku's response, panting slightly from the rush of anger that seemed to be coursing through her entire body.

And then, Roku smiled. "I am glad to see you are loyal as well. You will need that loyalty soon enough"

Huh?

Seeing Korra's confusion, Roku explained, "I apologize for that, Korra; I had to know that you would not trust me blindly."

"I understand that this will not make sense to you right now, and I apologize again, but my time here is short, and I ask that you try and bear with me."

Korra would have given her consent, but she was still trying to wrap her head around everything that had just happened. Roku continued. "There is more to this war than you realize. These Equalists claim that they fight for the people of Republic City, and offer themselves as the natural solution to the failings of its government. This is a lie. Everything they claim to stand for is a lie. And I warn you now, if this Amon wins, the world will fall."

At Korra's ongoing silence, Roku said curtly "I imagine you have questions."

That was enough to break Korra out of her stupor. "YES, I have questions!" She bellowed. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

Roku sighed heavily, somehow conveying a regretful tone through the action. "The things you must know cannot be simply told, and you cannot be shown them before you are ready."

This was getting more confusing by the second. She had only been trying to meditate! How had that turned into this?

"But you can learn them, in time." Roku finished, now waiting for her to react.

He did not have to wait long. "What are you talking about?" Korra repeated, though much more calmly this time. She figured she if she couldn't do anything to control this… meeting, then she may as well go along with it.

Roku paused, almost as if he were uncertain. "I cannot guarantee that you will be unscathed by this, Korra."

What did he mean by that?

Roku gazed at her solemnly. "What I am about to pass onto you has fundamentally broken those of weaker minds. While you were chosen to be the Avatar for a reason, I cannot say that you will be able to endure this."

Korra waited for him to continue, before she realized that was all he had to say.

"That's it?" If whatever he was going to do was as dangerous as he said, couldn't he elaborate a little?

No answer.

Korra sighed, realizing that this was something the spirit wanted her to decide for herself.

So, what choices did she have? Naruto had stressed the need for planning things like this, and while he had admitted that it wasn't his strong suite, Korra could understand the importance, and figured now would be as good a time as any to start.

The most obvious choice was to refuse, which would most likely result in her 'waking up,' so to speak, and she could do the same thing she had been up to this point.

On the other hand, it sounded like whatever Roku wanted to show her was important too, maybe even something that could help bring down the Equalists altogether. But she also had no idea what would happen to her; she wasn't sure what it was, what it would do, or even if it would really help her.

But in the end, the choice was a simple one. She was the Avatar, and it was her duty to protect the people. If that meant risking herself with this, then so be it.

"I'll do it," she said, looking Roku right in the eye.

Roku nodded grimly, though she thought there was a hint of pride as well. "So be it." He proclaimed, unknowingly echoing her own thoughts.

—And then she was back in the real world, still the same as she had been before, albeit panting heavily.

Once she had caught her breath, Korra checked on herself, finding no obvious changes.

"Well that was a let-down."

000

Beyond the mortal plain, former Avatar Roku watched the with a heavy heart as Korra faded from view. There were many who would consider what he had just done unforgivable, a crime against nature itself, and he shuddered at the thought of what would become of Korra if he was wrong and it was all too much for her to bear.

But he knew that this was the only way, regardless of how much he might hate himself for it.

"This is the only way." He heard from behind him, and he didn't need to see who had spoken to know who it was.

Roku had not wanted to form an alliance with that particular being, but he was rapidly running out of options. They all were.

"Aang does not approve."

He could all but hear the answering smile. "And that is why you both came to me."

Roku's eyes tightened, the only visible sign of his aggravation, but he knew the words were true.

"I must admit, I question our judgment." Roku said, ignoring the comment.

"Oh?" Outsider—Roku refused to call him by that ludicrous title he had chosen for himself—question. "And what, precisely, troubles you?"

"Our focus." Roku answered. Assuming the following silence was meant for him, Roku elaborated, "Korra has an army that rivals nations arrayed against her, and yet we choose to focus on a single man."

A snort. "I would hardly call him a 'man' at this point." And Roku hid a smile; on this at least, they agreed.

The Outsider continued. "And we both know that a victory by him would render the point moot."

He was right, of course, but that just raised more problems. No Avatar had ever needed to stand against what Korra would soon face.

"Shouldn't you return to your own realm soon?" The question may have come out a bit testily, but it was still valid. The Outsider would be of no use to anyone dead.

He smiled in that way that only he seemed to be able to pull off, that same mix of understanding with a hint of condescension.

"Korra is stronger than you give her credit for." The spirit turned to leave, midnight cloak swishing around him.

"She is already stronger by far than some of her predecessors." And then he was gone.

That comment incredibly vexing, but Roku certainly couldn't respond to it.

Instead, he turned his attention elsewhere, towards what had driven him to seek the Outsider out in the first place.

It was coming. Soon.

Roku hoped that the others were right, and this Naruto Uzumaki was capable of what they claimed.

If he or Korra failed, the Dírén would devour them all.

000

Naruto grinned as he gathered his chakra, the most he had gathered since he had first come to this world.

He was getting back in shape.

True, he was still nowhere near what he had been capable of before coming to this world, but at least he wasn't as weak a kitten anymore.

He and Lin had fought for the better part of an hour, and when it became clear that neither one of them would be able to pull ahead while they were both holding themselves back so much, they had called it a draw. Lin hadn't made much of his abilities, only saying he was 'decent,' but if that glint in her eye was anything to go by, Naruto would be sparring with her again soon.

Focusing, Naruto gathered more chakra, so much that it became visible, a blue aura surrounding the outfit that Pema and the others had repaired.

Naruto still couldn't believe that they had done that for him, and that Asami, Mako, and Bolin appeared to be in on it as well, despite not knowing him all that long yet. What had really gotten to him, though, was the gift he had received from Korra. Iruka's headband, now wrapped around his right arm, fully repaired and in the same condition as it was before the last battle.

Naruto had noticed that the headband's cloth was different, about the same color as the clothes that Korra was wearing, and he had been surprised to learn that Korra had repaired it with her own hands (under Pema's supervision), using traditional colors of her tribe. Naruto hadn't known what to say. To Korra, repairing the headband had simply been an act of kindness, but she had no idea how much it really meant to him. Maybe he would be able to tell her someday.

But for now, Naruto would focus on his techniques. He still wasn't sure what was up with the Shadow Clones, but he figured that he could work that out in time.

Speaking of which…

Forming a shadow clone, the blondes went trhough the familiar pattern, and when the clone dispersed, Naruto now had what appeared to be a fully-formed Rasengan in his hands, although it was much larger than the last one he had used.

"Oodama Rasengan!"


Okay, so some quick notes:

About the spar with Lin, it might seem out of character for her, but I wanted to try and explore Lin's character and focus more on Naruto's past without just rehashing things that have already been done before in this story (or any other on this site) and try something unique. I think it was unique, at any rate.

And about the side-effects of the Kage Bunshins, well... hintity-hint-hint.


Omake (inspired by Vandenbz):

Korra grinned again. "Team Avatar."

If nothing else, at least she wouldn't be alone.

"Yeah, I'm not sure about that." Naruto interjected casually. "It's a little on the nose, don't you think?"

"What are you talking about? It's perfect!" Bolin exclaimed. "It's Team Avatar!"

"Yeah, and what would you suggest anyway Naruto?" Asami asked, smiling slightly.

"Team Uzumaki." Naruto said smugly, which led to him and Bolin debating the finer points of "Team Names."

Well, at least they have their priorities straight, Korra thought, though she couldn't help the affectionate smile that spread across her face.

She could only shake her head at Naruto's uncanny ability to lighten the mood.