A warm breeze tousled Juno's hair. She was squatting beside a fire, gently adjusting the angle of the fish-spits stuck in the ground. The sun was shining through the canopy of leaves overhead, and it was actually warm enough that she had started to work up a seat inside her poncho before removing her outer layer in concession to the heat.
The warm, sunny weather was a welcomed respite. Wherever she had ended up, it was a wet country. Almost a solid week and a half of rain and overcast skies had set the tone of her entry to her new home.
In a way, it had felt appropriate. The rain had made a good partner to her gloomy mood. Juno had spent the first few days after her arrival oscillating between sulking in depression and sobbing in abject grief. Asa had been somewhat of a comfort, but even his cheery disposition could not cure that ailment.
After a few days of self-indulgent, emotional wallowing, Juno had finally felt the urge to move on somewhat. She had exited the portal into a dense forest with a vaguely tropical air, mostly deciduous trees with some palms. She hadn't moved far from that location at first, reluctant to venture from the location the portal had brought her to, even though it had faded away almost as soon as she had exited it. Eventually, she brought herself to explore around the nearby area and discovered she was on a mostly uninhabited island surrounded by mangrove trees in a brackish lagoon.
It was only mostly uninhabited, as she had discovered a small fishing shack with an attached dock on the afternoon of the third day. It was shabby looking, made of wood panels and corrugated metal plates. She watched cautiously from afar for several hours and decided it was probably empty, but the sight of it was somewhat of a reassurance. Hurosai had promised that the worlds they were going to were populated by humans, but she hadn't been that inclined to trust his word after what happened.
She eventually poked around the shack, trying to see if she could find any useful information. The door had been unlocked, and it sparsely furnished inside. It clearly wasn't a residence, or at least wasn't currently being used that way, since there was no bed, just a few rickety chairs and a cooking area. It wasn't overly dusty though. This told her that she was likely within a days travelling distance to a human settlement, and that this was a frequently used shack to spend the day at before returning home to sleep.
There were a few other interesting finds that puzzled and excited Juno. One was a stack of books she had found on an upturned crate. Well, she thought they were 'books', but they weren't like any she had seen before. They were made entirely of brightly coloured pictures on highly glossy paper. The pictures were fantastically realistic, rendered in impossibly detailed accuracy that made Juno feel like she was looking through a window. She spent close to two hours flipping through them to marvel at the scenes. They almost completely involved fishing in some form, many portraying different kinds of strange equipment, fishing rods, and clothing the likes of which Juno had never seen before.
The last picture book in the pile was composed entirely of pictures of scantily clad women in seductive poses.
She thumbed through that one with as much interest as the fishing books, though she was definitely blushing. The women were wearing a variety of very revealing clothing, and all were very well endowed and had exotic hair colours, like green and blue. Juno found herself wondering if this was an indication of current fashions, and if the hair colours were naturally occurring. It seemed unlikely on the first front, as many of the outfits seemed very impractical. As for the second, she supposed there could very well be people here with green and blue hair.
Tugging absentmindedly on a lock of her own dark brown hair and thinking of her own modest curves, Juno privately hoped that she wouldn't stand out too horribly.
The cooking area held a few other interesting discoveries, such as the packaged goods she found in the cupboards. There were boxes of dried biscuits, and brightly coloured tin cans that showed pictures of delicious looking noodle and rice dishes on them. Juno was tempted to try and figure out how to eat them, but was a little conflicted about stealing someone else's food. It was doubly tempting, as she was heartily sick of eating grilled fish, which was all she had felt confident enough to eat without knowing the local flora.
She did give in a little and she and Asa shared a biscuit together. He grumbled about getting only the one, but she didn't want to resort to stealing if she could get away with it. It was pretty stale and kind of bland, but it was such a welcomed alternative to fish that she was tempted to eat the whole box.
She carefully returned everything to how they had found it before leaving. Her discoveries were confusing to say the least. She had initially thought the shack belonged to someone poor because of the state of disrepair it had been in, but the picture books and foodstuff inside seemed kind of luxurious to her. Maybe they were so commonplace here that even the poor could afford them? It seemed unlikely, but she didn't have any way of knowing for sure right now.
It didn't take long after that before Juno got her first glimpse of people. Two men had come in on a boat the morning after and spent the day fishing off the end of the dock. The boat had fascinated her, despite the bleakness of her overall mood. It was wooden, and shaped like a normal boat, but appeared to be propelled by a loud, metal contraption at the stern. She recognized it as one she had seen in the picture books.
The men had looked normal enough. One was middle aged and one was younger, with enough of a resemblance that Juno assumed they were related in some way. They were dressed in drab, simple clothing, and both wore conical paddy-hats to keep the rain off their heads. She was relieved to see that they both had dark brown hair and regular body proportions.
When they loaded their catch onto their boat and left the shack at the end of the day, Juno followed at a discreet distance, keeping pace while water-bending on an ice floe. The route took them past several other small islands, revealing that they were actually in an archipelago. They headed south a ways, and Juno made sure to stay out of sight, which became more difficult as they encountered other fishing vessels.
Eventually, she abandoned her pursuit. Following them had led her to wider and more populated waterways, and it didn't take her long before finding a large human settlement.
It was, to Juno's eyes, a large town. It was built right up to the water, with buildings similar in style to the fishing shack she had seen. It was fairly tidy looking, although it looked like the town had once been more prosperous. There were solid stone bridges and many two-story buildings, but the paint was peeling on most of them and roof's were being repaired with metal sheets instead of split tiles. Confusingly, there were many tall poles and ropes located around the town. Juno couldn't imagine what they were for.
Since then, she had been procrastinating what to do as her next course of action. Juno knew that she would eventually have to venture into town and talk to someone. She knew she shared a common language with these people, as the words on the picture book were in the trade tongue commonly used throughout the world she had come from, but she was intimidated nonetheless. How on earth would that conversation go?
Hello, I'm Juno. I'm the Avatar, and I'm from a different world. Nice to meet you.
Yeesh. As the Avatar, she had been trained in how to deal with many types of diplomatic situations with grace and poise. But, she had no such training for how to have that sort of conversation. So here she was, eating grilled fish once more and twiddling her thumbs.
The sun was dancing on the surface of the water, which was flowing sedately towards the sea. They were currently camped on the river bank, about a stone's throw away from a wide, well-worn dirt path leading into the town. She wasn't making any real effort to conceal them at this point, kind of hoping that someone would approach their camp and take the whole matter out of her hands. With the birds chirping and a slight breeze to cool the sweat on the back of her neck, it was at least relaxing to wait around.
At least, until the fog rolled in.
It was so sudden. One moment, she was enjoying the sunshine, the next, she could barely see the other side of the river. Rocking back on her heels, slightly on edge, Juno glanced behind her to check on Asa, who was currently trying to supplement his otherwise monotonous diet with some tasty bugs.
Looking back over the river, Juno was startled to see the sudden appearance of a tall, strangely dressed man on the water. He was facing away from her, toward the other riverbank, with one arm extended over his head. Then as quickly as he had appeared, he vanished.
Juno got to her feet. It had happened so fast she wasn't sure of what she had seen. Was it some kind of apparition or spirit? She hadn't seen any evidence of supernatural beings anywhere yet, but that was no reason to think they didn't exist here.
She was uneasy. There was a strange feel to the air. An oppressive, chilling aura that had rolled in with the fog. She heard Asa come up behind her, quickly clambering up onto her shoulder to tug at her ear.
"Yeah, I know buddy, I can sense it too." She patted at him distractedly.
She was still for a moment, considering. Then, with a small decisive nod to herself, she crouched down to move the fish away from her fire, grabbed her poncho, and stood to leave.
"Lets go check it out."
Juno quickly summoned an ice floe to surf silently to the other side of the river, further downstream from where she had seen the brief glimpse of the figure. Reaching the shore, she carefully made her way through the brush towards where she had seen him, nearer to the village path.
She paused when she heard sounds of a fight. She signalled to Asa to take to the trees above them and hide. He peeped quietly in her ear, and she watched out of the corner of her eye as his form melted into cloud-cover, his white, spotted fur shifting to blend almost seamlessly into the background. Totally camouflaged, his leaping form just looked like a slight blur against the tree trunk.
She creeped forward the remainder of the way, and peered around a thick tree trunk towards the main path.
There were six people, three adults and three children. The kids wore brightly coloured clothing, one, a girl, even sporting bright pink hair like the kind she had seen in the picture book. They were surrounding an old man who was more plainly dressed, with a paddy-hat, spectacles, and a towel around his neck. They all wore large packs, as if travelling a long distance.
Juno was only able to glean these few details before her attention snapped to the two remaining figures. They were two tall men, one, masked with silver hair, and the other with cow-hide sleeves and leggings and a bandage wrapped around his face. They were currently locked in combat, with the bandaged man swinging around a frankly huge sword.
Juno tried to assess the situation. She didn't want to intervene unless she understood what was going on. Her instinct was to help the old man and the children, who were currently all wielding knives and in a defensive formation. Clearly, one of the two men was attacking the group, and the other was defending, but which one was it? And should she intervene even if she could determine who the instigator is? She had no context for what was going one. She could make a potentially fatal mistake and engage the wrong person or just make the situation worse. Plus, she had no idea how these men, clearly warriors, fought. Did they have bending like she did? Other strange abilities? It could be potentially disastrous for her to underestimate an enemy.
Suddenly, the silver-haired man was thrown into the water by a massive kick to the chest. He scattered metal spikes to the ground before going under, but that didn't stop the other man for long. He just leapt over them in a graceful arc to alight on the river. When the silver-haired man emerged, sputtering through his mask, his enemy was already looming behind him. Juno saw his hands move in strange configurations startlingly fast and then heard:
"Heh, fool. Water Prison Jutsu!"
"No!"
In an instant, a large sphere of water appeared, encasing the silver-haired man inside. The water swirled around him, kept aloft by one of the bandaged man's muscular arms.
Juno couldn't help the startled gasp that escaped her, though luckily it appeared no one noticed with the excitement of the battle.
Was that bending? If so, it wasn't like any kind she had seen before. The man had summoned a water sphere with only a few gestures of his hands, not with sweeping arms and legs like she would have expected of a typical bender. And what was with the incantation? Water prison something? Was it a spell then? How was he maintaining it without moving?
She was distracted by the sight when she clued in to hear the bandaged man say "...I'll finish you off later. But first, your little friends will have to be eliminated."
"Water Clone Jutsu"
Juno was startled once more when a perfect copy of the bandaged man appeared suddenly on the banks of the river, facing the children and the old man. Well, at least that answered the question about who was the aggressor in this situation. But Juno was torn. The skills displayed in the short time she had been watching were like nothing she had imagined was possible. She was normally very confident in her prowess as a warrior, but she wasn't sure if she could even take this guy.
The bandaged man's copy addressed the children: "You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja…?" What followed was a frankly terrifying speech filled with gore and violence clearly meant to intimidate his foes. Juno wasn't sure if it was working on the kids, but it was definitely working on her.
She teetered on her toes, conflicted now more than ever. This guy was clearly seriously disturbed, and was obviously targeting the kids and the old man with the intent to kill. Could she really just sit by and watch? All her training as the Avatar compelled her to act in their defence, but should she with so little information?
In a flash, the man's copy disappeared, only to quickly reappear and strike one of the kids, a yellow-haired boy in a garishly orange jumpsuit. He flew through the air, headband flying off his head, and struck the ground hard. Juno flinched and heard the pink-haired girl cry out a name in fear.
"You're just brats." The bandaged man taunted.
The silver-haired man growled and called out from the water prison.
"Listen! Get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight. He's using all his power to keep me in this prison, so he can only fight you with his water clone, but the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow. Now run!
Before Juno knew it, she was moving forward. The man's passionate speech broke through her indecisiveness and spurred her into action. Rolling in on a summoned air-wheel, Juno called out a warning:
"All right, I've heard enough!"
She quickly landed in front of the children and the old man and fell into a classic bending stance, arms up and facing her foe. The children behind her gasped in surprise, but the bandaged man just surveyed her without any outward sign of alarm.
"Huh, who are you?"
"Just call me a concerned citizen."
"This is none of your business, woman. If you value your life, you'll walk away now."
It was too late for that now. Even if she did walk away, she doubted that he would want to leave a witness to what would surely be several murders. She was all in.
"Sorry, I just don't like the idea of letting some bully pick on a bunch of kids and an old man."
"Hey, Lady! Watch out, this guy is bad news!"
Juno inclined her head to the one who spoke without taking her eyes off the copy. It was the kid with yellow hair and the riotously bold orange jumpsuit. "I can handle myself."
The copy growled. "We'll see."
It dashed towards her faster than she could blink. She bent backward, almost in half, to avoid getting cut in two by a slash of the giant sword. She reached back with one arm to brace herself on the ground, and used her momentum to launch a high kick to his head. He jerked his head back, easily avoiding the strike. But he didn't avoid her follow up strike. Drawing from a large puddle of water beside them, Juno threw her legs all the way over into a flip to land upright, then swept her arms forward to launch a whip of water in a direct hit to his midsection.
The copy staggered back from the impact.
"Woah, what was that?" She ignored the loud exclamation from one of the kids.
Her target was looking at her warily, but she didn't give it much chance to rest. She launched a rapid water bending assault, winding her arms in widely spinning circles and sending forward slice after slice of water from the puddle in the ground. The copy had to quickly backtrack to avoid getting hit. It crouched, legs poised to leap away, but Juno targeted the water now surrounding it's feet to freeze it to the ground with a sharp gesture.
Juno straightened and lowered her arms to her side. But before she could relax, with what must have been a massive amount of strength, the copy broke free from the ice.
Right, the thing lugs around a sword longer than she was tall. Obviously it would be strong enough to break out of a little ice prison.
Juno changed tactics. She stomped a foot to the ground and summoned a few large rocks to float at shoulder height in front of her. She lowered into a deep earthbending stance and began to punch powerfully out in front of her to launch them towards her target. She was aiming for his head. If she couldn't trap him, she would have to knock him out.
He deftly dodged her projectiles, or used his massive sword to knock them out of the way. He then started to run towards her, sword pulled back and poised to swing. Eyes opening wide, Juno stomped forward and sent an angled stone column straight out of the ground in front of her to strike him in the head.
To her shock, instead of falling unconscious, the man burst into a spray of water and scattered onto the road.
She jerked back with a cry of surprise: "What the — !"
She heard the kids behind her shout out triumphantly. The loud one in orange yelled at her again.
"Now get the real one!" She glanced back and saw him gesturing wildly towards the two men on the water.
She looked towards them, and saw them both staring wide-eyed back at her. Juno gave a small inward shrug, In for a copper piece, in for an ingot, swept a leg behind her to brace against the ground, then swung around to launch the stone column toward the enemy on the water.
He dodged to the side at the last second, and in doing so released the water sphere trapping the other man.
She fell back into a wide stance, arms up and ready. The bandaged man spun wildly to face her, eyes bulging in anger. He drew his sword up and began to charge at her, yelling "I'll destroy you!".
He only made it a few steps before he had to dodge to the side when the water beneath him exploded upward. The silver-haired man who had been trapped within the sphere of water shot forward, growled threateningly. He reached out and halted the swing of the sword with the metal plates on the back of his gloves. Juno could see a small stream of blood leak down from his hand as they stared off, locked together.
A feminine gasp behind her "Kakashi-sensei!"
It was a tense stand-off as the two men remained temporarily still. The silver-haired man's arm shook slightly in an effort to stave off the sword, but he angled his head casually towards her.
"Thanks." He said dryly.
"Don't mention it."
"I don't suppose I could get you to watch over my comrades while I take care of this, could I?"
Juno looked over to the children, who had gathered around the old man once more.
Reaching down, she picked up the blue, cloth headband that had fallen off the yellow-haired one. She walked over to them and tossed it towards him. He snatched it out of the air and hastily re-tied it on his head
"Uh, alright." She matched his deliberately casual tone.
If he wanted to take over, that was more than fine by her.
He nodded towards her, then turned his attention back to the bandaged man.
"Your technique worked on me once, but it won't work again."
"Humph."
"So, what's it gonna be?".
The man just grunted, then bore down on his sword to press harder against the silver-haired one's defence. The other man grunted in pain, arm shaking in the effort to keep him away. Then, with a powerful thrust of his arm, he sent the sword spinning away from him in a wide arc.
They leapt apart, alighting on the surface of the water several paces away.
Juno watched in cautious fascination as the rest of the battle played out. It involved a lot of hand signing and chanting, and dramatic elemental attacks. Twice, she had to bend waves of water away from herself and the group behind her as their battle spilled over to affect the area around them.
Juno was content to stay back and let the two warriors battle it out. She had gotten lucky in her battle against the clone. She surprised him with her bending ability and had defeated it mostly through the speed of her assault. She had been fortunate that he hadn't tried using any of these strange elemental attacks against her, as she wouldn't have known what to expect or how to respond. It was such a strange mode of combat. She decided to pay as close attention as possible.
During a sudden lull in the fight, the two combatants suddenly leapt apart again, then circled each other.
"He's not just following. He's moving the same way at the same time!" The old man exclaimed behind her.
"How's he doing that? How Sasuke?" That was the girl's voice. Well, at least she wasn't the only one who didn't understand what was going on. Maybe the fight happening in front of them wasn't typical of normal people. In a way the thought was slightly reassuring.
With the lull can some typical taunting and mind-games. Juno found it a little difficult to tear her attention away from their actions to listen to what they were saying, but she tried her best.
"...going to do next?" that was from the silver-haired man. "It makes you furious, doesn't it?" he taunted.
"Huh. All you're doing is copying me like a monkey!" from the bandaged man
Then, strangely, from both simultaneously: "You can't beat me with cheap tricks! I'll crush you!"
A growl in frustration. "When I finish with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again!"
Juno only had a moment to feel affronted on Asa's behalf at the implication that there was something wrong with being a monkey. She saw them make more patterns with their hands, and braced herself for another strange attack.
"Water style: Giant vortex Jutsu!"
If Juno had thought that the water dragon attack from before was big, this one was on a whole different level. A huge swirling vortex of water shot through the forest, strong enough to tear up a few unlucky trees in its path. The other man was quickly engulfed in the water, and was swept under. Juno braced against thel once more to stave off the attack from reaching the bystanders she was watching over. She hoped desperately that Asa hadn't gotten caught in the cross-fire.
When the waters receded, Juno could see that the silver-haired man had pinned the other man to a tree with several small knives.
It looked like the battle was over. Juno took the momentary reprieve as an opportunity to whistle sharply for Asa. Her eyes scanned the surrounding forest intently before sighting a tell-tale distorted blur approaching quickly between a few nearby branches. Juno sighed with relief before turning her attention back to the fight.
In the few moments her attention was diverted, another warrior had apparently appeared and killed the downed man with a few well-thrown needles. It was a short, masked figure in robes similar to styles she had seen amongst earth kingdom citizens.
From the exchange that followed, Juno learned that the figure was some kind of bounty-hunter. It appeared as through the bandaged man had been a fugitive, or a renegade. It made her feel a little more confident in her decision to intervene in the fight.
The yellow-haired boy was clearly disturbed at what had happened. It made Juno suspect that he had never been in a battle before. His reaction wasn't surprising, considering he was probably no older than 12 or 13. On the other hand, he seemed upset mostly because the kid had taken down their enemy so easily, not that it had happened at all.
Juno watched as the silver-haired man approached him, hands in his pockets.
"In this world, there are kids who are younger than you, and yet stronger than me." Now that was a terrifying thought. Just what kind of world had she ended up in?
The masked child disappeared from his perch on the branch, only to reappear next to the bandaged man's body. With apparent ease, he slung the corpse over his shoulder and left them with some parting words:
"Your struggle is over for now. I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands."
He paused. "Please excuse me. Farewell." They both disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
The yellow-haired boy was still agitated, stalking around, then punching the ground in anger. The silver-haired man walked over and stopped him with a conclusive remark: "As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy. Save your anger for the next enemy."
He turned to Juno. "Thanks for your assistance. We would have been in real trouble back there."
"Uh, I was glad to help."
"Yeah, that was so cool what you did before! The tricks with the water and the rocks! Like, woah!" The yellow-haired boy cried out.
Yeesh, that was quite the emotional flip. One second he's punching the ground in anger, the next, he's turned a megawatt grin in her direction. The whiplash made her blink.
"Thanks."
The silver-haired man took a step in her direction, then suddenly froze, eyes wide. Juno watched, taken aback, as he slowly toppled forward in a collapse.
The children around her all gasped and ran towards him.
"What happened?"
"Kakashi-sensei?"
Juno approached the fallen form of their comrade, and reached down to check his pulse. To her relief, a steady beat met her fingers. She lifted the lid of his single exposed eye and lit a tiny flame on the tip of one finger to check his pupillary response. Swinging her finger back and forth, she was glad to see his eye respond normally.
She sensed the children and the old man waiting behind her for a verdict. She rocked back on her heels and turned to face them.
"It looks like nothing's wrong. I'm not sure what happened…"
The pink-haired girl tapped a finger to her chin. "It might be chakra-exhaustion. We learned about it in the academy. Kakashi-sensei would have used a lot of chakra just now in that fight. Maybe he used too much?"
Chakra exhaustion…? She looked down to still figure below her. She had extensive healing training from the water bending masters of the southern water tribes. She could help heal broken bones and close gaping wounds given enough time, but she couldn't heal something she had never heard of before.
"Let's move him to my house. I bet he'll be right as rain with a little rest and food in him." The old man said decisively. He looked at her pointedly.
Juno sighed. She guessed she couldn't leave the task of carrying an unconscious person to an old man and some children. Before she moved to pick him up, she turned to face the trees and gave a short whistle. Asa quickly emerged from the forest cover, fully visible, having shed his cloud-cover.
The others gasped at his appearance, but quickly overcame their startlement. The pink and yellowed-haired kids cooed and cried at Asa, and he quickly diverted his path towards her to go beg for attention and cuddles. She watched him affectionately as he clambered onto the head of the yellow-haired boy to tug at his bright locks. Seeing the ease with which he interacted with the children relaxed her somewhat. Asa was an excellent judge of character.
She laughed at their antics. "That's Asa. Watch out if you have any food on you, he can open pockets pretty easily." Instead of heading her warnings, the pink-haired girl merely handed Asa some dried fruits from her backpack. Juno's own stomach rumbled at the idea of the snack, but she wasn't about to go climbing on people's heads to beg for anything.
She reached down and slung the silver-haired man's still form over her shoulder. He was almost a head taller than her, so it was an uncomfortable hold. She hoped the old man didn't live too far away.
"Where to?"
"Not far, just a little further along this path."
They set off together down the dirt path towards the main village, Asa still hitching a ride on the yellow-haired boy's head. Almost as soon as they started walking, Juno was inundated with introductions and questions about herself. She dodged most of their questions, but tried to pay close attention to details they revealed about themselves. They were Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna. The man she was carrying was Kakshi, their teacher. They were on a mission escorting Tazuna to his home. There was some kind of problem with people targeting him.
When Naruto started detailing the finer points of their mission, he was promptly smacked on the side of his head by Sasuke.
"Idiot. You can't go around telling strangers about the secrets of our missions. She could be anyone, including an enemy nin. She could even be in league with Zazbuza." He gave her a stink eye from where he was walking alongside her. Juno guessed that he wasn't too concerned about that possibility, or she doubted he would allow her to continue with them. But it was also the first time she had heard him speak up since they started walking. She decided to treat his concern seriously.
"If that were the case, what would stop me from killing your teacher while he was unconscious? And then just killing the rest of you while I'm at it?"
"Hmph." Well, no attempt to claim that they could stop her. Juno supposed her display during the fight was impressive enough to convince them of her prowess as a warrior.
There was a slight lull in conversation as they continued forward. Juno was focusing her energy on carrying the man slung over her shoulders, feeling her muscles already start to protest. Naruto and Sakura were still fussing over Asa, who was trying to leap from one brightly haired head to another as they walked, to their delight. Sasuke kept to her side, keeping a vigilant watch over the unconscious form of their teacher. As they approached his home, Tazuna began whistling a jaunty tune.
In the still moment, Juno turned her mind to the events of the afternoon. The excitement of the battle and the strangeness of the events that followed still burned though her thoughts as they walked. Still, she couldn't help but be deeply relieved. After almost two weeks of solitude, both through her travels in the spirit world and the early days of her time here, she was finally surrounded by people again. Despite her endless questions and anxieties about her situation and the future, Juno couldn't help but feel buoyed by the colourful company.