Chapter Eight - "An Heirloom Lost"

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In this chapter, we see a neat fight, a bit of description on ninja fighting, and another ninja.

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Kakashi's kunai went through hard wood before glancing off a piece of metal.

Quickly using a Kawarimi to make his way out of a swarm of senbon, Kakashi began to pale as he realised just what he was up against. Up in the treetops a man stood in a crouching position, donning a camouflage cloak. He had blond hair that was sun-bleached almost to the point of being white, with his skin showing a golden tan. On either side of him stood a pale clone of the original. It was what both clones and the man were doing that worried Kakashi; although most of their muscles were rigid, their forearms, wrists, and fingers were in constant motion, controlling chakra strings attached to the fingertips. At the opposite end of each fingertip were puppets; some regular sized, while some were much smaller, intended for getting past an opponent's defenses by way of being too small to detect.

Kakashi knew who this man was. He had defected half a decade ago, and was responsible for the death of over a half-dozen Konoha hunter ninjas. As an allied nation, Suna gave Konoha plenty of information on its own traitors, and that was the only reason Kakashi had the information required to have a chance at winning this battle. "Hakko Awai, also known as Shirosuna no Hakko."

The man in various shades of green smiled a grim smile, and his two clones disappeared. Kakashi knew that the feared Shirosuna no Hakko wasn't taking it easy on him; he had no doubts that Hakko had other clones that would take control of the puppets left behind his two dispersed clones. The difference would that they would be to the side and behind him. After all, why hit your opponent from the front only when you can surround him? Hakko saw fit to respond to him, if only to mock him in response. "Sharingan no Kakashi."

Kakashi couldn't help it. He was stuck deep in foreign territory, up against an enemy who had the advantage of knowing the time and place beforehand. His enemy wouldn't tire very quickly, while he would have to be on his toes all battle long. His own feats were well known, while he knew little about his foe. So what if his genin were children? They were still ninja, and they probably heard worse every day.

"Oh, shit."

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Ducking and weaving, Kakashi mentally gave a sigh of relief as he felt the chakra signatures of his genin and Tazuna moving away from the battlefield. Good, at least they wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. A one-sided crossfire, he thought grimly, as he barely escaped another barrage of kunai that smashed into a tree, sending it careening over. Bringing a glove up to his face, he took a deep breath of air while his arm and hand blocked all the debris that had been kicked up by the treefall, ending the motion by finally picking up the hitai-ate that covered his Sharingan eye left to him by his long-dead teammate.

Never mind his puppetry skills. Hakko Awai was damned good at poisons, too. Oh, Kakashi had no doubt that each weapon was laced with a poison of some sort, no matter that he could neither see any trace of color on the poison that laced every projectile, nor could he smell any poison. That made it even worse, because the man who earned the title of the White Sands might have other methods of introducing poison into his system. Usually, airborne poisons would do little to harm him (and the still air meant airborne poison wouldn't be swept off to the direction of his genin team and client): it was a little known fact, but Kakashi's mask doubled as an air filter. However, even air filters would be have a hard time coping if there was too much poison in the air.

Although the Sharingan wasn't on the level of the Byakugan when it came to actually seeing chakra, Kakashi could still see the blue lines that made up the chakra strings of various puppets that were hopping around the battlefield. Following one chakra string to its end, he threw a kunai at what he presumed to be one of Hakko's clones, who dodged the assault. That gave him enough time to put together everything he knew so far.

Puppeteers were a dangerous lot. That was because they had almost infinite stamina - so long as they could keep their opponents away from their real bodies, all they needed to do was channel steady amounts of chakra along the chakra strings to animate their puppets, yet the amount of chakra that was required was mindbogglingly small. A skilled puppeteer who barely had to move would be fresh after five minutes, while his or her opponent would be tired out. The same would go for if a puppeteer utilized clones to control more puppets; the clones didn't require much chakra to do their own thing, so they could keep the fight going on for as long as they needed. At the same time, a prepared puppeteer would have all manners of weaponry on their puppets; beyond the normal projectiles and hand-to-hand weapons, they might also have inscribed seals that could fit any manner of purpose, as well as weapons fit for a saboteur. The only reason he wasn't trying to burrow was because of the possibility there were landmines in the earth.

And Hakko fit that role perfectly. Kakashi had only been battling for a few minutes, and already he had strained the natural flexibility of his body to its limits to keep dodging the countless barrage of projectiles that now littered the forest floor. Every time he tried to press the offense, Shirosuna no Hakko beat him back into a defensive role. It was positively infuriating, but Kakashi knew he couldn't let his anger at the situation get the best of him. He had to stay come, make his way past all the puppets, and take out Hakko directly.

Until Konoha's Copycat ninja could find an opening, however, he would at least try to balance out the battle of attrition. Even if he had dodged countless senbon, kunai and shuriken already, Hakko's puppets couldn't have an unlimited number of weapons, and he had to run out of puppets sometimes. Even if he had many more waiting to be unleashed out of storage scrolls, the slightest lull in the pattern of the puppets and clone puppeteers would give him an opportunity.

Taking a chance, Kakashi grabbed his sharpest kunai in a reverse grip, and leaped at one of the medium-sized puppets, one that was approximately three and a half feet and whose features appeared to have been inspired by an otter. He cut one of the fin-like appendages off, before grabbing one of the loose chakra strings left behind. Leaving no time for the puppeteer at the other end to abandon the puppet, he called his chakra forth, instantly converting it to electricity through the use of raiton elemental manipulation, channelling it through the chakra string into the opposite end. A brief pop alerted him to the dispersion of a clone.

That was at least good news for him. He hadn't really ever fought puppeteers, Suna having been an ally of Konoha during the Third Great Shinobi War, and so he hadn't really ever fought anybody who used chakra strings. He was unsure whether a chakra string would conduct chakra-created electricity or not. Since it did, that meant he could electrocute the real Hakko by coming into contact with a string, and destroy any clones he had by the same process.

The bleach-haired former ninja of Suna seemed to realize that as well, as the frenzy of the puppets began to pick up. No longer just dodging several projectiles, Kakashi suddenly had to start dodging puppets that were coming in for close-combat. With no weapon of his own larger than a kunai, Kakashi had to resort to hand-to-hand combat against the offensive puppets.

Fighting puppets was different from fighting humans - they had no pressure points, they felt no pain, and the joints in their body were kept to a minimum and protected behind metal, making it difficult to mangle a puppet. The progeny of the Hatake family considered using jutsus, but decided against it - doubtlessly each puppet was coated with flame retardent, lightning and water jutsus would do nothing, he knew no wind jutsus of the cutting variety, and earth jutsus could only be used in certain situations. Even his more powerful techniques that could destroy a puppet had to be held back - Hakko still had more puppets, while each use of a jutsu would tire him out more and more as his chakra began to dwindle.

Kakashi managed to make it through three more puppets before he finally got hold of another chakra string - Hakko was cleverly letting the strings loose as soon as one puppet had been rendered helpless, and controlling them from the backside meant Kakashi, who was facing the front of the puppets, couldn't just reach and grab the strings unless he got around the puppet.

Seeing an opportunity to cause a loss of numbers to his opponent's arsenal as seven puppets crowded together to one side of him, Kakashi went through a quick sequence of twelve handseals before hitting the earth with his hands. The earth in front of him opened up, and sucked the puppets into the abyss below. He didn't even get a chance to close the ground back up before his danger senses went haywire, and he rolled out of the way of a stream of flame. His opponent was insane - he had nearly been hit by a flamethrower!

Seconds later, Kakashi was repeating his theory on his opponent's craziness in his head, as one of the micropuppets that he had yet to spot exploded right underneath his feet, sending him sailing.

And so on and on the battle went - while Kakashi, showing why his reputation was well-deserved, managed to occasionally push back his opponent, for the most part, he was being pressed back on the defensive by Shirosuna no Hakko.

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Sakura was worried as the distinct sound of an explosion reached the group. "Do you think sensei is okay?" she asked to nobody in particular.

Naruto shook his head. "It doesn't matter whether he's okay or not. By the sounds of it sensei is facing off against another powerful ninja. If Kakashi-sensei loses, we're out of luck, if he wins then we live another day." Sakura and Tazuna both looked decidedly off-put as they realized the truth behind his answer, while Sasuke took on a dark glower. Obviously he didn't want to have his life ended

Of course, Naruto knew what he had just said wasn't entirely true. After all, killing off Kakashi was the whole point of coming here. Tazuna's mission was real, but Hakko's appearance in Wave was to stage an ambush against Kakashi, and hopefully kill him, under the pretense of 'being hired by Gato to kill Tazuna'. At the same time, another Akatsuki agent would be instrumental in cleaning up the mess and eliminating Gato, while secretly getting Ame and Suna into the good graces of Wave Country.

Naruto was on guard as he heard a brief flicker of sound from behind him, and shortly thereafter a shadow flew over the group, giving off a small whoosh as the air parted for the mysterious third party. Well, speak of the devil, Naruto smirked to himself where Sasuke and Sakura couldn't see, the cavalry has arrived. Turning to his teammates, he adopted a worried pose. "I'm worried about that person who just showed up. Let's go see if Kakashi-sensei is alright!"

The kunoichi of the group tried to deter his advance. "But Naruto-baka, Kakashi's in a fight still! Why would we get closer now?!"

Naruto just shook his head. "Sakura, Kakashi-sensei and that puppet-controller guy have been engaged in battle for the last ten minutes. They're dead even in their skills. Once a ninja gets into the A-Rank levels, a single hit is all that's needed to end the battle. Whoever that guy was that just showed up, the speed he was showing was beyond anything I've ever seen! If he's trying to help sensei, the battle will be over by the time we get there. If he's against Kakashi-sensei, sensei will be dead quickly and we'll be hunted down like prey."

His logic was slightly faulty, but Sasuke saw where Naruto was coming from, and nodded, before turning to his obsessed fangirl. "Naruto has a point, Sakura. Let's go." Her crush having spoken, Sakura deferred quickly to him. Tazuna too saw the logic in what the flaxen-haired jinchuuriki had said, and let himself be pulled along their path of travel.

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Kakashi cursed his luck. Of the battle in courting lady luck's favour between Hakko Awai and himself, he, Kakashi Hatake, Sharingan no Kakashi, had lost.

Oh, sure, he was still standing, and able to fight. But a senbon needle had pierced him in the leg, just above the ankle. Already he could feel his leg beginning to burn up as the poison began its work. In a way, he had to be thankful that at least he got hit in his leg; due to gravity and the method in which the veins in the legs pump blood upwards, he had more time left before the poison set in completely than if he had been hit in his torso or on his arm.

But that brought about the question: what should he do with the time that he had left? He had two options. His main option was to do a kamikaze run and hope he could take out the real Hakko with a powerful jutsu before he succumbed to the poison that the senbon had laced been with. However, he wasn't guaranteed to be able to successfully take out Hakko Awai; even if he did, Gato would most likely have other powerful mercenaries that he would send after Tazuna, and his genin team were too deep into Wave to retreat. In the end, the most he could hope for was to take out a powerful nuke-nin, while he forfeited his life, his genins' lives, and his client's life.

The second option was riskier, and it could save his life if the poison was only as strong as it seemed to be given the relative burn he was feeling in his leg. But he would have to sacrifice something that he valued more than his life to do so.

Kakashi's dilemma was rendered meaningless by a 'twing' sound, following by a high whistle. Looking above, his Sharingan managed to track an arrow of all things fly through the air, and strike one of Hakko's animal-inspired puppets, before exploding, sending shrapnel in all directions (to which Kakashi ducked out of the way). Looking back up, he saw the thin fumes of futon chakra that had been left behind by the arrow's flight, and began to pale. There was only one man in the Elemental Nations that could use elemental manipulation with a bow and arrow. If he found it convenient, the Kumo ninja could easily kill Kakashi.

"Aoi Konpeki," was all that Kakashi could whisper, before his left leg gave out as the poison began to spread, and his vision began to narrow. As several more arrows shot through the forest, blowing up more puppets, Kakashi's other leg dropped, bringing him to his knees. Dimly, he heard his genin team come up from behind him, invoking a sense of horror in him. It was insanity for them to be in the vicinity of an A-Rank nukenin, but an A-Rank nukenin and another A-Rank ninja from a hostile nation was even worse.

Slowly, he heard somebody drop to the ground beside him, and Kakashi turned his head slowly. The maroon-haired blue-eyed man who he immediately identified as Aoi Konpeki stood stout and strong, taller than Kakashi himself was, easily eclipsing six feet in height. His loyalty to Kumogakure was indicated by a hitai-ate that he wore around his neck, its symbol adorning the metal plate. Aoi also held a varnished wooden bow in his left hand, a thing of beauty that was almost as tall as he was. The man opened his mouth to speak. "You have no need to worry, Hatake Kakashi." The man was truly soft-spoken, but one nevertheless could tell that his will was strong. "Even when you die, I have no intentions to kill your students." Here, his eyes narrowed. "Konoha will owe us if its Uchiha heir manages to make it home safe. Besides that, I'm here to assassinate Gato, so even if it wasn't part of my original mission, I still intend to keep your bridge builder safe."

That seemed to be all that Aoi could say, as Hakko was unlikely to let his enemies simply chat to each other in the heat of battle. Aoi took the end of the conversation to jump into the trees, hiding in the foliage of the trees. Meanwhile, Sakura had gasped behind Kakashi at Aoi's words; the Kumo ninja had indicated that Kakashi was about to die. At the same time, Naruto had moved forward, and was now dragging Kakashi out of the warzone, while crying, "Kakashi-sensei! Please! Don't die on us!"

In true Kakashi fashion, the man of a thousand jutsus just eye-smiled, no longer able to feel anything below the waist. "Don't worry, my little genins, I won't die so simply here." Reaching his hands up to his face, he took a deep breath, and put up every mental barrier and fortitude that he had built up against pain since the day he was first trained as a ninja. With a deep gasp, he thrust his left hand into his left eye socket, eliciting a gasp from his genins and Tazuna, before digging out his Sharingan eye, his teammate Obito's last gift to him before his death. Closing himself off from the torrent of emotions that threatened to burst forth, he crushed the Sharingan eye in his hand, before he began to choke out a sob, tears erupting forth from his lone remaining eye.

Ignoring the aghast look on Sasuke's face at his sensei destroying a Sharingan eye, Kakashi brought his clean right hand up to his facemask, and rolled it down to show his cheeks. Sakura was now vomiting at Kakashi's most recent action; with Tazuna occupied in his prayers to his kami that they make it out of the situation alive and Sasuke distraught over what Kakashi had just done, Naruto was the only one to notice the spiral on Kakashi's face made up of various sealing characters. It was a storage seal that was inscribed on Kakashi's face. His eyes narrowed - just what was Kakashi doing, and what was behind that seal?

Kakashi saw Naruto's look of confusion, and saw fit to enlighten him while he channeled chakra to the seal, causing three hypodermic needles to pop out. "Years ago, when I first received my Sharingan eye, I was told that I would have to take medication constantly so my immune system wouldn't reject it." He had already injected the first needle into his jugular vein, and the brown fluid inside was slowly being drained into his bloodstream. "For the most part, my immune system is still strong against environmental factors, but I'm particularly weak against venomous poisons." His first needle empty, he pulled it out, and injected a second needle into an artery just above his poisoned left leg, seeking to fight against the poison at its point of impact. "I was given a powerful drug that would temporarily boost my immune system to hyperactive levels for a short period of time. I was only hit with a single senbon, so there isn't so much poison in my body that it can't be fought off." Finally, he put in the last needle. "However, it would also fight off my Sharingan again, so I had to take it out before that could happen." He tried shrugging, but couldn't summon the motivation to do so. "My body will be weakened too much afterwards for it to accept the Sharingan eye again. I won't let an enemy get a Sharingan eye." He pulled out the last needle, and let it drop to the ground, effectively discarding it. "Sorry Naruto, but you're going to have to take care of me for awhile." He thought he saw a worried look in Naruto's eyes, and passed out happy that at least one student of his cared about him.

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Contrary to what Kakashi thought, however, Naruto was not worried about him. Rather, he was worried about the plan that had just gone to pieces.

Kuso, he thought. It had been simple. They were supposed to get a mission to leave Fire Country. Once out of Fire Country, a high-ranking agent in Akatsuki would then ambush the team, and kill off Kakashi. Since they had gone to Wave, Yahiko had called in Hakko Awai to ambush Team 7 and defeat Kakashi; the genins would assume that Gato had hired Hakko to assassinate Tazuna, and there would be no proof to the contrary. When Kakashi was as good as dead, Aoi Konpeki was to step in and chase off Hakko, before going on to kill Gato himself, so that Tazuna could escape unharmed and build his bridge. Later on, once Akatsuki revealed to Wave how they had helped the population out, they could use Wave's good graces to influence trade treaties to economically choke off shinobi villages that refused to see the Akatsuki's way of things and help those who did.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto thought things over again. The plan should still hold for the most part. Even if Kakashi survived, he would still be weak for weeks afterwards, meaning that Aoi would be able to take out Gato uncontested. Right, Kakashi surviving was the only part of the plan that would be changed. Even if he survived, Kakashi had still lost his Sharingan eye - for all that Kakashi had already been a legend even before he had gained the eye from Uchiha Obito, he had grown to become too accustomed to it in fights against high-level opponents, and the loss of the eye would rob him of the photographic memory of the seal sequences for many jutsus, as well as demoralize him. It was still just too bad that he couldn't simply kill Kakashi while he was vulnerable right here and now, but neither him, Aoi, or Konpeki were at all talented with memory sealing or modification, so trying to change Sasuke's or Sakura's memories would be far too risky. No, better to let the scarecrow-man live for now.

Grabbing Kakashi's still form by the shoulders, Naruto began to drag him up and lifted the jonin onto his own back. Naruto might have been only twelve years old, but he still had a strong enough physique to hold up a man twice his age.

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As the sounds of explosion, whistling, and general mayhem disappeared, Sasuke and Naruto were both back on guard again, still in its original Majin formation. Who knew whether the victor was friend or enemy?

When Aoi emerged from the forest, the two kept their wariness: Sasuke, because while he had known Hakko to be an enemy, he had no idea whether Aoi was friend, neutral, or enemy, and Naruto because he had an act to keep up. Aoi himself was non-plussed. "Darn, he got away," was what the quatret heard the Kumo archer mumble.

It was Sakura who broke the awkward silence that resulted, having wiped the hydrochloric acid and vomit off her mouth by then. "Uh, Kumo shinobi-san," she said, and here Aoi's head perked up. "Just what exactly happened?"

Aoi didn't have any qualms in answering. "I'll tell you what happened, that doll-playing bastard got away. I guess I destroyed too many of his toys, so he had to retreat before I got to the real him." Looking past the three genin members of Team 7, he spotted Tazuna. "Are you Tazuna, the bridgebuilder?"

Tazuna had, up until now, been silent since the fight between Hakko and Kakashi had started. Already having one ninja assassin out after him had unnerved him greatly; he couldn't handle having another one hunting for his head. However, he knew that ninjas could usually tell when a common civilian was lying (except for that one time when he managed to pass off an A-Rank guard mission as a C-Rank escort mission...yeah), so he truthfully answered, "Yeah, that's me, Tazuna the super bridgebuilder! Why?"

Aoi had calmed himself down, schooling his emotions and his composure. "The Village Hidden in the Clouds has recently become aware of the situation in Wave Country, and the stranglehold that Gato holds over it. As a result, Kumo, which is close to the coast, has lost precious trade with Wave's shipping fleet practically disappearing as it has been used for smuggling illegal goods instead of being used for legitimate business." Here, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Raikage-sama sent me here to assassinate Gato. I have already accomplished that mission."

Tazuna was at a lack of words, as his eyes took on a glassy appearance at the sudden news. "Y-you mean? He's really gone?"

Aoi let a small smile slide across his face. "Yes, Wave is now free from Gato. I have already delivered the deeds for all of Gato's properties to the Wave daimyo, by order of Raikage-sama." The smile disappeared again from the face. "Technically, assassinating Gato and distributing what he stole back to Wave was all that my mission entailed. However, in my reconnassance thereafter, I had heard that the head engineer for the bridge was coming home. When I heard that Gato had hired a high-class ninja beforehand, one who likely has not realised his employer is already dead, I came here to intercept the mercenary. After all, while Wave should be back on its way to recovery, the successful construction of the bridge to Keiyo Island should significantly speed it up."

Looking back over at Team 7, he spoke up again, "While Konoha and Kumo have no relations that require me to aid you, at the same time we are not really on bad terms. It would be bad for relations if word got out that a Kumo ninja killed three Konoha genin, so you have no need to fear me. Your sensei, however, is very lucky that I had arrived when I did."

Naruto hid a smirk. Good old Aoi. The archer had seen Kakashi's still living body and deduced that Kakashi had somehow survived being poisoned as opposed to dying like he was supposed to, and had already changed words accordingly. "Does Gato still have any other mercenaries around that might be causing trouble?"

Aoi pursed his lips. "I took care of most of Gato's army on Keiyo Island, unruly thugs that they are. It will take some time for his men to be cleared out from the other islands, but have no fear, you should not encounter much trouble on Keiyo." Sensing the conversation at an end, he gave a short bow, before ending it off. "Well, I must be off, so adio, Konoha-nin." With a brief flicker of chakra, he was gone in a Shunshin.

Tazuna broke the silence again. "Well, I guess I'll show you kids to my place, alright?" Sakura and Sasuke, both still slightly shell-shocked, just nodded their heads in assent. After Naruto successfully implored Sasuke to share in the burden of carrying their sensei's body, the four marched back into the forest, heading to Tazuna's house.

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Sorry about the lack of quality in this chapter. I was trying to get an update up fairly quickly, and most of the day I was fairly fatiqued, which should show in the lack of direction in parts of the text near the end.

And so the organization Akatsuki finally fails in one of its plans, as Kakashi survives the Wave mission, although with the loss of his Sharingan eye. Bet you didn't see that one coming! The battle at the beginning was a bit difficult for me to write since I didn't really have two opponents going at it; instead, one opponent was fighting from long-range using puppets, while the other had to duck and dive and use guerilla tactics. I think it turned out decently though.

Kakashi couldn't be killed off here; he'll be playing a fairly important role in the short future. I apologize if I was a bit vague and possibly inaccurate in this chapter - what Kakashi was poisoned with was a poison that would attack the cells specifically, so it's something your immune system could fight it off (as opposed to simply having too much mercury present in your body - your immune system can't really fight that off). The drugs he took superboosted his immune system temporarily at the cost of body fatique later on, but at the same time his immune system would fight off his Sharingan, which is why he had to take it out. After that, his body would be too weak to accept the Sharingan eye again, not to mention the lack of on-field medics. Since he didn't want a possible enemy getting a Sharingan eye, he crushed it.

Aoi Konpeki will definitely show up in some other fics of mine, as well as the idea of Kumo having a number of archers in their ninja forces. Suna has puppeteers and fan-wielders, Kiri is famous for its swordsmen, Iwa presumably has more clay-users than Deidara given the advance details for this week's manga chapter so far, I felt Kumo needed their own distinct type of weapon.

Last chapter, I posted a bit of a working model on my idea of how bloodlines might work in the Narutoverse. This time around, I'd like to post my ideas on elemental manipulation.

We know from the manga that there are five main elements in chakra - Lightning, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, as well as subelements, such as ice and lava. Each person is aligned to a certain elemental type. Naruto, for example, is a Wind-type, while Kakashi is a Lightning-type.

What I'm planning on doing is working it out so that 'elemental chakra' doesn't actually exist, but is instead a 'different way' of controlling normal chakra (or Shape Transformation). Instead of being aligned to an actual elemental type, each person instead just happens to be able to manipulate their chakra in certain ways easier than in other methods - for example, the Uchiha clan would have an easy time at using their chakra to heat things up and control the movement of heat (which would be the basis of their fire techniques) but would have a slightly harder time causing ions to rub together and generate electricity, the basis for lightning techniques. Saying somebody is good at katon manipulation just means they can easily convert chakra energy into heat and control the heat - the chakra isn't of an actual element, but over time the shinobi world will just have dumbed it down to that everybody has an elemental affinity, and the theory behind it will have faded out of general knowledge.

What would pass for wind manipulation is being able to use your chakra to 'cut' like a razor edge or being able to use compressed hair to hit something like a hammer. At the same time, controlling the actual air would require being able to manipulate your chakra to influence something with a fluid nature - controlling a fluid would also be the basis of water manipulation, so obviously the two 'elements' would be semi-related. Lightning could be related to wind and water again by using the same basis of the movement of fluids to be able to manipulate the movement of ions, and through the method of fluids again it could be related to heat, which is also a fluid.

In this manner, a shinobi could master using all five elements by understanding how chakra has to be manipulated to work a technique from any of the five natures of chakra, and relating the other ways of manipulating chakra to the one he's most aligned with.