Hello!
Thank you for the reviews Riku Uzimaki for the reviews. For the first one you mostly hit the nail on the head, give or take a few details. Thanks for the critique of my writing. I try…well with this story anyway. It's just that you can only catch so many things with so many proofreads. As for the grammar errors…I blame grammar lessons going in one ear and out the other, and Microsoft Word not being able to read my mind to find the correct contextual meaning and spelling.
As for your ponderings at the future of the story…you'll just have to wait for me to reveal it in the story. Unless I don't. That would suck!
Disclaimer: I don't own Korra or Naruto, but if I did…wouldn't that be slavery?
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Chapter Four
Naruto at a table with two glasses of chilled leachy juice, in an outside courtyard near the meditation area waiting for Korra to get frustrated and leave the meditation session with Tenzin and his kids. He left his jacket and boots in his room to make his next task easier. As he sipped one of the glasses he spoke to Kurama.
"So what did you do last night?" Naruto questioned.
"I slept that's what." then he sighed, "Until that Ikki girl barged into the room and woke me up by pulling my tail." he grumbled.
Chuckling, Naruto continued, "I think you're mellowing in your age. The last time someone did that they lost their hand."
"I am not! It's just that biting off her hand would only cause problems." the Biju defended.
"Whatever you say old man." Naruto said with a chuckle.
"You know, since you absorbed Kaguya and the Juubi, you're technically thousands of years older than me. Who is the old man now!?" Kurama reasoned triumphantly.
"You are still. This body is only eighteen." Naruto explain curtly after he took another sip of his beverage.
"Tch... whatever." Kurama dismissed with a grumble.
They sat there in silence as Naruto finished his drink. Placing his empty glass on the table he thought about his next move.
"Do you think I should come out and introduce myself to Korra as a helpful Spirit?" Kurama questioned out of the blue.
"No! It's way too early. Korra wouldn't understand or handle the new information well." Naruto said without breaking his thought.
"Are you sure? I mean I don't actually have to explain anything. I could just say I wanted to spend a little time in the physical world. I know they'd question how I got here but I could just refuse to answer their questions." Kurama reasoned.
"I mean it would be nice to talk to people other than you. Besides I have some great stories that need sharing. Like how I accidentally destroyed a bar and pissed off a bunch of drunkards." Kurama reminisced fondly.
"You crushed them without even noticing you did. You only noticed them because their corpses started to stink up your foot." Naruto added dryly.
"Or the time my third host spent several hundred years as a woman." Kurama's thoughtful vindictive words instantly causing Naruto to pale.
Kaguya had been filled with so much power that no mortal flesh could contain it and her body was actually destroyed and instantly replaced with a chakra construct, which was why it was impossible to destroy her. When Naruto had absorbed Kaguya he too gained that status in his original body, but when he absorbed Kaguya he absorbed her form too. After spending so long in the one form, the chakra sort turned it into the 'default' form. Instead of overriding Naruto's form though they blended. The end result was a well-endowed, royal looking female Naruto. He had spent the first three years after the Fourth Great Shinobi War in seclusion before he had created the clone technique he used now. Even then it took six hundred years to change the 'default' over to a form similar to his original. Needless to say, he was rather glad chakra constructs didn't get periods.
"You said you'd never mention those dark, dark years again." Naruto accused depressingly while sweating up a storm.
"Did I? Hmmm...my memory must be going with my age." Kurama slyly said with a grin.
"Who told you that you were old? I'll beat the crap out of them for insulting my young and hip best friend." Naruto nervously threatened.
"Hmmm...Maybe I don't need to talk about it." Naruto visibly relaxed, "Or the time said host thoroughly explored their body." Kurama continued.
Getting angry Naruto growled out, "I did no such thing!"
"Your right." Naruto's anger started to slowly abate, "It was one of you clones.", only to be replaced by shock.
"What!?"
"Yah, it was during the second year when you were going through Kaguya's memories trying to better understand how she made the Zetsu for your clone jutsu. One of the clones got bored going through the memories, and then it got… adventurous." Kurama explained grinning darkly.
"Really!?" Naruto tiredly asked growing red in the face.
"Yah, and from the sound of it the body worked rather well. Just like a real one too, if my memory of my time with Kushina is accurate."
"Why don't I remember this!?" Naruto weakly said inventing a new combination of red, similar to how a certain blue haired girl used to do so long ago.
"You were rather focused on incorporating any learned knowledge, so it just got filed away like the rest of the information you found that wouldn't help you with the clone. If you looked now you could probably find the memory." Kurama stated with a shrug.
"Oh Kami, is that why Hinata kept questioning if she was my first." Naruto said growing even redder in the face with realization.
"Who knew you could get so focused as to even block out such loud screams?" Kurama questioned to himself.
"How come you've never brought this up before now?" Naruto asked wearily.
"I've been waiting to use it as payback for any fun you have at my expense." Kurama answered, not mentioning that he only recently remembered, trying not to spur on the old man label.
"Who else knows of this?" Naruto shakily questioned.
"Well…all the Biju for one. In fact, it could have been my imagination, but I swear I heard the Juubi snicker."
"What!?"
"I know! The emotionless Shinju thought that it was funny."
"Oh Kami." Naruto breathed out rather tiredly placing his head in his hands.
"I wonder, is you saying 'Oh Kami' like asking something of yourself, or is it asked to some highly improbable higher power." Kurama pondered after a brief silence.
Spotting Korra leave the meditation area Naruto took a deep breath, collected himself, grabbed the still full glass and stood up. "I'm going to meditate. We'll talk about this later." He said, finishing with a glare at the fox.
As Naruto walked away Kurama got one last dig in, "Don't go dredging up that memory until you're alone. We don't need people looking at you weirdly." in response, a red faced Naruto glared at him and flipped him the bird, which sent Kurama into a laughing fit.
Walking up to Korra he offered her the glass. Looking surprised she accepted. After taking a sip she asked accusingly, "Were you waiting for me?"
"Yah, but that's because I need a favor. You see I want to meditate."
"Well the 'Master of Meditation' is in there." she said with air quotes and a thrust of her thumb over her shoulder.
"Tenzin's method of meditation is fine, but I have my own method, and it requires a little Earthbending." Naruto explained with a grin.
"You're not an earthbender?" Korra asked surprised.
"Nope. Not a firebender, waterbender, or airbender either." Naruto answered while shaking his head.
"Sorry to just assume..." Korra drifted off with her words.
"Whatever, anyway will you?" Naruto asked again.
"Why not ask one of the guards. I'm sure one of them could help you." Korra questioned.
"Well I would, but they are supposed to be guarding you, and besides, why take the risk they don't know how to fulfill my request when I have access to a certified master with you."
Blushing from his praise she consented, "Alright I'll help you."
"Wonderful! Could you make a column of compressed rock about fifteen feet tall and tapering to a point along the entire length?"
Sighing Korra complied and stomped her foot, then twisted it and stomped again. Her actions caused the described spire to shoot out of the ground.
"Is the anything else?"
"Yes. Could you make a two foot by two foot square of compressed rock about two inches thick?"
With a raised brow, Korra once more complied and created the requested rock, shooting it out of the ground.
Catching the rock with an ease that belayed its weight, Naruto turned to Korra, bowed and said sincerely, "Thank you."
Korra watched as the blonde turned to the pointed rock and holding the stone tile under one arm, he used the other to scurry up it. At the top he hopped up and holding the rock under him he landed on the point sitting cross legged, eyes closed, back straight, hands in fists touching together in front of his stomach, on the tile. His little performance left Korra in open mouthed in shock.
"How are you doing that?"
"Lots of practice and skill." after a pause Naruto asked, "Do you want to try? It's a good meditation method for people like us."
"People like us?" Korra questioned.
"Yeah, those with an active mind and body."
"I don't know." Korra said sounding unsure.
"I'll even let you cheat and use Earthbending." Naruto tempted.
"Alright." Korra gave in.
Creating copies of Naruto's column and tile, Korra used Earthbending to scale the spike and fuse the tile to the point. Shakily, she sat down and crossed her legs.
"Now what?" Korra asked.
"Just focus on staying balanced. You may have fused them together but that will only compensate for the minor shifts in weight. You still have to try to stay still." Naruto answered.
"I fail to see how this is meditating."
"The human body is constantly in motion, even when sitting still. Motion is its natural state. This exercise is about minimalizing the motion which just so happens to clear your mind of thought and put you in a meditative state." Naruto explained.
Taking his words to heart Korra copied his pose and began trying to still her body and keep her balance. She focused so intensely that the outside world seemed to fall away. Her perception expanded and the world seemed so much more vivid.
On the other spike Naruto sensed what she achieved. "Holy crap! She actually managed to create a little nature chakra!" Naruto mentally called out in surprise. Nearby Kurama sensed the same thing and was of the same thoughts.
"It's got to be her relationship to the physical and Spiritual world as the bridge. She's using Physical energies to maintain her position and from what I've observed, the Avatar naturally gathers spirit energy when meditating. It's probably the energies 'remembering' each other, but she also seems to be innately blending them into nature energy and then converting it into nature chakra. " Kurama thought to Naruto.
"But how come she is the first Avatar to do so? If it was discovered before it would be passed down."
They both pondered a moment before the answer came to them.
"It's the method she's using." Naruto realized at the same time Kurama did.
"No one uses the still your body methods of meditation, especially not avatars. They're raised to think of meditation as a means of reaching spiritual energies forgetting of the hidden wonders of the physical energies." Kurama reasoned, thinking the same as Naruto.
"Besides the only one who really knew of this method were the nature energy interacting summons and the ones they taught, which were few enough." Naruto thought to Kurama.
"So this is the first time an Avatar has become as still as required to interact with the physical world's energy in the manner needed for nature energy!" Naruto mentally reasoned.
"We were right, she is the one to reunite the worlds." Kurama mentally grinned.
"No. Don't get hasty, something could screw it up before she can do it. This just increases her likelihood of being the one." Naruto warned.
After a moment of mental silence Kurama spoke up once more.
"It's not very much is it?" Kurama remarked on the quantity of nature chakra.
"No, but I can already feel that it is welling up like a fountain. She'll certainly feel high on life after this that's for sure."
Meanwhile, as Naruto and Kurama mentally conversed, Korra's perception changed as the amount of nature chakra swelled. She became conscious of the world again as she seemed to sense the very life around her. Gaining three hundred and sixty degrees of perception she saw the life of the plants and insects each taking turning into a bright little spot of light. Korra saw that in the very dirt she flung about so carelessly, there thrived uncountable numbers of microbes that winked into and out of existence constantly.
Turning her attention towards the fox at the table she found him replaced by a bright highly condensed light no living creature should be capable of. The core shown through bright and content, but around the edges a dark ring of negative emotions hard to forget remained.
Turning her attention to Naruto, she found a light that nearly blinded her with its intensity. She was still able to see Naruto through the light though and what she saw confused her. Sitting inside Naruto like a double vision was a pasty, wrinkly skinned, green haired man that lacked any defining features of any kind. In Naruto's chest a black ball sat next to his heart, but it didn't feel negative. It felt empty, like it was artificially put there. Trailing out of the ball and Naruto's back was a cord of light leading off into the Earth Kingdom. In the distance Korra saw a light brighter than the sun with Naruto's cord leading to it.
Korra had been so focused on what she was seeing that she didn't notice Tenzin and his kids end their meditation and discover them. Before she could investigate any more into the light, a voice cut through her concentration like a hot knife through butter, "What on earth is going on here!" she heard Tenzin cry out.
Losing her hold on the sight, her perception crashed back to her. Jerking her head and opening her eyes in surprise, which briefly flash gold with a complex design around her pupil before changing back to her normal blue eyes, she lost her balance and heard a crack as the tile slipped off the spike.
Falling onto the ground Korra noticed that it should have hurt but it didn't. Looking up at Naruto in amazement she saw a sight that rose her brow. A bird was roosting in his hair.
Meelo voiced all their thoughts, "How are you doing that!?"
"Practice and skill little man. Practice and skill." Naruto said before tilting his head forward causing the bird to fly away and the tile to lean forward, sliding off the spike. He landed smoothly on his feet before finally opening his eyes.
"What were you two doing!?" Tenzin demanded to know.
"We were meditating!" Korra gushed enthusiastically actually excited by what she saw.
"I don't see how balancing on a rock is meditation." Tenzin remarked.
"It's all in the clearing of the mind through the balancing." Naruto explained.
"It was amazing I actually saw…I'm not sure, but I think it was the very essence of life." Korra gushed excitedly.
"Don't be absurd. It take years of meditation to even get close to sense life." Tenzin said.
"Listen Korra. How you were able to sense life was because you're the Avatar and you used that method of meditation while bending." Naruto said completely ignoring Tenzin and gaining the complete attention of Korra. "While you may still try to still your body to meditate there are dangers when you add bending so I want you to promise me. Don't use bending and this method of meditation without me. I know how to prepare you for them. Alright?"
Slowly, Korra nodded. She wanted to see more through the fantastic perception, but she heeded Naruto's warning.
"Why is it dangerous?" Korra inquired cautiously.
"Your mixing Physical and Spiritual energies. When done incorrectly… the results are not pretty." Naruto answered solemnly.
"Be honored Korra, you're the first Avatar ever to see what you saw." Naruto said after a pause, giving Korra a little praise, making her smile.
Smiling in return, he turned around and walked back toward his room, with his furry partner joining him from the table. Before he got far though Korra called out to him. "You've seen what I saw right?" Turning to face her he nodded. "Do you know what that bright light in the Earth Kingdom was?"
Turning once more he called over his shoulder, "That, my dear Avatar, is a conversation for another time." he said before he left the courtyard.
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Done!
Sorry for the possibly tacky scene. I really wasn't sure about it but I just couldn't see the story without it. The part between Kurama and Naruto, not the one between Naruto and Korra. I mean I thought it was kind of funny when I wrote it and the reveal will have implications later…so I guess its not all bad!
Please review!
Buynocke out!