I would like to express my gratitute to all the fans this gathered in the short space of time it was up and I would like to thank Abhorsen21
for clearing up the issue of wether it was Guy or Gai. Team Avatar will appear soon, but team Gai will not join until 'The Chase' episode. They will join either in this or after this episode so they might be around for the episode 'Bitter Work'.
Again I own nothing in this story. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Avatar the Last Airbender toMichael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
The light shone brilliantly, engulfing everything and chasing out all the shadows. All colour and objects disappeared from sight and team Gai were forced to close their eyes to prevent a searing pain from entering their skulls. A swift wind seemed to whip around them, blowing them high up before sending them crashing down a mere second later. Even with their eyes closed they were almost blinded and it took all of their willpower to keep their eyes firmly closed against the wind. Soon however the light seemed to dim and the pain ebbed away letting team Gai crack open their eyes to observe their surroundings. They emerged into a clearing very similar to the one they had previously stood in. Confused they began to glance around and the wind that had brought them there was dispersing as the trees and shrubs in the area began to die down to only a quiet sporadic rustling.
"Everyone alright?" asked Neji whilst he continued to scan the area.
"I think so..." replied Tenten. "Lee how about you?"
"Yosh! My youthfulness has protected me from harm!" Lee yelled across the clearing before Neji smacked him on his head.
"Lee don't shout, it's annoying and besides I need to figure out what's going on."
"What do you mean Neji?" asked Tenten. "This clearing looks the same."
"With one big exception. Look Takeshi's corpse is gone."
"What!" cried Tenten and Lee.
"Neji what is going on" asked Lee.
"I don't know, but it must have something to do with that scroll Takeshi was carrying. He said it was a reverse summoning scroll so he must have sent us somewhere."
"But where" queried Tenten.
"I don't know" replied Neji. "Still we must be careful. We shouldn't tell people about our village until we know where we are and if it is safe to tell people."
"Why Neji if people know about our village they can helps us return and maybe even go there to hire us, even if they do not know of us we could tell them to get more clients." Lee said.
"Normally that would be a good point Lee, but this was a sound summoning scroll and to be honest Konoha isn't the most popular village so we might get attack and for the moment it would be best to avoid confrontation. At least until we can get more information."
"So what's the plan?" Tenten asked.
"We will split up and gather information of our surrounding area. If we're lucky we won't be too far away from Konoha, but the fact that the scroll was forbidden is worrying me. Keep in contact with the radios and meet back here in three hours. Team move out." Neji commanded and with these words team Gai disappeared into the shadows and leapt through the trees in different directions.
The clearing stood still. Quiet and peaceful not even a gentle breeze interrupted the silence with the rustling of leaves. However peace did not reign for long in this clearing and this could be a metaphor for the whole country the clearing resided on. A crack of a branch, a cloud of dirt thrown into the air, a single leaf started fluttering down from a tree only for it to be split in two by a passing shadow.
"Anything to report?" Asked Neji.
"Yosh! I have found out that we are in a different world and I have a map here!" Cried Lee producing a crumpled piece of parchment from inside his kunai pouch.
"I managed to get some research on fighting styles here" Tenten spoke up. "Apparently they can do this thing called 'bending' which is akin to our jutsus, however they seem to have less control and they don't seem to have the same chakra requirements. Neji maybe you could look at these benders with your Byakugan and tell us more."
"That sounds like a powerful ability Tenten." Neji replied. "Can everyone do it with training?"
"No only certain people are able to do it and people have arranged their countries around what element out of air, water, earth and fire you can bend. Other than that most weapons here are pretty standard, swords, knives the same as our world."
"What about you Neji, what did your youthfulness allow you to find out?"
"I know a little about the history of this place. There is a person called the Avatar that apparently can communicate with spirits as well as being able to use all four elements. He is also supposed to be very knowledgeable with centuries of experience and information."
"What do we do now Neji?" Tenten asked.
"Well" Neji replied whilst looking at the map "we should find this avatar, if he can communicate with the spirits he might know something about our world and with his vast knowledge he will probably be our best bet."
"Sounds like a good idea Neji." Lee interjected.
"For now we should head to this village I spotted nearby. We should be able to pick up some money there at least and maybe we'll find hints as to the avatars location." Neji concluded.
"Roger!" was the reply from Lee and Tenten and the three jumped into the trees.
Team Gai were walking down the hard dirt road. To the sides majestic mountains could be seen rising towards the heavens, piercing the clouds. Trees dotted the otherwise sparse hills as the forest had run out a mile or two ago. Farms were beginning to appear on the side of the roads with gruff, hard-faced labourers working in them, ploughing the fields and picking up crops. They received weary looks from the labourers who were clad in clothes of green and cream with wide straw hats hung around their necks or placed precariously on their heads to offer some protection from the sun beating down around them.
"What's going on?" asked Tenten. "It's almost as if they're at war, or at least have bandit problems."
"Yosh! We could help them out to show our youthfulness!" Lee exclaimed doing a nice guy pose towards a worker who turned away.
"We should be careful, they look as if they're ready to attack us." Neji stated. "Come on we need to get to the town centre and ask around."
The three shinobi followed the rugged dirt path along the river until they reached the outskirts of the village. A lake was situated on the outskirts and there was a narrow wooden bridge crossing over it that led into the town. Upon reaching the town centre team Gai could see a large tree blooming out of the ground and shadowing the surrounding area. Behind the tree sat the tallest building in the village.
"Let's go" Neji commanded striding forwards, either oblivious to the suspicious stares he received or more likely he didn't care about them.
"These people are most unyouthful" Lee muttered before following Neji's lead and he was soon followed by Tenten. Neji pushed open the doors and walked in to the cool building.
"Hello, we are travellers seeking information can you help us?" he announced looking around the room.
"You poor person, having to travel whilst blind, we'll help you as much as we can" said a girl rushing forwards. She had brown hair and matching brown eyes. Her clothes were eerily similar to Tenten's albeit with the red lining and hanbok more faded and worn out.
"I assure you that I am not blind" replied Neji "But we could use some help, has there been any problems here? We appear to be a little confused as to the state of the world at the moment."
"What!" the girl cried. "How can you not know about the war with the fire nation."
"War with the fire nation! That's not good, I thought we were at peace!" Tenten exclaimed to Lee.
"We are obviously in a different location" Neji said turning around. "This proves it as our village is not in a full scale war, however this makes things troublesome for us if there is a war."
"Ah I'm sorry" An old man said coming out of a door to team Gai's right. "I'm sorry if Song caused any trouble, but she had some nasty visitors not too long ago which ruined her trust." The old man strode across the wooden floor towards team Gai. He wore his grey hair up in a top knot and he wore long robes of green with cream trousers underneath. "My name is Hui I am this villages elder what is it that you require?"
"We would like to talk with you in private" Neji replied.
"Very well" Hui replied. "Come this way it leads to my private chamber."
Team Gai walked behind the old man towards the room he had gestured to whilst ignoring the mutterings around them.
"Not blind? How can he not be blind?"
"Where are they from? The girl's clothes look like they are from the Earth kingdom like Song's, but what of the others? The colours are right, but I've never seen them before."
"What do you think that symbol on those metal plates means?"
"Are they wearing sandals?"
"Look at their hair!"
Hui then proceeded to close the door cutting out the babble from outside. He sat down cross legged on the floor and indicated for team Gai to follow suit. Lee and Tenten sat down whereas Neji leaned against one of the white walls.
"Sorry about that, we get a lot of visitors, but none look like you. Ah no offense meant!" Hui started.
"None taken" Neji replied. "We didn't expect to be recognised, but we would like information. What is this war about? My companions and I are... a little out of tune with the world."
"Yes, so I gathered from your conversation with Song, but you must tell me where are you from? And what are those metal bands?"
"These are symbols of our village" Lee burst out. "These signify that we are qualified adults."
"And what is you village? Where is it?"
"We'd rather not say" Tenten said. "Not with the war on and everything."
"What are you from the fire nation!?" Hui exclaimed laughing so he missed the odd looks on team Gai's faces.
"Anyway" Lee asked "What is this war?"
"Well" Hui answered. "You know there are the four nations?" He paused to check on his audience and seeing them nodding he continued. "Well when the previous avatar died the fire nation attacked and wiped out the air nomads. They then began a war on the rest of the world to conquer it all. The fire nation is full of power hungry idiots who will do anything to take over the world, I'd steer clear of them if I were you."
"Yes, we'll keep that in mind." Neji replied. "So does this village have some problems? We might be able to help we were fighters at our village."
"Ah well as you can see this is an open village. With the war going on there are no soldiers to protect us and just recently after a young man and his uncle moved through a group of Fire Nation cavalry moved in and began terrorizing the villagers. I fear they might be after the pair that recently moved from this village, but I don't know for certain as they could be after our savoir the avatar."
"So if we take care of this problem for you, could you compensate us? We need money" Asked Neji.
"I will ask around the villagers hold on." Hui said whilst standing up. He slid open the wooden door before carefully closing it.
"So Neji" Tenten asked "are we really planning on taking these guys on?"
"Of course Tenten, Lee looks dead set on helping these people." Neji replied pointing at Lee who had fire burning in his eyes.
"Yosh! I will show these unyouthful ruffians the might of the beautiful green beast of Konoha!" Lee semi – yelled as Neji's glare prevented him from screaming at the top of his lungs in order to not scare the people in the next room.
"There is a war going on... how do we know we have not chosen the wrong side to help?" asked Tenten.
"We don't" was Neji's reply. "However, the avatar seems to be trying to bring balance to this world and balance will mean peace. From what we've gathered this 'Fire Nation' started the war and besides the avatar seems to be on the opposite side from the Fire Nation so we must align ourselves accordingly."
Their conversation was interrupted by Hui re-entering the room.
"I have talked with the visitors and we have agreed. We will pay you a hundred Earth Kingdom gold coins if you can rid us of this Fire Nation menace." Hui said.
"Consider it done" Neji said getting up off the wall. "Lee, Tenten we need to go find this menace. We will bring back a helmet as proof of our accomplishment."
The three shinobi walked out the building and pleat onto the top of the village hall.
"Byakugan!" Neji said as he began scanning the nearby area. "Got you! Lee, Tenten this way!" Neji commanded jumping off towards the north and the tree dotted mountains that way.
Colonel Mongke was an aggressive man, but if you asked his men in the Rough Rhinos they would say that he could be a compassionate and caring leader; this meant that he would listen to what towns they wanted to attack and which fighters were 'theirs' instead of just blasting them out of their saddles. In the fire nation army this was about the best treatment you could hope to receive, unless that is of course you had worked under the infamous 'Dragon of the West' Iroh, but according to people not in the know he was retired, to everyone in the know he was someone to hunt down and kill. As a traitor for the Fire Nation and because he was from the Fire Nation to everyone else, except of course for the Order of the White Lotus. The other thing the Rough Rhinos would say about their leader is that he is quite a good singer especially in fact when he had backup singers as it would really bring out his baritone voice. Other than that general knowledge depicted him as a ruthless tactician who would mercilessly attack Earth Kingdom settlements with his men when he knew he had the best chance of victory. He was a skilled fire bender and loved war. He was also after the avatar and the traitors to the Fire Nation. He had black hair tied back and an orange feather cresting his head and gold eyes. He wore standard fire nation armour and a very interesting look of shock as to his surprise two men jumped out of the trees coming from the direction of the town his was pillaging for fun so hadn't fully attacked it yet with the intention to raze it. He didn't think anyone would find him in this clearing at the base of the mountain and he also thought that no one would be stupid enough to attack the Rough Rhinos. His first thought had been proven wrong and so was his second thought when he heard the lead man who had a commanding aura, despite his stupid robes and girly hair, spoke in a calm, clear voice.
"Hello. Are you the Rough Rhinos? Because if you are we have business with you."
Neji lead his team into the forest surrounding the base of the huge mountain in front of him. It looked bigger than the mountain the Hokage faces were sculpted on, guess this wasn't called the Earth Kingdom for nothing, it was exactly like Iwagakurea in the land of Earth back home. Neji briefly wondered what was happening back home and also what would happen when they ran out of rock to sculpt the Hokage's faces on. Team Gai were barely travelling for five minutes albeit their pace was quick given Lee's enthusiasm to prove his youthfulness. They leapt out into the open to question the group of five men and Rhinos in front of them. These had to be the targets, but Neji wanted to make sure first. He and Lee decided to approach them, but he kept Tenten hidden as backup should anything go wrong. He looked at the five men, sending a critical eye over their weapons consisting of a bow, a halberd, a chain, a bag of explosives (he was thankful that the Byakugan enabled him to see through the bags skin) and the last person, the leader given the body language of the five men, seemed to want to fight unarmed.
'Wait' Neji thought. 'Could he use this bending? We better be careful.' Neji quickly used had symbols to convey his thoughts and what weapons one of the men possessed to Lee and Tenten as they couldn't see inside the pouches on the side of his Rhino. 'This could be a good chance to observe this bending' Neji thought ready to use his Byakugan to focus on the leader incase he tried it as he carried no concealed weapons. The others he hoped Lee and Tenten could take care of, Tenten should find this interesting as they all seemed to have interesting, at least Neji supposed Tenten would find them interesting, weapons and they looked like they knew how to use them.
Neji decided to address them.
"Hello. Are you the Rough Rhinos? Because if you are we have business with you." He said.
Colonel Mongke was shocked, just who were these men who would calmly approach his group like this knowing who they were? He was slightly disgusted by their leaders eyes as well, the nerves standing out around them were putting him off. Was he blind? He looked like he was trying to squint, but surely that wouldn't help a blind person would it? He was also slightly mortified by his companions wardrobe choice, was that green spandex? His musings however were called off yet again by the man in the white robes speaking again.
"Are you the Rough Rhinos?"
"So what if we are?" Mongke fired back in an incredibly calm voice for all his inner turmoil. He signalled his riders to get ready to fight if the stranger attacked them, no doubt he had backup somewhere this forest was perfect for an ambush. He began scanning the trees whilst wondering where these two men came from, their clothing styles matched no previous information he had and they both wore the same strange metal plate.
"Cease your attacks on the nearby village or we will be forced to stop you." Mongke's eyes snapped back to the white eyed man.
"Make us blindy he sneered what are you gonna do stumble about?" He sneered. ""Ogodai! Kahchi! Attack that spandex wearing moron! Yeh-Lu, Vachir scout the forest nearby and get rid of any reinforcements blow it up if you have to!, I'll handle the blind one!" Mongke yelled whilst vaulting sideways onto his Rhino. With a swift kick to its read parts the Rhino yelped and charged forwards. "Die fool!" Mongke screamed whilst throwing his hands back as fire lit around them.
Neji was stunned. This guy was almost as good as Shikamaru to have already thought about their being someone in the woods and to have sent the ones who could easily smoke Tenten out of her cover with fire and explosives, it was impressive he admitted, but he called him blind and so for that he would pay as Neji's Hyuga pride demanded it. No one insulted the Hyuga eyes and their sight.
"You're the fool! My eyesight is far superior to yours! Give it up, you haven't a chance. Team Gai move out!" Neji yelled in reply.
He saw Mongke advance towards him as Lee leapt out of his peripheral vision. First he would have to take out that Rhino...
Mongke charged towards his prey, so what if he wasn't blind? He must have been bluffing about the better eyesight though with all that squinting so hard the veins came out. His hands were burning with excitement to extinguish his poor opponents life, but then he dropped into an unusual stance. A stance that Mongke could only remember seeing once before, in history scrolls detailing the airbenders. This guy didn't have the arrows so he couldn't be one surely? But the stance was exactly the same... His opponent moved through the stances slamming his palms forward in unison.
"Eight trigrams empty palm!" As he cried this a blast of air flew forward and slammed into Mongke's rhino forcefully making him dismount, by blasting his rhino out from under him and sending him flying forwards. Mongke however was not a master firebender for nothing he kicked sharply backwards making him flip over the robed man and land on his feet.
"What in the name of Ozai are you?! Your stances, your attack just now there's no way it's possible, but are you an airbender?"
"You are mistaken" was the reply. "My style could be similar, but I am not an airbender."
"You must be!" Mongke cried. "That attack just now! That blast of air!"
His opponent disappeared from view.
"Well then, you'll just have to live never knowing." He heard... behind him! Mongke launched his elbows backwards to deliver two elbow strikes by pulling his arms in next to his hips. Two arrowheads of fire shot backwards only to crash against a rock, Mongke turned with his left leg rising into a freestyle round kick to deliver a blade of fire to a log?
"Can't you calm down whilst fighting? Or are all you fire nation so hot headed?"
'That bastard' Mongke thought spinning again this time to deliver a backwards freestyle round kick with his heel. Again a blade of fire materialized out of nowhere and shot forwards and again his opponent danced out of its reach.
"I'll get you if it's the last thing I do!" Mongke yelled launching a barrage of kicks and punches each generating an orb of fire that shot forwards.
"These poor trees..." his opponent said shaking his head. This was followed by him throwing a bundle up in the air and then spinning his whole body around yelling "Eight trigrams palms heavenly spin!" The fire balls impacted upon the barrier thrown up and Mongke was astonished, so this guy was an airbender! Wait they were extinct apart from the avatar though... and he could see the barrier it was, blue? That wasn't wind what was it? Wait what was in that bundle? It looked metallic and indeed Mongke was right as the bundle that he had seen being thrown up earlier was now descending and with the sun beaming down on it the bundle did look like it was made of metal, and it was sharp.
"damn throwing knives!" Mongke realised as his opponents defensive technique was changed to offensive as instead of dispersing his fireballs it was now spreading his throwing knives as he had made them land at such an angle that they would be shot out in all directions so dodging was not an option. Unfortunately for Mongke firebending is not known for being great on the defensive, especially against so many small projectiles. Mangke could only cross his arms in front of his face and hope his armour was up to the task as knives speed past him, cutting into his arms and legs and anywhere else left exposed. A few landed in his armour and pierced through both it and his skin. Blood started pooling in the gaps in his armour and began dripping onto the floor. Three more chinks of metal hitting metal could be heard and then it stopped. Mongke opened his eyes and lowered his arms and noticed three things. One his opponent had stopped spinning and wore a triumphant look, two knives littered the area, but luckily his rhino and escaped as the corpse was not lying about and three he heard a crackling sound, like when his subordinate Yeh-Lu had lit his explosives. He looked down there were three more throwing knives with paper attached to them. Bits of paper with characters and symbols on them that were rapidly being consumed by a sparkling fire.
A large explosion rang out through the clearing.
Neji watched with morbid fascination as his opponent went up in fire and smoke. They were quite large and potent exploding tags he supposed. He approached the body, both surprised and not surprised by what he saw.
"Hn. Quite resourceful covering your body in flames, a suicidal defensive technique, but admirable as it has saved you. Of course I didn't expect anything less from you, you did seem quite powerful, maybe another time you might get close to beating me." Neji reached down to pluck the orange feather from the burnt remains of his head. "That fire was very controlled, you seem to still be alive even after igniting it under you armour. It even cauterised all your wounds! Your bending was impressive and it was good for me to observe it with my Byakugan. Farewell." Neji finished his monologue and leapt into the trees away from the clearing to find his teammates.
"This should be far enough" Lee said as he vaulted upwards grabbed a tree branch and proceeded to swing around it before flipping off and turning around mid flip to face his two opponents. He raised one hand behind him and one in front palm up in his signature pre battle stance.
"Come at me, my youthfulness will allow me to beat both of you at the same time!" Lee challenged.
"Well well the spandex freak thinks he can take us!" His opponent with a braid responded hefting his chain up and beginning to spin it round until it picked up enough momentum to become a blur.
"I'll crush you with my rhino after knocking you out of that tree!" He yelled throwing his chain out. It hurtled towards Lee's branch, but the taijutsu master simply back flipped out of the way.
"It is most unyouthful to insult your opponents." Lee chided as he landed again perfectly on a branch behind him.
"A useful trick" commented Lee's other opponent who had long brown hair, beard and moustache. He unsheathed his halberd from his rhino, pointing it at Lee. "You agility is powerful, you are seem almost as capable as the rumours of Ty Lee are. Still you oppose us the Rough Rhinos so you shall perish!" With that comment He launched himself from his rhino to gain momentum for his halberd before throwing it out at Lee. Lee leapt out to the side to dodge but then had to twist in mid-air as the chain arced towards him. Lee watched as the two men grinned and looked back to the chain which after completing its arc past him and wrapped around the halberd in the air and proceeded to pull the halberd back towards Lee.
"Very good!" Lee yelled getting out a kunai. "You are most youthful in your teamwork!" He parried the downward blow from the halberd and landed in a squatting position on the ground.
"Well then shall we get started!" Yelled the braided adversary. "Your good kid, but we're better. As an honour I'll tell you the names of the men who will kill you!" He jabbed his thumb at himself with one hand whilst the other kept circling the chain. "I'm Ogodei and this is Kahchi!"
"Thank you my youthful adversaries, however I will not allow myself to lose!" Lee yelled rushing towards the rhino riders. He reached back to grab some shuriken and he threw three at Ogodei whilst flipping over Kahchi's thrust. He grabbed the halberd's wooden handle and proceeded to spin around to kick the wielder of the weapon. His foot landed square in Kahchi's jaw sending him flying into a tree whilst Lee jumped of the weapon and threw two more shuriken at Ogodei. The chain wielder brought up his weapon to form a make-shift shield as the spinning blocked the frontal attack. Lee however had managed to jump behind him and was know perched on the rhino's tail. He raised his leg and it lashed out like a coiled snake hitting his opponent back and sent him flying into another tree.
"Don't think you've won yet!" Ogodei cried lashing out with his chain again and it arced towards Lee's legs. Lee easily jumped over it, but then had to grab the halberd's shaft as it was yet again thrust at him. Lee grabbed the halberd and held it so that it went past his right flank.
"Yosh! Your teamwork is most impressive!" Lee said landing after his jump and swinging the halberd and its user over his shoulder to send him crashing down onto the ground.
"Kahchi!" Ogodei yelled, sending his chain whipping out towards Lee now with no semblance of control. Lee jumped up high into the air, landed on the underside of a branch and kicked off he prepared for a jump kick whilst hurtling down towards Ogodei's shocked form.
"Dynamic entry!" Lee yelled his foot impacting on Ogodei's face sending him flying backwards until he too lay unmoving on the ground.
"That was a most youthful fight, but now I must leave." Lee said pausing only to remove the small piece of metal holding together Ogodei's braid.
"So, ranged combat huh?" Tenten questioned seeing her two opponents getting ready to fire arrows and throw dynamite respectively. "I won't lose!" She claimed jumping up and spreading her body out in the air to throw a large amount of senbon needles at her opponents. The arches initial arrow was caught and knocked off course and so landed pathetically in the mud near the trees where Tenten had been hiding. The dynamite however blow up in the middle of the senbon storm and sent the needles scattering off harmlessly. The archer had already knocked another arrow by this point and fired it at her only for Tenten to deflect it with a well placed kunai.
"You're almost as accurate as the Yu Yan archers!" commented the opponent with the bow.
"I hope that was a complement because I've never heard of these archers before" Tenten replied landing on a tree. She could hear a battle off to here left and deduced it was Lee by the shouts about 'youthfulness'.
"The archers are extremely accurate, they could pin a fly to a tree from one hundred yards away without killing it!"
"That is pretty impressive" Tenten mused before leaping away from her branch. An explosion rocked the tree a second afterwards sending the branch after Tenten, almost as if it were after revenge for being trodden on. Tenten sent a kunai at the branch breaking it in two before heading towards the explosives expert. He leapt out of the way whilst Tenten began throwing more kunai at him. These impacted around him and forced him to jump up off his rhino which thankfully had withstood the kunai barrage. However after jumping off his rhino a kunai whizzed above his head. He looked up to see two small paper balls attached via strings to the kunai's handle and being an explosives expert he knew what they were. The balls exploded in an orb of light sending the member of the Rough Riders careening into the ground. The archer witnessed this and sent several arrows arching into the air to descend upon Tenten from above. Tenten reached into a concealed pouch and pulled out more shuriken throwing stars to counter the arrows. She fell onto another branch and again leapt off and over the last remaining Rough Rider sending throwing stars at him. The archer countered by blocking with his bow. Tenten had predicted this though and had sent another throwing star at him after she landed on his blind side. This star whizzed through the air and cut the bow's string in half. Tenten then leapt forward drawing a bō staff out of one of her scrolls as she did so in a puff of smoke. The bō staff crashed into the archers skull sending him sprawling onto the ground.
"Too easy!" Tenten commented, pocketing the archer's headband and the explosive users now slightly dented helmet.
Team Gai assembled in the trees overlooking the clearing which had been strewn with kunai after Neji's battle.
"Did you get proof of your victory?" Neji asked.
"Yes" was his reply from both Lee and Tenten producing their spoils.
"What do we do with the riders now Neji?" asked Lee.
"Put them on their rhinos and chase the rhinos away from town. I'll leave a note with the leader explaining that if he comes back we will kill them next time."
"Roger!"
Team Gai walked back towards the town centre and the village hall whilst receiving looks of shock and awe.
Hui greeted them at the tree in front of the village hall.
"You've returned" he exclaimed. "And you were victorious! I had feared we had sent you to your doom, we all feared the worst."
Song then came running out, her fear stricken face turned to one of awe.
"Amazing, there isn't a scratch on you!" she said.
"Here is the proof I promised." Neji stated dropping the feather and other headwear the riders had worn.
"Yes, yes thank you it means so much to us." Hui told the shinobi. "Here is the money you were promised." A small bag was passed to Neji who stored it inside his Hyuga robes.
"Glad we could be of service." Neji said turning with his team to leave.
"Wait one more thing" Tenten piqued up. "Do you know where we can find the avatar?"
"Sorry I can't tell you" Hui said looking dejected.
"No problem" Lee replied. Team Gai started walking away from the village.
"At least we've got money now, but we really need information." Neji stated.
"Wait!" came a cry from behind them. The three turned to see Song running after them.
"I wanted to thank you for restoring my faith in strangers and people in general." She said. "I don't know how helpful this will be, but there is an earthbending tournament being held in Gaoling to the south, the avatar may head there to try and find some strong earthbenders to join his group and maybe even a teacher."
"What do you say Neji?" asked Tenten.
"We have no other leads" Neji replied. "Sure why not"
"Yosh! A tournament, maybe I will get to prove my youthfulness in it as well!" Lee exclaimed. "Thank you for the information, you are most youthful Song" and with that Lee began dashing off.
"Oi wait Lee!" Tenten called running after them.
Neji sighed. "I wish he'd wait." Neji stated. "That way is north." And Song watched as Tenten collared Lee and began trying to drag him back to Neji, before he dashed back of his own accord after checking his compass.
"Maybe there is hope for the world" Song stated. Watching the trio vanish into the sunset as they walked south towards a mountain range.
Just some random info here. The gentle fist style in Naruto and airbending in Avatar are both based off the real style of Baguazhang.