After what felt like hours in darkness, Shinra felt himself start to wake up. He let out a groan as his eyes slowly opened. He instantly tried to sit up.
"Take it easy, child" a voice spoke from beside him. It sounded a little.. aged. "You're lucky to be alive right now. Don't test fate"
Turning to his right, Shinra was faced with an elderly lady. She had a kind face and blue eyes like the other two who'd saved him. She also had her grey hair in loops like Ponytail Guy's sister.
Looking down, the chūnin saw that his clothes had been replaced with a blue parka and similar pants. Even his sandals had been replaced with brown boots.
Did that mean she'd undressed him?!
'Shit...'
She noticed the embarrassment and shock on his face and chuckled. "Typical boys.. don't worry, it's nothing I haven't seen before. And your original clothes are outside drying up"
Shinra's eyes went to his lap. He was extremely grateful he was still even alive after all that'd happened lately.
"Thank you" He looked up at her. "But what about the boy and girl who helped me earlier?"
"Ah, my grandchildren Katara and Sokka.. they're tending to the other boy" The lady informed him. "You both seemed really tired but you particularly looked exhausted... And injured. May I ask what happened, child?"
Shinra hadn't been around her much but he liked this woman. Something about her reminded him of Grandpa Third. "I was involved in a huge fight.. it was basically a retrieval mission gone wrong"
Shinra was actually putting it way more mildly than he wanted to. The Sasuke retrieval mission was a huge pain in the ass and dare he say.. a drag.
"Mission?" The lady's eyebrow went up a little.
The 14 year old nodded before something dawned on him. "oh.. I'm sorry I haven't done this sooner, pardon my manners. My name's Shinra"
"My name is Kanna, but everyone calls me Gran Gran" the lady smiled at him. "Welcome to the Southern Water Tribe"
Southern Water Tribe? Where the hell was that?
Before he could question it, someone walked into the tent.
"Oh you're awake!"
He immediately turned his head to see the girl from earlier smiling at him. "I'm glad to see you're alive"
"Hey" he smiled back. "And.. honestly I don't know if I would be without you.. and I guess the other guy"
The girl.. he guessed Katara, let out a chuckle. "please don't mind my brother. He can be a little... Paranoid"
"I can tell" Shinra laughed a little.
"But that does raise the question.. where did you come from?" Kanna looked him over.
"Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village " Shinra casually answered. The answer however caused both ladies to raise their eyebrows.
"Where?" Katara asked.
"Wait.. you haven't heard of it?" Shinra asked, looking between both of them. "How is that possible? It's the most powerful village in the continent"
"I've been around a long time, Shinra" Kanna looked at the boy. "but I've never heard of such a place"
Shinra placed a hand on his head. Just how far away had that blast taken him?
"Are you okay?" Katara placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know..." Shinra shook his head softly. "I have no idea where I am and you both are sure you have no idea where I'm from"
"Don't fret, child" Kanna spoke. "I'm sure we'll be able to help you get home. But for now I suggest you don't stress over it"
Shinra slowly nodded. "I suppose you're right"
"By the way, I have this" Katara held out his blue headband. Shinra placed a hand on his forehead, only then realizing it was absent the whole time. "I've been meaning to ask.. what is this symbol? I've never seen it before"
"That's the symbol of Konoha" Shinra smiled a little. "And the headband is worn by each Ninja of the village as a sign of our loyalty"
It sounded practiced... And it kind of was, considering the amount of times Iruka had hammered it into all their heads at the academy.
"What is a... ninja?" Kanna asked.
"A ninja is..." Shinra had to stop to think. "It's a cross between a warrior and a spy. Ninjas are loyal to the villages they're trained in.. well usually"
"I see..." Kanna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Can I ask you a question, Shinra?"
"Of course" the boy nodded politely.
"Katara and Sokka said you used lightning to break open the Airbender's iceberg. But your clothes don't seem to belong to the Fire Nation" Kanna explained. "Answer me honestly, child.. are you a fire bender?"
"Do you mean fire user?" Shinra asked before shaking his head. "No I'm not"
Kanna maintained her gaze on the boy for a few seconds, studying him before nodding softly. He was definitely strange but he seemed to be telling them the truth.
Katara then handed Shinra his headband. "C'mon, let's see if your clothes are dry. Then we'll wake up Aang and introduce you to the village"
Katara got him his clothes and showed him where he could change clothes. As he did, he noticed that the rips his undershirt had from the Sasuke fight had all been sewn or patched up. He made a mental note to thank whoever did that as he slipped on his vest. Reaching into his vest pocket, he felt around for the scroll he usually carried around with him. It had his chakra saber in it.. he'd been strapping it to his back the first few weeks before TenTen had taught him to seal his weapons in scrolls.
Shinra gave a sad smile at the thought of the weapons specialist and finally tied his headband firmly as he walked out of the men's bathroom. The second Katara saw him, she pulled his arm as well as Aang 's, dragging them to the middle of the really small village.
"Aang, Shinra.. this is the entire village" Katara introduced the boys to the village who didn't seem to be more than 20 people. "Entire village, these two are Aang and Shinra"
Aang bowed respectfully and Shinra decided to follow suit. As he was probably in a vastly different part of the world, he figured it'd be much wiser to be as respectful to them as possible. He then noticed..
"Uh.. why are they looking at us like that?" Aang asked. "Did Appa sneeze on me?"
They were looking at them weirdly, but it was more of a look of confusion and uncertainty. It was definitely better than the look of pure hatred Shinra was used to getting from the villagers in Konoha.
"Well no one has seen an Airbender in a hundred years" Kanna spoke up. "And we have never heard of ninja before.. or anyone being able to bend lightning as a separate element without fire. Back to the topic of Airbenders, we thought they were extinct until my grandchildren found you"
"Extinct?" Shinra looked over at Aang. "Wait, what in kami's name is an Airbender?"
"An Airbender is a person who can control the element of air" Aang explained.
"So... A wind user" Shinra theorized. It seemed like everything here had a different name from what he was used to.
"Aang, this is my grandmother" Katara introduced the bald monk.
"Call me Gran Gran" Kanna said to Aang.
"What is this? A weapon?" Sokka took Aang's staff. "you can't stab anything with this"
"You can whack someone with it though" Shinra pointed out.
"It's not for stabbing, it's for Airbending" Aang grabbed the staff back. He then opened it to reveal a glider.
"Ahh, it's a glider" Shinra raised an eyebrow.
"Yep, it helps me control the air currents and fly" Aang explained.
"Okay I gotta see that!" Shinra smiled.
"Last time I checked, humans can't fly!" Sokka pointed out.
"Humans also can't run on deep water but we saw it with our own eyes" Katara pointed at Shinra. "Which reminds me, how'd you do that?"
"Basic chakra control" Shinra shrugged. "Wasn't anything fancy"
"What is a chakra?" Sokka asked.
"A combination of physical and spiritual energy that lets me do a lot of stuff" Shinra explained as accurately as he could remember.
"What kind of stuff?" Katara asked.
"Uh.. lightning, walk on water and walks, use shadow clones, cast illusions..." Shinra counted on his fingers.
"Wait wait, clones?" Sokka's mouth was basically hanging open.
"Mhmm" Shinra nodded.
"May we see?" Kanna asked.
"Of course, Gran Gran" Shinra smiled and placed his fingers into the cross sign.
Puffs of smoke appeared around the young ninja and once they dispersed, there were four identical copies of the same person standing close to one another, much to everyone's amazement.. especially the children.
"How... What..." Katara looked at the four Shinras. There wasn't a single difference between any of them.
The original couldn't help but laugh at their reactions. He wasn't exactly used to this much attention.
"Now can we see Aang fly?!" One of the clones spoke out.
"Oh yeah.. watch this" Aang immediately got on his glider and started to fly around the village.
"That is... Awesome!" Shinra looked up in amazement, his excitement clearly matching that of the younger children.
Aang however was so distracted trying to impress Katara that he ended up crashing into a watchtower made of snow.
"My watchtower!" Sokka was horrified.
"The new people are amazing!" One of the kids laughed.
"Just great, Shinra's a freaky powerful ninja, Aang's an Airbender, Katara's a waterbender. Together you can waste time all day long" Sokka complained.
"That explains how you cracked that iceberg!" Shinra looked at Katara.
"Yeah, I'm a waterbender... Kinda" Katara looked down a bit in slight embarrassment.
"C'mon Katara, no more playing, you have chores" Kanna lead Katara away.
As Shinra dispelled his clones, he could hear Kanna and Katara talking... Perks of having a fox living in your stomach.
"Try not to put all your hopes in these boys"
"I'm telling you, Gran Gran, they're special.. I can sense it"
Shinra smiled a little.
Shinra was halfway through sharpening his taijutsu by sparring with clones when he heard Sokka yelling in the distance.
"What're you doing?! We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"
"What're you talking about?" Shinra looked at Sokka as he walked closer to the others.
"Yeah, what war?" Aang asked.
"You two are kidding right?" Sokka looked between them.
"Nope" Shinra shook his head.
"Penguin!!" Aang screamed out of nowhere, causing Shinra to cover his ears. The Airbender immediately ran off after the flightless bird.
"Tell me you're kidding" Sokka turned to Shinra.
Shinra followed Aang and Katara to where the penguins were. He heard them talking about going to the North Pole which was pretty much the exact opposite side of the world. He really wondered where the hell he was... How did no one at all know where the leaf village was?
He decided test something.
'Hopefully someone actually answers this...'
Shinra brought his hands together and weaved the hand signs;
Boar, Dog, Monkey, Bird, Ram
He then bit his thumb and slammed his right hand on the ground.
'Summoning Jutsu'
It took a few seconds but a puff of white smoke appeared. Once it cleared out, Shinra was faced with a yellow 4ft tall toad with few touches of red on it's skin.
"Ughh..." Shinra groaned. "You?! I was hoping for the Chief!"
"Sure, Insult me after dragging me into another dimension" the toad sassed back.
"Gamatatsu, I really don't have the time for–" Shinra stopped mid sentence. "Wait what?"
"You don't know?" Gamatatsu tilted his head. "Okay.. after your fight with Sasuke, your chakra signature completely disappeared. We thought you were dead but even then it'd still be somewhat detectable"
"Did Naruto win?" Shinra interrupted.
"No, he didn't. Sasuke escaped" Gamatatsu shook his head.
"Fucking hell..." Shinra sighed. All that fighting for nothing. "So... How do I go back?"
"You can't.. at least not right now" the amphibian shook his head. "If I try to reverse summon you back, it could kill you simply from the amount of chakra it takes. I only made it through cause I'm a summoning toad"
"So I'm stuck here?" Shinra felt his heart sink.
"For now, yes" Gamatatsu nodded. "But everyone back home is looking for ways to bring you back. Especially Tsunade and Naruto"
"Grandma..." Shinra sighed. He hadn't even thought about it. She must've been worried sick. He wondered how Shizune was feeling right now. Fuck!
"I suggest looking for a pathway in this world" Gamatatsu said. "if the clash between all those attacks ripped a big enough hole into this dimension, there's probably other holes here too. I'm not saying you should create another clash but there could be a big enough crack somewhere in this world to get you back to Konoha"
"So I should basically wander" Shinra lifted an eyebrow.
"Yep"
"Well it beats sitting around" Shinra said.
"I gotta tell the others that you're alive..Naruto's been beating himself up so much, he'll definitely feel better knowing you're okay" Gamatatsu raised two fingers before poofing away.
Shinra let out a sigh as he turned away from the spot the toad was just sat. He was immediately faced with Katara.
"You okay?" She asked. He slowly nodded.
Katara could tell he wasn't telling the whole truth. Matter of fact, she and Aang had heard the whole conversation but they'd agreed to ask him later.
The trio were currently sledding on penguins... Something Shinra never thought he'd be doing in his life but dear Kami it was fun.
They eventually got to what looked like a giant ship.
"... The hell is this?" Shinra asked softly as they got off their penguins.
"A fire navy ship, and a very bad memory for my people" Katara explained.
Aang and Shinra started walking towards the ship in curiosity.
"Guys stop" Katara said. "We're not allowed to go near it.. it could be booby trapped"
"If you wanna be a bender you have to let go of fear" Aang looked back at her.
Shinra silently nodded in agreement. He'd experienced crippling fear first hand and Naruto got hit with a poisoned knife because of it. With that, all three made their way into the ship.
"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran Gran was a little girl" Katara explained as they walked through the ship's armory. "It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks"
"Okay, back up" Aang raised an eyebrow. "I have friends all over the world even in the Fire Nation. I've never seen any war"
"Aang.. how long were you in that iceberg?" Katara asked.
"I don't know... A few days maybe?" He answered.
"I think it was more like a hundred years" Katara theorized.
"A hundred... That's how long this has been happening?!" Shinra looked at Katara in disbelief.
"Do I look like a 112 year old msn to you guys?" Aang asked.
"I mean, it was a whole iceberg underwater" Shinra shrugged. "It most probably kept you from aging"
"A hundred years..." Aang held his head and slowly sat down as the realization dawned on him. Shinra placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Maybe there's a bright side to all this" Katara said.
"Well I did get to meet you two. And Shinra's from another world so I learned that other worlds exist!" Aang smiled.
"Wait, how do you know that??" Shinra looked between them.
"We heard you talking to the talking toad" Katara said.
"I guess we're not the most quiet pair" Shinra scratched his neck earning a giggle from Katara.
"We should probably get out of here" the waterbender helped Aang up.
"Agreed" Shinra nodded. As they walked out however, his foot accidentally triggered a tripwire, locking them in as a door closed.
"What's that you said about booby traps?" Aang looked at Katara. Suddenly a flair fired into the air. it was bright. And loud.
"Oh boy..." Shinra winced. That would definitely attract attention.
"Look!" Aang pointer to a hole in the ceiling. "Shinra follow me! Katara hold on tight!"
The Airbender immediately picked up Katara and leapt out of the ship, Shinra leaping right behind him.
A few miles away on his own ship, Prince Zuko had immediately noticed the flare and decided to look through a telescope. He saw three figures jumping down from the Fire Navy ship.
"The last Airbender" he commented. "quite agile for his old age"
"Wake my uncle!" Zuko instructed a soldier. "Tell him I've found the Avatar... As well as his hiding place"