Everyone remained motionless after Tobi dissapeared again. The silence was enough for you to hear a pin drop. Perched in the trees were the hidden leaf Shinobi, silently watching from behind all the jade green leaves. The silence lasted for a while, neither the benders nor the ninja dared make a move. But then a pink butterfly fluttered past the benders causing Momo to jump off from Appa's head and glide after it. Aang lowered his staff from it's attack position and held it firmly by his side. "I don't think the masked man is here anymore guys..." He reassured everyone. Momo stopped chasing the butterfly and landed on Aang's shoulder. "Man that guy was scary! I mean he may not be combustion man but he gave me the shivers!" Sokka muttered.

Katara punched Sokka around the head. "Who cares about that now! Look what you did to us Mr I want to visit another dimension!" She practically shouted. Sokka rubbed the back of his head and cowered away. "Wait how is this my fault? I didn't know that guy had the powers to bend wishes into reality..." He grumbled in annoyance. Katara lifted her arm, ready to punch Sokka. Uncle Iroh stepped in between them and gently lowered Katara's arm. "Stay calm you two... We need to stick together in this unfamiliar territory. If we get mad now, we may be split up and who knows what could happen" He sighed. Everyone agreed and Aang opened up his staff into flying position. "I'll go look around. You guys stay here and keep an eye on eachother!" Sokka gave him the thumbs up and smiled. "Wait! I can show you guys around here!" Came a voice from behind. They all turned to see a teenage looking boy standing a little distance away from them.

He had bright blonde spiky hair sticking in all sorts of directions. His sky blue eyes twinkled in the sunlight. He was wearing a weird but bright orange and black tracksuit and also black sandals too. He was wearing a black head band with a swirly kind of pattern displayed on the metal plate. But the peculiar thing about his were his whiskers displayed on his face. "Naruto!" Sakura gasped. She was surprised to see Naruto has disappeared from her side and was at that moment on the ground, talking to the complete strangers in which they had been trying to hide from. Inc marks appeared on her forehead "Naruto... How dare you disobey me!" She hissed through her teeth, her hands were now fists. Kakashi's one visible eye was fixed on the scene down below. Even though he was also concerned about Naruto, he tried not to show it. Jiraiya on the other hand was in a position, ready to jump in incase things down below went a bit out of hand.

Naruto stood smiling at the bald arrow head boy holding a staff. Aang smiled back "Hello there stranger! We appreciate your help a lot! Thank you!" He grinned. Zuko stepped forwards, pushing Aang behind him and pointed at Naruto. "Who the hell are you? And why would you help us! How do we know your not working for that masked guy huh?" Zuko barked protectively. Naruto was a bit taken aback from the sudden harshness, but never the less carried on grinning from ear to ear. He pointed his thumb towards the headband around his forehead. "You see this? This is proof that I'm from the hidden leaf village. It's also proof that I'm a fully qualified ninja from that village. You can trust anyone from that village because the leaf village is full of people who are willing to help anyone in need! If you follow me maybe Grandma Tsunade will accept you." Zuko still glared at Naruto who was starting to feel a little bit intimidated by the cold care he was getting. "Maybe you can be part of the village and become ninja too!" He added, breaking the silence. Appa approached Naruto and roared. "Oh and your hairy pet can be your summoning animal!" He suggested. Appa seemed to like the idea and stuck out his tongue and gave Naruto a big, wet lick.

Zuko glared at the now slobber covered Naruto from under his long hair. "You still haven't told us who you are..." Zuko said. Naruto wiped the flying bison saliva from his face and this time pointed his thumb to himself. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, the next hokage of the leaf village!" He boasted. Sakura sweat dropped from the tree. Zuko still didn't trust this guy and he held his arm infront of Aang protectively. Aang gently moved Zuko to the side and gave him a reassuring nod which made him back away, still glaring at him. "Nice to meet you Naruto. I'm Aang and I'm the current avatar. My friends and I are in need of a place to stay, so thank you for your offer!" He grinned. "May you show us the way there?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Well you see... I don't know where we are either. But maybe Kakashi sensei can show us the way back?" He suggested. Zuko face palmed and sighed. What kind of qualified ninja doesn't even know the way back to his own house?

"I think I found myself a twinkle toes number 2!" Toph laughed, suddenly appearing behind Naruto and thumping him on the back. Naruto fell forwards from the sudden power and fell face first on the floor. Katara left Uncle Iroh's side and grabbed hold of Toph's hand "That's no way to greet a new friend Toph! Show respect and help the poor guy up!" She told her off. Toph groaned and pulled Naruto back on his feet. "Happy now sugar queen mom!?" She asked sarcastically.

Katara's face turned a deep shade of red as she started to complain about Toph's attitude and behaviour and Toph pushed Naruto over again just for the fun of it. Suki quietened her down and helped Naruto back up. "Sorry about that. Them two don't get along well..." She laughed nervously. "It's ok. I know two girls back in my village who act the same way. I guess I'm kinda used to it now." He explained.

Zuko tapped Naruto on his shoulder vigorously. "Ok I think we've had enough of helping you up now. Tell us where this sensei of yours is and let's get moving already. I have some training to do!" He groaned impatiently. Naruto opened his mouth to talk but then someone called them from behind.

Everyone turned to see three people standing under a stooping tree. Zuko glared at all three from under his hair. One was an old man looking around 50 with way too long white hair that was just as spiky looking as Naruto's. He also had weird traditional Japanese clothing on. He had red markings on his face which he thought was blood at first. What caught Zuko's attention was the headband he was wearing. It wasn't like the ones the others had on. Maybe it meant something? He looked like the serious one though, just standing there with his arms folded across his chest and his eyes closed.

Another was a girl who looked about Naruto's age. She had ridiculously bright pink, short hair which showed her slightly large forehead. Her ninja headband was tied at the top of her head. She had a red top on and a pink skirt with clearly visible black shorts underneath. She also was wearing black sandals just like Naruto's. She looked relaxed, but it was her hands that were clenched in fists. Due to her black gloves, they looked like black balls on the end of her arms. Zuko glanced at her eyes that watched them all intensely. They were an emerald green, he couldn't help but stare at them. But then he shook his head and glanced back at Mai who was watching him from behind.

The last person standing there was a man who's age Zuko couldn't guess. Maybe it was the fact that his face was mostly covered and he couldn't tell. The guy was wearing some sort of suit and blue gloves covered his hands. He also had spiky hair, but his was grey and reminded Zuko of a pineapple. He had a black mask on, covering the bottom half of his face including half of his nose and also his neck. His left eye was covered by his ninja headband and the only eye remaining sent a shiver down Zuko's back. There was something weird about it that made him feel uncomfortable.

"Sup!" He gave a closed eye smile, his expression suddenly changing. Toph stomped up to the grey haired guy and pointed at him, "You were spying on us weren't you?" She asked. Kakashi carried on smiling. "Well shall we get going?" He asked. Toph's mouth hung open as the grey haired ninja walked past her and to Naruto. "Did you just.... Ignore me?" She asked surprised. Kakashi walked back to her and put his arm on her shoulder, "Not really. I simply didn't find a reason on why I should answer your question." He stated, his one eye fixed on hers.

"This is Kakashi sensei who I told you about! He's team 7's sensei. He's a highly skilled ninja and he should be able to get us to Konoha!" Naruto said. Jiraiya coughed causing Naruto to look at him. Jiraiya stood proudly, making a show of himself. "Oh and the girl there is Sakura Haruno. She's part of team 7 too! And the old pervy guy on the side is Jiraiya sensei. Feel free to call him pervy sage." Jiraiya sweat dropped and hit his his head on a tree hard before turning to Naruto. "FOR THE LAST TIME KID! I'M NOT A PERV!" He burst out loud, his face flaming red. "Yeah yeah! Complain all you like but we all know you are." He sighed.

After a while of arguing, everyone finally got ready for the walk to Konoha. Kakashi and Jiraiya led the way while the group of benders followed closely behind. Sakura and Naruto were given the duty of watching from the back incase there's any sneak attacks or the benders step out of line. "Hey Sakura! Do you think these people can become art of our village and become ninja?" Naruto asked hopefully. He didn't know why, but the moment he saw the little arrow head, he felt the urge to duel him. Something inside him was telling him to, but he couldn't quite make out what and why it was.

Sakura shrugged. "It's not as easy as you think you idiot. Knowing Lady Tsunade, she wouldn't let them through the gates easily." Naruto nodded soddenly. He felt his excitement just flow out of him and his dreams just felt like they were completely crushed. "And anyway. If they were accepted, they would most likely be sent to Ibiki and they would be interrogated pretty badly.not only that, they would need new homes and it would take time to develop them into ninja!" She continued, Naruto nodded even slower, his ideas for the future completely torn apart. He didn't want his friends to be hurt by Ibiki.

They continued to walk for a few hours, passing many trees along the way. Naruto thought long and hard about the possibilities of what could happen to his soon to be friends if they approached the village. He realised there was a deep silence and no one spoke. The only sounds heard was the sound of their shoes trudging along the dirt road. It was like that for a while, before the soft breeze began. The sound of rustling leaves soon began.

They carried on prodding forwards as a big gate came into sight. Kakashi and Jairaiya came to a sudden halt just infront of the gate. "We're here..." Kakashi yawned in a bored tone as he pointed to Konoha's gates. A smile crept upon Aang's face as he saw the amount of people inside. It was just like the city of Ba Sing sei, but with nicer looking people. Maybe it won't be so bad living here for a while...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry I've taken so long to update. Anyway it's nearly summer and I wanted you all to know that on the 7th August I'll be going on holiday to Albania and I won't be back until the 30th August. Since I'll have nothing to do there I guess I'll just update a lot xD
So I'm visiting both my parents side of the family and also being forced to go to the beach for a week. My dad is also taking me on a long walk to see his old house in the mountains somewhere. So I guess I won't have wifi for most of my summer. The only time I will have wifi is when I go to my mums side of the family and when I come back to the UK.
I hope I'll be able to update! *-*

Anyway have a great summer guys xx

~Cream x