Well, here's the next chapter, and a good deal faster than the last one, too!

Naruot may seem a little OOC in this, but keep in mind the context here.

Once again, beta'd by Vandenbz

Interlude : The Truth

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. This was not how he had imagined his night going. He had mostly planned on attending a party, maybe stay on the lookout for any 'suspicious types' as Lin had put it, and then simply return back to the island.

Instead, Korra had asked him to dance with her, there had been an all-out Equalist attack on the city, Korra had managed to unlock her airbending, and he had uncovered to other potential abilities as well; his altered Sage Mode and the yoki.

And it was yoki. Naruto had become very familiar with the energy during the war, and there was no mistaking that particular type of energy. But it didn't seem to be Kurama's yoki. On the way back to the temple, Naruto had tried to check his own mind, to see if the same mental plane he had used to contact Kurama was there again. It wasn't. There wasn't a single trace of the Bijuu. That meant that the yoki in his system was his and his alone, and he had no idea what to make of that.

But Naruto knew that he was only focusing on the yoki because it was the only way he could come up with to keep himself from outright panicking while they all waited for Tarrlok to arrive. Before they had gone back to the temple, Tarrlok had said that he needed to meet with some of his contacts and simply left.

Naruto, Korra, Lin, Tenzin and Pema—Tenzin had not wanted her to attend the meeting, but she had put her foot down on the issue—were currently in the main dining hall within the Temple—cleared to give them some form of privacy—waiting for Tarrlok to arrive from wherever he was now. At that point, Lin would undoubtably begin pressing him for answers. The woman was absolutely relentless when there was something that she felt was important and she didn't know. And since she clearly thought his transformation during the fight was important, Naruto knew that the older woman wouldn't let up until she was satisfied.

And that thought terrified him to the core. If Naruto had had his way, not even the others back home would have found out about his status as a jinchuuriki. The Akatsuki War had changed that, and while Naruto knew that the former Rookie Eight had accepted it, a part of him had always wondered if that was simply because there were few other options left for them if they wanted to win.

And now, he would have to explain what he was to people who had little idea what chakra was, let alone creatures like the bijuu. One wrong word, one bad impression, and that was it for him here. Granted, the fact that the others didn't even know about chakra could help him just as much as it could hurt him, but the thought was still terrifying.

Naruto felt something shift on his shoulder, and brought his attention to Korra.

That's right.

Korra had learned more about him being a jinchuuriki than any of the others likely ever would. He wasn't sure how or why it had happened, but it had, and more importantly, Korra hadn't cared at all. He'd been able to feel that too. Naruto would definitely have to look into that at some point. Even if he hadn't been able to feel Korra's emotions (the concept was still mind-boggling), Naruto would have little doubts now, since she apparently felt comfortable enough around him to rest her head on his shoulder and fall asleep.

Korra had seemed to be holding herself together well enough after the fight, but on the way back Naruto had noticed her eyes starting to droop. By the time they had arrived at the temple, she was clearly fighting to stay awake, and, perhaps unintentionally, her head had leaned against his shoulder.

After the first hour of waiting had passed, she had simply fallen asleep.

If Korra had been so willing to accept him after finding out damn near everything about it, why wouldn't any of the others? It was perhaps a weak hope, but Naruto would take it.

The doors opened, announcing Tarrlok's arrival.

He was surprised to see that Tarrlok had also brought Bolin, Mako, and Asami with him as well.

Apparently so was Lin. "What are they doing here?" she asked, glaring in their direction. Bolin flinched, and Asami looked distinctly uncomfortable. Mako managed to hold a decent poker face, though. "Ask him," he said bluntly, gesturing to the Councilor.

Tarrlok didn't miss a beat. "I brought these three here because I believe they could contribute to your… questions." He finished with a pointed glance at Lin, causing her to scowl.

"Tell her exactly what you were telling the officer." Though he didn't so much as glance in their direction, it was clear that Tarrlok was talking to the three new arrivals. Privately, Naruto agreed with Lin; what were they doing here? Unless they directly saw his transformed state, there was really no reason for them to…

And Naruto suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Asami started, still looking rather uncomfortable. "Well, after Naruto left…"

The symbol was glowing. Asami didn't know what that meant exactly, but she was positive that it couldn't be good. If it had been placed by there by the Equalists, then they had to get rid of the thing as fast as possible.

"You guys have any idea how to destroy this thing?"

"Nope." Mako answered behind her, sounding just as uncertain as she felt. Well, at least she wasn't alone there.

The ground suddenly jolted, and a small segment of the earth around the symbol rose into the air, before it was quickly crushed into pieces. Mako and Asami both turned to see Bolin, dusting off his hands and looking rather smug about what was undoubtedly his handiwork. "Problem solved."

There was a flash of light. They all turned back to the source, having to shield their eyes from the sudden blinding light.

Asami could barely make out what was inside the light. The light was now shaped like a circle, and she could see buildings filling it, buildings that almost looked like the ones downtown. And then she saw two figures, one of which she instantly recognized as Amon, who was currently fighting something else, something that was moving at speeds so fast she could just barely follow it. The thing was also surrounded by a glowing crimson aura, and Asami wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was visible from a good distance away.

Then the image sharpened, cleared, and Asami could begin to make out the figure surrounded by the glow.

Was that Naruto?

Tarrlok had brought Asami and the others here because they had indeed seen his transformation. He had apparently been heading back to the temple when he had overheard them talking with a metalbender officer who had found them some time after the fight was finished. Feeling that the information the group was divulging was too sensitive, Tarrlok had decided to take them along with him.

Naruto suppressed a wince as Asami finished her story. So they had seen him after all. Not good. He could have handled talking with Lin and Tenzin—he knew both of them well enough by now that he was willing to take a chance with them—and even though he had only spoken to the man a handful of times, Tarrlok struck him as a logical sort, the kind that wouldn't allow his own emotions to rule him.

Bolin, Mako, and Asami, however… they were a different matter.

Truth be told, while he may have liked the others at the temple well enough, he wasn't particularly close to any of them, Korra excluded of course. That had been partly intentional on his part—while he had basically adjusted to the new world he had found himself in, part of him had always known that he'd have to at least try and find a way back home. He didn't want to form any bonds that would make it harder for him to leave when the time came. Of course, Korra had utterly demolished that plan without even trying, but she was a rare exception.

Unfortunately, that distance also meant that Naruto had no idea how they would react. The three were nice enough, but when it came to things like being a jinchuuriki, Naruto could never be sure…

Korra shifted again, and this time her hand moved close enough that it was almost touching his own.

Naruto closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. He could do this. He just had to remember that Korra would still be there. Due to his eyes being closed, Naruto completely missed the interested looks the others gave him, with the exception of Tenzin, who merely shook his head, and Lin, who kept her expression blank.

"What do you want to know?" He directed his question at Lin, who stared right back at him, eyes still shut.

"I want to know what happened back there." The words came out in a near-growl, causing Naruto to frown. Was it something he said?

"But mostly," she continued, "I want to know what that red light—that may have been seen by the entire city, by the way—around you was. Not to mention how your body… changed." She clearly had another word in mind but cut herself off at the last minute. Well, he could answer that much.

"The 'red light' was yoki. The changes to my body were the result of my being a jinchuuriki."

Naruto had never been quite sure what to expect when he imagined himself finally admitting what he really was to other people. Whenever he pondered the idea, it had always fell inot the catagories of acceptance (when he was feeling more optimistic) and fear and hatred (when he hadn't felt like kidding himself). Whatever he had been expecting, though, universal blank stares was not it.

"Beg pardon?" Lin's confused look seemed reflect the feelings of everyone else in the room, and if Naruto wasn't so terrified at the moment, he might have found it funny.

Naruto prepared himself again. Not out of fear this time, but more because there was a hell of a lot to cover here, and he got the feeling that it would be in his own best interest to go into as much detail as possible.

"Alright," he glanced over at the others in the room, "you guys might want to sit down or something, this is probably gonna take a while."

Once they had, with Lin, Tenzin and Tarrlok still standing, Naruto took another deep breath. He had accepted that Korra didn't care about any of this, but that didn't make it any easier to talk about. Still, it wasn't as if there was anything he could do about it now. "The night I was born, a nine-tailed demon fox, the Kyuubi no Yoko, attacked my home village, Konohagakure…"

Naruto proceeded to give them the version of the attack that had always been told to him since he was a child; that the village was suddenly and without warning under assault by one of the most powerful beings in existence. Nobody knew how or why it had happened, but it had, and Konoha had been near powerless to stop it. Just about all of it had been lies, of course; there was really a lot more to the story than that, but if it worked for the village, Naruto figured it would work just as well here.

He paused when he got to the point where the Yondaime entered the battle. There was really no turning back now. He would either have to tell them everything, or nothing at all. As if she had somehow sensed his anxiety starting again, Korra shifted once more, this time actually nudging his shoulder in an almost aggressive manner.

Alright, I get it, he thought sarcastically. He had no idea how, but he got the distinct impression that Korra was smiling at his thought.

"…The official version of the attack was that the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi by using a jutsu so powerful that it cost him his own life, a price he was more than willing to pay if it meant keeping the village that he loved safe, and that was the end of it."

Lin was not impressed. "And unofficially?"

Naruto nodded, conceding her point. "The Yondaime knew that he could never hope to defeat the Kyuubi on his own, so used a special sealing technique. This jutsu would defeat the demon fox, but at the cost of his own life. In exchange for his very soul, the Yondaime called upon the Shinigami, my world's Death God, to seal the demon's soul into the body of a newborn infant—"

"WHAT!?"

Naruto, who's eyes had drifted to the floor as he had spoken, abruptly snapped his gaze back towards Lin at her sudden outburst. He hadn't been expecting such fury at this point. Maybe when he had revealed himself as the newborn infant, he could see the fury then, but not now. And the older woman was absolutely livid, if her expression was anything to go by. Her usual professionalism had been replaced by a mask of pure rage, her jaw clenching tightly, her hands trembling with fury. She looked like she was on the verge of exploding, ready to lash out at anything that pushed her just a little bit. Was it something I said?

"Lin?" Tenzin asked with no small amount of caution, "is something the matter?" Naruto barely managed to restrain his groan at the monk's massive understatement.

Lin's head snapped towards him so fast that Naruto was honestly worried that she might have gotten whiplash. She snarled, actually snarled, causing Tenzin to back away slowly, his hands raised in a placating gesture. Lin ignored him in favor of taking a deep breath before turning back to Naruto. Only now he was surprised to note that there was almost no trace of the sudden fury that had claimed her before. Now she seemed to have calmed herself, and though Naruto could tell that she was still angry, Lin had managed to get it back under control.

"I'm guessing the 'newborn infant' in your little story was you?"

Naruto blinked, but he supposed that he should have seen this coming. In hindsight, he had made it fairly obvious for anyone who wanted to put the pieces together. He was curious that he wasn't panicking right now, but by this point he was simply too tired to muster the energy for fear.

"Yeah."

Lin nodded. She still seemed furious, though now Naruto was fairly sure that her anger wasn't being directed at him.

"And it's safe for me to assume that you had no choice in having this, this… demon sealed inside you by your 'Yondaime'? At the cost of his own life?"

Naruto nodded, still not sure where she was going with this. It wasn't as if he had ever resented the Fourth Hokage for his actions.

Lin growled. "This… man," She clearly had another word in mind, but choose not to say it, "is very lucky he died doing this. Because if he was still alive, I would hunt him down myself."

Naruto frowned, still too worn out to summon any stronger emotion. "If my father was still alive, I'd rather you not try to kill him."

Lin halted as Naruto's words sunk in, before she brought a hand up to her temple. "Of course."

"Wait wait wait." Bolin finally cut in, waving his hands back and forth rapidly for emphasis. "So let me get this straight. You have some kind of giant demon sealed inside you?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes."

"Okay, one little question; how is that even physically possible?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, curious that the boy seemed to be focusing on that rather than the large issues. Then again, Bolin hadn't really cared that he had been from another world, either, so maybe he shouldn't have been surprised.

But this was another problem that he hadn't thought of; how to explain the more complex parts of fuuinjutsu. It would have been challenging enough to explain it to a full-fledged shinobi, never mind people who couldn't even use chakra.

Okay, just think. How would he explain this to himself?

It didn't take long for an idea to come to him. It's worth a shot, I guess.

Naruto turned his attention back to the others, still staring at him expectantly. "Alright, let me put it this way. Have any of you guys wondered how I never run out of weapons?"

Mako answered for the group. "Well, yeah, but we just assumed that it was a ninja thing."

Naruto managed a smile at that. "Pretty much. I can use a branch of fuuinjutsu, ah, Sealing Techniques, in order to store just about any amount of objects into a scroll that I want. It's the same principle behind my father sealing the Kyuubi inside me, just on a much larger scale." The explanation may have been horrendously oversimplified, but it would do.

He took a moment to collect himself, for the first time taking in the reactions of everyone else in the room. Lin was still clearly angry, though nowhere near as much as she had been before, Tenzin appeared deep in thought as usual, and Tarrlok merely had a raised eyebrow. Bolin still seemed to be working out the physics behind the sealing process, Mako and Asami both appeared thoughtful, though he couldn't be sure about what. Pema's reaction was interesting though. She noticed his gaze settle on her, and simply gave him a warm smile in response.

That's it? No rage, no sudden angry mobs screaming for my blood?

"Uh, why would we be screaming for your blood?" Asami's hesitant question, along with a renewed growl from Lin, brought him up short. Had he said that out loud?

Naruto raised an eyebrow in response. "Come on. You can't think that a guy who had the demon that almost destroyed his home would be popular, did you? And why should I expect anything different here?"

"But surely people wouldn't actually assault a child?" Tenzin muttered more to himself than anyone else.

"Well no, it never got that far." Naruto answered. Yeah, for the most part the village had treated him like a leper, but any actual attempts on his life were quickly put down by the ANBU guard assigned to him when he had been young. Not that he had ever actually known about them until a good while later, but still.

"But," this time it was Pema who spoke up, "why would you think we would hate you for it? It wasn't as if you, or even this Kyuubi no Yoko, had ever done anything to us." Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto thought he saw Tenzin nod approvingly.

He only shrugged, careful not wake Korra as he did so. "Personal experience, I guess."

Bolin, perhaps guessing what he had been thinking, deadpanned, "Dude, you have a giant demon sealed inside you. Why would we actually be stupid enough to attack you?"

"Ah," Naruto coughed, "used to have a giant demon sealed inside me."

Bolin only shrugged. "My point remains valid."

Huh. He hadn't been expecting that either.

"So," Asami started, "let me be sure I've got everything down here." She raised her hands, ticking off her fingers with each point she made. "You're from another world, sent here to help Korra," she paused, glancing at him, and Naruto nodded in conformation, "You are also some kind of assassin/soldier," Naruto managed to restrain his indignant protest, "and you had just finished a big war back in your own world, you're the son of one of your village's legends, and you also happened to be the container of one of the most powerful demons in history." She finished, taking an exaggerated deep breath before she turned back to him. "Have I left anything out?"

"Well, there's also the bit about me being a Sage Master and one of my home's best hopes of winning the war."

"Ah," Asami nodded, as if she had any idea what he was talking about. "Well, I guess that about covers it."

"Naruto," Pema started, smiling and making sure to look him in the eye, "the first thing you did when you woke up here was save my children. You could be an actual demon and I wouldn't care."

Naruto paused, honestly not sure how to respond to that.

"Naruto is Naruto." He started at Korra's sudden input. He had honestly almost forgotten that she was still in the room. He turned back to her to find her eyes opened slightly as she looked up at him, a lazy smirk stretching across her face. "Told you so."

That was all she got out before her eyes closed again and she settled back into her original position, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto to stare at her.

"Korra?" Pema started, unable to keep the light teasing note out of her voice, "you do realize that you're resting your head on Naruto Uzumaki's shoulder, right?"

Korra simply cracked a single eye open in response. "Don't care. Tired." She promptly closed her eye again.

Pema chuckled. "Well, I suppose I should put her to bed, then." She then lifted the now-sleeping Korra up into her arms—actually a pretty impressive feat—before somehow managing to carry the girl out of the room.

As if by some unspoken cue, Asami let out a yawn, though she tried to cover it with her hand. "It has been a long night," she muttered a bit sleepily. "I think I'm gonna turn in too."

"Well, 'night then." Naruto said, still having a little trouble believing that they had all accepted everything so easily.

Asami turned to him one last time before she left, a small smile on her face. "Maybe we could all train together sometime."

Naruto managed a smile. "I'd like that." He actually meant it, too.

Mako's mind felt like it was running in a hundred different directions as he followed his girlfriend and his brother down the hall to their respective rooms.

The subject of his thoughts wasn't really about what Naruto had told them all—though it was still one hell of a bombshell—but more about the events of that night.

Simply put, he, Bolin, and Asami had been pathetic.

They hadn't been able to do anything at all. Sure, Bolin had destroyed that weird symbol, but if it hadn't been for that man in the trench coat taking out the Equalists surrounding it, Mako doubted they'd have been able to do even that.

Mako was not used to feeling like he was unable to do something to help the people he cared about, and he didn't like the experience at all. It didn't help that he was fully aware that if any of the others had fought Amon, they would likely be dead by now.

He had no idea of what had happened once Bolin destroyed that symbol, but Mako was fully aware of what they had all seen in that flash of light before it disappeared.

Whatever Naruto was using during that fight, it had made him unbelievably strong and fast. Mako was pretty sure that he had seen the blond actually carve gashes in the walls of a building when his claws had swept across them. And Amon had still been able to fight him to a standstill.

What the hell did that mean for the rest of them?

Simply put, it meant that unless something changed, and sooner rather than later, they would probably die.

Mako knew that, based on what he had seen, they would never be able to fight Amon one-on-one like Naruto or Korra could. But they could still help. They could get stronger. Maybe they could even help take out some of the weaker opponents so Naruto and Korra could focus on Amon.

"Okay," Bolin started, "so who here isn't surprised at all?"

Neither he nor Asami bothered to dignify that with a response. Bolin deflated. "Yeah, me too."

Mako felt pretty safe thinking that none of them had seen that particular detail coming.

"But you know," Asami started, "now that I think about it, it kind of fits."

"I guess," Bolin agreed weakly.

There was a moment of silence before Asami spoke up again. "What happens now?" Thankfully, Mako knew the answer to that.

"We get stronger."

Seeing he had their attention, Mako continued, his voice becoming more confident. "We get better. At the very least, we get strong enough so that Korra—and Naruto too, I guess" (he added the last part after a pointed look from Asami)—"won't have to fight the Equalists by themselves."

Asami and Bolin both nodded, apparently thinking along the same lines as he was.

It was a start.

Once she had left the room, and was absolutely sure nobody else was around to see her, Lin released an exhausted sigh, leaning her head against the stone walls of the temple in an attempt to soothe the oncoming migraine.

That kid is going to be the death of me, she thought wryly. She wasn't sure if she was joking, either.

Despite the tough front that she liked to present to the world, Lin knew that at heart she was, as Tenzin was fond of saying, a softy. That softness was especially apparent when it came to kids. While Naruto—and Korra as well, she supposed—was most definitely not a kid, he was still young, far too young for the type of job he claimed to have.

"I turned seventeen about a month before I came here."

The kid was only seventeen years old. Lin still had trouble wrapping her head around the thought even a few hours after their spar. How could a boy have been through so much in just seventeen years? And from what else Naruto had told her, he had been a shinobi for a good five years before that.

When Lin had heard that little detail, she had come very close to exploding. What kind of people regularly used a twelve year-old child as some type of soldier? She saw that Naruto was glaring at her, and only then realized that she asked the question out loud.

"I wanted to become a shinobi, you know." That had served to calm her temper pretty well. It was one thing if a nation forced its children to fight for them, but quite another if those children had volunteered for it. Hell, in some ways Lin could respect that, even if she still strongly disliked the idea. Not to mention her own embarrassment at letting her anger get the better of her like that. That look in his eyes though, a mix of disappointment and hurt, had stayed with her the rest of the day.

The next day, she had insisted that Naruto drop by her Headquarters again, if for no other reason than to try and apologize to him. He had accepted her apology quickly enough, though for some reason he had seemed surprised. Lin chose to ignore that.

They had sparred again, and Lin had to admit to herself that the kid was good. He'd actually given her one of the best fights she'd had in years. She decided to ask some other questions that had been in the back of her mind then, hoping he was comfortable enough to answer again.

"So what does a shinobi do exactly?"

Naruto had grinned before he answered, in a way that strongly reminded Lin of her mother when she was in a more mischievous mood. She probably would have liked the boy. "Officially, a ninja's job is to fight the enemy. Once war's been declared, we go in and stop it as soon as possible."

Lin frowned as she mulled over his words. Given what she knew of Naruto, that was far too professional of him. "And what do you really do?"

Naruto's grin only widened. "Not telling."

Oh yes, mother would have loved him.

Her relationship with Naruto had improved after that. She may have had her suspicions of him at first—honestly, who could blame her?—but Lin found that she had actually started to like the kid. It certainly helped that he had far and away given her some of the best fights she had ever had, even though she could tell he was holding back.

But that brought her to something else that had been bothering her for quite some time; whatever feelings Naruto was trying to hide from the rest of the world.

Toph Beifong had been one of the greatest earthbenders who had ever lived, a fact that Lin took no small amount of pride in. And she was better. The day Lin had finally managed to beat her mother in one of their spars for the first time, after which she had simply smirked and muttered "That's my girl," had been one of the best moments of her life. And ever since that day, she'd done her best to make her mother proud.

This had led perfecting the techniques that her mother had taught her, in addition to creating a few of her own. One of which was sensing another's heartbeat—and to an extent, their emotions—through vibrations of the earth. While her mother had developed the technique, Lin had refined it, combining it with her metalbending so that she was able to perform the technique without the need of bare feet. She rarely used it outside of her job, preferring to allow people their privacy, she had decided to use it tonight, to try and get a reading on whether or not Naruto was actually being serious.

What she had been able to pick up was worrying.

Naruto was being truthful, but there was also plenty he had been holding back. Lin could understand that, so she hadn't called him out on it. But she was worried by what else she had picked up. Or more specifically what she hadn't picked up.

As he told his story, Naruto's emotions were all but dead. Before that, they had been incredibly scattered, mostly in some form of fear, with the expectations of when Korra had somehow been able to provide comfort to him.

It had to be some kind of defense mechanism—Lin's job required her to be familiar with psychology—but she was at a loss as to why Naruto needed it. What had he thought was going to happen? That they would turn on him? Or even worse, actually assault him?

Lin went over the possible reasons he would think that, and none of them were particularly reassuring. What the hell had happened to that kid?

She took a deep breath, attempting to calm her thoughts. Whatever had happened to Naruto in the past had happened. There was nothing she could do to change that. But she could help him now. They had been surprised, but accepted what Naruto had told them well enough. But she could tell that Naruto still clearly had doubts about their integrity.

If nothing else, she could help the kid with that.

What in the world was happening to her?

Why was she suddenly having all these thoughts about Naruto now?

Granted, he had saved her life, but still, shouldn't she be feeling something more along the lines of gratitude in that case? At the very least, she shouldn't be thinking of how good he looked if it was just gratitude.

The thought caused her cheeks to flush again. This was starting to get irritating.

Okay, so she liked Naruto. Her thoughts while he had taken in the sight of the clothes they'd all repaired for him made that very clear. In hindsight, Korra was a bit embarrassed that it had taken her this long to figure it out; she'd liked a few boys before, what she felt now just happened to be a good deal stronger than any time in the past.

Korra huffed, hands placed under her chin as she watched the sun set over the ocean.

While at any other time Korra would have just admired the view, her thoughts were too scattered for it.

She liked him. Now what? This was definitely not the best time for her to develop a crush.

She had run through several options in her mind over the past few days, and right now the one that seemed most appealing was simply nothing. Just admit that she might have had a crush on him and put it out of the pictur, worry about her love life (the thought caused her cheeks to flush once more) after the Equalists had been taken care of.

Of course, Tarrlok's announcement of that damned party made her resolution difficult.

"Something on your mind?" This surprised Korra—she'd heard Asami coming towards her, but hadn't expected the older girl to try and start a conversation.

"I was thinking about the party." Not really true, but not exactly a lie either. She was embarrassed to find herself babbling and unable to stop it.

"So you're wondering how to ask him, then?" Crap. Did that mean Asami knew? Korra was still struggling with her own thoughts about this, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk with someone else about it.

Then again, that didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun.

"Ask who what?" She managed to keep the devious grin off her face when she saw Asami's stunned expression.

The ray of sunlight on her eyes was what finally managed to rouse her from what must have been a pretty deep sleep.

Korra let out a tired groan; whatever amount of sleep she had gotten, it hadn't been enough. Then again, after a night like last night, she doubted any more sleep would have helped that much. She was probably going to have to force herself to get out of the bed—

Wait. Bed?

That was enough to get her eyes open, and it didn't take long for her to realize that she was in her room. Huh. The last thing she remembered, she was waiting with Naruto for Tarrlok to arrive. She could vaguely recall something else happening, but the details were hazy at best.

And why did she feel so stiff? Okay, so she had been through one hell of a night. The party, the attack, finding Tarrlok, meeting Aang, unlocking her airbending—

Korra halted mid-thought for the second time since she had woken up.

That had really happened? Well, now she just had to try it, no matter how stiff she might have felt.

Korra lifted herself out of bed, brushing aside a stray lock of hair that fell past her shoulder—apparently whoever had put her to bed had also undone her ponytails—and walked to the middle of her room.

She took a deep breath, trying to recall everything that happened, everything that she had felt when she had—finally—used her airbending for the first time. Unlike what Tenzin had always stressed, Korra had not felt at peace with herself, or any kind of harmony with her inner-spirit. Instead, she had felt the same passion that she always felt when she fought. So maybe airbending really did work differently for her than other airbenders. But it actually hadn't needed an intense amount of focus like she thought it might. She'd just acted naturally. So maybe that would work here as well…

Korra spun, bringing her hands together while she did so, leaving a ball-shaped gap between them. Completing the spin, Korra thrust her hands out. A decently sized blast of air exploded from them.

YES!YES!YES!

It had actually worked! Korra, never one to keep a particularly strong grasp on her emotions, wanted to shout her jubilation from the rooftops. But she was also aware of the other people living at the Temple, and she did have some concern for her reputation. So, she managed to restrain herself to dancing around her room instead.

"KORRA!"

Until Tenzin's shout stopped her short.

She turned her head, fist still raised in the air, to the direction of Tenzin's voice. Oh.

Apparently, her airbending was more powerful than she had thought it was, if her door being blown out of its frame— narrowly missing a passing Tenzin in the process—was anything to go by. His expression was an interesting mix of anger, frustration, and she thought a little bit of pride as he fixed his stern gaze on her.

Korra found herself smiling back sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck in a nervous gesture very similar to Naruto's. "Oops?"

Tenzin was not amused.

Tenzin sighed for what already felt like the hundredth time that day. Korra shifted awkwardly from her position on the floor across from him under his gaze. It was not that he was displeased that the girl had finally managed to unlock her airbending—how could he be?—but did she really have to be so… chaotic about? A part of him had truly hoped that Korra would have calmed down somewhat once she had unlocked her airbending. It was a reasonable assumption, he told himself; Korra would not only have to find peace with herself, but also maintain that peace if she wanted to be able to airbend effectively—or at least, that was how he had always been taught. But it seemed it was not to be.

It certainly raised some interesting questions in his mind. Why was Korra seemingly able to airbend in such a way that he had always thought was impossible? Was it because of her interactions with the Spirits? And if it was, why would the Spirits grant her such abilities? Tenzin supposed such a thing was by no means impossible, but it seemed to indicate that their situation was far more perilous than they had thought it was.

Her encounter with Aang, though curious, did not surprise him. It was logical that Aang, as her predecessor, would reach out to her at some point. Some of his father's comments that Korra had mentioned piqued his interest though. What was this Dírén? Tenzin was also somewhat curious about the 'first Avatar' comment himself, but he knew that it would have to wait for another day.

There was one other pressing matter that he wanted settled. "So, what is this 'bond' that you and Naruto seemed to develop the other night?" Korra couldn't have been blushing at the end of his question. It had to be his imagination.

"W-well," he had surely not heard Korra stutter as well, "he was angry about something, I'm not quite sure what, and I could actually feel it as it happened."

Tenzin nodded. Such bonds between two people were extremely rare, but not entirely unheard of either. Granted, he would have to track down records that dated back centuries, but still…

Korra continued, her voice now stronger. "And then, when I asked Naruto about his… transformation?" She paused, her head tilted in an almost curious manner. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, I asked him about it, and he didn't really answer, but he thought about what it meant, and I just knew it as well."

Now that was interesting. Tenzin had never quite heard or read of a bond that allowed for that particular trait. Was it another aspect of the Spirit's gifts to her? Or something that occurred naturally for the first time in history? With Korra, it could have been either one.

"So you were able to read his mind?"

Korra shook her head. "It didn't work like that for me. I could feel everything he did, and once I came back, I was just able to pick up some of his thoughts and their meaning. I think if he really didn't want me to hear them, I wouldn't have. But I can't feel any of that now." He sincerely hoped that he was just imagining the touch of sorrow in her voice.

Well, at any rate, it was time to focus on other matters. "We will have to begin your training as soon as possible."

Korra reacted as he would have thought; her eyes shone with anticipation. "Really?"

Tenzin nodded, managing to keep the smile off his face. "Of course. You didn't expect us to do nothing about your new abilities, did you? You truly are the Avatar now, Korra. And we can't have the Avatar lagging behind in her training, can we?"

He could all but feel the happiness that radiated off of Korra as he finished.

"I spoke with Naruto earlier," he continued, "and he has agreed that it might be wise to start training Asami, Mako, and Bolin as well, at least with one those clones of his." Actually, the children had been the ones to suggest the idea to him, but Korra didn't need to know that. While they had been hanging near Korra while she had been attempting her airbending training, they hadn't really been able to do all that much to help her. Naruto training with Lin at the Police Station hadn't helped matters, either.

"Oh! That reminds me," Tenzin could only pray that the hopeful tone in her voice was another figment of his imagination. "Where is Naruto?"

He had not been imagining anything. Tenzin sighed again; he was not meant to deal with teenage girls!

Naruto was doing something that would have greatly surprised anyone who had known him before the war began: he was thinking deeply, sitting in a near-lotus position as he watched the ocean.

Naruto thinking like this was actually a great deal more common than most people would have thought. He just preferred to do it when no one else was around.

At the moment, his thoughts were mostly occupied by three things: whatever it was that had happened between him and Korra the other night, the others' reactions when he had told them about being a former Jinchuuriki, and—though he tried to avoid it—his own past, especially the final days of the Akatsuki War.

What had happened between him and Korra was… well, he wouldn't call it 'unpleasant', but it had been decidedly strange. The concept of feeling another persons's emotions was not new to Naruto; there were actually a few small bloodlines he could think of that worked in a similar fashion. But he had never really thought it would ever happen to him. But that link, for lack of a better word, was all but gone now. In the back of his mind, he was distantly aware that Korra was now awake, but that might have had more to do with the blast of air that had exploded out of the Temple than any psychic link. He did know a few seals that might be able to help him recreate it, though, if Korra was interested. Of some reason the thought made him nervous, actually more so than he was when he had told the others the truth—or parts of the truth—about his past.

Now that he had time to go over the events of the other night in his head, Naruto still had difficulty believing that the others had accepted him so easily. A part of him still had doubts—even when it came to Korra—and probably would for a long time yet. He was hoping that his next sparring session with Lin, who had insisted that they go to the Police Station again today, might give him time to clear his head. The other members of Team Avatar—he still couldn't resist smiling whenever he heard that name— asking to start training with him also went a long way to proving their honesty.

Then there was the last big concern for him, the war. Amon's declaration that he would kill Korra had forced some of his worst experiences with the war to the front of his mind, and Naruto had allowed the rage he still felt towards the bastard Madara to overwhelm him. If he had forced himself to keep a clear head, he might have been able to put up a better fight. Well, he had protected Korra, so it wasn't as if Naruto could really complain.

Naruto had thought that he had managed to put the war behind him, but it looked like he hadn't quite managed it yet. He was aware that something like Kumogakure being razed to the ground would have gotten to anyone, but still…

"There you are!" Korra's voice—thankfully—broke him out of his thoughts before he could dwell on his memories any longer. The last of his memories faded away completely as he turned to face her. That actually happened pretty often whenever he talked to her, though Naruto wasn't sure why.

He noticed two things when he laid his eyes on her; one, that Korra was now wearing her airbending uniform. Second, that her hair wasn't done in her usual three-ponytail style. Apparently, Korra was content with letting it hang loose, so that it stopped a little past her shoulders. Naruto thought that he actually kind of liked her hair this way, before he forced the sudden thought out of his mind.

"Hey," he returned with a warm smile that seemed to come naturally when he was around her.

They both paused after that, neither one of them quite sure what to say. For some reason, though, Naruto didn't mind the silence.

"So," Korra said at length, "crazy night, huh?"

Naruto barked out a laugh. "That's one way of putting it!"

Korra let out a soft laugh of her own. Naruto had also found that he liked her laugh; it almost never came out in a girlish giggle like some of the girls he had known back home, but deeper, more throaty, often in the form of a chuckle. Why were these odd thoughts popping into his head?

Korra took a deep breath, and Naruto could have sworn that she was blushing a bit as her eyes shifted to the side, away from him. "Look," she started, "about last night…" she trailed off, seemingly unsure of what to say at this point.

"…Thank you." She spoke so quietly that Naruto had to strain to hear it.

He blinked, unsure how to respond.

Korra continued, her voice growing more confident as she locked eyes with him. "You saved my life last night." Naruto opened his mouth, but Korra brought her hand up in a silencing gesture. "Let me finish. You saved my life twice now, probably in more ways than one. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that the only reason I'm able to airbend now is because of you." If anything, her blush seemed to intensify, and her eyes darted away again.

Naruto still didn't know what to say. He'd never really had anyone speak to him like this before. Okay, he had, but those few times that it had happened, nobody had spoken to him with such absolute conviction in their voice before. Where was she going with this?

His thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt as Korra leaned in and pressed her lips against his cheek.

It seemed to last for hours, but in reality was probably only a few seconds. If Naruto was at a loss before, he had no idea how to describe what he was now.

And then it was over as Korra turned the instant she leaned back from him, abruptly running back to the temple for what he could only presume was her training, shouting "See you later!" over her shoulder.

Naruto could do nothing more than stare, all but rooted to the ground.

What the hell was that?

Korra was positively giddy as she headed back to the temple, despite the fact that her face felt like it was on fire from all the blushing.

That had actually gone a lot better than she had thought it would.

Don't focus on fighting Amon so much that you push all other aspects of your life aside.

She had tried to not let it show, but the entire time she had been talking with Tenzin, Aang's final words to her had been running through her mind constantly. She could only guess that he had been talking about Naruto at the time, which implied that he had somehow known about her decision to do nothing about her—rapidly growing, to her concern—crush. While it really should have creeped her out that a dead person was interested in her relationships, Korra just didn't care at this point.

If Aang really was telling her that some kind of relationship with Naruto would not, as she had thought, damage her fight against the Equalists, then she was going for it.

She just had to work out how.