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A Spirit of Elements Chapter 11 (Teaching and Bad Blood)
🕑 Added 2022-04-02 21:20:13 +0000 UTCNaruto was about to leave his room when he realized he was still wearing his boxers. 'Right, now we have Korra here,' he thought.
The young Airbender put on his sweatpants and a coat. He felt slightly confused about himself regarding the words he told Korra that night. Why did he tell her that? He didn't regret saying she was pretty or anything like that, for he was being completely sincere with her. But still, he never expected himself to be that open with Korra. Heck, he didn't even know if he was flirting with her or only complimenting her. The only thing he knew for sure was that he liked to have Korra around.
'Should I talk with aunt Pema about this?' he wondered. 'At least I know that I definitely shouldn't talk about it with uncle Tenzin. He's gonna flip and start lecturing me about how I'm distracting her from her airbending lessons, especially if he finds out we went to the Arena that night.' Naruto made a pause from his thoughts to laugh a little. 'Then again, I'm just trying to help her my own way. I started sneaking out every once in a while and my airbending turned out to be just fine. Scratch that, it turned out to be mind-blowingly amazing.'
The other day, Naruto had arrived after his date with Asami; the moment he had arrived, Korra had basically demanded to know why he had gone for so long and why he hadn't brought her with him.
Naruto had mostly dodged her questions; Asami had decided to visit The Air Temple soon, choosing to introduce herself to Korra as well.
Making his way to the kitchen, he saw that most of the monks were already gone, probably to start their morning duties. He shrugged and started eating his usual breakfast. When he was done, he put on his training gear and left. Naruto saw smoke coming out on his way down to the spinning gates.
'Oh crap, Korra is getting angry,' Naruto thought as he accelerated his pace.
"That was a two-thousand-year-old historical treasure. What... What is wrong with you!" Naruto heard the voice of his uncle as he got closer. Most of the spinning gates were burnt to ashes, while the others that were left weren't in a much better shape. Korra was in the middle of them, and she looked dangerously pissed off.
"There's nothing wrong with me! I've been practicing just like you told me, but it isn't sinking in, okay?! It hasn't clicked like you said it would!" Korra responded to Tenzin.
"Korra, this isn't something you can force. If you would only listen to me-"
"I have been! But you know what I think? Maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe the reason I haven't been able to airbend is because YOU are a terrible teacher!" Korra interrupted him before storming out of the training grounds. She was so frustrated she could care less about the whole 'respecting your elders' stuff. Jinora and Ikki went to hug their father while Meelo started freaking out and running around the place.
Naruto followed Korra back to the temple. He expected her to go to her room to cool off.
Instead, she went to... Naruto's room?
"Grrr, stupid Tenzin, stupid meditation and stupid airbending!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Her ire was so great that she failed to notice that she went into Naruto's instead of going into her room. Both of them were similar as they both were very messy. Korra then started taking off her airbending clothes. "Why does airbending have to be so hard?" Korra asked to herself.
"Am I coming in a bad time?" Naruto asked behind her.
Korra's reaction was priceless.
"What are you doing here? Get out of my room!" Korra yelled at him as hard as she could, with her face red as a cherry. Even if Naruto had nothing to do with how her airbending was going, she didn't want to talk to anyone right now. Especially not while she was about to get undressed.
"How about you get out of my room?"
"What are you talking about? This is my..." the Avatar was about to say 'room' when she turned around and noticed that, last time she checked, her room didn't have weights lying on the floor, didn't have books about Raven Eagles on her desk, and certainly did not have male underwear in her closet.
Yup, this was awkward, alright.
Before Korra could embarrass herself more, Naruto stepped in. "Well, as promised, today you start your airbending lessons with me. Meet me at the other training ground behind the gardens in twenty minutes. Don't be late."
"Look, Naruto, I know I said I would train with you, but right now, it's just not the best of times," Korra growled. She just got done getting her lower back kicked hard multiple times by spinning gates. She, the Avatar, the bridge between the Spiritual World and the Physical World, the bender of all four elements and the reincarnation of all the previous Avatars that changed the world for the better, couldn't get past spinning gates, airbend the tiniest of breezes or meditate for more than a minute or two. That thought annoyed her to no end.
But Naruto wouldn't have any of that. "When I told you about my training, I said that I took it very seriously and that I expected you to do the same. Trying to ditch on your first lesson just because you are in a bad mood is not taking it seriously at all. Now go change your clothes back to something comfortable and meet me at the training ground behind the gardens. Twenty minutes. Don't be late," he said in a very serious tone before walking away.
True enough, Naruto was usually a funny, understanding, and charming guy. But when it came to training, he became a lot more serious and focused. Tenzin noticed this and was fairly surprised. Always reminded him of Kya; she always had that serious moment whenever she trained. Sometimes Tenzin wondered if Naruto was truly Kya's child in blood as well since they were way too similar; she loved pranks and making jokes.
'Alright, then I will be the greatest Airbender of all time! I'll have this airbending stuff down in a month, then I will be the one teaching you, Master Tenzin!' the voice of the eight-year-old Naruto on his first day at the Air Temple echoed in his head every time Tenzin looked at his nephew doing something airbending related.
Korra was taken back by his words. Since she had known him, Naruto had always been so laid-back it was strange to see him so serious. Sighing, Korra took off (more like ripped off) her Airbender clothes to put on her usual water tribe attire. She could only hope she would get something out of Naruto's training. Maybe she could let out some steam with a spar or two.
Naruto's training grounds
"Good to see you made it, Korra. Ready for your first lesson?" Naruto asked while he finished doing push-ups standing on his own hands. Naruto's training ground took place in a less occupied plaza filled with grass and some plants that were abandoned by the caretakers. Not too much, but it had what Naruto needed: space and privacy.
Korra noticed several trees with scratching marks, making her wonder just what Naruto hadn't shown her from his skills. But one tree caught her attention. It had a whirlpool mark on it, almost like something had drilled through the tree, almost through the whole thing.
Naruto noticed where she was looking, "It is a new Airbending Move I'm trying to make, but I haven't mastered it yet," Naruto cleared her confusion as she analyzed the damage done to the tree.
"Well, it looks impressive. I hope you can teach me after you master it," Korra commented before turning to face Naruto, who had a serious expression on his face.
Naruto asked again if she was ready.
"As ready as I'll ever be," was Korra's moody answer.
"Good. First things first, I'll explain why I think that your time with uncle Tenzin has been unproductive," Naruto commented before taking a deep breath. "The thing that uncle Tenzin fails to realize is that he's expecting you to move and act like an airbender right away. When going through the spinning gates, one should already have a notion of proper airbending movement. Uncle Tenzin skipped that and went straight to the gates. You following?" Korra nodded. It actually made sense.
Naruto continued. "As for your meditation, I've been thinking about how to help you stay still and be patient. What seems to happen here is similar to your airbending problems. Uncle Tenzin doesn't takes into account that since the start of your Avatar training, meditation was never an aspect that was considered as important as your bending prowess. Again, he's rushing you into things you have never experienced before and expecting you to simply adjust to them naturally."
"Last thing. Uncle Tenzin has succeeded in teaching Meelo, Ikki and Jinora because they are his children and knows how to deal with them. He has been with them all of his life. You, on the other hand, are almost a complete stranger to him, sure he had seen you before but not actually knowing you well. Born and raised in the Southern Water Tribe, you are not adjusted to life here."
Korra listened in silence. The explanation was actually pretty valid, in her opinion. At least she now knew why airbending was so hard for her. "So, what do we do first?" she asked, feeling a bit more confident after hearing Naruto out.
"I decided that we'll begin with learning how to move like an airbender. As you already know, airbending is based on circular, evasive movements. You have to be able to change your direction as fast as needed. But first, you need to know how to move like that. You will do that by practicing some airbending katas I invented some time ago. This will be hard but with a lot of push ups, sit ups and plenty of milk, you will find your way. Ready?"
"Let's do this," Korra said with a small but confident smile.
Five hours later, Inside the Air Temple
"Okay, everyone here?" Pema asked as she made some tea for her family. She then noticed that two certain benders were missing. "Wait, where is Korra and Naruto?"
Tenzin was the one to answer. "Honestly Pema, I am at my wits-end with that girl. I-I don't know how to get through her," he responded with irritation. Korra had to be, by far, the most impatient girl he had ever had to deal with. She was just so stubborn and impulsive that teaching her airbending was almost impossible. He remembered when Naruto was a kid and how he would get angry when he couldn't get a certain airbending lesson, but at least he tried to listen and didn't go on a rampage every time he failed to pass through the spinning gates. Not that he wasn't close to, but still. "As for Naruto, he could be flying around with Sozu for all I know."
"Dear, the best thing you can do right now is to give Korra some space," Pema kindly suggested.
Tenzin said nothing but looked at his children.
"Ikki, Jinora, you must promise me that your teenage years won't be like this," Tenzin said to his daughters. He already had one stubborn girl to look out for. Spirits help him if his two sweeties turn out to behave just like Korra.
Jinora raised an eyebrow. "Naruto is my cousin. I will make no such promises."
Naruto
"Alright, Korra, I think we can call it a day," Naruto said to his student. 'It's amazing. She learns things at a very fast pace.' During the five hours of training they had, Naruto showed Korra some basic airbending katas, which she had to copy as best as she could. At first, she said that she felt very stiff, not being used to moving like that, but after a few minutes of practice, she loosened up enough to bear the awkwardness of the movements. The first kata consisted of performing a full circle around a wooden post while doing certain movements with her arms and a couple of airbending stances. It took her around twenty minutes to do the whole thing without stopping once.
Next, Naruto threw at his apprentice a series of 'air punches,' as he liked to call them. The idea of the exercise for Korra was to evade the blows as quickly as she could while using airbending stances. These stances were made so they could be easily switched in between. When Korra finally fought the urge to hit back, she was capable of dodging most of the blasts and was somewhat getting comfortable with the stances.
Finally, for the rest of the session, Korra and Naruto engaged in a hand-to-hand spar in which Korra was not allowed to fight back, only to dodge or block. This exercise improved reaction time, airbending stances, and self-control. This one had to be the most challenging exercise Naruto had to put her through. She had to fight her instincts that yelled for her to counterattack, but in the end, her will prevailed and left Naruto unharmed.
"... (Pant, pant)... That was... (Pant, pant)... Some workout right there..." was the only thing the Avatar managed to say.
Despite she was still far from airbending, Korra enjoyed her class with Naruto a lot more than the ones she had with Tenzin. Instead of having to deal with the gates or with meditation, Naruto was teaching her the previous steps she had to take on before airbending. The thing that caught her attention was that she felt like she was actually making progress. Granted, it was nothing to brag about, but after dealing with her previous lessons with a certain bald monk, feeling like she was closer to airbend was a whole new thing.
"So, what do you think of my training methods? Better than uncle's?" Naruto asked.
After regaining her breath, Korra spoke up. "Way better. It's like you know exactly how to teach me. How come you are better at teaching than Tenzin? Wasn't he supposed to be the old wise master around here? You're a master too but no offence, he's a master for much longer and has trained before?!"
"Just because he is an airbending master doesn't mean he's good at teaching. He's a little narrow minded when it comes to airbending. He knows that air is the element of freedom, but I don't think he understands what that means. One of the things being able to airbend means is that you are free to explore and create. Uncle Tenzin never really stepped out of what he was taught by Grandpa Aang," Naruto said as he stopped and went into a thinking pose. "And since you are Grandpa Aang's reincarnation, it's actually kind of your fault."
"Wow, that has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard," Korra deadpanned.
Naruto pretended to be hurt and pouted. "You're such a big meanie sometimes, you know that? Anyways, since this is a special occasion, I believe you deserve a little treat. How does that sound?"
Korra perked up when she heard the word treat; her usual Avatar smile returned on her face. "Really? What kind of treat?"
"Well, I heard the Fire-Ferrets were playing tonight. Interested?"
Did Naruto really have to ask?
Pro-bending Arena at night
The Avatar and her Airbender friend were currently walking inside the hall towards the locker room. Once they entered, they found Mako and Bolin sitting on a bench, looking like kids who didn't get any gifts on their birthdays. "We didn't miss your match, did we? You guys look like you already lost," Korra asked.
"We might as well have," Bolin said, depressed out of his mind.
"Hasook's a no good no show," Mako added bitterly.
Suddenly, one of the tournament administrators opened the door and looked at the incomplete Pro-bending team. "You got two minutes to come out ready to play or you're disqualified," he said before leaving.
"Well, there goes our shot at the tournament and the winnings," Bolin commented.
"Can't you ask one of those guys to take Hasook's place?" Korra asked while pointing to another team who had just returned from their game.
"Nah, the rules say you can only compete in one team."
Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for the brothers. He recognized their hard work and the struggle they had to face every day. All of that seemed to be in vain, all because of a loser who gave up on them in the middle of the race. He would gladly try to fill in, but waterbending wasn't exactly Naruto's... forte. That seemed to be Korra's thing.
Wait, Korra's thing?
Of course!
"How about you, Korra?" Naruto asked her.
"Hey, you're right! How about me? I'm a top-notch waterbender if I do say so myself," Korra proposed. This whole thing was certainly unexpected but in a good way. This was the second time she and Naruto went to see the Fire-Ferrets play, and now she would play with them? Talk about... well... unexpected.
"But, you're the Avatar. Isn't that cheating?" Bolin asked, unsure of the proposal.
"Not if she only uses waterbending," Naruto responded. It made enough sense, and the sport's rules didn't state that the Avatar was not allowed to participate.
"Exactly," Korra said, smiling at Naruto, who in return smiled back.
However, the good vibes were gone the moment Mako opened his mouth. "No way. I'd rather forfeit than look like a fool out there."
Korra glared at Mako. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," she said sarcastically. No, really, what was his problem?
"You're worried that you will look like a fool out there playing with Korra? No offense, but in the eyes of the spectators, you will look like bigger fools by not having a replacement on your team and losing by default."
Before Mako could argue, which wasn't going to happen since he could not deny what Naruto had just said, the same administrator from before interrupted his answer.
"Time's up. You're in or out?"
"We're/ They're in," both Korra and Naruto said in unison.
"We are?" Mako asked in confusion.
"Yes!" Bolin exclaimed, not caring that his brother was clearly against it.
"Hey, I didn't agreed to this!" the firebender shouted in an attempt to stop the nonsense going around him. The attempt, however, was not taken seriously.
"You can thank me later," was Korra's only response before changing into her uniform.
Mako simply couldn't believe his luck. First, Hasook leaves the team, and now he has to stick with Korra in order to compete? "This girl is crazy."
"Ohhh trust me Mako, you haven't seen anything yet," Naruto chuckled.
'Okay, maybe I should have explained to Korra some basic rules of Pro-bending before I let her out on a Pro-bending match,' Naruto thought in retrospect.
As soon as the match started, Korra struggled to stay in the game. She was making mistakes that were common knowledge to any athlete or spectator. Naruto could literally feel Mako's frustration all the way from his spot. Things got even worse when she accidentally earth-bent one of the attacks coming towards her, exposing herself as the Avatar. Naruto remembered that the White Lotus sentries used to hear the games with their radio, so there was a chance that they might have been discovered. 'Uncle Tenzin is not going to be very happy about this,' he thought.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Naruto simply laughed rather loudly when he heard the referee say, 'Foul! I... think.' after Korra's earth bent. He could only think how Tenzin would feel if he saw her right now.
That was when Naruto saw his uncle walking through the crowd, standing right in front of Korra, who was just knocked away to the water area by the other team.
... Don't you just love coincidences?
Korra and Tenzin
Naruto made it just in time to see Korra and her uncle arguing. Tenzin did not look happy at all.
"Hey, uncle!" Naruto shouted as he reached them. Tenzin turned around and glared at his nephew.
"Naruto, are you also part of this nonsense?"
"What nonsense? I'm just showing her what it feels to be like a normal human being. I know you don't like Pro-bending matches and all, but-"
"But nothing! The two of you are going back to the island right now, and that's final," Tenzin said, irritated.
"Why? So I can go back to meditate about how much I suck at airbending?" Korra said, even more, irritated than the son of Aang. "You know, I'm beginning to think there is a reason I haven't been able to learn it. Because maybe, I don't even need it!"
Naruto flinched after hearing those words. 'This is soooo not good.'
"What? That is a ludicrous suggestion! The Avatar needs to learn airbending, it's not optional!" Tenzin all but roared.
"Okay, guys, how about we take it easy for a minute? Let's talk about it like reasonable and mature grown-ups, shall we?" Naruto said, trying to ease up the situation.
"Not now, Naruto!" both Tenzin and Korra shouted at him at the same time.
Korra faced Tenzin once again. "This is what I need! Modern styles of fighting just like the one Naruto is teaching me!"
"Being the Avatar is not all about fighting! When will you learn... Wait a minute," Tenzin was saying before he realized Korra's words. Now he didn't know with whom he felt angrier at, Korra or Naruto. "Naruto, have you been teaching Korra airbending behind my back?"
"Uncle, I'm aware that you may dislike my way of airbending, but you have to understand. Your teachings methods are simply not the most appropriate for Korra. Maybe if you would let me-"
"I will not hear whatever lecture you may have for me, young man! Your airbending is as misdirected as it can get!" Tenzin snapped at him.
Naruto looked slightly shocked for a second, but then he glared angrily at Tenzin. "You know what? Fine. I'm out of here. See you at the Air Temple, Councilman Tenzin." he said as he stormed out of the place, leaving his uncle and Korra behind.
"I have a match to play." Korra said before going into the elevator for the next round.
Comments
Drinor
We are going to have a Lot of reaction from Korra when she finds out about Asami. Thanks for reading my Story.
