Crossover Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ NAvatarUTO ❯ Katara's story ( Chapter 19 )

Katara sat alone on a park bench. A week had passed since the preliminaries and not a day had gone by that she and her brother had not tried to convince Aang and Toph to drop out of the exam. Their efforts lead to nothing but hard feelings and arguments.

“Hey, Katara!” A familiar voiced called out to her.

Oh, it's him. That annoying boy from the forest of death. He was one of the ninja who left them to die at the hands of Zuko. She really didn't want to talk to him, but she couldn't let on that she knew he was an enemy. She nodded her acknowledgment of the orange ninja. “Hi Naruto.” She noticed he had a rather large welt on his head.

“Say, Katara, you're a girl.” Naruto observed.

“Uh huh…” Katara answered raising her eyebrows.

Naruto rubbed his sore head. “Why are girls so violent to boys?” he asked.

Katara remembered the feeling of freezing Jet to a tree, and those two boys in Ba Sing Se to get directions to earth rumble six. Then she thought of Toph sending a boulder the size of a table down a ramp at a blindfolded Aang when she was teaching him to earth bend. “I don't know what you're talking about.” She answered innocently.

Naruto grumbled as he sat down next to Katara. “Sakura always hits me.” Naruto complained. “Everything I do is dumb in her eyes.” He pouted. “I don't even know what I'm doing wrong, and no one will tell me. All the other girls just say I'm hopeless.” Naruto dropped his head in his hands and looked glum.

Katara was didn't know how to react. Naruto was usually annoyingly upbeat. She felt bad for him. He seemed clueless. She considered the blond ninja. She didn't think that he would be spilling his guts to her if he were in a plot against them. Plus he seemed too stupid to even keep a secret. Katara fell back as Naruto suddenly jumped to his feet.

“Well, I guess I'll just have to show them my super ninja strength at the chunin exams.” He exclaimed.

Katara shook her head. “Sorry, but that's not how you win a girl's heart.”

“Even so, I have to win the first match. If I lose then the judges will only get to see me in that one fight and probably wouldn't make me chunin. And if I'm eliminated…” Naruto clenched his fists, “I won't get to battle Sasuke.”

Katara sat forward. “I thought he was on your team, why do you want to fight him so badly?” She was surprised to hear Naruto laugh.

“Sasuke is more than a teammate, he's my best friend. We're like brothers. That's exactly the reason I want to fight him. Sasuke is so talented and I've always wanted to be like him. I believe that with enough training, I can beat Sasuke. It is the competition between us that has made us strong. That's what kept me going when I was eaten alive by a snake in the forest of death. All I ever wanted was for the whole village to acknowledge me, but if it ends up being just Sasuke, then that will be enough.”

Katara stared at this boy, so earnest and full of hope. Sasuke was rude, standoffish and a loner, but he considered him his best friend. “You fight because you want to be acknowledged, but what if you end up like Lee?” She asked.

“I can't let that happen.” Naruto answered. “I know I won't fail because now I fight not only for my dreams, but for his dreams as well.”

Katara smiled. Something about Naruto just made you want to believe in him. “Naruto, there's something I need to tell you. Your first opponent is Li right? Well, how do I put this?” Naruto looked at her expectantly. “His real name is Zuko,” Katara continued, “and he's a firebender.” She told him everything she knew about Zuko. She wanted Naruto to win.