Chapter One:
Naoki, the Head Elder of the Eastern Air Temple, was visiting the Northern Temple, and he was discussing an important matter with the Northern Head Elder, Noboru. "We need to find the Avatar" Noboru said. "It is vitally important that we hand him over to the Order of The White Lotus for training."
"I understand your concern." Naoki replied. "But we need to think about this carefully. We have to check our map thoroughly and search the place we have not before. If we look hard enough we will find the Avatar."
"I hope so." said Noboru. "We have to find him as soon as we can."
Suddenly Naoki's daughter Kaze cut into the conversation. "The Avatar?!" she squealed.
"I can't wait to search for the Avatar. I've waited so long..."
"Kaze!" Noboru interrupted.
Naoki stepped in to calm the situation. "Let me handle this." he said. He looked over to Kaze. "Kaze, I know you are eager to search for the Avatar, but you are disrespecting Noboru and myself.
Kaze calmed down. "I am very sorry." she said. "I should not have let my enthusiasm get the better of me."
"You better be." growled Noboru. "I wont let you search for the Avatar."
"I accept your apology Kaze." said Naoki. "As for you Noboru, whether Kaze searches for the Avatar depends on a majority vote by all four Head Elders."
"Then we must arrange the meeting shortly." Noboru said.
The meeting was arranged quickly and soon Kaze was standing before the head elders. Naoki and Noboru sat at the corners of the room, and the Eastern and Southern heads, both women, sat at the other corners.
Naoki was the first to speak up. "I think Kaze, my daughter is capable of searching for the Avatar. I understand that she can sometimes get overenthusiastic. But she is also very wise, and she earned her arrows and the age of eight. She has been preparing for this for most of her life."
After Naoki finished, Noboru waited for a few seconds, then inserted his own comment. "Kaze gets way to excited way to easily. Recently she interrupted a conversation between myself and Naoki. Besides she is Naoki's own daughter."
"I understand, that she did that." Naoki replied. "But she immediately and courteously apologized. Also, as I mentioned before, searching for the Avatar is something she has been anticipating for years."
The Eastern Elder spoke up. "Noboru, we all understand Kaze is Naoki's daughter."
"I just don't think that should Naoki should let Kaze search, just because he is her father." said Naoki.
"That is why we are all deciding on this." replied the Southern Elder. "Also you criticize Naoki for choosing Kaze for being his daughter, yet you let your personal resentment of her cloud your judgement."
Noboru let out a sigh of frustration. "Well it seems you all are ready to make a decision." he said. "Why don't we have a vote?"
"Lets do that." said Naoki. "All in favor of Kaze searching for the Avatar." Naoki's hand went up, along with the Southern and Eastern elders.
"All opposed." Naoki added, and only Noboru's hand came up. "The decision has been made. Kaze you are authorized to search for the Avatar.
Kaze was overjoyed, but she held it in as well as she could. "I thank you all for sending me on an important journey. It is an honor and privilege that you would give me such an important and prestigious assignment. I will search my hardest, and will find the Avatar for you."
After the meeting was adjourned, Kaze walked out of the room. When she got out she finally released her suppressed excitement. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to search for the Avatar."
Kaze looked to her father. "Let's get the supplies and put them on my Bison."
Noboru opened the door to his private chamber. "I do not wish to be disturbed." he told the guards at the door.
Noboru walked into the room and shut the door. The floor opened up, revealing a tunnel. He jumped down and used Airbending to slow down his fall. When he reached the bottom he saw two men. The first man average sized man with a thin beard, dark blue robes, and a water symbol on his chest. The man was named Arashi, and he was the leader of the Order of the White Lotus.
The second man was the one Noboru was worried about. He was tall, slender but muscular, and wore a thin green vest with a few metal bands. There was one feature, however, that stood out to Noboru the most: he had a pair of nails sticking out of his irises. He was Tsume, the leader of the Iron Assassins.
"Have you gotten closer to locating the Avatar?" Arashi asked.
"No Arashi, the elders chose Naoki's daughter Kaze to search for the Avatar." Noboru replied.
Tsume stepped forward and grabbed Noboru by the face. From a distance he seemed emotionless, but from closer Noboru could tell that was not true. Even with the nails, Noboru could see intense fury in Tsume's eyes. Careful well planned fury, but fury none the less.
Nails shot out of Tsume's finger and pressed up against Noboru's skull. Pain shot through Noboru's head, and he struggled to maintain concentration. This was the way Tsume killed people, by stabbing them through the head with his nail claws. "Tsume!" Arashi barked.
Tsume briefly glanced to the side, and Noboru immediately hit with a powerful airblast. Tsume flew across the room and slammed into the wall. Tsume pulled himself into the wall, and then pushed himself out of it.
Arashi slid between Tsume and Noboru to prevent any more violence from occurring between them. He pulled water out of his flask, and held it up like a snake ready to strike. "Both of you stop this immediately." Arashi demanded. "You both are useful to me, and I can't lose either of you."
Both Noboru and Tsume grudgingly agreed. Tsume retracted the nails in his fingers, so that only the tips were visible. Noboru heard that he had the nails to enhance his connection with the earth. He wasn't certain about that, but it sounded reasonable.
Noboru floated back up the tunnel, and when he was through, Tsume closed it up with a sigh. Tsume wanted to close the tunnel up on Noboru, but he knew it would not look good in front of his boss. Tsume opened up a new tunnel in the floor, which he and Arashi crawled down through the mountain, to the base.
Back in his chamber, Noboru was still shaken from the incident. Why would Arashi hire someone so dangerously impulsive like this. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to work for a man like Arashi.
Still, Arashi promised to make a world where bender ruled over. It might be worth working with people like Tsume.