I do not own either Naruto or Avatar, or any of its characters.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

'Biju or Spirit speech or Jutsu"

'Biju or Spirit thought'

Chapter 2: Rebirth

Deep in the Earth Kingdom

A small platoon of Fire Nation soldiers were making their way through one of the Earth Kingdom's thickest forests on orders of their colonel to investigate some kind some kind disturbance that had happened a few days earlier. The disturbance being that their radios for some reason encountered heavy interference once you got too close to these "Cursed Woods" as the locals call them. Their colonel simply pasted it off as Earth Kingdom soldiers using their own radios to block off coms and sent a scouting party in to try and find the source.

Now here they were in the middle of nowhere in an unfamiliar territory looking for spirits knows what, and hoping that something doesn't pop out and devour them whole like some other poor saps they heard about closer to the coast.

Now everything had been running smoothly from what the captain could see as he rode on top of his komodo rhino, they have found no Earthbenders yet and he still was in one piece.

What was bothering the captain was that he couldn't shake the feeling that they were not supposed to be here, and that alone made him nervous. He had looked upon death before, and he could tell that it had a huge presence in this forest.

But duty and the thought of glory overrode his feeling of dread and ordered his men forward. And they continued on for a while looking for anything really suspicious when they felt as if they had walked through an intense level of humidity, but before anyone could comment on it the feeling pasted as quickly as it came leaving them confused as to what they had felt and continued onward till dusk when they set up camp.

What they were unaware of were three pairs of masked eyes watching them from up in the trees, and these were the eyes of no ordinary being. No, these eyes belonged to three masked Konoha ANBU ninja, silent killers and deadly shadows.

The squad leader motions to his subordinate to keep watch and maintain radio contact as he and the other head back to the village to inform the Hokage.

Konoha- Hokage's office

Naruto sat in his chair waiting for a team to report what was going on out there, they had set the barriers to slow down time to a very large margin, from what Shikamaru calculated around ten thousand years had pasted on the outside while only three years had passed inside, and now someone from the outside had disturbed it.

Naruto didn't know exactly what or who had broken it by passing through the barrier, but for some reason the barriers around their village had grown weak over time even with the highly advanced blood seals that were placed on the scroll, Naruto knew that it would wear down in time, which lead him to this situation now.

But before he had time to gather all of his thoughts two ANBU agents appeared in front of him bowing, "Hokage-sama we are reporting close to a hundred hostile invaders on the outer perimeter, how should we proceed sir?" The Hawk masked ANBU asked still bowing.

Naruto looks over the two remembering that he had all his outer guard work in teams of three, "Where is the third member of your team?" The squad leader looks to their Hokage a little more nervous, sure he was a kind and caring leader, but he was still the strongest shinobi in the world for good reason, "Sir he is currently observing the enemy and is still maintaining radio contact." Naruto sighs before folding his hands together and thinks about what to do it was dark out now so waking Shikamaru up will be impossible even under a direct order, and making this know too soon will cause a lot of questions to be raised.

"Are you certain that these invaders are hostile?" Naruto asks seriously. The operative in front of him raises his head a bit, "Sir if I may draw the armor that they wore and the creature that the commander rides?" He leaves the question in the air until Naruto nods.

The ANBU agent then quickly unrolled a single scroll that he began to quickly draw two pictures one being of a colossal beast that looked to have thick grey armor like skin, or scales, with dark eyes, and three large curved horns from its nose and forehead. While the second showed a greatly detailed armor that was a dark red and black and covered everything from the shoulders to the legs, long sleeved thick cloth and a helmet with blood red horns and a skeletal mask. While the second one was lighter looking with it being mostly leather including a cone shaped helmet, neck guard, shoulder pads, and collar. While the rest was a simple sleeveless robe and heavy boots. And it appeared that these lighter armored ones had weapons while the more heavily armored did not. 'They could be those new kekkei genkai wielders that arrived, they really took over huh. But we need to make sure that they don't report our village to their higher ups.'

Coming to a decision Naruto looks to the two ANBU in front of him.

"These are your orders, capture their commanding officer and bring him in for interrogation, contact several other ANBU patrols to assist you as well. This is of the utmost priority any one that is not an ANBU operative are to be treated as hostile, engage or eliminate at your discretion, but the officer must be brought in my office before the sun rises. Am I clear?" He asks sternly as the ANBU bow again.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" And with that they vanish into the night.

It was an hour later that almost all the fire nation soldiers had fallen asleep with only a few sentries to keep watch and by now they were completely unaware that thirty highly trained and skilled assassins were above them.

The lead agent signs his commands as they all simultaneously cast the, "Meisaigakure no Jutsu," (Chameleon Jutsu) and lower themselves silently into the enemy camp.

There they moved quickly through the tents seeing if the commander was one of them, if not those in there were silenced, via either a kunai to a vital organ or a broken neck. The sentries were not a problem since the jutsu eliminates the sight, sound , and scent of the person that cast it. And within an hour of silent precision almost every single tent had been hit except for a small few that were on the far side of the camp.

Meanwhile the captain himself was in his personal tent when he felt his danger sense kick into place, he knew to trust this feeling and began to make his way out of the tent to see what could trigger his sense, however the moment he did he knew that something was wrong. Almost all the torches were lit, yet he couldn't see any of the sentries he posted, but that was not what made him scared.

What made him scared was the fact that it was dead silent in the camp, no snoring, no scuffling when someone moves in their bed, or even the animals in the forest. Nothing made so much as a whisper. It was like someone had silenced all life in the forest.

Nervous he made his way over to the closest tent and opened it up to check on his troops, and to his horror all four men in the tent were dead. Two with their throats open revealing their jugular vein and vocal cords had been cut by something extremely sharp, and the other two were motionless as one's head was in an odd angle with blood shot eyes, and the final had a small hole in his temple most likely from what killed the first two.

Seeing these men dead he rushes out of tent and tries to run for his Rhino in order to make a quick escape. He then takes off into the woods unaware that a large force of silent and invisible ANBU were following him.

He rode for what felt like hours when it was only a few minutes in a blind panic, when he heard an eerie whistle, a whistle that sounded more like that of a blade slicing through the air, and this moment of distraction made him turn his head away from the route he was on allowing a kunoichi in the tree in front of him to drop kick him off the Rhino.

The mount seeing that his master was on the ground and that a new person had arrived it snorted and charged the newcomer dressed in grey. Seeing the beast approach her the kunoichi gave a hand sign that signaled another operative to reveal himself with a jutsu already prepared, "Futon: Kazekiri no Jutsu," (Wind Cutter) and with that an almost invisible blade of wind cut the charging Rhino right down the middle leaving a terrified captain, two emotionless ANBU agents and the Komodo's corps.

By now the scout captain though that they were airbenders that abandoned their passive ways and tried to make a run for it. Sprinting away from the two masked benders he sprinted as fast as he could throwing a fireball now and then to try and keep them off of him. Not really thinking straight and only of the possible airbending threat.

But before he could really get far the whistle of a kunai was heard before his screams of pain followed, but before he could make too muck noise one of the agents appeared before him and knocked him out with a swift kick to the temple.

After binding the captain's hands and feet the operative stood there silently for a moment before the others appeared around him, "Target confirmed. We're moving now." The leader in a lion mask orders before pointing to the original three that found the invaders, "You three will deliver him to the IT department and treat his severed Achilles so he won't bleed out while he's there." The three nod before grabbing the captain and disappear.

He then points to all the others that were there waiting on his orders. "The rest of you dispose of the bodies, make it look like an accident happened, I don't really care just erase all traces of our movement, once you're done head back for debrief. You'll meet with Hokage-sama and myself. Now move it." He quickly orders in a commanding and emotionless voice. With a nod from all the other operatives they began their work of disposing the bodies.

Undisclosed location in Konoha: IT interrogation room

It was a few hours later that Bushi, captain of the 92nd scout platoon, awoke to find himself in a cramp, cold, dimly lit room with no widows chained to a solid metal chair. Looking at the door he could hear someone talking on the other side, and from the deep tone of their voice it was someone large and most likely male. And he was right as a huge man walked through the door not a second later wearing a long high collared pitch black trench coat with a grey button up coat underneath and matching pants, dark blue bandana on his head and black gloves and combat boots. But the part that made Bushi nervous were the two large scars that ran across his face giving him even more of an intimidation factor.

The Fire Nation soldier then gets chills up his spine when the man turns to him showing his pitch black eyes, and a small grin as he tightened his gloves, "Hello my name Morino Ibiki and I'll the one to torture you today." He then pulls in another chair from outside as he slowly closes the door.

Hokage's office

It was quite the mood as Naruto stood next the Lion ANBU who happened to be the leader of the assault against the kekkei genkai wielders that broke through the barrier. He had already spoken to him and now was waiting for Ibiki to work his magic. But if Naruto was completely honest he really didn't like giving that order. He thought he had acted a bit too quickly, but when you're no longer sure about what's happening in the world some decisions can be made pretty fast.

It was then he looked to the ANBU next to him, "Sai take off the mask." He says with a bit of a small smile to his friend. He sees the man nod before the mask came off showing Sai's famous pale skin and almost permanent tiny smirk. "What are you thinking about Naruto-san?" His friend asks.

Naruto only sighs as he runs a hand through his short blonde hair, "To be honest Sai, I've fought in war, but I've never really called the shots or gave legitimate orders in a war. I'm just worried that what I ordered you and your teams to do will come back to backfire on us." He says honestly before looking down at the small pile of forms before him.

Yes even with staying hidden for almost ten thousand years he still had paperwork.

"I think you really did make the right choice, and as your ANBU commander I'll support all decisions you make as Hokage. But I'll tell you what I think as your friend." Naruto laughed a bit still not quite used to Sai giving answers with actual emotion, he'd have to thank Ino for bringing him out of his shell.

Now he would've continued if Ibiki didn't just walk through the door to his office, "Report Ibiki." Naruto says.

Ibiki bows slightly before clearing his throat, "From what the prisoner told us he was captain of a scouting platoon that was tasked with finding the source of what was interfering with their base's radio, which I assume would've been our barrier. He also gave us some useful information about the world outside since we were sealed."

Naruto raises an eyebrow, "Go on." Ibiki nods before taking out a hand drawn map. He flips it over on one side to show the Hokage a map of the Elemental Nations, "This of course is a map of the Elemental Nations, but from what he told us a few years after we were sealed the benders, as they call themselves, discovered some man or monster they called Shin the Earth Splitter. I assume he or she was a powerful nuke-nin, but that's all we can assume since it happened a long time ago."

He then flips the map showing that a huge chunk of Land of Fire was now much further east and that both Lands of Wind and Earth had lost some ground too and there were now landmasses at the top and bottom of the planet.

"This is what our world looks like now sir. And even though the geography is different they still speak the same language even though they do have an accent. At some point in time there was some kind of event that pushed mass amounts of land out east creating an archipelago with the Land of Water. And also from what he told me you and Sasuke were right about the Yang energy since it has created insane sounding hybrid animals, that beast that your ANBU agent killed was a hybrid of both a rhino and komodo dragon. Also he said that bending was the preferred method of advanced combat, but older ways such as spears, swords, and shields are still around, only thing that has really improved, since we took most of our technology with us when we were sealed, is the transpiration. The land of Spring now has given birth to huge fleets of metal ships, all terrain vehicles called 'tanks' and even air travel via balloons and massive metal ships as well."

Naruto let that sink in for a moment before motioning to continue, "Now the land is only divided by four countries instead of the many that were around during our time. There is the Earth Kingdom, which is where four of the six villages are except for Kumo and Kiri, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, which are the two masses of land that broke off form out neighbors Wind and Earth. And the Fire Nation, which is the archipelago I mentioned earlier and the land that holds Kirigakure."

Naruto listening closely raises an eyebrow, "What of the fourth nation?" Ibiki shacks his head, "That Hokage-sama plays into recent events. See almost a hundred years ago Fire Lord Sozin decided to bring the whole world under one banner and started a war that has been going o to this day. But in order to remove his greatest threat, a being they call the Avatar he had to wipe out the Avatar's people. Those people were the Air Nomads who inhabited the fourth nation. It's also in those lands that we could find Kumogakure."

Naruto frowns at the thought. Destroying a whole country to ensure your victory, only a monster would consider that a victory. So even now there were monsters in men, looks like nothing's changed. "This Avatar you mentioned, tell me more. What would make a man who was ruler of one of the four only nations on the planet fear him that much?"

Ibiki looks to his Hokage, "That sir is a question that I think only one person in this village can answer. Please excuse me while I fetch him." Ibiki then leaves the room and Naruto sighs knowing perfectly well whom he went to get. So in preparation for the most likely hysterical prisoner he took a deep breath to get focused before hardening his face to look intimidating, and surprisingly for Naruto can look pretty damn terrifying when he wants to be.

He then hears the sounds of feet coming closer to his door so deciding to put the finishing touches on his appearance he channeled a bit of Kurama's chakra to make his eyes take on that of his infamous blood red and black slit.

When he heard a knock he remained silent letting them know it was ok to enter. Naruto saw the man that was this bender still in his Fire Nation officers armor, but a little more beaten up and very shaken up, 'Ibiki it's scary how good you are at your job.'

Bushi stares up at the people in the room he was just brought into, the first in the combat gear that looked exactly like those masked killers in the forest stood calm and cold as he saw his mask with a animal like design and his hand twitching for what assumed was a knife somewhere. But the second one was different, he could only compare this feeling he had staring at him to one other person in his life. The Fire Lord.

The young man looked to be a little younger than him with short blonde hair, and ceremonial robes of red and white with a hat of the same colors hanging off the back of his neck. However he didn't even bother looking anywhere else when he saw his eyes, the reason he reminded him of the Fire Lord, was because of his eyes.

They were a deep blood red that seemed to burn into his soul almost as if he had the eyes of a demon. He also had an air of authority that demanded absolute respect and the power surrounding him was almost suffocating. He took a guess and said that this one was the leader of these people judging from his immense output of power. He was glad they put him on his knees or else he would collapse.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions and you are going to answer regardless of what you think. Try my patience and I'll have Ibiki go another round with you, or I'll just let my agent here kill you." He says motioning to the masked assassin next him and Bushi could see that he had his hand on the sword behind his back to show him that he was completely serious.

Shaking at the thought of either going through another torture session or dying Bushi nods, "Or you can tell us willingly and we let you go, your choice." Bushi nods his head and tries to steady his nerves as he waits for this monster of a man to question him.

"First question, what was your mission that led you to us?" Naruto asks.

Bushi breaths deeply, "We were sent in this part of the forest to investigate interference that was tampering with our long and short range radios." Naruto seemed to acknowledge what he said, but really didn't show it as he continued to stare.

"Alright then second question, what nation are you from?"

Bushi looks confused, "What? Can't you tell? I'm…" However he was cut off as he felt a sting from his cheek looking over to the masked man he saw that his hand was extended and a knife was in the wall behind him, "Speak to Hokage-sama with respect, or the next one will be buried in your eye socket." He speaks with a voice full of malice.

'Hokage-sama, I've heard that before, but where?' Bushi asks himself as he tries to speak. "I'm of the Fire Nation, Hokage-sama." He says trying to add the title the man next to the blonde said.

"Third question, are you currently involved with a world war? And if so who is winning?" Naruto asks.

Bushi didn't have to even think for the answer, "Yes, there is a war going on and the Fire Nation is currently winning, by a wide margin."

Naruto then leans forward, "Fourth and final question, what do you know of the Avatar?"

Bushi shudders under those red eyes.

"Yes I know some things about the Avatar. They say the Avatar is the only person capable of bending all four elements, and is supposed to be the most powerful person on the planet if you believe some of the crazier people around. But in every way when the Avatar is born shit goes down. Some are born in war and others during peace, but it stays the same, they are the ones to change the world. But the last one was born to the Fire Nation and the next one was supposed to be born into the Air Nomads, but Fire Lord Sozin tried to stop the Avatar cycle by any mean he deemed necessary. And he did, by killing every Air Nomad he could find, but the story goes that the Avatar disappeared when he was needed most and the world hasn't heard of him since." He finished as Naruto narrowed his eyes after hearing that this supposed strongest bender vanished when people needed him the most.

"Alright then, with that out of the way, you can come in now Issuru." The Hokage says as the door opens to reveal a young man with dirty blonde hair, tan skin, and brown eyes wearing a blue shirt and pants under a green flack jacket. "You called Hokage-sama." Issuru says in a respectful, yet bored tone.

Naruto motions his head to man in front of him on his knees, and Issuru nods before putting a hand on his head before he then erased some of his memories and placed false ones where they once were. Once done he nods to the Hokage before two more ANBU appear to take him away to be placed back in the forest.

Issuru looks to his leader, "I placed the memories that you requested Hokage-sama and have gotten the information we need. I have the locations of some Fire Nation camps, supply lines, and ports. The largest being an island named Whaletail island." Issuru says before being dismissed.

"Ibiki bring me our communications expert, I believe its time to alert the other Kage of our situation." Naruto says with a sigh, to which Ibiki takes that as his signal to leave.

After getting a member of the Yamanaka clan to contact the other Kage Naruto told them of everything they learned from their prisoner and now stared at their holographic projections waiting for their response.

"So Raikage-san was right, this bending can be passed down genetically, and now they are locked in war like we once were." The Amekage says with an almost sad tone at the end. She wasn't the only one as now they were the ones that were lost in the world, so unfamiliar, yet alien to them.

"Yes Darui was right, and now these people have created empires from the very little information we left them, but what they did find they built into marvels of technology, flying warships, if you told I'd see those I'd call you crazy." Naruto says surprisingly lighthearted given the situation.

"Naruto how can you be simply unaffected by this news? We are aliens in our own backyards and they outnumber us by an even greater margin. I don't think that this is the time to make light of our situation." Gaara says seriously. Causing Naruto's face to fall a bit, "Yes Gaara I see the situation in front of us. We are nothing more than enigmas that haven't crossed the minds of people in almost ten thousand years. And from what Sasuke and one of my Hyuga guards saw in the prisoner, only those that absorbed the greatest amount of Yin energy were able to pass it down to their children, meaning that the population is very much balanced, creating less possible threats. And we have the upper hand if anything is to happen since we have the element of surprise."

Chojuro listening to what Naruto was saying raised an eyebrow, "Naruto-san from the way you're talking about the element of surprise, and the population it makes me wonder if you plan to take action in this war?"

This made the others look toward Naruto as he closed his eyes, "Am I trying to interfere with this war? The answer is yes." This made everyone immediately start shouting at him telling him that he was insane and overconfident if he thought he could win.

But Gaara after giving his initial shocked thoughts saw that Naruto was clenching his hands holding back something. It was when everyone had finished yelling that Naruto started to speak again, "Did you not hear what happened in the world while we were gone? One ordered the annihilation of an entire country and its people! And their savior has abandoned them, leaving them in the time of their greatest need! These people are fighting an uphill battle with weights on their backs! They have no hope, no confidence in their militaries to win, and are constantly afraid that one-day the Fire Lord's men are going to come to their home and kill them just because they were born with the ability to bend something other then fire! Look at the facts that we have already, people are suffering because of this, and they are innocent! They aren't an enemy army of navy, but some poor saps that happened to be born with something that someone else considered lesser." Naruto finishes lowering his voice from the yell it had previously been.

After hearing what Naruto had said all the other Kage look down a bit as they thought over what the possible outcomes would be.

And after a few moments of silence it was Chojuro that spoke up, "He's right." All the others turned to him as he now, even though he was a hologram, had a fire in his eyes, "I will not stand by and let any one be exterminated. Kiri had seen first hand what that could come to and I put my faith in Naruto-san to make the right decision. Everyone in Kiri remembers when Obito had control over our Yondaime, and I'm not about to see anything like that happen again." After saying what he truly believed Chojuro sat down as another voice spoke up that voice being Mamushi.

"Ame has seen all kinds of wars, and mostly we were alone on the loosing side, but after seeing what this war's winning side looks like, we would be honored to assist Mizukage-san and Hokage-san in the times ahead." Mamushi says looking at Chojuro.

Darui lets out a small sigh, "I trust you Naruto. You have shown that time and time again, that even on a simple hunch, when you get fired up nothing can stop you. You have the support of Kumogakure no Sato should you ever need it."

This leaves only Gaara and Kurotsuchi as the only ones who haven't said anything. Gaara knew that Naruto was somewhat soft hearted, but to risk war with another much larger force was pushing that limit, "Naruto, you are my friend, but I'm a bit hesitant to go to war again." Naruto nods to his friend understanding that war was never easy. "I'm with the Kazekage on this, even though it was funny to see jiji's face when I told him of your scroll he said to only use it if I completely trusted you. And even though it did work, I still do not think that open war is something we can achieve." A concerned Tsuchikage says.

They all looked a bit skeptical at that idea as well thinking about an open war with the Fire Nation, but Darui had an idea, "What if was not an open war?" This got him all a few different looks from the other Kage as he started to smirk, "Naruto said it himself, these people have no hope, and their Avatar has deserted them. What if we became a new kind of Avatar?"

Chojuro and Naruto raise an eyebrow as Gaara stared impassively and both Kurotsuchi and Mamushi lean in closer. "Go on Raikage-san." Mamushi says curiously.

Darui then continued, "The Avatar is said to be a master of four elements, and has been missing for some time now. So, my suggestion is that we become our own Avatars. We give the people hope yet do not reveal ourselves to them, only striking in the shadows. And with their moral at an all time high they will fight more ferociously than ever, while we simply blend into the crowds and win battles and capture territory from the along side them and eliminate any targets that either know who we are or pose a threat to us."

It was quite again after that as Naruto had a smile on his face, "Become their hope and replace their idol, quite the plan Darui. And it even allows to remain hidden putting now of our civilians in danger."

It was then that Chojuro added in, "And with possible allies, a stretched out Fire Nation military, and more shinobi than we've ever had under our command this could very well turn to our favor."

Naruto looks over to Gaara as the redhead lets out a sigh before nodding his head, "Very well, but Suna will not fully commit until we see this plan start to accumulate."

Chojuro then remembers the map that Naruto showed them, "Naruto-san that map you showed us, where did you say one of their major ports was? If I remember right there was one near Kiri that could pose a threat." Naruto raising an eyebrow looks back to the map and replies, "The closest major base to Kiri is an island by the name of Whaletail Island. And it's a pretty important one as well it is the closest large base near the South Pole and is a supply route for a lot of traffic when trying to the southern part of the Earth Kingdom. Why do you plan to hit it already?"

Chojuro only gives a shark toothed grin, "Why no Naruto-san, I'm simply asking the name of an island that the Avatar attacked." This made the others stare in shock as now their eyes were bulging at Chojuro's almost complete turn around. Darui smirks at leans back in his chair, "So the Avatar came back after so many years, and to think he destroyed an island on his first day, wow. Hokage-san if you'll excuse me there are some antsy chunin and jonin that need to ready for village defense and SPARK for offense." He says before his hologram disappears.

Chojuro looks to Naruto and Gaara, "Trust me no one will have an idea what hit Whaletail Island." He states before also vanishing.

It was only Kurotsuchi, Gaara, Mamushi, and Naruto left as the formers looked to the latter, "Quite risky Hokage-san, but again using deception to our advantage, I'm actually impressed. But like Darui said there are things to be done so I too must go." The Tsuchikage says before leaving. It then that Mamushi only shakes her head, "Pretending to be someone we're not, I'm not even going to begin to tell you the risks involved, but this is something that is already happening. Might as well prepare our PAIN squads."

It was then that only the two jinchuuriki remained staring at the other's hologram. "I may not totally support this, but I know that both Kurama and Shukaku do. And I really can't argue with them, but a word of warning Naruto. Don't push this too fast." And then the redhead was gone.

Whaletail

It was the early morning as the Southern Raiders were going through their daily plans for patrols, check ins, and orders. And all seemed to be well, like any other day for the people that wiped out almost all waterbenders in the South Pole. They were only concerned for what glory they could achieve next. They were unaware that the biggest threat to the Fire Nation to date, was waiting just below the surface of the water.

Close to the islands shore were almost a hundred Kiri HUNTER nin lying in wait for their commander to give them the signal. And their commander was none other than "The Second Demon of Kiri" Hozuki Suigetsu.

Suigetsu himself floated in the water in his standard gear only he added a mask and was going by his codename appropriately being Devil. He being the closets to the dock looks to see that even in the early morning there were at least five to seven sentries on the docks alone, not counting how many would be on the ships.

Seeing that it would be best to take them out quickly and quietly he taps his communicator and gives the others Morse code. The ones further out to sea then work on a large scale, "Kirigakure no Jutsu," ( Hidden Mist) to slowly cover the island to mask their landing.

Meanwhile in the base some of the lookouts on top with binoculars could see the mist rolling in, "Ah great we got another thing of morning mist. Makes these masks so damn annoying at times." One guard complains to another getting his partner to laugh, "Yeah and don't get me stared on training in this shit. I could barley see out there even with my firebending."

But what neither saw once the mist got to the shore were the dozen or so HUNTER nin that silently crept out of the water and were now applying the, "Sairento Kiringu," (Silent Killing) to take out every single sentry on the docks before both mist and ninjas worked their way inland to the base.

From there it was only a matter of time and a few disguises to gain entry to the base and within an hour and a half the company of Kiri nin taken almost the whole island only thing left was the mess hall where most of the raiders were enjoying their breakfast.

Suigetsu gives a signal and two of his HUNTERS got two jutsu ready.

No one saw it coming, they were just having breakfast when they hear, "Suiton: Mizurappa" (Wild water Wave) and a huge torrent of water sends everyone in the room straight to either the floor or the far wall. But they were not given any time to counter as the next instant another HUNTER quickly took her partner's place with her jutsu, "Raiton: Jibashi." (Electro Magnetic Murder) and no one got up after that.

Looking over the smoking bodies Suigetsu didn't bat and eye as he gave the order to search the rest of the building for anything useful.

Now in the control room stood Suigetsu and a few other HUNTER ninja as they tried to contact the Mizukage, "Sir I've got a signal." A HUNTER says to Suigetsu as he hands him a radio, "Sir?" the white haired swordsman says into the mike waiting for Chojuro to respond.

"Go ahead commander."

Suigetsu getting his confirmation started with his report, "Sir the island has been swept and all hostiles have been neutralized, but sir we found something that you and the other Kage have to know about." He hears silence on the other side for a time, "And what did you find?" Chojuro asks cautiously not really sure he wants to know the answer.

"We've got injured civilians and bodies sir, eight that are still breathing and the rest are…well, not." Suigetsu doesn't hear anything after that for a time until Chojuro utters one question, "How many?"

The swordsman looks to another HUNTER and he signs the number, "About twenty sir, we suspect torture might be related to this. And we did find information on some troops stationed at the South Pole, shall we clear them out as well?" Suigetsu asks trying to hide the fact that he was begging to after them.

"That is your call, but those injured civilians are a priority." Suigetsu only gave a sharp-toothed grin, "Hai Mizukage-sama."

It was hours later that Suigetsu had left goodbye gifts in and around both the port and around the base, before he and some his most elite were going to the South to hunt as they put it while the rest were to head back to Kiri. "Alright let's move get those people rebreathers now we all need to be leaving this base unseen. However Echo team will remain here to search one last time before joining me to head to the Pole to see if any more of these fuckers are hiding there. And Echo make sure that our gifts are primed for any unexpected visitors." He gets nods from all his men as he moves to collect data from the commander's room.

And he was ready to leave when a kunoichi appeared in front of him, "Sir someone is trying to make radio contact!" Seeing that this may blow their cover way too soon he sprints to the coms room, "Whaletail this is Royal Quest requesting permission to dock and refuel, over?" Suigetsu nods to a shinobi that had put up a henge, "This is Whaletail, that's a negative to your request. We're currently having problems with our fuel lines. It is unsafe to dock, I repeat unsafe to dock. Over?"

"Sorry Whaletail, but Prince Zuko is ordering us to dock ETA thirty mikes."

This made the room go quite before Suigetsu expressed everyone's thoughts into one word, "FUCK!"

30 Minutes Later

Zuko looked at the island and something about it just made him feel off. Everything looked normal with over a dozen dockhands waiting for them, yet he was suspicious. When they finally were at port all seemed to check out they were talking to everyone at port and from what he could hear they would have to fuel up quickly. At least he listened to his uncle when he told to him to restock his food supply at the last port, so he could try his luck near the Pole finding the Avatar.

He supposed that this was for the best that he was getting back out there faster, but he couldn't help but notice the Raiders were actually efficient now instead of their usual complacent selves.

"Zuko you look stressed come have some tea with me, " his uncle calls him from across the bow of the ship, interrupting his thoughts. Zuko grows a tick mark at his uncle's usual talk of tea and they begin to go into one of their usual arguments. While one of the disguised ninja placed a tracker seal near the helm of the ship and right under the Prince and crew's noses.

It was almost two hours later that Zuko's ship was completely ready and the young prince had just left the island, and yet that feeling of dismay was still with him for some reason.

Unbeknownst to him there were now five new members of the ship's crew lying in wait for the time when they reach the South Pole.

Some time later

Suigetsu saw that the crew was now in a much more rushed state since everyone saw the flare fired into the sky. Looking out into the cold he mentally groaned, he hated the cold. But since this was where he needed to go he shook himself of his annoyance and simply applied more chakra to his skin to prevent his already lower than normal temperature from falling any further. He then gathers his team consisting of four other HUNTER ninja by the codenames of, Frost, Mako, Siren, and Rouge.

Frost was a kunoichi with one of Kiri's most famous kekkei genkai being Hyoton and she was the team's expert and both mid ranged attacks and tactician.

Mako on the other hand was exactly like the shark he was named after, he was nothing but raw speed being a master of the, "Shunshin no Jutsu," and very skilled in his Raiton he also preferred to use only kunai since he added his chakra to them making them piece almost any armor.

Siren was the only medic they had so she preferred to stay further back and rely on her long ranged genjutsu and some Suiton.

And finally Rouge was almost the exact opposite of Siren using the "Sairento Kiringu," to get in close to take out his targets and using his large chakra reserves and Suiton if that fails.

He now had them all in a room on the lower deck with a silence tag on the door to prevent anyone from listening.

"Alright here is the plan, Frost you're with me when this ships comes a ground we enter the village and observe only. While the rest of you stay on the ship and tail this prince to see if he has anything of use, but do not engage. If the need arises Frost and I might need to lock onto your chakra for rapid Shunshin in order to reach you. Does everyone understand?" Suigetsu asks in a serious tone getting only nods before he and Frost stand up and faze through the floor.

Southern Tribe

Sokka sat in his hut alone in the dark as he placed on his war paint, this was it, this is his time to shine he couldn't leave with his father and the other men to go off to the war, but he promised to protect his home. It was time to keep that promise. He was sixteen now and he was ready for whatever these bastard threw at him.

A few minutes later he stood out watching the horizon for anything remotely Fire Nation related. He wasn't expecting a whole ship to crash into him though. Slightly panicking he looses some balance and fall into the snow. Seeing the Fire Nation casually walk down the ramp he charges only to look like a fool when he is disarmed and tossed aside like nothing.

"Where is he?!" The firebender in front demands before grabbing Gran Gran, "He's about this old, master of the four elements." Now Zuko would've continued if Sokka hadn't tried again to attack him by throwing his boomerang, but he got the same results as last time on his ass. However he did get to see his trusty weapon smack the scared bender in the back of the head before a random little warrior hands him his spear.

Smiling and taking the weapon he almost reaches the bender when he suddenly finds himself on his ass with a sword to his throat, "Don't try that again." A cold female voice says to him.

He starts to sweat as he sees a very sharp sword at his throat and was very contempt to stay there, when all the sudden the scared bender was on his ass and the female holding the sword was back with her blade in a defensive position as everyone stared at the newcomer.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka," Aang says casually to his new friends looking at the Fire Nation soldiers in front of him and the rest of the tribe. Everyone turns to the bender at the front being helped up by two others. They then surround the boy and try to subdue him, but every time they tried to he would deflect their fire with his airbending.

Zuko seeing this growled a bit, "YOU! You're the Avatar! You're no more than fourteen." He shouts before Aang got into a stance for more fire to come, what he wasn't expecting was a sword to almost cleave his head off.

He stumbles back as the female looking soldier started to use her short sword to almost nick the Avatar several times while maneuvering in and out of the other's so they could firebend properly. And after one attack where the fire almost scorched the villagers Aang knew what he had to do. "If I go with you will you promise not hurt anyone?" Zuko nods before Aang is taken away.

Zuko then looks to the swordswoman that fought the Avatar, "What's you're name? I haven't seen you around the ship." He asks curiously the woman looked to him while putting away her blade, "My name is Yuki sir, and I work near the bottom of the vessel." Zuko nodding walks back onto his ship and they take off.

Meanwhile Yuki, Shimo, or Frost made her way to her partner. When she got to Suigetsu she got straight to the point, "Taicho there is a problem." He raises and eyebrow and nods. "Sir the actual Avatar is on this ship right now. And I made a mistake, I went tout there with the Prince and his group to confront the tribe, but I was forced to reveal some skill however small it may be."

This made the white-haired HUNTER sigh gripping his hair, "Shit we need to contact the Kage about this ASAP." He then taps his earpiece, "Ok everyone hear this we are leaving, the boss needs to hear this new info we got." He then disconnects and looks to Frost. "And as for you, make some kind of excuse to get off at the next port and get your ass to the nearest ninja village. Understood?"

He gets a nod from the HUNTER, "Look I know this was one of your first real missions, but that was a rookie mistake." Suigetsu says somewhat colder to the young woman.

"Hai Taicho."

Fire Nation Palace

Azula stared into the dark as she drifted aimlessly in her dream, she could feel that her feet were not on the ground and yet she did not feel like she was falling. It was as if she could stay there forever, but there was one constant noise that she had heard for almost her entire life, a noise that she found both comfort and confidence in.

It was the sound of fire, to be more specific the sound of fire slowly and steadily burning.

There was nothing but the sound of a slow burning fire.

She relaxed after a brief moment of shock when she first awoke in this darkness, and she slowly began to melt away into the calming noise that was her natural element, her tool, her gift, and her greatest comfort.

Before she knew she began to close her eyes and try to find rest within her dream, but after finding no rest she simply let the noise sooth her. However after floating for what seemed like a few minutes she felt her back softly land on what felt like warm water. Curious she opens her eyes to see the sunset on the horizon and calmly gets and goes to put her head in her palm, only when she bring it to her face she sees that it was covered in blood, fresh blood at that.

Quickly leaping to her she sees that the only reason she heard only the fire was because that was the only thing that could make a sound.

All around her she could see torn and burnt flags of both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. And below those hundreds of banners laid thousands of corpses in the armor of her Nation and the enemy Kingdom. Looking again the only fire that remained on the battlefield was her own bright blue fire that slowly began to burn the hair and cloth of all those bodies, before quickly melting past their armor and vaporizing their flesh, burning them down to their blackened bones.

She looked down at herself once the last corps was nothing but bones and saw that she was wearing her own Royal Fire Nation armor, and her golden eyes widened when she saw that on her hands had long, sharp, and blood soaked claws instead of her usual nails. Each one claws looked to be around ten inches long and were so sharp she could make out tiny pieces of bone and metal in them and underneath them.

Now alone only with her fire to surround her Azula was left speechless as voices started to assault her mind.

"Monster!"

"Demon."

"Murderer."

"How could you?!"

"Why? Spirits why?"

"It burns, make it stop!"

"You will suffer in the afterlife for what you've done!"

"I banish you Azula. You are no longer my daughter." She hears her father's voice say.

"I was right about you." That one hurt the most because it was the voice of her mother.

She gripped her head as insanity started to claw at her mind, each voice kept repeating and there were so many of them that Azula was on her knees about to tear her hair out as she closed her eyes and warm thick tears rolled down her cheeks. She just wanted them to go away to stop making her feel this way, she couldn't help it that she was like this. All she wanted to do was please her father after he mother showed her no love and called her monster.

Was it wrong for her to seek love. Was it wrong for her to be happy. True she might be a bit of a mischievous teen, but most sixteen-year-old girls were a bit on the mischievous side.

She looks down at her claws and lifts one to her eye to try and end it, but before she could the voices stopped and another took their place, only this one was different than the others.

"Begone from her. She is who she has always been and who she will continue to be. But she can learn to change for the better. And it is not your place to berate her for what she is by nature, or what she has done, for she is still only a child. Torment her no more.

It was comforting, it was warm, and it radiated power. Just like fire. Just like her fire.

And just like that the voices stopped and were out of her mind. She blinked then stood up to see that once again the room was pitch black with only light from the ceiling shining upon her as there was a large circle of strange symbols on the floor around her.

She tried to look around and see where she was now only to stop when she caught sight of something massive. It was a cat, or tiger she didn't really care what, but the feline was bigger than the gates to the royal palace. And it was made entirely of bright blue fire, with bits of black to outline the shape of the creature making it possible to see that it had two long waving tails that, like the rest of its body, were also on fire, with the right eye being a brighter yellow than the sunrise, and the left was a dark green like the thickest of forests.

All in all Azula stood in awe of the beast before her, it was massive, beautiful, and she could feel the power rolling off it in waves. It was almost too much. Then it looked her straight in the eye and lowers its head down to her to get a better look at her.

"So you have come. Perhaps I should've spoken sooner, you could be much further along than you are now, and perhaps not as malicious. But that opportunity has past, and now we've work to do Azula."

This made the princess freeze in her tracks, firstly the giant fire cat can talk, secondly how long has the thing been here, and third how does it know her?

But before she could even begin to question it blackness started to creep into her vision as she was being pulled out of her mindscape. She opens her mouth to speak, but the cat spoke first. "You have questions, yes I know. But that will have to wait for another time."

And then she was gone.

Azula then sprang up in her bed breathing rapidly as she saw the sun start to rise outside her window, 'What was that thing? What did it want with me? And why do I feel, better now?'

She thought about those questions, but decided that it was best to think on them later right now she was simply walking to breakfast trying to get the drowsiness out of her eyes. It didn't take long though for her morning walk to be interrupted by a soldier.

"Your highness your father has requested your presence." He says bowing to her. She sighs in her head, "Very well then take me to him." The soldier nods and begins to escort her to her father.

However it was not to his personal quarters or the dinning hall, but the war room. She fought back a surprised look and continued forward, opening the door she saw her father and his generals, admirals, and even his spy master there as well at the table with him. He had a deeper scowl than usual as he was reading a scroll in front of him. He only looks up to see who entered the room.

"Azula, I did not expect you to be so casual when I summoned you to the war room." He says drawing attention to her and the fact that she was still wearing her more casual dress of a dark red kimono with a midnight black sash and her hair down. "I was not expecting you to summon me to the war room father. Please forgive my dress." She says before taking her seat next to her father.

"Well then sire, that was what our scouts tailing Prince Zuko have found. Sir what are your orders?" The spymaster asks. Ozai looks over everyone present at the table before looking to his daughter. "Azula I have a mission for you." He says to her as he hands the documents back to the spymaster, and receives a map in return.

"From what scouts have reported they claim that Zuko had a break in finding the Avatar and went straight to the south pole to search." This made Azula widen her eyes as she looks to her father to make sure he was serious. "Yes I know quite impressive, but that's not all. He was supposed to check in here at an outpost we have near the Southern Water Tribe, Whaletail Island. I'm sure you're familiar."

She nods towards, "Yes father." He looks back to the map, "Good then you can see that it is not too far from the southern water tribe. And if your brother did stop there to try and find the Avatar then he would've had to check in there. But we have yet to hear from the island, which leads me to one of three things. Most likely there was a radio malfunction and they have yet to fix it. The other being that the Southern tribe hid some remaining water benders and attacked the island, but that is unlikely. And the final one is most unlikely, the Avatar wiped them out. But regardless of what happened your mission is to investigate the island and find out why it has stopped with their radio check ins. And if possible capture the Avatar if you have the chance, even if my brother is with Zuko I don't want this to become a beacon for the Earth Kingdom or the Northern Tribe. Do you understand?" He asks sternly.

Azula bows to her father, "Yes Father, may I ask if someone else may accompany me?" She asks, he simply nods his head not even looking at her.

And like that she walked out to change into her battle gear and find her friend.

As Azula walked through the halls to find her closest friend, and if she was honest one of her only friends, she thought about the mission that her father was sending her on. True her father had sent her on a few other missions, but those were more diplomatic ones to conquered territories.

But this was different, yeah the part about the Avatar she understood because he was a powerful beacon in the world and could become the most powerful bender in it, but they just now found out about his existence, why would her father send her, his favorite child and one of his most elite firebenders to find a rumor? Was he scared? 'No for my father to fear something that is across the world is impossible. But then why is sending me and a person of my choosing to investigate an island that is probably going through a radio problem?'

Azula simply brushed those thoughts aside as she found the one she was looking for.

Azula found who she was looking for in one of the many palace courts casually throwing his knives into a target that was stuffed to point of collapsing with blades, seeing his friend approach Mai stops throwing knives long enough to give her a chance to speak.

"What do you want Azula?" Mai asks getting straight to the point. Azula sighs as nothing has changed about her monotone friend. "I might need you to come with me for something."

This makes Mai turn to look at her, "You asking for help. That's something I thought I'd never see." She says sarcastically getting Azula to frown a bit. "I may be confident, but I know when I need help, and I think a chance to find the Avatar is a little beyond me."

She saw Mai wipe her head around, "You're serious?"

Azula cringes a bit after the question, "Well I said a chance, see my father want us to check in on Whaletail Island as they haven't made contact in a few days, and he thinks it could be a number of things. But Zuko did report something about the Avatar recently. So hey that sounds exciting." Mai only sighs.

"Fine, I'll go. Better than being here all day." She says before walking away leaving a smiling Azula.

Close to Whaletail

It took a few days, but eventually both girls had made it to the island and from what they could see something was defiantly wrong. All the ships were there, yet there was no crew to greet them, no sentries at the docks, not even a single light that they could see.

This made both Azula and Mai very weary of this place, "I don't like this." Mai says expressing both her and Azula's thoughts.

A little while later their boat was at the docks and the ramp was lowered, "Captain send a few men out to scout the base. Something doesn't feel right to me." Nodding at her orders he sends out three scouting teams to investigate he also gave them a radio.

After sending the teams out into the base the captain, Mai, Azula, and some of the communication experts were in the coms room listening to the team constant feed back.

"All teams, what are your locations?" The captain asks into the radio before listening for their response.

"This is Alpha, we are currently in the mess hall. Looks like something happened here." This makes Azula raise an eyebrow and Mai lean in a bit. "What is it?" the captain asks

"I'm not sure sir, but we're seeing a lot of water, and signs of something electrical. Maybe some kind of accident, hard to confirm." The captain nods before telling them to continue sweeping the base.

"Bravo checking in, we are currently in the coms room. Everything in here is destroyed. Someone didn't want them to call for help." Now everyone hearing that looked at the base from out the window and they saw now why there had been no check ins. Even if there were people still there, they couldn't call for help.

"This is Charlie, we just entered the prison area under the base…Captain this is something you got to see. We found the Raiders sir, all of them." The grim tone in which he said it was not lost to anyone on the ship.

"Hold on sir looks like there's something on their chests," they then start to hear a loud sizzle on the other side of the radio before all hell broke loose.

"Oh shit! Get out of here! Get the fuck out of h-" His radio cut off, before everyone on the boat felt shockwaves almost knocking them off their feet. They then turned to see explosions chaining all over the island headed straight for them.

Panicking Azula snapped, "Helmsmen get us the hell out of here!" And with that the ship started to move again slowly backing up trying to get away from the explosion riddled island, but not quick enough.

Seeing the front of the ship was still in the danger zone the captain, Mai, and Azula took cover. "Incoming!"

Fire, shockwaves, and parts of the base and ships that were docked there then pelted the ship shacking up and Azula heard a familiar scream next to her.

When it was all over she turned to see Mai with a large piece of metal sticking out of her calf, and it was starting to bleed out. Seeing a noblemen's daughter with shrapnel in her made the captain speak up fast, "Medic!"

And hour later

After all the damages were assessed Azula was told the front had too many breaches to repair, or even make it to the next port, so they were stranded there with nothing, only the thought of help arriving since their long range radio was still in tact. Mai's injury had been taken care of, but what had happened made Azula realize that whoever did this was someone to be feared.

"I don't care who you are, but I will find you. You just made an enemy of the Fire Nation, Avatar." She says before lighting up her own fire and watching it burn the air around her hand.

And done. Well this one was fun to make, and really want to keep writing this one hopefully it'll get a lot of support.

Anyway Read and Review I always enjoy reading feedback, and if you have suggestions or guesses as to what should happen next don't be shy.

Stay Cool