Episode 8: Encounter! The Boy with a Star's Name

It had been about three weeks since the Gaang's survival tests. If they weren't going on small D-ranked missions, which at the moment included weeding gardens, walking dogs, and even finding and catching other lost pets, their training schedule usually didn't change much from day to day, taking weekends off to do their own thing.

They would start at 7:00 with about ten or so laps around their enclosed training spaces, then be led through a series of stretches which varied from basic toe touches to bends and maneuvers that could have been mistaken as a form of yoga. They would then conclude with a few ten counts of push-ups or sit ups and another ten laps as a cool down.

After that was a martial arts session. Though some of them, like Suki, claimed that they already knew how to perform martial arts, they eventually agreed that even though their own style would give them an edge in battle, it would help if they knew the fighting style of their enemies as well. Naruto and Hinata in Team 9 even decided to do Katara's 'catching up' training with her since even they admitted that some of their taijutsu was a little rusty as well. They would be lead through the most basic taijutsu katas. Each kata was a bit awkward, even for Ty Lee, at first, and the sensei would have to make small corrections to their elbow angles or feet positions. They would assume each kata several times perfectly in a row so that they could be committed to muscle memory in battle. They were told that once they had the basics down smoothly, they could then start sparing.

After that it was usually lunch, and then they were lead through an exercise on chakra control called the Leaf Concentration Exercise, in which their sensei would have a leaf put on their forehead and have them direct all their chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point to try and keep it on with solely that. Katara, Toph, and Zuko were able to get it within three days, probably thanks to the chakra control they already unknowingly used when they bended their elements, and the rest were able to succeed by the end of the first week.

They would end the physical training with several more laps and stretches, at a slower pace of course, to cool off. They would then finish completely after an evening lecture, which would vary from chakra theory, to history, to other subjects pertaining to the ninja life. They would then be quizzed on what they had learned not only in the lecture, but through the day as well as on their hand seals.

The routine remained constant until they were all able to learn to not only keep their leaf stuck to their forehead, but also learn to levitate the leaf just over their hand with chakra alone. The week previous they had just began learning how to walk up trees with chakra as well, and all of them achieved it by the fourth or fifth day of practicing.

Upon seeing the improvement in their ninja skills to almost a graduate's level, Genma, Aoba, and Yamato decided that it was about time that they tested their teams out on a C-Ranked mission.

"My team has improved dramatically these past few weeks, so I'd like to try my luck on a C-Ranked mission Lord Third." Genma said one morning as they approached the Mission Assignment Desk. What he failed to mention was that Toph was getting tired of doing 'busy work' missions and wanted some real action like they used to have. Though what he said was true, for the squad had been getting stronger in their teamwork and chakra manipulation. A few days ago he had shown them the very first three jutsu that all academy students learn: The Escape Jutsu, the Basic Clone Jutsu, and the Transformation Jutsu. He had even gone as far as to start teaching Toph how to read and write by feeling out the kanjis on paper, books, and other documents despite her disability, which made Toph very happy!

The Third Hokage thought for a moment before he got a grand idea. "I believe I know the perfect mission for your squad Genma. I already assigned a team to it, but I believe this mission may require a back up squad as a precaution."

"That so?" asked Genma, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed, I'll send them a message informing them that you will be assisting them. I don't believe they have left yet, so you simply need to meet them at the Northern Gate. They'll explain the mission to you when you arrive."

"Yes Lord Hokage." Genma bowed, followed by the other three.

"OH YEAH!" exclaimed Toph, "Finally some action!" Sokka and Suki snickered at Toph's antics.

"Just like the good old days." said Sokka as they exited.

o~o

After making a quick pit stop at their apartments to pack, and in Sokka's case leave a quick note for Katara on his whereabouts, the trio met Genma at the gate. They were pleasantly surprised to see that the Team that they were accompanying was Team 8, Kurenai's Squad.

"Hey!" said Kiba when he saw and recognized the trio and Genma, "you're three of those foreign kids that Iruka Sensei introduced to us a few weeks ago!"

"Yep, that's us!" said Sokka with a grin, "Just me, Suki, and Toph here."

"Well, it's a pleasure to officially meet you finally," Kurenai smiled, "I can see that you already know Kiba and Akamaru, and this is Shino and Tatsu." Shino nodded to the group in greeting while Tatsu barely even glanced at them, wearing her all too familiar frown.

"Kurenai Sensei, why do we need an extra team on this mission anyway? I mean, it's supposed to be a simple security mission right?" asked Tatsu. She honestly didn't see the need to include an extra four-man squad on this mission.

"Lord Hokage said it was as a precaution Tatsu." Kurenai explained to her, "Apparently, from what the mission's description said, there could be some trouble."

"What is the mission objective Kurenai?" Genma asked, "Lord Hokage said you'd explain when we got here."

"Well Genma," she addressed to him, "I'm sure you at least heard of it: The Village Hidden in the Stars?"

"The Star Village?" asked Genma, mildly surprised. The Hidden Star Village rarely asked for outside assistance from other villages. For them to call on assistance now meant...

"What's in the Hidden Star Village?" asked Suki.

"Well, the Star Village is a relatively small village," explained Kurenai, "but they are also a proud people, and unfortunately caused a lot of headaches in the past."

"Hmm..." hummed Toph, "cheery."

"Okay, but what makes this village so special?" asked Sokka.

Kurenai looked the Water Tribe Warrior, "The village is said to have something... very special."

Before Kurenai could continue, Kiba interrupted, "But I thought the Star Village was a full on shinobi village. Why do they need our help? Can't they use their own ninja to handle security?"

"That's true Kiba they are a shinobi village," nodded Genma, his senbon dancing in his lips as he spoke, "but sometimes smaller villages will strengthen relations by coordinating with its allies militarily. And this case, since their village is smaller than most, they probably don't have enough ninja to protect it."

"That makes sense," said Tatsu, "but why would a village that tiny be attacked?"

"I have a theory why..." said Kurenai, "It all started 200 years ago... When a shooting star hit the village..."

Kiba balked, Suki, Tatsu, Toph, and Sokka went wide-eyed, and Shino remained as emotionless as ever.

"Wait! You mean like a star in the sky?" asked Kiba in shock, "Not a throwing star right?"

"That's how its said to have happened." Genma clarified, "And according to legend, the star holds a mysterious power that can affect chakra."

After a few brief seconds of awkward silence, Kiba burst into a fit of laughter, "Hahaha! That's ridiculous! First of all there's no way that a star just drops out of the sky and hits the Earth!"

"Actually Kiba, you're mistaken." said Sokka, earning a stupefied look from the dog ninja, "Before we came to the village, me, Toph, my sister Katara, and another friend of ours saw the exact same thing happen somewhere else. We were watching a meteor shower and one of them landed only about 2 miles away from where we were camping. After we put out the fire it caused, I eventually used what remained of the meteorite to forge my very first Jian sword. So logically speaking, it probably wasn't exactly a star that hit the village but very likely a meteorite similar to the one we saw."

"That would make sense," said Shino, speaking for the first time, "after all, all a star really is a big ball of hot air in the middle space. I find it unlikely that our planet would even still exist if an actual star hit it."

"Finally!" Sokka exclaimed, "someone who actually agrees with me on logic!"

"Well Snoozles," said Toph, "technically, you, Sugar Queen, and Twinkle Toes saw the meteorite, not me."

"You didn't?" asked Tatsu, "Why not? Were you somewhere else when it happened?"

Now it was Toph's turn to balk, "You're kidding right?"

"What?" asked Kiba cluelessly.

"I'M BLIND!" exclaimed Toph, as she waved her hand in front of her face.

Tatsu and Kiba's jaws may as well have hit the ground. Toph was blind, and yet still seemed qualified to be a shinobi?

"YOU'RE BLIND?!" they asked in perfect sync, and Akamaru barked in equal shock.

Toph slapped her forehead as Shino sighed and asked, "It took you two that long to realize it?"

"Wait, you knew she was blind the entire time?!" Kiba asked Shino.

"Yes," he answered simply, "if the two of you weren't so oblivious you may have noticed as well."

"Wait a second," said Tatsu, "If you're blind, how did Lord Hokage still let you become a ninja?"

Toph sighed before giving her usual explanation, "Well you see, even though I was born blind, I actually don't have any trouble seeing. The way I see is through the Earth. I usually feel for vibrations in the ground and use them as my 'eyes'. So I can see you, Genma and Kurenai Sensei, and even that anthill over there."

Team 8 turned toward where Toph was pointing, and they were shocked to see that there indeed was a small anthill on the side of the road with red ants climbing into it.

"Whoa! That's really cool." exclaimed Kiba, "If all shinobi could do that, it would absolutely impossible to ambush anyone."

"Alright, I've think we've had enough time to talk and get familiar with each other." said Genma, "We should get to the Hidden Star Village in the Land of Bears as soon as we can."

"Yes sensei!" they all said in unison.

"Alright then, let's move." Kurenai said before the eight of them leapt out of the gate and into the forest.

o~o

After traveling for about a day and a half, the group finally reached the outskirts of the Hidden Star Village in the Land of Bears. The Land of Bears was a heavily forested country much like the Land of Fire. The Hidden Star Village was located in the middle of the country and was surrounded by a canyon filled with poisonous gas called the Valley of Death. The canyon was used to act like a natural barrier to prevent raids on the village.

The group landed just a few feet from the canyon's edge, and they immediately saw that there was no way across and it was too far to jump, even for ordinary ninja.

"I can get us across," said Toph, "how far is the other side?"

"From the looks of it about 20 meters acro-" before Sokka could finish, Toph stomped the ground and a rock slab catapulted the now surprised group straight across and cleared it by an extra 2 meters!

"A little warning next time Toph?" Suki berated the Earthbender as she simply shrugged.

"What the- what the hell did you just do?!" asked Kiba as he dusted himself off and looked at Toph wide-eyed. Akamaru barked in agreement.

"It's my... special ability I guess you could say. It's called earthbending. I don't need hand seals to do it either. I simply control the earth through my own will power. Oh, and you're welcome!" said Toph, after briefly explaining. Before any more questions could be asked though, a volley of arrows flew toward the group. Having seen the attack, Sokka pulled out his boomerang and threw it toward the projectiles, slicing them in half.

The assailant burst through the trees landing in front of the group. His face was hidden behind a gas mask but he was wearing a lavender shirt with a purple scarf around his neck, and tan pants with black ninja shoes and long fingerless gloves that reached past his elbows.

Believing he may be an enemy, Kiba and Suki, threw several kunai in his direction while Sokka threw his boomerang once again.

The assailant responded by making the Bird hand seal, "Ninja Art: Kujaku, Protection!" Suddenly, pinkish purple peacock-like feathers made of chakra sprouted behind the boy and sprung out to deflect the kunai and boomerang.

"Jerk!" shouted Toph, as she once again stomped the ground and sent rock after rock at the ninja.

"Destroy!" he responded as the peacock wings suddenly spread and nailed each of the rocks like a pike, obliterating them. He then took out several kunai of his own and launched them at the group. To stop them, Tatsu leaped in front of the kunais' path, and as they hit her, they didn't embed themselves into her, but bounced right off as if they hit a steel wall!

Before the fighting could go on any longer, Genma and Kurenai jumped in between them.

"Guys stop it!" ordered Genma.

"But sensei, this guy attacked us out of the blue!" argued Sokka, but then noticed that the attacker had stopped his jutsu all together and the colored peacock feathers disappeared.

"Oh, you're all Leaf ninja. My apologies." The attacker took off his gas mask to reveal a boy with short smooth black hair that kind of curled around his head and parts of his headband. He also has reddish-brown eyes and was wearing a blue Hidden Star Village headband around his forehead.

"Wait," said Suki, "you're a Hidden Star Ninja?"

"I'm Sumaru, I came to pick you all up." he explained, "I was supposed to help you get across the canyon as well, but it looks like it wasn't necessary."

"Pleasure to meet you Sumaru, I'm Kurenai Yuhi, and this is Genma Shiranui. And these are our students, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Tatsu, Toph Bei Fong, Suki, and Sokka."

Sumaru nodded before he turned back the way he came. "Let's go, the Hidden Star Village is this way."

Along the way, the Team couldn't help but stare at Tatsu in awe. The kunai that she threw herself in front should have killed her, but they didn't.

"Hey, what was that you did back there? The kunai bounced off of you instead of hurting you. What was that all about?" asked Suki.

Tatsu looked at the Kyoshi Warrior with irritation before sighing, "Well, you'd find out one way or another. To put it simply it's my Kekkei Genkai. It's called the Muteki Jinshin. My Kekkei Genkai allows me to be invulnerable to many types of attacks, including Taijutsu and Ninjutsu." Before she could continue though, a small rush of pain rippled through her, making her cringe, but it wasn't enough to make her collapse.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Toph, feeling her heartbeat change slightly, "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry this always happens." Tatsu waved off as she slowly straightened up as the pain faded.

"Hey, I think I get it!" exclaimed Sokka. He had remembered one of the evening lectures that Genma had given them about a week ago about Kekkei Genkai, also known as Blood Line techniques, which were jutsu that couldn't be copied or taught to anyone, and could only be used by people who were born with it. Genma had used Toph's earthbending as an example of this, since she was born an earthbender while others weren't. The three girls looked at him confused, and seeing this he elaborated, "Just because you're invulnerable to most attacks with that Kekkei Genkai on, when you deactivate it, you probably experience the pain of the attacks shortly after right? That's why you cringed."

Tatsu looked at him in shock. He was able to figure all that out with one encounter of seeing it? Who was this guy? "Yeah," she said after reluctantly nodding, "exactly."

"... Sweetness." Toph said after a pause before she busted out laughing.

o~o

After about an hour of more traveling, the group finally reached the Hidden Star Village. At the center of the village was a small three-storied mansion, the Hoshikage's residence. On the front of the building was a sign with the kanji for 'Star' on the front. Inside the room they entered a man of pale tone, a thin and bony face, blue eyes, a narrow nose, lilac-colored hair with a ponytail, and a blue forehead protector was waiting for them.

After they all knelt in front of the man, he addressed them, "I'm Akahoshi, and I serve as deputy Hoshikage of this village."

"Deputy?" Shino questioned, "But that means..."

"The Third Hoshikage passed on quite suddenly a year ago. So at present, the village finds itself without a true leader."

Toph felt Akahoshi's heartbeat change only slightly when he mentioned that the Hoshikage passed 'suddenly'. She made a mental note to be wary of this Akahoshi guy until she got more information. Whenever a person she just met lies to them right off the bat, her first instinct was to keep her guard up around them.

"Wait," said Tatsu, "but I thought only leaders of the Five Great Hidden Villages could be called 'kage'."

"Yeah, what's that about?" asked Toph.

"That makes no difference!" retorted Sumaru, grabbing the Leaf ninja's attention. "The people of this village are inferior to no one! We may be small, but someday, this village will rival those of the Five Great Lands, and when that day comes, I will be Hoshikage!"

"Be quiet." Akahoshi ordered, "Return to your training at once!" At the order, Sumaru turned and left the room, not even bothering to glance back at the Leaf ninja. After he exited the room, Akahoshi sighed, "I apologize for that, now where was I? Oh yes. As you correctly pointed out, the shinobi of our land are not qualified to even have a kage. However, we posses a star that the kages of the Five Great Hidden Villages covet. Someday, we'll harness the power of the star and our village will at last be able to seat a sixth Kage."

"So what you're saying is, is that your enemies have been trying to get that star." Genma clarified.

"That's right, our scouting teams managed to get some useful intelligence..."

o~o

After discussing the information regarding their mission with Akahoshi, Teams 8 and 11 headed out to get familiar with the Hidden Star Village. Toph didn't tell any of them that she had felt Akahoshi lie to them about the Hoshikage's death because she knew that there was a possibility that he himself didn't know how the Hoshikage died and didn't know how to explain the loss to them. But if she sensed him lying to them again, she wouldn't hesitate to point it out.

As Sokka, Suki, and Toph looked around the village, the trio spotted Sumaru walking up a flight of stairs towards where they assumed was where his training took place. Having wanted to ask him about that weird jutsu he used when they first encountered him, the three sprinted to catch up to him.

"Hey wait up!" Suki called. Sumaru paused as Sokka, Suki, and Toph finally caught up to him, panting, "Whew, finally caught up! Sumaru right?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Nothing," Sokka shrugged as he continued to follow him up the path. "That's just a pretty interesting name, that's all."

"Well, it's derived from the star cluster Subaru or the Pleiades. In fact, everyone in our village has a name that's associated with a certain star... After all, this is where a star fell."

"Oh that's pretty cool." Toph said, interested in the topic. 'I wonder what mine name would be if I were named after a star.'

"What do you three want from me anyway?" Sumaru asked suddenly, sending a slight glare of suspicion at them.

"Oh," Suki was slightly surprised by Sumaru's change in attitude all of a sudden, "nothing in particular. We just thought we'd get to know a few people from the village, you know?"

"Don't try to act nice with me." Sumaru scoffed, "Foreigners are all the same, they're all trying to get to our star. They think if they get its power they can rise above the other Hidden Villages."

"Oh, you mean that chakra of yours is fueled by the power of the star too?" asked Sokka, "I mean, if someone else had the star, wouldn't they have the same chakra as you do?"

"No!" Sumaru snapped, turning to fully face the warrior, "The more power you draw from it, the more hard work and skill you need to control it." Before any of them could interrupt he continued, "And that's what I'm going to do! Nothing but hard work! I will become the Hoshikage!"

Toph smiled, admiring his determination, "Well good for you!"

Sumaru looked taken aback from Toph's reaction, and then noticed that the other two looked just as impressed, "You know, you three are kinda weird."

"Yeah, we know." The Blind Bandit said before bursting into a fit of laughter with Sokka and Suki.

o~o

At another part of the village near the edge was a humongous crater with dead tree stumps scattered this way and that. At the center of the crater was a couple of buildings, one where the star was kept and another that acted as the living quarters for the children who trained there. On the side of the crater, peaking through some rubble was another masked ninja, whose eyes were glued to the center building and room where the star was kept. At the speed no one could register, the ninja flashed past debris and soon found itself at the entrance of the building.

Inside the building, the children were meditating in front of the star in the middle of their 'star training' session. No one noticed the ninja enter the room until it was nearly too late.

"Intruder!" yelled one of the girls as she brandished a kunai like the other students, "Guard the star!" The intruder however seemed unfazed by the number of genin in the room. She gave a smirk under the mask.

o~o

Sumaru, Toph, Suki, and Sokka finally made their way down to the crater where the star first made impact.

"Whoa! You're right!" said Suki, surveying their surroundings, "The tree trunks all fell outwards from the center of the crater."

"Well when a meteorite impacts like this it's exactly the pattern you'd expect. The same way we saw our meteorite." explained Sokka.

The young star ninja looked at Sokka annoyed, "That's star to you! You may call it a meteorite, but it's a star to us!" He then pointed to the building at the center of the crater. "Over there is our training area, where the star's enshrined."

Toph felt a bunch of vibrations coming from the training hall, it sounded like there was a battle going on. She shrugged it off though, thinking that the other star ninja inside were just having a sparring match.

"Alright then, let's go!" exclaimed Sokka, "we're dying to see it!"

To their surprise, Sumaru answered, "Never! No one from a foreign land is allowed beyond this point."

Suki gritted her teeth and stomped the ground. "But don't you know that the reason that we're here is because of the star? That's the whole point of the mission! How do you expect us to protect it if we can't even get close to it!?"

"I could." said Toph with a raised hand.

"You're not helping Toph!" Sokka snapped.

"You're foreigners, we can't just leave you with something so sacred."

"Okay, my first review of you guys and this village is that you are completely paranoid! You hire us for a security mission but you still won't trust us?! You're worse than the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se!" Toph ranted.

"Well, we are who are." Sumaru sneered as the four shinobi stared at each other for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. The contest was cut short though when they heard a shuffle coming from the building. Turning to see what it was, they saw the masked ninja who entered the building early running off with something clutched in its hands. It was the star!

"What was that?" asked Sumaru in shock, "The star!"

Before Sumaru could say anything else, Sokka drew his boomerang out of its holster and threw at the ninja. The ninja sensed it coming and dodged it at the last second, only for it to come flying right back in the other direction, but the ninja regained its composure and dodged it again. Sokka growled as he caught the boomerang in his hand. "We'll go after him, you check on your friends!" when he saw Sumaru hesitate he grabbed the boy by the shoulders, "Look there's no time to hesitate okay?!"

Sumaru finally nodded after a few seconds, "Right, we'll have to split up!" Sumaru raced toward the training hall as Sokka, Suki, and Toph gave chase to the masked ninja. Sumaru gasped as he reached the door to see his fellow trainees lying hurt and unconscious on the floor. He immediately ran to one of the girls, who was his best friend.

"Hokato!" seeing that she was unconscious, Sumaru focused his chakra and tapped Hokato's forehead with his chakra infused finger. Hokato opened her eyes with a groan.

"Sumaru!" she sighed with relief, "I'm sorry, we couldn't protect it!" Sumaru nodded in understanding, but then gasped as he remembered that Sokka, Suki, and Toph were chasing the ninja. If that thief had the star then-!

o~o

Toph, with Sokka and Suki in tow, earth-skied up the crater as fast as she could with the thief not too far ahead of her. Reaching into her side holster, Suki drew three kunai and used a jutsu Genma had shown them to launch them at the masked thief. The thief evaded the knives by jumping over them and back flipped on top of a dead tree branch and stared down at the trio.

"I hope you weren't stupid enough to think you could just steal something from this village in the middle of the day and get away with it!" Sokka yelled up, but the thief seemed unfazed by the threat. Sokka and Suki quickly did the Ram, Snake, Tiger sequence and six clones of both of them appeared at their side. "Don't think you can get away!"

The ninja calmly stored the star in the inside of her jacket before weaving her hands in a very familiar hand sign. Sokka recognized it as the same hand seal that Sumaru used when they first met him. 'Wait that's!'

"Ninja Art: Kujaku!" Just as Sumaru did, huge wing like chakra strands shot out of the thief's back, but they were way bigger than Sumaru's was... by a lot! "Beast!" The chakra suddenly swirled into a spiral and transformed into a badger like monster that charged at the trio and their clones. With a swipe of its paws, it obliterated three of them.

"Dang it!" Sokka yelled as he pulled out some shuriken. 'We can't let this guy escape!' he thought as he signaled to Toph and Suki to attack, he and Suki threw shuriken after shuriken while Toph earthbended boulders and rocks at the assailant. Since most were illusionary from the clones, they just passed right through the chakra, but when the attacks made impact, they simply bounced off like they hit a brick wall. Even Toph's rocks weren't making a mark.

"It's futile," the thief told them, looking at the trio through the mask with almost pity.

Toph growled and stomped the ground and threw her fists up. From right under the tree, an Earth column had risen, and moments later, the ninja was trapped in the Earth prison pillar and was struggling to escape. Sensing that the target was hit Toph smirked. "Looks like your little trick has a weakness after all, and I just found it!"

"Wait to go Toph!" cheered Suki at the earthbender's smart move.

"Toph hit him now! He can't move when he's controlling a jutsu!" ordered Sokka.

"Yeah, yeah, don't pee yourself Snoozles!" Toph shot back as she stomped the ground once more and this time catapulted herself at the ninja.

Seeing Toph coming, the ninja smirked, "I can use my chakra in more than one way." To prove her point, some the chakra surrounding the ninja suddenly shot at the Blind Bandit. Since she couldn't see it because she was blind, Toph was shocked when something suddenly slammed into her very hard and shot back almost all the way back to the Star Training hall, sliding along the ground, leaving a trail in the earth behind her.

"TOPH!" Suki and Sokka cried, seeing her being shot down. Turning back at the enemy ninja, they saw that there were now two chakra beasts now!

Toph groaned as she picked herself up. "Man, that guy could hit hard!" she said, clutching her slightly throbbing head.

"Monkey feathers!" muttered Sokka, "What do we do?"

Before he could think of anything else though, the ninja made the Bird hand sign again. "Synthesis!" At the command, both the badger chakra monsters joined together, making an even bigger one that charged at the trio. The three stood there frozen in place from shock, they'd never seen anything like this before, not even 1,500 years ago!

"Sokka! Toph! Suki!" shouted voice from behind them as they braced for impact. Looking back, they saw Sumaru rushing to their aid.

What happened next confused all of them. The mysterious ninja gasped and stopped the giant beast attack just millimeters from Sokka's face. After the chakra shrank back into her back, she made the same hand sign and exclaimed, "Wings!" The chakra extended outward to form two huge wingspans that flapped in the wind. The ninja took off from her trunk and into the air.

"What?! You can fly too?!" Sokka shouted as he gave the ninja look that said 'Are you freaking kidding me?' (Think of when the serpent appears on the Fire Nation ship). Before the four of them could stop him, the thief shot like a rocket ship and flew across the poisonous canyon and out of their close reach.

"No you don't!" shouted Toph, as she suddenly started swinging her arms in the direction of the thief, shooting a boulder blindly into the sky with each swing. It was no use though; the thief was too far away.

Cursing under his breath, Sumaru finally caught up to them. "He's gone!"

"We almost had him!" Suki said through gritted teeth, "but then he-"

"It's my fault for agreeing to let you three try!" Sumaru interrupted with a look of disdain.

Sokka glared at him but quickly brushed it off. "This is crazy! That ninja used the exact same ninja art as you!"

Sumaru gasped at this revelation. That was impossible. Only shinobi from the Hidden Star Village knew Ninja Art: Kujaku. No outsider has ever done it. If that ninja did though... then that meant-

His thoughts were interrupted with Sokka still staring him down. "What's going on here...? Really?"

"And stick to the truth!" Toph added, "I'll be able to tell if you're lying!"

Sumaru closed his eyes and looked downward. Sokka recognized that look. It was the look Katara had when Zuko betrayed them in Ba Sing Se, and the one she had when their father first left to fight in the war. It was a look of hurt and betrayal. "That ninja art... only a star trained ninja could know it."

"You mean that guy who tried to tear us to shreds with his chakra beast was from the Village Hidden in the Stars!" Sokka shocked. He understood why Sumaru must feel this way. A ninja from his village had betrayed them all.

Sumaru gritted his teeth. He finally said "...I can't be sure."

o~o

For all you readers in case you were wondering, Muteki Jinshin means invincible body. So I hoped you like seeing Tatsu a little bit in action.

BTW: I still need more votes for my poll, so please spread the word about it. It will stay open until after the Chunin Exam. Thanks!

Sokka and Sumaru: R & R please!