Author's note: I'm sorry for taking so long again, but I am still a little short on inspiration. Nonetheless I have managed to get a new chapter and a rythm. I will now concetntrate on this, but will write other stories if I have time. By the way, is someone has wishes fo the series, just tell me and I see, what I can do. I would also like to thank all of you, who have watched, rewieved and put my stories to lists.
New dawn arrived to the Kyoshi Island. Aang and his companions had a place to sleep from the school hidden in the waves, a ninja school meant for kunoichis only normally. Despite the fact, Haku had studied in this village before and so did Sokka, though Sokka wasn't really fond to the uniforms. Both Aang and Katara had woke up and were currently travelling around the village buying groceries.
"I think we have enough vegetables" Katara pondered. "Would you like some fruits, Aang" She asked, only to discover Aang having left. Katara got little mad, but nonetheless continued shopping.
Meanwhile in the dojo, Sokka had problems with his clone jutsu and pride.
"I can't believe this" He mumbled. "All of these kunoichis can do three copies of themselves, while can do only one and that's almost dead. I'll never be a shinobi, if I can't do this. Clone Jutsu!"
Haku had watched Sokka's training for a while. "It's surprisingly difficult technique, if you have exceptionally much chakra"
"This has nothing to do with you, Haku"
"Maybe. In theory you would be a great ninja. However you have more chakra than you can control, so those techniques, which require only a small amount of chakra, are difficult to perform"
"So what are you trying to tell me?"
"Remember that shadow clone Suki performed on the beach" Sokka nodded. Haku put his hand together "Try to copy my arms and practice that" Sokka was a little suspicious, but tried anyway.
At the same time on a ship close to the Kyoshi island, Zuko and Naruto were both on the bow practising their bendings by one-on-one battle. Zuko wore his normal armor, while Naruto had a green jump-suit.
"Get ready, Zuko! Here comes a hard one!" Naruto informed jumping into the air. He then kicked a large gust towards Zuko, who easily dodged it.
"Don't inform me, Naruto." Zuko ordered. "The Avatar won't tell his moves to us. We must both use our reflexes and senses to prevent his strikes"
Naruto agreed and continued his attacks after about half an hour the fight ended. Zuko won, but just barely. Both of them smiled at each other and rose up. Iroh came towards Zuko.
"Have to say I am impressed" He said. "How did you get Naruto back into normal?"
"It wasn't an easy task" Zuko told.
Flashback
When I went to see him, he had chained himself to the wall of the prison cells.
"Zuko? What are you doing in here"
"I'm going to get you come out again"
"Don't come closer to me! If that thing inside me gets out you are doomed!"
I tried to encourage him, but to no avail. "Listen, Naruto. You cannot allow it to defeat you"
After that he bursted into tears. "It has defeated me already! It took my body instantly and I couldn't do anything about it! I don't even remember anything, what happened! I know about that thing's existence only from your conditions! How can I ever win something who has more power over me than I do?"
I was about to give up, when I remembered something. I left and came back with Naruto's old jumpsuit, which I threw in front of him.
"Remember when you first tried to learn firebending, Naruto? At first you were sad, when instead of fire you breathed air, since nobody knew anything about bending air and even master Gai could only give you the advice to search your technique. But remember when you found it"
Then Naruto grabbed the jump-suit and started smiling. "Thank you, Zuko."
End of flashback
"So you told nothing about the Hacua?" Iroh asked.
"No" Zuko answered. "He knows as much that he has a some kind of demon inside. Just not why it is there"
"I quess that is enough for now" Iroh continued. "But what do we do if the beast reawakens?"
"That's why I brought this with me." Kurenai interrupted, holding a large scroll in her arms. "Master Sarutobi believed this scroll would be in better safe in here, than in the Fire Nation. What I need to do now is to search for a jutsu to make a second seal."
"Have you gone crazy, Kurenai?" Iroh asked worried. "We don't need another sacrifice!"
Kurenai just chuckled. "I may not be Hiashi, but I know this one is not really dangerous. All I need to do is to cover his stomach with bandages and write the word Seal on them. No sacrifices or deaths."
Iroh sighed. "Okay, I let you two do, what you think is the best. But if something goes wrong, you can only blame yourselves" He said returning below the deck.
Zuko turned towards Kurenai. "Will this take long?" Kurenai shook his head. "Good, because when we are ready, we attack the Avatar."
"Good, I'll get a chance to use this" Naruto said, showing a secret weapon, which others saw as surprising, or amusing.
Aang was getting restless. There was something strange going on on the sea. Aang didn't actually see or hear it, but more like sensed it inside himself. "Perhaps I should check this on my own" He thought "Guys wouldn't probably believe me if I told them now. Anyway, time to check" Aang flew to the beach, but saw nothing strange. Then he removed his clothes and jumped into the water. At first he saw nothing except Elephant Kois, but soon he got a vision of a some king of gigantic snake going past him. The energy came from that snake. Aang turned around to get up to the surface, but instead he saw the head of the serpent looking straight at him. Aang started swimming away with snake following him with its mouth open, trying to eat him. Aang knew he wouldn't be able to dodge the snake forever and needed a plan. He suddenly stopped moving and simply looked at the beast. Snake attacked again, but when it got to the point blank range, Aang blew out his remaining air into its mouth, using it as a catapult to fire him to the surface. Aang flew out of the water and landed on the sand, coughing out water and hailing in air. He was about to lay down to rest, when he saw a red boot right in front of him. Aang looked up and saw a familiar face.
"It must be my lucky day" Zuko said smiling, seeing Avatar next to his feet. "Shino! Kiba! Help me carry him to the ship! Hinata and Naruto, cover us!" Two kids around Aang's age, one with a dog underneath his armor and the other wearing a skull helmet, lifted Aang up. But before leaving they were stopped by a sudden yell. Everyone turned to see a large amount of Kyoshi warriors accompanied by the water siblings.
"Drop Aang right now!" Katara yelled.
Zuko took a fighting stance "Not without a fight. Everyone, attack!"
The Fire Nation soldiers came as a one flaming wall towards kyoshi warriors. But kyoshi's weren't fools: they had trained themselves not to attack directly, but rather turn opponents' power against them, easily overwhelming enemy soldiers. But the tides got turned after Kurenai and Zuko attacked together, Kurenai creating an illusion around the warriors and Zuko taking them down. Suddenly those attacked kyoshi warriors disappeared.
"Shadow clones!" Kurenai realised.
"You got right at the first try" Suki said behind them. "So you are illusionist and that friend of yours exceptional fire-" But he couldn't finish, because a big tornado swooped right in front of her, revealing a dog-like boy with a real dog.
"And I am an expert synchroniser" He said. "Name is Kiba and this is Akamaru. You two take care of the others, she is mine" Both Zuko and Kurenai nodded and changed targets. Kiba turned Akamaru to his clone and both charged towards Suki, who smiled cunningly.
Meanwhile Iroh had forced Haku into the water. "You should give up, young man" He said. "Your moving is slowed down in the water and you are out of needles, but I can still fire at a long range."
Haku just smiled. "In the water I am never out of needles" He said, forming a large sphere of water, which he turned into several needles. All with moving only one hand. "I prefer to hide the fact, that I'm a waterbender, but since you die now it doesn't matter." Hundreds of ice needles flew towards Iroh, who managed to survive only by melting those ones who would have hit him. Iroh started to retreat to the beach with Haku following him.
Sokka was again taking on Shino. The battle was now much harder than it was in the south pole, since Shino had revealed, that his true speciality was summoning bugs from inside his armour. Or at least it looked like it, since they came out from the eyes of the mask. Sokka spinned his boomerang in his hand to take care of some bugs, but there was too many of them to kill them all. Sokka ther the boomerang, did some hand seals and suddenly there were several boomerangs going at Shino. Shino dodged them but was captured by three Sokkas, who hit him hard
Katara on the other hand fought Hinata. Katara had been on the winning by attacking at long range, but suddenly Hinata used some of his agility to dodge the water and hit Katara. Katara could feel a some kind of pulse going right through his body, as if Hinata's hands were much stronger than they looked like. Then Katara realised Hinata used chakra to damage his organs. Katara couldn't use chakra, but had seen, what it could do after watching Sokka's training. Katara changed strategy, moving from attacking to cleverness. When Hinata came close again, Katara captured her hands by the water and pushes her back.
But the greatest fight happened in the air between Naruto and Aang. Aang used his glider to stay in the air and to fight, while Naruto had put on a bird-suit.
"We meet again, Avatar" Naruto spoke. "But this time the creature inside me will not help you"
"Maybe not, but I will find a away to release him" Aang answered. "By the way, why that ridiculous outfit?"
"This "ridiculous" outfit is my secret weapon. It improves my airbending like your glider. The best way to kill a boy who flies like a butterfly is to fly like a bird"
"I have to admit, it is clever, but it won't help you against this"
Aang used his staff to create a straight line of wind, which Naruto dodged. Naruto came to a close range and threw both of his fists into Aang's stomach, making him fly to the distance. Aang soon regained consciousness and came rushing towards Naruto, but instead of hitting him directly, Aang flew behind Naruto when he tried to strike again and hit him with his staff. When Naruto flew away, Aang looked around and saw the whole village on fire. He realised it was the work of the firebenders. If we continue fighting, the whole village will be destroyed. We must leave. Having no time to lose, Aang flew down to Appa.
"Listen, Appa" He said. "We must leave. Help me get Katara, Sokka and Haku"
Appa nodded and took Aang on his back. Everyone felt bad for leaving the villagers, but they realised it was the only way to save them. But when they had reached the sky, Naruto came rushing again. Suddenly the snake, who had hunted Aang, came right in front of Aang's group, but instead of Appa it blew a stream of water at Naruto, who flew back towards the beach. Then it extinguished the flames of the village. Aang and his friends flew away.
"I hope this is enough for me to thank you, Avatar" Said a mysterious voice in Aang's head.
"Who are you?" Aang asked through his thoughts
"I am known as Unagi. When we met first time, I was controlled by a Fire National mystic named Orochimaru. But when you defeated me, I was free again. I can't do much, but I will tell you this: Orochimaru is very powerful ninja, who wants everything mystism can give him. He works under a navy commander Zhao, whose lust for power is equal to Orochimaru's lust for jutsus. I know this, because I still have some of Orochimaru's memories. If you ever find either of them, stay away from them"
The link disappeared like it had come. Aang wondered it for a long time.
Meanwhile in the Omashu, three men were sitting on a table having a feast. One of them, an old, strange-looking man in a decorated outfit, was King Bumi, leader of the Omashu. He sat next to his two guests, both of them wearing dark cloaks and straw hats. Other one had a large sword on his back. Bumi started talking.
"You may wonder why I have summoned you two in here." He spoke "Especially since the other one is from the Fire Nation. Though there is nothing strange for a Water Tribal"
Both of the men got a little surprised, but then chuckled removing their hats and opened their cloaks, revealing their homeland garments and scarred headbands.
Bumi looked confused. "I didn't ask you to strip"
The waterbender was about to laugh, but controlled himself. The firebender started talking.
"We have both discarded our loyalty to our nations" He spoke. "Tough I do wonder, why you called us. We normally do missions, which are less priced than ninja schools perform, yet you chose us. Why did you do that?"
King spoke again. "The mission I am asking you to do is impossible to Eath Kingdom ninjas. Well, maybe excluding Ba Sing Se's Dai Li, but they work only to the Earth King, excluding times of war, which the Fire Nation invasion luckily isn't. Anyway, your mission is to free captured earthbenders from prison rigsmade entirely of metal. They are miles away at the sea, so earthbending is useless, however you can still bend there. Of course since Itachi is from the Fire Nation, he can leave this mission. And if he does, Kisame can also go, if he thinks he can't do it alone. Of course then I must forget this mission, but that's life"
"No need to worry about it, King Bumi" Itachi said. "I will perform this mission gladly"
"That's great! We will get hundreds, no, thousands of warriors to home!" King started dancing on the table, but stopped as soon he had begun and returned to his place. "You may sleep in the guest room and go to the mission tomorrow.
Itachi and Kisame left the table and started walking to the guest room. Kisame turned towards Itachi.
"Are you sure you want to do this!" He asked. "The old man is lunatic and you are fighting against you own country"
"I hate the Fire Nation." Itachi answered. "Why do you think I destroyed my clan before leaving her. Besides the Akatsuki does every single mission it can, regardless to the customer or target. Haven't you severed your ties to the Northern Tribe?"
Kisame stayed calm. "Of course I have, except not everyone knows that"
"By the way I forgot to tell you something" King Bumi said from their behind, "That mask of your's, Kisame, It's great"
Kisame touched his skin. "Yes, mask" Both of them kept going.