Aang stood chained to the wall in Fire Nation's prison. Several feelings filled his mind. He was worried for his friends, who were weakening from a sickness they catched. He was scared about his fate, when he will be brought in front of the Fire Lord. But most of all, Aang was angry, angry for himself for being cause to all this. He was the Avatar, the last hope of the world. He should have had no problem in defeating the ninjas sent to capture him, yet here he was, unable to do anything.
"Hope you are happy for what you have done, Aang." He scolded himself. "You betrayed Katara, Sokka, Hacua, Roku, Zalina, everyone! And because of it you will rot in prison for the rest of your life, while the Fire Nation takes over the world and no one will help you."
But that's where Aang was wrong, because the help was already coming. Four masked ninjas had arrived close to the fortress and were now planning the rescue operation.
"Okay everyone" The blue masked ninja started. "We have changed our voices, but we also need codenames. We will call ourselves after the colours of our masks. I am Blue. Hinata will be Red, Kiba is called White and Shino is Black. Are there any questions?"
White stepped forward. "Are you sure about this plan, Zuk... Blue?"
"Nope" Blue answered. "But it is the only choice we have. If there aren't any other questions, let us repeat the plan. Black and I will climb into that tower and give you cover."
"Meanwhile me and Red walk into the cells, find the Avatar and release him." White continued. "After that we climb with him to the tower and together we fly away. That is unless something goes wrong."
"As long as you are on my range of sight, I can use genjutsu to make them see you as Fire National officers, so you should be able to just walk inside." Blue told. "However, once you are inside the building, you are on your own."
"But wait a minute." Red interrupted. "What if they ask papers from us?"
"Just borrow an exploding tag from White." Blue answered. "They will only see, what they expect to see."
Red nodded and left the bush with White following him. Blue and Black also left and sneaked to the fortress. They chose a tower close to the gate, where Blue would have the best chance to see White and Red. Blue and Black put some chakra to their hands and feet and climbed up to the tower. There were a few guards in the tower, but they were no match to the ninjas. After the guards had been rendered unconscious, Blue took a look at White and Red.
"Time to get to the job. Get ready to give the signal." Blue told to Black. Then he made six handsings. "Genjutsu: Foe to Friend!"
Black activated his backpack, revealing two large, mechanic wings. He grabbed the other one and swung it, so that Red and White could see it. It was the signal.
Red saw the signal. "Okay, White, let's go. I'll be the captain and you are my secretary."
"Why can't you be my secretary while I'm the captain." White asked.
"Try to remember which one of us is a man and which one a woman" Red answered. "Now stop whining and let's go."
White humped at Red's comment while rising up. Deciding not to let it bother she followed Red.
In front of the gate the guard stopped them. "Who are you and what is your business?" He asked.
"I am captain Akaro from the royal guard and this is lieutenant Shiroko, my secretary." Red introduced. "We were sent here by Fire Lord to see if the rumours of Avatar's capture were true. So if possible we would like to see him."
"In that case I would like to see the papers." Guard said stretching his hand forwards. White took an exploding tag and gave it to the guard. He looked closely the paper and gave it back.
"I apologise for the slow down, sir. Open the gate!" The gate opened and Red and White walked in. Everyone who saw them simply greeted them like they were officers, meaning that so far genjutsu worked. Luckily they managed to get inside without trouble. They walked to the direction, where the guards had told Avatar was being held. The door to Avatar's cell was guarded by six firebenders. White took a kunai from her cape and tied a tag to it. She threw it right in the middle of the guards. But this one wasn't loaded with explosives. It was filled with sleeping gas. In a few seconds all of the guards were fast asleep and White and Red could simply walk to the door. The next problem was to open the locked door. White begun to search for a key, but Red stopped her.
"It will take too much time" Red said. "Besides I have another plan."
"Are you going to use Cutting Fist?" White asked, to which Red nodded. "But that door is made of steel."
"Then it is time to see if I can cut steel" Red answered. He put his right hand in a knife position. The fingertips gloved blue when Red made a vertical chop and kicked the doors, which flew open.
Aang was awakened from his thoughts by a sudden thump. Looking forward he saw the doors flung open with guards on the floor and two masked persons in front of him. The other one wore an armour of polished steel and a red metal mask with expressionless face carved on it. He looked like a 10-year-old boy because he was very short, even shorter than Aang. The other was a girl in her teens in a white jump-suit with matching tiger mask. Her tan cloak was full of tags and the belt of kunais and shurikens.
"Okay, so you can cut metal." The tiger girl said to the boy. "Why don't you release the Avatar?"
The boy moved towards Aang with ballet-like movements and sliced the chains with his hands.
"Thanks guys" Aang thanked his rescuers. "But who are you and why do you help me?"
The boy looked at Aang. "We don't have names. You can call me Red and her White. There are also Blue and Black waiting us out there. If you want to adress us all at once, we are the Spirit Squad. We help you, because there are people who need you. Now listen carefully. When we get out to the courtyard, don't speak or otherwise say anything. We have put all the guards in there in a genjutsu, so they see us now as Fire National officers. We have only come here to check if you exist, so we are supposed to leave without you. That is why when we leave, you'll have to be quiet. Don't say anything and move silently. We'll convince the guards you are not with us. Are there any questions?"
Aang thought for a moment and shook his head. White took off her cloak and put it on Aang. "Now don't remove this." She told, to which Aang nodded. Though their plan sounded weird to him, he saw the confidence in those two, they knew what they did. Aang put the hood over his head and followed the two. Outside they told that there was nothing of colour tan, so no one in genjutsu would see Aang, who was under a tan cloak.
Unfortunately one guard accidentally stomped on Avatar's cloak. Suddenly in front of him was the Avatar out of nothing. Surprised he bit his hand hard, the two officers disappeared and were replaced by two juvenile ninjas in masks.
"Genjutsu." The guard realised. "Everyone, we are under genjutsu! They are taking the Avatar away!"
Hearing the man's cries, everyone started releasing themselves. Ninjas used jutsu releaser, warriors hurt themselves in different methods. Soon everyone could see the trio and charged towards them with their weapons.
"This doesn't look good." Black commented watching down. "What do we do now, Blue?"
"Now we get down and fight." Blue answered grabbing his broadswords. "Arm yourself!"
Black did as he was told and pulled out two gloves with long claws. "You know, I cannot actually fly with my wings, just glide. If we now go down, we stay there."
"Then we'll climb out. Let's move!"
Blue ran down the wall while Black glided towards his companions, who were all busy protecting Avatar. Red engaged the enemy at close quarters, using his hands to cut their weapons and armour. He wanted to just disarm them if possible, but was ready to cut his enemies to pieces. White on the other hand didn't care about the damage she caused. She jumped and bounced around the courtyard planting exploding tags everywhere and blowing them when she was in a safe distance. Blue came close to Red to help him. Though he did specialise in genjutsu he was also great with twin broadswords, taking down opponents left and right. Black glided over the battlefield, attacking enemies from above, either with his gloves or wings. When he reached the ground he used chakra to jump up for another charge. Aang fought also, using his airbending to block attacks and blowing soldiers and ninjas away.
Zhao was getting furious. "Stand your ground, the avatar must not escape!" He commanded. "Those idiots can't even defeat four ninjas and an airbender kid. Do I have to do everything myself."
But before he moved to fight, Kakashi stopped him. "Just leave these five to me. Tell the guards to stand back."
Zhao ordered his men to stand aside and form a ring around the five. Aang looked around, it seemed to be a ring of challenge. He froze when he saw, who the challenger was: It was the same masked man, who had captured him single-handedly in the forest.
"I challenge you five to an Agni Kai" Kakashi spoke. "As an equaliser you, as well as I, are allowed to use everything we got to defeat the opponent. If I win, you will all surrender. You win, and I let you leave with the Avatar. But if you try to escape, you will die."
"Why does captain Kakashi give them a chance to escape?" One of the soldiers wondered.
"He doesn't" Another soldier told. "I have worked with Kakashi before. He never loses."
The Spirit squad and Aang surrounded Kakashi, each one ready to charge. Kakashi chuckled and took out the Sharingan. Black made the first move. He jumped up attacking Kakashi from above, trying to pierce him with his talons. Kakashi however dodged easily and was soon next to Black, ready to launch a fireball. But before he could fire, Red kicked him in the neck, making him lose concentration. Kakashi grabbed Red's ankle and threw him on the ground. White threw several kunais with explosive tags at Kakashi, while Aang told everyone to come near him. When White activated the tags, Aang created a shield of air to protect from the explosion. However they exploded high in the sky, where Kakashi had redirected the kunais. Black started to run and came towards Kakashi. Blue came with his swords from the other side, planning to sandwich him with their blades. But when they hit the ninja, he was replaced by a statue.
"A replacement jutsu!" Blue noticed. "Everyone stay on guard, he can be anywhere!"
Everyone looked across the courtyard. Blue, who had seen that statue earlier, looked towards the pedestal it originally was, but it was empty. Then it hit him. He stayed put for a while and ran behind Aang, putting his swords in the air. Kakashi appeared in front of Blue with the swords on his throat. Aang fell to the ground tied in ropes.
"That was a clever trick." Blue commented. "With that genjutsu you could have tied us all up while we futilely searched for you. However you forgot that this was an open battlefield and not a forest. So, are you going to give up or would you like to lose height."
Kakashi sighed, "I forfeit. You are free to go. I will not stop you."
Soldiers looked in shock at Kakashi's loss, but Zhao just grinned. The Spirit Squad and Aang walked through the opened gate. Kakashi walked towards Zhao head down looking ashamed, but underneath his mask he smiled.
"I apologise, admiral" He said sounding embarrassed. "I failed."
"It was indeed a great disappointment. But it doesn't matter." Zhao said, which shocked Kakashi. "Now, when those five are in a false sense of security, I can take care of them at once. After all you didn't say anything about me trying to stop them."
Aang looked nervously at the fortress. They had got out, but something told Aang that fire nationals could not be trusted. His suspicion was soon proven correct, when four arrows flew towards the ninjas. Quickly he blew the arrows away.
"What happened?" Blue asked pulling his swords.
"They fired arrows at you." Aang answered. "we must hurry, before..." But he didn't finish, because another, blunt arrow hit him on the head. His vision blurred as he fainted.
When Aang woke up, it was morning. His head still hurt, but he wasn't in chains, so his rescuers must have escaped with him. He got surprised when he heard the voices of Zuko, Hinata, Kiba and Shino instead of those of his rescuers. He looked carefully around and saw those four sitting near the same swamp he had collected frogs yesterday. Zuko, who was wearing the same outfit Blue spirit wore, turned his head towards Aang.
"Did you sleep well?" He asked politely. "You were lucky they wanted you alive. That arrow would have killed you if it had been sharp"
"But there is one thing I don't understand." Aang spoke changing subject. "If you are the ones, who rescued me, why. If I don't remember incorrectly, you want to capture me as much as any fire national. Why didn't you let them do the job?"
Zuko sighed. "It's for the same reason I have this scar. You see I may be the prince and heir of the Fire Nation, but now I'm only an exile."
Aang got surprised. "Do you mean that... If you captured me... You could go home?"
"You're a smart kid. And yes, that's the reason I try to capture you." Zuko admitted. "You see, about two years ago I was listening to the generals planning their strategies. Then I heard one of them planning to use a squad of rookies as a meat shield against the enemy. I got shocked and protested. Father told me I was disrespectful and the only way to solve it was agni kai, a duel of firebenders. I was more than ready to face that general. But the one I was disrespectful to was not that general, who I insulted, but my father, in whose warroom I made the insult. When I saw him in the arena, I begged him to forgive me. He demanded me to fight, but I didn't. He punished me by burning this scar to my face and banishing me from my home. He said to me that I would come back with the Avatar, or don't come back at all."
"No wonder you are hunting me." Aang spoke. "Nobody should lose his home. In that way we two are the same."
"However, since you saved our lives, I will give you a chance to go." Zuko said taking out his right hand. "We will play element in hand. There will be only one try. If you win, you can leave and take those frogs you seem to need for some reason." He said pointing at a small net full of frosen frogs. "But if I win, you come with us."
Aang agreed and sat next to Zuko. Both hid their right hand and Aang showed his left one. He counted to three with his fingers. After three, they both showed their element at the same time. Zuko had put his hand in a position similar to a wave, representing water, while Aang showed an open palm, representing air. Aang had won. All five were silent when Aang rose and took the frogs with him. But before leaving he suddenly stopped.
"You know, before the war started I had a friend in the Fire Nation. His name was Kuzon. We two would get into so much trouble together. He was one my best friends. If we would have known each other back then, do you think we could have been friends?"
But Zuko said nothing. The four just looked when the avatar disappeared into the forest.
Meanwhile Naruto ran a path towards an abandoned temple. But it wasn't Naruto, who was in control, but Hacua. The blue eyes were now red and pupils had turned into slits. There were fangs in his mouth and red chakra surrounded his body.
"Wait just a little longer, Aang" He spoke to himself. "I will repay for what I did by being your protector."
Arriving at the temple, where he had felt the scent his old friend. He saw Aang feeding frogs to the water siblings. Aang turned to look.
"Hacua?" He asked looking at Naruto. Though the body was Naruto's, he remembered the eyes of the fox.
"I don't have time to explain" The beast said. "Tie me up before the kit takes over again. Later I will tell everything."