Well it does appear to have been a long time and surpsingly I am still around. Also Legend of Korra was really good in my opinion the steampunk stuff was really good and it makes me want to write somthing in that time frame of the avatar universe, but I'll see how long this lasts first. As for the ending of Korra I thought it was good apart from perhaps the deus ex machina ending with Aang and Noatak, but what are you going to do? Anyway standard disclaimer still so: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Avatar the Last Airbender to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

The Reptilian Road

Two figures intertwined flowing through the air with grace, one spinning repeatedly in a show off performance of acrobatics with unneeded flourishes. The other had water droplets falling beside her, whizzing around her body in a whirlwind as water from the lake below rose to meet her.

"Leaf - Water bending bomb yeah!" Came the cry as Lee and Katara plunged into the depths of the cool water. Splashing up large amount into the air, refracting the sunlight into a spectrum of colours, speeding over the dirt ground before the water quickly follows it. The leaves rustle in the trees as the waterfall crashes down forcing Lee and Katara away from the wall of water. As Aang lies sprawled out his ice melting around him as he lifts himself and turns brushing the dust off himself as he starts laughing along with Toph and Tenten.

"Sure, 5000 year old maps from the spirit library, just splash some water on 'em." Sokka yelled out indicating the now drenched map held tenderly in his hands.

"Sorry" Katara muttered exiting the pool ringing out her hair as Lee tried to swim up the waterfall in the background exclaiming about his youthfulness and proving himself to Gai causing Tenten to continue laughing, relaxing now fully healed, but still slightly sore by Katara's hands as Neji rolled his eyes from the shade provided by the tree he was leaning against.

Katara strode up to Sokka motioning with her hands and drawing out the water she had splashed onto the map, causing Sokka to gasp at the sudden dryness of the parchment clenched in his hands before he squatted down and spread out the map placing stones in each corner to pin it down.

"So, did you figure out what route we're gonna take?" Aang asked cheerily as the others closed around the map, looking down at the pondering Sokka as Lee retrieved a towel from his bag along with his green jumpsuit.

"Okay. We just got out of the desert, so we must be around here, and we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here. It looks like the only passage connecting the South to the North is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass." Sokka replied using the map by his feet to help point out the route. As team Gai shifted slightly.

"Serpent's Pass?" Tenten questioned so that only her teammates could hear her. "For some reason that gives me a bad feeling" Lee and Neji nodded slightly, almost missing the next part of the discussion.

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph spoke up, not really caring about the map.

"It's the only way, I mean it's not like we have Appa to fly us there." Sokka said looking up at the expectant faces, startling Katara who hurriedly whispered at him,

"Shush up about Appa. Can't you at least try to be sensitive?" They threw a worried and concerned look at Aang.

"It's fine," Aang said, looking slightly downcast, but his voice still retained some of his natural cheeriness "I'm worried about Appa, but I'm not about to let that cloud my judgement about the rest of you." He paused. "Besides we need to concentrate on reaching Ba Sing Se to warn the Earth King."

"Not to mention that since it's the capital and therefore the largest settlement in the area that people are going to be fleeing to, there's a good chance that either the slavers or the people who bought Appa will be heading there anyway" Neji spoke up.

"That's right" Tenten exclaimed. "There's a good chance we'll find at least some information on Appa at Ba Sing Se and we promise that we will find Appa."

Aang nodded his thanks to his new teammates as Katara got over her shock.

"Oh, well, ok. I'm glad you're doing better." She stammered out as Sokka rolled up his map.

"Well onwards to Ba Sing Se!" He exclaimed as he started to pack up the supplies still lying around the lake. The group paused and turned however when they heard the unmistakeably sound of leather squeaking on the dirt as a group of, what would appear to be Earth Kingdom refugees going by their dress, approaching them as the leader raised his hand in greeting.

"Hello there fellow refugees!" He cried smiling happily to see fellow travellers even as Sokka's face seemed to show the opposite feeling as his anxiety started up.

Lee approached the group smiling at the young man, what was clearly his wife and a teenage girl as the other two members of his team hung back slightly with the others.

"Are you heading to Ba Sing Se as well?" Lee asked bowing slightly to the man as Aang ran up to the strangers and Lee eager to meet new people.

"Sure are, we're trying to get there before my wife Ying has her baby." He exclaimed leaning over to rub his wife's belly smiling at Lee and the young avatar before smiling over at the rest of team Gai and Aang.

"Great, we can travel through the Serpent's Pass together." Katara said walking up with her pack slung across her back as the others grabbed their bags and joining them as well. Noticing warily the surprised and fear laden reactions of the Earth Kingdom trio.

"The Serpent's Pass? Only the truly desperate take that deadly route." Ying said gasping and raising her hand to her mouth.

"The desperate huh?" Toph questioned. "Good work Sokka" She said lightly hitting Sokka in the arm, which unfortunately for him meant he got a rather large bruise on his arm due to a difference in opinion on what constitutes 'lightly'.

"What?" Sokka whined looking at the others "We are desperate. He rubbed his arm sheepishly glaring at Toph, which of course achieved little.

"You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se." The husband said as the girl tried to stifle a giggle at Sokka and Toph's antics.

"And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it."

"Well in that case I wonder which we'll pick. Deadly route or peaceful ferry?" Katara said, weighing up each option on her hands. "Whichever one shall we pick?"

"I thought it would be obvious!" Lee exclaimed. "We take the route to prove our youthfulness and test ourselves!"

This statement was quickly followed by several looks, asking 'are you serious' and Tenten's hand impacting harshly onto the back of his head.

"Lee, first of all she was being sarcastic, the question was rhetorical" Tenten sighed. "and secondly, why would we choose that route when she is pregnant and we're just tempting fate by using it when we have an easy, direct route which will allow us to warn the Earth King sooner.

"Time is an issue" Neji nodded in the background.

"Right so let's go!" Aang exclaimed running off with Lee in hot pursuit as it quickly escalated into a race.

"They don't know where they're going, do they?" Tenten sighed, adjusting her supplies to not agitate her body which still argued passionately its displeasure of less than adequate rest.

"It doesn't matter so long as the wait at the crossroads" The man replied happily turning to look at her. "My name is Tahn" He indicated to himself, followed by the girl "and this is my sister Tehne" Said girl nodding at the group.

"If it's secret how do people know where it is?" Neji asked, curious as to how people could know about this secret port without the Fire Nation finding out.

"It's been around for a while" Tehne spoke up "I heard that smugglers used to use it to get things in and out of Ba Sing Se, but the authorities found out and managed to take over it. When the war started they sent out messengers to Earth Kingdom cities, towns and villages to spread the message that in the case of an invasion it would be used as a back up route for refugees."

"But what if the Fire Nation take over it?" Sokka asked. "Surely then they could just use it to ferry their troops straight into your city."

"That's the beauty of it" Tehne exclaimed happily. "It's protected by some of the Earth Kingdom's finest benders!"

"But surely the Fire Nation could over power them." Sokka asked, his fear not placated.

"That's not what I meant" Tehne pouted. "I meant that it's built into a side of a cliff, you have to at least be with an Earth Bender to find it, let alone open it as there are no hints as to where it is and the earth bender guards will retreat into the port if they see fire nation patrols leaving no evidence that there's anything there.

"Seems highly secure" Tenten noted, realising how useful it could be to only have members who could manipulate the same element in the same hidden locations as it made it harder for conflicting elements to get in, since they could tailor make their defences to suit their countries skills.

"We better catch up to the others" Katara said as they increased their pace to catch up to the more energetic members of their party.

The group passed through the sun kissed valley, having caught up with Aang and Lee at the crossroads, it having turned out that the race had ended in a draw when both racers realised they didn't actually know where they were going. The trees shifted and creaked in the light breeze flowing down the valley, making the shadows jump and dance on the ground, as if in some waltz with the trees casting them. The three refugees took up the lead, seeing as the actually knew where they were going with team Aang following behind and with team Gai bringing up the rear.

"We're almost there" Tahn spoke up as they approached a cliff emerging out of the swaying tree tops and the sound of water started to be heard. The rag tag group approached the surprisingly flat cliff face as the two green clad guards looked suspiciously at them.

"Halt!" One cried. "State your purpose!"

"We wish to catch the ferry to Ba Sing Se" Tahn replied indicating his wife. "We must get there soon as my wife is heavily pregnant."

The second guard approached the group, driving his heels into the ground slightly more then perhaps necessary. Before inspecting each individual.

"What is he doing?" Sokka questioned quietly after being scrutinised.

"He's scanning us." Toph replied as if it was the most obvious thing "He's using my technique to an extent to check us for weapons, of course since he's not as good as me at it, he's still having to rely on checking us in the normal way."

"They don't seem like fire nation spies sir!" He called back to the guard by the cliff face. "But these three are dressed strange." He said glaring at the three shinobi at the back. "One looks to be earth kingdom, but I can't be sure.

"They're with me!" Aang quickly said, trying to avoid any more fire nation / land of fire confusion. "I'm the avatar." He spoke his arrow tattoos glowing slightly as he manipulated the wind to blow the leaves away from him, culling the still air with movement.

"Thank the earth, the avatar!" The guards exclaimed as the quickly returned to their posts before slamming their feet and moving the arms and suddenly a chunk of the mountain slid away to reveal a cavern contained within the mountain with a dark pool of water at one end with the cave hanging ominously over the sea exit to the cave. Even with the lights embedded into the ceiling to allow artificial light to mingle with the little natural light available from the small holes in the ceiling the group had to pause for a few moments waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darker environment.

"That's amazing!" breathed Tenten as Sokka, Aang and Lee nodded their agreement as even Neji seemed impressed by the cave.

"This is my kind of place!" Toph happily yelled, charging into the depths quickly followed by the rest of team avatar and the refugees as the wall closed behind them, sealing them in as two other earth kingdom guards watched them enter from the shadows. The team trekked further into the cavern, passing by other groups of refugees hurriedly scurrying through the tunnels as they finally reached the main part of the cavern allowing them to see with much more clarity the extent of the way as the room was crowded with families and friends and neighbours and strangers, all supporting each other and trying to stay relaxed as guards shepherded them onto the awaiting wooded ships and barges bobbing in the water, creaking and groaning with so many people and possessions forced onto them. All of a sudden a wooden ship cast off swaying in the wind as it traversed towards Ba Sing Se carrying it's precious cargo to what they hoped would be safety.

"I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation." Katara spoke up, looking around at the huddling people as the cacophony of voices rose again, only trumped by the screams of babies and young children.

Tahn spoke up sadly from behind the group. "We're all looking for a better life. Safe, behind the walls of Ba Sing Se." He looked over at the assembled throng of people as the GAang moved towards a booth manned by a rather repulsive looking and irritated woman who was currently arguing with someone the group seemed to recognise, yet they weren't able to identify.

"I've told you already, no vegetables on the ferry!" She yelled at the cowering man in front of her. Spit flew from her mouth to land unwanted on his face. "One cabbage slug could destroy the entire ecosystem of Ba Sing Se. Security!" At this cry an earth kingdom guard motions an enormous platypus-bear towards his cart which rears up and smashes down with its claws, scattering the vegetables across the ground as the man sinks to his knees screaming "My cabbages!" as he watches forlornly as the vegetables roll away as two guards pick him up from under his arms and drag him off as the platypus-bear knocks aside the remains of the cart before moving away as well. The woman harshly stamps down on a piece of paper before looking up yelling "next!"

Aang sheepishly approached the women.

"Um, four tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please." He asked.

"Passport" She demanded holding out her hand.

"Uh, no one told us we had to have passports."

"Don't you know who this is? He's the Avatar!" Sokka butted in pointing at his leader and friend.

"Ah, I see fifty Avatars a day, and by the way, not a very impressive costume." She replied losing interest as the group turned to look at the group of avatars off to the side each with varying levels of similarity with Aang.

"Besides no animals allowed" She said pointing at Momo cowering behind Aang's head. "Do I have to call security?" She asked as Aang and Momo turned to face the platypus-bear currently chomping down on a cabbage.

"No that's ok" Aang stammered.

"Next"

"Why doesn't he just prove it with airbending?" Tenten asked as Toph strode up to the woman.

"I'll take care of this. My name is Toph Bei Fong, and I'll need 7 tickets." She declared slamming down her Bei Fong passport onto the desk, gaining the undivided attention of the women manning the booth.

"Oh! The Golden Seal of the Flying Boar, it is my pleasure to help anyone of the Bei Fong family" She said bowing with several unneeded flourishes.

"Yes it is your pleasure!" Toph declared "as you can see I'm blind, these three imbeciles are my valets" She flung a hand haphazardly in their direction.

"But what about the animal and the other three?"

"This" Toph started grabbing Momo from Aang's shoulders "Is my seeing eye lemur and these three are my guards, as you can't expect a Bei Fong to travel unprotected in this environment!"

"Of course not ma'am!" The stamp descended quickly seven times as the documents were processed. "I can't refute the officialness of this Bei Fong passport so I suppose it is worth seven passports and tickets.

"It is" Toph said turning thanking the women curtly before holding out the passports for the rest of the group.

"Alright! We scammed that lady good!" Sokka yelled in triumph before noticing that two of the tickets remained. "Hey where did Lee and Neji go?" He asked, placing a hand on his chin before being interrupted by a rather attractive young guard behind him.

"Tickets and passports please" She asked firmly spinning him to look at her.

Whilst the avatar and his friends were off getting the tickets for the ferry, the three shinobi had stayed back glancing around.

"There's a lot of people here..." Tenten said looking around worriedly. "I'm worried that under the stress of evacuation and security being spread so thin that people might devolve to crime."

"Surely not Tenten!" Lee exclaimed. "How could people do that to fellow refugees?"

"Times are desperate, there's no telling what civilians will do when faced with hard times, they're not trained like we are and if security is thin like Tenten said then things could escalate." Neji said as Lee and Tenten nodded in agreement. "Not to mention the fact that if they only check that the fire nation doesn't gain access then criminals might be able to get in and with this crowd..." Tenten started before they were distracted by a cry. They turned and saw an agitated Tahn run over to them.

"You have to help us!" He pleaded "Someone has stolen our passports and belongings!" His voice was getting hysterical. "Without passports we can't get tickets and without tickets we'll have to walk and I'm worried about my pregnant wife trying to get to Ba Sing Se over the serpents path."

"Not a problem!" Lee almost yelled. "My team and I will help you" He reassured Tahn before turning to Neji. "Could you track down the culprit with you Byakugan?" He asked. Neji looked around at the surrounding crowd, trying to see if there were any disturbances.

"I'll try, they'll be likely to leave the nearby area in a hurry and then get a ticket soon before anyone notices so I'll look for people like that" He explained as the veins by his eyes started to stand out as he scanned around, ignoring any surprised gasps or mutterings from the few people that noticed him.

"There's a man running through the crowd over there" He indicated through the people in one direction. "But there's a couple of other people glancing over their shoulders at us from that ticket both over there" He announced. Before he had even finished however Lee had taken off in the direction he had pointed at first as Tenten nodded sprinting off towards the booth.

"Will everything be ok?" Tahn asked, scrunching up the hem of his shirt worriedly.

"With those two everything will be fine." Neji said firmly.

"Well at least for us" he muttered in an undertone.

Lee had started off as soon as Neji had pointed out the location of one of the thieves and nimbly weaved his way through the throng of people as he caught sight of another person parting the sea of people as they swarmed around him, closing behind him but not allowing him to lose his green clad pursuer.

Hamu cursed, throwing another hasty glance over his shoulder. He cursed again at the fact that he had been convinced into this. Even with the earth kingdom security lax due to the stress of guarding so many people, people still noticed petty crime. Then again he reasoned, it was hard not to notice your worldly possessions and lifelines disappear when you'd suffered so much to get here. He knew it was just bad luck that it was his crime that was discovered and that most people would have got away with it. He looked back noting that his pursuer had disappeared from view. He grinned. Maybe this wasn't so bad, maybe he could still get away with this and sell the goods he'd stolen for money to set him and his three accomplishes up in Ba Sing Se. They just needed to get the tickets with the stolen passports and they'd be fine. He rammed suddenly into what felt like a fleshy wall and he fell backwards. He glared up at the person he'd ran into as red mist clouded his vision.

"Watch where the spirit world you're going you idiot!" He yelled, wondering why the figure was only wearing one shade of green. "Are you some sort of fire nation class idiot?" Then again what were those orange things wrapped round his legs? They weren't common clothes. In fact the only time he'd seen them before was about five minutes ago on that youth that arrived with the group with the fake avatar...

The realisation hit him like a boulder as he looked up to see his pursuer had somehow managed to overtake him and was looking down at him.

"Damn it!" He yelled, dropping the stolen prizes as he sprung up grabbing a knife from his boot and slashing up at the teen standing in front of him who deftly leaned back as the knife passed only millimetres under his chin. Hamu dropped back into a more defensive stance, spinning the dagger around in his hand. His opponent positioned one foot back into a more steady posture before springing off his back foot, cocking an arm back as Hamu slashed forward with his knife, only for a hand to clamp around his wrist and he could only watch stunned as his opponent spun around as he twisted his feet round yanking him forward slightly unbalancing him before finishing his spin and ramming an elbow strike into the back of his neck and he kissed the floor. Darkness encroached on his peripheral vision as stars danced in front of his eyes as he heard more then saw the boots of armed guards arrive and converse with his attacker, before he felt himself wrenched up his arms, protesting at the action as he was dragged off.

"Next!" Naom cried looking over the assembled crowd. A nervous looking couple approached, sending panicked looks over their shoulders and glancing around furtively. It might have been suspicious given other circumstances, but seeing how this was a hidden harbour for refugees, it was perfectly understandable that they might be nervous as they could have been fleeing just ahead of a fire nation army before arriving.

"Passports" I asked holding out my hand and taking the offered papers as I noted that there were three passports there. I raised an eyebrow for a moment in question.

"The other's securing our goods" The man replied smiling at me in what I figured he hoped was a disarming way. I thought about questioning him, but I could see an attractive looking teenager approaching and she seemed to be focussing on the couple so displaced that fear in the back of my mind. I reached for the stamp and was about to slam it down and issue them there tickets, until the girl arrived and with her hands on her hips started talking down at the couple.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" She paused looking at their shocked faces. "How could you steal that poor families passports? His wife was pregnant" She yelled indignant.

"What do you mean?" The man yelled back, though his body language looked a bit shifty. "Those are our passports and my brothers! We've been fleeing the fire nation for several weeks before coming here!"

"Oh really?" The girl said looking smug. "In that case," She reached over and snatched the passports out of my hand as security started to close in on my booth, although interestingly I noticed that the 'couple' seemed to be more nervous by the approaching guards. "perhaps you can explain why your 'brother' is a girl?"

I was stunned. The girl was right, the third passport belonged to a twenty something year old woman, and the other two passports ages didn't match up to the 'couple' standing in front of me.

"Is everything ok here?" A guard asked looking sternly at the three in front of my booth.

The man started to speak, his face going red as he got flustered, but the girl kept her calm and answered before he really had a chance to get his excuses out "No it's not, this couple and their friend have stolen my friends passports when one was pregnant and have taken off with everything they own!"

"Is this true?" The guard asked looking at me.

"It looks like it sir." I replied "The information in these papers doesn't seem to match them or the information they've given me about their third member.

"W-wait we can explain!" The man yelled before one of the other guards spoke up.

"Sir, I know this couple. They, along with one other man, operated a group of thieves in the town I'm from, they've used the confusion of war to steal from refugees."

The captain didn't waste any time in bending up some earth from the ground to wrap around the couples wrists.

"Thank you Naom and you too stranger for helping us capture these two criminals." He said. "Now we just need to catch the third member of this group."

"No problem there sir" The girl spoke up. "One of my other friends went after him and he should have caught him by now" The guards heard a scuffle and turned, seeing another man being dragged away by a guard mounted on a platypus-bear. The captain quickly joined up with him and took the criminals off to a room in the side of the harbour, where they would have to wait for punishment.

I turned to thank the girl, but she had already wandered over to her friends and had taken a ticket offered to her by a girl as a flying lemur spun lazily around her head and another guard approached them. I gave my attention back to the queue that had formed in front of me, shaking my head. Seems like not all good had gone from the world.

The ferry slowly moved out of the harbour, the rocks behind them shifting slightly to better hide the secret entrance. The wooden boards creaked under foot at the strain as water splashed up against the side, covering parts of the deck with cold water. This couldn't alleviate Aang's excitement about being on the way to Ba Sing Se and possibly Appa.

"This is so awesome!" Sokka yelled. "Finally we get to travel by boat again!" Sokka practically skipped to the prow giddy with being in a more natural environment for him.

"I don't get it?" Toph said grumpily, folding her arms across her chest. "What's so good about a boat, there's no ground!" She yelled. Toph turned to where she thought Katara was standing "Is it a water tribe thing?" when she received no answer she returned to glaring forward. "Yea it's a water tribe thing."

Suki laughed slightly at Sokka's change in personality although she was still slightly annoyed by his reaction her coming along, why had he been so unenthusiastic about her coming along? She was further annoyed by the fact that neither Aang or Katara had explained why, despite it being clear that they knew. She turned her head, feeling the breeze whip her hair around as it drove the sail and therefore the ship forward, to look at the new companions. Toph seemed grumpy now, but it was understandable as to why she would disapprove and Suki liked the sarcastic young girl. The other three were more mysterious though. She had nearly had a panic attack when they'd told her where they'd come from before explaining the differences between their 'land of fire' and the fire nation. She wasn't sure if she could trust them, but then she reasoned. Even if they were from the fire nation, which admittedly seemed unlikely from the way two of the three acted, so long as they wanted to stop the fire nations quest for world domination and help the avatar she could give them the benefit of the doubt.

Team Gai were looking at the path and collection of rocks off to the side.

"So that's Serpent's Pass?" Tenten questioned. "It doesn't seem so bad."

"True!" Lee exclaimed from besides her. "Perhaps it was named after its aesthetics, as opposed to any other reason.

"You might be right there" Tenten replied. The path did wind around in an inefficient manner, however its meandering did not fully justify the name.

A panicked cry cut off any further discussion as the earth kingdom sailors ran about on the deck, in a system of organised chaos and terror as the captain continued to cry.

"Fire Nation! The Fire Nation has spotted us! We're under attack!" came the cry again and again, terrifying the refugees on board as the groaned and panicked and despaired.

"What are the fire nation doing here?" Sokka cried out stumbling back down the deck as the wood creaked as the boat changed its course trying to avoid conflict with the sleek metal battleship approaching it, decked out in fire nation insignia. "This was supposed to be an easy, safe trip!" Sokka yelled finally regrouping with his friends.

"The fire nation controls the western lake. Rumor has it they're working on something big on the other side, and they don't want anyone to find out what it is." Suki replied, hanging on to the side of the ship as fireballs started to smash into the water just off the side of the ship. Singing the wood slightly as the water evaporated and hot water started to splash onto the deck, burning those unfortunately enough to get in its way. Smaller metal craft emerged from hull of the fire nation ship, fires blazing at the back as the two person craft skimmed over the water as one fire bender kept a steam engine at the back burning as the 'gunner readied his hands sending blades of fire towards the ship. Katara ran to the other side of the deck and raised her hands, turning to raise a wave to rush back towards the skimmers, extinguishing the blades of fire and capsizing some of the smaller craft, sending the unfortunate soldiers tumbling into the water. They quickly resurfaced and tried to right their craft, but this was prevented by Katara freezing the craft into blocks of ice, making the fire nation soldiers try and melt it with their bending whilst trying to overcome the water in their bulky armour. Other craft still approached however as the weaved past the blasts of air sent by Aang and Neji as earth kingdom soldiers appeared on deck rushing to the side of the ship. Some held bows and quickly raised their bows, ripped arrows from their quivers before quickly nocking them and bringing them up to the full draw, pausing to fully aim through their reference points before loosing the shafts. The arrows span quickly towards the craft, unfortunately due to the difficulties of aiming at a fast moving target whilst shooting from a boat most missed, flying harmlessly into the ocean. One struck a fire bender powering a craft in the breasts, knocking him from his skimmer and plunging into the ocean as his gunner sent a replying blast of fire knocking the archer back in an explosion of splintering wood. Another arrow stuck a vital part of the boiler causing the craft to explode sending the fire benders flying, one crashing onto the earth kingdom ship and promptly got surrounded by the spears of earth kingdom soldiers.

"Quick bring up the earth!" A commander yelled as carts of earth were brought up as a fire bender sliced through an arrow and jumped up onto the deck, sending a blade of fire through some soldiers before a chunk of earth impacted onto his chest knocking him back off. Katara was locked in a duel with two different craft, circling around in front of her, jumping over or riding along any waves she sent at them. A stray fire blast aimed for the mast was stopped as a wall of mud rose from a cart as the earth benders joined the fray to protect their ship.

"Aang!" Neji yelled. "We need to take out their ship!" And following his words Neji jumped off the side of the ship as Aang moved back, before sprinting forwards and extending his glider taking off from the side of the ship and flying towards the fire nation ship, using his air bending to deflect incoming shots from the catapults. Neji landed on a fire nation skimmer, repurposing it and charging forwards with a quick empty palm thrust behind him to propel him. Tenten provided covering fire as two skimmers rushed to intercept Neji as kunai knocked them from their craft as Neji jumped over the spinning craft to continue his charge towards the fire nation's ship. A fire bender managed to fight back against the earth kingdom soldiers, making a beach head on the deck before he was forced back onto the defensive by a flurry of kicks unleashed by Rock Lee. The soldier was unable to avoid all, or even most of the blows and with a cry of "Dynamic Entry!" he was sent tumbling off the side of the ship. Suki fought back a few fire benders spinning and stretching over the blasts of fire sent her way as Sokka rushed forward, trying to help her.

"Careful Suki!" He yelled, getting in the way, forcing Suki to grab him and throw him out the way of an attack.

"I'm fine Sokka!" She yelled in return. "Focus on them! I can deal with this!"

Tenten noticing Sokka's distress directed Toph like a piece of human artillery sending fire nation benders flying back unconscious.

Aang landed on the deck of the ship sending a blade of air arcing into one of the catapults knocking out its crew and slicing through the taught ropes holding it as the rope splintered and fell. Neji jumped onto the deck was faced with three guards charging towards him.

"Eight Trigrams, Sixty-Four Palms!" He yelled, dancing between flailing swords and fire blasts as he weaved through their defences, their heavy metal armour little match to his clans jutsu, sending them to the floor quickly, easily and efficiently. The other catapult however chose this moment to land a direct hit on the earth kingdoms ship. Smashing into it add causing a few refugees to fall into the water, Toph stumbling blind on the deck was hit by Tahn and was sent tumbling with him into the water. Sokka turned grabbing Suki as she stumbled on the deck even as he cried.

"Toph wait! I'll save you!" He turned to Suki "You need to be more careful!" he yelled as burning wood fell around them as earth benders tried to replace the wood with the remaining earth they still had.

Suki sent Sokka a withering look before diving off the side of the ship, grabbing Toph as she flailed about and swimming with her to the shore, following Tahn

"Neji!" Aang cried. "We need to return to protect the ship!" The fire nation skimmers had started to retreat, seeing their artillery returning fire and they rushed back to protect their ship and catapults from the two supposed air benders. Neji nodded as Aang grabbed him and took off towards the earth kingdoms ship as Neji threw a kunai with an exploding tag into the remaining catapult blowing it to splinters as the fire nation ship turned, having regained its crew, retreating back to the fire nation side of the lake to repair and receive medical attention for its wounded. Aang nimbly dodged the fire blasts sent towards him before reaching the earth kingdom ship, dropping Neji on it before landing.

"Where are the others?" Aang asked.

"Most of the refugees are fine, but Tahn, Ying and Tehne have fallen off the side of the ship!" Tenten reported. "Katara has made sure Ying is safe and is carrying her to the Serpents Path to make sure she has no problems due to her pregnancy. Suki has saved Toph and Sokka dove in after her"

Aang paused, unsure on what to do. Wanting to help his friends, but unable to abandon his duties as the avatar to protect the ship and get to Ba Sing Se and try and find Appa.

"Aang go!" Neji told him. I'll protect the ship and make sure the refugees are safe. "You Lee and Tenten need to go make sure the others are safe, there must be a reason that path is feared!" Aang nodded relieved he could check on his friends and ran off flying quickly over towards his friends to help guide them out of the sea and onto the land, using his earth bending to lower the ground to enable them to swim ashore as the fires still burning on the ships were being put out by the remaining earth benders. Tenten and Lee quickly followed Aang, making sure that they had supplies before jumping over the side of the ship and running over the water to meet up with the sopping wet team on the pass.

"Oh Sokka, you saved me." Toph cried as she finished coughing up water, moving up to plant a kiss on 'Sokka's' cheek.

"Actually it's me" Suki sheepishly said.

"Oh... well... heheh" Toph started, blushing a deep crimson embarrassed. "You can go and let me back in so I can drown now" She sunk back as the other members regrouped on the path gasping for air, watching the wooden barge limp on towards Ba Sing Se.

The group trudged along the path, shivering from the cold. Whilst the flickering camp fire the night before had helped to dry them off, they were still stuck with no change of clothes due to the fact that the only supplies they still had were the sleeping bags and mats and the few fish hadn't been enough. Sokka and Suki kept sending each other glances with confusion and worry, there time together the night before having not helped. Thankfully the boat had managed to carry the group about three quarters along the path so they needn't worry about the perils of the earlier parts of the track. Unfortunately their fishing the night before had attracted the attention of something residing in the lake and as the trekked along the path, a shadow followed them from the water, ripples appearing no and then at the side of the path.

"Look!" Tahn cried suddenly "That monument! That means we're close to the end of the trail. We did it we're almost at Ba Sing Se."

Unfortunately it was as if that statement caused the universe to remember that it abides sod's law. And fittingly it was at that moment that the true reason of the name of Serpent's Pass decided to show itself.

"What is that!" Sokka cried as Tahn and his family cowered in fear as a sea serpent measuring 100 feet in length reared up out of the water, roaring as its forked tongue flicks out and it glares down at the humans in front of it with its baleful red eyes.

"I think we've found out why it's called Serpent's Pass!" Tenten yelled in shock at seeing such a creature.

"Suki, you know about giant sea monsters. Make it go away!" Sokka cried, his voice cracking slightly in abject terror.

"Just because I live near the Unagi doesn't mean I'm an expert!" came his annoyed reply as he grabbed Momo and lifted him above his head chanting.

"Oh great and powerful sea serpent, please accept this humble and tasty offering. Thank you."

"Sokka!" Katara cries as the sea serpents head descends, flashing down, its jaw gaping until a strong blast of wind smashes into it with the force of a cannonball forcing it to recoil, screeching in pain.

"I'll distract him!" Aang yelled flicking open the wings on his glider, but before he could take off Lee thrust a hand in front of him.

"No, you must escort your friends and the family across" Lee cried.

"He's right!" Tenten said also moving to stand in front of Aang. "Besides, we are miss Bei Fong's guards after all" Tenten grinned as Toph nodded.

"She's right twinkle toes we need your help over here"

Aang looked between his two groups of friends before nodding as the sea serpent slammed its tail into the path, crushing the fragile path as rocks fell into the ocean.

Toph advanced to the head of their column. "Aang, help me raise a bridge!" She commanded drawing up the fallen earth and earth from the rocks nearby into a path to allow the refugees and the others to continue along the trail. Aang moved to help gather materials and hold it up as he and Katara glanced back at Sokka's impressed cry and they saw Lee jump off the ledge in a flying kick towards the serpent.

"Dynamic Entry!" He yelled impacting on the sea serpents head and sending it crashing back before he back flipped off it to land gracefully on the water, chakra covering his soles as he looked up at the serpent. The serpent, now enraged, surged forwards its jaws opening as it descended, trying to eat Lee whole. They were snapped shut however when a withering storm of kunai and shuriken descended towards it, sinking into the flesh of its mouth forcing it back for the second time. Tenten glared defiantly at the serpent as it roared back at her. She sprung forwards trailing two scrolls behind her before they started to coil around her, like her own serpents.

"Summoning, Bladestorm!" She cried as lots of weapons appeared in a smokescreen. When the smoke dissipated Tenten was almost hanging in the air, surrounded by what was at first glance her own sun, but was just a glistening array of steel forged weapons, thin strings of blue stretched from her fingertips to each and every piece of metal surrounding her.

"Ninja Art – Blade Hawk Dance!" She cried, before she started to spin, almost in an imitation of Neji's rotation and as she did the blades around her began to move, slowly at first, but picking up speed until all you could see was a blur of steel due to the angular momentum as she crashed into the sea serpent's body, pushing it back as its head fell forwards, roaring in pain. As Tenten began to slow due to the scales of the creature slowing her attack down even with chakra infused blades it moved to eat her much as it had tried to with Lee, until an orange clad foot smashed into its head from below sending it flying back as Tenten landed gracefully her weapons disappearing as Lee landed next to her just a few moments later. Rocks crashed into the water as the path the others used fell apart, unable to remain stable with the benders powering it gone. Tenten and Lee glanced at each other before sprinting around the beast, one moving clockwise around it, the other anti-clockwise. The beast span round, unable to keep up with them as it wobbled, unstable and dizzy before shinobi launched themselves at the beast.

"Double!" They both cried even as the beast roared in defiance, almost deafening them and knocking them out of the air with sound waves alone. "Dynamic Entry!" Both kicks landed true, smashing into the serpent on either side of its head as it stiffened, creating an image of symmetry, before it was ruined due to Lee's kick having more power behind it. Tenten spun out of the way of the falling serpent as it fell, crashing into the water before they both landed back to back. Lee giving a thumbs up whilst Tenten just smiled. They sensed the serpent move and braced themselves, but with one last look the serpent slunk away into the depths having found its prey this time to be too tough.

Tenten and Lee ran up the side of the cliff and rejoined the others, seeing Ying holding a baby as Toph disassembled the earth tent.

"Looks like you had as much as stress as we did" Tenten commented off hand as she approached grinning at Katara as Suki took Sokka off to the side and Lee headed over to the family to look at the baby.

"We managed" Katara smiled. "It couldn't have been as stressful as taking on that sea serpent" She continued as they talked about what had happened.

Aang however chose that moment to fly back and land hurriedly on the ground his eyes shaded by the wings on his glider.

"Guys..." he stammered out looking up. "We've got a problem."