Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or The Legend of Korra.

A/N: The new story poll is up now! There are 19 choices (Small because two stories are ending close together) and YOU CAN CHOOSE 5! So remember to vote if you haven't!

Beta: Chaos-PSD.

Book Three

Change

Chapter VII

The Terror Within.

Korra is now the first metal-bending Avatar. At the training with Su Beifong, Korra quickly picked up the new skill and Bolin is hoping to follow in her footsteps. Meanwhile, the airbender Zaheer is closing in on Zaofu. By his side is the lava bender Ghazan, the water bender Ming-Hua, and the combustion bender P'Li. But what do these mysterious criminals want with the Avatar?

Zaofu.

Naruto and Korra with wire packs on their waists were sparring with Wei and Wing.

Wing fires two meteorites at Korra, but she dodges them and sends her metal cable at him. He dodges it twice, traps it on the ground, and bends it back at her. The impact of the cable knocks Korra to the ground. "I can't believe I'm sparring with the Avatar."

Naruto meanwhile was fairing better as he threw the meteorites away before wrapping his cable around Wei's leg and then pulled him onto his back. Naruto then saw Korra wrap her cable around her waist as she spun and kicked the meteorite away before crouching, spun, and knocked Wing off his feet. She then stood and flexed her arms. "Whoo-hoo! Metalbending champion."

Naruto then wrapped his cable around her waist and pulled her close before kissing her. "I can think of other stuff to use in the bedroom." She blushed as he glanced down at her chest. "OK, someone likes that idea."

"S-Shut up!"

"Guys, it's time to get cleaned up."

They turned to see Asami walking with Mako and Bolin who was sweating after his training to metalbend only to have no luck. "Tonight's Opal's farewell dinner."

"Now, I gotta say bye to Opal. This is the worst day ever!" Bolin whined before slumping back to the house.

Later, in the dining room, the cook brought out plates of raw veggie wraps and dropped one at Opal. "Thanks for making my favorite meal."

"I'm really going to miss you, Opal. No one appreciates my raw veggie wraps as you do."

"Every time I eat raw kale, I'm gonna think of you," Bolin said as he sat at the corner beside her.

"You're so sweet."

"This stinks. We were just starting to get to know each other and now you're off to the northern air temple."

"We'll be together soon." She said looking over. "You guys are heading up after finding more airbenders, right?"

"Yeah, but that's… In the future. Oh, I hate the future."

She then smiled and held up a wrap for him to eat. "Until then, we'll always have kale."

"Kid, can I give you some relationship advice?"

Bolin looked to see Varrick sitting beside him. "Um, no."

"Well, your loss. Zhu Li! Bring the, uh, thing." She came over and placed a rectangle meter in his hand. "Check out my latest invention. An airbender finder."

"Wait, that can find airbenders?" Korra asked as she sat on the other side of Naruto who was beside Asami.

Asami then grabbed it and pointed it at Korra and Naruto only for the needle to stay still. "Uh, I think it's broken."

"It's not broken," Varrick said, taking it from her. "She needs to airbend into it! How else do you expect the thing to work?!"

Clink-Clink!

"Everyone, if I could have your attention, please." Suyin stood up and tapped her glass. "Tonight, my beautiful little girl leaves for the northern air temple. Opal, none of us could be more proud of you. You're an incredible daughter, sister, friend, and soon-to-be airbending Master. Here's to Opal. May she help lead us into the new era."

Later that evening, Opal on an airship waved goodbye as a female guard with a beauty mark under her right eye pulled a walkie-talkie up. "Lock it down for the night."

"We'll head out first thing in the morning," Lin said to the group before walking off as Bolin sulked.

Bolin sighs solemnly and follows her leave, as Korra walks next to him, with her arm resting on his back in comfort. The duo walks away and the metal petals of the city start to close.

Later that night, a small group is running across a trail in the park toward a bridge. The moon shines down revealing Zaheer and his gang as they quietly peer out from under the bridge. Zaheer sees a guard with a metallic staff in hand and he looks down at the bridge for a few seconds before walking off. Zaheer waves his hand and signals to everyone to continue moving forward.

They use the cover of darkness to sneak past the walkway undetected before they head toward a guest house at the far end. P'Li and Ghazan duck down an alley between two guest houses while Zaheer and Ming-Hua hide under a window. Zaheer directs his gang onward to the adjacent bedroom window.

They see Korra with Naga in the room asleep before they crouch down beside it, and Ming-Hua raises a water tentacle and forms a small sickle at the end. She uses the ice sickle to scratch the glass and carves a hole into the window with water bending and makes a complete circle. She then has water encasing the cut glass and pulls it away quietly.

Another water tentacle arm holding three red darts is soon raised. Naga awakens and growls, but she is quickly knocked out by shirshu-spit darts. Korra wakes up to the sound of her whimpering, as Zaheer bends a blast of air into the window. She avoids it and jumps out of her bed, attempting to firebend, but she is hit by a dart as she lands. Ghazan and P'Li enter and pick her up as she loses consciousness. Back in Bolin's room, Pabu leaps onto the bed to get his owner's full attention.

In the hall, Naruto wearing only pajama pants walked with Asami who was in her nightgown before hearing Bolin. "They got Korra! They've got Korra!"

Naruto ran outside with Bolin and Mako and saw the group surrounded by lights. "Let her go!"

"So much for the element of surprise," Ming-Hua said as Ghazan looked around.

"Backup plan."

P'Li turns and fires a blast at each spotlight before curving a third around the pillar Mako and Bolin are using for cover, sending them flying to land outside Asami's door. She runs out to help them.

"We can't let them take her."

Asami ran out and threw Naruto his hidden blades that he put on. "I don't think they're going to get far. Look."

One of Zaofu's guards attacks the group but is easily overpowered. The criminals try to flee but are stopped in their tracks as they are surrounded by slabs of metal, bent by Lin. Wei and Wing add to the pile, backed up by the female guard and a group of them.

"We have you surrounded. It's over." The female guard said to them as Lava began to flow out.

Naruto threw rocks at the group and dodged the combustion attacks before seeing Lava coming at him. He threw his hands up and stopped the lava, getting wide eyes from the group. He looked down before creating fire blades and shot fire at the group.

"What the hell?" Ghazan asked as he brought up lava to block the attack. "I thought he was an earthbender! But he just threw fire."

"I guess the talk we heard about in Republic City was correct," Zaheer commented looking at Naruto before leaning out of the way of the kunai Naruto threw. "There really are two Avatars now."

He leaned forward as Naruto pulled the blade back before it went back into his vambrace. "No way! That guy's lavabending. That's awesome..." Bolin said as the others looked at him. "Ly is not good for us.

"I'm going to create some cover. We're getting out of here." Zaheer said before he started to airbend with his staff.

He makes a mask of smoke from Ghazan's lava but is caught by the wrist by a cable of one of the guards, who can reel Zaheer off the platform. Ghazan sends a lava bomb at the guard who breaks cover to go after Zaheer, but it is blocked by another guard with a metal slab. Naruto, Bolin, Mako, Lin, and Asami take cover together behind a slab of metal to avoid the criminals' attacks, firing off some of their own.

P'Li notices them and arcs a combustion blast to hit them, but it is blocked just short of connecting by another metal slab bent by Suyin and her twin sons, who join them. "How did they get in here?" Lin asked her sister who looked over.

"I don't know, but we're not letting them escape."

They look over, as three guards use more metal slabs to create a bridge to get to the criminals before Ghazan knocks the guards off with earthbending. "There's no way to cross that moat," Asami said as Naruto threw a rock at the criminals.

"We don't need to cross it," Su said, getting their attention. "Lin and I can drop in from the dome on cables."

"That's a great idea. Except we'll get blown up the second that third-eyed freak sees us."

"She's a combustion bender. If one of you can stun her, her powers will be knocked out temporarily."

Su explained as Mako looked at her.

"Bolin can land a shot."

"I can?"

"You have to take her out right before we drop down." Suyin finished and walked away as Bolin blinked.

"I do?"

The sisters and Su's sons got up top and opened a hatch before Naruto jumped over the barricade to get the group's attention. He threw rocks at them and dodged lava before stopping more from hitting him. P'Li grins and gets ready to fire as Bolin gets up and quickly launches a tiny pebble at her. The pebble hits her dead center in her third-eye tattoo, knocks her head back, and causes her attack to explode right above her team.

The explosion knocks the criminals down, having Mako cheer on the success of Bolin's attack, which allowed Suyin and Lin to land safely. "Nice job, little bro."

"No!" Zaheer got on his staff to fly, only to get hit as Naruto was on his and threw fire at his wings. He then lands at his team to yell out. "We failed!"

Zaheer angrily airbends a huge cloud of smoke and when it clears, the lava has cooled, and there is no sign of them.

Later, in Suyin's office, Aiwei was giving Korra a green bottle to drink out of. "This should neutralize the Shirashu toxins."

"How could you let this happen? You assured me this was one of the most secure places in the world." Lin said to her sister as Naruto held Korra as she sat up groaning.

"It is. I don't know how this happened. Obviously, this was a well-planned operation, so don't blame me." Su explained as the female guard walked to the door.

"We searched the entire estate. But there's no sign of them."

"Well, keep looking!" Lin barked as the guard nodded and left.

"It would seem they had some inside knowledge of Zaofu. They must have been working with someone." Aiwei spoke as Korra looked up.

"The… The guards. It had to be one of them."

"I agree."

"Question them all! Whoever betrayed my city will suffer the consequences!" Suyin ordered before leaving.

Later, Naruto had Asami and Korra in Korra's room before holding out a box and opening it. Showing two chokers with a red spiral pendant and two rings. The two looked up in surprise. "I was waiting for the right moment to ask you two to marry me-!"

He stopped as the two hugged him. "Yes!/Yes!"

The two took the choker before Naruto looked at Asami. "It marks me as yours."

Naruto just blinked at that. (1.)

The Next Day.

Aiwei interrogates everyone from the guards to Varrick, whose description of his nightly routine leaves his interrogators annoyed and more than a little disgusted, and he finds them all innocent. At Lin's insistence, Suyin is also interrogated and found innocent. Finally, Aiwei interrogates a young guard named Hong Li, whom he accuses of lying.

A furious Suyin berates Hong Li for betraying the clan and demands he tells them everything he knows about Zaheer and how his group got into the city. Aiwei suggests searching the guard's home, where a note from the four criminals and a copy of the guards' logbook are found. Convinced that Hong Li is guilty, Mako suggests confronting the guard with the evidence, but he is surprised when Aiwei announces he intends to delay the interrogation.

Later, Team Avatar was at the fight scene looking around. Naruto crouched as he put his hand over the ground and saw it heat up. "Whoa!" Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw Bolin standing there. "Are you lavabending?"

"Don't know. I was able to stop the lava from hitting me." Naruto replied before standing as Mako turned to speak.

"I don't understand why we're not talking to that guard right now. Every minute we waste here, those guys get further away. I mean, how does a random guard get involved with a group of super-criminals, anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Asami asked, hand on her hip.

"That guard is only 18 years old and has lived in Zaofu his entire life. Zaheer and his gang have been in prison for more than 13 years."

"I don't know, but we all saw the evidence," Korra said, crossing her arms. "It's pretty overwhelming."

"Maybe a little too overwhelming?"

They jumped as Varrick popped up over a metal that was used as a blockage and stepped over it. "Hey, Varrick. What are you doing here?"

"Collecting pumice stones with Zhu Li." He replied holding said stones in his hands. " That lavabender did a lot of damage. But he makes a nice exfoliating rock. And when you get calluses like mine, you take all the pumice stones you can get your hands on. Or in my case, feet!" Varrick finished raising a bare foot as Zhu Li used one on the bottom.

"What were you saying about the evidence?" Naruto asked, standing and turning around.

"I was saying that I can smell a conspiracy when I see one. Look, if I was trying to set someone up, I would tell everyone he's guilty, and then plant the evidence in his apartment as proof."

"You're right. All the evidence points to this guard, but maybe he's just the fall guy," Mako explained as Korra looked over.

"But for who?"

"For the only person who can truly keep a secret in this city, Aiwei."

Later, they look through an empty home and proceed to search it for evidence, intending to compromise the official and prove his involvement with Zaheer. When Bolin picks up a jar from a shelf, Mako orders him to put it back, knowing they do not want to leave any traces of their visit. The earthbender cannot remember the exact placement of the object, however, prompting Mako to return it to what he believes to be its rightful place himself.

By doing so, Mako notices scuff marks on the floor and theorizes that they were made by the bookshelves sliding open. Testing his theory, he pulls at the side of the furniture, successfully revealing a hidden staircase leading down to a door behind it. Before the group can explore the premises, Asami warns them that Aiwei is on his way home, and Mako hastily closes the bookcase.

"What are you doing at my house?" Aiwei then walks in and sees the group. "You are trespassing on the property of one of the highest-ranked officials in the city. You had better have a good explanation."

"We do, we do," Bolin said to the man. "We actually knocked on your front door, and we thought we heard you say… 'Come in! I'm in the bathroom!' I don't even know why I'm saying that. You know I'm lying. And you don't even sound like that."

"We came here because things weren't adding up, and we thought you might have some answers," Naruto said walking up.

"Sit. If you want to talk, let's talk over some tea." The group sat on the couch and chairs as Aiwei walked to the bookshelf. "So, what is not adding up, exactly? Hong Li was clearly lying, and we found evidence in his apartment."

"But don't you think it's weird how young he is? How did he ever get mixed up with this group?" Mako asked as Aiwei moved the jar to the left.

"Perhaps through a relative. Or maybe he was bribed. We will find out those answers in time. But if it wasn't him, who do you think it was?" He asked before seeing the bookcase was open by an inch.

"We don't know."

"You don't think I had something to do with this, do you?"

"We're just looking for answers," Naruto said, flexing his wrist and having his kunai pop out.

"And you think you found something, don't you? You have no idea what is coming for you, Avatar." Aiwei turned and raised a metal wall.

Korra and Naruto jumped over and used their new metal bending to dent the wall. "Come on! He's getting away!"

They then tore the door and went into the cellar and saw a barrel with a timer that counted down.

BOOM!

Korra protected the group via airbending a dome to keep the blast off of them. "He's gone."

"Look. He must've escaped through there." Korra said, seeing a tunnel behind the rubble. "Help me clear it out."

She and Naruto then cleared it as Lin and Suyin ran down.

"What happened? We heard an explosion."

"Where is Aiwei?"

"Your trusted advisor was the one who betrayed us. He was lying about the guard." Korra said, shocking Su.

"What? No."

"We confronted him and he bolted through here," Naruto said before Lin used her sonar to search the tunnel.

"He must have collapsed the tunnel behind him."

"And he rigged an explosion to destroy any evidence that might have been here," Mako explained before Korra looked at Suyin.

"This is where Zaheer got in and out. Aiwei was the traitor."

"I… Trusted him."

"Is everyone okay?" The female guard ran in as Lin looked back.

"Aiwei is a fugitive. Get all available guards to search the mountainside. And find out where this tunnel exits immediately!"

Later, the group was in Su's office when the guard ran in. "What did you find?"

"We located the end of the tunnel, but there's no sign of him. Just some fresh tire tracks."

"He had an escape plan already ready to go," Mako explained as Su sighed.

"I trusted him with my life. I thought we were family, but it was all a lie."

"Whoever these guys are, they're more powerful than we thought. And more dangerous." Mako said as Korra narrowed her eyes.

"That's why we have to find them. We're going to hold off on our search for airbenders and hunt down Aiwei. Naga can track his scent."

"And I bet if we find Aiwei we'll find Zaheer," Asami spoke from her seat before Lin stood.

"No. We're not hunting this group. There could be other secret agents in other parts of the world looking for you right now. I'm taking you back to Republic City where I can protect you."

"If I wasn't safe here, then I'm not safe anywhere. I have to stop them."

"It's too dangerous. You are not going!"

"Stop trying to protect me. I'm the Avatar. This is my job!" Korra bit back.

"Don't lecture me about jobs!"

"Enough. Korra, listen to Lin." Su said standing as well.

"But... They..."

"Please. Lin's only looking out for you. I promise you Aiwei and everyone he's working with will be brought to justice."

"Fine. If you really think it's best." Korra sighed at that.

"I do."

"Thank you, Su."

"Everyone should get some rest tonight. I'll have my people prep your airship and you can leave first thing in the morning." Su said before they went to their rooms.

Later, Su went to the Team's room and walked in. "Su."

"You really think Naga could track Aiwei?"

"Definitely." Korra nodded at that.

"Then here." Su handed Korra a car key. "There's a Jeep packed with supplies by the east gate. It's all gassed up and ready to go."

"What? Why?"

"Because I want you to hunt down Aiwei and bring him back to me," Su explained to her.

"But you said-"

"I said what Lin wanted to hear, and I bought you guys some time. Go. I'll deal with Lin in the morning." Su said as Naruto stood and grabbed Kurama.

"OI! (HEY!)"

"Let's get this guy."

To Be Continued.

A/N: Thanks for reading and let me know of any mistakes.

Beta: Chaos-PSD.

1. There's a short lemon there that'll be up on AO3.

The new story poll is up now! There are 19 choices (Small because two stories are ending close together) and YOU CAN CHOOSE 5! So remember to vote if you haven't!

Next to be updated will be Maelstrom Huntsman

Nothing else to say.

Talk To You Later,

Lone Wolf Out.🐺