Here's the 1st part of the Kyoshi Island episode, because I'm exhausted at this point and I'll plan a little something something in the second part once I am back from a little break. Lol.

Enjoy the chapter and please leave a review/comment once you're finished.

Let's start!

In the sea

Sailing through the seas, Prince Zuko's ship had been sailing for a few days without interruption, having resumed its chase for the Avatar.

The prince was meditating in his chamber now, in front of a little table with four candles flickering. Its flames grew larger and smaller in sync with the prince's easy breathing ins and outs. In a rare moment of peace, Zuko was in deep thought without any outbursts. Then the door to his private cabin opened, it was his uncle Iroh who peaked through, Zuko asked in a calm tone.

"The only reason you should be interrupting me is if you have news about the Avatar."

"There is news, Prince Zuko, but you might not like it. Don't get too upset." Iroh said opening the door, holding a scroll in his hand.

"Uncle, you taught me that keeping a level head is a sign of a great leader." Zuko responded again calmly while in his meditative posture, "Now, whatever you have to say, I'm sure I can take it."

"Okay then." Iroh continued to deliver, "We have no idea where he is."

"WHAT?!" Zuko's reaction coincided with the flames of the candles suddenly erupting in a fiery mass and hitting the ceiling.

Zuko stood up from his stance to face his uncle, who was long prepared for his nephew's reaction, and pulled a fan from his robe.

"You really should open a window in here."

"Give me the map!" Zuko snatched the scroll from his uncle's hand and opened it for him to read it with his uncle informing him while waving the fan into his face.

"Well, there have been multiple sightings of the Avatar, but he is impossible to track down."

The scroll Zuko was reading was a map of the world, showing the zig-zag movement of the Avatar's spotted locations of the past week, showing no patterns of what they planned.

"How am I going to find him, Uncle? He is a master of evasive maneuvering." Zuko questioned before he sighed and thought and responded, "Uncle, send word to the captain to prepare a messenger hawk."

Iroh raised the question, "What are you planning, Zuko?"

"To stay on course and contact anybody with eyes and ears in these waters." Zuko replied, concluding, "It's obvious that if we want to track down the Avatar, the use of intelligence is of great importance to us."

"Using informants now, aren't we?" Iroh asked his nephew.

"If Zhao can do it, so can I." Zuko told his uncle while rolling the scroll up, "With Naruto being with the Avatar, it will be upmost difficult to find them." Turning to his uncle, Zuko saw the uncertainty on his face.

"What is it?"

"There is more." Iroh said as he pulled out another scroll, this time being smaller that he then handed to his nephew, "It's about Azula."

Hearing that also got Zuko's attention as he took the smaller scroll and opened it up, seeing it was just a message, and the content of it was straight simple:

"Azula's about to make her move - she's in Yu Dao."

"Meaning?"

Zuko figured it already out, mentally noting to himself.

'I wonder who has less luck, the Avatar or Naruto?'

Meanwhile

Looking down at their map that wasn't zig-zagged, it was Sokka who was holding it while looking confused before asking about the monk's navigational skills.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?"

Aang turned his head to answer.

"Well …" Aang happily replied, "I know it's near water."

Indeed they were above water, of the ocean to be precise which was the vaguest way to say they were lost and had no way where they were.

This prompted a sarcastic response from Sokka, "I guess we're getting close then."

"Who's bright idea was it again to let a twelve-year-old navigate?" Kurama asked while lying on the saddle next to the lemur Momo, "What a day."

With the focus laid on Katara, she was preoccupied with sewing up Sokka's pants which had a hole in them, and she happened to glance over to Naruto. The blond was busy looking into their inventory.

The inventory was the amount of supplies, food, drinking water, washed clothing, tools, and even a set of Pai Sho tiles that was on the saddle on display.

"Naruto?"

"We're going to need some money, we don't have much left," Naruto said, gaining everyone's attention. "We have at least two days worth of meals but I do not want us to risk going across the world with empty pockets."

"Okay…but what can we do to get some funds?" Sokka asked while leaning back on the saddle with both arms, "None of us except for you have gone to the Earth Kingdom."

"Hey, what about me?" Aang interjected, joining the conversation, "I made many trips to the Earth Kingdom!"

"As in recently or over a hundred years ago?" Kurama questioned the Avatar.

"Uhm…."

"Face it, kid. Your world changed, the only ones who know the current stuff in the world are the brat and I." Kurama mentioned as he added on, "Like how some islands around these parts are spared from the war for the most part, but are not friendly to any outsiders - given the intensity the war has gone through for the past two years."

Sokka raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

While Kurama decided to explain to Sokka about the current state of the war, Naruto found himself turning his focus to something else.

Aang was trying to attract Katara's attention with a bit of air bending and made two marbles spin fast, much to the amazement of Momo. Yet Katara paid no attention given she was busy sowing.

"That's great, Aang."

"You didn't even look." Aang sounded disappointed, stopping his trick.

Katara enthusiastically turned to Aang, "That's great!"

"But I'm not doing it now," Aang said, dismayed now before his eyes focused on what was on the saddle next to Naruto….

"Wait, you play Pai Sho, Naruto?"

"Hmm?" Naruto turned his head to the tiles he kept, "Oh, yes. I often play it."

"Really?" Aang asked, "With who?"

"Not with me, the game's too complicated for me." Sokka waved his hand off, "I'd rather spend my time hunting or training."

"I don't either, I haven't got the time." Katara said with a chuckle, "However Gran Gran used to play it with Naruto in their free time. It was fun to see Gran Gran do something."

"Watching two people move some pieces around is fun? Don't make me laugh, Katara." Sokka disagreed and remarked, "So stop bugging her, you guys. You need to give girls space when they do their sewing."

That comment made Katara turn with an annoyed glare at her brother.

"What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?"

"Sokka don't…"

"Brat, don't you-"

"Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." Sokka responded, lazily resting with his arms behind his head, he said it casually to her annoyed sister. "It's just the natural order of things."

"All done with your pants!" Katara snapped with a fake smile and threw her brother's pants at him, "And look what a great job I did!"

With his pants thrown into his face, Sokka tried to do damage control, "Wait! I was just kidding." Sokka pointed to the hole in his pants, "I can't wear these! Katara, please!" Turning to the others for support, "Guys?"

"Own fault, moron." Kurama said bluntly, "I know better than to pick a fight with her."

Naruto held his hands up in defeat, agreeing with his fox friend.

"Sorry."

Sokka grumbled, "Traitors."

"Relax, Sokka. Where we're going, you won't need any pants." Aang said enthusiastically as he directed Appa to fly in a different direction, with no one paying attention to what Kurama said.

"That's one way of describing it." Kurama chuckled at his remark.

Momo however was left confused.

It took only another half hour before the sky bison landed on an island with mountains, Appa landed on the beach and soon the entire party dismounted from the big guy, but only some were as sure of this stop.

"We just made a pit stop yesterday. Shouldn't we get more flying done before we camp out?" Sokka questioned, given they hadn't made much progress in traveling.

"He's right." Katara agreed with her brother, walking up behind Aang, "At this rate, we won't get to the North Pole until spring."

Aang however disagreed, "But Appa's tired, aren't you boy?" He turned to the sky bison, who stood there in silence with only a mild grunt in response, his fur was all dirty and disordered as he hadn't had a bath in a while now with even his eyes covered by his fur.

"I said, aren't you boy?" Aang asked.

Appa responded more enthusiastically the second time by grunting louder and opening his mouth wide as if yawning. Aang turned back with a smile.

"Yeah, that was real convincing." Sokka sounded sarcastic with some fear, "Still, hard to argue with a ten-ton magical monster."

"Either way, I am going off for a bit, people," Naruto said turning to the forest and beginning to walk, having jumped off Appa's back with his backpack.

"Where are you going?" Sokka asked, he and his sister turned to the blond wondering what he was going to do, "There's nothing much on this island."

"I'll be back soon, in an hour or so." Naruto said as he assured them, "See you before lunch."

"Wait for me," Kurama said joining the blond, both making their way through the forest, leaving the others at the beach, with Sokka asking himself.

"What is there to find on this isl-"

"LOOK!"

With his loud voice shrieking Sokka and Katara, turned to Aang standing on the beach and pointing out into the bay waters to see giant brightly colored fish jumping out of the water and back in, creating an enormous splash.

"That's why we're here. Elephant koi," Aang said while quickly undressing himself "and I'm gonna ride it. Katara, you've got to watch me!"

Once Aang was in just his orange undergarments he then went out to jump into the water, with moments later he jumped out of it with a shout.

"COLD!"

…

With Naruto having already made headway into the island he was traveling through a dirt road leading to what looks like a village.

"There it is, the village," Kurama said while walking next to his companion. "We're going to meet with the locals, aren't we?"

"Well…"

Then several figures appeared out of woods and treelines as they surrounded the duo. All of them were wearing green ornate armored kimonos with black and metal headdresses and makeup. A group of four of them all surrounded him with their metal fans out and pointed at the blond.

"We will meet them now."

Kurama had an annoyed look, "Like on friendly terms perhaps?"

"Perhaps that could've been done so if you gave a heads-up warning." The first of the four warriors began, lowering her guard and she spoke, "Wouldn't you agree, Naruto?"

Naruto turned to the woman who spoke who happened to be around the same age as him, had brown hair, and was only a foot away from him, the blond couldn't help but smile.

"In normal circumstances, yes. Good to see you again, Suki." He looked around and did a normal head bow, "And of course the rest of you too, Kyoshi Warriors."

Instead of a warm welcome, two of the warriors moved quickly and subdued Naruto by grabbing his arms and forcing him on his knees before tying him up and covering his eyes with a blindfold.

"Hey-HEY!" Kurama felt himself getting grabbed up and put into a bag with his paws only sticking out with his head before also getting blindfolded, "Hands off me!"

"Standard procedure for illegally entering Kyoshi Island, guys." Suki said as she kneeled to Naruto's level, "Mind explaining to us why you arrived here with multiple strangers, one was just swimming with the Unagi?"

"We only went off for less than ten minutes and already that bald brat is causing trouble." Kurama growled as he was trying to get out of the bag, "Get me out of here, now!"

"I nearly forgot how annoying you could be, Kurama…ugh…" Suki rubbed her eyes in frustration before ordering. "Take him away, girls."

Reluctantly the three other Kyoshi Warriors decided on a collective effort to handle the well-known Kurama whom they would be escorting back to the village, all while Suki was left alone with Naruto who still was on his knees in front of the leader of the group.

"So…" Suki began, "Explain?"

Naruto couldn't help but crack a smile as he responded with a comment.

"As much I like this position, normally it would be in reverse-"

*KICK*

Kyoshi Village

Now all four stuck tied to a wooden pole, Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Naruto were all blindfolded and confronted by the villagers waiting for the elder to arrive, giving the four the time to speak.

"Ugh…" Naruto groaned, shaking his head, "Yeah…that's going to hurt for a day or so."

"Huh, what do you mean?" The blindfolded Sokka turned his head to Naruto, "Where did they hurt you? Those men beat you up bad, Naruto?"

"Well I…wait, did you say men?"

"Yeah, who else?" Sokka asked, his head turning to the blond's voice, "Not like we were ambushed by a group of women."

Not knowing that a literal group of Kyoshi Warriors were watching them with the crowd, looking at the Water Tribe teenager with vicious eyes, he was lucky to not meet their glares just when the village elder entered in and started out demanding answers.

"You three have some explaining to do."

" And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi."

Naruto tried, "Allow me to explain-"

"Show yourselves, cowards!" Sokka challenged, interrupting Naruto's calm approach with an outright demand to see their faces.

"Nevermind…" Naruto sighed, with Katara and Aang left confused.

Just then their blindfolds got removed and the three of the four were now facing the entire village with up front the green-cladded Kyoshi Warriors with Suki up front, facing the surprised Sokka, who aggressively asked.

"Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"

"There were no men. We ambushed you." Suki responded harshly, gesturing her clenched fist, demanding, "Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Wait a second," Sokka amusingly glanced over to Naruto and Aang to mockingly state, "there's no way that a bunch of girls took us down."

"Sokka."

"Yeah?"

"Just…shut up."

"Huh?" Sokka's reaction was before he felt his collar getting grabbed by an angry Suki who forced him to look her in the eye.

"A bunch of girls, huh? The Unagi's gonna eat well tonight."

"No, don't hurt him!" Katara leaned forward, and pleaded apologetically, "He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes." Suki turned to Sokka and released him while giving him a look of dismay.

"It's my fault." Aang apologized, getting everyone to turn to the young monk, sorrowfully explaining, "I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi."

The old man took a look at the group taking a serious look at the blond for a moment, something Sokka noticed.

"How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies?" He asked them with his finger pointed at them, "Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far. And we intend to keep it that way!"

"No offense, old man, but do we look like anything from the Fire Nation?" Naruto began, playing along with the farce accusation and denying them.

"This island is named for Kyoshi?" Aang sounded with a bright expression on his face, "I know Kyoshi!"

"Ha! How could you possibly know her?" The elder snarked with a humorless remark, turning to the wooden statue of Avatar Kyoshi that stood on top of the pole that the four were tied up against. "Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries."

After a few moments of looking at the statue of one of his previous lives, having looked pensive at it, Aang looked down at the ground in front of him. He speaks in a soft, calm voice

"I know her because I'm the Avatar."

The instant Aang said that it didn't take long before some would fully dismiss this, with Suki being the first one to say so to him.

"That's impossible! The last Avatar was an airbender who disappeared a hundred years ago."

"That's me!" Aang replied sheepishly.

"Perhaps instead demonstrate it to them, Aang." Naruto suggested to him by nudging, "Do it."

Aang did so and bent and shot himself into the air with the ropes cut by the Kyoshi statue's fan and cutting himself free, slowly coming down to the ground with the wind underneath his feet. He just demonstrated in front of the entire village his airbending abilities.

He lands gently on the ground in front of the surprised crowd, his robes still fluttering in the air. The village elder and Suki were now fully convinced, with the elder awestruck but also happy to say:

"It's true ... you are the Avatar!"

"Now …check this out! " Aang said, pulling out the marbles and began showing his trick again where he airbends them into spinning them around really fast between his hands and grinning and blinking like a fool, watching how the crowd would react.

And they were ecstatic with children and their parents celebrating and cheering the young Avatar, with one man taking it too far as he began foaming from the mouth and soon passed out on the ground with the villagers not paying attention to him.

Katara noticed and asked, "Uhm, is nobody going to help that guy?"

"I think they got used to it on previous occasions."

A small girl was seen running to the docks where she approached an old man who just caught a big amount of fish and told him the news.

"Did you hear the news? The Avatar's on Kyoshi!"

The old man was utterly surprised and nearly dropped his catch when he heard that.

…

Word then spread fast when the fishermen sold it off to the merchants.

…

Merchants who sold their fish off to their customers.

…

One of whom was an orderly on Zuko's ship who told the news to Zuko and Iroh who were waiting for their meal.

"The Avatar's on Kyoshi Island?" Zuko said demandingly as he stood up, leaving the room to prepare himself, "Uncle, ready the rhinos. He's not getting away from me this time."

Iroh looked at the freshly, still steam-smoking cooked fish and asked, "Are you going to finish that?"

Zuko returned and took the plate of food, "I was going to save it for later!" He said storming out of the room, leaving hungry and sulking Iroh who crossed his arms dissatisfied.

Kyoshi Island

Only a day went by when they arrived on the island and already the villagers were busy doing all kinds of activities, including some of whom were busy repainting the wooden statue of Avatar Kyoshi.

Or the lazy form of Appa who was being groomed by the villagers taking care of his fur while feeding him with whatever the flying bison wanted, all while he lay just in front of the main building where the travelers were residing.

But in a different room of that building, the village elder's private quarter sat Naruto with the old man himself as they both were seen playing a game of Pai Sho, having a conversation that was not to be disturbed.

"Your move, young man."

"Of course, sir."

Moving a tile, Naruto made his move in a strategy he attempted to make against the experienced player, with them talking about some essential topics.

"The presence of the Avatar here is understandably important, but I also can see this can be troubling if he stays here too long." The bearded old man said as he was thinking about his next move, he asked the blond, "I assume you will be preparing your leave very soon. Correct?"

"Yes, Aang is set to move to the North Pole - to start his waterbending training."

The old man moved the next tile, taking one from Naruto's side as he took the bait, prompting the young man to put his strategy in motion.

"Of course, that is of utmost importance, I guess you already have thought out who will train him, don't you?"

"I do - Master Pakku will do. If the relic is still alive, of course."

The elder laughed, "I am the relic here, young Naruto - compared to him, he is the younger one."

"I know, but his views on tradition…is going to be a roadblock if you ask me."

"Hmmm, how so?" The elder asked, "Pakku is one of the Northern Water Tribe's best waterbenders, he will train the young Avatar just fine."

"He is referring to Pakku's belief in women, old geezer."

The two Pai Sho players heard who entered the room and saw it was Kurama, coming in with some sweets in his mouth, he settled down and took a bite from one of them before the fox proceeded to talk.

"Our fellow traveler Katara also wants to learn waterbending, but given the Northern Tribe's view on women, this might be a problem."

The village elder now understood the concern, "I see." He said as he made his next move with a Pai Sho tile put front, "For that perhaps some convincing cannot hurt - but that will be on your part, young Uzumaki."

"Of course, sir."

The door then opened to see that a person entered the private match, one in the attire of the Kyoshi Warriors with full-on regalia and makeup, she entered and closed the door behind her before bowing her head to the two of them.

"Forgive me for my intrusion, but I was called here."

"Ah, Suki, good to see you've come." The elder spoke as he pointed to the cushion next to him, "Come and join us, it's time."

Nodding, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors made her way to the two men and took her place around the Pai Sho board, looking at the blond.

"It is nice seeing you, Naruto."

"Likewise, Suki."

"My apologies again for restraining you and your friends that day, but we had to be careful," The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors told the blond with intelligible reasons, "The War draws nearer with every sunrise. Soon enough it'll be at our doorstep."

"That I've noticed, the Fire Nation has been busy putting more resources by going after us," Naruto said, mentioning, "Including Prince Zuko, who chased us out of the South Pole."

The two locals glanced at each other at the mention of that name, meaning that this was getting serious very fast, so the elder continued.

"So I assume you need some supplies, money, and food for your journey?"

Nodding to that, Naruto watched as the elder began removing all the Pai Sho pieces from the board, handing the pieces aside as Suki was sitting properly right across Naruto as he quickly figured out what was about to happen.

"It's time."

Not needing to say anything more, Naruto and Suki nodded to each other with a bow and it was Suki who removed a piece from a fold in her robes, placing it at the center of the board.

It was one with the white lotus flower on it.

Looking up at Suki and then at the elder, Naruto saw the proud smile on his face, he turned back to the Kyoshi Warrior and asked.

"So you've decided to commit?"

Suki instead of answering began to put more tiles on the board, followed by Naruto who followed to do the same as both players of Pai Sho started to form something on the board, causing even Kurama to come over to watch what was happening.

The result was the formation of the lotus pattern that now was made of tiles, meaning only one thing that prompted the blond to welcome her.

"From now till the end of time, I will be proud to call you a sister." Naruto said with delight, bowing slightly, "Welcome."

Smiling back at her friend, she bowed again her head,

"I am honored and will do my part to the commitment, Brother."

Kurama just turned to the elder, "So does this make her the first chick to have joined the White Lotus?"

"Hardly the first, and not the last to come," The elder said, explaining to the two travelers, "Suki has been guided, educated, and trained by me. With the approval of the higher-ups, she is now a member."

"That is good to know," Naruto said before smiling at her, "How about a small game?"

Suki gave the slyest smile as she popped out a tile from her hand, "It's not the only thing I've learned over the years, Naruto."

"Let's begin."

A few hours later

Naruto and Kurama were on their way to the Kyoshi Warriors' dojo where they were supposed to be training, with Katara nearly finished with all the supplies and Aang trying to 'escape' the fangirls who were swarming him for nearly all day now, they were close to ready for their departure.

Only there were a few problems…

"That kid's unpredictable, one day he didn't want to be the Avatar and then he's having this shit grin on his face when he gets fangirls!"

Naruto couldn't help but smile, "Don't be too hard on him, Kurama. He's just adjusting, that's all."

"No, not when we don't have that much time!" Kurama protested, irritated, "Katara was right, we need to drag him to the big guy's saddle and fly off now that we can. It's only going to be a matter of time before the Fire Nation will figure out where we are."

"On that, we agree, but first we got to find Sokka..wherever he is."

"You think he's still pissed off for getting his ass kicked by a girl?"

"Probably,"

Sokka's been mumbling nonsense since they were on Kyoshi about getting beat by Suki and her Kyoshi Warriors, to the point it became a nuisance. Something Naruto didn't pay attention to until he started to disappear from time to time away from the village.

"That kid needs to grow up. So what he got his ass kicked by a girl? You got that done to you when we were going around the world and you're not complaining."

"First, he pretty much grew up only on the South Pole with that mentality, so I don't blame him for not knowing much, he'll learn quickly how to adapt." Naruto answered with an annoyed look at the fox, "Secondly, not all the time."

"Yeah, sometimes you liked it - I blame puberty."

"Damned furball."

The two just happened to arrive at the Dojo, walking in while still talking…

"Honestly, kid. I'm surprised you haven't doubled the population of blonds in this world by the amount of girls you've met. And some of them don't hesitate to kick you down there."

"Ugh…don't remind me…."

Walking into what they were not expecting, Suki was training with Sokka who was in full Kyoshi Warrior regalia, as he was doing some hand-to-hand combat with the occasional fan being used to block or lay a hit against one another.

The two then happened to look at the entrance and spotted Naruto and Kurama standing there, with Sokka looking pale even with all the makeup on him, he began to panic.

"W-Wait, it's not what you think?!"

Naruto and Kurama just looked at each other with raised eyebrows before turning to Sokka, who was expecting them to joke about what he was wearing.

"You're training, I don't see what the fuzz is about."

"Yeah, what gives?"

Sokka was left mindblown by their takes, with Suki unable to hold her laughter and trying to suppress it with her hand.

Several miles off the coast of Kyoshi Island was a ship making progress, with several men preparing to land for the entrance.

*STOMP!*

Prepared were the rhinos that were wearing headgear protection and are currently set ready by some Fire Nation military personnel to be led into the upcoming incursion on Kyoshi Island to find and capture the avatar, four of them in total with the plan of two for each rhino except for Prince Zuko's.

The prince walked to one of the animals and patted it on the head to calm it down, fully ready for the upcoming confrontation as his uncle and Lieutenant Jee stood by him.

"The men are ready, Prince Zuko."

"Good, and I see the rhinos are also in a good state." Zuko said, turning to his lieutenant, "How long until we reach the island?"

"They expect we'll be landing within the next half hour, but they needed to take a different route because of the local monster called the Unagi." Jee responded, "Locals have said it's big enough to destroy entire ships."

Zuko gripped the handle of the rhino's saddle, something always laid in his way.

"Is there a problem?"

He however calmed his grip and sat on the rhino with him being given his helmet.

"No, I'm fine." Zuko puts his helmet on and orders, "Make sure to keep an eye on the skies, if the Avatar escapes we will go after him immediately."

Nodding to that order Jee walked off to the top leaving Iroh to his nephew, having not said a word this entire time as he now could speak to him for a moment.

"What do you have to say, uncle," Zuko asked while checking his chest plates, "I'm preparing for battle."

Iroh said nothing but just stared at his nephew in a manner that caused the young prince to look at his uncle in return.

"What is it?"

"Good luck, my nephew - but also be careful."

Leaving with that, Zuko was confused by his uncle's few words which was strange to him but he then started to focus on the upcoming battle again,

Kyoshi Island was going to be the next island to be touched by this war, all because the Avatar was right there among these villagers, giving hope by his presence. The same hope he had in him for returning home.

It was getting late, but the fires would help if it got too dark, if it came to that.