His.tory

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Part One

“It’s so amazing here.” Asami sighed  as her lovestruck gaze fell upon Korra. She rolled over with a satisfied sigh, letting the speckled rays of the afternoon sun, passing through the flowering spring trees, warm her lithe, naked body, glowing with a thin sheen of post orgasmic perspiration while a blissful smile curled the corners of her crimson lips.

“Yeah...” Korra hesitantly resounded with downcast eyes as she seemed lost in her own thoughts.

“Is something wrong?” the beautiful green-eyed, woman asked, concerned. 

“No…no…” Korra began, before reluctantly picking up her azure gaze from the forest floor to meet Asami’s, “These past few weeks with you have been great!”

“But?” she fixed Korra with an expression of anticipatory disappointment as she sat up and her hands found their way to her hips in a sassy huff.

“Nothing!”

“Don’t do that.” Asami sniped.

“Do what?!”

“That thing you do, when you really want to say something, but don’t because you’re afraid of how I’ll react.”

“Who do you take me for? Mako?” Korra chuckled.

“At LEAST MAKO is honest with HIMSELF!”

“Whatever.” Korra sat up, visibly agitated before she began putting on her clothes with an aggravated sigh before Asami grabbed her hand and she pulled away.

“Korra!”

“Look, Asami. I didn’t want to do this here… the spirit world is sensitive to our emotions-”

“Oh you think I didn’t notice when the stars rained from the sky and the flowers bloomed with spiritual energy when we made love?”

Korra slowly shook her head with a sigh, before handing Asami her own clothing.

“I think we should go home.”

“What? Just- all of a sudden?! Is that why you’ve been so moody lately?! IS THIS ABOUT MAKO?!” the irate woman shouted before snatching on her pants and bomber jacket.

“WHAT?! NO! Why would you even bring him into this?!”

“JUST SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!”

“I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”

“Look, I didn’t want to do this here!” Korra started, before a distant thunder rumbled and the sky began to darken. “It’s not that I don’t love you - I do...but...I’m just a little confused...is all… I don’t know if… I’m...”

“Korra, we’ve talked about this! If it feels right, why are you so worried about anyone else’s opinion? No matter who you love, you’re still the Avatar. You’re allowed to love whoever you love.”

“Love isn’t the issue Asami… Look, I love it when we’re together, you make me so happy and no one could ever replace you, but I’m just...confused...and It’s not because of Mako or my feelings for anyone else, but I’m just starting to feel like...maybe we should take a break…”

“REALLY?!?!” she spat the word like venom as she slapped Korra across the face in a fit of rage and tears welled in her jade orbs “YOU’RE BREAKING UP WITH ME!? AFTER EVERYTHING WE SHARED?!” Asami shrieked in a fit of hysterics, crying as her flailing arms swatted at the Avatar, who barely defended herself as the sky turned cold with bitter storm clouds and lightning closing in overhead.

“Asami, please,” she muttered, as she grabbed hold of the furious woman’s dainty wrists in an attempt to calm her “ You, of all people, should understand that my destiny takes precedence over our worldly desires. I DO love you...I’m just- After everything that’s happened, I don’t want to lose you as a friend,-but I can’t keep pretending to be someone I’m not!”

“Pretending?!?! FUCK YOU, KORRA!” she shrieked before shoving Korra to the ground, turning tail and running off into the spirit wilds sobbing hysterically.

“ASAMI!” Korra shouted, scrambling to her feet at once to run after her, calling out “ ASAMI, PLEASE, LET’S JUST GO HOME WHERE IT’S SAFE AND WE’LL-”

Just as she ran through a patch of bushes, the forest brush gave way beneath her feet and Korra fell into a cavernous underground pit, with just enough time to airbend and cushion her fall into a hard thud that continued as she rolled deeper down the steep steppe, grasping for any type of cliff or vegetation that would slow her tumbling descent to certain death, if she couldn’t regain hold of her footing.

As she bounced to the edge of the bottom of the deep cave, she caught glimpse of a temple’s facade carved into the face of a sandstone cliffside across a wide crevasse of immeasurable depth that awaited her at the edge.

As she rolled over the edge, she was barely able to kick off the vertical face with a fire blast from her heels that shot her across the vast chasm, nearly falling into its maw and barely grasping the edge of the other side that left her dangling at the precipice of the mysterious temple cliffside.

As she climbed up, she rolled onto her back, winded, bruised and bloody; her arms covered her crying eyes, thinking the worst of what might have become of Asami.
____________________________________________

“Hey Asami! How was your trip?” Mako looked up from his desk with a smile as Asami slammed his office door behind her, gripped him by his collar and kissed him desperately.

“Whoa! Wait- WHAT?” he stuttered, confused. “Asami- Waitaminute!”

The woman clawed at his police uniform with such fervor, through thick, breathless kisses, he had to physically pin her arms to her sides before he could back away enough to  get a word in.

“What is going on here?! Where is Korra?”

“UGH! WHAT ABOUT KORRA!? I’M SO TIRED OF EVERYTHING ALWAYS BEING ABOUT HER!” she screamed, before she was overtaken again with sobs that shook her entire body and threw herself into Mako’s Arms.

“Asami…” Mako began, his face in shock, as Chief Beifong, roused by the commotion stopped in front of his office door window to see the trainwreck of a scene unfolding, before throwing up her hands and deciding, instead, not her problem. “Asami, what happened?”

“Korra broke up with me…” she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Ah…” he seemed at a loss for words as he embraced the crying woman with compassion. “I’m so sorry Asami…”

“I just feel so stupid! I don’t know why I believed she could care about anyone other than herself!”

“Hey now… You don’t mean that... “ he said, taking the sniffling beauty’s chin in his hand and raising her head. “You were both trying something new and I know this hurts now, but it’s not the end of the world, Asami. Though, I’ve never seen you like this…”

“I just thought about how many times she came between you and I - and after all I ever did for her... for “TEAM” Avatar- AFTER I FORGAVE ALL HER TRESPASSES AGAINST ME - I ACTUALLY LET MYSELF FALL IN LOVE WITH HER... SHE SAID SHE COULDN’T KEEP PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE SHE WASN’T!” she scoffed “Like I was just some kind of experiment!”

“Asami…” Mako sighed, tightening his embrace round the fragile woman. “You’ll get through this. I’m here for you, you know that.”

“Thanks Mako…” she sniffled.

“If you’re like this Korra must be pretty upset… I bet she’s taken out half of downtown by now.” he chuckled jokingly.

“Maybe,” Asami shrugged “Last I saw her, she was still in the spirit world.”

“You left her ALONE?!” Mako’s tone suddenly became very serious.

“Why are you taking her side?!” she snatched away “She is the Avatar! She’ll never let you forget it! She can take care of herself!”

“Asami… Please. Go home and get some rest…” Mako sighed, before turning to grab his jacket when Asami stopped him.

“Come with me...please… I can’t stop thinking that if it weren’t for Korra-”

“Look, Asami. I know how you feel, but I can’t start to reconcile our relationship in good conscience before knowing that Korra is safe.”

Her eyes found the floor as he rushed out the door with a final comforting squeeze to her hand before saying.

“We’ll talk about this later, I promise.”
______________________________________________

“Whoa, that’s intense.” Bolin shook his head as Mako finished telling him the story while one busty model gently toweled his brow and another fed him cherries from a bowl as he lazed out in the summer sun next to the pool.

“Yeah, so I need you to come with me to the Spirit wilds to find Korra.”

“No can do, bro. I’m a real busy dude these days,” he flashed a cheeky smile as he peered over his superstar shades winking at a modelesque, bikini-clad brunette woman that walked by. “Besides, Korra can take care of herself.”

“I don’t know, Bolin. Usually I’d agree with you there, but thinking about how she must be feeling right now, combined with the fact that she’s in the spirit world is worrying me; and I just have a feeling in my gut that something’s wrong. I think she might need our help and it’s not like she can just call us on the phone.”

Bolin’s expression instantly changed to one of disdain.

“Bro, when do I get to start living my life for me?” he began, “Will there ever be a time when I can just enjoy the fortune of fame I’ve earned without there being some kind of world crisis to avert that doesn’t involve the Avatar?”

“Bolin!” Mako reprimanded. “She has saved us all more than a few times! The least we can do is make sure she’s safe!!”

“Sure...Alright.” Bolin gave in, reluctantly, before dismissing his fan girls with a wave of his hand.

“Thanks, Bo.”

“If I didn’t trust your instincts, I’d probably sit this one out,” Bolin admitted. “But you’re usually right about this kind of stuff anyway, which worries me.”
______________________________________________


<“I don’t think it’s worth going in there and getting trapped.”> the lost girl stood at the edge of the cave after throwing a stone into the darkness and hearing, after a 2 minute fall, a tiny echo of a splash.

<“I wouldn’t even be considering it, if I hadn’t had dreams about of this place for the past 2 years that led me here.”>

<“...I don’t know…”> she sighed.

<“You’re the only one who I ever told…”> the blond boy stood from his crouched position next to his best childhood friend. <“I just wanted you to know where to look, if anything should happen to me.”>

<“Baka! I’m coming with you!”>

<“No, Sakura... I need you to go get help if I don’t come out after 24 hours…”>

<“A whole day!”> she scoffed

<“Kurama has led me to this place for a reason, so I don’t know what might happen, but I do know I need to do this alone…”>

She hugged him tightly before gently planting a kiss to his cheek, that caused him to blush furiously before a toothy grin lit up his face and he promised with a thumbs up,

<“I’ll be back before you know it, Sakura-chan, ya’know.”>

<“Be careful!”> she called out as he jumped into the mouth of the cavern, disappearing into it’s heavy, enveloping darkness all at once.

Part Two

The deep void of pitch black space seemed endless as the sprite fires illuminated spiraling slices of the steep steppe, ever downward into the vast crevasse. It was slower work than the usual canopy-run, since one loose rock would mean a tumble into certain death.

He had seen this scenario in his dreams so many times before, he felt almost as if his steps were predestined, when, suddenly the cave became narrow enough for him to slow and lower himself between the slim opening on knees and elbows and drop vertically into the dark waters below with a splash.

He landed with a roll on the dark water’s surface, before standing and shouting up to see if his friend could hear him.

“SAKURAAAA!!”

He called up into the dark, not even an echo returning from the stillness of the void

A deep rumbling growl rippled the water, shifting under his weight.

“I knew you would come.” the deep, feral voice of Kurama resounded, drawing him forward with great caution.

“Because it is my destiny.” Naruto answered fearlessly.

“What do you know of destiny, boy?” the fox chuckled as his fiery glare became more apparent in his narrowing pupils as the sprite fires gradually illuminated a 12 foot-tall 9-tailed fox glaring down at him with a devilish grin, from behind red bars..

“I imagined you bigger.”

“Hm… if my size disappoints I could always make myself larger.” he cackled, as he grew in scale and the ravenous look in his eye glaried greedily down at his quarry while the gate seal gears whirred and clicked, unlocking, seemingly of its own accord. When the doors slowly opened wide, leaving only space and opportunity between Naruto and the beast, he claimed,

“I am FREE!!”

The behemoth drew the fire sprites away from Naruto, and into himself, becoming engulfed in their flames with a demonic hair-raising cackle, illuminating the grand sandstone corridor as his wicked laugh rumbled madly, quaking the walls of the cavern and echoed ominously, throughout. Naruto jumped back,

“Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu!” he shouted four clones into existence, before roaring flames popped them as instantly as they had become; the scorching heat tossed him backward nearly 50 feet before he landed on his heels, hydroplaning back into the jagged rocks of the back cave wall with a sickening thud.

“You’re mine!” Kurama bellowed as he bore down on Naruto wobbling on burned palms and knees, sinking into the water.

The giant fire fox opened his furious maw once more, shooting a deadly barrage of flames that seemed to slow in motion as Naruto stared on in wide-eyed acceptance of his fate.

“LOOK OUT!”

He was pushed out of the way by a stranger when the flames overtook them instead.

“NOO!” He called out, staring on helplessly “Not again!”

The heat was so viscous, fire clung to the walls making molten rock of jagged square meters that cracked and crumbled, hissing with steam as they fell into the shallow waters. Then he noticed, Kurama’s eyes staring in disbelief as the conflagration was swept into a wheel surrounding the pentagram points of her figure dancing in the fire and drawing the flames with the sheer will of her soul.

The fox narrowed his eyes at Naruto,

“A new clone trick. You are clever,” he laughed

“Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?”

Korra returned the volley, spinning kicks of flame at Kurama’s feet rolling scalding waves of steam and causing him to step back from the barrage in shock before she switched to mantis stance in the shallow water and closed in the melting boulders flanking his sides, much to his surprise, trapping him between them.

“YOU!” the demon fox’s eyes widened fearfully, “You are not supposed to be here!!” he exclaimed as ice crept up his arms and the stone prison began closing in on him.

“Go back from whence you came, spirit!” Korra commanded, taking a deep breath and drawing streams of water up from the shallow pool of the cave floor that enveloped Kurama, glowing as he closed his eyes in compliance and disbanded, sifting away in glowing sparks...

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto called out to the short-haired silhouette

“Are you alright?” Korra called out to him as he squinted into the dim light to see her dark figure carefully sloshing toward him through the shallow water, yet holding a small flame in hand like it was nothing.

“I’m fine.” he winced slightly as he felt the searing heat of Kurama returning his chakra in the tattoo seal surrounding his navel. As the stranger came closer, the light of the flickering fire gradually painted a focused view of a beautiful brown girl in strange clothes, speaking a strange language. As she helped him stand she stared at his hair, bemused.

“Your hair is yellow… Are you a fire spirit?”

<"I can't understand you."> Naruto shook his bloodied head slowly.
“What’s your name?”

“Naemu?” he spoke in a curious accent that caused Korra to laugh a bit.

“I’m. Korra.” she said pointing to herself.

“Uzumaki Naruto” he declared with a confident thumb pointed at his chest

“Whoa, what?” She looked confused, “Z’maki-ruu-toh?”

<“Oh! It’s hard for you to say. Naruto is fine. Just Naruto.”>

Though she was entirely unfamiliar with his words, it seemed as if the mysterious language was somehow becoming clearer and more focused.. The more he spoke the foreign tongue, the more she seemed to understand it.

“Naruto....?” she mused with a slight smile, her azure eyes sparkling as they met with his own, “Follow me,” she said as she turned around to lead him back up the dark path from which she came.

Before long, they came to a wide, stone footbridge lined with 3 torches on each side, spanning a void so vast, Korra held out her arm to stop him before they would proceed.

“Take a DEEP breath.” she whispered before putting a finger to her lips. “Make NO sound as you cross.”

Naruto paused a moment, then nodded in understanding, before taking a deep breath.

Korra took his hand and stepped onto the bridge gently testing it with one foot before proceeding to tiptoe delicately across the seemingly sturdy stone bridge with just a small flame to guide them.

Halfway across, a massive dancing, gold and Ivory statue gradiated into focus of the torchlight. As he passed the eyes of it, he could see dozens of his own face staring back in the facets of the fiery gems. Her eight arms extended beyond illumination of the dim torchlight, but he imagined she held the space open…so he stopped.

Korra looked back at him wearing a perturbed expression before he closed his eyes and slowly bowed his head for a moment, before continuing their hasty departure from the hallowed, hollow space; not noticing the, now, moving eyes, following their tentative steps.

Up ahead lay a debris pile at the doorway leading to the other side of the cave where the temple was visible only to Korra, holding the flame. She sidestepped a large rock before stepping over the threshold, pulling Naruto along when he stubbed his toe on the very same stone. His face burned red.

“ITAI!!!!!!” he shouted, echoing into the cavern so loudly, the vibration of air liquefied around him becoming as viscous glowing water. Naruto, while continuing in his stride was slowed to an almost complete standstill before a strong current swept him very suddenly and powerfully over the edge of the bridge…

“Don’t let GO!” Korra shouted from the watery surface of the doorway when gravity began shifting, sliding her toward the pool. She carefully stepped up to the wall and proceeded to use all her strength to heave Naruto UP, through the heavy pull of the gravity AND current, drenched, coughing and gasping for air, to safety. Then, the floor instantly became the wall again, dropping them both back to the floor.

Korra rolled him onto his back, climbed on top of him and compressed his chest, causing him to spit and cough up the excess water, when his eyes fluttered open, staring up at her in utter shock.

“I told you not to make any noise.” she sighed with relief.
____________________________________________

“BO!” Mako called out

“Look! It’s Korra’s airglider.” he said as he stepped out of the shallow ravine,

“That’s not good.” Bolin fidgeted nervously. “We gotta tell Chief Beifong. This could be real bad, Mako.”

“You’re right. Listen, I need to keep searching for more clues since I found a trail. Notice how the ground in this ditch is only about 3 or 4 feet deep, but her glider was sticking up?...almost like she was swallowed…”

“Your point?”

“My point is… She could be on a spirit journey...maybe it’s no accident. ”

“Okay but what if it is?” Bolin huffed impatiently

“Then *you* need to go tell the police while *I* look around to find more clues...please, bro?”

Bolin sighed with a pout, mumbling something about being famous and Mako still being the cool one before leaving to alert the authorities that the Avatar was missing.
_______________________________________

Naruto winced as Korra healed his bleeding elbow with water drawn from a large koi pond outside the mysterious cave temple.

<"Do you live down here?"> he asked, looking around at the rocky walls, wondering how anyone could survive it.

“I’m trying to find a way out.” she said, catching his glance once more with a blush, when he realized she had been staring at him curiously the entire time.

After a long pause he asked.

<“How long have you been down here?"> he gestured sleeping and the arc of the sun rising and setting over his head.

“A week? I don’t know… I can’t really tell. The sun doesn’t shine down here… It’s easy to lose track of time after that…” She growled with aggravation. “I’m such an IDIOT!”

<"You saved me from Kurama!”> he shouted, <“That’s no small feat!”>

Korra shook her head angrily.

“You don’t understand! I-grrr...” she trailed off frustratedly “...then I broke up with her HERE, and now she definitely hates me and I feel AWFUL about it! What if I made an unforgivable mistake!?”

<“You are not like anyone I have ever met... not even Sakura…”> he said before carefully and closely examining a lock of her short, dark brown hair between his fingers, <“Though, in a way, you do remind me of her.”>

Korra looked taken aback.

<"But she doesn't have your blue eyes."> he whispered as their eyes met once more.<"What are you?">

“I'm The Avatar…” Korra found herself smiling shyly and curiously amused as if it were the first time she’d ever announced it to an absolute stranger that had no idea what that meant.

<"Are you a goddess?"> he asked pointing to her, then back toward the bridge.

Korra blushed deep crimson with a hard laugh, as the meanings of his words became plain and all at once, she felt the language barrier dissipate.

“Uh-” she stuttered “I-I just keep the spirit world… you know... in balance with the material world… under the guidance of the light spirit…?”

“So you are?” Naruto’s eyes got big up, then, his face grew hot. “AHH! It happened...I’m dead! I should’ve known this would be how it happened!”

Korra couldn’t help chuckling at his lively disposition. Even as they both sit at the bottom of a mysterious cavern, unable to escape, he put a smile on her face.

She turned her back to him a moment, wiped her eyes, then coyly asked,

“Are you hungry?”
_______________________________________

“Hey Chief.” Bolin winked at Lin as she offered him a seat in her office.

“To what do I owe the flattery, Bolin?” she scoffed, amused, yet getting straight to the point.

“How do I put this?” he said heaving a sigh, while twiddling his thumbs nervously, a moment.

“Mako-thinks-Korra-may-be-in-trouble-sinceAsamirancryingtohimafterKorrabrokeupwithherinthe spiritworld!andwefoundhergliderstuckinaditchand-”

“Her glider was in the ground?” Linn stopped him with concern, “What else did you find?”

“Mako told me to come here while he looked for more clues.” Bolin exhaled, relieved that she didn’t freak out, like he just did.

“Listen to me, Korra will be just fine. But we canNOT have the public hearing that she’s missing or we may be risking another hundred-year war. This is very important, Bolin, do you understand?” she spoke in measured timbre.

“Yes ma’am.” Bolin straightened up, saluting the chief.

‘Have you told Tenzin yet?”

“No, ma’am, I was going there next-”

“Leave it to me, Bolin. I’ll trust you will brief Kuvira at once.”

“Chief, are you crazy? She can’t be trusted.”

“It’s a risk, I’ll admit, but If I keep her close, I think she’ll be inclined to help instead. Idle minds and whatnot...”

“Yes, ma’am!” he stood at once and turned to exit the office with calm determination, before she grabbed his sleeve to stop him.

“And leave out the part about the break up!” she said, before playfully shoving him out by the back of his head.
_____________________________________


“I haven’t eaten in days!” she said, relieved.

“Nonde?”

“I didn’t want to eat...or drink….or sleep...I just wanted to disappear.”

He looked up at her, pulling the splinter of toothpick from his mouth. Her eyes were glued to the sandy floor, glinting tearily in the crackling firelight.

When she did not look up, he asked.

“Can you give me some fire?”

She seemed to swipe a flame as simply as plucking a flower before handing out her palm to him.

He held out his hands to receive it and when she let it go, the flame winked out.

“You do that so easily, yet you seem not to know the power you possess.”

Korra’s eyes looked away.

“Don’t ever give up!!-Not even when you, in all your strength and glory, are your own greatest obstacle.”

Her cerulean gaze, finally peeked up with an appreciative smile holding back her tears. Then he touched her forehead with his pointer finger, which, finally earned him a chuckle.

“I noticed that you mold the fire with your movements.”

“It’s called ‘bending’,” she blushed, unexpectedly.

“Exactly! That’s a better word.You ‘bend’ it.” Naruto poked at the campfire absent-mindedly with a stick “I have held my chakra like armor, but I have never ‘bended’ it.”

She giggled again “It’s not something that everyone can do, but if you can walk on water...I think maybe you could waterbend… Would you...wanna try?”

Naruto’s eyes lit up.

“Do you think I could? Really?!”

“I don’t see why not!” she stood up with him before drawing a swirl of water from the koi pool, while slowly pulling it through the movements of tai chi. “This movement, is how waterbenders are trained to learn tui and la, push and pull.”

Naruto mirrored her stance and began following her movements.

“This is waterbending.” she said as she slowly passed the flow through her movement to his and the water seemed to melt before splashing to the sand at his feet.

He looked mildly disappointed, then, shrugged.

“One thing is for sure,” he sighed “I am certainly not the Avatar.”

Much to Naruto’s surprise, Korra suddenly hugged him, then looked a little embarrassed as she regained her formal composure.

“Thank you.” she smiled, causing him to blush and smile too.

“I can’t believe you have never seen or heard of bending! Where are you from, again?” Korra asked.

“Konohagakure- the Hidden Leaf Village.”

Korra hesitated a moment in deep pondering before mumbling more to herself than him,

“...Where could that be…?”

“Konoha is in the Land of Fire.” he gestured towardthe flames.

“In the Fire Nation? I have never heard of Konoha…”

“Well it wouldn’t be very well hidden if everyone knew where it was.”

“Still… your hair, your clothes...your...whiskers?” she mused “I’ve never seen anyone that even looks like you.”

“Konoha is very diverse,” He laughed “ My best friend, Sakura-chan, has pink hair!”

“PINK?!” Korra’s eyebrows shot up, causing him to laugh again when he continued, “Like a cherry blossom”.

“My other best friend has eyes that can trap you in an illusion...forever.”

“What type of bending art is that?!” Korra shuddered to think.

“It is called genjutsu,and one of the many forms of Ninjutsu” he answered while demonstrating mysterious gestures between his hands.

“Nin-joo-tsoo…?” Korra repeated the foreign tongue slowly, as if weighing its peculiar and mysterious flavor.

He nodded.

“A specialist of ninjutsu is called a ninja.”

”I see…”

“Everyone’s techniques are unique to their clans and teachings.” Naruto explained, “We start out as Genin, when we are little, then we are tested to advance to Chuunin, then Jounin - which are high ranking ninja; but when a ninja advances beyond Jounin, by inventing their own special techniques, to which only they know the secrets, they become legendary - Sennin.”

His mood suddenly became somber, before he drew his knees to his chest and enthralled himself with drawing swirls in the dirt with his finger.

“My sensei, Jiraiya, was Ero Sennin...”

In an instant, Naruto suddenly jumped to his feet, beaming of energy and pride with such vigor, Korra jumped too at the unexpected 180 shift in mood.

“Jiraiya, my master, was the legendary Toad Sage! He taught me the summoning jutsu of Gamabunta and Rasengan!”

“That’s greeaat,” Korra said with a sarcastic tint of skepticism as she began to think he might be a bit nutty, “Can you show me?”

“Definitely!” Naruto affirmed and began performing the jutsu signs, then suddenly, he stopped, “No, wait… these techniques are reserved for dangerous and emergency situations, only.” he mumbled to himself, turning away from the Avatar.

Korra scoffed incredulously with a side smirk.

“If you can’t do it- Don’t worry, I understand,” she said, skeptically, then teased “It’s not like we need help down in this treacherous, damp little cave.”

“J-j-johto matte!”

She rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to the fire, mumbling irritatedly and poking at the waning embers with a stick before she heard a loud -POOF!- sound that drew her attention immediately back to face a busty, slender, long-legged, yellow-haired young woman posing sexily, with long pigtails; barely covered with conveniently floating puffs of steam, and wearing nothing but a lusty pink pout on her lips. Her long, dark eyelashes fluttered as she winked and moaned.

“Notice me, senpai!”

“WHAAAT!?!?” Korra shrieked in wide-eyed, slack-jawed, shock and disbelief when her nose started bleeding and she blushed furiously, stuttering, “N-N-N-N-NARUTO!?!?”

With another POOF!, he changed back to normal with a hearty laugh, pointing and teasing her,

“I can’t believe you fell for that! You’re as bad as Ero-sennin!”

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

“My sexy technique.” he smiled big with a thumbs up, “I’ve gotten better at detailing it, but it’s a Genin technique.”

Korra looked stunned.

“Are you a shapeshifter?!?”

“No,” He laughed harder “No, but it does come in handy for stealth infiltration. Ninjas are all about stealth.”

“YOU!? Stealth?! HA!” Korra scoffed, flustered “I heard you clear from the other side of the bridge!”

“HEY! I can be stealthy!” Naruto got defensive, “ Some ninja’s techniques are just better suited for it than others, baaaaka!”

He stuck his tongue out.

“Clearly!” Korra dismissed, “Even the sound your transformation made was noisy!”

“YOSH!” Naruto’s eyes suddenly burned with determination, “FIGHT ME!”

Korra laughed easily before standing and taking her pro-bending stance.

“I won’t go easy on you.” she warned.

“Then I won’t hold back, either!”

They circled slowly, watching one another with studied precision, before Naruto rushed in, throwing his weight behind every lightning fast punch. Korra barely blocked his blinding left and right hooks before right-blocking his sneaky knee coming up toward her chin and stepping into his insole, knocking him backward and stumbling off balance. Bodied.

He backflipped regaining his stance before closing in, again, before she even had a chance to shake the sting out of her hands.

‘He’s fast!’ she thought, as she spun low, ducking under a flying knee that nearly took her head off, immediately followed by a kick to her back, causing her to stumble forward in the sand.

As soon as she spun to face him once again, there were kunai flying at her, mere inches away from her face, when she blocked and deflected them all with a concentrated gust of air.

“Wind huh? I know that song,” he taunted, cockily.

Korra re-adjusted her stance, taking a deep breath before he did the same and they began circling once again, in the opposite direction, she then felt a small trickle of warm blood drip down her upper arm when Naruto winked with a ‘bring it’ gesture,

‘He fucking grazed me!” Korra thought, heated, at the cocky display before pulling a water whip from the koi pond, cracking it instantly, and causing him to back up, before he charged her again, and met with the full impact of a torrent hitting him directly in the chest, slamming his back to the floor. Korra closed the distance with a battle cry as he hopped back up to his feet.

“Tajuu, kage bunshin no jutsu!” he shouted.

10 clones popped into existence simultaneously surrounding her. Korra was stunned.

He mimicked the laughter of a villain before sending in the clones full force. Korra ducked and dodged one after the other, spinning out with a fiery whirlwind at their feet, before connecting critical hits with water and airbending that caused them to go POOF! with every heavy blow that landed, hitting her stride and proud to show off her powerful moves.

“HA!” she laughed with a giddy grin on her face as she clocked the last Naruto into oblivion with a mastered liquid uppercut to his chin. The move left her open only for a second when Naruto instantly appeared from behind the dispelled clone growling,

“RASENGAN!” and nearly connected it as Korra caught the spinning blue ball between her hands with airbending.

Much to both their surprise, her taking possession of the concentrated ball; yet not knowing its true power, caused it to dispel and sent them both flying like ragdolls in an explosive whirlwind blast.

They landed with hard thuds, plastered against the craggy cave wall near the jagged ceiling stalactites, crackling and blowing jagged pieces of stony shrapnel into the strong spinning winds. The tornado-like turbulence, drew tears from her eyes as her grip slipped and the tempest nearly blew her away with a shriek when Naruto caught her by the wrist, while barely maintaining a grip on the rock wall by fingertips, himself.

Suddenly the surge ceased all at once, unexpectedly dropping them to the sandy cave floor, bumping heads hard as they clashed and knocking them both equally unconscious.

Part Three

“Kakashi-sensei!!!” Sakura shrieked, stopping him in his tracks before gripping his shoulders and spinning him around to face her.

“What is it Sakura?”

“Naruto! He’s gone!” she shouted, hysterically, dripping of sweat, while gasping between words to catch her breath, “He’s missing!”

“Sakura, please calm down. Tell me exactly what happened.”

“There was a cave i-in the wilderness- He w-went in!” she spilled the information in between heaving breaths “I ran all the way back- we have to help him!”

“We have to tell lady Tsunade!”

They urgently ran through the narrow village streets of Konoha, all the way to the Hokage’s office. Sakura burst through the door in a blind panic, riling the ash blonde woman and her assistant at once, nearly tripping and falling on her face as she sped through, when Kakashi instantly caught her at the waist and held her up, panting heavily and shivering with a hysterical look in her eyes while her knees wobbled weakly and her panicked breathing broke down into exhausted sobbing as she explained what happened.

“He told me about these dreams he was having and I would have told somebody but he SWORE me to secrecy…”

“Sakura, what kind of dreams?” Kakashi asked, way too close to her ear and her face reddened, “Dreams about the nine-tails?”

She nodded slowly before Tsunade cleared her throat, neatly raising an eyebrow at their posture and breaking their hold uncomfortably.

“We were scouting southern armaments when we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Naruto said he knew where we were, he knew that place somehow… I was lost, so I trusted him...after a day’s journey in the southern wilds, we came upon a mysterious cave, madam” Sakura recounted after a small cup of green tea finally calmed her trembling hands. “Naruto told me that his destiny depended on it and that nine-tails led him to it… he said he needed to go alone-”

“And you let him?!” Tsunade growled, with a slow, irritated facepalm.

“HE insisted, of course! You know how stubborn Naruto can be!!” she explained, “I waited a moment to give him a head start before I went to shadow, but…”

“What?!”

“I was attacked…”

“By who?!”

“Fire!- blasted from the cave, melted me to the bone, and I saw The nine-tails! I saw its eyes!”

“When I recovered from the blast, the cave had vanished!” her voice broke again “He’s dead! I just know he’s dead!”

“SAKURA!” Tsunade slammed her palm onto the desktop, maintaining a grip on the knot in her throat with a restrained fury, “Naruto would not be this foolish. He is not dead. But we obviously need a plan... I wish Jiraiya were here... I’m no good with this prophecy stuff.”

“Ma’am” Kakashi chimed in, “I could head up a small dojutsu task force to search the area for irregular chakra patterns.”

Shizune smiled with a coy giggle, disguising it as a cough, before excusing herself from the room.

“I think that will do, just fine, Kakashi,” she said, impressed “Assemble your team, send me a bluebird or a foot messenger with a status update in 48 hours.”

“Yes ma’am” he stood at once, offering a slight pause and a sidelong glance to Sakura before departing.

___________________________

“My head..” Naruto groaned as he woke up, to Korra healing her water over his temples.

“I am so sorry, I uppercut you like that.”

“No, no... I’m sorry I attacked you full force.”

“I could have really hurt you…”

“Me too...But we survived,” he chuckled with a sore wink.

Korra’s eyes softened as her cerulean gaze met his and she found herself smiling down at him. Then she tentatively leaned forward, her heartbeat quickened, eyes closed and their lips met. As they parted, their eyes met once again and roused a deeper, more impassioned kiss that spiraled like the whirlwind that dizzied the senses and flooded the air with their desire.

Naruto took her face in his hands between slowed kisses, and touched his forehead to hers.

“We need to find a way to get out of here.”

Korra nodded.

“Have you gone into the temple?” he asked as she helped him sit up. 

“No. I always felt safer outside it.”

“A baddie like you shouldn’t be afraid of anything!” he chuckled.

“I dunno...this place-”

“We may at least find a release...” he said with a pondering stroke to his chin. “together...”

“What?” 

“To the outside.”

“...I see.” Korra said, raising a skeptical brow after a moment of contemplation, “No more surprises, though. If I tell you not to breathe, don’t.”

“YOSH!” he jumped up, pumped to join her in her proud march to the temple door.

As they meticulously crossed the threshold, proceeding slowly into the temple,a booby trap tripped almost instantly, shooting poison darts that barely missed them. They broke into a sprint down the narrow corridor, when the floor opened up, nearly swallowing Korra as she fell in a tumble. Shooting fire from her heels, she completed the jump to the opposite side of the crumbling floor tiles as Naruto ran the wall to the other side.

Just as they began to celebrate, the rumbling crackling of a weight tumbling down overhead, collapsed into the corridor as a boulder, crashing down full force behind them. Naruto ran ahead, when Korra crossed her arms, pulling in the stone walls of the temple in staggered pillars that snapped one by one as it continued barreling full force toward her; then she braced herself, meeting the stone head on, full force, the weight of it grinding her heels deep into the sloped ground as she slowed it to a full stop, right at the edge of the steep drop, where Naruto stood in awe overlooking into a closed, glowing, blue-watered, atrium growing glowing pink lotuses within its charged waters. 

As they dropped in, Korra caught them with waterbending, and the rush of it caused them to surface, giggling, laughing and splashing around with victorious howls.

As Korra emerged from the luminescent pool, crouching, the blue water reflecting in her eyes, made them look as if they were glowing while she determinedly looked around the room for a way out.

“There are 8 doors…” she stood after a moment. “But they could be more traps”

“I knew it...” Naruto smiled, floating on his back in the warm water while looking dreamily up at her scoping the room.

Korra pulled Naruto up from the pool, with much effort as he pulled backward, trying to make her fall back into the water. They laughed together at her strength as he caught up, then continued walking hand in hand toward the first door marked with a mysterious foreign symbol.

“Do you recognize this writing?” she asked.

“No, I think I may have seen it somewhere, before, though…”

“Me too…”

They contemplated a moment, before Korra tentatively studied and touched the symbol, smearing it’s ruddy pigment slightly when the torpid stone door slowly grinded open to reveal another door, just beyond its threshold. Wooden, with an inset, red gem in the center of the painted Symbol.

“I’ll go in first.” Naruto caught her hand as she went to turn the doorknob.

As the door creaked open, the dim glow of a steady fire, burning in a center pit, lit the huge ancient room; strewn with golden treasures haphazardly piled in its corners and dust covered cloth thrown over its furnishings.

“YATTA!” Naruto rejoiced with a fist pump.

As Korra walked the perimeter of the room examining the golden and bejeweled sculptures, she came across a small model of the eight-armed Goddess guarding the bridge.

A still eeriness fell over her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck before she turned back to Naruto to suggest they sleep in shifts, only to find him already knocked out and snoring on the couch.

___________________________________

Lin stomped the cold earth under her foot, feeling her way through the wilderness’ subterranean spaces with Earthbending for a long, still, moment while Mako and Bolin shivered in the light snowfall, looking on in trepidation. Kuvira, along with 4 metal-bending officers, stood at attention, ready to perform whatever duties were required, should they discover,

“A cave. Buried about 30 meters below” she said after 3 long minutes of rigid stance as sweat was beginning to form on her brow. “It’s a big one.”

She took a deep breath, before Bolin gave her an affectionate punch to the arm, reminding her warmly of Toph while commenting that she had to teach him.

“It’s an incredibly deep cave. I only felt the stalactites before my vibration was dispersed. SO I can’t say exactly how big, but it’s massive...and buried leagues beneath us...”

“Do you think she could have survived this long if she is actually down there, chief?” Mako fidgeted anxiously.

“If it was anyone other than Korra, I would be saying no.”

“Great! Then, let’s get to it!” Bolin cracked his knuckles and took his earthbending stance before Lin stopped him.

“It has shifted at least 3 times while we’ve been standing here” Lin shook her head. “It’s not changing location, yet, but there are spirits at work and I don’t want us to accidentally collapse it since it is moving earth like a bubbled mobile structure...cushioned by tons of boulders-I’ve never felt anything like it...”

“Where does that leave us?!” Mako shouted, suddenly pissed. “You’re saying we can’t even dig her out!?!?”

“You know I wouldn’t have it any other way, Mako, but I’m just telling you what I found. Maybe if we brought Jinora in, she could at least project inside and see if Korra is actually-”

“OF COURSE SHE IS!” he roared.

“Detective, do you need some air?” Lin asked calmly, raising an eyebrow. “Because I think we all want what’s best for the Avatar.”

“Yeah, Mako.” Bolin gripped his brother’s shoulder supportively before he shrugged him off. “Maybe you should go back to Air Temple Island and regroup.”

“YOU go. I’ll find her on my own.”

He stalked off into the wilds, before Bolin began to run after him and Kuvira’s arm shot out to stop him.

“I think your brother needs to be alone for a while, Bolin.”

“Oh? Oh...I mean...sure...okay.” Bolin mumbled sadly with a woeful pout.

______________________________

Korra and Naruto stared into the crackling fire, burning like eyebrows for a moment, when Korra asked, 

“Have you ever almost died?”

“So many times, I lost count.” Naruto said before he double-tapped his bicep,“but it always made me stronger.”

“When I was pushed to the edge of death with metal poison, It made me see all the things I never wanted to become...and I almost gave up.”

“But you didn’t,”

“No...”

“I think you would have really liked my friend, Neji.”

“What was he like?”

“Calm. Calculated and determined... And I hated him. He had a lot to prove to himself and to his family, so he wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect.” He mused fondly, staring off into nostalgia as if Neji were standing right in front of him and giggled “He almost looked like a girl, because he never cut his hair.”

Suddenly his expression became very somber when he explained, 

“He almost died for Sasuke, when he left the village and never bragged about how he single-handedly took down the toughest guy of them all. I understand now he was a sweet guy, even if I didn’t like him when we were kids; and I was lucky enough to beat him in a fight.” he chuckled as a tear glinted in his eye and he rubbed his jaw, thinking about Korra’s uppercut. “Once.”

“...But he didn’t make it…” Korra whispered, after a long pause.

“He made peace with his death, but no one else has.” he grinned with a nervous laugh. “If anyone else could have been an Avatar, like you, it might have been him”

“Did he do ninjoo-tsu like you?”

“He had the ability to see chakra points all over your body,” he slowly signed a jutsu before pressing Korra’s points in slow succession and explaining “Up to 64 points and 360 degree defense that left him virtually untouchable. By the time he was done, you couldn’t move.”

“Like a chi-blocker...”

“Chi?”

“You call it... Chakra?”

“You know this technique?” he smirked a little intimidated, yet impressed.

“I know of it. It takes years to learn. BUT I do know a very secret, forbidden technique” she slid closer, “Don’t tell anyone… she whispered.”

“What is it?”

“It’s called...bloodbending...bending the water through the body of a living being...” Korra started nervously “I never want to have cause to use it because it makes me feel sick, to take force of another person’s will and make them into a puppet...”

Naruto imagined a shadow of Shikamaru saying “mendokusai” for some reason, when he replied,

“You have this power too, for a reason… yet you never take it for granted.” he smiled. ”That’s wisdom- you’re like a sage too!”

“You’re just too sweet,” Korra blushed with a smile, tucking her hair behind one ear “...to fight like such a demon.”

Their lips brushed and her hands, creeping under his shirt, somehow, suddenly found their way up to his navel, gently brushing his seal, when he nervously stood up. 

“I’m gonna find food!” he blurted with a nervous shifty-eyed shuffle before making quick excuses to himself as he hastily left, closing the creaky wooden door behind him.

Naruto walked in earnest, along the edge of the gleaming pools as their tessellating refractions painted a silhouette of his moving shadow along the sandstone walls.

“I can’t tell her that…” he shook his head, mumbling.

Before long, he came to a stop by a path leading to the third door; Marked with another mysterious insignia. Slowly grinding open to him and inviting him closer, it revealed a wooden door behind, inset with a green gem. Drawing a kunai from his pouch, Naruto approached with caution, before slowly opening the door to a humid lush greenery of glowing trees, wisteria and abundantly thriving flora of all colors.

Pools of the cyan spirit waters cascaded from waterfalls that trickled a steady stream from steep, narrow crags in the sandstone cave walls, surrounding the huge 8-armed-Goddess carved into the stone face. As he walked, Naruto took in the expansive beauty of the garden shrine in awe, wondering how any of it survived without ever seeing sunlight. 

He hopped the boulders across the creek to sit at her feet, facing the door, where the river divided the room into halves. One side was thriving with flora and fauna while the other was only grassy moss, emanating from the statue.

Taking a moment to breathe, Naruto closed his eyes and thought of home.

Part Four

“Up Ahead!” Sakura called out, from behind the white fox mask with red markings, signalling to Kakashi where to descend as they sprinted through the lively forest trees streaking painted fiery colors through the falling leaves.

They quickly and unexpectedly came upon the edge of a clearing to find a solitary, dark figure, sitting at it’s calm center as the wind rolled golden waves through the tall dry grass and the clouds above painted slow moving shadows mimicking the red cloud pattern on the back of the black robe.

“Akatsuki!” Kakashi thought, instantly holding up a fist and halting the squad before they were noticed. He slowed his breathing as they silently took to hiding in the trees for reconnaissance. 

After 10 minutes of no movement, Sakura signaled she was going in. 

“No! Sakura, wait!” Kakashi whispered loudly as she took off into the field.

“I was waiting for you to come.” the lone ninja slowly stood and turned to face her.

“ITACHI?!” Sakura stopped dead in her tracks with a sharp gasp “You’re dead!”

“Simply put.”

“HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!” she shouted.

“Your brother was here...then I was here...” Itachi mumbled with a subtle dark-humored smirk, obscured in riddle.

“Sakura, get away from him!” Kakashi shouted from behind the anbu mask, as the others surrounded Itachi from all sides.

“I don’t want a fight.” he sighed impatiently, with a depressed expression, “I am not even supposed to be awake.”

Sakura snatched off her mask, revealing a cross expression.

“SAKURA-CHAN!” Kakashi warned, “We could already be in his genjutsu!!” 

“Tell me what you know!” she demanded.

“I woke up just now, not far from here. I wandered to find my way, but always somehow ended up back where I started...” he took a moment to recollect, before stating, “I have no memory of life as my own before I woke up here ...but of a past this body had lived... and died. That’s how I knew you were calling him...or me?... ‘Itachi’ ”

“Have you seen a cave!?”

“I came across two?...No, maybe it was the same…” he trailed off, mumbling, with a downward glance, trying hard to remember, “...was it a cave?”

“He’s lost...” Sakura shuddered, half mumbling to herself, when Kakashi tilted her chin up.

“You should go back.” he calmly demanded, nearly pleading, when her eyes began to water in protest. “We need to keep our heads, and the Hokage needs to know about this-”

“I believe she is actually needed here…” Itachi surprisingly cut in as his dark, mysterious eyes, settled on Sakura’s, somehow causing her face to flush hotter than usual while her wobbling knees were a reminder of Sasuke. “...to call the cave.”

“No.” Kakashi said, pushing his own mask up, “You look like him, and you sound like him, but that is even MORE REASON NOT TO TRUST YOU!”

Itachi’s eyes met with Kakashi’s for a moment. 

“Then don’t.” he said, before turning his back and calmly taking his seat once again in the center of the meadow. 

“Hinata,” Kakashi called out to the timid girl in the panda mask. “Go back with Kurenai and tell the Hokage everything. Sai, you’re with us.”

“But-” Hinata began.

“DAMMIT!” Kakashi began anxiously “Please, Hinata, you’re the only one I can trust to tell her without bias, about Uchiha Itachi.”

Hinata stared at the ground for a pause. Turned her back, fully upright and stomped off in a furious huff with the reluctant jounin following quick on her heels.

“Dammit.” Kakashi sighed with a sweatdrop.

“Shall we go?” Itachi said, calmly standing, facing the golden waves of rolling fields, stretching out into the horizon, and perhaps beyond. 

___________________________________

 Rubbing his lower back from crouching over the stream, Naruto slowly stood, tying the last caught fish to his bundle, when suddenly he heard a small splash from the other side of the river.

Instinctively reacting with shinobi reflexes, Naruto instantly rolled to hide in the brush when he saw a small black cat bounding away from him with a start. 

“Neko-chaaan!” he called out sweetly to the apprehensive animal, “Here kitty, kit-”

He fell silent as the subtle murmuring of someone’s voice alerted him to another presence nearby.

“To fight like such a demon… UGH!” Korra mimicked herself in a nasal whine, “I can’t believe I said something so stupid. He’s so sweet when he talks to me; I just wanted to compliment him…and I can’t even do that right! I’m such a screw up!” She groaned loudly, carelessly tossing her heavy, wet boots that landed with a thud, into the bush Naruto was near. 

“The worst part about it, was that I meant it! I am so screwed up! What would Iroh say? This is why you’re so unlucky in love, Korra-you’re way too honest?!”

As she drew nearer, the fussy mumbling, finally became discernible when he saw her bare legs walk by his hiding spot, under a honeysuckle bush. Naruto’s face blushed red hot when her fur belt dropped, as she passed by, leaving a trail of clothing behind.

“Dammit,” he thought, swallowing hard and feeling anxious. 

The Avatar stepped into the cold, shallow pool with a slight shiver, before drawing a slow breath and exhaling fire. When the pool began to steam, she plopped down, unravelling the gauze holding down her breasts before putting the warm fabric on her closed eyes and trying to relax.

Naruto froze, thinking: ‘I gotta get out of here. Sakura-chan would wreck me if she busted me hiding like this!’

Slowly backing away on his hands and knees, he took one last glance over to the pool to see her stand up, steaming from the hot water trickling down her slick, toned, tan back, over the twin dimples over her plump backside, that rendered him hard still and silent.

She looked to her left, feeling a suspicious presence.

“Show yourself, coward."

“Fuck! What do I do now?!” he silently panicked.

“You should fear me, girl.” a deep voice resonated through the branches of the glowing tree overhanging the pool.”

A sinister, giant black centipede of a being with a white mask for a face slithered in from shadowed upper branches of the tree. Naruto gasped, nearly leaping from the bush to her rescue, just barely noticing when Korra’s face went completely slack and stoic and her hand clenched into a fist, stopping the rustling in the bushes.

“I know you… You’re...Koh the face stealer, aren’t you?” she asked monotonously.

“I see my reputation precedes me, Avatar.” it said as fingers of sharp teeth swallowed the mask and mimicked her own face, grinning sickly back at her “I would so love to add your pretty face to my collection.”

“I’m not interested, nor can the avatar spirit be bought or sold with cheap tricks.” 

 When she confronted his intentions directly, Koh’s face blinked in shock, before he switched to no-face with renewed determination. “I don’t need your consent.”

A kunai sliced through the air, singing wind and pinning Koh to the bark of the tree by one of its creepy insect legs. The monster hissed in pain, turning his attention in the talking bush’s direction

“AIIIIIIIIEE!!! KILL IT!!!” he shrieked like a 12 year old, reflexively nailing 8 more of the steel knives into Koh’s long body, causing it to screech and writhe in struggle.

 As soon as the mask turned back to face Korra, changing expression with every startled wink of the eyelids, a silver sliver of an ice disk, sliced through Koh, separating its head from the body.

“I guess you didn’t know the Avatar wasn’t only here in spirit.” Korra said with relief, staring down at the smoking, bubbling dissipating tar that left only the mask of a ‘no-face’ behind.

“You’re so cool!” Naruto leapt out of the bush excitedly with a fist pump, before his softened eyes met hers betraying an expression of honesty dazed in the blush of his whiskered cheeks.

“You are.” Korra replied modestly, reflecting his expression as she stood stark naked with a hand on her hip and proud, a moment, before realizing she was naked, and her face burned bright red while the steam got hotter, then too dense to see through. She slowly sank back into the water, turning her back to him while he did the same on the grass, taking a seat to stay by her side and look out for her safety.

“Chikusho...” Naruto mumbled under his breath. “Sa- I mean...Korra-san,”

Korra’s bowed head, slowly rose as she looked over her shoulder, noticing the cherry blossom tree, overhanging the pool. 

“I wasn’t very nice to you before…” Naruto started, “I have never been this lost in my life...and...I’m afraid that what I always knew I wanted is becoming a fading memory...far away…” he paused a moment, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I have to tell you something…” Naruto took a deep breath, “I am a...Jinchuuriki.”

Korra slowly looked back to him, before placing her elbows on the mossy edge of the pool.

“What does that mean?”

He rubbed his chin contemplatively as he thought about how to tell her they were natural enemies, and took a moment to ponder how Jiraiya would explain.

“The nine-tails demon fox, you dispelled…”

“That spirit was REALLY STRONG!” she griped, “I almost got singed! Don’t tell me THAT’s after you!?”

“It’s after you, Korra-chan.” he smirked, while she looked up at him energetically, with glowing blue water dripping from the tips of her brown hair.

“Where did it come from?”

“It attacked my village when I was just a baby. So many people died, including both my parents. I was orphaned by the nine-tailed beast, before I could crawl and the entire village was devastated by its destruction when the youngest Hokage couldn’t even save his own family.”

Korra’s eyes watered with hurt and hatred.

“The Fourth Hokage’s son was sealed with the chakra of the Kyuubi...the nine-tails ‘chi’... in reality the child could only hold half of the chakra and survive it... But the tale of the fire fox’s rampage, spread throughout the countries and caused...ripples of unimaginable chaos...political power struggles and shockwaves that have formed a chain of fate as long as three wars and that child’s life up until now…”

“You?” Korra gasped, fixing Naruto with eyes squinted in heartbreaking confusion,

“If we had an Avatar, like you… my parents...might still be...”

As his voice broke, Naruto tore his misty eyes away from hers, burning with regret, when she tilted his chin back to hers, kissing him.

“Korra-chan…” he sighed, blushing dreamily “...I-I also wanted t-t-to tell you...you know..I-I’m a...I-I’ve never ummm-”

“I want to know you.” her breath suddenly shuddered as her sparkling azure gaze locked with his own. “Now; every day...”

Their lips met again, teasing tongues in swirling patterns between thick kisses like the swimming koi pond of Tui and La. Butterflies fluttered up from underneath his belt, rising to his navel, as her warm hand, lifted his shirt, grazing him there; when he took it off instead, instantly resuming the hot snake-tongue dance and pulling her, with a moan, out of the pool to him.

The door burst open to the treasured room, glittering golden in the crackling firelight that roared brighter as they entered, knocking pewter and brass off the walls in their impassioned tango, tangled, ass in hand, barely crash landing to the bed while knocking a gold coin from the nightstand that flipped to head over tails before it landed with a knock to the floor, and a roll through the door. The air of the room rose in temperature as the tongues of flame from the fire pit seemed to lap at them in sines, reflected in the fall and rise of the tide, drowning in the flood of moans and sultry sighs, tingeing the air humid with its sticky sweet duo melody.

The floorboards creaked rhythmically, slowly winding a tight hold on a pitched whine while whirring like the clockwork gears of a pocketwatch, rocked as a pendulum to hypnotize. The harmonic convergence of tropical blue birds reverberated high notes through the centerpit flame tinting the crackling orange fire, with plasmic blue embers that grew volume into seeds of raging flares; the groans and howls of warriors growing intensely, fluttering in white hot luminescence. Breathless pants shuddering “Ohhh h! My Goddess!” in melodic timbre, at the peak of a mounting tension that gripped and grasped at the borders of physical control, before being swiftly pulled overboard by deep spasms underneath tsunami waves crashing over them like cymbals, taking their breath away, moaning tender pleas and passionate whispers forming a breathless crescendo of deep kisses, completing the lullaby overture on a cloud, floating with each nested in the arms of the other, gently lulling them into tranquil dreams and binding their fates with a red string.

______________________________________

“Ne, ne, Sakura-chan,” Naruto ran over to her, in his orange and blue jumpsuit, with a gleeful childish giggle at the village steps. “I learned a swear!”

“What?” Sakura, raised an eyebrow, flipping her waist length hair over her shoulder, impatiently. He gripped her shoulder and leaned in closer to her ear as he looked around before putting his hand up to cover his mouth and whispered,

“Sex.” 

He cracked up laughing, as her anger throbbed and she socked him one over the head with a yelp.

“I don’t know what it means!” he pouted as she dragged him by his ear down the steps.

“Jeez!” She sighed, “Your parents really should-”

She stopped herself, before letting him go. “I’m sorry….”

“Is it bad?” he asked her, rubbing his ear.

“No..Naruto, well…I’m not supposed to be the one to tell you this! Can’t you talk to Iruka-sensei about this stuff?” she scoffed.

Naruto suddenly looked betrayed and upset, kicking a pebble down the steps. “Iruka-sensei still treats me like a baby.”

She heaved a heavy sigh, “I suppose if you had parents you would have figured it out for yourself by now, so maybe Iruka-sensei was like you, in a sense, and just wants-”

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto folded his arms in indignation, “Just tell me. I would tell you, if you were in my shoes. If I’m asking, isn’t it time for me to know?!”

“But- Iruka-sensei-”

“CAN’T PROTECT ME FOREVER! He gets so shifty EVERY TIME I ASK!” 

“There’s only so much we can avoid…” Sakura said as she took a seat on the steps, near the center railing, blushing and enthralled with staring at her shoes a moment, before she looked back up to see him in his black and orange attire, wearing his sage coat and sitting back on his elbows.

“Have you ever done it?” he asked, as his blue eyes, found his own shoes, replaying the memory in present real-time.

“Of course not!” she shouted with grisly cubist grit.

“I did it!” he laughed again, clapping her on the shoulder, and wiggling his pinky finger with a huge grin, “Ne, ne, Sakura-chan! She can do this thing with her tongue-”

“ENOUGH!” she shrieked awake, sitting up at once to a spooked Sai and startled Kakashi, kunai in hand, while Itachi calmly sat watch, just outside the temple. 

“Sakura-chan.” Kakashi, groggily responded, rubbing his eyes “What is the meaning of this?!”

She threw off the thin blanket and marched through the sand over to the doorway of the bridge before stomping with a hand on her hip “ Why’d we have to come in past that creepy old ugly statue anyway?!” 

“I think she’s pretty” Itachi smirked, with downcast eyes and a mild temperament, when, seemigly from nowhere, a soft breeze wafted over his dark tresses, carrying the sound of a flute in its presence.

“I’m ready to move out!” 

“Sakura, please, you barely even slept at all,” Kakashi groaned, exhaustedly.” Naruto could be closer than you think, if we don’t take the time to-”

“OH I GET IT!” she growled, before shoving Itachi’s shoulder to force him from his spot, which he evaded, making her stumble under her own weight.

“Just say please,” he commented, while relinquishing his sitting spot to her, knowing damn well, that wasn’t the issue. 

“UGH! MEN!” Sakura snatched the thin blanket from underneath his new position, eliciting an irritated sigh with a throbbing tick, that made him warn, 

“Even the Buddha got mad after 3 times, Sakura.”

“Shut UP, Itachi!” she growled, rolling over in the blanket like a burrito and curling up into a ball with a slam of her fist into the sand.

“Shut up, Itachi-SAN!” he corrected emphatically, “You were raised by your parents and still you have no manners!”

“Please, Itachi...sama, ” Kakashi held out a hand to ease the tension, “I think this cave is affecting us all. We need to stick together, and in order to do that, Sakura-chan must be respectful…”

She scoffed angrily, while dismissively tossing sand over her shoulder .

“Sakura...be mindful of how you treat your sensei. I taught you everything you know.” Kakashi stated with a wry chuckle, “Anything can happen in this underworld wilderness, and we could be killed in an instant, leaving you all alone out here, with no possible way home.”

She shuddered to think, before her body tension gradually eased and a look of contrition briefly met her eyes when she laid her heavy head, back down, to try and sleep.

“...I can’t dance either,” Ino, confided in Sakura while they both received pedicures. “But I’m just asking, if you had to choose between Naruto and Sasuke, which one would you let step on your newly painted toes?”

“Ino, if I keep dancing, maybe they won’t ever step on my toes.”

“SAKURA- you can’t just keep a boy dangling from your little finger because he’s on your team! You think he won’t eventually just, move on?”

“It’s fine! I can do whatever I want and we’ll always be friends. He is totally in love with me! I think he’s willing to wait as long as it takes to keep me.”

Ino glared at her,

“You are so ignorant.”

“You just want Sasuke all for yourself.”

‘SASUKE? This is NOT about Sasuke!” Ino scoffed.

“What- Naruto? You like Naruto?” Sakura puffed a ridiculous laugh and rolled her eyes..

“What if I said yes?”

“You can have him.”

“See, that’s your problem. He’s not yours to give, Sakura.” her eyes narrowed with a restrained fury, “I might take your precious little kyuubi for myself, just because he’s funny and cute and-”

“Ino- did Naruto put you up to this?”

”NO! And what if he did?!” her cheeks puffed up angrily. “Let me ask you this: What will you do if he meets a girl on a mission or something?”

“Like Shion, or all the other what’s-her-faces we’ve come across? When we’re not together in the village, we’re together on a mission outside it. Our bond is unbreakable.”

“You!” Ino cringed, “Hinata has been in love with him since before we were Genin, so what will you do when he chooses her?!”

“What if I ask him first?”

With a stern shove to her back, the world rotated upside down in slow motion as Sakura’s eyes widened in surprise and confusion before landing with a hard slam, flat on her back, against hardwood floor. Ino stood and walked over to her old friend and rival, looking down at her, upside down.

“At least it wasn’t from the top of the stairs.” she said with a small smile, turning her back to walk away, before stopping and adding, “It was the blonde thing...You always treated us different, even though we were born in the leaf too…”

“Uso...da” Sakura thought to herself when the temperature over her seemed to grow cold and her eyelids slowly opened, awakening from the strange dream to a stranger reality.

Part Five

“CHIEF!” Mako slid to a stop in the new snowfall, panting flames, and out of breath.

Kuvira and Chief Beifong exchanged a brief glance before she commented,

“Wow-”

“Mako what is it?” Lin, cut her off “What’d you find?”

“He found her?!” Tenzin exclaimed, rushing to Lin's side immediately as he arrived on the scene.

“I found a thin spot…” he panted weakly, sweat dripping from his nose, and sizzling as the drops hit the cold ground. “I felt there was a fire, underground; I used it to lead me to where we might be able to break through with the least amount of resistance.”

Kuvira’s eyebrow raised with a subtle smile, before she walked around him in tight-lipped observation, while Lin rubbed her forehead feeling a migraine coming on as the snow began falling once again.

“What are you doing?” he asked, shortly, slapping her hand away when Kuvira reached out to touch him. When she did it again, he, again, pushed her hand away, which rendered a quick block, then, another reach, which he thwarted, until they somehow were engaged in a heated battle of blocks, evasion, and deterrence then, finally, contact, when her hand hovered over his heart, and he reluctantly closed his eyes, letting her touch him.

“He’s telling the truth, and the fire was dragon’s fire...There is a metallic component tied to its nature.” 

“How do you know that?”

‘How do you know what you know?” she smirked, “The flames.”

“WELL WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR- LET’S GO GET HER!” Tenzin shouted, nearly panicking.

“Oh, she’s fine...” Mako added with a slightly angry tick,

“Lead the way, Mako!” Lin instructed, with a gesture, while Bolin proudly nudged him with a friendly elbow. 

“Well… trust me...there’s no need to rush in there.”

As the team approached the area, they noticed the deep cut in stone was melted smooth as glass, forming large shiny bubbles of black obsidian, now beginning to be covered in new snowfall.

“Mako, did you do this?” Bolin asked.

“I don’t know what came over me,” he lied.

“You made lava, bro!” Bolin hugged him tight, “I wonder if you can earthbend too?!”

“No.” he shook his head, “If I could, I would’ve collapsed the whole damn cave.”

A still moment of silence passed through them all, before Lin instructed Bolin to help complete the tunnel per Mako’s directional instructions.

________________________________________

The subdued shudder of a subterranean blast, quaked them groggily awake, when the sound of shuffling group movement became more apparent as they got closer. 

The wooden door flung open, at once, to a golden, glowing girl with short white hair and whiskers, backed into the corner of the bed, peering over her arms atop her drawn knees covering her chest and a magnificently long, glowing white tail, curled around herself as her white ears stood forward at attention.

The feral slits of her confused cerulean eyes widened, following Mako closely as he took a step back, stunned, confused, in awe and disbelief of the untamed beauty of the wild spirit beast before he realized he was holding Korra’s fur belt that he’d just picked up, following her trail from the river room. Mako held out a hand, behind the door, signalling for the team to hold position, while he slowly backed away, in hopes that she would want to emerge from the dimly lit room as he set the belt down for her to put on, before coming out into the open.

She jumped from there, on all fours, with a power that caused the massive frame of the heavy bed to screech as it skid slightly across the wooden floor; making Mako fear for his life a moment, when she grabbed his collar and stood to a full height on two legs that lifted him slightly off the floor. She sniffed him curiously before her pupils rounded and she smiled, flashing deadly canines when she recognized him with a strong bear hug - squeezing the air from his lungs.

“Okay!” he flailed with bug-eyes, before he pushed himself away, back into the view of his confused team seeing him re-appear from behind the open door, disheveled. She tied the fur shawl around her hips, quickly, as an afterthought, when he gestured for her to come out into the open.

As she cautiously emerged, the team gasped in shock, and immediately took their stances, when Mako shouted,

“No, wait!”

Tenzin’s hands, however, were faster than Mako’s words as a blast of air whizzed past his ear, sending the beast sailing backward 20 feet with a loud flop of a massive splash into one of the glowing pools.

“Tenzin!” Mako shouted as he ran to check on her.

“Keep your distance, Mako!” He warned.

“Korra?!” Mako called out as she surfaced with a gasp, and Naruto’s head popped up, next to hers.

“Mako, you found us!” she said as they both looked up at him with relief and gratitude in their eyes.

Mako’s excited eyes then changed to confusion, when he shook his head, trying to focus, and hastily called the others over as they brought varying articles of the found clothing to the edge of the pool.

Suddenly, the cave quaked slightly, freezing everyone in tension, when a gigantic boulder crashed in from above, with a huge splash, washing over the shallow pools of the atrium floor with four, strangely dressed strangers instantly flickering into view, standing on top of it as soon as it rocked to a still stop.

“Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto called out, gleefully as he pulled on his shoe, ”Sai? Sakura!?”

His hair was still damp as he ran to them when he caught a glimpse of the black and red robes of Akatsuki, behind, worn by Uchiha Itachi.

“Itachi-san! WHAAAT! You’re here too!?”

“Hello, Naruto.” Itachi smiled with a slight chin nod to Korra, and her group,”Who are your friends?”

“This is Korra-san.” he said proudly as he introduced her, “She’s the Avatar that balances the spirit world with the material world.”

“Just another day in paradise.” Sakura mumbled under her breath.”Meet whats-her-face #304”

“Korra is my girlfriend!”

A moment of collective cool stillness dropped the temperature of the warm cave, when Sakura, flinching impulsively to punch Naruto, was thwarted when Kakashi, swiped the swing of her fist through, spinning her into his arms.

“We are all very happy for you, aren’t we, Sakura?” Itachi, Sai and Kakashi agreed with a bow and a happy nod, which was reluctantly, then, indignantly followed by Sakura.

“Girlfriend or no…we were worried!” Sakura said, after a calming deep breath, “ We need you to come home! You are the village’s protection.”

“As well as our pride and joy, Naruto.” Kakashi added.

His face screwed up angrily.

“Why? Is there an emergency? Like always?” he scoffed.

“You would be a defector if you just left...” Sakura warned.

“I’m not just a bijuu anymore, Sakura. I have finally found what I’ve been searching for,” he stepped closer, “don’t take it away from me all at once…” he whispered.

“Well… I suppose we could do recon, then, go back.” she turned to Kakashi and Itachi, proud and thrilled to finally be taken seriously, as they both averted their eyes with mild discontent, then both agreed with an unspoken look between them.

“S-s-sumi-mase-masen?” Korra stuttered with uncertainty, <”Why is it that I can understand you?”> she asked as her eyes settled on Itachi in a strange way.

“You are the bridge.” he smirked quietly behind the collar of his robe, before looking up with blood, red eyes “but you do make a fair point.”

He conjured five crows standing on his arm, before, turning to Korra’s group, gripped with anxious uncertainty, when he walked over to them and gestured that they each take a bird.

As each person received theirs, it transformed into kunai, each with mysterious sutra tags attached. Suddenly, the small knives simultaneously shot up between their eyes, with a collective gasp, and shocked expressions.

“What the HELL!?” Mako shouted in flagrant japanese, reflexively flaring up at the fists. 

<“Can you understand me now?”> Itachi asked, as his eyes darkened back to black.

A collective, unspoken understanding swept through the group as, they humbly accepted the sneak attack and save as a powerful gesture.

“Let’s get out of here! I’m STARVING!” Naruto clowned.

“I second that!” Bolin complained, with a stomach growl, before the procession dragged their feet back to the river room to exit the way they came.

________________________________________

The hooting of a night owl brightened his drowsy, heavy-eyed drifting, and he sat up straighter against the tree, from his high place of waiting. The swift breeze, brought a winter chill with it, blowing an updraft dense with autumn leaves as he heard running footfalls approaching from a distance.

“Now’s my chance…” he thought to himself with a deep breath, “Here I go....”

His eyes activated instantly as the figures, became more apparent, jumping branches toward him and closing the distance, under the leaf filtered moonlit canopy...when the sound of a huge tree branch, snapping, followed by a sharp gasp, set him in motion.

“HINATA!!” Kurenai cried as the young girl fell, head first toward the dark underbrush, when, in an instant blue flash of lightning, she vanished.

 “You’re fine now.” his deep voice surprised her, causing her to slowly open her hard-shut eyes, bracing for impact with the dirt.

“Sasuke-kun!?” she gasped. “Where did you come from!? What are you doing here?!”

Sasuke scoffed, with an expression tinged of a slight blush, before turning his back to her and explaining.

“I made a deal.” 

“Uchiha Sasuke! If you think you can kidnap Konoha Hyuuga clan’s first family’s successor, you’re wrong!” Hinata asserted, activating byakugan and taking a fierce stance, “I will fight you to Hell and back - and my father will never stop searching for me! You will be hunted down like a dog!”

His shoulders raised with a slight anxiousness, when he suddenly turned to her, warmly taking her hand and said “It’s not like that.”

Hinata blushed hot, when he stepped in closer, backing her into a tree.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this?”

“Hinata-sama” Sasuke stood eye to eye level with her, Sharingan to Byakugan. “I may never be able to return to Konoha, for some of the crimes against nature that I have committed… that’s why I need to tell you…”

“T-t-tell me what?” Hinata swallowed hard when her brow broke a sweat, even as the cold winds picked up, 

“Neji… Neji-sama would want it this way…” he closed his hand around hers and drew it close to his heart. “You can understand the emotion that drives this power...and you can help….for...my clan….”

Sasuke’s eyes watered, unexpectedly, causing him to turn away, embarrassed. 

“Sasuke-kun…?”

“Do you see now?” His voice broke, “I am the last Uchiha...”

“But Sakura-chan...” she said with a coy look to the side.

“With Sakura…” he hesitated for a grim moment, “...there are no genetic guarantees…”

“Oh! So it’s all about bloodline, for you, then?!” She shoved him in his back “What about Naruto!? He’s your best friend!”

“Hinata… Right now...I’m on the verge of self destruction, and these eyes… these eyes want the destruction of the world just for the attainment of their full power. The depth of madness they crave is as powerful as a narcotic, but...” his black eyes looked up at her, with hope, “Your house mastered the sealing juinjutsu, so maybe the activated powers can be better controlled and even mastered with your clan…Naruto will understand.”

“But-”

“It’s only a matter of time before the extinction of my kekkai genkai!” he said seriously, “surely, you understand this could be my only chance...Neji would-” 

“What do you know about what Neji would have wanted!?” she cut him off, “We grew up together and he hated me- NO, the entire first family, for a long time for making him into a caged bird!”

The gentle flapping of big black wings swooped down to land on Sasuke’s shoulder in the form of a black crow, with white eyes, fixed on Hinata.

“He’s free now...” Sasuke said, comforting her “He led me to you...”

“Neji-nii-san?!” she gasped tearily, “How?!”

“I can’t talk about that here, but, rest assured, those are Neji’s eyes….”

“Sasuke...what kind of jutsu….” she asked with narrowed eyes, “No. What kind of trouble are you in?”

“This is me, trying to get out of trouble, Hinata.” he stroked her cheek before pinning his hand to the tree trunk, over her shoulder and leaning in to whisper in her ear, “Neji wants you to know...he didn’t die in vain… and... he wants ...to steer the ship...” he trailed off as his lips closed in on hers before she indignantly turned away.

“I am not chattel, Sasuke...” she frowned with a pout as her eyes lingered on the black bird on his shoulder.

“I know…” he whispered with a slight smile as the moonlight illuminated his outline, making him glow, when he gently turned her chin back to him and kissed her lips. Her eyes slowly closed, byakugan subsiding with weak knees, when he pulled away, leaving her blushing in a daze. He, then, pressed a fingertip to her lips. “From now on, I will be watching over you, Lady Hinata.”

Rustling bushes and running footfalls, turned Hinata’s attention to see Kurenai rushing out of the darkness, to her aid, barely able to stand with trembling knees and her back flat against the trunk of the tree.

“Hinata! Are you hurt!?” Kurenai slowed her approach as she came into view, only noticing the tears streaming from her eyes as she got closer to the delicate girl, looking faint, lost and all alone in the woods.

_______________________________________

As the full group entered the glowing shrine room, they noticed the huge ivory feet of the statue, sitting pharoah, suddenly, fold upon one another, taking lotus pose in the raised stone seat carved above the peak of the waterfall.

“What’s happening?” Mako asked, shocked as he found himself spinning dizzily toward the ground, when Korra caught him and Bolin, both, as they fainted, flushed with fever. Kakashi stumbled backward, falling into Kuvira, holding his mask and chest when Sai and Itachi’s knees fell weakly under incredible pressure, knocking them all down, with the same feverish blush. Tenzin’s eyes rolled to the back of his head before his arms fell slack and he instantly fainted, falling into Lin’s arms just as she was beginning to panic.

“TENZIN!” 

“What’s happening to them?!” Kuvira looked up from the unconscious, masked shinobi in her arms to Korra, to see her stare fixed on Naruto who was looking up at the waterfall in a glowing daze before his eyes blinked red, his breath exhaled flames and engulfed him into a nine-tailed fox cub. They all froze in awe as the fiery wild beast, hesitantly looked back a moment, before running wildly toward the waterfall, immediately pursued by Korra. 

“DON’T TOUCH THE STATUE!” she shouted after him, in slow motion, hopeless to catch him for his shinobi firefox speed and reflexes as he scaled the towering stone crags, in 3 bounds, to the top of the waterfall. 

The wild animal hesitated, staring at her, as Korra slid to a stop along the river’s edge below. His ears folded back and his head lowered as he pawed at the leg of the statue with a small whine. He shook his head, then proceeded to roll into the lush, floral lap of the statue, overgrown with fine moss and jasmine flowers that grew there, instantly covering the legs and overflowing like water into glowing flowers blooming as they spilled over the sides of the waterfall. The fox kit rolled around, flipping tails like a weasel, frolicking blissfully until he yawned, tiredly. He circled thrice in one spot and lie down with his legs dangling over the knees as he lazed in contented bliss.

Giant, ivory hands, surprisedly, reached in from above, petting the fiery baby delicately as he rolled over, blushing with a dazed smile and tears in his eyes.

“O...ka...mi…” he mumbled as he nuzzled into the ivory belly whispering kitsune secrets that emblazoned the tiny flowers in glowing flames, turning them bright red and caused the waterfall to steam into broiling orange glowing water. The room heated up immensely and the air, became thick with the heavy scent of jasmine, mystifying them all in an inconvenient time snare.

“Dammit!” Sakura complained, as she took off her flak jacket and pushed it under Kakashi’s head, with a glare at Kuvira, “This place is so damn unpredictable!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this...” Korra called out sternly over her shoulder, “but, I am as much a visitor here as you…” she sighed heavily, smiling.

“What should we do now?” Kuvira looked around at all the slap happy faces of the men, passed out, in fever.

“Wait, maybe this is Genjutsu....” Sakura mumbled, more to herself, than the others “So maybe I can release it.”

“KAI!” she she shouted as she completed the sign.

Itachi slowly sat up, holding his head and wiping his bleeding nose. He looked over the room assessing the situation, around to Sakura. 

“I see.” he said, calmly standing as his watering eyes lingered on the flaming puppy, up high, frolicking in the lap of the goddess. “I didn’t realize Kurama was still so young...”

“What does that mean?” Sakura asked, confused. “Why is everyone still passed out?”

“The kyuubi is.. how do I put it…” he began pacing in thought “The tailed-beast has been confined to a Jinchuuriki for most of its life… it has been long restrained by seals and used for chakra, separated from its animal instincts...almost domesticated...”

“Make sense!” Sakura shouted, impatiently, “What are you saying!?”

“He’s.... marking territory…” Kakashi’s voice surprised her, as he slowly sat up, rubbing his forehead. “We have to draw Naruto back out, or we might lose him forever to the Kyuubi’s will in this underworld…”

“No way…” Sakura muttered.

“It seems only the yang chakra was affected,” Itachi noted, “As powerful as kyuubi is, dealing with only half is the best case scenario for getting Naruto to return to normal and overcome the carnal instincts of the fox. We have to distract him before he gets too wild… and we have to do it before the yang breaks the seal completely!”

Kakashi grunted his agreement with a low groan, shaking off the daze.

“Understood.” he agreed before rising to a crouched position. “If we lose him to the Kyuubi after all we’ve been through, we will never know true peace in Konoha.

“ Maybe I can help.” Korra spoke up at once, with determination burning in her eyes. “ If I can keep him calm, maybe I could dispel the fox spirit.”

“That would only be a temporary fix. The seal has been weakened because the yin chakra has also been returned.” Itachi stated, matter-of-factly.

“Fuck!” Kakashi shouted, then instantly clapped, “Sumimasen.”

“Well...what can I do?” Korra, looked up at Itachi with nearly teary eyes, bordering on hopelessness. 

“I could just beat him until he's out cold.” Sakura sassed.

“He’s imbalanced with the two halves inside him. His chakra is overflowing. The fire is too strong...for you,” Itachi relayed to Sakura, “But your bijuu is incomplete, is it not?” he turned to Korra.

“Bijuu?...Raava?! How did you-”

“There is more to me than meets the eye, same as you. This will require some tact. If he leaves this space, we may never catch him. Foxes are clever at hiding, and now that Naruto has been mentally pushed to the background, we can’t expect him to react in his usual boarish ways.”

I’m not sure I understand…” Korra looked off to the side with a slight blush.

 “It can’t be helped. The fox has 2 completely different personalities now.” Itachi said as he comfortingly took hold of Korra’s hand,“We must seal the kyuubi’s yin aura within your body.”

“WHAT!!!!!!!” Sakura shrieked.

“Just kidding.” Itachi scoffed disrespectfully at Sakura’s reaction, before explaining to Korra, “His moods from now are going to be driven by instinct...you’re the only one who can help keep him balanced now, until he can master both halves and the seal is a simple tattoo...”

Korra’s face betrayed a sympathetic confusion in Naruto’s direction as Itachi held her hand, looking at her individual fingertips as if she were designed by a skilled maker.

“So...should we just wait for him to come down?” she asked as she slowly slid her hand back into her own possession, “I don’t want to brag, but I did train my own polar bear dog, from a puppy… Maybe we could lure him out…somehow…?”

“Uhm, guys-” Bolin groggily stumbled into Korra, heaving, sweating profusely and barely catching her shoulder as he pointed to the cave wall stones searing closed the obsidian path they’d split into the cave. “It’s closing..”

“Shit!” Kakashi cursed again under his breath, before clapping his hands once again with a head-shake and yawn under sudden steam-built pressure, “Sumimasen!”

“This is bad. The rising heat in here is going to make us all pass out soon if we don’t do something!” Sakura panicked, running toward the door leading back out to the atrium, only to see the formerly blue glowing spirit pools in fiery illumination as well. While the fog of steam they breathed, thickened by the second,a geyser burst before her very eyes like a landmine, nearly scalding her.

“AHHH!” she shrieked, jumping back from the sudden eruption with burns on her arms as Korra instantly sealed the doorway shut with a slab of stone. “Kakashi-sensei! Please! Do something!”

Korra slowly drew a deep breath, with a fluid spin, drawing the steam into concentrated droplets of water that slowly became globular bubbles, leaving the air of the room arid as the desert. The sweatdrops forming on her own brow, floated away, joining the droplets she heavily floated in mid-air as they grew larger, with every passing second, “If we don’t think fast, we’re finished down here.” she managed to grunt, under the massive weight strain of broiling waterbending.

“Somebody has to go up there and distract Naruto!!” Kakashi slowly stumbled to a stand on wobbly legs under the tremendous pressure of magmic influence. 

The nine-tails was busy again frolicking in the lap of the goddess, when its attention suddenly turned upward…

“S-s...S-S-Sasuke?” 

The fox could barely still form speech when the reverberation of the name silenced the panicked commotion of the newly realized magma chamber, drawing everyone’s attention to the astonished and now, visibly full grown kyuubi, staring upwards and out of sight, before jumping up to the arm of the statue and disappearing above.

The temperature of the room stilled as a pregnant pause gripped them all in uncertainty before the, sinuous slither of a massive black snake’s tail dropped in from above, unrolling over the lap of the statue and craggy side of the waterfall, to the heated mossy floor.

“Sasuke!” Sakura whispered with tears in her eyes as she eagerly ran to be the first to be pulled out.

Part Six

“So…’ the busty blonde woman massaged her temples in supreme frustration as Kurenai kneeled and Hinata stood before her fidgeting uncomfortably “Essentially you’re telling me, that you don’t know where they are?”

“We know where, in terms of location, Madam Hokage, it’s just…” Kurenai hesitated, “Well…”

“WELL, WHAT!?” Tsunade slammed a livid fist into her desk, smashing it into splinters and startling everyone in the room, including Shizune and the small pig she was carrying. “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST SPIT IT OUT!?”

“Uchiha Itachi!” Hinata squeaked, “He was there! Sakura ran out into the middle of the field without warning and Kakashi-Sensei ran after her! Then he decided we should split up! It was all I could do to heed his command, madam. I didn’t agree with his decision one bit, but I did not want to be held responsible for jeopardizing the mission for not listening!”

“Uchiha….Itachi??!” Tsunade’s eyebrows slowly rose in suspense, before shooting a troubled glance at Shizune. “That’s impossible. Uchiha Itachi is dead.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hinata replied, shaking like a leaf as tiny goosebumps rose on her arms “It could have been anyone imitating him...but…” she trailed off, looking away with a slight blush…

“Spit it out, girl!”

“On the way back to Konoha, I ran into Sasuke…”

Kurenai, looked shocked “What? When?!”

“When the branch snapped and I fell, Sasuke caught me… Sensei. I truly believe the person we encountered in the field was indeed Uchiha Itachi. I don’t know how...but Sasuke had a crow with…” Hinata’s grey eyes misted with tears as she drew a deep, shaky breath “nii-san’s eyes…”

“That jutsu...So it was him…” Tsunade conceded with a frustrated scoff before falling back into her chair with a perturbed look on her face “But, what does this mean? I’m getting too old for this shit, Shizune. This just keeps getting more and more weird.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, Hinata?!” Kurenai asked, holding her shoulders, “Uchiha Sasuke might have been able to help us track down the others if he had been in touch with Itachi!”

 “I-..I…” Hinata’s breathing quickened as she began wringing her hands nervously and her face began burning hot. “I... didn’t want to get him in trouble…”

“This is a mess! Some of my best fighters were on that squad, and now I have to put together another team to go and search for them!”

“Madam!” Shizune interjected, “We cannot afford to leave the village any more unprotected than it already is! If any of the other villages find out our Jinchuuriki is MIA, we might have another conflict on our hands! We need every Jounin here!”

“We are finally at peace, Shizune. What kind of hokage am I, if I cannot at least track my own shinobi.”

“With all due respect, madam, the treaties are still very unstable. If you think the other villages will not take advantage of a perceived weakness if they find out, you are sorely mistaken. Even the time it would take for our allies to lend us backup would cost us many lives if a rival village sought to use this as an opportunity to attack!”

“That’s if they find out..”

“Tsunade-sama!!”

“I am well aware of the risks, Shizune!” Tsunade stood at once, before walking over to look out the window and consider the options, “But this is a time sensitive case, so a decision must be made quickly and I understand more than anyone that we cannot risk any other villages finding out that we’re vulnerable. So we cannot call for help, nor should we send out anymore reinforcements… Dammit! But the longer they are gone, the more likely it is they may not return…”

Shizune, looked defeated as she started to speak up, but ultimately remained silent, as the busty woman’s logic took hold.

“This is a tricky situation…but my gut tells me they are all alive… and if that is the case, it is in our best interests to bring them all back as soon as possible. We need them here.”

________________________________________

One by one, they emerged from the steamy depths of the river room, stepping up to the bridge very carefully and silently where the ornate statue’s eyes glittered, watching them with abject scrutiny.

The last to emerge was rolled within the snake’s coiled grasp, before unrolling a smoking hot, dripping wet and exhausted Korra.

Sasuke’s black eyes followed the uncoiled tail to tracing down the outline of the form of the young steaming hot, bronzed stranger, glittering with saturated hair and translucent clothes clinging like a second skin to her statuesque figure while Naruto and Sakura hugged him excitedly, before pushing them both away. 

“You’re annoying as ever.” he scoffed before turning to face an angry Karin, spiked in a jealous rage and Suigetsu covering his mouth either in deep contemplation, schadenfreude, or both, while Jugo knelt to help Korra stand.

“Thank you, she panted slowly, still dripping steaming water, when he winced from the burn of holding her up. Itachi stepped in, dismissing the brute, before looking to Sasuke and simply commanding him.

“Take a knee.”

Sasuke almost looked offended when Itachi simply pointed up at the statue’s eyes focused on him.

“You were supposed to come into this cave before anyone else, yet you’re the last to arrive...at least for now… Shame takes a knee in the presence of divinity and royalty, for honor.”

Sasuke looked a bit embarrassed, in a childish way, before folding his arms indignantly; then knelt in concession, with a irritated tick of his eyebrow prompting team Taka to follow suit. Karin’s growl morphed into a subdued shriek as Suigetsu slapped a hand over her mouth and fought to restrain her.

Itachi met the belligerent woman’s eyes, instantly causing her to fall weakly to her knees, gasping under the pressure of his visual prowess. When she looked up again, her gaze had softened and her cheeks flushed, staring back at Itachi, who turned away in irritation to walk Korra back over to her group.

“Everyone stay quiet,” Korra whispered as she slowly and silently took to lead the procession through the exit leading to the temple. 

Once everyone made it across the threshold, Sasuke pulled Naruto aside, confidentially.

“Who is that?” Sasuke asked, trying desperately to look as nonchalant as possible. 

Naruto’s eyes lit up with a mischievous fox-fire smirk as he threw an arm over the shoulder of his best friend and pulled him close with a pervy grin and a wave of his pinky finger that said it all.

“Usoda!” Sasuke scoffed incredulously with a slight blush and whispered “...I thought you liked Hinata…” 

Naruto groaned before knitting his hands behind his head with a slight shrug.

“Honestly, I haven’t had time to think about her since I got trapped down here...Now it looks like we are all stuck… unless somebody figures out a way to get us out without collapsing this place on top of us.”

“We have been in tighter spots than this, Naruto”

“Yeah, and that’s the problem. This place is huge and I also think it’s... alive somehow…”

“Maybe you should think about taking out that statue.”

Sasuke barely finished the sentence when Naruto’s fist stopped an inch away from his face.

“You never respected anyone’s authority but your own, you know that? You summoned this cave in the first place, didn’t you?”

Sasuke looked angry, then his lip twitched in irritation right before he turned away.

“Why?” Naruto muttered, his eyes fixed on Sasuke’s back.

“...I needed to see him again…” he began, “I never forgave myself...for killing Itachi. I know I fulfilled my revenge...but I hated myself so much more after it was done because I was even more lost and confused about who I am…”

“Is that why you still only have one arm, Sasuke?”

“To atone… for all my sins...” he said quietly, looking down at his hand as his long hair fell, hiding his eyes. “Whenever I go back to Konoha, the villagers…”

“SASUKE-KUN!” Sakura surprised him, throwing herself into him and hugging him with a laugh, “You came!” 

“Sakura,” he said flatly, with a brief sigh before gently pushing her away, feeling Karin’s chakra starting to get rowdy again, in the near distance. “I would have come sooner...But I had another obligation to fulfill.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not like you’re on missions from Konoha, anymore.”

“If I told you…” he poked her forehead with two fingers, as Itachi’s eyes met with his own “I’d have to kill you.”

Sakura laughed sorely as she looked to Naruto, who was staring off into the distance at Korra’s ass, when she seemed to perk up and notice with a wink, causing him to burn up blushing and giggling, tickled pink. Sakura rolled her eyes before linking arms sweetly with Sasuke and continuing in an overtly moe tone,

“Sasuke-kunnn… why don’t you come join our mission? Naruto needs his friends now. You saw how the kyuubi almost took over..”

“No!” Naruto jumped in, rejoining the conversation with a glare at Sakura, “Sasuke has his own objectives to complete.”

“Shut up! He can answer for himself!” Sakura shouted. “What do you say, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke stroked his chin for a moment, exchanging a look between his two childhood friends. Naruto’s narrowed eyes sustained a distrustful glare toward Sakura, while she held a fake smile that showed a complete disregard for Naruto’s suggestion altogether. Sasuke released a slow, deep chuckle with a wince, holding his abs as he concluded their equal distrust of one another had suddenly become worse than it ever was toward him.

“If Naruto’s golden friend asks me for help,” he concluded esoterically, “Otherwise, I must return to Konoha… I have some unfinished clan business…”

“Gold- wait what? Are you talking about that statue in there? And what clan business; your clan is gone.” Sakura ridiculously scoffed the obvious, “What do you mean by that?”

“Excuse me.” Sasuke said snatching away in irritation before dismissing himself and walking toward Itachi who sat quietly in the midst of all the ambient chatter to discuss his ongoing mission.

_____________________________________________

“I made contact… I left Neji to watch over her.” Sasuke said quietly as he took a seat next to his brother. “What next?”

Itachi smirked, looking amused.

“Did it go well?”

“She had some hangups about Naruto, but...now I don’t feel as guilty.” he said with a sideways glance over to Korra, sprawled in the sand.

“She is something isn’t she?” 

“Can you see her aura too?” Sasuke blushed, “I have never seen anything like it. She’s glowing like...you, nii-san. Is she…?”

“She is still alive.” Itachi started, before drawing Sasuke’s attention back to himself, “Sasuke, don’t get attached to her. I know you are feeling a lot of new emotions you have never felt before, but she is like a Jinchuuriki. It would only cause you heartache.”

“Don’t tell me...Are you-”

“I cannot leave this realm.” Itachi cut him off, instantly changing the subject, “Don’t you have something to ask me about your mission?”

“What should I do now?”

“Don’t you know?”

Sasuke enthralled himself with drawing swirls in the sand while looking a bit uncomfortable.

“You don’t like her?”

“That’s not it...” he sighed, “It’s... everything else…”

“Oh, I see... You don’t think your infiltration skills are good enough to complete your task?” Itachi chuckled as he playfully gripped Sasuke in a headlock, “Do I have to tell you where to put it too?”

“No!” he blushed hard with puffed cheeks as he pushed out of the stronghold “Stop! I’m serious! The future of the Uchiha clan... I don’t know if this is the best way...”

“You think it will be better off with Sakura?” Itachi scorned, tilting his chin in her direction with a sneer, “She is the only one who will be ‘waiting’ for you to return to Konoha, and I know you’re having a hard time going back as it is. If she is the one you truly love-”

“That’s not it!” Sasuke snapped, nearly yelling it before hushing his voice once again, “I just hoped it would be different...I don’t love Hinata either.”

“ I see…” Itachi sighed disappointedly, “I am not much of a matchmaker, Sasuke. Neji and I simply thought it was a wise solution to a mutual benefit.”

“Was this his idea?”

“It was a personal goal of his to help Hinata get over his death with a comparable substitute.”

“Ouch.”

“Do you like girls, Sasuke?”

Sasuke looked away, angrily .

“Do you like boys?”

When he still didn’t answer, Itachi placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned to whisper in his ear,

“Maybe just one, particular boy?”

“You’re annoying!” Sasuke growled through grit teeth with a twitchy eyebrow.

“I just want you to be practical.” Itachi smiled, amused, “You don’t seem to feel much affection in the first place, and I hold myself responsible for your guarded emotional development, but I can only do so much. The rest is up to you, Sasuke...and boys can’t make children with other boys.”

“...I understand…” he answered reluctantly, before he nodded his concession, and finally stood. 

“You and your team...if you go out to the bridge and shout, you will be washed back out to the field where you originally entered the cave. Just don’t forget to hold your breath...” Itachi whispered.

“...Okay…” said Sasuke, sounding a little forlorn.

“Is there anything else?”

“I just miss you…” he whispered before turning away to hide his watering eyes and gather his teammates.

“I miss you too…”

______________________________________________

“Sai could fly up to inspect for weak spots.” Kakashi said with an exasperated sigh, rubbing his eyes tiredly as Korra, Mako and Bolin loafed, completely exhausted, in the sand.

“I swear I haven’t slept in three days,” Mako shook his groggy head, trying to remember, “Who knows how long we’ve even been down here?!”

“Don’t start panicking on me now, Mako,” Lin clapped a hand on his shoulder. “If we’re going to make it out of here, somehow we’ll have to work together.”

“That’s true. I know between all of us, there has to be something we can do to get out of here.” Korra chimed in, as her cerulean eyes subtly took note of the dark stranger exiting to the bridge with his team of friends, 

Their eyes met for an instant when Sasuke bowed his head with a small smirk before turning and continuing his stride through the doorway.

“Where are they going?” Korra asked with a quirked brow, prompting Mako and Bolin to look up in the direction of the bridge just as they disappeared, enveloped by shadow beyond the doorway. 

Suddenly Korra jumped to her feet, springing into a sprint with a gasp,

“DON’T!!” 

Her shriek reverberated throughout the cave as she instantly lost consciousness mid-run and her body went limp, causing her to fall, skidding as she rolled to a stop across the sand.

“KORRA!” they all shouted at once.

Tenzin ran to her, sliding to a stop next to her limp body, lying helpless in the sand.

“Korra, sweetie!? Can you hear me? Korra?!!” he shook her fervently, while Mako, Bolin, Kuvira and Lin all surrounded them, looking on in shock and terror.

“What’s wrong with her?!” they all clamored over her as their panic rose. “Is she dead?!”

 “Everybody please calm down!” Kakashi pushed through, before holding a tentative hand to her heart. 

“Well?!” Mako blurted impatiently, 

“She’s not breathing.” Kakashi’s face blanched as they all gasped, and Tenzin wailed in anguish as if his own daughter were lying before him. 

“Sakura!” Kakashi shouted as he began chest compressions, “ SAKURA!!!”

“SASUKEEE!!!” Naruto roared a deep feral growl, turning everyone’s attention to him as he flared up in fox-fire, while Sakura was desperately pulling him by his sleeve to restrain him from entering the, now, watery surface depth of the bridge’s doorway.

“Naruto, please!” she begged him,

“SA-KU-RA!!” Kakashi shouted once again to get the medical-nin’s attention as she desperately wrapped her arms around Naruto from behind in an attempt to calm him.

“It’s okay…” she hushed him, “I’ve got you n-”

Her words were cut short as a strong-armed elbow to the chest sent her sailing backward with a yelp, landing her with a hard thud in the sand, knocking her senseless and winded; leaving her clinging dizzily to consciousness by a thread.

“Sakura!” Sai knelt next to her, as she winced through double vision, helping her to sit up. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes squinted into focus as she held her hands over her temples, healing herself just enough to see straight, when the scene of Kakashi pulling down his mask and putting his mouth to Korra’s seemed to happen in HD slow motion right before her eyes, yet, too quick for her to stop it.

“Sakura?” Sai’s voice echoed in slowed distortion, as he held her up with a concerned expression in his eyes before a look of confusion overcame him. Sakura’s wide-eyes stared on, shaking in restrained green-eyed fury as hot, salty tears began streaming down her cheeks. Her face burnt deep crimson and her heart knocked into her throat as she swallowed hard in an attempt to quieten the harpy’s shriek that threatened to break free from the top of her lungs, resulting instead, in a pitiful whimper. “Are you okay?” Sai repeated once again.

“BAKA! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!! HOW CAN YOU ASK ME THAT!? DO I LOOK OKAY!?”  the intensity of Sakura’s internal voice made her vision blurry as her knuckles turned white from hard-clenched, glowing fists pressed to her temples, on the verge of swinging through Sai’s idiot face. Kakashi pulled away, turning his cheek to feel whether Korra’s breathing had returned, before his lips closed on hers once again, and Sakura winced, gripping her chest with a small whimper. 

“Sakura!” Kakashi shouted once again before looking up from his compressions to see her sitting up, three feet away and unresponsive with a huge dark aura hanging heavily over her downcast head and her eyes darkened, “GOD-DAMMIT, SAKURA GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF! I NEED YOU!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sakura seemed to snap out of it, returning to normal immediately “Yes, Kakashi-sensei!” she said springing into action and rushing to his side.

Sai stared on in utter confusion, before pulling out a book from his backpack and flipping through its pages to try and find an explanation for her behavior.

“I’ll take it from here, sensei!” Sakura knelt next to him as her hands flared green healing chakra, relieving Kakashi, who was straddling the Avatar, and was beginning to break a sincere sweat on his brow that trickled down his impossibly handsome face. 

Sakura began to reach out for Korra when suddenly, she began coughing raspily and her breathing returned with a shudder.

“Korra!” They all rejoiced, overcome with emotional relief as Tenzin burst into tears, thanking and hugging Kakashi with all his might, causing Kakashi’s eyes to well too as all of her friends hugged him and razzed his hair, patting his back and thanking him with immeasurable gratitude. 

Sakura, froze, before turning away and hiding her face in her hands “Yokatta…” she mumbled as her as deep sobs overtook her. Sai pondered how to react a moment, then bumped his fist into his palm in recognition before putting a comforting arm over Sakura’s shoulder and gently patting her, when she snatched away. 

“Get away from me!!” she managed to shudder between sobs, before shoving him away, leaving Sai more confused than ever.

“She’s still unconscious…” Tenzin said as he gently cradled her head, in his lap looking down at Korra with a helpless expression.

Suddenly Korra’s eyes jolted open, radiating white light.

“She’s in the avatar state?” Lin questioned, taken aback. “But why?”

“I have never seen or read about anything like this happening before, Lin. Your guess is as good as mine,”

“Naruto!” Kakashi rushed to the doorway where Kurama’s flaming form was slowly growing larger as he roared wildly, clawing and punching at the, now, solid-frozen ice wall cutting them off from the bridge.

___________________________________________________

Sasuke shivered at the sudden temperature drop of the room, as he yanked at the handle of his katana, now frozen stuck into the palm that blocked the heart of the grandiose statue.

The fu dog and sphinx flanking the sides of the Goddess roared to life, before stepping down from their golden lotus pedestals and descending on Team Taka with red eyes radiating fury.

Sasuke grunted with effort, before his blade scraped and snapped, in half, still stuck in the Ivory hand of the Goddess.

Suigetsu turned to run back out to the temple, before stopping dead, face-to-face with a golden fu dog snapping at him.

“AHHHHH!!” he shrieked, “Sasuke! The doors are sealed!!!!”

“Impossible!” Sasuke growled, when he turned left, to see Suigetsu jumping backward toward him with his sword drawn, trembling fearfully as the statue’s massive guardian stalked toward them. Sasuke,then, completed the 180° spin to face Karin and Jugo’s backs bumping into him as they backed away in sheer terror, from the growling Sphinx as well.

Sasuke looked up into the bejeweled eyes of the Goddess, observing him closely, when he shouted.

“You’re not even REAL!”

The golden guardians suddenly stopped their intimidating procession as her calm face seemed slightly amused. She then, delicately plucked the shard of a tiny blade from her palm as if it were an annoying splinter and flicked it into the stone floor of the bridge, nearly taking Sasuke’s balls off as he stumbled backward, knocked onto his ass with pale-faced shock and terror ingrained into his expression.

“Holy shit…” Suigetsu uttered quietly.

A white light projected from between the eyes of the Goddess forming the figure of a glowing apparition of a mahogany woman, draped in gossamer and dripping of gold and gems with two hands on her hips. Their eyes widened in shock and awe as she flicked two of her 8 wrists causing Karin and Jugo to slam face-first into the floor in prostration. 

Suigetsu had already beaten them to it.

Sasuke’s eyes twitched on the verge of panic as he drew short, shallow breaths shivering in terror.

“You’ve got some nerve, Uchiha Sasuke.” she scoffed, “Orochimaru certainly succeeded in raising you to be a snake.” she hissed

Sasuke, frozen in silent terror, suddenly began weeping. 

“ARE YOU OUR CREATOR?!” he screamed desperately as he swiped a hand out into the liquefied air, leaving ripples of his colors in the wake of his action before slowing to a full stop from his blinding speed that landed with a “pap” sound as his suddenly numb wrist bumped her knee.

“I am one of many creators. But I’m not somebody who abuses that power, like Kaguya, brat.”

“TELL ME WHY I HAVE TO BE SUBJECTED TO THIS!”

“For atonement. You know your code, but you never stick to it. It is the way of the
Uchiha clan to live by a code they can enforce or not at all. The road to honor is not short or easy, but turbulent and you have the heart, but not the will. So long as you live you must find the will, or else be subjected to this for the duration of your life.”

She lifted his chin as he trembled and hot tears streamed down his cheeks.

“You must carve your own path, have it chosen for you, or die. Those are your options.”

“I take it back. You are real.” Sasuke touched his forehead to the back of her hand.

“I’m so glad we had this talk.” she smiled as her lovely face inched toward him in flowing ethereal gossamer frames shrouded somewhere between smoke and humid weather, closing her eyes and letting their lips gently brush when he suddenly felt himself gasp back to life, coughing up water and wheezing as Suigetsu sat him up, soaking wet, sitting in the golden field just outside the of the cave.

Slowly, the ink of kanji floated to the top of his one good arm, reading:

“Your friends are collateral. Return the no-face mask.”

Sasuke chuckled with effort as he pulled out his hidden treasure, from inside his shirt to show Suigetsu before passing out in his arms.

________________________________________________

Itachi’s eyes swirled into mangekyo sharingan, radiating fiercely as he focused the acuity of his visual prowess on subduing the ever-growing, enflamed firefox charging, clawing and beating on the solid ice wall in futility.

“Listen to me, Kurama. That will only destroy your boy. Control your temper, please.”

The nine-tails howled, holding his head, when the chakra split into halves, swirling in pursuit of one another at his navel, like foxes chasing its tails.

“Calm down and breathe.” Itachi said slowly.

He doubled over, hacking, coughing and shrinking in scale and form,when the flames slowly smoldering out in the shape of Naruto’s weakened body left him dry-heaving in the sand.

“Korra needs you,” Itachi said as he knelt to help him up and his eyes swirled like ink into blood, obsidizining back to darkest black as he stood, holding Naruto up.

“But..Sasuke…” he winced through heaving breaths,

“I will handle Sasuke. He is my responsibility.”

As they stumbled away, the door suddenly cleared, with a shattered splash.

“Sasuke!” Naruto spun around so fast, his head swam as he stumbled dizzily, staring out to the glowing embodiment of the goddess’ essence, overlooking the edge of the bridge, with an expression of contempt painted on her lovely face. He broke away from Itachi, stumbling on his hands and knees and clinging desperately to consciousness when he reached out, fading out and possibly seeing double when two arms separated from her body, following a dark form that jumped over the bridge into the dark abyss leaving her with six arms; then, finally succumbing to lost consciousness as the entity swept up in a white wash of flames.

Suddenly Korra’s eyes fluttered awake as she sat up with a sharp gasp, holding her head.

“What happened?” she groaned, as her friends huddled in around her with concern, before a deep quake shuddered them all to the core.

“What was that?” Bolin asked, hoping for any answer other than the obvious when another violent quake began shaking the stalactites from the ceiling, landing in the sand pit like spikes,

“It’s collapsing!!” Mako shouted as he and Tenzin draped Korra’s arms over their shoulders and began running toward the temple. A giant stone spear, cut them off as the cave seemed to roll and gravity shifted them toward the impossibly deep chasm surrounding the space. 

Sai swept an unconscious Naruto up into his flying beast ninpo just as a stone skewered the spot, while Sakura slid toward the chasm with a shriek.

“SENSEIIIIIIIII!” she screamed as Kakashi, completed his jutsu just as she was swept over the edge; swallowed into the pitch black maw of it, instantly silencing her screams.

“Sakura!!!” he shouted after her desperately as he reached out at the same time he was swept up onto Sai’s inked bird. 

One by one they all tumbled into the darkness, as the earth beneath them cracked open crumbling into dust and sand, swallowing them up one by one while Kakashi and Sai looked on helplessly from above. Korra caught the edge of the cliff, when Kakashi spotted her amid the avalanche of chaos, pointing and shouting,

“There, Sai!” setting the young ninja instantly in motion, weaving and rolling the ink bird skillfully between collapsing stone debris and closing in fast, when suddenly a huge stone spike sliced through the wing, splattering ink as it dispelled into the black chasm, swallowing them all whole, leaving only Korra, left clinging by her fingertips and dangling nearly horizontally as the gravity continued to shift her toward the otherworldly vacuum of enveloping darkness.

Itachi appeared standing above her, seemingly unaffected by the gravity shift, looking down at her in a sympathetic way as she looked up at him with hope in her eyes when he knelt, and took hold of her wrists.

“Go with God.” he said with a sad smile, before letting her go, to fall backward into the hadal rift. The actual weightlessness of falling took her breath away as her teary blue eyes stared in disbelief into the receding image of his obsidian eyes with dark lashes sweeping to a slow motion close, as the blackness of the pit enveloped her entirely; tumbling backward into a roll out onto the warm grass and into sunlight of the spirit world.