A/N: Alright ladies and gentlmen, good news and bad news. Good news first. I'm on the mend. Even better, My grandpa's all but recovered from congestive heart failure, and I managed to sell my old house, though all that money went to more bills. Ugh. Anywho, I've finished moving my things and am now a proud resident of East Berlin, Pennsylvania! Alas I'm now jobless, and the bills are piling up because of my health. Fun, right? But enough about this.

As I'm sure you've all noticed, I've been on a bit of an updating binge as of late. I've rewatched several shows, reread manga to its latest chapter. And I realized something. I wanted to try my hand at a slower-paced fic. My others are just fine, but I wanted to make this more realistic. More character time, instead of setting Naruto on a path and making him run it, he'll walk before he remembers what it truly means to sprint.

On that note, I should warn you. This Naruto is a bit more vulnerable-emotionally-than most. Why, you ask? Because unlike his others counterpart there's very little left to redeem here and he really isn't afraid to shed blood. However, his tendency to violence has also made him emotionally crippled of a sort. You'll soon see why.

Anywho, I managed to put this up here at points between job hunting. A bunch of you have been clamoring for another NarutoxAvatar fic when I thought of this, so...

...I give you my laest work!

"I will kill them...each and every one of them!"

~?!

Reborn

Somewhere, someplace in space and time, a universe shifted. Threads came undone and fate was unwound, destiny was shaped and broken a thousand times. Lives were shattered and events altered, reality bent until it was nearly doubled over in agony. A thousand lives were simultaneously extinguished in the blink of an eye. Walls were shattered. Bodies burned. An entire culture was laid to waste in the span of a single night, nigh but obliterated by a power-crazed madman and his inane dellusions of power.

And it all centered around a girl.

Tongues of fire scrawled around her body, fizzling angrily in the rain. Streamers of water encircled her. Currents of air tugged at her matted blonde tresses. Pillars of earth shifted in the ocean floor beneath her feet. All the power of the Avatar State lay at her fingertips, and yet in her state of turmoil she was powerless to control it. Powerless. Weak. Helpless. She screamed in frustration and the heavens cried out with her, thundering their almighty fury, drowning her words out amidst torrents of white-capped water.

She thrashed furiously in the sea as it took her, struggling to stay afloat with her bison. At first, she succeeded. Despite the ghastly burns marring her right arm, stinging in the salt of the sea, she somehow managed to right herself and suck in a gasp of much-needed oxygen.

Then the ocean crashed down on her once more, tearing at her robes and ruthlessly forcing her head under. It was only for an instant, but in that split-second, that heartbeat of mind-numbing terror, she panicked. The world spun around her, her eyes unable to tell up from down as her hands flailed at the water. Gasping she fumbled to the surface, clinging tight to the shaggy coat of her mount once more.

They had told her to run, to take Appa and escape the destruction of the temple when the Fire Nation attacked. It had been the hardest thing she'd evern done. All her friends, playmates, Aang and the others. Gone. It had to be her, they said. She was the Avatar, they said. She needed to survive. To live on. To run. Flee fro, the forces pursuing her. But how did you outrun a storm? You didn't. She had no idea where she was now-not that it would've mattered anyway. Her people were dead. Gone. With every second of her flight she had felt their passing, gentle souls torn from this world and flung into the void.

Extinct.

She could feel it in her heart. They were gone, and there was nothing she could do to bring them back. Now heaven itself seemed intent to send her on its way to join them. It would've been so simple to give in, to just surrender and let the water take her. But she didn't. The only thing keeping her afloat was the anger, an undying hate for those who had perpetuated their untimely deaths and sent her people to their graves. Were one to know this girl, indeed, had they met her only a few days ago, they would've called her kind. Gentle even. Unwilling to hurt so much as a fly. But now?

Uzumaki Naruko, fifteen years of age, one of the only females of the Southern Air Temple, and currently the last of her people? She felt only one thing. Anger.

But even the hatred wasn't enough now. Her resolve was wavering. Every pent up doubt, every thing she'd ever questioned, all of it gnawed at the back of Naruko's head, like an itch she couldn't scratch. Mastery of the wind wasn't enough; unable to command the raging storm around her, unable to save Appa or even herself, she succumbed.

I...I can't...

With one final and defiant shout, she sank beneath the waves after Appa. This was it. She was done. Finished. She was going to die her, alone and forgotten, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Yes, you can. Countless voices answered her, an ancient power taking hold over her very body.

Blue eyes flashed into white.

(Many years later...)

The Southern Water Tribe was renowned for very little in these icy wastes she called home. Unlike her Northern brothers and sisters she did not have dozens upon dozens of waterbenders at her beck and call; countless raids by the Fire Nation had seen to that long ago. Only one bender remained, and even she was slowly coming into her own. Given time and training she might make a name for herself someday-perhaps even prove to be a peerless master above all.

But for now, Katara was just a girl, fishing the arctic wastes with her brother. Fishing, and failing to catch any fish!

"Will you please stop playing your little water games?!" Sokka groaned, wringing out his parka. "That's twice now!"

A moment ago, he'd been on the brink of catching dinner when she'd accidentally doused him with water in her own attempt to catch a fish. Yes, she'd gone and gotten him wet. Now, Sokka was no stranger to the cold, but, he was not enjoying the sensation. Not in the least! His sole satisfaction was that he'd managed to catch said fish before it could escape back into the briny depths. He made for quite a sight, she thought his crystal blue eyes shadowed by sopping wet bangs, his lips quirked downward in a slight frown, gloved mitten clenching tight their hard-earned dinner. If not for that last remark, she would've been laughing.

"They're not games, Sokka." she admonished, her face dimpling into a rare frown. "They're-

"Right right, an ancient art indigenous to our tribe." her brother finished mockingly. "Because that's completey

"Look out!"

A heartbeat later, the warning proved prophetic. The canoe smashed through a pane of ice with a mighty crash, sending their hard won catch flopping out of the canoe and back into the sea.

"No!" Sokka cried! "Not my fish! Katara, do something!"

"Oh, now you want me to?!"

"Iceburg!"

"What do you mean Ice-BURG?!"

The brunette jerked her head upwards, drawn from her chastisement just in time to witness the inexplicable; an iceburg was indeed rising from the depths of the ocean, right in their path. Before she could think to do anything about their impending doom the glacier was suddenly upon them, dashing their canoe against its unfeeling edifice; flinging them from its confines to send them sprawling head over heels in a hilarious tumble of arms and legs. Their previous squabble was all but forgotten, however, as they gazed upon the construct responsible for the loss of their craft.

"Hey, there's someone in there." Katara murmurred.

Indeed, upon closer inspection one could see that the iceburg was no iceburg at all, but rather a sphere. And trapped within that sphere, sitting seiza style before what could only be described as an incredibly massive something was a girl. White eyes glared unflinchingly out at them, frozen in time, her whiskered cheeks pinched in a silent grimace of exertion. And yet there was something about those eyes. As if they were calling to her somehow...calling...her...

Sokka blanched as his sister clamored out from under him and found her footing. He knew that look in her eye; that inate curiosity that so defined her. Fumbling on the slick terrain, he started after his sibling, realizing too late what she intended to do. Even now she was extending her arm, haltingly moving toward the icy sphere in trepidation of what she might find awaiting her within that icy prison.

"Um, Katara, I really don't think we should touch-

Too late, she reached out and did just that.

-it."

That was all it took.

One brush of her gloved palm and the iceburg burst into radiance, shattering like so much glass. A pillar of light erupted into the sky, a heavenly beacon for all wayward eyes to see. Wind ripped through the air in a sad and mournful howl, a keening cry that bespoke of agony and despair, a heartbreak so painful it brought tears to the eye.

...thank you." A timeless voice, legion personified, spoke to them. "For freeing her."

From that wind, within that unholy radiance, she emerged. Tall and lithe yet not quite slim. Every step was taken with a brief, transient grace, her bare, arrow-adorned feet padding softly against the icy snow. Her eyes were narrow and hard, the most blinding shade of white.

Molten gold hair lay tied back in a pair of twin ponytails, the twin tethers of her hair thrashing furiously in the unseen gale summoned by her unexpected reawakening. There was an anger in those eyes, Katara realized, an unspeakable and righteous fury barely leashed by the girl's own humanity. Looking over her, she could see why.

For all her grace and poise the strange girl was injured. Her right arm and shoulder were horribly burned a swathe of angry red flesh marring and leading up to her neck, a blight on her otherwise flawless beauty. If she was at all impeded by this injury she did precious little to show it yet still functional, evidenced by her hand's effortless touch of her savaged sleeve.

"Whoa...

Jaw clenched, her gaze seemed to bore right through them. Suddenly, she smiled. Once more that strange not-voice inssued forth from her mouth.

"We leave her in your hands."

Then she collapsed.

Katara darted forward to catch her even as she fell, the stranger collapsing quietly into her arms as the light issuing forth from her body vanished. There was no pulse. It was as if she'd simply ceased to be, exhausted by the strain of summoning forth such power.

"Hey?!" Katara exclaimed. "Are...are you alright?!"

Slowly she stirred, blue eyes fluttering open with a groan. Unbidden, the waterbender felt her heart skip a beat. And when she spoke, her voice was as sweet as honey.

"Ugh...what day is it?"

(Meanwhile)

Leagues away, Prince Zuko saw it. And how could he not?

Rocketing into the heavens like an arrow loosed from a bow, the great pillar of light dominated his vision, demanding his awe, his attention. His everything. He could feel it calling out to him like a clarion call; the return of his honor merely a few miles to the north. A single thought dominaited his mind, turning his scarred face intent with fury. It did not matter to him when it cut off abruptly, he already knew his heading. Knew what did await him there, not just the fight of his life, but the chance to finally, at long last, return home.

'At long last, I've found him.'

That which his father, grandfather, and even his great grandfather had been unable to find.

The Avatar.

With a brisk stride he stalked past his guards and into the bowels of the ship, dutifully ignoring his uncle when he asked to join him for tea. Zuko did not have time for tea. Not when his destiny awaited. Perhaps had he lingered he might have noticed Iroh's slight smile in passing. Might've heard his words. But as it stood Zuko did not listen, instead, he stormed into the cabin and issued a fateful order that would forever reshape his life in ways he had yet to foresee. Unknowing of this, he still gave the order:

"Helmsman, head for the light!"

A/N:

So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review...Would you Kindly? And of course, enjoy the Preivew! Also, the next chapter for Die Another Day is coming out soon-I've already got well more than Seven thousand words and I just want to live up to your grand expectations, is all =D

(Preview!)

Naruko stepped forward, staff whirling slowly in her hand. There was an anger in her eyes Katara realized, the playful teenager with whom she'd come to associate herself having all but vanished in the wake of this new and unexpected arrival. And still the whiskered blond advanced, her lips pulling back to expose an angry, toothy grin.

"Ohhhhhhh," she hissed at Zuko. "I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should."

To his credit, the prince only blinked.

He saw one thing in Naruko's eyes as he met the girl's steely gaze, and with mounting dread he realized he had seen it too late.

"Who are-

He never did get to finish that sentence.

Because the blond snarled, and he suddenly found himself slammed back into the hull of his ship. Wave after wave of wind assaulted him, savaging his armor, relentlessly beating him down, battering at him from every side, offering no respite and no relent in the slightest. Death was the name of this creature, this seemingly hapless, ditzy, girl he'd glanced over without a secound thought. But even as he saw the arrows tattooed upon her arms, even as her eyes flashed white, he realized his mistake.

With every ounce of strength within her, Naruko sent her fist flying towards the monster whose only sin was being part of the Fire Nation. Zuko'snose crumpled beneath the blow with a sickening crunch and he toppled back onto the icy floor. Yes, her name was death.

And she had come for him!

R&R! =D