Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Legend of Korra…or a single share of Facebook, the last part for which I am glad of

Chapter 1: The Boy on the Iceberg

She performed a leg sweep to send a fire whip along the ground and force her attacker to jump into the air. After that, two quick and light bursts of flame that kept him on the defensive, helped keep her out of his sight while she charged forward…and slipped on the patch of half-melted ice that slid her feet out from under her feet. Luckily the girl managed to catch herself on the ground to roll into a crouch and come up in a defensive stance.

With her concentration broken, the imaginary opponent faded from her sights. Korra focused on the more important task of making sure no one noticed her slipup with a few quick glances to take in her surroundings.

If master Shen saw that, he'd make me do remedial drills for an extra week, the Avatar told herself.

After seeing that the courtyard was indeed empty, the Avatar let out a sigh of relief. Then she glared at the stupid half-frozen puddle that had nearly knocked her flat on her ass. She bent the liquid back into a full solid again, then picked it up to hurl it into the nearest wall.

Korra groaned. With her Firebending test three weeks away, Korra wasn't worried about her form, the playing field was another story. Firebending in a place that was covered in ice half the time was not a good idea. Those moves were not meant to be used on top of such slippery ground. But, she supposed she'd be saying the same thing about Waterbending if the White Lotus had decided to build a compound where the daily temperature wasn't below freezing.

Maybe I can talk them into laying out a giant carpet or something, she wondered to herself. At least then she wouldn't be tripping on spontaneously appearing puddles.

With her concentration broken, Korra figured that she wouldn't be getting much more out of her practice session. So she picked herself up to go check on her precious polar bear dog.

When Korra got to the stables and came up to Naga's pen, the Avatar found the giant white mutt just waking up. The trained polar bear dog was a one of a kind mount, the only one in the world that didn't live in the wild and let people ride her. In all honesty, she couldn't understand why others of Naga's kind hadn't been domesticated before.

Okay, Korra understood why no one wanted to mess with the adults. Those things were vicious animals that would tear people in half. But Korra had found Naga as a puppy, and the only thing that had changed about the oversized mongrel over the years was how big she was, how much she ate, and how much of Korra's hair she messed up with that oversized tongue of hers.

"Hey girl, ready for your morning run?" Korra asked before opening the polar bear dog's gate and showing the creature its saddle. Although calling it a 'run' was a little misleading, as Naga needed the same kinds of daily attention as smaller dogs.

A few minutes later, she was out the gate and into the snow, riding on the giant dog's back. Korra kept a slack hand on the reigns, letting Naga go where she wanted. The dog sniffed the air, and headed out across the tundra.

Since she had been giving her owner a bit of a problem the morning before and fought Korra every step of the way, the Avatar let the dog have free reign in where she wanted to go this morning. Close to the compound as they were, Korra didn't see the harm.

As Naga continued to run around randomly for over half an hour. Korra thought she might have made a mistake in letting the dog just do what she wanted when Naga suddenly took off towards the East. They had been going around for ten minutes, and were almost at the edge of the oversized patch of ice that had been her home for the past several years.

Then Naga went around a snow mound, and Korra pulled her mount to a halt. There was an odd lump in the ground not far away from the waters edge. It was two sheets of ice propped up against each other surrounded by a high ring of snow. When she got closer, Korra saw the top of the ice looked odd, as if someone had melted the ice before letting it freeze together.

"What the heck?" Korra mumbled before jumping off Naga and looking inside the ice tent.

There was a teenage boy in the makeshift tent. His complexion hinted at him being from the Earth Kingdom, although his pointy hair in the back was a bit…odd. There was also a weird slant to his eyes that Korra had never seen in any of the people that had taught her Earthbending.

Then there were his clothes, the light shirt and sandals were definitely not what someone in the South Pole would be wearing if they wanted to survive more than a few minutes without loosing anything to frostbite.

But the real disturbing thing about him were the odd red sores that appeared in clusters on his neck and heels. When Korra pulled the boy's sleeve back, she saw he had them on his arm too.

He's hot, she realized when she touched his skin. The boy's temperature was way above normal, even if he was running a fever. "Hey, are you-" Korra stopped talking when the boy in her arms moaned and opened his eyes.

Korra smiled for a moment when she realized that the guy wasn't in fact dead, although that smile disappeared when he saw his eyes crack open for a fraction of a second. They were so bloodshot they were practically glowing red. Then, he passed out.

Panic overtook her. Crap. Korra looked to the ocean. She could use her bending to try and heal his wounds, only…she had never seen sores like the ones the boy had. Korra knew certain diseased caused skin discoloration, but Katara had never mentioned anything like what the boy had on him; and healing diseased was much trickier than simple burns and broken bones.

But what if he really needs healing now? Korra asked herself before she walked over to the water. He looked in bad shape, really bad shape. She looked over at the ocean water, then to the boy's sores, and back to the water filled with salt she was fixing to rub into what looked like something that was little better than an open wound.

Korra sighed at her own foolishness and knocked herself on the head. "Right, only fresh water should be used for healing cuts. Calm down Korra before you kill someone."

In the end, she picked the guy up in her arms and set him on Naga before taking a second to gather the guy's stuff; a small bag and a pair of scrolls. Once she had secured her passenger, Korra started heading back to her home as quickly as she could with her injured guest.

When she got to the gate, Korra had one of the guards run off to get Katara while the rest helped her get the boy inside and onto something a little more stable than the back of a polar bear dog. By the time the old waterbender was brought to the boy, he had already bed moved to a comfortable bed inside the compound's small hut had had been set aside for people with highly contagious diseases.

Once they had gotten his shirt off, she could see several more patches all over his arms and chest. "Is he okay? What's wrong with him? What's with those weird scars all over his body?" Korra asked.

Katara sighed at the girl's barrage of questions. It was times like this she really did seem like her older incarnation. "Korra please," Katara replied before she ran her hands over the boy's wounds before checking his eyes, and eventually his teeth; the gums looked ready to bleed at a moments notice. Then, she looked up to one of the guards. "Bring me as much fruit as you can. I don't care what it is, just make sure I can get a lot of juice out of it."

The nonsense that Katara was speaking got her a frown from Korra. "I don't think this is the right time for one of your health drinks," the Avatar grumbled. "Now why don't you try and help him?"

"That's what I'm doing," Katara said as the guards brought in several boxes of snow berries and began crushing them. When she had enough to begin, Katara covered some of the sores in the juices using her Waterbending. "Have I ever taught you about scurvy?"

Korra leaned back and tried her best to remember her health lessons from when Katara lectured her on the healing arts. She came up with nothing. "Nope."

Instead of getting even a little annoyed at her, Korra was a little lost when Katara just nodded. "Well I'm not surprised, it's a rare condition these days. Basically, scurvy is caused by a lack of proper food in the diet. If someone goes without eating the right kinds of food for too long, this is the result."

"Wait a second," Korra said as she held up her hands to stop Katara, "are you saying that something bad really does happen to little girls who don't eat their vegetables?" Then she looked away from the older woman to mumble to herself. "And all this time I thought Mom was just giving empty threats."

Katara chuckled at the girl's reaction, then shook her head. "It's fruits actually. But for it to be this bad…the boy would have had to of gone for at least a month without any of the proper nutrition. You said you found him on the near the eastern bank?"

"Yeah," Korra replied. "I was taking Naga out for her morning walk and she just ran that way. Actually, he may have been there for awhile. She had been wanting to go out that way all yesterday too."

"Scurvy and starvation then," Katara mumbled, if he had indeed been out there for more than two days. The boy had been lucky that Korra had been around. The old woman could see the boy looked a little emaciated, but nothing life threatening.

There was the question as to how he survived in the cold for so long with what he was wearing, but that would have to wait till another time. After applying more of the juice directly to the sores and letting the vitamins take effect, she looked back to Korra. "Did he have anything on him?"

Korra held up the bag and scrolls. "Yes," she said before handing them over. "But don't ask me what's in them. I didn't really want to go through his pockets of what I thought was a dead man."

A few minutes later, when the injuries she was treating had faded a great deal, Katara looked back to the White Lotus guard outside the door. "One of you needs to stay with me in case I need you for anything." Then, she turned her attention on Korra again.

"You should go meet with your teachers. Your Firebending test is in three weeks, isn't it?"

Korra looked out to the risen sun, and slumped her shoulders in sigh before she walked outside to start practice.

Several hours later, once the sun had almost sunk into the ocean, Korra poked her head back into the healing hut to check back in on their guest. Judging by the pile of stuff next to his bed, there had been quite a few things in his pockets. She could see pair of scrolls, and really pointy knives with holes on the ends, what looked like some kind of wire, and a larger pointed knife.

I wonder who is he is, she asked herself before turning her attention over to the guard outside the hut. "Hey, has he woken up at all since this morning?"

"No Ma'am," the guard replied. "Master Katara gave him some medicine after healing his wounds. She said it would keep him out for the rest of the day."

Korra nodded, then looked back inside the place. "Did you find anything on him…like a big piece of paper telling everyone his name and what he's doing here?"

"Nope," the guard replied.

She looked over to the boy, then his stuff. Boy was sleeping. Stuff was begging to be picked through. Korra decided to oblige the stuff and went inside to go through the items.

Armguards, she told herself before throwing the things off to the side and moved onto the next item.

Clothes. They were Water Tribe furs of course. Katara must have rounded them up for him. The shirt and pants the boy had been wearing were much too light for the South Pole. It begged the question of how he got down here though.

A bit of guilt went through her mind when she turned to the unwrapped scrolls. "On second thought, maybe I should get out of here," Korra mumbled.

Then the stranger on the bed let out a groan, rolled onto his side, and slowly rose. The blankets that were covering his body fell to the side of the bed, and Korra's hair stood on end.

Korra froze when his eyes met hers. "Uhhhhhhh…" She looked over to the pants she was holding, and quickly shoved them into the boy's face and turned away. "Please put these on before you get up."

"Nani?"

"Pants. On. You. Now. Please."

Korra sighed in relief when she felt the pants get taken out of her hands. "So…you got a name?"

"Sumimasen?"

The nonsense she was hearing made Korra look back at the boy. Thankfully, he was fully dressed. That was fast, she thought. "Your name's… Su Ma Sen?"

"Maro nai nian sakui nanra watashi gozen katari ite?" he said with a frown as Korra looked at him questionably.

For a moment, Korra was put off by the impossibility of why the boy was talking so weird. But… "You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"

Several minutes later, Korra found herself pacing back and forth in the healer's hut. She watched Katara take another scoop of water and run it over the stranger's back where there had been some of those strange abrasions until he'd been healed this morning.

"So what's wrong with him?" Korra asked as Katara finished with the skin treatments and looked the stranger over for other problems.

"Korra, just because he's speaking gibberish doesn't mean-"

Korra rolled her eyes. "That something is wrong with him? Because people usually know how to talk by my age."

The comment didn't keep Katara from running her water covered hands over the back of the boy's head. At least he was cooperating, there had been some resistance at first, but once Katara had ran over his old sores with the water to show its healing properties, he had let her have free reign.

"Well," Katara drawled out as she passed over another half-healed patch of skin. "I have heard of something like this before, but I'll need to investigate it further to be sure."

The half-explanation did nothing to satisfy Korra. In fact it only helped increase her anxiety about the whole thing. "So are you actually going to tell us this theory, or do we get three guesses first?"

Katara sighed at the girl's impatience. "I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but…when I was younger and working as a healer after the great war, I had contact with many people who had every kind of wound imaginable. One of these men had lost his ability to speak properly after a blow to the head. This boy could very well have a similar injury."

"Great," Korra said with a smile before it turned into one of mild curiosity. "So, why haven't you treated it?"

"Because that's just a preliminary theory, and a rather broad one. It could be something else entirely. I'll need to examine him over several days. Even then, treating these things is always difficult. It could very well be that he may never recover."

-The Next Day-

The moment the sun peeked over the horizon, Korra started her morning routine. After washing up and taking care of the other basic hygiene needs, she went outside to the practice yard for a quick warm-up.

He was already outside, waiting for her. Well, Korra call it waiting per say since he was currently doing pushups, but whenever Korra got up to go practice or work out, he was always there. She knew he wasn't really following her around, but they did tend to cross paths a lot. The training compound was a pretty small place to live, so that was expected.

Besides, she had never seen him during when she did her drills at night.

Well, sometimes she did, but that was only because she bothered to look into the boy's bedroom window and see he was usually asleep an hour past sundown.

From what she could discern, the boy had been in pretty good shape before Korra had found him and was recovering quickly. Katara only needed to spend three days to get rid of those ugly sores, and he was already starting to fill out again with as much time as he spent exercising.

"Hey Stranger," Korra said as she raised her hand in greeting.

With nothing else to call him, 'Stranger' seemed better than 'some guy' 'iceberg boy' or just 'you'. Although Korra wished she could figure out what his real name was; even if Katara said it might very well be pointless.

The injury Katara said he had might have scrambled the part of the brain that controlled how words were formed and understood. Even if she pointed at herself and just said Korra a million times to try and introduce herself, Stranger would hear it differently each time. At least that was how she understood Katara's explanation of how he was injured.

Well, the only explanation that made sense to her. Katara had some other theories, but if he had simply forgotten how to talk, Korra would have been able to communicate with him at least a little bit. As it was, he didn't say a word.

Stranger must have been injured when he was very young since he couldn't read either. There was some limited communication at least. He understood tones, facial expressions, and hand signals.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked before she came over beside him and started to limber up. Just because he couldn't understand her didn't mean she wasn't going to talk to him. That would be rude. Besides, the friendliness of her voice got across…she hoped.

For his part, the boy hadn't been hostile or anything, just…distant. On the other hand, Korra figured she could be reading too much into the whole thing. The guy couldn't talk after all.

Korra got the kinks of her neck before she started working on her legs. "I think I'm going to get a stone arena for my test instead of just a cleared out section of dirt.. Either one is better than the rug idea, I won't set the thing on fire that way. What do you think?"

Of course, Stranger was completely silent. He hadn't actually talked since the first day he'd been in the compound. He hadn't even tried to hold a silent conversation since finding out where he was by pointing at a map until someone showed him where they were on it.

"Yeah, an earth arena would probably be the best," Korra told him; or herself really. Having Naga for a best friend had given her a habit of voicing her thoughts to anything that didn't talk back.

As soon as she was done warming up, Korra looked back to Stranger. "Okay, heading off for morning practice."

Korra raised her hand to wave goodbye, which was a slightly different motion than her hello wave, and jogged over to the middle of the icy field to go through her forms. As usual, when she looked back, Stranger was openly watching her go through the various forms that involved Firebending while he switched exercises to get a better view. He didn't come any closer though, which Korra didn't understand. It wasn't as if she was going to burn him accidentally or anything.

Despite Stranger's apparent interest in her bending talents, Korra had never been able to get more than a mild 'humph' of response when she performed them. The guy might not have been able to talk or hear correctly, but he had to have known she was the Avatar by now. He'd seen her bend three elements. Was it too much to ask for a little applause?

She wasn't asking he act like some of the boys from the Southern Tribe village. The way some of them fawned over her simply because she was the Avatar was…well, creepy was the only word she had for it.

Once she had run through the basics, Korra snuck a peek behind her to see Stranger was still there before looking back at the sludge that had been a light layer of snow just a few moments ago. "Well, I need to wait a second to re-freeze everything so…want to see something cool?" she asked.

Korra took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth, repeating the practice several times to help get her chi flowing before she started her move. Okay keep calm, she told herself as she let the energy flow out of her. Korra carefully traced the arc of where she wanted it to go through the air, the electricity cracked over her, and she threw the lighting out over her head to let it disperse into the sky.

When she turned around to look at Stranger, Korra couldn't help but smirk at the fact he had stopped his exercises. "Yeah, I can throw lightning too," she explained with a smirk. Maybe she was sounding a bit too cocky. "Of course, it still takes me too long to build it up to use lighting in a real fight."

In the compound's main building, Senbu frowned as he watched the Avatar try to show off. "She's doing it again," he grumbled.

Katara walked up to stand beside the old man and watch the spectacle. Unlike him though, she simply let out a laugh. "Lightning now hmmm? You know, it's times like this when I really do see my old husband in her. Aang used to try performing in front of crowds for attention all the time."

"Why is she so interested in that boy anyway?" the old man asked. "He's deaf and mute. We should just send him off to your old village."

The foolishness of the question explained why Senbu had never gotten married. "You're honestly asking why a teenage girl that's been surrounded by old men and women her whole life wants to get the attention of an attractive boy around her own age?" Katara deadpanned. "But if you want the reason why he's still here, I don't know for certain that his problem is incurable yet."

She hadn't even found the reason for the boy's language impediment. As far as Katara could tell, there was nothing wrong with his mind at all. Even if the majority of the brain's functions were still a big unknown, she should have at least been able to find something.

But, he did have other problems that she was still working on, and hose were going smoothly, if slowly.

"Besides," Katara added, "I think Korra would be even more distracted by having to run to the village every day to chat with him."

The fire bender let out an annoyed grunt. "Chat," he grumbled. "She just babbles about anything that pops into her head in front of him."

Katara let out a laugh. A man that does nothing but listen to women and look that good, she told herself. And Katara could tell he was listening whenever Korra talked, even if he didn't understand a word. Then there was the fact they had worked out a system of telling each other basic directions.

"Well, I need to go remind Korra to walk that dog of hers before she leaves a mess in the pens again," Katara said before Senbu could continue with his berating of the Avatar's guest. It was also time for the boy's morning checkup too.

After Korra had taken Naga out for her morning walk, Katara led the boy into the healer's hut to perform her work. They had long since moved him into a room inside the compound, but the hut had a constant supply of clean water from under the ice thanks to some careful bending on Katara's part.

They went through the usual motions with his morning physical. Even if he couldn't understand Katara, she still told him to sit down and everything else verbally. Although she suspected the exact words were lost on him, repetition had given the boy enough knowledge of the process to know what to do.

First, Katara had him remove his coat and she examined his body. The rate which he was recovering was almost disturbing. While the boy ate enough for two people, that wouldn't have made the small hollowness in his cheeks fill out as fast as it did. His muscles were also filling out quite well too, but at least was understandable when all he did was exercise.

Katara had him lay down as she checked the boy's chi pathways. Like always, they were intensely active; much more than a normal person's should have been. She knew that had to be the reason for his phenomenal recovery rate, but why the pathways were so overdeveloped was a mystery to her. She didn't even know how something like that could happen.

Avatar, bender, or not, everyone chi pathways had a set range.

The oddest part about it was that the distribution of the flow wasn't even. A great deal of it seemed to be concentrated around his chest. Katara had no idea if that was from the problems he had encountered while at sea, or something else. Still, she'd had some luck in…spreading the concentration out so his body flowed more in-tune, but it was a slow process that was going to take a least a couple more weeks.

"Back," she instructed. Katara knew it was best to keep things simple with the boy when it came to verbal commands.

When Katara had finished with his back, she moved onto the part that she hadn't had any success with lately. The boy closed his eyes, and Katara covered everyone on his head except the nose and mouth with water. Once again, she felt the overdeveloped pathways and the bit of damage left by months spend in the ocean without the proper kind of food. But she didn't sense anything wrong with the boy's mind.

It was a real quandary. Even when she had no idea how to fix the problem, Katara could always tell there was something wrong by the flow of someone's chi. But the stranger's chi was perfectly normal; or above normal really. Katara hated to admit it, but this boy's problem was leaving her completely stumped. Since he was responding, Katara had long since thrown away the theory that it was a translation problem in the communication centers of his brain.

The hypnosis she was currently forming made her suspect it was some sort of odd amnesia.

With the healing session over and another partial failure put on her record, Katara threw the water she had been using on the boy outside. "I suppose at the least I've invented a new way to wash someone's hair," the old woman mumbled. She stepped back and nodded at the boy. "Done."

-Weeks Later-

Korra poked at the gruel in her bowl with her spoon and pulled out one of the offensive fried fruits. She looked up at the rest of the people sitting around the table. "Am I the only one here who doesn't like sea prunes?" she asked with a frown. She looked over to Stranger for support, but he just looked at her, shrugged, and continued eating.

"Your Firebending test is tomorrow," Katara told her. "You should eat something healthy to build up your strength."

The sea prune fell back into the mush as she turned the spoon to dump it out. "It's not very healthy if I'm going to throw the stuff up two minutes after I eat it."

Katara sighed at the Avatar's attitude. Maybe a change of subject is in order. "I received word that Zuko might be coming to observe your test."

"The former Fire Lord?" Korra mumbled, a little interested. "I thought he was supposed to be traveling around talking to all the other nations too keep everything in order while I was training."

"Well this is your Firebending test," Katara explained rather bluntly. "That aside, I thought you'd be glad."

Korra rolled her eyes as she relented. She didn't exactly like being compared with her old life all the time, but Korra had to admit something inside her did like having the old man around. "Oh, I am. It's just…I don't know…doesn't he have something better to do?"

As much as she hated to admit it, Korra did have a point. "Yes," Katara relented. "But you know how he's been getting since his daughter took over as Fire Lord, er I mean, Lady." She looked over to their resident fire bender, "do they change title when it's a woman?"

"No, it's still Fire Lord," Senbu explained before going back to his food.

Korra sighed, then looked over to the boy sitting across from her before she glanced back at Katara. "So, any luck with the healing sessions?"

A headshake was all she got from Katara before the woman swallowed her food. "I've successfully evened out his chi pathways, but haven't had any luck with the other problems. If I didn't know better, I'd say that nothing is wrong with him."

The rather scary thought made Korra looked over to Stranger for a moment. "Hey you're not really faking it, are you?" she asked with a frown. The stuff she had gone on about in front of him more than once was enough to make her die from embarrassment.

When all he did was cock an eyebrow, his usual response whenever she asked him a question, Korra found herself slightly relived. It as like he was saying 'Do you honestly think I understand you'.

"Whatever," Korra said before she stood up. "I'm gonna go get some meat."

And times like this, I'm worried about just how closely she's related to Sokka, Katara told herself. Thanks to the Hundred Years War, the Southern Water Tribe was a bit on the small side not counting the immigrants from the Northern Tribe and the Earth Kingdom swamp. Everyone from the original tribe had family ties in one way or another.

The rest of the meal passed without much problem. Then Korra left for some last minute training before bed.

When the morning came, Korra picked herself off of her bed and got dressed, this time putting on the flame resistant suit that had been given to her when she started her Firebending training. It had been months since she had needed to wear the thing, but since this would be a fight against multiple fire benders, it was better to be safe than sorry.

On the up side, Korra had found her teachers were agreeable to fighting on something that wouldn't melt halfway through the test. She hadn't even needed to use a big speech and several arguments she'd prepared ahead of time.

After the usual morning chores and walking Naga, Korra came back in time to see that the people who would be administering her test had arrived. They were three fire benders she had never seen before, who didn't know her way of fighting, just like she didn't know theirs. However, she noticed someone that should have been there was absent.

"Is Zuko inside visiting with Katara?" Korra asked the guard waiting for her at the gate to take Naga back to her pen.

"Lord Zuko didn't show," the guard explained. "I think I heard the benders talking about some territorial dispute he had to take care of. Sorry kid, looks like your old buddy isn't coming this time."

Korra frowned at the 'old buddy' comment, but didn't bother to make a big deal of it as she headed to the proving ground to start her Firebending test. By the time it was over, she was seriously considering making the fire resilient clothing part of her normal wardrobe, in a more fashionable color at least.

Everything had gone off without a hitch, no tripping, slipping, or sliding on patches of ice. With the suit to help with keeping her from getting burned, Korra had even pulled off several advanced moves that she had always been a little iffy about before since messing them up would have gotten her burnt hands.

Her babysitters had been a little reluctant to give her a pass. They had gone on about how she was good at the physical, but not so much at the spiritual and philosophical side of her Avatar status. Luckily, a few words from Katara had managed to sway them.

With everything finally over, Korra was a bit of a loss about what do to for the next few days. It would take at least two days just for her Airbending master to arrive by sky bison, even if it was the fastest ridable animal on the planet; as long as no one counted dragons. But there were only two dragons left in the world, maybe three if they ever bred. Sky bison numbered at least a dozen.

From what Korra knew, the previous Avatar had found a heard of them during one of his adventures on some islands West of the Fire Nation. From what Korra remembered of the story, the islands themselves had been discovered completely by accident because of a bet between Aang and Sokka on who was the best flyer over long distances: the Avatar, or his spirit animal. Of course when they found the herd, the bet was totally forgotten.

In the end, it took a full week for Tenzin to finally show up. While the sky bison could make the trip in two days, it took the better part of the week for the letter informing him Korra was ready to begin her air bender training. Those days were an absolute hellish nightmare that she really didn't want to have to relive ever again.

At first Korra had thought that some time off would be enjoyable, but after two strait days of doing nothing, she felt like she was going to loose her mind. After four days, Korra was certain that she had every single one-sided conversation that was possible with a dog and a cute boy who didn't talk back. Day five had her considering the horrid possibility of Tenzin being late. When the end of the sixth day arrived and she finally saw the sky bison coming down from the clouds, Korra was about ready to jump out of her skin in anticipation.

"Finally," Korra exclaimed to the boy next to her as she watched the giant animal swim its way through the sky. When she looked over to Stranger's face, his mouth was slightly agape with a look of disbelief crossing his features.

"What? You've never seen a giant flying six-legged monster before?" she asked with a smirk on her mouth.

"I told you that would crack him," Katara said to the girl. Although in truth, she had been wanting to see the normally stoic boy's jaw hang a bit more. Even Zuko had more personality to him than the stranger boy; speech problem or not.

Judging from the looks Stranger was giving them, Korra was pretty sure he knew they were making fun of him.

"Couldn't resist," Korra told him as the bison landed.

As soon as the creature was on the ground, Tenzin's two daughters rode air scooters down the animal's tail, which seemed to get Stranger's attention and obviously made him forget the whole thing a moment later. The third and only male child of the world's only Airbending master continued to hold onto Tenzin's head and pull his ears while his father dismounted.

"Hello Mother," Tenzin said as he greeted Katara in his usual dignified manner, which was just about ruined with the little boy on his shoulder's constantly yanking his ears. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."

He bent down so that his shoulder's were within the old woman's reach. "Help me."

As soon as Katara took the boy, he resisted with flailing arms and demanded to be let go before freeing himself with a mild blast of wind. As soon as he was back on the ground, the boy ran up to his own mother while the eldest daughter of the children approached her grandmother.

"Gran-Gran, I've been reading all about your adventures. I've been dying to ask you, what happened to Zuko's mom?"

Katara smiled at the twelve-year-old girl. "Well Jinora, it's an incredible tale-"

Which wouldn't be told, as the middle child of the Airbending children decided that was the best time to interrupt her grandmother by jumping between the old woman and her older sister. "Gran-Gran, you look old. How old are you? Why's it so cold in the South Pole? Can we make a camp fire and all huddle around it and tell scary stories and make snowmen, and could you make the snowmen dance and chase us around? Wouldn't that be fun, huh? Wouldn't it?"

From the looks of things, Airbending will help increase my lung capacity at least, Korra thought as the group moved away from her to help Tenzin's wife down from the bison. Judging by the bulge in Pema's robes, she was pregnant again.

Korra wondered what the odds were of an Avatar only having one air bender in three children, while his son ended up with three. Wait…make that four, Korra told herself after hearing the exchange between the two women as Katara felt the woman's belly.

For some reason, Pema didn't seem very happy about it.

But after seeing how their son Meelo just covered himself in snow before blowing it all over everyone else in the area, Korra was starting to understand the woman's feelings.

With the initial greetings out of the way, Korra looked past Katara, prompting Tenzin to finally take notice of her. "Korra?" he asked before she approached him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Look at you. You've grown into quite the young Avatar."

"Master Tenzin I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to begin my training," Korra told him excitedly.

The older man cleared his throat. "Korra…about that."

-Latter That Night-

When the old man had come on that wingless flying animal, he had known something was up. At first he had thought it was nothing and that it was just misreading the situation. the old man had brought what was obviously his family after all. This place was so much different than what he was used to.

Korra, at least he was pretty sure that was her name, seemed to have been really disappointed by something the man said when he first arrived, and they'd been arguing the whole night and most of the following day.

Now the old man was gone, and Korra was even more agitated and depressed than when the man had been around.

I should probably just forget about this whole thing and move on, he told himself as he looked out the window to his room. He wasn't here for this, and didn't care about the girl one way or another…even if he did owe her his life.

How long had he been laying in the snow before she found him, hoping to recover? Two…three days? What was supposed to be a simple exploration was turned into a near death experience because of…well, he still had no idea what exactly happened to him while out in the ocean. It had obviously been some kind of disease, but the fact that something had managed to infect him of all people had been quite disturbing.

Then there was the language barrier, something else he hadn't been counting on. Three weeks of immersion had given him some knowledge of how the locals talked, but understanding only about one word in five just wasn't going to cut it. He was stuck in this place until he was at least able to get the basics of a conversation.

If it came down to it, he could always use the backup plan, but…that was a little iffy. He' only had three weeks to practice the jutsu late at night, and even then it was just on animals. People were more resistant to Genjutu.

There was also what the older woman had done to him, besides the healing. Thanks to his battles in the war, he had an idea of what had happened and what it meant, but he was extremely hesitant to test his theory.

When he saw the dark-tan girl suddenly run out of the man building in her blue furs, he knew something was wrong. It was almost the middle of the night, the girl was never up this late. What was even more suspicious was she was heading towards the pen where her giant dog…thing was housed.

The only thing that didn't mark her as running away right off the bat was her complete lack of supplies.

For a moment he just thought about leaving her to run around in the middle of the night, get hungry and come back by morning when she tried to go to sleep without a sleeping bag in the artic. Or I suppose she could freeze to death, he considered.

Whatever it has nothing to do with me, he told himself.

Even if she could use four elements…and possibly all five…

Even if she had saved his life…

Even if he didn't have any real reason to dislike her…despite the fact she never shut up…although that was probably a good thing considering he still needed passable language skills and she was the only one who really talked to him at length.

The thought of turning her in crossed his mind, and was quickly crushed by the sheer weight of the irony that particular action entailed.

In the end, he made the only decision necessity and his conscience would allow him to make.

The boy collected his things and some of the winter clothes that the old woman had given him into a pack before he went into the hallway. First he would need to get some of Korra's things, and after that he'd head to the kitchen for some food. But there was one little thing he needed to take care of before any of that. It seemed the month and a half deciphering that one jutsu while lost at sea and the weeks of practice on the giant dog were finally going to pay off.

"Hey there kid, you lost? This is the Avatar's room, so beat it!" the guard told him.

Then he just buried his fist into the man's stomach and opened the door before dropping the idiot onto the floor. He grabbed the guard's hair and turned the man's face to meet his own. "Now repeat after me."

A minute later, he left the room with the man mumbling on the floor.

"Door, cat, at, in, inside, bending, stop, go, yes, no, element, fire, water, air, lightning-" the door closed cutting off the rest. He hadn't planned on the constant repeating, but the main idea had worked.

Genjutsu, whether passed via touch, sound, or sight effected the brain directly and transcended things like language or syntax as long as the caster wanted them to. If the caster wanted the person under the effect of the Genjutsu to see a dog, they saw a dog. If the caster wanted the person effected to say dog, that's what they said, however the caster wanted them to.

-Meanwhile Down Below-

Korra woke her polar bear dog to saddle her, being careful to keep everything quiet. If Tenzin wouldn't stay at the South Pole, then she'd just have to follow him to Republic City. Once she was there, he couldn't just turn her away. Right?

"Nice night for running away, isn't it?" an old voice said from behind her.

Korra froze, and slowly turned around so see Katara was standing at the entrance to Naga's stable. For a moment she thought about denying it, but Katara deserved the truth…and Korra really didn't have a plausible lie as to why she'd be taking Naga out in the middle of the night. "I have to leave. I have to find my own path as the Avatar." She tried to come up with another reason but…Korra couldn't put it any more straightforward than that.

"I know you do," Katara replied.

"Really?" she asked, surprise making her stumble back.

Katara let out a giggle. "You did listen to at least some of my stories, didn't you? I was out running around the world when I was even younger than you," she said with a smile before her face turned more serious. "This place…ever since Aang was killed, and you took longer than expected to be born, there has been an aura of fear governing the decisions made concerning your safety. We meant well by trying to give you a sanctuary to learn the elements, but it has also been a hindrance. I believe you need to get out and see this world that you, and your generation, will have to protect when the time comes."

The mention of her death in a former life made Korra's head hurt. She could remember laying on a table in a strange room. Not being able to move, barely able to breath, she remembered the knife cutting into her, no his, body, and the man doing it all… She closed her yes and pushed the memory away before it caused her to throw up.

Longer to be born? Korra asked herself. Of course, everyone still thought Aang had died that day in Republic City. She had never told them that he had been kept alive afterwards…Korra didn't know how long it was herself; and she had no desire to do the math from Aang's official date of death to Korra's birthday to try and figure it out. The whole thing was just too damn creepy.

"So…you're just letting me go?" Korra asked, still put of by the impossibility of the situation.

"I am, but the guards may have something different in mind," Katara said with a small smile. "By the way, I hope you escape plan wasn't simply walking out the front gate with your dog." A few seconds later, her face turned absolutely serious and the woman's tone went flat. "Please tell me that really wasn't your escape plan."

Korra didn't meet he woman's eyes as she pressed her fingers together and pulled them apart several times. "Well…I had a good excuse."

With the absolute proof the Avatar had been much too sheltered right in front of her, Katara couldn't help but sigh. She thought about just letting the girl get caught, the escape could have been the first real test of her abilities.

"The old woman letting you go or not?"

Korra frowned at the unfamiliar voice and its rather strange accent, then looked up at the entrance to her dog's pen to see if one of the guards had managed to catch up with her. "Does everyone know I'm leaving tonight?" she mumbled to herself before looking around. Who said that anyway?

Even Katara seemed on edge, and Korra knew hardly anything rattled that woman.

The sound of snow being crushed got her attention, and she looked to see a figure step out of the shadows carrying a backpack in each hand.

It took about two seconds to figure out what was going on. Korra slumped her shoulders. "So now even the deaf mute knows I'm leaving. Great," she deadpanned.

"I can hear and talk," Stranger corrected her.

Korra's mouth went slack at the response coming from the boy with the partly spiky hair. "Excuse me?" she asked, not quite believing what she had just heard.

"But…the amnesia how could you-"

"Am-ne-ze-a?" Stranger asked the older woman. "I do not know that word. Even the reflecting moon only gives me so much time and…never mind." He turned his attention from Katara to Korra. "You leaving tonight?"

He held up one of the backpacks with the bedroll tied to its top. "You might need something to eat and sleep on."

Korra blinked several times at the boy standing in front of her. "You can talk?" she exclaimed.

"Obviously," the boy replied evenly. Well, there may have been some slight annoyance in his tone, but Korra wasn't sure since he had such a strange accent. "But it took time-"

"Look, just uh, forget about what I said three days ago…"

"Korra-"

"-and last week…"

Since she had stopped talking, the boy opened his mouth to speak, and-

"And when I took you fishing the week before that," Korra continued. "Oh spirits! Please don't tell my mom I think her kelp cakes taste like something Naga left on the-"

"Stop talking!" he told her, taking time to form the words. "I understood very few words still." It was a total lie, but much more believable than the truth. "And you talk too fast understand…complaining?" He looked over to Katara. "Is that word?"

Katara raised an eyebrow at the boy. From the way he was talking about things, it almost seemed as if he had needed to actually learn how to speak. But, that didn't make sense. It wasn't as if people had different languages.

Had she been right with her second theory? It really wasn't something wrong with his verbal centers, but his memory? Was it simply that he had forgotten how to talk, and read?

Katara hated grasping at straws when she was supposed to be the one giving out the sage advice.

"We need get going," he told her before throwing Korra one of the packs and shouldering the other one. The man turned to look at Katara. "You going to stop us?"

Korra stepped forward. "Whoa hold on a second? Us?"

"I do not think girl who runs away with no food or blankets should be left alone," he told her.

Katara looked over to Korra skeptically. "You didn't take anything to eat?"

For her part, Korra didn't meet the older Water Tribe woman in the eyes. Having her little omission pointed out made her seem pretty foolish. It would take at least three days to reach Republic City by ship, if there was even one at the port. The lack of supplies would have been a real problem. "Well…I haven't really done anything like this before so…yeah."

"And why exactly do you think I'll be letting you just walk out of here with the Avatar?" Katara demanded of the boy. "I know nothing about you, not even your name."

"Actually, that's a good point," Korra said, glad the attention was off her for the moment. "Why exactly do you want to come with me? You could walk out of here any time you wanted." On top of that, the guards would be happy to see him go. "And if you can talk then why don't you actually tell me your damn name!"

The boy sighed, looked back at the entrance to Naga's pen, then over to the two women. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I came here for," he stopped and looked away for a moment, as if embarrassed or annoyed, "…I didn't come here for anything. I was in the water for a long time, and landed in the wrong place. But, when my boat landed, I could not move more than a few steps. I was there for three days before Korra came. She saved me. If she is leaving, I should also."

Weird name, Korra thought, and the guy's manner of speech was horrible. If he had a family name, that meant…Earth Kingdom, or maybe Fire Nation, and someone of influence. Or at least someone related to someone who had been of influenced in the past. History lessons had taught Korra that there had been plenty of noble families that had fallen out of power but kept on to the name for the sake of their pride.

Katara smiled. It smelled a little iffy, but…did they really have a choice right now? It wasn't as if Korra couldn't handle the boy anyway. Even when he hadn't understood a word, he hadn't been very violent. "Well, good luck to the two of you then."

"You're seriously okay with this?" Korra asked.

It took a moment for Katara to find the right words, gaining an air of wisdom about her. "Korra, there are times in the lives of people like you where a great many incomprehensible things come crashing together in inexplicable ways. These are moments of destiny." Aang's whole life had been like that. There was no reason Korra's wouldn't at least be similar. It was one of those Avatar things.

Then the woman lost her mysterious aura of wisdom. "And experience has taught me that trying to stop them only makes you end up looking pretty foolish and angry at yourself when it happens anyway."

As if, I'm the one who decides where I wanna go, Korra told her mentally.

"Now the two of you better get going. And I hope you have a way to sneak that pet of yours out of here."

Two hours later, Korra was really wondering if Katara was right about the whole destiny thing. They had managed to sneak away from the compound by tunneling underneath the ground, Korra's idea of course, and happened to find a ship at the port that was bound strait for Republic City after saying goodbye to Korra's parents. Sneaking Naga onboard wasn't even that hard, and people in the South Pole rally tended to notice when a type of animal that usually went around eating people got near them.

When they finally made it down into the ship's hold and hid while the crew finished their last check before casting off, Korra let out a sigh of relief. After counting to thirty in her head to give everyone else time enough to et away from the cargo hold, she turned to look at Sasuke.

There were dozens of questions running through her head. She had gotten a few answers during the ride to the Southern Tribe's village, but her mind had been rehearsing what she wanted to say to her parents so much Korra half-forgot he as there.

"So…why do you want to go to Republic City?" she asked, it was best to start with the most obvious questions.

"I need to learn…something," Sasuke replied, then opened his back to rifle through it.

Korra frowned. Well that was helpful. "Learn what?"

For a minute she thought he was ignoring her, but he pulled a pair of books out of his pack and tossed one to her. "I do not know."

"Excuse me?" Korra asked, now completely lost.

"I do not know the word, and…" he let out a disgruntled sigh. "I need to find old information, before I was born. A place where that stuff is…" Sasuke stopped and tapped the book he was holding.

The light bulb above Korra's head went off. "Oh you mean a library!" she exclaimed. "Or a bookstore. Maybe a university or museum." From the looks he was giving her, Korra could tell he didn't understand most of what she was saying. Then she looked down at the two books and saw they were the same ones. "Why do we have the same book?"

"I need you to show me how the word inside…talk, I think is the best way of saying it," Sasuke told her.

Korra started at the boy with a deadpan expression. "Seriously?" she asked. "You're looking for a library, and you don't know how to read?"

"Show me how. Talk the words. I will follow."

The command, and Korra had a feeling that it was a command, made the girl frown a the boy. I liked him better when he couldn't talk. "Okay, first Four Nations language lesson. There's this word called please, you say that when you want someone to do you a favor."

"Please show me how," Sasuke repeated with the same tone as before.

Korra imagined how this was all going to sound…

"What did you do on your first big Avatar adventure Korra?" Jinora asked.

"I bravely snuck out of the Avatar training compound after being caught twice by an old lady and a cute guy. Then I managed to keep from crying when I told my parents goodbye, and then we stowed away on a ship where me and the cute guy spend the whole time…reading," Korra said, adding emphasis on the last word as she wiggled her fingers to try and add some drama to the word.

Back in reality, Korra wondered if her whole life was going to be this disappointing.

"Okay fine," she grumbled. "But once you can actually hold a real conversation, you're answering every damn question I ask you, ever!"

It was eerie how fast Sasuke learned to read and improve his vocabulary. Korra had a theory as to why he could do it so quickly, but kept it to herself until they were done.

The first day was full of lessons on words he tripped up on, and the first chapter of the book he had brought with them; a brief history of the Hundred Years War was hardly light reading. They had read it for about an hour, and then went to bed. At least Korra had, when she awoke the next morning Sasuke told her he's gone through the whole book overnight and had several characters written down that he needed explanations on.

The end of the second night also brought an end to the books. Sasuke had apparently skimmed through them all while Korra was asleep and just wanted a few words identified.

The third night was the only time they actually had time to talk. By then, even his accent had disappeared.

"So, why are you here?" Korra asked.

It took a moment for Sasuke to come up with the best answer to her question. He couldn't tell her the whole truth of course, but didn't want to be caught in a lie so soon either. "I'm looking for information about the spirit world…sort of." The instructions he had found hadn't been all that clear, but finding what he needed would be a long journey without a guide.

Korra sighed at the half-reminder towards her own failing as an Avatar. "Well don't look at me for answers. I mean, I may be the Avatar, but so far my spiritual connection mojo is pfft," she explained while razzing the last part, and what she thought of the whole spiritual connection part in general.

"Do you remember anything else?" she asked.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke replied.

"About you I mean," Korra explained. "Your amnesia. I figure that's the only way you could have learned to read this fast. You were just…remembering it with some help."

Sasuke didn't look to convinced with her theory, but Korra supposed it would sound strange when he was the one who needed to be re-taught everything. With that part of the conversation dying a quick death, she just moved onto her next question.

"So where you from?" she asked, putting her other question aside.

"I come from a village on the western edge of the Fire Nation," Sasuke lied. The fake background he'd come up with over the past two days wouldn't hold up under scrutiny, but the girl had lived her entire life in a giant box, so Sasuke doubted Korra would be able to call him on anything.

Korra nodded at the answer. The family name had said he was from the Earth Kingdom, but the Fire Nation still had a few noble lines left in them from what she knew. "Why were you in the South Pole?"

The sigh that came out of Sasuke's mouth told her it wasn't a question he wanted to answer. "I…got lost."

"Right, the two months thing," she mumbled to herself. "But…how the heck were you in the ocean for that long?"

This time he didn't need to lie, much anyway. "I was on a ship that ran into a major storm. It took us up and we were trapped in it for days and the ship took major damage, and we were forced to abandon ship. I didn't know anything about sailing or navigating on my own, so I just headed South, hoping I'd reach the pole before my food ran out."

Of course the real story was much more complicated. He had left the Land of Wind on a small boat that managed to survive the system of storms that surrounded his homeland and marked the end of the known world, after five days of dragging the small boat behind him over rough waters. After that, it was month after month of sailing West. Sasuke resorted to catching fish when his food ran out, and having to purify the ocean water to drink. When the sickness set in, he was reduced to just drifting. It was pure happenstance that he managed to reach the Pole. It had taken all of his strength just to walk off the remains of his ship before it was swept up in the current again and hauled off.

"But, I thought scurvy takes months to develop," Korra asked.

"Like I said, I got lost…and I didn't head for the South Pole right away."

The Avatar winced at the implications. Months alone at sea? Having to scrounge for food from whatever could be caught? "No wonder you don't talk much," she mumbled to herself.

The ship's horn sounded overhead, and both of the stowaway's covered their ears to keep their skulls from rattling too much. Korra sighed, then leaned back against Naga as she tried to think of her next move since they'd be arriving in the city soon.

"If you're looking for information on the spirit world, then I suppose you could go talk to Tenzin." She didn't know if there were any books about the spirit world, even at the city universities. "What exactly is it did you need?"

"It's personal," Sasuke lied.

Korra thought it best not to press the issue. "Whatever…we should be pulling into port for unloading soon enough anyway. Let's get our stuff packed up. I want to be on our way out the second the cargo doors open."

"Cargo doors?" Sasuke mumbled.

"Yeah," she said before pointing to the large impression on the right side of the room. "This is a C-12 transport, and nothing in here looks heavy enough to require major machinery. They'll probably start unloading as soon as they dock." When the other teenager just gave her a blank look, Korra sighed. "Look, I'm Southern Water Tribe, you learn these kinds of things down there."

It didn't take long for the ship to pull into port and complete its docking procedures. As soon as the door opened, Korra had Naga run down the ramp and out of the docking area too fast for anyone to stop them, but not fast enough people couldn't get out of the polar bear dog's way.

Once they had gotten away without incident, she let the dog slow down and come to a complete stop so she could get a look around. Korra had read plenty of stuff about Republic City and seen pictures, but looking at it with her own eyes made all the difference. "This is amazing," Korra exclaimed. "The airships…I've never seen so many satomobiles!"

Sasuke's eye twitched as he looked at the contraptions. "Air ships…sato-mobiles…right…" That's what that thing in the boat was? I though it was just a stupid carriage! What the hell is making them move? And why the hell would people want to ride something that goes so slow anyway?

For a moment he was tempted to take a look at them with his Sharingan, but thought better of it. Sasuke didn't want to have to go explaining his bloodline trait to these people. So far he had kept the existence of his Sharingan a secret with help of distance back at her home, or only using it at night when Korra was asleep on the cargo ship to memorize the symbols.

Korra turned her attention to the Aang monument, and a brief chill went down her spine. History said that was the very spot where he had died. With no body to erect a proper tomb, the people of the city had simply built a gigantic statue to honor him there.

"And there's Air Temple Island," Korra said, pointing to the larger landmass in the bay. "It's where Tenzin lives with his family, and train the Air Acolytes."

Sasuke frowned and looked over Korra's shoulder. "I thought you said Tenzin and his family were the only people who could use the wind element…other than the Avatar I mean." When Korra gave him an odd look, Sasuke mentally berated himself. He had obviously asked about something which was probably common knowledge to everyone else.

"Yeah, but the acolytes are non-benders who study the Air Nomad's philosophy," Korra explained. She had thought everyone knew that… but then again, who am I to judge? Growing up in that compound hadn't exactly made Korra worldly.

"Well let's hurry up and find a boat to take us over to the island," Sasuke grumbled.

Korra rolled her eyes at the suggestion. "That'll take too long." the second she stopped, her stomach let out a growl and she reached to quiet it down. "Besides, I'm hungry. Naga got into my bag and ate the last of our food last night. We can just ride Naga across."

"You want us to ride a giant dog through half a mile of water?" Sasuke asked, his frown showing his opinion of the idea. "Where we'll be pressed up against a giant, wet, dog…for half a mile?"

With her passenger so reluctant, Korra relented. She sighed and let her shoulders drop. "Fine we'll take a ferry or something." It should only take a few more minutes to find one, adding perhaps an hour to their trip.

An hour later, she was really regretting her decision. The city was a maze of twists and turns when it came to the area around the bay, so they had gone a bit further out a strait path to keep from getting turned around. The only problem was…

"I told you we should have taken that left onto Sokka Avenue," the Avatar said.

"You're the one leading us," Sasuke replied.

…they had no idea how to get back to the bay from where they were.

Sasuke looked up at the building's surrounding them. "If we could find a structure tall enough to see over some of the surrounding buildings, I could take a look around."

The idea was immediately thrown out by Korra. "I don't think Naga would like being in an elevator."

This time Sasuke was able to catch himself before he asked the obvious question of what an elevator was.

"Forget it, I'm asking for directions," she said before stopping at a fruit stand up ahead where an old couple was playing a game of Pai-Sho. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to trouble you but, where do I find the way to Air Temple Island from here?"

The old woman looked up from her game and smiled. "Oh it's no trouble," she said before pointing down the way they were heading. "Just head down this street and through the alley up ahead. You'll-oh dear, you should get moving young lady!"

Korra gave the woman a confused look as the couple suddenly stood up and ran inside the building their stand that sat outside of right as an elegant red satomobile came up to park on the other side of the street.

Three men came out of the car, one wearing green, another black with a red scarf, and a third with a long coat and hat that had light blue hues. If they were following the styles of the city that Korra had observed so far, the colors marked the nation of origin for their families. Judging by his place at the front, the Water Tribe member looked to be the one in charge of the trio.

He walked up to a Earth Kingdom man holding a phonograph and held out his hand. "Mr Chang, you're late with your monthly dues. I'm afraid that I might not be able to protect your home and business," he said while the Fire Nation thug created fire in his hands.

"What's going on here?" Sasuke mumbled.

"Oh, I've heard about stuff like this," Korra replied, a little excited that she was practically seeing a scene from some books she read as a child being reenacted right in front of her. "See, those three hoodlums are part of an extortion scheme called a protection racket. They force weaker people to give them money in return for being left alone. You've never seen one before in your hometown?"

When they heard themselves being referred to as such, the three hoodlums in question turned around to look at the two teenagers with menacing glares.

Sasuke didn't bother to notice the idiots and continued on with his conversation. "No. People in my hometown weren't that stupid." Assaulting shopkeepers in a ninja village was paramount to suicide. It really made no sense to Sasuke either, such things would only damage the economy that the city needed to function.

The closest thing Sasuke could compare it to was what he saw in the Land of Waves, but that had been a whole village taken over via economic means. From what Sasuke had seen, the oversized Republic City was too prosperous not to be able to field some kind of police or military force.

"Hey! Who you calling stupid you little brat!" the man in the green shirt shouted.

Korra stepped in front of Sasuke to protect the non-bender. "You guys," she said with a dangerous smirk as she cracked her knuckles. "I can't believe you idiots would pull something like that in front of me and just think I'd let you get away with it."

The leader of the thugs stepped forward and reached into his coat. "Whatever, I'll be sure you send you flowers in the hospital little girl." Without warning, the thug shot a blast of water from a canteen Korra glimpsed right before she caught the attack, and sent it back into his face, then iced it. As he stumbled forward and into her reach, Korra went into a roundhouse kick to his head that knocked him into his car and shattered the ice while knocking the thug out at the same time.

"Okay, who's-" With one down, Korra looked back to the other two gang members, "huh?" she mumbled when she saw Sasuke standing over their unconscious bodies with a few teeth laying in the road next to their heads. She blinked, then looked behind her, then back to the boy with the waterfall bangs, then behind her, and back to him. "But you were? When? How?"

"You pay too much attention to one opponent," he told her before putting the idiots out of his mind. A second later, Sasuke looked back to the couple trembling behind their stand. "Now to get to the island, it's strait on, go through the alleyway, and then what?"

A siren overhead stopped the old woman from talking, and Sasuke looked up to see one of the airships was the sound of the annoying noise. Five men jumped out from the dirigible and shot metal wires out of their gloves that impacted the sides of the buildings and went stiff to slow their falls until they finally landed on the street.

Each one was dressed in armor that looked almost skin-tight around the arms with the chest pieces shin guards, and plates protecting the waists having disturbing similarities to what samurai wore; if a bit archaic. There was also a golden emblem attached to each of their armors with different names and numbers printed on them.

"Cool, metal benders," Korra said right as they landed. She pointed over to the unconscious thugs. "We took care of the troublemakers for you officers."

The head officer looked around the area with a scowl, then back to the pair of teenagers before he cleared his throat. "Yes, I can see that," the man told her before ordering his men to secure the prisoners.

From the looks of their clothes they were from the Triple Threat Triad, which meant he'd be needing to post extra security in this area for the next two months in order to make sure things didn't get out of hand when the next bunch of triad goons showed up to bring home the point that they still owned this section of the city.

He looked back at the causes of what would be a major headache for his foreseeable future. The patrol captain made a mental note to try and bring the kids as much legal trouble to their doorstep as possible. But at the moment, all he could do was trouble them with a mass of paperwork. "And bring them in too."

"What?" Korra shouted. "Why?"

"We'll need sworn legal statements from the both of you, and everyone here who saw anything," the captain declared.

The water bender looked around, glaring at the crowd as of daring any of them to agree.

The old couple stepped forward, the woman leading the two of them. "We didn't see anything officer," she said, with her husband adding, "nope not a thing."

Korra spun around to look at the elderly pair, her cry of indignation cut off when another man stepped forward to say the car just drove up, and the mobsters fell on the ground. Even the salesman they had been extorting claimed nothing happened.

"What the heck is going on here?" Korra demanded.

Sasuke was the one who volunteered the answer. "This one I understand. They're afraid that if they side against these three idiots, then something bad will happen to them. They're basically being controlled out of fear."

It was an interesting idea really. If the law of the city demanded its citizens needed to testify against the criminals in order to punish the offenders, then it would be easy to have free run of the city if no one spoke out against them. All in all it was a rather roundabout way of doing things, and pretty foolish in his opinion.

"Do you still want to give a statement?" the captain asked.

"Of course I do!" Korra shouted.

-A Bit Later-

"Don't you think that place is a little…overdone?" Sasuke asked as he looked out the window and down on the police headquarters.

The policeman beside him frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's takes up a whole city block and there's a twenty foot statue of a woman standing on a balcony," Sasuke said as he pointed to the oversized structure.

"T-This is the main police headquarters for all of Republic City!" the police captain. "It inspires everyone who looks at it and shows the power and dedication of the police! Don't you just feel the aura of such a magnificent piece of architecture?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Meh."

As she police captain hug his jaw, Korra sighed and moved up to comfort the man with a pat on the back. "He's just like that." Although, it was a little…odd to see the boy actually interested in something like a building.

After the airship dropped close enough to the ground to let its passengers disembark and drop off the people under arrest, Korra and Sasuke were led into the police station. The front room was a bustle of activity, with people behind counters handling concerns from citizens face to face, and dozens of other officers running to a fro in the back.

The three of them stood there for a moment. A minute later, the captain was taken aside by another officer who whispered into his ear before the captain turned to face the teenagers. "Wait here. The Chief wants to talk to the Avatar herself."

Korra let out a humph at just being brush aside, then looked over to Sasuke to try and think of some small talk to pass the time. She still had plenty of things she wanted to ask him, although his reluctance to talk about his past meant she would have to be careful about choosing subjects.

When she saw he was looking at something over to his opposite side, Korra bent her neck around to take a look, and froze as a scene replayed itself in her mind…

The masked man didn't bother dodging the rock before the object passed right through him as he came closer to Aang. He was close, almost within arms reach. As close as he was, Aang could see inside the man's eye, a glowing red orb with a strange black design started back at him. Aang's muscles stiffened, and he grit his teeth as he found himself unable to move.

"Don't let him touch you!" A wave of fire came from his right, and this time the masked man jumped over the attack before he flipped his body around in midair to avoid Zuko's attack before the Fire Lord began to unleash another barrage of flames.

Aang found the ground he was standing on sliding back on its own accord, and he was completely submerged in water for a second, its healing energies allowing him to shake off whatever it was affecting his muscles.

Beside him, Katara brought up another wave of water before separating it into over a dozen water javelins that she turned to ice. Next to her, Toph was still as a stone. The man had avoided assaults and attacked them once before by moving through the ground somehow that none of them quite understood, she was their only warning system to that.

"Keep up the pressure I don't think he can stay insubstantial forever," Zuko yelled before Aang joined in with several a fire blasts of his own. Even if he could, the fire would eat up all his air and force him away.

The Fire Lord and the Avatar's fires collided over and over again, forming a dome of flame that grew and increased in intensity. It turned to blue flames, then became white hot as they pushed the fire closer together between blasts to condense the heat. The surrounding rock turned to lava and causing the grass to catch fire without even being touched by the flames.

Toph suddenly pointed strait ahead. "He jumped out! He's behind it!"

Zuko and Aang sidestepped so they were closer to the rest of the gang and pushed the white ball of fire forward at where Toph said the man was standing. To the Fire benders, their attack rammed into what felt like a wall, and Aang's breath caught when he watched a black flame creep around the edge of his and Zuko's combined attack.

"What is that?" Katara mumbled.

"Black…fire?" Zuko muttered in feared confusion as they watched the dark flames seemingly eat the white fireball before beginning to consume the ground around it. The Fire Lord jumped to the side and unleashed a stream of fire at their attacker who was now standing on the water with no ice underneath to hold him up.

"I can't see him, what's going on?" Toph said while she planted her feet deeper into the ground.

The black flame simply appeared in front of Zuko and met his attack head on, then crept up the stream of flames before it touched his hand a second later. The scarred man screamed as his fingers were covered in the dark fire. He pushed with his other hand to try and throw it off of him, to move the flames or smother them as it crept up the rest of his arm.

Katara screamed Zuko's name before melting her ice and rushing over to cover the man's arm in water, which only evaporated seconds after being applied. The water didn't effect the fire in the least, if it even managed to touch the stuff. Katara brought forth a torrent of water that drenched the Fire Lord's whole body, but didn't put out the flames either.

"My arm, cut it off!" Zuko yelled.

When the masked man looked back at them, Aang kicked up a stone wall and prepared to push it at the man, when their masked attacker came flying over Aang's defense. The blast of air Aang sent at the man did nothing, even his clothes weren't ruffled.

Instinct and emotion ruled reason, Aang looked over to Toph and pushed her out of the way before the masked man landed and grabbed onto the Avatar's shoulder. Then, the world seemed to melt into a whirlpool, and everything went black.

"Korra? Korra you there?" The Avatar jumped away from the hand touching her shoulder and took deep breaths. Her heart was pounding, she looked at Sasuke and was a little surprised as what probably passed for concern on his part covered his face. "Sorry, just…day dreaming," she lied.

That was…the first day of the week of The Black Flame, Korra realized. The day Avatar Aang was…taken. Korra shuddered at the memory, she could still feel the heat of the fire on her skin.

Of course, that was also the day Aang had officially died. The fire that consumed Zuko's arm hadn't gone out, even when they had Toph dump the thing underwater along with all the other ground that was burning. It burned anything it touched, and even slowly spread across the seabed for seven days before finally dying on its own.

Korra realized she really was spacing out all on her own, without the help of past life memories. She shook herself back into reality, and looked over to the young man. "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, just…had one of those moments."

"So you're the Avatar?" an older woman with grey in her hair asked in an authoritative tone, "I'm Chief Lin Beifong."

Then she glanced up to the top of the board showing the various wanted posters for criminals. "Oh, that…yeah, I guess a picture of The Mask would be pretty upsetting to you. But he is the most wanted criminal in the Four Nations, I'm leaving that thing up there till I'm sure he's dropped dead from old age."

"And just how will you ever know who he is?" Sasuke asked in his usual emotionless voice. "I take it no one knows what he really looks like."

The stern woman looked over at the boy before nodding her head a fraction of an inch to give him that point. "True, no one will ever be able to identify him. That mask covered all identifying features. All he would have to do was cut his hair, and he would walk right in and out of this very station without any problems," she admitted. She had read all the old reports of the dozens of imposters who had been brought in the following year. "Of course that still doesn't mean any of us here have forgotten. Even if it's only to remind that bastard I haven't forgotten him, that poster is staying up till I'm sure he's dropped dead from old age."

Korra suppressed a shudder as she forced down the memories of The Mask. "His eyes."

Sasuke switched his attention and watched the girl on the edge of his vision.

The older woman frowned. "Excuse me?"

"His eyes were…different from a normal person's…at least the one I-Aang got a glimpse of. It glowed red, and had these three had these three weird…pupil teardrop…things. I'm not sure how better to describe them than that."

The woman stared at Korra for a moment, then motioned for the girl to follow her. "I was just going to get a few sworn statements from you then send you on your way, but now I think I need to have a word with you in my office." She sapped her fingers to get the attention of one of the nearby officers.

"Take his statement of what happened in district five this morning," she told him before looking over to Korra. "He with you?"

Korra glanced at Sasuke, then back to Lin. "Yes."

"And get him some tea or something for him, he's going to be here for awhile."

Ignoring the women for the moment, Sasuke looked back at the wanted poster with a frown. The man in the picture had a longer hair, and the design on the front of the mask was different, but the single eyehole clearly identified him as the fake Madara.

So you were here, Sasuke thought as he glared at the evidence he was on the right track.

He looked back at the Avatar in consideration before she went into one of the back rooms. The fact she could use all five elements had given him suspicions, but Sasuke had been hesitant to act without proof. During the boat ride over to Republic City, Sasuke had gone through every book that he had grabbed for information on the Avatar to try and learn everything he could about her/him.

It wasn't a bloodline trait like the Sharingan, but it did allow the use of all elements with the direct nature manipulation that some of the people on this continent had.

Even now, he just knew it was connected in some way; even if there was no solid proof.

The fake Madara had killed the previous Avatar years ago, and suddenly gained the resource he needed to launch a campaign against the Five Countries.

Did Sasuke have to kill her? It was how these things usually worked.

But, there was also one problem when he considered the facts he knew since coming the Four Nations. The birth dates don't match up, he told himself, they weren't even close; and any discrepancy between the two was backwards.

Then there was the real Madara…Sasuke knew next to nothing about how he had achieved his evolution over a hundred and fifty years ago. But like the other man, Sasuke had read the instructions that still rested at the bottom of the Uchiha Compound remains. Those didn't mention anything about another multi-element user.

But how could they not be connected? The similarities were more than just coincidence.

What was he missing?

"Sir, are you ready to give your statement?" a man asked, bringing Sasuke out of his considerations.

Sasuke turned around to give a quick nod, then followed the officer through the main room while sparing a glance at the chief's office to look at Korra in consideration.

It seemed that he would need to be sticking by her for the foreseeable future to figure things out.

-The Chief's Office-

Korra felt like she wanted to throw up. When she had let it slip about The Mask's eyes, Lin had dragged her into the chief's office to get a full report as well as have her sign some documents to report on what happened in the city earlier. But what she really wanted was the information concerning The Mask.

The woman was like a bull dog. Korra felt like she had been latched onto, and was constantly being poked by horns as Lin asked her over and over again for any specific details regarding the man. Ten minutes into the interrogation, for lack of a better term, Korra admitted that she remembered Aang had survived the encounter and what little she knew of what happened afterwards.

"Look, I'm telling you, that's all I know," Korra said. "I never saw his face, or Aang never saw…you know what I mean! I was in-he was in this weird cave and restrained on a table or something. At least I think he was laying down."

"And that's all you can remember about the incident?" Lin asked.

Korra rubbed her arms and looked away from the older woman. "It's not remembering, I wasn't there. I just get these freaky…flashes sometimes. And I don't like it. Those guys, they…they did something to Aang before they killed him."

The look on the girl's face made Lin hold back her next question. The Avatar had gone from single to plural. What does she mean by they?

But, the girl also had a point. Lin wasn't dealing with a traumatized witness that could simply have the information drawn out of her under pressure. She didn't know how the Avatar memories even worked. There was Aang's story about when he met Roku and was guided through his past that Lin had heard as a little girl, but that had been an older incarnation guiding the younger down memory lane. This seemed like something far different.

A spot of orange in the crowd of people outside told Lin this would all be coming to a close soon enough anyway. It was best to end it on a good note if she would be needing to talk to Korra in the future.

"It's alright, we can stop if you want," Lin told her. "I'm sorry this is so hard for you. But this man killed the Avatar, and there is no way I'm going to let him get away with it." She took a moment and gave the girl some tea. "By the way, I called Tenzin when I heard you were brought in. He-"

"What?" Korra exclaimed as the door banged open behind her and she looked to see the world's only Airbending master standing behind her. "Oh…hey…Tenzin." Being in a police station and all, Korra decided it was best to keep quiet about the triad fight.

The man looked at the source of his latest headache, then took a deep, calming breath before turning his attention to the woman. "Lin, you're looking as radiant as ever."

"Cut the crap Tenzin, why is the Avatar in Republic City?" Lin demanded. "You decide to move her up here to train her in Airbending?" She knew that shrill, soft, prissy, thieving little…woman of his didn't like the cold and they had another child on the way.

Korra winced when Tenzin looked back in her direction for a moment before answering. "No. The Avatar will be returning to the South Pole tonight."

"But you can't."

Everyone in the room blinked when the reply came from both females at the same time. Not quite sure what was going on, Korra gave Lin a blank and confused look. "Uh…please tell me your reason isn't because I have to serve jail time, or something."

"Wait outside," Lin ordered. "I need to speak with Tenzin alone for a moment."

Korra moved her gaze between the two adults, then quickly figured it was best to get out while the getting was good.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Tenzin turned on Lin. "What are you playing at here Lin? Why are you wanting Korra to stay in Republic City?"

"What do you remember about the first Day of Black Fire?" Lin asked.

Tenzin frowned at the question. What is she getting at? "The same as you. We were letting out Yakome's trail after my father had taken away his bending for his part in leading the Traditionalist Rebellion. Then that man with the mask walked up to my father as if to introduce himself. If I hadn't lost my grip on Jojo and he hadn't flown to the Avatar's shoulder, The Mask would have killed the Avatar right then and there."

Lin nodded, it was the same as her. The man had simply walked past the bailiffs as if he was on important business, reached out to Aang and a second later Tenzin's pet flying lemur had been killed by being…sucked away into thin air. Then the fight had started, and Lin had run for cover.

"Not that it seemed to make a difference in the long run," Tenzin grumbled. "And why did you decide to bring something like that up?" She knew that memory was his most painful one.

"Because the current Avatar also remembers what happened that day," Lin explained, although she was interrupted before she could continue.

Tenzin shrugged. "So my father told her. The past Avatar's share their experiences with the current one when they think she needs them." It wasn't that big a deal. "I don't see why that means you think she needs to say in Republic City."

"She also remembers what happened to Aang afterwards. Your father was not killed on the first Day of Black Fire," Lin hinted.

This time, Tenzin did become interested. "What?"

His mind reeled at the revelation. When it had taken more than six years to find the new Avatar, they had theorized that Aang might have still been alive after what happened on Avatar Island. No one had actually seen what happened that day between Aang and his attacker. Zuko had been in too much pain and Katara had been too busy healing him. The only witness they had was Toph, who only said that Aang and the stranger simply disappeared, like they jumped into the air and never came down.

After regaining his composure, Tenzin held up his hand to keep Lin from going on. "Alright, we always that had been a possibility. But I don't see what that has to do with Korra."

"You're not listening to me Tenzin," Lin continued. "Korra is the one remembering these things, she says Aang hasn't shown up once to help guide her, none of the other Avatars have. I don't know how the whole Avatar thing works, but that seems pretty damn wrong to me."

Tenzin frowned in thought. It may have just seemed wrong to Lin, but he knew it was in fact very wrong. The Avatar didn't remember things from his or her past lives directly, it was always a past Avatar that showed them. "I'll admit, that is disturbing," he grumbled, then looked back to the woman, "so you want me to…what? Investigate the Avatar's spiritual problems?"

This time, it was Lin's turn to look confused. Although to her credit, only last a few seconds. "I don't give a damn about the Avatar's problems. But what really troubles me is some group of people, and according to that girl it was a group, were able to hold the Avatar for years, she said they did things to Aang, Tenzin. Things that make her whole body tremble when she mentions them."

She paused to take a calming breath. "My personal feelings on the mater aside, we both know there is something big coming, something that started years ago."

"That's why we decided to put the Avatar in that artic wasteland for her training," Tenzin replied. "There, she can be safe!"

"It's not just about the kid. We both know that the world's best troublemakers spend years getting ready for their big show," Lin countered. "It's been over twenty-five years, and we're still waiting for that shoe to drop. I just want to find and stop it before it happens, or at least figure out a way to keep from being squashed. That girl is our only hope for that.

"Don't bitch to me about the council, or your schedule, or your wife," Lin said as he pointed a finger in the man's face. "The Avatar needs to get in touch with her spiritual side so she can ask Aang what the hell is waiting for us in the wind. Because when it shows up, it's going to make the bending triads look like a bunch of schoolyard bullies. So get your ass in gear, and do your damn job before the next Ozai starts knocking down kingdoms while you're busy talking about a bunch of idiots screaming 'equality now'."

As soon as the door to the chief's office opened, Korra rose hesitantly. Thanks to the extra time, she had managed to come up with some pretty convincing arguments as to why she should be taught Airbending here in Republic City.

Tenzin came out looking tired and defeated. When he reached where she and Sasuke were sitting, he let out a depressing sigh. "Okay let's-" he stopped to look at Sasuke. "Who's this?" He did look a little familiar, but Tenzin was too tired to remember much more than that.

Korra held out her opened hand to point to Sasuke. "This is Sasuke Uchiha, from the South Pole, remember? He came to Republic City to learn about the spirit world, so I kind of pointed him your way."

Of course, the Airbending master thought sarcastically. He could almost hear his mother's destiny speech coming from behind him. "Well come on then, your first lesson will be bright and early tomorrow morning."

The man started to walk away from Korra, who might as well of been held up by puppet strings. "That was…weird." She looked over to Sasuke for confirmation. "So, now he wants to teach me Airbending?"

"Apparently," Sasuke replied in an even tone before standing up to follow the man with the arrow on his head.

"But…why?" Korra asked her traveling companion after recovering enough to walk.

"Does it really matter?" Sasuke asked her.

Korra looked over to the emotionless boy with a deadpan expression. "You never talked to people all that much before you lost your voice either, did you?"