AN; THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER… JUST A SOPA INFOMERCIAL…

JK GUYS HAHAHAHA

Woah, surprised by the uber positive feedback this story got, over a hundred favs and follows and it's only the first chapter! Nice! BTW Ages; Naruto – 10 in 1st Chapter, 16 for the rest of the fic, Katara – 8 in 1st chapter, and 14 for the rest of the fic (just like the cartoons) and Sokka – 9 in the 1st chapter, 15 for the rest of the fic. Oh, Aang will be 112.

OVO

But I just couldn't take it

I tried hard not to fake it but

I fumbled it when it came down to the wire

XO

Naruto wasn't expecting to stay with the tribe for this long but he did and he still was actually. Kya and Katara's unexpected wishes for him to stay finally won him over and for the first time in his young life he felt love and a sense of belonging. It wasn't easy at first, the tribe was naturally cautious around him due to his ex-status as a southern raider but his charisma shone through and won them over in no time.

Naruto was now a common sight among the tribe, if he wasn't spending time horsing around with the tribe's children or Katara and Sokka, he was off fishing or doing other tasks the women in the village couldn't do. His desires to join the other men of the tribe in the fight against the Fire Nation was firmly refuted with a hand to the back of his head courtesy of Kya and a teary reminder that he was still a child and thus deserved a childhood no matter the circumstances.

He couldn't really argue with that logic, not to mention the tears. Naruto hated girl tears it was his one weakness. Let it be known that in order to get one Naruto Uzumaki to bend to your will all you have to do is shed some tears. So with a heavy sigh Naruto reluctantly agreed to stay with the tribe under the duty of 'Protecting' them. Which of course he knew was just Hakoda's attempt to soothe his torn pride.

"Naruto." Kya placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently.

The blonde snapped out of his dazed state and looked at the person he considered the mother he never had, "Sorry Kya, did you say something? I was a little lost in my thoughts." He chuckled deeply and scratched the back of his head.

"I was just telling you how you've already weaved enough knots in that net to catch even the smallest fishes." She laughed good-naturedly, "Is there something troubling you?" She asked, a frown pulling on her lips.

Naruto looked down at his net and frowned, he glanced at Kya briefly before sighing, "It's… Nothing." He clamped up.

The woman rolled her eyes at the young man, "Nothing is always something."

Sighing again Naruto turned towards Kya, "It's Katara… She's been really angryat me lately. She gets even madder at me than at Sokka and that's saying something." The blonde huffed in frustration, "The thing is I don't even do anything half the time!"

"Half the time?" She prodded.

He cracked his knuckles and his neck and smiled at the passing group of girls that waved and giggled at him. His smile promptly fell at the sight of an angry Katara glaring straight at him. "See what I mean." He grumbled motioning towards the irate girl, "I didn't do anything and she's glaring at me like she wants to freeze me."

Kya's brow rose at her daughter who promptly turned away, biting her lip to stifle a giggle she turned towards her practically adopted son, "It's a girl thing, don't worry about it, it'll work itself out." She patted Naruto's hand and smiled, "Now go fishing with Sokka, he's been complaining about not having enough fish."

Naruto grunted and got up, nodding distractedly at Kya he ambled off to find Sokka.

The woman watched the teen walk away with a fond smile, "Katara!" She called out, catching the attention of her daughter. "Come over here for a second?"

Katara excused herself from her Gran and made her way to her mother, "Did you need something mom?" She fidgeted and kicked a little hole in the snow at her mom's amused expression; nothing good ever came from that face.

Kya smiled at her youngest, "Oh no, dear, just a little girl talk." Patting the chair Naruto previously vacated she waited for her daughter to plop herself down.

Katara bit back her groan and took the seat, playing with her hands idly she inhaled deeply as a strong wind swept over the village causing the children to squeal and run for cover. She smiled gently at the sight, children didn't know how lucky they were, things were so simple back then, ugh, screw you hormones.

She looked up at her mom, brow quirked up as a silent question.

"When your father and I were at your age…" Kya started, rolling her eyes at her daughter's deadpan expression, "Your father had a lot of admirers, and while he was quite smitten with me, it always irked me me to no end…" She trailed off, a small smirk gracing her features at her daughter's mortified and embarrassed expression. "I mean, if I could waterbend I would definitely-"

"Mom!" Katara hissed, light blue eyes swiveling side-to-side to make sure no one was listening.

Kya simply laughed at her youngest, "Please, everyone BUT Naruto knows you like him, there are no secrets here." She shook her head at her village fondly, "Anyways, the moral of the story is, if I would've kept up my frosty demeanor towards your father instead of telling him how I felt, things might've gone differently."

"Differently…" Her glacier blue eyes met her mother's own and she sighed, shoulders sagging in a defeated manner, "He doesn't think of me like that." Her mother simply smiled at her.

"You'll never know unless you tell him."

Katara bit her lip in thought, "Naruto's…"

"Dense?" Her mother supplied.

She nodded, "Dense. But that doesn't mean-"

Kya gave her daughter a pointed look, "Katara. Sokka and Naruto are going fishing." She supplied, laughing to herself when her daughter was already storming off to find the pair.

OVO

"-Hates me, man." Naruto sighed a small tuft of flame exiting his mouth with the action.

Sokka stared at his "brother from another mother" incredulously, "She doesn't hate you, you nimrod." He paused, flipping the canoe and dumping all their gear into it, "Quite the opposite actually." He muttered.

"What?" Naruto grouched, "Didn't hear that." He kicked his boots off and shrugged his vest off, leaving him bare chested and barefoot, just the way he preferred.

Sokka, in the process of enlightening his dense as a brick brother, promptly shut his mouth at the sight of his enraged sister who apparently heard everything. "Uh, hey Katara." Speak of the devil, he chuckled.

"Sokka." Katara bit out, well aware of what her brother was about to say, "Mom needed you so I'll be fishing with Naruto instead." She didn't wait for a reply, pushing the canoe in the water she jumped on it skillfully and turned back to the stunned duo, "Well are you coming?" She questioned Naruto.

Naruto shook his head and shot Sokka a pitiful look, getting nothing but a smirk and a shrug in return he sighed heavily and jumped in the canoe, this was going to be so fun.

XO

It was silent on the canoe, while Naruto concentrated on casting his net and fishing Katara focused more on watching Naruto's back, enjoying the way the muscles would ripple and bunch up with every movement he made.

"Katara," Naruto glanced back, a little disconcerted when he noticed Katara's focused stare, "I don't know when things started to change…"

Katara in the mean time was having an internal freak out, this was it, this was the moment of truth. Her brain was positive this would be awful but her heart told her not to lose hope… yet.

"I don't know what I did to make you hate me but I'm sorry, alright."

"Hate you…" The words echoed in Katara's head, her mother was right, she'd been going about this the wrong way. She sighed, "I don't hate you, Naruto."

Naruto turned to face her and Katara wished he'd turn back around since it was much easier talking to him without having his insanely penetrating blue eyes staring at her. "Right, I'm sure you don't." Naruto replied sarcastically.

"I'm surprised you know what sarcasm is." The fox boomed out in his mind with laughter.

"Shut up Kurama."

"What makes you think I hate you?" Katara probed, might as well, no one ever said she wasn't a glutton for punishment. She broke off their stare down, her eyes averted to the side of the canoe, absentmindedly swaying her hand around to play with the water.

Naruto's lips pursed, was this girl being serious right now? "Well for starters you glare at me any chance you get. You get mad at me for absolutely no reason… you even froze me that one time! Then there was that time that-"

"Okay!" Katara conceded, throwing her hands up in exasperation, unintentionally jostling the calm waters they canoed on, "I glare at you because you smile at those bimbos in the village." She hissed smile as if it was actually a crime, "and I don't get mad at you for no reason. I get mad because I do something different… something nice like let my hair down for a change and you don't say anything!"

"Hey!" Naruto interjected defensively, "I told you that you looked nice that day, and what do you do, freeze me!" He argued.

Katara glared at the dumb blonde, "That's not what I meant." Was her clipped reply.

He exhaled harshly and willed himself to calm his explosive temper when he noticed the temperature rising a few degrees, "Okay. What did you mean then?" He bristled when she rolled her eyes at him.

She stared at him a moment too long and giggled, if Naruto was a polar leopard she was sure his fur would be standing on edge.

Crossing his arms defensively, Naruto huffed for the umpteenth time, "What's so funny." He grated out.

"You." She stammered between giggles, "Okay, I'm sorry. I honestly don't hate you Naruto… In fact, I, umm I- woah!" The calm waters morphed into raging rapids, with chunks of ice bashing the canoe from either side, Katara lurched forwards from a particularly harsh impact, landing right on a furiously paddling Naruto's back. "Sorry." She mumbled in his neck, thoroughly enjoying being this close to the older teen, sorry I'm not sorry.

Naruto flinched and shivered at the shock of warmth on his neck, he swore quietly when his lack of focus resulted in their canoe getting pulverized between two thick sheets of ice and they were sent flying through the air. With his fast reflexes, Naruto managed to twist around to protect Katara from the impact.

"So." Naruto muttered from his position flat on his back on the ice, he looked down at Katara who was looking up at him intensely; he cleared his throat uncomfortably and thanked the gods he was on a cold surface. "You so could have water bended us out of there."

Katara's blissful expression morphed into an annoyed one, "You just had to ruin it." She said sourly. She hefted herself off him and glared.

"Ruin what?" He asked in that clueless manner, head tilted to the side with his lips pursed. Katara didn't know whether to kiss him or to slap him.

"Nothing, Naruto!" She screamed, "Absolutely nothing!" She got up and pointed at him, "It's nothing because you refuse to see anything." Her hands flailed to the side, once again causing the water around them to react along with her emotions. "I mean how many ways can I show it to you before you get it, huh?"

His brows rose to his hairline, "What are you talking about…" He said cautiously, eyeing the cracked iceberg behind them.

Katara screeched, "Ugh! Do I have to spell it out for you? I-" She paused and suddenly she found herself pinned underneath the blonde oaf while the iceberg that she's just now noticed she's broken splintered into tiny pieces. "Woah, did I do that?" She asked, amazed.

Naruto supported himself up with his forearms and stared down at Katara incredulously, "Yes, you did." He deadpanned. "Remember what I told you about bending Katara, it gets dangerous when emotions come to play, one must bend with a clear mind."

She looked away from Naruto, upset at herself at disappointing him by forgetting such a simple lesson, but much to her shock and delight his rough hand turned her face to look at him gently before his lips curled into a toothy grin.

"That was pretty awesome though." He said, laughing.

Katara laughed along with him, their merriment ceasing when a huge glowing iceberg emerged from the water. Naruto and Katara stared at the iceberg, both shocked and baffled at the presence of what seemed to be a bald person in the iceberg. Getting his ass in gear, Naruto got up and sent a steady stream of fire at the ice to melt it.

The person in the iceberg was glowing, seated in a position of meditation, the glowing tattoos that marked him as a master air bender clicked into Naruto's brain. This was the avatar, that much more was evident when the kid's eyes opened only to find them glowing too. He's learned much under his studies with Yon Rha and he knew for a fact that this was the famed avatar state.

He looked at the iceberg, his face morphing into an expression of recognition; the avatar has been trapped in ice for a century now. He helped Katara up, the two teens stared at the boy, "Katara," He whispered, shock prevalent in his tone, "We found the avatar."

She looked at him wide-eyed, "What?" Was her less than eloquent reply.

"Look at his clothes, he's an air nomad, his tattoos mark him as a master and that weird glowing thing is called the avatar state, that must be what's kept him alive for so long." He finished, and Katara stared at him, dumfounded. He could figure that out in mere moments but he couldn't even figure out her feelings for him… She scoffed and turned her attention back to the avatar.

They both took a cautious step near the kid and they stared at him intently once he stopped glowing, "Hey." He said in a childish voice, eyes slowly blinking out a hundred years worth of sleep.

"What's your name, Avatar." Naruto cut in.

The avatar's eyes widened comically and the teens stared at him weirdly, "Um it's Aang and how did you know-," He chuckled nervously, "I'm not the avatar." He finished waspishly.

Naruto crossed his arms in what was apparently an intimidating gesture from the way the kid backed up a bit, "You pretty much confirmed our suspicions avatar Aang."

Aang looked away from the intimidating ex-soldier in panic, calming slightly when Katara, the less intimidating of the two approached him and laid a calming hand on his shoulder, "Ignore the hot-head over there." She motioned towards Naruto fondly, "You're the avatar right, so you can teach me how to waterbend?" She asked hopefully.

"I don't know how to water bend yet… BECAUSEI'MANAIRBENDER" He added hastily glancing at the still glowering and very muscular angry Naruto.

"Right…" Katara added dubiously, she backed away and returned to her place next to Naruto whose scowl softened when she gave him 'the look.'

"Okay airbender Aang." Naruto made sure to apply an extra helping of sarcasm with that statement, "I'm Naruto and this is Katara. Follow us to the village."

"How?" His expression dimmed then brightened considerably, Aang jumped over to the other side of the iceberg, laughing in childish glee at the sight of his long-time friend, Appa.

The teens peered around to see what got Aang so excited only to be met with a giant sky bison, said bison sneezed hurling a blob of snot towards Naruto who merely incinerated it before it got to him.

Aang's wide eyes turned towards the firebender, "Cool! You're a firebender! Maybe you could-" He stopped himself and chuckled nervously.

Naruto's brow hitched up, "Maybe I could what?" Naruto baited.

"Nothing, nothing." He casually remarked, doing a spin jump to get on Appa's head, "Appa, this is Naruto and Katara, Katara and Naruto, this is Appa." He looked around, not seeing any means of transportation for the two he smiled, "Do you guys need a lift?"

Naruto shook his head and took Katara in his arms, winking at her when she smacked his chest, "No, I've got it covered, just follow us." He jumped up and used a burst of fire to hold him afloat, "C'mon."

Aang stared at the fire bender in awe, that was so cool. "Appa yip-yip." The flying bison stood and with a flap of its mighty tail it flopped right into the water making the three benders sweat drop, "Um, he's tired is all." Aang covered up with a chuckle.

OVO

Naruto, Sokka, Kya and Kanna sat around the fire pit, sipping on tea as each pondered what the Avatar's return meant. Katara was off entertaining the spirited child.

"I don't know why he insists he's not the avatar." Naruto stated in between sips.

Kanna peeked an eye open to look at him, "Perhaps he's not the avatar."

He shook his head, "He has to be, there are no other airbenders and how convenient is it that he knows nothing of the war that's been raging for a century now right around the time when the last avatar that happened to be an airbender disappeared. "

"All I'm saying is, don't put all your hopes with that boy." Kanna stated with finality.

Naruto deflated looking to Sokka and Kya for support but the two remained stone-faced staring at the fire. Likely thinking about Hakoda who still has not returned or sent word of his status.

A loud bang interrupted the melancholy mood and all four occupants of the igloo rushed out to see a bright flare in the sky, most likely the one coming from the firebender ship on the outskirts of the pole.

"Shit." Naruto muttered.

Kya gave him the evil-eye, "Naruto!"

"What…" He mumbled, head down and turned away from the woman.

"Language young man." She huffed.

Sokka stared at his mother and brother incredulously, "Mom, no time to chastise at a time like this! Every firebender that's close to the pole must have seen and heard that!" He freaked, hands patting down his belt to make sure his trusted boomerang and other miscellaneous items are secured. He looked towards the village entrance, fury evident in his face at the carefree smile plastered on the Avatar's face. He stormed up to the pair, followed by the other three who made their way to the avatar at a much more sedated pace.

"What was that?!" He bellowed out the question, looking Katara up and down to make sure she was uninjured.

Aang laughed nervously, "Well you see we were in that old ship and a trap kind of walked into us…" He trailed off, looking at Katara for help but the worried expression on her face erased all traces of humor on his.

Naruto looked at Aang pensively, crossing his heavy muscle laden arms he smirked at the fear evident on the younger boy's face. "You need to leave." His tone left no room for arguments.

Katara gaped at him, "You have got to be kidding!"

"I'm not. He's the avatar, do you know what lengths the Fire Nation will go to to find and capture him? They'll decimate this entire place for him. I'm saying this on behalf of our village and him. He needs to go to the Northern Tribes to learn how to waterbend." Naruto shook his head and smiled at the young boy apologetically, he wasn't normally so brusque but when it came down to protecting his family he'd do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

"But I'm not the avatar." Aang protested weakly.

Naruto gave him a pointed look, "Okay, even if you're not the avatar you're the last airbender and you need to keep yourself safe and away from the Fire Nation." His ears twitched at a faint sound, it might've been awhile since he's heard it but he'd recognize it anywhere, a Fire Nation ship was nearby and he prayed to the gods there was only one.

Sokka looked at Naruto, noticing the change in his brother's usual relaxed posture back to the stiff militaristic one he carried before, "What is it?"

"Fire Nation ship and by the sound of it, it's close." Naruto looked around him seeing the worried faces of his family he steeled himself for the upcoming battle. "I'll go and detain them, with my luck it'll be a buncha grunts that I can easily take out."

"No." Katara whispered, her heart dropped and she bit her lip, shutting her eyes tight to prevent the tears from leaking out.

"Katara's right, Naruto." Kya's brows were weighed down with worry for her son, "You can't go out there alone. I forbid it." She said weakly, though she knew that once Naruto's mind was made up there was no chance of changing it.

Naruto sighed and went up to Kya, he hated upsetting his family but this needed to be done. Throwing his arms around her, he hugged her tightly and whispered, "Don't worry about me, mom." The resulting smile from Kya was blinding and Naruto was comforted by the fact that he wouldn't leave on bad terms with his mother figure. He looked at Kanna and though she looked distraught at the turn of events she nodded her approval at him, Sokka was next to show his approval.

Sokka shook his head sadly, times like these he wished he was a bender, maybe he could protect his people better if he was. He held his hand out to his brother, smirking when they clasped hands. "I'll protect our home with my life."

Naruto grinned toothily, "I know you will, I'll make sure to save some for you brother." He turned towards the avatar, "Aang you need to keep yourself safe, as the avatar you can end this pointless war but not if you get caught." He smirked, "No pressure though."

Aang laughed mirthlessly, "I'm sorry, Naruto." He mumbled.

"Hey chin up, kid. With great power comes great responsibility, time to man up, yeah?" He threw a playful punch at Aang and laughed when he scurried behind Katara who was glaring death at him. "Katara," Naruto began, "Look I-"

"Shut up." She walked up to him, staring him down with her hands on her hips, "You better come back safe, okay?" Katara bit her lip, she refused to believe that this could be the last time she'd see the sunny blonde but a little voice in the back of her head kept nagging at her, tell him how you feel. Balling up her fists she exhaled harshly before she worked up the courage to wrap her hands around his neck to pretty much drag him down to her level. "Promise me."

At this point Naruto was pretty flustered, added to their close proximity his skin heated up noticeably along with his blush. He flashed her his megawatt smile, "It's a promise of a lifetime."

Katara melted at this, with a soft smile she went on her tippy toes to seal the deal with a kiss. The kiss was short and chaste but it was sweet and full of promise, she ignored the 'finally' comments her family muttered in favor of focusing on the glorious sensation of finally kissing Naruto. She pulled away first, "Good." She whispered against his lips, a sense of womanly pride invading her at his dazed expression.

Naruto cleared his throat and straightened up, "Um…" He muttered in a daze. He shook his head, stepping back from Katara her odd behavior finally made sense to him and it must've shown on his face since his family merely face palmed and muttered stuff about him being a dense dinkus. "We'll talk about this when I get back, yeah?" He smiled at Katara, stealing one last kiss from her he propelled himself away to intercept the incoming Fire Nation.

Katara smiled at him fondly, the worry monster jumping around in her brain pacified momentarily by Naruto's promise and kiss, "What an idiot."

XO

See y'all in x months! JK, or am I? Thanks for reading folks!