Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

"Won't you release the tailed beasts?" Naruto asked, turning to Sasuke. "They've finally gotten their freedom. I've gotten to know them well, so I just know...they won't be doing any evil anymore."

Sasuke shook his head. "...Naruto. It seems as though you still don't understand."

"Understand what?" Naruto frowned.

"As of now, you are the Jinchuuriki for every single one of the tailed beasts...so of course the tailed beasts' chakra that resides inside of you is included," Sasuke begun to explain. "...when I say that I plan to destroy every single last one of them."

Sakura and Kakashi stood in shock at their exchange.

"In other words...you are going to die, Naruto." The words rolled off of his tongue. "There is no way around it."

Naruto gritted his teeth, he opened his mouth to say something.

"According to what the Sage said..." Sasuke said, cutting him off. "I don't even need the tailed beasts' power that's inside of you to dispel the infinite Tsukuyomi as long as I have the tailed beasts that I've captured to use, which means that I'll be keeping them alive until then at least."

"I won't let you get away with this...you realise that, don't you?!" Naruto yelled.

"I suppose I'll have to start with you after all, Naruto...but not here." He turned on his heel and begun walking away. "Let's go elsewhere, you should know where."

"Wait! Sasuke!" Kakashi proceeds to begin to get up, but his knees wobble and cave outwards; forcing him down on all fours. "Nghk..."

"Sensei!" Sakura rushes to his side, placing a hand on his back to support him. Her eyes focused on Sasuke once again, becoming glassy. Naruto and Kakashi looked at her, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stay quiet any longer because this could be the last time that she ever sees him again. Her brows furrow, tears streaming down her cheeks and her teeth gritted as she watched him walk further away from them. "I..."

"The truth is...I've always known in my heart, there was nothing I could have done for you." She called to him, loud enough for him to hear as he continued on his way. "But I love you...!"

She choked. "No matter what's happened, I still care about you more than I can bear...If I could have taken all of your pain onto myself to comfort you, I would have. And here we are again, and still, all I can do is sit here and cry. I'm so...pathetic." She sobbed, closing her eyes and lowering her head. Refusing to look at him as it caused her more heartache. "But...Sasuke! If I still have a place somewhere in your heart, no matter how small it may be...then please...I'm begging you, don't slip any further away...!"

Kakashi observed the pain on her face, his eyes expressing the sadness he felt for her. He hadn't been there the first time Sakura poured her heart out to Sasuke, but he was now, and his heart broke for her.

"If we just all stayed together...forever...then I'm sure that someday...Things will go back to the way they used to be..." She finished, opening her eyes and looking at him again. She gasped as he begun to turn around, hope filling her once again like it had when they had been reunited on the battlefield.

"You really are..." He looks at her straight in the eyes, his Sharingan glistening at her. A pained smile on his lips. "annoying..."

Her mistake was looking into those eyes that stared back, a purple light pulsed from his eye and formed a clone of him that struck through her chest, she stared at his clone in disbelief before her eyes closed. Once the clone had quickly been sucked back into Sasuke, Sakura had fallen onto the ground.

Naruto stepped forward, balling his fists. "You bastard! That's going too far! You didn't need to use Genjutsu on Sakura!"

"If I left her like that, she would just come after us. She would have gotten in the way." Sasuke explained.

"Sakura..." Kakashi places a hand on her back. "She just wanted to help you, all this time!"

Sasuke glared at Kakashi. "Was she having fun in her little make-believe fantasy of true love? As for me, I have absolutely no reason to love her and likewise, I can see no reason why she would love me."

"The only time you need a reason is to hate someone!" Kakashi spat. "Besides, all Sakura wanted just now was to be yours! She only wanted to save you! This girl here..." He looked down at Sakura, whose face remained in pain with sadness and her still fresh tears rolling to the side of her cheeks and nose. "...Who you've been more than ready to kill...even now, she's crying tears filled with thoughts of you...because she loves you so much it's breaking her heart!"

Sasuke pauses, in thought for a second. His hair masking the emotion in his eyes as he thought of the family he has lost. "That's probably just...chains from a failed past she's feeling..."

"Sasuke...!" Kakashi begins to get up to catch up to Sasuke before he jumped away but Naruto flashed in front of him. He watched as Naruto's shaggy hair and black headband blew in the air.

"I...promised." He started, looking down at Sakura. "I promised Sakura a long time ago that no matter what, I would bring Sasuke home. It wasn't one that I intended not to keep!"

"Naruto-" Kakashi began, hoping to dissuade Naruto against his decision.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cut in, looking in front of him now. "You should know my ninja way by now, don't you? I'm going now!"

I'll never go back on my word. This is my ninja way!

Hagaromo and Kakashi watched as Naruto raced towards the Valley of the End to meet with Sasuke. A few moments had passed since Naruto's departure, and Kakashi had begun to tend to Sakura to ensure she was comfortable before Hagaromo opened his mouth to speak.

"Love is a complicated thing..." He started. "I too once had two sons. I loved them both, and they both loved and respected me as well. But in the end, I chose to leave everything to my youngest son alone. And because of that, my eldest grew to despise both me and his younger brother. Just like that, the love we had transformed into hate. The Sasuke of today has been moulded and shaped by the loss of the love he once had in his past. Madara was the same way."

Kakashi glanced at the lifeless body of Madara before he looked at Hagaromo. "...Sasuke and Madara have shared similar fates. Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Not exactly..." Hagaromo replied, looking between Sakura and Madara. "I want to give him a better future than what I had for myself. By learning from my past mistakes. That's why this time I entrusted the same amount of power to both of them. The past does not exist to remind us that the future cannot be changed. It exists to show us what the future can be."

"And what made you see that possibility in Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"That boy is the man who was able to befriend Kurama and save him from the embodiment of hatred that he had become. So I decided to leave it all up to him. This time, I'm praying, it will be hatred that transforms into love...rather...I pray they're able to reclaim the love they'd lost. Not just Naruto...but Sasuke as well. Unlike Kaguya, they've known something of love..."

The snowy footprints of two people lay embedded down the path of the canal, where they disappeared as the ice and snow have begun to thin out. Icebergs towered high, high enough to block the beating sun from the eyes of the two teenagers who floated along in a canoe amidst the ice-laden waters and the few unexpectant fish below them.

The boy watched the water excitedly, with a spear in his hand. "It's not getting away from me this time," The boy stated with determination. "watch and learn, Katara; this is how you catch a fish!"

He stuck out his tongue as he pulled his spear back and lunged it forward into the water.

Katara rolled her eyes at him and glanced at the water in front of her. She spotted a fish swimming side to side near her end of the canoe, in curiousness; she took off one of her gloves. Steadying her breathing, she waved her hand once. Somehow, the fish was raised out of the water in a glistening sphere of water. She continued to move her hands together, noticeably worrying to keep the ball of water airborne.

"Sokka, look!" She yelped, excitedly.

"Sssh! Katara, you'll scare it away!" Sokka whispered. "Mmmm, I can already smell it cookin'!" He said, staring hungrily at the fish.

"But Sokka! I caught one!" She called again. She moved the water ball away from the water, hovering it over the canoe and aiming it towards the wooden bucket they kept on the canoe, but the tip of Sokka's spear popped the bubble and water gushed out; drowning him in the process. The fish flopped back into the water for freedom.

"Hey!" Katara yelled, frustrated now.

"Augh!" Sokka yelped in disgust, trying to shake himself dry as he glared at Katara. "Why is it, whenever you play with magic water, I get soaked?" He asked, exasperated.

"It's not magic water, it's water bending." Katara pointed out, annoyed. "And it's-"

"-Yeah, yeah. An ancient art technique to our culture. Blah, blah, blah." Sokka drawled, shrugging his arms. "Look, I'm just sayin' that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"You're calling me weird?" Katara cried incredulously. Realising that he wasn't paying attention to her, and flexing his 'muscles' while watching his reflection in the water, she grinned. "I'm not the one who makes muscles every time I see my reflection in the water."

Sokka pouted at her and rolled down his sleeves, not noticing the ice float right in front of him that they collided with. Their small canoe moved out of the way of the float naturally but right into a swift current. Sokka picked up the paddles on the sides of the canoe and tried to push themselves away from the ice floats that were crashing into them.

"Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara yelled, their canoe wedging it's way between two icebergs closing in on them. The two were flung out of the canoe upon impact, whereas the canoe had splintered into a million pieces. Once gathering themselves once more on an ice float sturdy enough to support them both, she turned to Sokka in anger. "You call that left?"

"You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you should have water bent us out of the ice." Sokka said sarcastically, moving his hands in a flowing motion like Katara had performed before.

"Oh, so it's my fault?" She stood up so she towered over him, attempting to intimidate him.

Sokka curled his legs up towards his chest and let his arms hold them in place. "I knew I should have left you at home. Trust a girl to screw things up."

Katara's eye twitched as she glared at him. "You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained, ugh! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" As she yelled, she flung her arms backwards which created tidal waves behind her. Sokka looked on uninterestedly until chunks of ice began to fall behind Katara, unbeknownst to her, and his face twisted in fear. "Ever since mom died, I've done all the work around camp while you've been off playing 'soldier'!"

As she flung her arms back, it now created a jagged crack on the iceberg.

"Uhh, Katara?" Sokka said nervously, backing away from his sister and the iceberg behind her.

"I even wash all the clothes!" She continued to yell, pointing at him. "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Well, let me tell you. Not. Pleasant!" She flung her arms back yet again, splitting the iceberg in two more places.

"Katara! Settle down!" Sokka yelled, terrified.

"No! That's it! I'm done helping you! From now on, you're on your own!" She threw her arms back one last time, causing a tide to wash over them and the iceberg behind them completely split in half. They both gasped and held onto the float for dear life in case of falling into the ice cold water, the large wave of water that erupted in front of them pushing them backwards.

When the wave had finally calmed down and they were no longer being dragged backwards, Sokka turned to his sister.

"Okay. You've gone from weird to freakish, Katara."

"You mean, I did that?" She looked amazed.

"Yup, congratulations." Sokka clapped, his face completely sour. In front of them, a bright blue glow radiated from below them in the water. Bubbles formed and popped around the area, another iceberg jolted out from under them but this one was different from the rest.

Katara begun to approach it, transfixed. As she looked closer, she saw the figure of a young boy in the ice. Suddenly, the boy's eyes opened sharply. His eyes, a bright empty blue glow.

They both gasped, and Katara snatched Sokka's boomerang. "He's alive! We have to help him!" She began to jump across the ice floats that settled in front of them to get closer to the boy in the iceberg.

"Katara! Wait! Get back here!" Sokka yelled. "We don't know what that thing is!"

Katara began slamming the boomerang into the iceberg, panting with each swing she took. After a few tries, the iceberg bursts and a spray of water jerks them both back. Sokka caught her and shielded her from the spray of wet snow with his body. The crack in the iceberg parted all the way up from the bottom to top, splitting in half. An eruption of light rose from the tip into the air, filling the sky with a mass of ripples. It glowed a slight yellow as it reached the sky.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sakura screamed holy murder as the light pierced through her body, coursing through her veins and making her feel like she was being ripped apart from the inside out. The top of her head burning a red glow as her roots grew longer, and her body numbing from the pain and her eyes glowing a bright blue, her body now unconsciously plummeted towards the snowy cliffs.

'Is this how you think of me, Sasuke?' She thought, teardrops escaping from her eyes and floating in the air behind her.

A Fire Nation cruiser chugged through the icy sea, letting out a stream of black smoke from it's roof which was connected to the engine room. A young man paced the ship, and when he looked up into the sky - he was startled but also quite amazed. His eyes widened and the ragged purple and red scar on the left side of his face which covered the skin around his eye, ear and eyelid forced his eye partially closed. All of his black long hair had been held neatly in a cloth band.

"Finally." He growled and bawled his fist. "Uncle, do you realise what this means?"

He looked over at the significantly older man with greying hair and a considerably rounded stomach. He was sitting at a small table, playing a game with the man opposite him with two others standing over them.

"I won't finish my game?" He answered, looking up.

"It means my search..." The young man looks distantly up at the sky. "It's about to come to an end." When he heard his uncle sigh behind him, he sharply turned on his heel to face him. "That light came from an incredibly powerful source! It has to be him!"

"Or it's just the celestial lights." His uncle replied, swooping his hand through the air. "We've been down this road before, Prince Zuko. I don't want you to get too excited over nothing." He placed a card piece on the table. "Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?"

Zuko balled his fist. "I don't need any calming tea! I need to capture the Avatar!" He yelled at his uncle angrily. Zuko looked upwards; on top of the helm where two men stood. "Helm's men! Head a course for the light!" He yelled, pointing towards the blue light, which wasn't that much of a distance away.

His uncle looked annoyed, setting down another card piece. A strong gust of wind blew through the deck, and the cards clattered to the floor.

Katara and Sokka sat huddled up beside each other, shielding each other from the air blast. The gust of wind finally calmed down, spiralling in rings above the glowing iceberg. As they stood up, they became aware of the huge hole on the top. In fact, it was follow as if the lid had popped off.

Sokka now noticed the boy with the strange glowing markings rise out of the dome, staring down at them.

Sokka thrust his spear towards the boy as a warning. "Stop!"

The light soon faded, and the boy fell and slid down the ice seemingly lifeless. Katara gasped and ran forward to catch him before he collided with the icy ground head first. Sokka walked over cautiously, beginning to poke the boy's bald head with the butt of his spear.

"Stop it!" Katara yelled, pushing the spear away with her arm. She turned the boy around to face her, looking him over.

The boy mumbled, his eyelids fluttering open and he gasped. Katara smiled, seeing as he was awake. "I need to...ask you something..." He rasped.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Please...come closer..." The boy spoke again.

"What is it?" Katara urged.

His eyes suddenly widened, and his face blazed with excitement. "Will you go penguin sledging with me?" He asked, full of energy.

Katara backed away from him hastily. "Uh, sure. I guess?"

The boy swiftly lifted himself up into the air, causing Sokka to let out a girlish scream and raise his arms in the air to protect his body.

"What's going on here?" The boy asked, rubbing his bald head and looking around him.

"You tell us!" Sokka yelled, exasperated. "how did you get in the ice!?" The boy looked at Sokka, confused. "And why aren't you frozen?"

Sokka poked his hips lightly with his spear, and the boy pushed it away absentmindedly.

"I'm not sure." The boy said, looking around for something.

A sudden, loud and thunderous snoring came from behind the boy. He gasped as he climbed back into the cavity of the iceberg, he slid down the ice and fell onto the forehead of a giant, furry beast.

"Appa! Are you alright?" He lifted up one of its large eyelids, seeing its eye move to look at him. "Wake up, buddy."

Sokka and Katara walked around the side of the iceberg, noticing a large opening for them to walk through instead of trying to crawl their way up the large slope like the boy did. Sokka gasped at the sight.

The boy was trying to pry open the mouth of a large furry beast, that had a much darker arrow painted into its fur and down its back. A saddle rested on its back, and a rope had been tied neatly around its horns.

The boy's efforts to wake Appa up were rewarded. The beast opened its mouth and lifted the boy up in the air with a swift lick. "Hahahaha! You're okay!" The boy exclaimed excitedly.

"What is that thing?" Sokka asked, cautiously raising his spear. But also mentally noted that the beast was about the size of two of him put together.

"This is Appa, my flying bison." The boy explained, patting Appa's legs.

"Riiight, and this is Katara; my flying sister," Sokka replied sarcastically, pointing to Katara with his thumb.

Katara and the boy stared at him, deadpanned. Appa growled before sneezing, spraying Sokka with a mountain of green snot. Sokka began to shriek, flapping his arms in the air and trying to rub the snot into the ice.

Katara, on the other hand, backed away from Sokka in disgust with her hand over her mouth.

"Don't worry, It'll wash out." The boy said, watching as Sokka pulled a lump of snot off of him with his hand and watching it as it swayed back and forth like a pendulum.

"Ugh."

"So, do you guys live around here?" The boy asked.

"Don't answer that Katara!" Sokka warned, pointing his spear at him. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He's a spy trying to signal the Fire Navy!"

"Yeah I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy," Katara replied sarcastically, pulling down Sokka's spear and walking towards the boy. "You can tell from that evil look in his eye."

The boy stared at them both before his face twisted into a kooky grin.

"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name." Katara stated.

"I'm ah-aaah-ahhh-CHOOOO!" The boy sneezed, shooting high up into the air with a gust of wind. As the wind vanished, he fell down and slid down the iceberg, straightening up in front of them again. "I'm Aang!" He said, wiping his finger across his nose and smiling.

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