The Last Three Airbenders
Chapter One: The boy in the iceberg + two shinobi and a flying bison
They were in trouble. Shikamaru and Naruto were facing Tayuya. The last of the Sound Four, or so they thought. They were fighting when a man named Kimimaro appeared. He took the barrel with Sasuke in it and fled, leaving Naruto and Shikamaru to battle Tayuya. In a plan to send Naruto to chase after Sasuke, Naruto faked an attack and tried to jump over Tayuya. That's where it all went wrong. While Naruto was in mid-air above Tayuya, an explosion erupted from right next to them and enveloped them both in a large blue sphere which suddenly disappeared, taking Naruto and Tayuya with it.
Naruto's POV
It seemed as if time had stopped in the blue orb. As if the cold ice had frozen even the river of time. Naruto sat watching the shivering sound Nin from his side of the orb. He began to feel sorry for her, so he went over to her and gave her his jacket. He sat close to her to keep them both warm. After a few minutes, Tayuya regained consciousness. When she realized who was sitting next to her, she jumped up.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!?" yelled Tayuya
"You were shivering uncontrollably, so I came over to help you warm up." Answered Naruto
This made Tayuya calm down a bit. "Oh, well, thanks I guess." She said sheepishly
"No problem." Said Naruto
They quickly remembered how cold it was and huddled back together.
"So, what's your name? Mine's Tayuya."
"Naruto." Said Naruto
"So where are we?" asked Tayuya
"I don't know." Said Naruto. Looking around, he saw a bald kid that seemed to be meditating in the middle of the sphere. There was also a large animal with six legs.
Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a loud crushing noise from above. The ice sphere shook violently and threw Naruto against Tayuya. They butted heads and fell unconscious.
Katara's POV
"You've officially gone from weird to freakish Katara." Said Sokka, Katara's older brother as they looked what was left of the iceberg that Katara had unintentionally destroyed with water bending. But they were interrupted by a bright light in the water below. Suddenly, a large ball of ice rose out of the water. Katara could see a boy, who looked around twelve years old, in the middle of the ice.
"We've got to help him." Said Katara, and she grabbed her brother's sword and jumped over to the ball of ice. She immediately started pounding it and after a few hits, it burst open. This knocked Katara and Sokka back down. They looked up and saw the boy, still glowing, climb to the top of the iceberg wall, before his tattoos faded back to normal and he fell forward. Luckily, Katara was able to catch him. The boy slowly opened his eyes.
"Here, come closer." Said the boy weakly
"What is it?" asked Katara
The boy suddenly seemed wide awake and said "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"
"Uh, I guess?" said Katara
Then on a burst of wind the boy seemed to levitate to his feet. Then he heard a growl from inside the ice berg.
"Appa." Called the boy. Then he climbed up the side of the iceberg and slid down the other side.
Katara and Sokka walked around the iceberg to where there was no ice wall and saw the boy trying to wake a large animal with six legs. They were so surprised that they didn't notice the other two people slowly regaining consciousness off to the side.
"By the way, what's your name?" asked Katara
"I'm Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah achoooooo!" he said as a sneeze interrupted his sentence. When he sneezed, he also flew twenty feet in the air. He slid back down the iceberg and stood up. "I'm Aang."
"You just sneezed! And flew ten feet in the air!" yelled Sokka
"Really? It felt higher than that." Said Aang
"(Gasp) You're an air bender!" said Katara
"Sure am!" said Aang. He looked around. "Hey, do you guys need a lift?" and he jumped up onto Appa's head.
Katara looked around to see that all the nearby ice pieces had floated away.
"Sure. We'd love a ride." Said Katara, and she joined Aang on Appa's back.
"Oh no. There is no way I'm getting on that big 6-legged monster thing." Said Sokka
"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come to give you a ride? You know before you freeze to death." Said Katara
Sokka opened his mouth as if to protest, but with a sigh, he hung his head and started walking towards Appa. But before he had taken three steps, a simultaneous 'Achoo' was heard from the side, and two air blasts together hit Sokka and launched him into the ice wall on the other side. Aang and Katara looked over and saw two people climbing out of the iceberg remains. One was a boy with a black t-shirt, a necklace with an emerald green pendant, orange pants, a strange blue headband, bright yellow hair and whisker marks. The other was a red headed girl with a hat on, and an orange jacket that seemed to belong to the boy overtop of her beige clothes. They slowly started getting out of the snow.
"Hey! Who are you?!" yelled Sokka, who was climbing out of his Sokka-shaped hole in the iceberg.
The boy ignored him and started to help the girl out of the snow. "Are you okay, Tayuya-chan?" he said
The girl named Tayuya just nodded and said "I'm fine Naruto-kun." Before blushing, and looking around. She saw Sokka, Aang and Katara and said "What the hell do you think you're looking at!"
"Tayuya-chan, you don't have to swear to keep people away. I'll make sure nobody hurts you." Said Naruto
"Thanks Naruto-kun." Said Tayuya
Naruto turned to Katara and said "Hey, where are we?"
"On an iceberg near the southern water tribe." Answered Katara
"Never heard of it." Said Naruto
"And to answer pineapple-head's question, I'm Tayuya, and this is Naruto." Said Tayuya
"Wait, are you guys air benders?" asked Aang
"What's an air bender?" said Naruto
"An air bender is someone who can manipulate the air." Said Aang. "I saw how you shot Sokka into the ice wall. You must be airbenders."
"Maybe we are." Said Tayuya "There's no such thing as bending where we come from as far as we know. So maybe we can. But we couldn't learn it in our world."
"Okay. I'm getting cold. Can we continue this conversation on the way back?" said Sokka
"Sure." Said Aang, he turned to Naruto and Tayuya. "So, you coming?"
"Yeah, I can't stand much more of this cold." Said Tayuya
"Yeah, plus, you can teach us airbending." Added Naruto
So they all climbed onto Appa and started towards the Southern water tribe. All of them fell asleep because they were tired from taking in so much new information all at once.
Tayuya's POV
Tayuya woke up in mid-flight. She saw Aang just sitting at the front of the saddle, watching a sleeping Katara.
"You like her don't you?" said Tayuya
Aang's face turned red. "N-no. I mean. How did you know?" he said
"The way you looked at her. It's written all over your face." Said Tayuya, grinning. Hen she looked up at the sky and said "Before I met Naruto, I was bound to the man who saved me from the streets. I had to do his bidding without a second thought. But Naruto showed me that I wasn't bound to him. That I didn't have to serve my life as his weapon. I also used to swear a lot to keep people away. But now, Naruto protects me. And now, I don't have to swear. I can be nice to other people."
"I have made some bad choices too." Said Aang "I grew up at a place called the southern air temple. When I turned twelve, the high monks, the ones who were in charge of the temple told me I was the Avatar. The only person in the whole world who could master all four elements: Air, water, earth and fire. Not all of the high monks were bad. My friend Monk Gyatso was one of them. He was the most powerful air bender in the world. He taught me everything I know. But because the other high monks thought our friendship was hindering my training, I overheard them decide to send me away to the western air temple. So I fled on Appa. But we got caught in a storm. We were thrown into the water. I used the Avatar state to freeze us in the iceberg."
"I think that when you used it, it encased whatever there was in that exact location in our dimension as well, and dragged us into the iceberg in your dimension." Said Tayuya
"I guess that's possible." Said Aang.
"So, if you're some super Avatar guy, why did you leave?" asked Tayuya
"Because, I never wanted to be." Said Aang
"I'm sure you have your reasons. You can tell me if you want to, but I won't make you." Said Tayuya
"Alright. Goodnight." Said Aang
"Hold on Aang." Said Tayuya "I have some advice to give you. Tell her when the time is right. Not before, not after."
"Thanks for the advice, Tayuya." Said Aang "Good night."
"Good night." Said Tayuya
And they both fell asleep.
Aang's POV
Aang was woken from his sleep by Katara.
"Come on. The entire village is waiting." Said Katara
Aang got dressed and Katara led him outside. When they got outside, Aang saw Naruto and Tayuya walking out of their tent.
"Aang, Naruto, Tayuya, this is the entire village." Said Katara, indicating a dozen women and children. "Entire village, this is Aang, Naruto and Tayuya."
"Mommy, what's with the freak with the lines on his face?" asked a little boy to his mother.
It was a full two seconds before a snowball met his face, hard.
"Say that again! I dare you!" yelled Tayuya "If you call Naruto-kun a freak again, I'll kick your ass so hard, you'll have to crawl back from the North Pole!"
This made the children hide behind their parents
"It's okay, Tayuya-chan." Said Naruto. Then he turned to the kids and smiled. "I wouldn't tempt her though. She could probably do it."
"Anyways, these three are air benders." Said Katara
"Air benders?" said an old lady "I thought they went extinct."
"Extinct?" said Aang
"Aang, this is my grandmother." Said Katara
"Call me Gran-gran." Said the old lady
Sokka walked up and took Aang's staff. "What is this? You can't stab anything with this." He said
"It's built for air bending, not stabbing." Said Aang, and he took back his staff and opened it, revealing two fan-like structures. "Watch this." And he jumped in the air and started flying around.
"Hey Tayuya-chan, whoever hits him with an air blast first wins." Said Naruto
"That's just mean." Said Tayuya "Good idea." And they both started shooting air blasts at Aang. After a few tries, they both hit him at the same time, causing him to crash into Sokka's watchtower.
While Katara went to help Aang and Sokka went to help his watchtower, Naruto and Tayuya were on the ground laughing.
While Naruto and Tayuya were laughing on the ground, Katara, Sokka and Aang were having some kind of talk about a war.
Katara's POV
"What war?" said Aang
"You're kidding, right?"
"PENGUIN!!!" said Aang, seeing a penguin, and he chased after it, only to trip over Tayuya's outstretched foot and crash into the penguin and rlled down the hill with it, making the two shinobi laugh even harder.
"He's kidding, right?" said Sokka to Katara. Katara just shrugged and followed Aang.
After a few minutes of walking, Katara caught up to Aang. She found him trying to catch a penguin.
"Try this." Said Katara, and she tossed him a fish. A bunch of penguins gathered around him. He grabbed one and started sledding down the hill. "Hey, wait up!" called Katara, and she grabbed a penguin and went after him. They slid down. Hitting jump ramps and tunnels, they slid all the way to the bottom of the hill. When they got to the bottom, they saw a large black ship suspended out of the water by an iceberg.
"What is that?" asked Aang
"A fire navy ship. And a very bad memory for my people. It was part of the fire nation's first attack." Said Katara
Aang started to walk towards the ship.
"Aang, stop. We're not allowed to go inside. It might be booby trapped." Said Katara
"If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of fear." Said Aang
And they both walked into the ship. They wandered through the ship taking a look in each room. They eventually got to the bridge.
"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran-gran was a little girl. It was part of the fire nation's first attack." Said Katara
"Hold on. I have friends all over the world. Bumi in the earth kingdom, Raito in the northern water and Kuzon in the fire nation. I've never heard of any war." Said Aang
"Aang, just how long were you in that iceberg?" asked Katara
"I don't know, a day maybe." Said Aang
"I think it was more like a hundred years." Said Katara
"What? That's impossible." Said Aang
"Think about it. The war is 100 years old. You don't know about it, because you were in there the entire time." Said Katara
"Well, I guess if I hadn't got frozen, I wouldn't have met you. So let's head back." Said Aang. But he began to walk towards the door and endd up stepping on a tripwire. An iron grate slid down, blocking the door and launching a flare into the air.
"Let's get out of here." Said Aang. And he grabbed Katara and jumped out a hole in the ceiling. They scaled the outside of the ship, unaware of the fire nation ship that had seen the flare and was currently watching them. They started the long walk back to the village.
"So, Katara, have you mastered water bending?" asked Aang as they walked up the penguin hill
"No, I haven't. There's no one to teach me in the entire south pole." Said Katara
"Then why don't I take you to the north pole? I'm sure we can find you a master there." Said Aang
"I don't know." Said Katara
"Come on. It won't make a difference if I teach Naruto and Tayuya air bending on the way." Said Aang
"I'll ask Gran-gran." Said Katara
"Great! How do you want to get there? I can fly you on Appa, or you could just call Naruto a freak and let Tayuya send you there." Said Aang
Katara got a chill down her spine at the last part.
"I was joking about Tayuya sending you there. But seriously, we should find you someone to teach you water-bending." Said Aang
45 minutes later
When they got back to the village, Sokka came out to meet them.
"What was that light? You went on the fire nation ship didn't you?" said Sokka
"It was my idea. Not Katara's." said Aang
"I'm sorry Katara, but the air benders must leave." Said Gran-gran, who had just came out to meet them.
"Fine." Said Aang "I'll get Naruto and Tayuya and we'll leave."
Aang went into his tent and gathered his stuff. Then he went into Naruto and Tayuya's tent.
"Naruto, Tayuya, we need to leave." Said Aang
"Why?" said Naruto and Tayuya at the same time.
"Just pack." Said Aang
The three of them were packing, when they heard the grind of metal and the sound of crunching ice outside. They ran outside and saw a fire navy ship moored at the edge of the village. A man wearing red armor walked out.
"Where is he? I know you're hiding him. Where is the Avatar?" he said, making all but the three air benders gasp.
Tayuya remembered what Aang had told her. 'I never wanted to be the Avatar, and my life changed when everyone found out.'
So she stepped forward and said "Looking for me?" Making everyone gasp again.
"B-but Tayuya!" stammered Aang
Tayuya responded by hitting him with a wave of wind and snow.
"If I go with you, will you leave this village alone?" asked Tayuya
The apparent leader nodded.
"Just let me say goodbye to the person I care about most." Said Tayuya
The man sighed and said "Fine. I can't risk capturing the Avatar over something so trivial."
Tayuya walked over to Naruto and hugged him and said "Goodbye Naruto-kun! I'll miss you!" but then she whispered into his ear "We can't risk the villagers' safety by fighting here. So I want you to follow me and we can deal with this on their ground where the villagers will not be harmed."
Naruto nodded and said "Goodbye, Tayuya-chan."
"Goodbye, Naruto-kun" said Tayuya, and she was taken onto the fire nation ship.