Thank you so much for the reviews! I know I have not updated this story for a very long time… Here is Chapter 4.
Chapter 4
Azula's Escape Part 1
Tsuna P.O.V
I had a feeling that we were being watched. None of the people around me seemed to notice anything though. Was it my hyper intuition again?
"It's getting late," Huang said softly.
I looked out the window and the sun was setting in. "I think I will have to go. My mother will be worried," Huang said.
"How about you then?" Toph asked me. I stayed quiet for a while. I didn't know much about this place and I didn't know where I could sleep for that night.
"You can stay at my place. You guys too," Toph said.
"Thank you Toph!" Ty Lee said in excitement, "I had never gone into your house before!"
"It's not as amazing as you expect it to be," Toph said flatly.
Meanwhile
"Gokudera, let me show you to your room," Feng said.
"My room?" Gokudera asked.
"You will sleep there for tonight," Yu said. He then opened the door at the other end of the hall and walked away. Feng opened the other door and Gokudera followed him.
It was a long corridor and by the many doors, Gokudera could tell that there were many rooms at that place. While Gokudera and Feng were walking along the hallway, they came upon a tall and muscular guy who was wearing red clothes. There were two hammers chained to his belt.
"This is Mongke. He is the leader of the Rough Rhinos. He will help you to free Azula too," Feng said.
"Master Feng, my men are ready. Ogodei had prepared the weapons. Kahchi and Yeh-Lu had prepared the rhinos. Vachir and the rest of the Yu Yan Archers had arrived," Mongke said. Gokudera noticed that Mongke had referred Feng as 'Master Feng'.
"Alright then Mongke," Feng replied with a smile. Mongke was staring at Gokudera while he walked past him.
After minutes of walking, Feng finally came to a stop. "You will be sleeping in this room for tonight. There is a bathroom inside. There are clothes that you can wear inside the wardrobe," Feng said as he opened the door of a room.
"Clothes that I can wear?" Gokudera asked.
Feng chuckled. "Of course you will not go anywhere looking like that. Isn't it cold wearing that the whole day? I mean, it's wet you know," Feng said.
Gokudera decided to ignore him and walked into the room.
"Have a good rest Gokudera," Feng said. He then closed the door.
Gokudera eyed the room carefully. It was quite a big room. The bed was not too small and not too big. There was a small table beside it with a lamp placed on top of it. There was a wooden wardrobe at the corner of the room. He walked towards it to check out the clothes Feng had mentioned. All the clothes inside the wardrobe were red and were designed very differently than that of his. He recalled that Feng and the rest of the people he had met were wearing similar kind of clothes. Gokudera returned his flame arrow into his box and placed it into the wardrobe together with his other boxes.
'Tenth, I'm gonna find you,' said Gokudera softly.
Meanwhile
"Bye Tsuna! I hope we will meet again!" Huang said while waving her hand at Tsuna. She walked away from the group and towards the busy street.
Tsuna smiled. He then followed Toph and the rest of the group. Lau Zhen and Cui Han who had been watching the group then decided to walk away. At that moment Tsuna suddenly felt more at ease.
They had walked for over 9 minutes when they finally saw a huge gate. "That is the Bei Fong Estate," Toph said.
There was a symbol of a flying boar over the front gate. Two guards opened the gate. They were wearing the same uniforms that were green and white.
"Young Mistress, your parents are worried about you," one of them said.
Toph ignored them and asked Tsuna and the rest to follow her inside the estate.
"They called you 'young mistress' Toph, that is funny," Sokka said. Toph rolled her eyes.
Toph and the rest had to walk along a garden before they encountered another gate.
Another two guards opened the gate and the group walked in. They could see the big estate of Bei Fong. There was a woman running towards Toph. She was fair skinned and she looked really worried. "Toph! I heard that you had gone into the Earth Rumble VI! Poor girl, you must be so scared," the woman said to Toph.
"Quit it mother. I'm 12. I'm not scared just of that," Toph said harshly.
"She is Poppy Bei Fong, Toph's mother," Katara explained to Tsuna. Tsuna nodded.
"Mother, my friends will be staying here tonight," Toph said.
"Oh! Okay. Welcome to the Bei Fong estate. I hope you will enjoy your stay here," Poppy Bei Fong said politely but with a friendly tone.
"Thank you," Katara replied with a smile.
"Now I will lead you to your rooms," Toph said in a hurry as if wanting to get away from her mother as soon as possible.
The group then walked along a corridor. The wall of the corridor was well designed with patterns of flowers on the top and bottom part of the wall. The floor was carpeted with green rug with flower and leaves pattern on both sides. A thought came across Tsuna's mind that Toph must have come from a rich family. Toph finally stopped and slide a door open to reveal a big and well furnished room.
"You guys will sleep here tonight," Toph said.
There were exactly 5 beds in the side of the room. A big painting displaying mountains and forests were hung on the other side. There was also a wooden wardrobe at the corner of the room. A framed, full body length mirror was placed beside it. The green carpet in the room was also beautifully designed showing patterns of flowers and leaves.
The group was filled with awe as they entered the room. Their eyes traced through the fine decorated room.
"Is it meant for guests?" Suki asked Toph while eyeing the painting.
"I think so." Toph replied.
"Are you sleeping with us?" Katara asked Toph.
"My mother wants me to sleep at my room," Toph said, with annoyance.
"Anyway, I think the bath is ready. The clothes are inside each bathroom. The girls will go to the girl's bathroom and the boys… will go to the boy's bathroom!" Toph said excitedly.
"Okay," Sokka said. Then he looked at Tsuna.
"No. Wait! There is no way I'm sharing with this guy! No way!"Sokka shouted.
"If you are staying in the Bei Fong Estate you have to stay by the Bei Fong rules. The bathroom is found at the other end of the corridor. Enjoy yourself!" Toph said. She then with the rest of the girls walked off quickly leaving Sokka behind.
"Fine! I will try to be friend with this guy. Let's go Tsuna," Sokka said annoyed by Toph as he pulled Tsuna by the arm towards the boy's bathroom.
Tsuna's sweat dropped.
Meanwhile
Gokudera heaved a long sigh as he sank himself to the warm bath that he had prepared for himself. He closed his eyes and recalled all the things that had happened to him that day. He wondered if he had made the right decision by agreeing to help Feng.
Feng looked young and strong but too suspicious and Gokudera was not able to see through him. There was also something hidden beneath the smile that he wore.
"Freeing a princess," he said silently.
Meanwhile
Tsuna tried to make himself feel comfortable as he shared the same bath as Sokka. Sokka was feeling a little bit bothered too. There was a long pause until Sokka decided to break the silence.
"Hey, I heard from a kid called Xing Kai that what you were wearing doesn't look normal but what you were wearing looked normal to me. Except for the fact that you are a fire bender wearing earth bender clothes," he said as he looked at Tsuna straight in the eyes.
"Oh! I totally forget about it! I had left my other clothes at Huang's house," Tsuna said as he remembered putting his clothes inside a basket.
"Don't worry about that. We can go to Huang's house tomorrow. Besides I don't think we are going straight to Aang's place. Toph is going to participate in this tournament and might want Katara and I to wait for her. Suki and Ty Lee may even decide to come with us," Sokka said.
Tsuna was glad that Sokka was not blaming everything on him. Once again, silence hung in the air.
After the bath, the group settled into their comfortable bed.
"I haven't slept on this type of bed for years!" Ty Lee exclaimed as she nestled herself in bed.
Tsuna noticed that the makeup on her face was cleared. He looked at the other Kyoshi warrior and noticed that she too had cleared off her makeup.
"This room is huge!" Sokka exclaimed as he slumped himself into the cozy bed.
The friendly atmosphere in that room reminded him of the time he had spent with his guardians.
'Guys, I will find you!' he rowed silently.
The Next Morning
Gokudera was awakened by the sound of knocking on his door. He quickly got up and took all of his things that were in the wardrobe and shoved it inside his pocket. He was wearing clothes that was found inside the wardrobe and had placed his wet clothes on the bath to dry. He aligned his boxes around his waist to form a belt. He felt glad that the belt matched with what he was wearing. Gokudera opened the door to find Feng standing there. He was neatly dressed and looked well prepared.
"You look great!" Feng said as he looked at Gokudera who was wearing red clothes just like him. "We are going to eat with the rest at the dining hall," Feng continued.
Gokudera nodded. Feng then signaled Gokudera to follow him. They walked along the corridor and soon found themselves in a dining hall.
Food was served on the dining table and there were 5 people seated there. One was Mongke, the guy that Feng talked to on his way to his room. The other one was Master Yu. The one Feng introduced him to when he first walked into the headquarters. Gokudera eyed them carefully before settling on a seat beside Feng. Then another 6 people entered the dining hall. Each of them had bows and arrows behind their backs. Gokudera concluded that they were archers.
"Have they come?" Feng asked the group of people in the dining hall.
"We didn't see them on the way," one of the archers replied.
"They are not far from here. I can sense them. They should be here in about 10 more minutes," Yu said casually as he started to play with the knife.
"They are late," Mongke said showing an obvious sign of annoyance.
"Well we don't have to wait for them do we? Let's enjoy our meal. Yu himself had prepared this for us," Feng said.
Meanwhile
(Tsuna speaking in Japanese) "Gokudera-kun! Wait! Stop it Gokudera-kun! Gokudera-kun!"Tsuna shouted as he tried to reach out for his right hand man. Suddenly there was a bright patch of light. Tsuna opened his eyes and realized that it was just a nightmare. He got up from bed with sweat trickling down the side of his forehead. He could hear his own pulse palpitating. He sighed.
He had just dreamt that Gokudera was fighting against a group of people who wore red armors.
They were outside a building and there was an airship parked in front. A few people with red armors ran towards Gokudera and a woman with long hair and fair skin. With their bare hands, they managed to produce flames and were attacking Gokudera and the woman. Gokudera aimed his flaming arrow towards the men and fire a shot. The people with red armors screamed in pain and slumped onto the ground. Tsuna's body stiffened in terror. The woman was laughing.
A few more people came and tried to attack Gokudera and once more, Gokudera aimed his flaming arrow at them.
"Gokudera-kun! Stop! You shouldn't be hurting them!" Tsuna shouted hoping that his right hand man could hear him.
There was a glint of hope in Tsuna's heart when Gokudera hesitate but the woman let out blue flames from her mouth and the blue flames was engulfing the people with red armors.
"You are still soft," the woman whispered to Gokudera's ear. She then smiled and ran towards the airship laughing madly.
"Welcome back Princess Azula," said a man with brown hair welcoming her as she went to board the airship.
The repugnant burning scent filled the air as the ravenous orange flames swallowed up the building. Tsuna turned to look at the people with red armors and fear was visibly etched on their faces.
Gokudera turned to face the building and was aiming his skull towards the building that was raging with flames.
Gokudera-kun! Wait! Stop it Gokudera-kun! Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna shouted as he tried to reach out for his right hand man. That was when he woke up.
There was something different about the dream that Tsuna never felt before. It felt so real. It was too real to be a dream. Tsuna shook his head to convince himself that it was only a dream and it was nothing special. 'How could his right hand man be so heartless?' he asked himself silently.
"Having a nightmare?"
Tsuna turned and saw Suki sitting up on her bed. He was startled by Suki's sudden question. "Yeah…" Tsuna replied softly.
"Don't worry. You will find your friend," Suki said trying to cheer Tsuna up as she got up from her bed.
"Thank you," Tsuna replied but he still couldn't take his mind of his dream.
Out of the blue, there was a loud bang. Tsuna's head shot up and at that instant he realized that the door of the room was opened. It was Toph. "Guys, rise and shine! Let's start the day with a nice meal!" Toph said energetically. There was Ty Lee beside her. Tsuna looked at the fifth bed and it was indeed empty. It looked like that she woke up before the rest.
Meanwhile
While the people were having their meal at the dining hall two girls stepped in. Everyone except for Feng turned and looked at them. Feng was still eating casually despite noticing their presence.
"We are sorry that we are late, but we have the information you wanted," one of them said.
She had a fair skin and short black hair. She wore green clothes. She wore a short sleeved shirt and a linen skirt. The other girl too was wearing green clothes. Her hair was in ponytail and reached her shoulder. She looked shy as she stood behind the other girl all the time.
"Very well girls. Your meal is ready. You must be tired," Yu said.
"Yes we are Master Yu," the same girl answered.
"They are Lau Zhen and Cui Han. Lau Zhen is the one in ponytail. She is 12 and the other one is Cui Han who is 14. They are very close and consider themselves as sisters even though they are not bound by blood. They are bound by faith," Feng paused and stared at them for a moment before continuing. "They used to be a member of the Dai Li that was banished from the Fire Nation by Princess. They are the only girl there. They join this organization to prove Princess Azula that they will never betray her," Feng explained to Gokudera. "Girls, please fill me in with the information you had received after this," Feng said to the two girls.
"Yes Master Feng," Cui Han answered.
It didn't take long for them to finish their meal. Right after the meal, Feng signaled everyone to follow him. Most of the people were looking at Gokudera. "So that is the guy?" asked Yeh-Lu to Kahchi. "Yes he is. Just what is that belt he is wearing?" Kahchi said.
They were all in a big room. There was a big table in the middle of the room and chairs surrounding it. There was a map engraved onto the wooden table. The room looked like a meeting room. Feng told Gokudera to sit beside him. Once Feng and Yu were seated the rest took their seat except for Lau Zhen and Cui Han.
"Lau Zhen, Cui Han, please tell us the information you had gathered," Feng said.
"Yes Master Feng," Cui Han replied.
"As what Master Feng instructed, we went to the Earth Kingdom. We went to the Earth Rumble VI as we learnt that the Kyoshi Warriors would be participating in the friendly match and so we suspect that Toph Bei Fong might be there too, and of course, the Avatar's friends," Cui Han said as she pointed to a point on the map.
"Earth Rumble VI? So you went to Gaoling?" Master Yu asked.
"Yes we did and we also met the host, Xin Fu," Cui Han replied. "We fought the Kyoshi Warriors but we lost," Cui Han continued. She then signaled Lau Zhen to continue. Lau Zhen nodded and took a deep breath before continuing.
"We noticed that they are a very good fighter and have a lot of skills using their fans," Lau Zhen said.
"Is that all?" Mongke asked. He looked like he was bored with the topic.
"I guess there is a new member but Sokka doesn't like him very much," Cui Han replied.
"And who he might be?" Feng asked.
"The people in town said that he had defeated the group of trouble maker there like it was nothing using his fire bender skills," Cui Han said.
"A fire bender in their team?" Feng said as he looked interested with the new guy.
"But despite that he wore green clothes. He is fair skinned. He has brown spiky hair. He looks like he is around 14 years old. He wore 2 rings on his hand and if I'm not wrong his name is…" Cui Han sentenced was cut by Gokudera, "Tenth!" Everyone was then looking at Gokudera who had slammed the table and was suddenly standing.
"I mean, I call him The Tenth but his name is Sawada Tsunayoshi. Isn't it?" Gokudera asked eagerly.
"His name is Tsuna," Cui Han replied.
"Well people call him that," Gokudera said. He felt glad and relief that the Tenth was there.
"So you are looking for this guy, Gokudera?" Feng asked Gokudera as he turned and looked at him.
"Tch, yes, I am," Gokudera replied but despite the harsh tone, he could not hide the fact that he was happy to find out about the Tenth.
"Once you free Princess Azula, we will rescue him," said Master Yu.
"What do you mean by rescue?" asked Gokudera.
"Before the Avatar team brainwash him of course!" Master Yu replied looking at Feng.
"Yes! The Avatar team is known for their skills to manipulate people," Feng continued.
The room was quiet until Lau Zhen broke the silence. "Umm… We followed them and it happened that the Avatar team was planning to help him before going to the Avatar's place, but we are not really sure as Toph will be participating in the tournament."
"Help him on what?" asked Master Yu.
"On looking for his friends," Cui Han said.
'The Tenth is looking for me. I have to get to that place.' Gokudera thought silently.
Feng somehow knew what Gokudera was thinking about and said, "Gokudera, don't worry. We will help you go to that place once you help us. Besides, you don't know where Gaoling is right?"
Gokudera paused for a while and finally said, "It's our deal."
Feng turned to face Cui Han, satisfied with Gokudera's reply.
"You are certainly helpful Cui Han. Now let's discuss the plan on how to rescue Princess Azula," Feng said, smiling.
Meanwhile
The dining hall was spacious. There was a long and full length window showing the view of the garden. The birds chirped loudly and formed a beautiful morning tune. The dining table was made of wood. Flowers were craved on the sides and the centre of the table. The team was talking excitedly and enjoying the view of the garden except for Tsuna.
Tsuna had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, something really bad. His thoughts were disturbed when Toph's servants were carrying plates that was filled with food. Scent of fried rice was rising from the plates.
"Toph, where's your parents?" asked Katara.
"We are here!" Toph's mother slid the door of the room open. There was a man behind her who was Toph's father. They walked toward the two big chairs in the room. The servants then quickly walked out of the room.
Tsuna tried to think about the food to distract his thoughts but it didn't seem to work. He had been having this terrible feeling. He knew that his hyper intuition was trying to tell him something but what was it? Then he remembered his dream.
'Is that going to happen?' he questioned himself as fear snaked around his heart.
Meanwhile
"Okay, that's it then. Let's go. It's not so far from here," Mongke said. He couldn't wait to fight some Fire Nation soldiers.
"Hey, where is this jail located?" Gokudera asked.
"Hmm? It's not really called jail. She would be monitored 24 hours because people thought she had some, well you know, she is…," Yu let his voice trail off but Feng finished it for him, "mentally unfit" everyone was staring at Feng then.
"Only a little bit," Yu said.
"But she is extremely strong," Cui Han said trying to defend Azula.
"So you want me to save a strong person who is crazy?" Gokudera asked harshly.
"She is not crazy," Lau Zhen said as she felt her face hardened.
"Don't you dare insult her like that!" Cui Han said as she looked straight to Gokudera's eyes.
"Or what?" Gokudera said while looking straight back at her.
"Calm down people. Time is too precious to waste for this," Feng said, "Let's get on the airship now," he continued.
Meanwhile
"Hey are you alright?" asked Katara as she tapped Tsuna's shoulder.
"I… I'm alright," Tsuna said trying to sound convincing.
"Are you sure you are?" Katara asked again unsure.
"Yeah," Tsuna said as he wondered why there was an uneasiness in his heart.
Meanwhile
Gokudera and the rest of the organization were then in the airship. The structure of the airship was made entirely of metal. It was powered by hot air and there were multiple propeller sets on the sides of their hulls for propulsion. They had been in it for around 45 minutes. Most of the people were polishing their weapons and was training except for Gokudera, Yu and Feng. Gokudera was sitting down and looking outside of the airship. There were many mountains and sea of trees decorated them.
"Are you confident of winning perhaps Gokudera? There is a slight chance that the new Fire Lord may be there visiting his sister. He is a strong man," Feng said.
"I don't care about this whole shit. I will do this and find the Tenth," he replied.
"As you wish Gokudera. I'm going to check where we are. I will be back in a minute," Feng said. He then got up from his seat and walked towards the very front of the airship where they control it.
Yu was staring at Gokudera then.
"Did you know that Feng's brother used to be the leader of the Dai Li?" Yu said to Gokudera.
Gokudera remained silent. "You may be uninterested with the topic but let me tell you this. His brother was betrayed by the Dai Li. Despite the possibility that Azula will betray him or even the group betrays him, he still builds this organization bigger and cause more members to join. I wonder why he did that for," Yu continued.
"That is because he trust Azula and he believe she will make a better world than anyone else," Gokudera said. Well at least that was his feeling towards Tsuna.
"I don't know that you were listening," Yu smirked.
Gokudera turned to look outside once again. He spotted buildings on top of a mountain. The buildings looked like a Chinese temple but there were walls around it.
Feng was back. He instructed the group to get ready. "We are going to land Yu," he said. He then turned to face Gokudera, "We are here."
Meanwhile
"He had a nightmare last night. Maybe he had a bad feeling about something," Suki said to the group.
"Bad feeling? C'mon! Everything is fine! There is no war. We had beaten Lord Ozai and Azula is jailed! What is there to be worried of?" Sokka said casually.
"Did you just say Azula?" Tsuna asked as he remembered a man in his dream welcoming Azula.
"Yes he did. What about it?"Katara asked curiously.
"I think she is out of jail," Tsuna said in a low voice.
I will be updating this story although it may take a very long time for me to update… Anyway, that is it for Chapter 4! I hope you enjoy it and please review!
