Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.
AN: As you probably noticed the update rate of this story is falling. This is both due to the story deviating more and more from canon but also because I have other things taking things I need to do right now so my writting time is limited. I have no intention of abandoning this story. At the very least I will complete the book of water and if the interest is high enough I intend to take it all the way to the defeat of Ozai.
Chapter 4
"... And that is how you learn to mould Chakra" Aang ended his explaination. "Now you can use the trip to do those exercises. If you have questions just ask and I will do what I can to help you."
"Speaking of trip, do you know where we are going at all." Sokka asked. While Sokka was asking this Katara had taken out Sokka's damaged pants and started sewing them, deciding that the exercises could wait a bit longer.
"I admit that I am more used to navigating via landmarks, but I don't know that many landmarks that are guaranteed to still exits, and even if I didn't we are in surrounded by water" Aang stated indicating below them. "however by my estimate we should be there soon."
"But what are you basing those estimates on?" Sokka asked.
"A ninja doesn't reveal his tricks" Aang evaded.
"That's just an excuse to not tell us that you really do not have any idea when we will get there, isn't it" Sokka asked.
"For now just focus on learning to mould chakra" Aang stated.
"Still don't get why you want me to learn it, I already told you that I am not interested in learning your magic" Sokka stated.
"Well if you learn it you will be able to do things like this" Aang stated, then stood and started walking around Appa's neck, using chakra to keep him from falling."Hey Katara, you should see this top" he says as he is hanging upside down from Appa.
"That's great, Aang." Katara states, not looking away from her sewing.
Aang walks back up "You didn't even look."
Katara looks up "That's great! Aang" She says again.
"But I'm not doing it now." Aang says annoyed"You really should pay attention when I show these things, they might give you ideas for how you could use chakra to supplement you own skills"
Sokka waves an arm breezily at Aang like he's trying to shoo him. "Stop bugging her, airhead." He stated "You need to give girls space when they do their sewing."
Katara casts her brother an annoyed glare. "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" She asks in an irritated voice
Sokka, while resting with his arms behind his head replies "Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." At this Katara gets an annoyed look, but Sokka continues "It's just the natural order of things."
Katara suddenly smiles. "All done with your pants!" She states showing the pants that still have a hole in them "And look what a great job I did!" She continues sarcastically and tosses the pants in Sokka's direction, hitting him in the face.
"Wait! I was just kidding." Sokka says as he sticks one arm through the large hole in his pants "I can't wear these! Katara, please!"
"Relax, Sokka." Aang says enthusiastically "Where we're going, you won't need any pants." Aang then yanks Appa's reins to the left, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Appa picks up speed as he flies to the left.
Soon Aang and his friends arrive at an island. After Appa has landed they quickly dismount.
"We just made a pit stop yesterday." Sokka says "Shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?"
"He's right." Katara says, while Aang is looking across the water with a hand shadowing his eyes. "At this rate, we won't get to the North Pole until Spring."
"But Appa's tired, aren't you boy?" Aang said innocently. Appa doesn't react at all apart from a mild grunt, which comes across less than convincing. "And anyway there is something I want to try here anyway, so it's two birds with one stone"
"Yeah and I just bet that it's just a coincidence that Appa is tired some place where you have something you want to do" Sokka says sarcastically.
Aang then runs toward the shore, takes a sharp breath and points. "Look!" He says pointing at the bay where an Elephant Koi jumps out the water and back in, creating a giant splash. The two siblings stare in awe at the giant fish. "That's why we're here." Aang states and then starts to disrobe (causing Katara to blush and look away, though she quickly gets herself under control and turns back around).
Aang runs to the coastline and then across the water, though he quickly finds that his footing is unstable and realizes that he need to retrain his waterwalking.
Katara and Sokka are still standing on shore, looking after him.
"Am I seeing things or is he running on the water?" Sokka asks "Is that airbending, waterbending or chakra?" He adds before Katara can even reply to his first question.
"He is walking on the water, though whether it is using airbending or chakra I can't tell" Katara replies "Since he hasn't trained in waterbending I am quite sure that he isn't using that.
Meanwhile Aang is getting closer to where the Koi fish are. He dives into the water and immediately appears again, now holding on to the back fin of one of these giant animals as it jumps out of the water before diving again. On the shore Katara smiles broadly and is impressed at the sight of Aang riding the Koi fish while Sokka stares at the scene with an uninterested look upon his face and his arms crossed. Behind them Momo is jumping excitedly up and down as Aang's Koi fish reappears again.
"Hahaha hahaha!" Aang laughs from atop the fish while waving at Katara. Katara returns the wave.
Two other Koi jump out of the water behind Aang, one slightly to the left and one slightly to the right. Aang is still laughing loudly with excitement as they race through the water.
On the beach Momo is still excitedly jumping up and down while Katara addresses her brother who still has his arms crossed.
"He looks pretty good out there." Katara says with a smile.
"Are you kidding?" Sokka says in a unimpressed tone while he lazily gestures at Aang in the water. "The fish is doing all the work."
Katara then notices that Appa is about to eat some of their equipment, mistaking it for food, and quickly runs to him "No, Appa. Don't eat that!" With her only reply being a grunt.
Aang stand atop of the fish without using his hands to hold on (instead using chakra through his feat), in an attempt to impress Katara. He sees Katara runs off inland, however her movement indicate that it is in panic or urgency which means she isn't leaving to avoid looking at him. He jumps of the fish and starts (still unsteadily) to waterwalk back towards the beach. Being focused on the beach and trying to figure out what caused Katara to leave he doesn't notice the dark shadow of a large body appearing beneath the water's surface behind him heading towards the koi fish. Sokka however see it.
"There's something in the water behind you!" He yells in alarm, but Aang is still spacing out so doesn't even realize he is being spoken to. Soon Katara reappears next to her brother again while Momo is screeching in alarm as the shadow decides to go after Aang after the fish fled.
"What's wrong?" Katara ask her brother, having not seen the shadow yet.
"Aang's in trouble." Sokka tells her, indicating towards the shadow closing in on Aang "Aang!" He then calls out to get his attention.
"Get out of there!" Katara calls out as she sees the shadow.
Aang looks up to see Katara and Sokka motioning for him to exit the water by flailing their arms and calling to him from far away.
"Get back here!" Sokka yells.
Aang turns around to look behind him and sees a massive dorsal fin of an unknown creature emerge from the water directly behind him. Forgoing chakra he quickly uses airbending to propel himself towards the beach, trying to put some distance between him and the creature. As Aang is fleeing towards the beach, leaving a trail of white foam in his wake, he feels the creature following behind him, slowly gaining on him. He speeds up slightly not really seeing where he is going, except for the fact that he is going towards the beach. When he reaches the beach he finds himself running directly towards Katara and quickly uses airbending to avoid her (not wanting to risk hurting her), instead colliding with Sokka. While the dorsal fin of the creature disappears beneath the surface, Katara runs to where her brother and Aang have come to a halt. Sokka is leaning against a tree trunk, a trail marking where his body slid across the ground. Aang is dressing himself as Katara and Momo approach the two.
"What was that thing?" Katara asked the two.
"I don't know." Aang replied.
"Well, let's not stick around to find out." Sokka says as he gets up and dust of his hands "Time to hit the road."
Just then several female warriors clad in green kimonos descend from the treetops ambushing the trio. The woman quickly encircle the group. Sokka gets pulled back and knocked over. Katara is pulled by her arm and as she leans in to maintain her balance, someone pulls her parka over her head and pulls her down. Aang is momentarily distracted by Katara's struggles, but leans back out of instinct when he feels someone reach for his collar. He leans back far enough to put his hands on the ground and uses them to lift his feet of the ground and do an airbending kick at the person who tried to grab him. The person avoids the kick but not the air that comes with it and is catapulted backwards into a three.
"Who are you people?" Aang asks as he looks around, then dodges a fan from behind then spins around and hits the person in the stomach sending her backwards as well.
He looks around and sees to others ready to attack him from to different angles and quickly kicks up sand to obscure himself from view then jumps up when he fells the two approaching making them collide with each other.
"Seems we underestimated you" Says the last of the fighters who was currently guarding Katara, Sokka and Momo (who was in a bag). Unlike the rest of the girl that had simple headbands with a golden squire in the middle of there forehead the headdress that this one was wearing was a lot more intricate, which Aang took to mean that she was the leader.
"Has happened to me before" Aang says with a smile, then jumps up when the two warriors he left in the sand cloud jump out at him. He was however not prepared for the leader to jump forward and use the shoulder of one of the other two as a springboard to crash into him and knock him to the ground.
"I could say the same thing" the girl says as her fellow warriors join her and help her tie up and blindfold Aang.
Soon Aang and his friends where lead to a village (though being blindfolded they weren't aware of this) and tied to a pole.
"You three have some explaining to do." A male voice states sternly.
"And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." A female voice added that Aang recognized as the leader of the group that attacked them.
"Show yourselves, cowards!" Sokka responses in challenge.
Following his exclamation the blindfolds are removed and Aang sees the five warriors he fought along with and old man. One of the warriors, from what he can tell the first one he defeated, is sending him a dirty look while the others seem to be more appraising. The leader is focused more on Sokka then him.
"Who are you?" Sokka asks from beside Aang "Where are the men who ambushed us?"
Aang felt like face-palming but being tied up was unable to do so.
"There were no men." The leader states indignantly with a clenched fist. "We ambushed you. Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Wait a second," Sokka states with a glance to his right to where Aang stands looking for confirmation. "there's no way that a oww" Sokka is stopped halfway through his sentence by a kick from Aang
"Yes they did defeat us." Aang states "They where quite effective actually. They had good stealth managing to sneak up on us, even if we where a bit distracted. And more importantly for me was they showed a great deal of honour by not threatening to hurt either of you to get me to stop fighting back, instead using teamwork to take me by surprise and capture me."
The warriors looked slightly impressed and grateful, though still wary of him. Sokka looked at him in disbelief "You mean to tell me that we got defeated by a bunch of girls" He stated.
"A bunch of girls, huh?" The leader states angrily and grabs his collar "The Unagi is gonna eat well tonight."
"No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it." Katara says pleadingly "My brother is just an idiot sometimes."
The leader released Sokka, but still stares at him in dismay.
"It's my fault." Aang suddenly states with a sad look on his face, causing the other three to looks surprised at him in surprise "I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi."
"How do we know you're not" The elder man began and pointed at them "Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi stayed out of the War so far. And we intend to keep it that way!"
"This island is named for Kyoshi?" Aang states, an exited expression on his face "I know Kyoshi!"
"Ha! How could you possibly know her?" The man stated while looking at something at the top of the pole they where tied to "Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries."
Aang looked up and could just make out a statue of Kyoshi, though the angle made it hard to tell.
"I know her because I'm the Avatar." Aang states, shocking the people there.
"That's impossible!" The leader of the warriors says "The last Avatar was an Airbender who disappeared a hundred years ago."
Aang smiles sheepishly. "That's me!" He says, "Surely you noticed me using airbending when we fought, right?"
"Did he use airbending" The male asks the leader of the warriors.
"I can't tell for sure, he did jump quite high but I didn't see any wind involved" The warrior replied.
"I meant when I repelled the first attack." Aang cut in "surely you noticed that my feet didn't touch her, giving her quick reflexes in dodging me, yet still she was send flying."
"That might as well have been some advanced earthbending move" the warrior replied, still sceptical.
"Throw the imposter to the Unagi!" The elder stated, sure that the chances of this child being the Avatar was so small that the warriors assessment was probably correct. All the warriors immediately retract their metal fans from their belts and slid them open. Ready to counter any sudden attack, they threateningly start to move forward and surround the bound friends. Katara leans forward in the ropes, glancing to her right where Aang is bound to the pole.
"Aang... do some Airbending..." She says nervously. Sokka is looking at the female warriors, his mouth open in shock. Aang looks questioningly at Katara for a moment. Aang bends over before pushing himself off the ground. He leaves a large dust cloud as he shoots in the air, stretching out his ropes, using one of the outstretched fans of the statue to snap them. Now completely free of his bonds, him tumbles elegantly over the statue.
"Wauw! Did you see that?" and "Airbender!" was said among the spectators from the village as Aang lands gently on the ground in front of them, his robes still fluttering in the air. The man and the Kyoshi Warriors stare at him in shock. A lot more people gather around to see what is going on.
"It's true... you are the Avatar!" The man says in awe.
Aang looks behind him and sees that the other are still tied up "Um, could you free my friends now?" He asks the warriors, who quickly go to free them, while the crowd seems to be overwhelm by the sheer fact that the avatar is there, one man in the front start to emit a high pitched squeal while widely tossing his hands up in the air in admiration. He gets so overexcited that he starts to foam and faints; the rest of the villagers just keep on cheering.
Soon after that they are taken to the elders house (who introduces himself as Oyaji) and were given an evening meal as well as rooms where they could get some rest.
The next morning Aang, Katara and Momo are sitting at a long table while a villager places another dish on the already richly filled table. Aang and Momo are very excited to see the display of delectables in front of it, but Katara supports an uneasy look.
"Dessert for breakfast" Aang says a bit sceptical "oh well, I can work it of later when I train." Katara, meanwhile, pokes one of the squishy looking, orange puffs with a flat top in front of her. She then picks up and closely investigates the dessert. Aang on the other hand doesn't share her reluctance and starts eating at a fast pace. "They sure do threat the avatar nicely here" He says excitedly Katara still isn't convinced about the deliciousness of the dessert she's holding and glances at Aang. "Mmm..." Aang says then offers Katara a desert of the same kind he's eating "Katara you've got to try these!"
Katara puts down the orange dessert and accepts the dessert Aang offers her and takes a bite. "Well, maybe just a bite..." She says, while Momo sneaks up to Aang and snatches a dessert out of his other hand and quickly dashes away while Aang just smile at its antics.
Aang grabs another dessert in front of him while Katara munches down the piece of cake and reaches across the table for the same dessert Aang just took. Aang looks past Katara at Sokka who is sulking in the corner just as Momo appears between Aang and Katara and quickly snatches another cupcake from the table before vanishing underneath it.
"Sokka, what's your problem?" Aang says "EAT!"
"Not hungry." Sokka replies surprising Aang
"But you're always hungry!" Aang states.
"He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday." Katara states mockingly
"They snuck up on me!" Sokka protests
"Right." Katara relied still in a mocking tone "And then they kicked your butt."
Sokka angrily stands up "Sneak attacks don't count!" He states indignantly and then starts walking out of the room with big strides while mumbling to himself. "Tie me up with ropes! I'll show them a thing or two." He then stops and goes back to the table and starts collecting a bunch of deserts "I'm not scared of any girls. Who do they think they are anyway?" He then shoves one of the deserts into his mouth and stalks off again. "Mmm... this is tasty."
"What's he so angry about?" Aang said excitedly if slightly confused, not understanding Sokka's point of view since to him gender wasn't important when it came to fighting. "It's great here. They're giving us the royal treatment!" He continues.
"Hey, don't get too comfortable." Katara says "It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long."
Momo's arm comes into view from underneath the table. He scans the table for new pastries to snatch. Aang offers a pasty to Momo's grasping paw.
"I'm sure we'll be fine for a while, just so we can train a bit before moving on." He says as the lemur feels the desert and quickly snatches it out of Aang's hand. "Besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town?" Aang moves closer to Katara and then turns around to look out of the window at the statue. "They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!"
"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar." Katara says though she looks slightly concerned "I just hope it doesn't all go to your head."
"Come on, you know me better than that." Aang says reassuringly "I'm both a monk and a ninja, I can handle it." Aang gets up "Anyway, I'm going to go find those warriors, since they where quite good fighters, especially considering that they didn't even use any bending at all. I hope they are willing to spar with me" Then he left, not catching the look of jealousy on Katara's face, since she realized that one of these warriors could end up catching Aang eye, and unlike with her he wouldn't be held back because of them having different bending abilities.
Aang approached the Dojo where he had been told the Kyoshi warriors often train. Walking up and seeing that they where indeed inside he knocked on the wall beside the opening to get their attention
"May I come in" He asked them politely.
"Of course Avatar Aang" The leader says formaly.
"Just Aang is fine, no need to be formal" Aang said with a smile.
"Then you may call me Suki" Suki replied returning his smile. "So why did you come here. Did you just want to watch, or did you want to join in"
"While watching might be interesting, I already know that you fighting style won't fit me" Aang said "Like most you rely on a set fighting style, learned through kata's. I prefer a more impulsive approach, adapting my fighting style to the situation and opponents, which is harder to do if you have focused on training one style."
"Then why did you come here" Suki asked, since he still hadn't answered that.
"Oh, right." Aang said, remembering why he was there "I wanted to know whether you would be willing to spar with me. No bending at all, just pure fighting."
"But you're the Avatar, your greatest strength lies in your bending abilities" One of the other warriors said.
"True, but that is no excuse to be useless at fighting without bending" Aang said. "And I do have a trick or two up my sleeve that isn't elemental bending, so don't take me as defenceless" He added.
"Well, I at least have nothing against fighting against you" Another warrior said, "Still need to get you back for air-kicking me on the beach."
"You can try, though I think we should go some where else, since this place is rather cramped for fighting and I would hate to damage it" Aang stated.
"I know just the place" Suki said leading them outside.
"Well this place looks perfect" Aang said looking around the clearing Suki had lead them to.
It reminded him of the training ground back home, without the poles and remembrance stone. There where threes on three sides, while the fourth had a mountain wall. There where some rocks laying around in the clearing, but to him that was a good thing.
"Glad you approve" Suki said, then turned to the girls. "Who wants to go first?" She asked them.
"I was actually thinking of fighting you all at once" Aang stated.
"Rather confident aren't you" Suki asked, "You couldn't beat five of us when you where allowed to airbend, what makes you think you have a chance against six of us when you can't use airbending?"
"Good point, I guess" Aang said, "In that case I would like to fight the strongest of you, since I like a challenge"
"That would be me" Suki said with a smile, while some of the other warriors looked sad that they wouldn't get to fight him and get revenge for their loss at the beach.
The two got into fighting positions, but before they could start Suki said "What do you say to making this a little more interesting?".
"How so?" Aang asked interested.
"By making a small wager on the outcome." Suki said "If I win you teach us some of your skills, or learn some of ours if we find your skills to be lacking, while wearing our traditional warrior outfit"
"And if I win?" Aang asked, thinking that even if she won he could henge into a female Aang to avoid having to wear a dress while in a boys body.
"I'm open for suggestions" Suki said.
"Hmm" Aang said as he thought of what he could ask for, before a smile appeared on his face. "If I win then you go on a picnic with me after the fight without your makeup or warrior dress and tell me some more about the culture and people of this island, since I am interested in it."
"Sounds fair to me" Suki said "I look forward to seeing you in our warrior gear" She added with a smirk.
"Don't count me out just yet" Aang said with a smile. "Now let's start this fight shall we."
One of the other warriors stepped forward. "Ready" She asked getting a nod from both fighters "Begin" She said and jumped back.
Suki immediately jump forward and slashed downwards at Aang with her fan, but Aang sidestepped the attack and tried to kick her side. She made a one-handed handstand to avoid him and spun on her hand slightly before returning a foot to the ground and continued the circular momentum to slash at Aangs stomach.
Aang jumped backwards to avoid the fan but received a small cut in his robe. He landed and then jumped forward again taking advantage of her unstable footing after her spinning slash to kick her her behind her knees to knock her down, but immediately after her fall she roll away and then to her feet before he could take advantage of her position.
The two stood looking at each other before they smiled. Then they jumped forward again and traded blows.
An hour later the two of them where still fighting though at a much slower pace. Aang had several cuts, both on his clothing and his skin, while Suki had a nasty bruise on her cheek and a slight limp indicating that her leg had been hit. On the other hand she wasn't breathing as heavily as Aang was.
'Man, this body is a lot weaker then my old one' Aang thought sadly, 'I've become to reliant on airbending to support my movement, so my body hasn't been strengthened the same way.'
He and Suki once more charged forward, Suki ducked under a punch and tried to tackle him to the ground but Aang just followed the momentum of the fall and used it to throw her behind him rather then allowing her to pin him to the ground. They both got up and this time Aang jumped onto a rock nearby. Suki new what would happen if she tried to attack him while he was on the rock, the bruise on her face was a reminder of the last time she did it so instead she backed away slightly so that he couldn't do a surprise attack on her while she considered how to get him down without getting a fist to her face.
"Seems we are at a stalemate" Aang said from atop the stone, "We've fought for over an hour, yet none of us has managed to win. I have done slightly more damage to you then you have to me, however you are less tired then I am. Our positions right now doesn't allow either of us to attack without the other taking advantage of it, so we are truly stuck until one of us decides to take the risk."
"So what do you propose we do, I have no intention of giving up and I'm quite sure that you don't intend to give up either" Suki said.
"Let's call it a draw, both of us win, which of course means that I will train you and you will tell me about your culture." Aang said.
"I can agree to that, since we are evenly matched in a non-bender duel." Suki said "Though I realize you could easily defeat me if you had bending at your disposal." She added.
The other Kyoshi warriors, who had been watching from the threes on the edge of the clearing joined them. "That was an impressive fight" One of them said.
"Yeah" Another one agreed "I hope that Aang can teach us some of it".
Suddenly Katara came out of the woods from the opposite side of the Kyoshi warriors. "I agree that it was a really impressive fight" She stated as she walked up to them "Though I could do without all the damage to your clothing, it's going to take forever to fix those" She added. "Anyway one of the villagers is looking for you Aang, something about wanting to paint you or something like that.
"Okay, thanks for telling me" Aang said then turned to the Kyoshi warriors "Hey maybe you should be in the picture with me, it would be fitting since the picture is for this island and you are an important part of it." He then turned to Suki "We can go get that lunch we agreed on after the painter is finished" He told her.
Katara turns around and starts to leave in order to keep Aang from seeing her jealousy.
Aang sat in the lotus potions, though he wasn't meditating. He was merrily posing for the painting, so he was looking at the painter and smiling. Behind him stood Suki while four other Kyoshi warriors where kneeling beside him, two on each side. It had taken a while to agree on the pose, the painter wanted all of the warriors kneeling while he stood behind them, but Aang felt it was better to have him sitting like he was now with the proud warriors of Kypshi standing behind him. In the end they compromised on the current setup.
"There, I'm done with the rough sketch" The painter said, "I'll paint it up probably and show it to you for your approval tomorrow. Thank you for your time."
"No problem" Aang said happily as he used airbending to get back to his feet. He then turned to Suki "I'll meet you at the Dojo in half an hour so you can get ready"
"Could you make it an hour, I want to get through some Kata's before I get ready." Suki asked "As Kyoshi warriors we have to go through certain Kata's at least once daily unless we are fighting in a war or taken prisoners."
"That's fine, I'll find something to do in the meantime" Aang just said.
"I can't believe I got beat up by a bunch of girls." Sokka grumbles to himself as he walks towards the dojo.
Inside the dojo, the six Kyoshi Warriors are going through their Kata's. They are performing the routine in perfect unison. Sokka peeks his head around the door to look at them. He smiles smugly and enters.
"Sorry ladies," He says in an condescending tone, interrupting their exercise. Suki and the other warriors stop and close their fans. They stare at Sokka with a serious look on their faces. "didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson." Sokka says while he stretches out. "I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout."
"Well, you're in the right place." Suki says as Sokka continues his warm up. "Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar." She adds.
"It's all right." Sokka says while stretching his arms, then mockingly suppressing a laugh while speaking. "I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception."
"I should hope so. A big strong man like you?" Suki says sarcastically, though slightly wary that Sokka, like Aang, could be stronger then he seemed "We wouldn't stand a chance."
"True." Sokka says smugly "But don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village."
"Wow! Best warrior, huh?" She says still in a sarcastic tone and glances back at her fellow warriors "In your whole village?" She looks back at Sokka "Maybe you'd be kind enough to give us a little demonstration."
"Oh... well... I mean... I..." Sokka says as his eyes widen.
"Come on, girls!" Suki said to her fellow warriors "Wouldn't you like him to show us some moves? They must be just as impressive as those the airbender showed us" The other warriors giggled and smiled indicating that they wanted to see his moves.
"Well, if that's what you want, I'd be happy to." He says and places his hands on Suki's shoulder in order to push her back a little, but she doesn't move a bit. "All right, you stand over there. Now, this may be a little tough, but try to block me."
While he's talking, Sokka takes on a fighting stance while Suki hasn't moved a muscle from the position Sokka has put her in. Sokka bends his knees and then attacks the female warrior by trying to punch her. Suki doesn't leave her position, but easily defends herself by bringing up her left arm and thrusting her closed fan against Sokka's shoulder. He cries out in pain and staggers backwards.
"Aw!" He said while rubbing his and looking impressed (against his will) "Heh heh... good. Of course, I was going easy on you."
"Of course." She replied sarcastically, and while Sokka might miss that he could easily see her self-assured posture indicating that she didn't think him a worthy opponent.
He quickly becomes annoyed and angry because of it "Let's see if you can" He starts out his voice steadily raising while he attempts to hit Suki with a roundhouse kick. "handle this!"
Suki quickly dodges under Sokka's outstretched leg and pushes him off balance. When the Water Tribe warrior lands flat on his back with a loud thud, Suki lazily opens her fans to wave herself some air. Sokka, a little chocked by his second failure, loses his temper at the sight of Suki's defiant posture.
"That does it!" He screams as he gets up and madly charges her again.
Suki quickly closes her fan and moves out of Sokka's way. She grabs him by the arm with her right hand, while she pushes against his shoulder with her left hand, quickly spinning him around. After two turns, she switches position and spins Sokka in the other direction. Sokka is being tossed around with no means to stop it, a look of distress in his face. Suki suddenly stops spinning which causes Sokka to topples forward. Suki then loosens Sokka's belt and ties his left hand to his right foot behind his back in one swift movement. Sokka tries so maintain his balance for a while by jumping on one leg, but it isn't long before he loses footage and smacks down flat on his face.
"Anything else you want to teach us?" Suki states mockingly.
Sokka blushes in humiliation as the Kyoshi Warriors laugh at him.
Meanwhile Aang has gotten a following of fan-girls while he was looking for Katara. He has talk to them a bit but found them to focused on him being the Avatar (and airbender) rather then him as a person, so he had quickly lost interest. So when he found Katara he quickly made his way to her.
"Hey Katara" He tells out to her as he walks toward her. She seemed to be gathering supplies for when they continued their travel, if the pot with groceries was anything to go by.
"Hallo Aang" Katara responded in a slightly cold voice "Shouldn't you be on a date with Suki about now" She adds.
"I wouldn't call it a date" Aang stated "but anyway, Suki wanted to do something first so I have some time to kill, so I thought I'd meet up with you"
"Oh, good! Can you help me carry this back to the room? It's a little heavy."
"Sure, lead the way" Aang said lifting up the pot easily. "Are these supplies?" he then asks.
"Yes they are" Katara said "they give us discounts for being with the Avatar so I thought this would be a good place to restock."
"That's great" Aang said happily "Especially since our resources are limited right now".
"That was what I was thinking too" Katara said with a smile. "So, if it isn't a date your having with Suki then what is it"
"Oh that, I wanted to know some more about the culture on this island since it's named after one of my past lives." Aang said "So I thought that getting the leader of the Kyoshi warriors to tell me about it would be the best way to learn about it, since she hopefully won't just drone on and on about boring stuff like older people tend to do".
"Guess that makes sense, though I still think it would be better to learn about it from Oyaji since he likely knows more about it" Katara countered.
"I prefer quality over quantity, and I'm likely to fall asleep if he goes into to many detail" Aang said, "Anyway I do want to get to know Suki anyway, so this way I get to do both at the same time."
Katara's eyes turned cold at those words, but she did her best to hide it. Aang had already told her his feelings along with his position on a relationship between them. Either she needed to come to terms with there being others, or she would need to move on, but it wasn't easy for her to do that.
"Well I hope you have a good time" Katara said with false cheerfulness. "What are your plans afterwards."
"Afterwards I will teach the Kyoshi warriors the basics of chakra, like I did with you and Sokka, though it will only be to the point of using it to augment their abilities and possibly three walk." Aang said "if you want to hear the lecture again or just be there to train on your own then your welcome to join us."
"I might do that, though I need to finish restocking first" Katara said as they arrived back in their room where Aang sat down the pot and Katara started packing the things away. "After that I think we should continue or journey, since staying here much longer might put these people in danger"
"You're probably right though I really like it here" Aang said. The two then fell into a comfortable silence as Katara continued packing things away.
"umm.. Where's Suki" Sokka asks as he re-enters the Dojo.
One of the warriors step forward "She's getting ready to go eat with the Avatar to tell him about some of our traditions" She said "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see.." Sokka started just as Suki came into the room (without her warrior gear)
"Spit it out!" She said. Sokka looked momentarily confused, before he recognized who it was, "What do you want?" Suki continued.
Sokka went down to his knees bowing his head slightly "I would be honored if you would teach me."
"Even if I'm a girl?" Suki asked him.
"I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier." Sokka apologized "I was wrong."
"We normally don't teach outsiders, let alone boys." Suki told him.
"Please make an exception." Sokka said "I won't let you down."
"Right now I have someone else to meet, but I think that one of the others can train you." Suki said. "But you have to follow all of our traditions."
"Of course!" Sokka said happily.
"And I mean ALL of them." Suki said with a slightly sadistic grin.
"Do I really have to wear this?" Sokka whined "It feels a little... girly."
"It's a warrior's uniform." Suki said "You should be proud. The silk threads symbolizes the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honour of the warrior's heart."
"Bravery and honor." Sokka said proudly just as Aang entered.
"Hey Sokka! Nice dress!" He said with a smile "I'll probably be wearing one later when I teach the Kyoshi some of my basic tricks" He then turned to Suki "You ready?" He asked.
"Yeah let's go" Suki replied, leaving Sokka to be taught by one of the others.
"So the reason that Kyoshi warriors must be non-bending female's is because she once taught a male earth-bending force that ended up being more damaging then helpful?" Aang asked for clarification. He and Suki where currently sitting on a hill just able to see the bay where Aang had ridden the koi fish.
"That is what history tells us anyway" Suki said, "Though who this force was and what happened to them is unknown. It wasn't Kyoshi herself but her daughter who made the rule though, since the consequences didn't become clear until after Kyoshi's death."
"Must have been hard on Kyoshi to find out what had become of the force of earth-benders she trained" Aang said sadly.
"Probably" Suki agreed. "So this whole eating lunch together really was just to get to know our culture" She suddenly asked.
"Well, I also wanted to get to know you" Aang admitted sheepishly.
"Oh, and what have you learned" Suki asked with a shy smile.
"That you are a good person with a strong conviction. Also your main reason for training is to protect the people on this island, something I truly respect" Aang started "Apart from that you are also a beautiful girl."
"Thank you" Suki said with a smile "Many on this island see only Suki the warrior, so I am glad that you saw beyond that."
"Your welcome" Aang said, then he suddenly jumped up using airbending "fire-benders" he said pointing towards the bay where a familiar ship had just arrived. "You go warn the others and tell them to bring Appa. Since I'm pretty sure they're here for me, if I leave they should follow. Sorry I didn't get to train you, but that will need to wait till next time we meet"
"I'll hold you to that" Suki said, then quickly ran towards the village.
Zuko was riding towards the village with his soldiers behind him, all mounted on Komodo Rhinos, when suddenly a blast of wind came from his right. He reacted quickly and jumped down on the left side of the rhino, using it as shelter, however he was unprepared for the airblast that came from the left knocking him head-first into the rhino.
"Hallo again sucko" said a voice though he couldn't see where. "I would say it is nice seeing you again, but I've never been good at lying"
Then Zuko looked up to see Aang sitting on branch and leaning against a three.
"My name is Prince Zuko, Avatar." Zuko said in Anger "And you are coming with me back to the fire-nation."
"Sorry, but I haven't mastered water or earth yet so if I should follow the traditions then I am not ready to learn fire-bending yet." Aang said mockingly.
"Your coming as a prisoner." Zuko yelled as he got into a fighting position "Not to learn any kind of bending".
"That's to bad." Aang replied "But I really don't have..." Aang quickly swung himself of the branch as Zuko send a fireblast after him. "Hey, hasn't anyone taught you that it's impolite to attack people in the middle of a..." He jumped to the side to avoid another blast "...Sentence".
Zuko started firing blast of fire after Aang in an almost constant steam, while Aang just avoided the attacks, occasionally countering with an air blast. "I will get you eventually, Avatar" Zuko yelled.
Just then a growl was heard from above them followed by Aangs staff landing in front of him.
"Guess my ride is here" Aang stated while picking up the staff. "I'll see you later Sues" He then unfolds the staff and takes of flying up to Appa. Once he lands Appa quickly flies of.
AN:
Poll:
The general consensus of the poll seems to be that this should be a Harem story, though the number of votes as of right now is to small for me to take it as the final result.
The Harem:
Katara, Ty Lee and Suki will all be part of the harem (Should this become a harem story). Apart from them I have also decided on two others, though who will remain a surprise. I will say that it is neither Mai nor Azula. Mai personality is to gloom for Aang and Azula is to crazy.
Grammar/tense:
A reviewer mention that I have problems with past tense/present tense, and I have to recognize that it is probably true, and the only way I can really fix it is by getting a Beta reader, since grammar is a weak point of mine. This comes from being mildly dyslectic and focusing more on learning to read and write rather then learning the grammatical rules and holding a tense. I don't really know how beta-reading works so anyone willing to tell me just send me a PM. Same goes for anyone willing to be a beta reader of this story.