Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.

A/N: Here it is, chapter 6. Napu's past (For the most part anyway) is finally revealed. So thank you to all my loyal readers, and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.

Flashbacks in Italics.

Ch 6: Fast-Backwards

"Any chance of you forgetting everything that you've heard about our exploits?" Lukat asked hopefully, receiving no response from Katara, Sokka or Aang.

"I'm guessing that means no." Tann interpreted.

"Any sign of them, Aang?" Katara asked. Aang shook his head.

"Not yet, but you said the firenation soldiers reported that they had lost Toph and Napu when they got washed away in the rapids, right Sokka?" Sokka nodded.

"Lukat and I heard them talking before they showed us that fireworks display."

"Well, at least we know they got away okay." Aang pointed out. Katara frowned.

"You're forgetting that Toph can't swim, Aang." With this reminder, even Aang's optimism sank.

"You shouldn't worry. Even without a waterbending master, Napu should be able to handle a few rapids." Lukat assured. Katara didn't respond, but Lukat noticed her shoulders loosen up a bit.

'But, I thought he said that Napu was next to useless with water unless it was frozen.' Sokka contemplated with his hand clasping his chin. "Aang, guide Appa closer to the ground so we can continue the search on foot. We don't want to leave a path for the enemy to follow again." Aang nodded and pulled on Appa's reins to lower their altitude…


Toph sat cross-legged, impatiently waiting for Napu to start talking.

"Would you hurry up already?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you have somewhere else you needed to be?" Napu shot back.

"Just get on with it, Mud."

"Would you stop calling me that?"

"Maybe if you're story's interesting enough." She offered wryly. Napu groaned.

"Whatever. I was born in the Northern Water Tribe. My mom was a native waterbender, while my dad was a visiting earthbender merchant; she never did tell me exactly how they met. Shortly after they fell in love, he was called back, leaving my mother to raise me by herself. I spent the first eleven years of my life with her; just the two of us, but that changed once rumors got out about Chief Arnook preparing all able men for an inevitable invasion from the Fire Nation. I didn't really worry about this, because up to that point, I never showed any signs of being a bender. No one seemed surprised by this because my father had been an earthbender, decreasing my chances of being a bender at all." Toph laughed.

"And instead you were capable of both. But how'd you find out that you could earthbend?"

"I'm getting to that." He assured. "A few week passed, and I began to view the rumors as just that. However, our concerns were addressed when an official came to our door while I was out wandering…

Flashback

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hello?" A voice calls from outside. A woman with long black hair opens the door to find a Northern Tribe Council member standing in her doorway.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm here on official business from Chief Arnook." The woman nodded before stepping back to allow the man inside. He walked over and sat down at the table, receiving a cup of warm tea an instant later. The woman sat across from him as he took a sip of the warm liquid.

"I'm sure you know why I'm here, Maya." Maya nodded slowly, a look of distress clearly visible on her face.

"I'll get right to the point then. With his father gone, Napu is now the eldest male in this household. As is such, it is now his responsibility as a man of the Northern Water Tribe to prepare for war."

"But he's not a bender." Maya protested.

"Be that as it may, he still has an obligation to his tribe to be ready to defend by any means necessary." The official bowed politely and thanked Maya for the tea before heading out the door, leaving Maya with her thoughts…

End Flashback

"Wow, that official seems like he could give Long Feng a run for his money in the stuck-up jerk department." Toph mused.

"Who's that?" Napu wondered.

"Some other time." She assured. "So, what happened next?"

"It turns out that my mother had taken heed of the rumors and had prepared an escape plan for me. At night, she'd been using a shovel and what little waterbending she had learned from watching her father to open up a hole big enough for me to squeeze through. I grabbed a kayak and before I knew it, I was in the Earth Kingdom."

"Doesn't this technically make you a deserter? And isn't that usually punishable by imprisonment? Or even death?" Toph pointed out.

"I try not to think about it, but yeah, I guess that does make me a criminal. I guess it was kind of stupid for me to run away, huh?"

"That depends on the situation. Sometimes it's necessary to run away, because that's the last clear option that you have."

"Have you ever run away when things weren't going your way?" Napu wondered. Toph 'stared' the young fugitive right in the eye before she gave a definitive answer.

"Yes. When my parents left me no option, I ran away with my friends to teach Aang earthbending. Sometimes you have to follow your gut. Mine told me to go with my friends; just like yours told you to go to the Earth Kingdom." Napu gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Actually, the plan was for me to hide out at the Southern Water Tribe. I kind of just ended up in the Earth Kingdom." Toph's jaw dropped open.

"How could you be trying to get to the South Pole and end up in the Earth Kingdom? IT'S IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!" She screamed. The haphazard explorer stretched his arms above his head.

"Well, to say that I have a lousy sense of direction is an understatement, I guess."

"Ya think?" Toph agreed. 'And I thought that Sokka was stupid for entering his sleeping bag headfirst and getting lost when he had to go to the bathroom. Well, okay, that was really stupid, but this is stupidity on a larger scale.'

"So when did you run into your sisters, and how are you related to them? Through your father?" Toph wondered.

"Well, no. I haven't seen any sign of my father; and as far as I know I'm not related to Bali and Tann in any way whatsoever. It was kind of funny how I met them actually."…

Flashback

"Hey, you!" A younger Napu turned his head in the direction of the gruffly voice's origins.

"I've been ready to order for fifteen minutes! Get your butt over here already!" The man shouted.

"Coming, sir! Sorry, sir!" A young girl wearing an apron apologized. She hurriedly ran over to the perturbed man's table while being careful not to trip and fall in her unsteady shoes.

"What will you have, sir?" She asked politely, notebook and quill ready.

"I'll start off with a green tea and a large bowl of chow-mien noodles." The customer replied.

"Coming right up, sir. Sorry for the wait."

"Don't apologize. Just hurry up and get my food." The customer barked.

"Right away, sir." She responded politely, but a closer inspection revealed that she was tightly clenching her fists as she stalked off.

'May as well stop here for a bite to eat.' Napu decided. 'I may even be treated to a show while I eat.' He walked over to the counter and sat down.

"What will you have?" A woman asked from behind the counter.

"What's the cheapest thing you have on the menu? I'm sort of on a low budget right now." The woman nodded and moved further into the kitchen. Napu eyes unconsciously followed the woman's movements until they rested upon the young waitress from before. Her brow was furrowed and she was muttering something unintelligible as she prepared the order for the obnoxious customer. The young boy's observations were put on hold once the counter clanged in front of him. He turned his head, surprised to find an expensive looking bowl of beef and rice with a cup of green tea by its side.

"Um…thank you, but there's no way that I can afford this." He politely informed the woman. She gave him a warm smile.

"It's the customary dish for newcomers." She explained. "I don't know how long you plan to stay, but you'll need plenty of energy on your journey."

"Thank you." Napu bowed graciously. He picked up his chopsticks, when the girl from before passed him while balancing a tray of food. She walked over to irritable customer and sat the food in front of him.

"Enjoy your meal." She offered before departing from the table. Before she was out of reach, the rowdy customer reached over and caressed her butt. A large vein popped out of the girl's forehead as she raised a tightly clenched fist to her steadily reddening face.

She angrily whipped around to face the perverted customer, but the corners of his mouth turned up from behind his shaggy beard to form a knowing smile before he turned to his food and began eating. Clearly frustrated, the waitress began making her way back to the kitchen. Halfway back, she stopped walking, a mischievous smile creeping onto her face. Napu watched as the girl took a horse stance before she swept her right leg across the ground in a reverse arc. A line of dirt shifted on a direct path towards the lecher's chair, sweeping his seat backwards without warning, momentum carrying him face first into his bowl of food.

A wide grin spread across Napu's face once the noodle-covered face rose from the ceramic dish. The burly man glared at the waitress, who simply smiled in contempt, much in the same manner as he did before she started sauntering off towards the kitchen again. The man ferociously flipped the table as he rose from his seat. The young spectator gasped upon seeing that the young earthbender was completely oblivious to the man's vengeful intentions as she whistled a happy melody.

"Hey! Look out!" He called out anxiously, but she paid him no heed. Napu frantically searched for anything that could be used to garner the girl's attention, or at least halt her pursuer. His eyes rested upon the green tea that rested in front of him.

'May as well give it a try. There's not much else I can do and I probably wasn't going to finish this anyway.' He placed his right hand, fingers spread wide, across the rim of the cup. The tea didn't respond to anything he willed. He looked back towards the approaching man who was noticeably closer than he was before. He turned back to the dormant cup and closed his eyes in concentration.

'C'mon… C'mon… Freeze already!' He thought desperately. A cold sensation slowly manifested itself in his hand; coupled with a satisfactory feeling attributed as self-confidence. Wasting no time, the proud waterbender hurled the newly formed ball of ice, hitting the hulking form of the man square in the face. The progressively growing red mark failed to hide the sneer on the angry man's face. Napu had no time to revel in his first successful display of bending before the gruff man pulled back his right fist, preparing to strike the unassuming waitress...

'Just a little closer and he'll be right where I want him.' The waitress thought with a smirk. Her thoughts were shaken when she was knocked aside by some kid. He turned to face the attacker, arms spread wide, only to receive a large fist to his eye for his selfless, though very foolish, actions. The boy slowly pushed himself to his knees, his left hand applying pressure to his rapidly swelling eye.

'Who is this kid?' She wondered from her position on the ground. Her eyes rested upon the small ball of ice the kid had thrown. 'He's a waterbender, so what's he doing all the way out here?' She didn't have any more time to think about it before she slammed both fists against the ground to raise an earthen wall to shield the boy from another punch. The assailant cried out in pain when his fist struck the barrier. The young earthbender quickly rose to her feet and thrust her arms forward; a blunt stone spear struck the man's right leg, forcing him to drop to one knee. She turned a quarter-turn to her left and thrust her right fist into the air to raise another stone pillar to the man's jawbone, effectively knocking him unconscious. The boy looked around the stone wall to see the body of the man sprawled out on the dusty, brown dirt. He turned to sheepishly thank the waitress for resolving his failed attempts at heroics, but his voice died in his throat once he saw the looming shadow approaching the girl from behind. She stared at the confusion forming on the boy's face, now taking notice of the sun's receding warmth and the large shadow engulfing her own.

Before she had time to turn around, a muscular arm wrapped itself around her neck and hoisted her up. She frantically struggled within the grasp of her capturer, but the man's grip would not loosen. Tears welled up in her eyes and her vision began fading from lack of oxygen. She felt her herself losing consciousness, vaguely hearing her mother's voice calling her name.

"Bali!"…

End Flashback

"So let me get this straight. That shrimp actually saved your skin after you stepped in to help her without being able to bend properly?" Toph 'stared' at Napu in disbelief. The reckless boy merely shrugged.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what happened; and you should know firsthand just how tough she is." He pointed out. Toph's face flushed crimson.

"She just caught me by surprise, that's all."

"Uh-huh."

"Just get back to your story, Mud for brains." Napu glared at her.

Flashback (A/N: I told you that there were a lot of these, but rest assured that this is the last one for this chapter. Also, age wise, this is all taking place three years in the past; meaning that Napu and Lukat are 11, Bali is 12, and Tann is 10.)

Napu looked on through his functioning eye at the girl's body growing limp as she dangled helplessly from the man's choking embrace. He glanced to the side and saw the woman who had generously served him calling out to her slowly suffocating daughter, Bali. Napu climbed to his feet, and even though his depth perception was severely lacking, raced forward to free her. The determined boy threw his right fist forward, but missed by a large margin and stumbled. Before he hit the dirt, Napu used his forward momentum to lash out with his unguided left fist. As his eyes closed, the desperate strike willed a slab of earth to knock the attacker's legs out from under him, forcing him to let go of Bali before he hit the ground. The cries of Bali's mom were the last thing the mysterious multibender heard before he blacked out…

Napu's undamaged eye shot open, his left hand instantly clutching his face where it felt like an ostrich-horse had trampled it.

"So, you're finally awake, huh?" He turned to the source of the voice to find the girl from earlier sitting on a chair with her chin and arms resting on the back.

"I'm Bali." She offered. Napu smiled.

"I'm—"

"The next Avatar. I know." She interrupted. Before the mislabeled boy could correct her, the door to the room burst open revealing two children.

"Bali! Are you okay?" The young, spiky haired boy asked worriedly. Bali yawned drowsily.

"I'm fine, Lukat. Stop worrying already."

"He's only worried because you never take time to rest, sister." The small girl next to the boy reasoned.

"What are you talking about? I've been resting all week, Tann." Bali defended.

"What? I've been asleep for a whole week?!?" Napu exclaimed in surprise.

"No, you've only been sleeping for a couple of hours." Tann assured. "Bali hates lying in bed unless she's asleep or incapable of moving; and even then we have to literally chain sister to the bed." Bali glared at her run-at-the-mouth sister before turning back to the foreigner.

"I thought that the Avatar was supposed to be this powerful super-being that had mastered all four elements, but you couldn't even handle the lecher."

"But I'm not—"

"You're the Avatar?" Lukat exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"No, I'm—"

"Wow, Mr. Avatar. Can you show us some bending tricks?" Tann asked hopefully. Napu sat upright and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"Listen, all of you. I'm not sure what happened, or why it did, but I'm not the Avatar. My name is Napu, and one minute I'm waterbending for the first time in my life, the next thing I know, the earth suddenly decides to listen to me too." Bali stared at him skeptically.

"So you're trying to say that you're not the Avatar, but you somehow did both waterbending and earthbending?" Napu nodded.

"Basically." A mischievous sparkle shone in Bali's eyes.

"That information never leaves this room, you hear me everyone? As far as anyone knows, Napu here is the next Avatar. Once word gets around, I'm sure all of the creeps around here will clear out for good." Lukat nodded his head in agreement. Napu sighed, a look of resignation on his face. Tann tilted her head in confusion.

"Does this mean no bending tricks?"…

End Flashback

"Turns out that Bali's plan worked. Everyone accepted my talents as being proof that I was the Avatar, and most if not all of the creeps decided that they wanted to be elsewhere."

"But…?" Napu sighed.

"It had the negative effect of drawing the Fire Nation's attention. Needless to say, I couldn't actually stand up to them with a few weeks of earthbending training from Bali." A pained look that reverberated in his voice crossed the young boy's face; Toph noticed it the instant it appeared before vanishing. "I did the best that I could, but Bali had to come and save me again. She almost didn't make it, and in the end, the Fire Nation destroyed our village, forcing us to flee. We were separated from Tann and Bali's parents, meeting up with Lukat and his family along the way. I decided that it would probably be best if I went off by myself, but my 'sisters' insisted on coming with me despite my protests. Lukat decided that he'd go with us instead of going with the rest of his family to visit his relatives. We've been traveling ever since."

"Wow, and all of this happened because you went left instead of right." Toph realized.

"Pretty much." A long silence went on until something dawned on Toph.

"So, now what?" She inquired. Napu shrugged.

"I don't know about you, but all that bending wore me out. I'm going to catch a little shut-eye." He rested his back on the smooth, gray rocks beneath him and closed his eyes.

"And what am I supposed to do?" Toph angrily demanded.

"I don't know. Listen for our friends, or an attack or something."

"What makes you so sure that I won't just drop a boulder or something on your head when you nod off." Toph warned. Napu's eyes cracked open.

"That actually reminds me." He sat up and placed his palm over her elbow, bending the ice back into water. He then proceeded to unfold his jacket and fashion it into a sling for her arm. Toph sat there silently, a mixture of gratitude and bewilderment present on her face.

"What'd you do that for?" Napu leaned back again and closed his eyes.

"If I'd left the ice there for much longer, you might have gotten frostbite; something we both know I couldn't treat. It's not in your best interest to do any bending in your condition anyway." Toph's nostrils flared in frustration.

"What makes you think you can stop me?" She asked indignantly. Napu opened his eyes, a look clearly indicating that he was losing patience.

"You're forgetting that I'm constantly interacting with a volatile earthbender that I call my sister. The only reason I'm alive is because I've developed ways of incapacitating her. Though, it'll be much easier to deal with you."

"Don't underestimate me! If you had that kind of power, why didn't you use it on me before instead of telling me about your past?" Toph insisted. Napu arranges his hands behind his head and closes his eyes.

"Maybe it's because somewhere in my twisted mind, I've been waiting to share that story with somebody. I don't really know, and I don't see a point in wondering about that now." Toph waited for him to continue before she got up to make good on her challenge.

"You're forgetting that you already told me about your dependency on earth beneath your feet. I wonder, how would your senses fair if I covered the surrounding ground with ice?" Realizing that he had a valid point and a distinct advantage, Toph reluctantly sat back down.

"I may not be the best bender around, of either element for that matter, but I'm pretty clever all the same. Now if I could come up with my ideas before everything blew up in my face, I'd have a lot less to stress about. Oh well." Napu stated smugly before gentle snores conceded him to sleep. Toph sat there disgruntled.

'It doesn't take the cumulative knowledge of Aang's past lives to foresee that I'm gonna throttle this guy once I get the chance.' Toph tapped her fingers on the ground, thoughts of revenge dancing through her mind as she waited for their friends to find them…


A/N: Yay, another chapter done. Thanks to all who have read so far. A special thanks goes out to PhoenixClaw for being such a loyal and diligent reader. Thanks again for pointing out all of my grammar mistakes. They somehow elude me even after proofreading. It's going to be a while before I update this story again, mostly because It's been so long since I worked on my pokemon fanfiction which I'm going to work on till I have at least the next two chapters up. In the meantime, feel free to check out some of my other stories as well. Any forms of reviews or criticism is welcome as long as it's a valid point and can be supported with ways in which I can improve. Thanks again for reading.