Chapter 9
"Mamma Mia! What happened here?" exclaimed Mario as they reached Ba Sing Se. As they flew over the city, looking for a place to land, they saw that most of the city was on fire. Buildings were destroyed, huge cracks and holes in the the ground were everywhere. They saw people fleeing to the wall.
"So much destruction," said Aang, clenching his fist.
"It's just like before," said Naruto.
"What do you mean?" asked Link.
"This is what happened to Konoha when that Dark Link guy and the hollow attacked," replied Ichigo. "They were destroying everything to lure me to them."
"Then that must mean-"started Link
"Exactly," interrupted Ichigo.
"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" asked Aang, perplexed.
"Well, you see-" started Ichigo, but before Ichigo could finish a giant pillar of fire erupted from the center of the city. Without hesitation, Aang grasped tightly onto the reins and said "Appa, Yip Yip!" and the flying bison flew towards the fire at full speed.
Before they even reached the source of the fire, they could hear the sounds of battle. By the time they were over what looked like a palace, they could see that there was a major battle raging on the ground. They saw soldiers wearing two different uniforms fighting. From what Aang had told them, they knew the ones in red were Fire Nation, and so they assumed that the ones in green must have been Earth Kingdom soldiers.
"So, the Earth Kingdom guys are the good guys right?" asked Naruto.
"Yea," said Aang. "And-" before Aang could complete his sentence Naruto had jumped off Appa, landing on the palace. From there he jumped down unto the ground and joined the battle. Aang lead Appa to the ground, and using air to clear the spot of Fire Nation soldiers, landed. Immediately Aang jumped off, followed by Ichigo, Link, and Mario. An Earth Kingdom soldier came running towards Aang.
"Avatar! Thank goodness you have arrived! We're almost at the breaking point. We're at our last point of defense, and Fire Nation does not seem to be weakening! Not to mention some strange boy has jumped into the battle and is using some weird magic to fight them."
"It's ok, that boy is with me. And so are these guys here," said Aang indicating Ichigo and the others. "They're going to help us fight." The man bowed to the gang, and they bowed back. "Who's in charge of the Fire Nation soldiers right now?"
"Commander Zhao is, and..." the soldiers voice trailed off.
"What? What is it?"
"Umm there are unconfirmed reports that the Firelord himself is on his way," said the soldier.
"WHAT?" exclaimed Aang in shock. Ichigo knew that this Firelord must've been powerful from the way Aang had described him when they first met, but his reaction to knowledge that he was coming only deepened Ichigo's worries.
Aang said something else to the soldier, but whatever it was, it was drowned out by the sound of a deafening roar. They all turned to look and saw another pillar, but this time of some sort of red energy, that was giving off an evil vibe. On the ground, at the center of the pillar was Naruto. The energy slowly lessend and surrounded Naruto's body forming something in the shape of a fox, but with 2 tails.
In front of Naruto, a man stood in a weak fighting stance. The man was of the Fire Nation and wore a uniform that stood out, marking him as the leader.
"Zhao," whispered Aang. The color from the man's face had drained and he was deathly pale, a look of pure fear on his place. The man, noticing the looks he was getting from his troops, quickly regained his composure and pushed his fists forward, but before the fire completely left his hand, Naruto had disappeared. Before anyone could react, Naruto was behind Zhao and moving so fast that no one could see punched Zhao into the Palace wall, where he was knocked completely through and came out on the other side. Everyone stood in shock. Naruto looked around and roared once more. Just as he did, a huge fireball engulfed him. Breaking the shock that they were all in, they all looked up and saw a giant airship that resembled a red blimp with the Fire Nation symbol on it.
On the front of the ship, stood a man with Fire Nation clothes, and wore a crown.
Aang swallowed hard.
"That's-"
Without being told, Ichigo, Link, and Mario knew instantly and mouthed at the same time...
"The Firelord."
