Bolt out of the Blue
Disclaimer: Viacom owns Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kishimoto owns Naruto.
Me? I own a Toshiba laptop and perhaps the way I sent the Naruto characters to the A:tLA world
MP: Ok thanks to BlackKritin and Paperplanes for reviewing. I'm currently stumped because of how I've written things there's no way Appa get's kidnapped while Toph is keeping the library up because my Gaara would NEVER leave her alone. So unless I figure out how to rework season two within two weeks or find a way for them to still loose Appa without it looking like a convenient trick to stick with the show's plot, this story will, sadly, have to go on hiatus. Plus my plotbunnies keep popping up for other fandoms.
BlackKristin:Nope. It was Optimus Prime :P J/k I've just got Transformer's on the brain.
PaperPlanes: People seriously have the Akastuki work for Ozai? I mean, I have Sound ninja working for the Fire Nation but Sound Ninjas are significantly less badass and it's more incharacter for them to work for the Fire Lord than it is the Akatsuki. As for pairings, I will admit to being rubish at romance. Though I have a sort of NaruHina moment in this chapter inspired by chapter 437 of the manga. The thing is, until Sakura gets over her fangirlish tendancies (which I plan to have Toph beat out of her) Sasuke won't like her or even respect her all that much.
Quote:"One way or another, I'm gonna find ya', I'm gonna get ya', get ya', get ya', get ya'…" One way or Another, Blondie
Chapter 10 The Chase
As the group began to unpack for the night, Appa's shedding made a huge mess. So when Toph dismounted she mistook it for really soft grass. Then the boys began to play with the fur.
"Hey it makes a great wig," Sokka said as he made a beehive on his head.
"A great beard," Aang added with a full face of Appa fur. Hinata giggled a little as she and the ninja landed their balloon nearby. Not to be out done, Toph strolled over to the boys,
"Does anyone have a razor? Because I have some hairy pits!" and she lifted her arms to reveal she'd stuffed fur under her arms. Aang sneezed knocking the fur off of them causing him to laugh harder finally getting Katara to laugh at their antics. Naruto moved to join the fun whenever Sakura smacked him.
Later, Sokka, Sakura, and Naruto were fetching firewood, Aang was helping set up the tent, Gaara was digging the fire pit via Earthbending, Sasuke was looking for food, and Hinata was helping Katara in hauling water while Toph just sat off to the side doing nothing. Katara paused in her chores trying to get Toph to help. The last time they'd made camp Toph hadn't done anything, but Katara assumed that was because she'd not seen what needed to be done before and let it slide. This time, however, she was not willing to do so.
"So, Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work," Katara said.
"Hey, don't worry about me, I'm good to go," Toph said unaffected, chewing on her grass. Naruto, over on the other side of camp, heard that and cringed knowing prelude to angry female rant better than anyone. Katara seemed to fight off the angry rant and thought she merely needed to explain further.
"So how angry is Katara gonna get when Toph still refuses to listen?" Naruto asked Sokka as he began to work on unrolling his sleeping bag.
"Not as angry as I'm going to get unless you get out of my way," Sakura said. Naruto gulped and raced back into the woods to get more firewood. He emerged to hear Toph yell,
"I don't understand, what's the problem here?"
"The problem is that you're only focusing on you!" yelled Sakura.
"Your point is, Shrieky?" Toph said, "I can take care of myself! You should be able to too!" That point was punctuated with Sakura's feet being moved by Toph Earthbending the ground. Both other girls walked away.
Half an hour later Katara and Sakura tried to apologize to Toph only to get angrier while the boys, minus Gaara, helped Aang remove Appa's saddle, only to get nearly crushed by it, were it not for a timely application of shadow clones. Gaara and Hinata were both making sure that their supper wouldn't burn. It was a couple hours later when both Toph and Gaara were awoken/startled out of meditation by vibrations they could feel in the ground.
"There's something coming toward us!" she yelled as Gaara made and eye of sand and sent it out towards the source. Gaara had just gotten the visual whenever Toph explained what she was feeling,
"It feels like and avalanche but also not an avalanche," she said.
"You powers of perception are frightening," Sokka said sarcastically.
"It's some sort of metal vehicle," Gaara said startling the others. They turned to see the red head had two fingers pointing to one of his eyes.
"How can you tell?" asked Katara.
"I can use my abilities to make an eye of sand," Gaara said nonchalantly.
"That means they're probably Fire Nation," Sasuke said.
"So we'd better leave," Katara said.
"I agree," Aang said as the benders, plus Sokka climbed on Appa while the ninja climbed into their balloon which Sokka threw a few fire blasts into to get airborne. Once in the sky it was possible to see the dust plume thrown up by the tank following them.
Once they group had landed Toph leapt off of Appa and hugged the ground,
"Land! Sweet Land! Well, see you guys in the morning," with that she'd sprung up and was walking off to the edge of the clearing whenever Katara and Sakura both approached her,
"Actually, could you help us unload," Katara said.
"What? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?" Toph asked incredulously. Sokka, who was unloading his own sleeping bag smelled it and the smell made him fall over backwards, which caused Naruto to laugh, Hinata to giggle, and Sasuke to mutter,
"If he only thought to wash it, he wouldn't be in his situation." Gaara was silent as he simply continued to help Aang unload Appa.
"Yes, that and everything else; You're a part of our team now and-," It was then that Toph cut her off pointing her finger in Katara's face, though not looking at her.
"Look, I didn't ask you for help unloading my stuff. I'm carrying my own weight," Toph said before she turned to walk away.
"That's not the point! Ever since you've joined us you've been selfish and unhelpful," Katara said.
"And you attitude isn't helping things!" Sakura said.
"What! Look here Sugar Queen and Shrieky! I gave up everything to teach Aang earthbending so don't either of you dare talk to me about being selfish!" Toph retorted, this time her pointed finger nearly hitting Katara. At the end of her rant She made another earth tent.
"Why you-," Sakura began as Katara sputtered,
"SUGAR QUEEN!" That's when Toph made a door appear.
"Did you just slam the door in my face!" Katara yelled angrily.
"You little brat!" Sakura said attempting her modified version of Tsunade's justu. Which resulted in two things: one, she managed to crack the door and two, hurt her fist. So while she was howling with pain, Katara was ranting and pounding on the tent.
"So should we do anything?" Aang asked.
"I'm just enjoying the show," Sokka said.
"It's not safe to try," Naruto said shuddering.
"Took you long enough to learn self-preservation instincts," Sasuke said.
"Lady Toph doesn't calm down easily either," Gaara said with a sigh.
"I'm going to try," Aang said as he approached Katara.
"His funeral," Naruto muttered. He looked over and saw Hinata had finished unrolling sleeping bags and had curled up in hers. He went to join her when he heard Katara roar,
"I'M COMPLETELY CALM!" Naruto winced and hurried to his sleeping bag, which was next to Hinata's and got in. The others doing likewise.
Later, when most of the Ninja's had gotten to sleep, or in a deep meditation (As Gaara still wouldn't sleep) Katara meanly remarked,
"The stars sure are beautiful tonight, too bad you can't see them Toph!"
"Shut up and go to sleep," Sasuke mumbled. Toph's response was to earthbend Katara onto Sokka.
"How's a guy to sleep with all this yelling and eathquaking!" he yelled.
"How can we sleep when you're yelling too!" Naruto snapped.
"That tank thing's back!" Toph said after she lowered her door.
"How far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes for a few minutes," Sokka said.
"I don't think so Sokka," Aang said as the smoke was spotted. The ninja simply threw their stuff into the basket and were in the air at around the same time as Appa.
"How do they keep finding us?" Toph asked.
"I don't know but this time I'm going to make sure we lose them," Aang said.
The third time they tried to sleep, they abandoned setting up camp, and Sasuke, Naruto just stayed in the moored balloon. Not that anyone got any sleep anyway between Katara and Toph's sniping and Momo bugging Sokka it was revealed that the tank had caught up with them once again.
"That's impossible," Aang stated as the tank came after them.
"Maybe we should face them, find out who they are. Maybe they're friendly," Aang said.
"Aang, we've already concluded they're Fire Nation," Sasuke.
"That's Aang for you, always the optimist," Sokka said.
"I like the idea of fighting them instead of running," Naruto said.
"You would," Sakura muttered sleepily, having been too tired earlier to join in on the sniping between Katara and Toph. They didn't have to wait long. The tank was pulling two cargo cars and in the second car was three riders on strange lizard things.
"It's those three girls from Omashu," Sokka said.
"We can take them," Toph said as everyone took to the ready.
"Shadow Clones!" Naruto yelled and fifty of him appeared on the stone bridge. As one they all airbent and nearly sent the trio flying, if not for their nimble mounts. One lightning assault later most of the clones were dispersed while the triad pressed onwards, Mai taking out several with her throwing weapons only to have the shadow clones return fire, forcing her to block. The group managed to escape, the balloon taking some damage from the firebender.
"Guys! We've got to land elsewhere," Naruto yelled before an idea struck him and he formed a shadow clone and it glided over to Appa.
"Any reason for being two places at once?" asked Aang.
"When I disperse the others will be able to find Appa," said the clone.
"Oh," Katara said sleepily.
The group in the balloon managed to escape the tank but they were losing altitude fast. They landed on a mountain far enough away and began to effect repairs as best they could. Being exhausted Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata slept in the balloon while Gaara kept watch due to the fact the clone had yet to disperse. Naruto woke up after the clone dispersed itself in the morning and groaned.
"Toph left," he said, "And I know how to find the others, just look for Appa's fur, it was leaving a trail," Naruto yawned as they set off. The ninjas arrived just as Appa took off into the trees and Aang went the other way with fur in his bag, leaving a false trail. Naruto leapt out of the balloon and followed Aang while Sasuke and the others landed.
"I'm going to find Lady Toph," Gaara said before using his sand to fly away.
"I'm going after dead last," Sasuke muttered before taking off through the trees.
"I guess we're going after Sokka and Katara," Sakura said as they hid the balloon (neither was a firebender. Therefore, they couldn't power the balloon). Sakura used a genjutsu to ensure it remained hidden. She smacked herself for not thinking of using one sooner, Hinata thinking the same thing. Soon they were racing through the trees looking for Appa.
Unbeknownst to them, a short time later Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee also split up there, Azula following Sasuke, Naruto, and Aang while Mai and Ty Lee followed the rest minus Gaara and Toph.
Clearing,
Toph was walking through a clearing whenever she sensed someone. She attacked them with earthbending to reveal an old man, known to everyone in her group, except Sakura, herself, and Gaara as Iroh.
On the trail of Appa,
Mai and Ty Lee over took the ninja, though they didn't notice them and caught up to the Water Tribe siblings first. By the time Hinata and Sakura entered the fray, the siblings were both subdued.
"Perhaps it is time for a taste of your own medicine. You are in the field of my Divination," Hinata said, Byakugan activated. Ty Lee turned just as Hinata started her strikes, though she had modified it to hit regular pressure points taking Ty Lee down in the same way she had taken out Sokka. Meanwhile, Sakura was fighting hand to hand with Mai, dodging her projectiles and throwing a few kunai of her own.
"Missed," Mai said,
"Not quite," Sakura said as she used the last of her ninja wire to pull the kunai back, one of them slicing Mai on the cheek. Before she could retaliate, it was at this point that Appa had woken up and used an airbent blast powered by his tail to send her and the immobilized Ty Lee into the stream.
"Thanks Appa!" Sokka said. Appa showed his appreciation by licking Sokka in the face.
Mai dragged herself and Ty Lee out of the stream, using her own rudimentary knowledge of pressure points to help the other girl regain movement of one arm so that she could do the rest.
"Was it just me or was that one guy kinda cute?" she asked the bedraggled Mai.
With Aang and Naruto,
Naruto had caught up with Aang easily.
"What took you guys so long?" Aang asked.
"We had to wait for my clone to disperse," said Naruto as they continued to fly. They arrived at a deserted down that reminded Naruto of the imported Westerns some in the older generation of civilians liked. Aang took a seat at the end of a road.
"Aren't you going to fly away?" Naruto asked.
"No," Aang said, "I'm just going to confront whoever it is that's after us."
"Well I'm going to stay out of sight," Naruto said, finally utilizing his ninja training, so he simply henged himself into a board leaning against a nearby building. Azula arrived with Sasuke not far behind her on foot. Not far behind either of them was Zuko, who had been following his sister's tank's very easy to follow tracks. Sasuke kept to the roof tops after Azula dismounted, searching for Naruto. Because of his preoccupation he missed the banter between Azula and Aang, who revealed herself to be Zuko's sister with a rather bad attempt at doing an impression of her brother.
Elsewhere,
Iroh and Toph sat on a cliff with a pot of tea on the fire. He offered her tea and she accepted. He talked to her about giving her advice on accepting help from those who care. And about Zuko, who was lost in away. So Iroh was following him,
"That way if he needs me, I will be there," Iroh finished.
It wasn't much later that Gaara caught up with them. He arrived to hear Toph say,
"Thank you for what you said, it helped me," to Iroh.
"About time you showed up, Sandy," Toph said without turning, "Oh, this is Gaara, he's my friend and my student." Gaara nodded to Iroh who smiled.
"Oh and about your nephew, maybe you should tell him you need him too," Toph said before she and Gaara left.
"Put me down, Sandy!" she yelled as he took to the air to save time.
Back with Aang et all,
It was almost a stereotypical standoff from an old Western movie, neither Azula nor Aang moved at first.
"Do you really want to fight me?" the princess sneered, just then an ostrich horse burst through an alley with someone slipping off of it, who was revealed to be Zuko. Though now he had hair!
"Yes, I really do!" He said as he threw away his hat.
"Zuko!" Aang said as Sasuke prepared to jump in.
"I was wondering when you'd appear, Zu-Zu," Azula said as if she'd fully expected Zuko to appear. Well she had.
"Zu-Zu?" Aang snickered. Naruto laughed too breaking his henge.
"Back off, Azula! He's mine," Zuko said slipping into a firebending stance as his eyes flickered between his psychotic sister and the Avatar.
"I'm not going anywhere," Azula said also taking a bending stance, only she had all but two fingers bent. It was then that Naruto and Sasuke took ready stances as well.
"It's foolish to assume Aang goes anywhere alone," Sasuke said.
"If it isn't the traitor," Azula sneered, "And the loud mouthed blonde."
"Stupid Nail Lady!" Naruto yelled. Luckily for the blonde, Sasuke restrained him, though he was startled to see Naruto's irises turn red.
"Naruto, your eyes," Sasuke said. Naruto made a clone and jumped back at the sight of red eyes.
'What the Hell, Fuzzy!' he thought.
'Your emotions have weakened the barrier,' Nine-Tails said, 'Anger draws my power to the surface.'
'Damn!' Naruto thought as he formed more shadow clones and prepared to fight. It was Azula who struck first, attacking her own brother, much to Naruto's shock. Aang tried to fly away only to have Azula attempt to attack him whenever Sasuke, who activated the sharingan deflected her fire, though Aang had still been forced to land. Azul narrowed her eyes and continued to aim her fire at Aang and Zuko while Sasuke kept interfering with her. At the same time Naruto and a healthy combination of clones were hassling Zuko. Naruto happened to look over to see Azula sent flying by a move he'd seen Lee use six months ago at the Chunin exam before he and the others had been sent to this world.
'Stupid cheater eyes!' Naruto thought as he nearly got burned by Zuko.
It was the arrival of four large giant monster things that startled everything to a halt.
"I am sorry I am late, Princess, but the F**king message summoning me got delayed because some f**ktard was too damn scared to get with fifty f**king feet of me," a young woman in a red kimono said as she stood on a building, a flute in hand.
"Better late than never Tayuya," Azula said dusting herself off, "After all, if it weren't for me, Father would have executed you." Tayuya seemed annoyed by that statement but also unable to deny it. She then saw something that made her stop dead.
"Ah F**k! It's Gaara!" she said before she began to play on her flute more which had the doki attack Aang, Naruto, Sasuke and Zuko as sand appeared around one of her giants.
"Hello, Tayuya," Gaara said calmly as the rest of the reinforcements showed up. Sakura had her remaining kunai at the ready, Hinata's byukugan was activated, Sokka had his weapons out, Katara had water ready to bend and Toph was cracking her knuckles.
"Desert Funeral!" Gaara yelled before there was the sound of sand destroying something soft. It opened up to reveal and badly mangled doki that was now very much useless. Tayuya cursed (what else is new?) before she played another song and her chakra eating snakes appeared. Sasuke dodged them as best he could but was hit by a glancing blow.
"Be careful these things suck chakra," he said before he realized he was in a genjutsu. He tried to move his arms and found he couldn't. Luckily, he had skills that didn't require hand signs. He spit fire and then was able to form the hand sign he needed,
"KAI!" he yelled only to still be in yet another genjutsu. So he kept yelling it over and over until he saw he was back in the deserted village in time to see Naruto get set flying by a single remaining doki. Gaara had seemingly crushed the rest.
Though it seemed the reason her doki that was left survived was because she'd put everyone not on her side in a genjutsu. Hinata was still free due to her own eyes. Sasuke moved to attack whenever a huge chakra pulse spread from Naruto and everyone under the illusion was freed. Iroh had shown up during this time and Azula had been attacking him and Zuko mercilessly, especially whenever the genjutsu had still been up. Gaara's ultimate defense had served him and everyone near him well. Now it was focused on the last doki while Hinata and Sakura focused their attacks on Tayuya's flute. Tayuya had undergone a startling transformation both powerful and horrible. Sasuke both desired and was disgusted by the possibility of the power source. He snapped out of it and joined in the effort to get her flute. Her doki lashed out aiming its attack at Naruto's back. Hinata took the hit meant for him and was sent flying. This resulted in pushing Naruto over the edge. Red chakra bubbled over him forming his cloak, a cloak that only had one tail so far. Tayuya looked at the red chakra covered form in surprise. This was also about the same time at Sakura's kunai finally hit home and destroyed her flute which had the doki standing uselessly in front of her just before Gaara destroyed it too. Naruto launched himself at her snarling sending air blasts laced with chakra blades in the shape of claw slashes in her direction forcing her to attempt to dodge. Her survival only proved to make Naruto angrier. It was during this that Azula wounded Iroh and made her escape the others merely watching in horror as Naruto lost all control with his tail number increasing from one to two to three. One swipe later and the final member of the Sound Four was no more.
"Naruto! Calm down, Hinata's ok!" Aang yelled. Naruto looked at his now awake teammate and suddenly collapsed. Sasuke's quick thinking prevented further harm to the blonde.
Fire Nation, Boiling Rock, Subbasement A,
"Kuku kuku, so the final one is dead," Laughed a familiar serpentine form. Orouchimaru had survived! He had a scroll that monitored the life forms of all his 'blessed' and Tayuya's symbol had just faded. True, Sarutobi had destroyed his life in his home world, but in this new world, Orouchimaru was now able to start over. All thanks to his loyal puppets and an overly ambitious Admiral, who had summoned him there just before the shinigami could kill him. The Snake Sage would use the same method that summoned him to bring his most loyal disciple to him soon. The body he had stolen after arrival had belonged to a man named Zheng. Once he helped this Fire Lord win his war he would take a piece of the world for his own and start yet another Hidden Village.
"Kuku kuku! Let's see how many survive this round," the snake chuckled as he prepared to give more of his new ninjas a cursed seal.
Earth Kingdom,
That night, after flying a great distance Appa managed to land and everyone on board was asleep. The same story could be said in the balloon except Gaara who kept watch over the others.
MP:So there it is. Like I said I did sort of pull a Kishimoto there with the Sound Four members but I really didn't know Tayuya's character very well aside from the fact she has a predelicition to swearing. Also Snakeface has finally made an appearance. He and his cursed army will play a role later.
Also, here's another of The Many Deaths of Ozai
Ozai's death at the hands of: Deidara
Ozai stared down the strangely emfeminate blonde man before him wearing black robes with clouds on them. The most disturbing feature on this man were the mouths on the palms of his hands.
"Did you hear me? I order you to capture the Avata!" Ozai yelled.
"I heard you, un. I just won't do it," Deidara said before his hands spat out a clay skybison, "Here's some of my art, Yeah!"
KABOOM! Where the Fire Lord had once been was now a crater scattered with human remains. With that Deidara left.
Until Next Week!
WARNING: I proofread this chapter myself there are bound to be a few mistakes that I missed because my mind knows what should be there and fills in the blanks.