Naruto stood still on the deck of Azula's ship, having already been briefed on the mission.
"The Avatar eh? I do like a challenge."
Naruto turned his head upward to the sky, closing his eyes and basking in the moons glow. It was a guilty pleasure of his. As a fire bender, the sun was your ally, and th moon was your enemy. But for Naruto, the illumination the moon provided was comforting more than energizing. It brought him peace.
He didn't know why, maybe he had been a water bender in a past life or something. The thought caused Naruto to snort out a chuckle, a wisp of smoke escaping his nostrils. No chance in hell, he had definitely been a fire bender in the past. Loyalty to the Fire Nation was more than engrained in his mind, it felt like a fundamental part of his soul.
"Show me your Will of Fire!"
A quick shake of his head brought him back to the present,"Gotta figure out what's bringing those back."
Ever since he could remember, he would have moments of deja vu or even sometimes flashbacks. The crazy part about it was that he had never been to any of the places that he'd seen, or heard any of the words he often remembered.
Naruto dropped into a fighting stance, slowly going through the motions of the many fighting forms he knew. What separated him from alot of the other soldiers in training was that he had begun his training years before at the tender age of 5 years old, while most of the fire benders in the SSIP had just begun to experiment with their bending.
Naruto felt a tad bit of anger and a lot of resentment towards his youth.
At the tender age of 6, Naruto had been living in the streets, a mere urchin for 2 years of his life after the orphanage he had been burned down one night under mysterious pretense. He had roamed the streets for two years, generally ignored by adults until he pick pocketed them or stole from their shops. He often tried to play with the kids at the local parks, but would be driven out because of his dirty and unkempt nature.
For a great many nights the only thing that kept him alive was his own cunning, his near prodigious fire bending ability that had manifested itself when he was a youth, and the raw anger he felt at the hand destiny had dealt. That was until he was finally caught.
After two years of being a menace, the towns folk raised enough of a stink that officers, mainly non fire bending retired soldiers were dispatched to find and capture him, but with Naruto having no main base where he stayed (usually sleeping in a different alley or on a different roof top any night, they were never able to find him. They asked for help from a man known simply as Ko.
Ko had been a Fire Nation general notorious for not only his military cunning and amazing analytical mind, but for being one of the single most powerful benders in history. He lost only one Agni Kai, but it had been for the hand of the woman he loved in marriage, and after losing, he had retired claiming to have lost his fighting spirit. He was an older man, atleast 60 years of age, but had maintained a lithe form unlike some of his retired contemporaries, stating that if the urge to fight for his country ever returned he would be ready.
Under the instruction of Ko, the guards set a trap. Word was leaked of a massive shipment of food and coin that ould soon be transferred to the nearby military base coming into town that would be stored in a very loosely guarded compound. To any would be robinhood or starving thief, this was the motherload, just sneak in and steal enough food and bags of coin to be set for months. The proposition was too good to be true, but Naruto in his youth didn't see such obvious warning signs.
And so he broke into the compound, and eventually entered the store room, only for a net to spring up from the floor and suspend him 3 feet off the floor. Guards had rushed in, aiming swords at him, as Ko walked forward, his close cropped grey hair and his steel grey eyes the only thing visible in the shadows made by the torches in the room.
"We have you now, boy."
Naruto, irked at being caught, became enraged as the men around Ko shared a hearty chuckle. With a grunt of exertion, he used his bent fire outward in all directions, burning through the net and startling a great many of the guards, before throwing himself at Ko, seeing escape as the weaker and more unlikely option than going down swinging.
Ko quickly waved off the guards, finding himself intrigued by the strange nature of Naruto's fire bending. Flames were usually a deep orange, rarely deviating from that color, but this boy bent flames of gold? Intriguing.
Naruto, seeing the old man stand before him alone, allowed himself to feel a bit of cockiness. Him versus one old man? Pretty good odds. He jumped, attempting to bend a fire ball into his opponents face, only for the man to side step and knee him in the gut on his way past.
Naruto fell to his knees, coughing a little, before slowly standing up and charging again.
The old man tsked, batting aside the fireball aimed at his chest and delivering a stiff chop to Naruto's throat that left him gasping for breath.
As he stood, Naruto heard the guards continued chuckles as the old man side,"So much potential, all being wasted on an urchin."
Seeing red, Naruto roared as he threw himself at the old man once more, only for the man to raise his leg in a leisurely manner, using Naruto's own momentum to knock him unconscious via foot to face.
When Naruto woke up, he was in a cell in the town jail. He spent two weeks locked in the cell alone getting a single meal a day from the guards and with only rats as company until the old man Ko came to see him.
It had been a simple proposition, get out of the jail cell and learn to become a great fire bender, stay in the cell and probably rot away for months and be sent to some orphanage for troubled youth. Naruto chose to be great.
The 4 years he spent with Ko had been grueling. He rose at sun up, got his ass kicked in training all day, and then went to sleep. His only real breaks were for eating and meditation. During his years with Ko, they rarely exchanged pleasantries or spent time together that wasn't devoted to making Naruto a better warrior. They usually ate in silence unless discussing forms or strategy, Ko spent most of his time training Naruto reprimanding him for one failure or another, and Naruto could probably count on a hand how many times he had seen Ko smile and still have some left over.
But when Ko had been told Naruto that he would be being sent into SSIP, he felt hurt none the less. He had fallen in love with the life he lived, with Ko's training, with the grind of it all. He hadn't been able to understand. When he expressed his frustrations, he was reprimanded for being weak.
"Do you want to be good, or do you want to be great? Do you want to be great or do you want to be legendary? I've taught you all I can, do not allow sentiment to prevent you from going beyond that."
At the time, Naruto had rushed to his room and begun destroying what few possessions he had in a blind rage. Now, looking back on it, Naruto snorted, a wisp of gold escaping each nostril followed by a small ploom of smoke. He had long since given up any sentimentality he held for the old man. He would be grateful eternally for what the man had done, but some part of him would always resent the man for sending him away as he did.
In the end, he had made Naruto stronger, that was all that mattered.
Naruto finished his forms, satisfied that his skills wouldn't dull while he hunted for the Avatar with Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.
Naruto didn't know what to make of the princess. From his time as an urchin he still held some resentment for the stuffy noble types that had never had to eat out of the trash or steal from someone to survive. But at the same time, she was clearly a skilled combatant who had honed her abilities through hours of work and dedication. She had earned at least some of his respect in that way.
As if on cue, Naruto heard clapping behind him. 'Speak of the devil, and she may appear.'
"Bravo, bravo. That was a marvelous display Naruto. Tell me, how did you learn those forms?" The princess stood on the top of the stairs, looking down on him, the light from the moon giving her eyes an almost ethereal glow. If Naruto didn't know better, he would say she was a goddess.
"I spent some time under the tutelage of an ex-Fire Nation general, he made sure I was more than prepared for the SSIP."
"Interesting,"Azula's eyes gave him a once over, before she walked down the stairs and past Naruto a bit, the boy turning, his eyes following her form as she stepped past. "Tell me Naruto, why are you fighting in this war?"
It was a fair question,"To be honest, fighting is sort of all I've ever known." Azula could almost here the smirk enter his voice,"It's exhilarating to me, combat is my mistress and she has groomed me for greatness."
"Hm, is that so?" Azula turned to Naruto, an inquisitive look on her face as she met his ruby orbs. Finding no lies or deceit, she walked past him again, this time to enter the ship,"Tomorrow we will dock and begin to our hunt for the Avatar. We have recently received information that he was in a province inhabited by one of the more prestigious Earth kingdom families, the Bei Fong's. Be ready at dawn, we will be taking the train-tank."
Naruto smiled somewhat sinisterly. He was almost giddy with anticipation for his first time seeing combat outside the Fire Nation. And with the chance to fight the Avatar? He couldn't wait.
Toph awoke quickly from her brief slumber, vibrations in the ground alerting her to approaching danger. She surged out of her earth tent, which was really just two slanted walls that came to a point that would provide her protection from the rain.
"Something's coming."
Katara poked her head out of her tent, as did Sokka, as did a somewhat tired Aang who had momo resting on his head.
"Do you know what it is?" Katara asked.
"No, but it's big, like really big. And made of… metal?"
"Do you think that could be it?" Aang asked, pointing at the the giant plume of smoke charging forward at them out of the trees. It was still a distance a way, but it seemed to be moving fast.
"Maybe we should get out of here," suggested Sokka, already packing his things. The rest of the team quickly followed suit, and they were back on Appa moving on in mere minutes, looking back at the smoke plume that still seemed to be making a beeline in their direction.
"What was that thing?" Katara wondered out loud, somewhat rhetorically.
"I don't know, but let's put a good distance between us before we set up camp."
They found a new spot to camp an hour or two away, another small clearing in the woods in Earth Kingdom territory.
"Ah, sweet land," Toph cried dramatically as she fell to the first floor. She popped up almost comically fast with a smile on her face, her bag in hand. "See you guys in the morning!"
"Actually Toph," Katara caught the blind girl before she could walk away,"We were hoping you could help set up camp."
Toph looked genuinely puzzled by the notion that she should help unpack,"You want me to help unpack Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?"
Sokka, hearing the criticism of his bag's odor, gave it a sniff, only to cringe when he found it did indeed smell funky.
"Well yeah," Katara was beginning to get irritated with the girls attitude, and the sleep deprivation wasn't helping,"That and everything else. You're a part of this team now and -"
"I didn't ask you all to help with any of my stuff," said Toph, cutting her off rather rudely and turning away."I carry my own weight."
"That's not the point," Katara marched up behind her, anger clear in her face,"Ever since you've joined us, all you've done is be rude and selfish -"
"What?!"Toph became incensed, putting her finger in Katara's face,"Listen here, sugar queen. I've given up everything I had so I could teach Aang earth bending, so don't you talk to me about being selfish."
And with that, she plopped herself down on her rear and raised an earth tent around her.
Katara could have sworn she was seeing red."SUGAR QUEEN?" A slab of earth rose up, essentially slamming the door in her face. She began to comically jump around the tent, yelling and gesturing quite crudely the whole time to express her anger.
Back at Appa, while handing Sokka a bag, aang asked the "older" boy,"Should we stop them?"
Sokka seemed to consider it for a moment,"Nah, let them work it out."
Katara soon came out of her anger induced rampage, turning away while mumbling. Almost as soon as she did, Toph lowered her slab door,"That thing is back!"
"Huh?" "What? "Oh come on!"
They quickly hopped back on op after hastily loading up their goods, and began flying away, finding themselves once again marveling at a smoke plume that was heading their way.
"What IS that?" Katara wondered outloud.
"And how do they keep finding us?" Topp added on to the query.
"It doesn't matter," Aang called back to them from his position on Appa's head," i'm going to make sure to lose them this time."
With that, they flew for another few hours, each of them close to nodding off but staying awake mainly out of fear of being caught.
They finally found a suitable sight, a barren plateau on top of a large hill.
"Finally, forget setting camp. I'm going to find the softest bit of earth and go to sleep," Sokka called as he disembarked from Appa, going to find a nice spot to catch some shut eye.
"You know maybe we could've gotten some sleep earlier if Toph hadn't been so unhelpful." Katara said loudly with mal intent as she laid down on the ground, using her sleeping bag as a pillow rather than unfurling it.
"My bad, didn't realize baby still needed someone to tuck her in bed,"Toph sneered out.
Katara was bout to offer a rebuttal when Aang interjected himself into what was sure to be a heated argument,"Come on guys, there's something or someone after us and we don't know what or who it is."
"It could be Zuko,"Katara offered, turning onto her side from her back,"We haven't seen him since the north pole."
"Who's Zuko?" Asked Toph.
"Just some angry freak with a ponytail that's tracked us all over the world," called Sokka from his sleeping bag.
Katara, seeing a chance to add some levity to the situation, sat up and smiled mischeviously,"What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?"
"This is not a pony tail. This is a warriors wolf tail."
"Well it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky."
Sokka, clearly annoyed, turned over in his bag,"Anyway, whatever it is couldn't have followed us here, so wuld every body just shhh."
He leaned back, intending on getting some sleep, only for Momo to begin jumping up and down on his stomach as if trying to tell him something. "No Momo, shhh."
Momo would not be denied however, hopping off of Sokka's stomach and making a ruckus as his ears twitched.
Sokka finally was able to read the sign,"Oh no…"
Aang air bended himself into a standing positon,"That's impossible, there's no way they could have tracked us."
Toph confirmed Momo's story,"I can feel it with my own two feet."
Aang rushed to the edge of the plateau, and sure enough, there was the plume of smoke. It seemed to becoming out a giant metal tank train combination that was pitch black and almost gothic in nature.
"We have to get out of here," Katarra exclaimed, with an expression of fear on her face.
"Maybe we should face them, see what they want. Who know's they may be friendly!" Aang suggested, hope in his voice.
"Always the optimist Aang, always the optimist." Sokka shook his head.
The tank train came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, one of its many compartments opening up. Out of the compartment came a stony faced Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and Naruto all mounted on mongoose lizards.
"It's those girls from Omashu," Katara noticed.
"Yeah but who's the blonde guy," Sokka asked as he readied himself, pulling out his club.
"We can take em, three on four!" Toph yelled, obviously pissed at losing so much sleep, getting into an earth bending stance.
"Toph there are four of us."
"Didn't count you Sokka, you know, no bending and all?"
"I can still fight!"
"Okay, four on three plus Sokka!"
The three girls and Naruto suddenly surged forward on their mongoose lizards, clearly hostile. Toph made a few movements with her fist, causing short spires of earth to rise up out of the hill in an attempt to slow the four fire nation teens down, only for the mongoose lizards to easily traverse the newly rocky terrain.
"We found out who they are and what they want, now it's time to go!" Sokka called, already turning back to Appa.
"Agreed," said Aang as he and Katara did the same.
Toph, seeing as they were turning tail, created a stone wall on the edge of the plateau to cover their retreat. Azula, after doing the necessary motions, generated a beam of lightning that flashed from her finger tips, blasting a hole in the wall just in time to see the Avatar and his friends fly away.
Another 2 hours had passed in the air before the team suddenly found themselves in a state of free fall.
"What's going on?" A shocked Katara asked Aang.
"Appa fell asleep!"Aang responded, pulling himself to Appa's face via his reigns in order to attempt to wake him.
The group screamed as they fell, each afraid this was the end, until Aang was able to pull Appa from his slumber for long enough to save their lives, though at the cost of some tree tops.
"Appa's exhausted," explained Aang as he fell from the head of the now snoring bison, though he himself was barely able to stand straight due to how tired he was.
"Look, we've put alot of distance between us and them," rationalized Sokka."Let's just get some sleep and get going again in a few hours."
Katara, seeing an opportunity to take a dig a Toph, yelled out,"Maybe we would have been able to get some sleep if Toph had helped us set up cam earlier."
"What?!"Toph was enraged if her crushing the earth beneath her palms was any indication.
"Woah woah woah, let's all calm down. No one needs to blame anybody,"Aang said, trying to passify the situation before it got worse.
"No no no, I want to hear what Katara has to say!"
"Maybe I'm just saying that if you had actually helped set up camp earlier, we could have gotten a few hours of sleep!"
"You're blaming me for this?!" Toph began to march towards Katara, arms swinging, looking for a fight. Judging by the fact Katara threw her bag to the side and made the 'come get it' gesture, she was looking for a fight as well.
Aang interjected himself between the pair,"Woah nobody is blaming anybody."
"No I'm totally blaming her,"Katara called from behind the nomad, completely ruining his chance of pacifying the raging earth bender that stood in front of him.
Toph grabbed aang by the face and tossed him aside like a rag doll, getting in Katara's face,"Listen here, I never asked you for diddly do da. I carry my own weight. Besides," she gestured to Appa,"If there's any one to blame it's Sheddy over here!"
Aang couldn't believe what he was hearing,"What, you're blaming Appa?"
"Yeah! You wanna know how they keep finding us? It's because he's leaving a trail everywhere we go!" As if to prove her point, she grabbed a handful of his fur and released it, letting it fly to the wind.
"How dare you blame Appa!"Aang hopped down from his position on top of his bison."He's saved your life three times today! If anyone's the problem, it's you! You always talk about how you carry your own weight, but you don't, he does it! Appa carries your own weight! We never had a problem flying when it was just the three of us!"
Toph turned away, bending her bag into her hand,"I'm out of here."
Sokka stood in front of her, arms spread,"Wait!"
Toph simply stomped on the ground, and the earth underneath Sokka simply shifted him over about 3 feet to the right, leaving Toph a clear path to walk away.
Aang soon lost his anger, and fell to the ground in disgust with himself,"What did I just do! I just yelled at my only way to learn earth bending!"
Katara looked down, also seeing some error in her ways,"I know, I was so mean to her too."
Sokka didn't even have to look up from the whittling he was doing with his machete,"Yeah you both were pretty much jerks."
Katara, seeing Aang slump even more, gave a pointed glare at the back of her brother's head,"Thanks Sokka, really needed that input."
"No problem."
Katara extended a hand to Aang,"Come on, we need to find Toph and apologize."
As Katara helped Aang to his feet, Sokka took a swig from his cup,"Okay, but what are we gonna do about the dangerous fire nation teens chasing us?"
Aang rubbed his chin for a moment, before snapping,"I've got a plan."
The plan was actually pretty simple. First, Aang and Katara would use water bending to clean Appa up while Sokka assisted via brush. Then Aang would collect some of the loose tufts of fur and fly in the opposite direction that Sokka, Katara, and Appa would travel. Then, after leading the train far enough away, he would stop dropping the fur and just glide back safely to a nearby rendezvous spot.
And it would have worked to, if it weren't for the keen eyes of Azula and Naruto.
Naruto inspected the clearing as he sat in a crouch next to the trench where the Avatar's bison must have crashed.
"Why aren't we still following the trail of fur?" Mai was very nonplused at having to once again get on the back of a mongoose lizard. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, the saddle was crafted from some of the finest leather found in the Fire Nation. It was just a hassle.
"Because Mai," Azula replied,"something is a tad peculiar about the way this clearing is set up."
"How so Azula?" Ty Lee quit picking her ear and turned to her friend turned employer.
"Isn't it a bit strange to you that they suddenly changed directions? They've been heading north east this entire time but now the path suddenly heads south west."
"I mean I guess," conceded the acrobat,"but that's where the trail leads."
"They split up," Naruto said, having examined the campsite."The bison is heading the same direction they were headed. The Avatar himself however is headed to the south west, likely trailing the fur."
"How can you be so sure Naruto?"
Naruto nodded to the tree tops that had been destroyed in Appa's crash landing."Those were knocked down when the bison crashed, but those," he pointed at the tops of a few trees that had been similarly broken off,"can't be from the initial crash, The beast must still be exhausted."
Azula nodded, having deduced it for herself moments before Naruto explained it,"Then it's simple. You three will follow the bison. With how little rest they have they couldn't have gotten far."
"What about you Azula?" Ty Lee asked.
"I'm going to go capture the Avatar of course."
Tracking down Katara and Sokka with the bison had been relatively easy, as they had barely made it a half mile before they had to go down.
And so there was a showdown. Sokka and Katara stood in front of a near unconscious Appa, ready for a fight as Mai, Ty Lee, and Naruto dismounted.
"This is almost too easy," Naruto said as he looked at the two siblings, who took a step back as they dismounted the mongoose lizards.
"Can you guys just surrender? It'd be such a drag to have to fight you."
"Don't be such a baby Mai, we have to beat them like Azula said!" Ty Lee reminded her friend.
"Troublesome."
In the back of Naruto's mind, an image flashed of a boy with spiky hair in a ponytail and half lidded eyes with his hands in his pockets.
"How troublesome."
Naruto snorted, the fire escaping his nostrils clearing his head. He then noticed something. He locked eyes with the boy that stood opposed to him,"Where's the girl? The earth bender that was with you."
Sokka thought quickly,"She went with Aang!"
"Shit,"Naruto cursed, turning to Mai and Ty Lee but still not turning completely away from Sokka and Katara,"Azula's probably going into an ambush. Can you two handle them?"
"Yeah yeah just go."
Nodding, Naruto hopped back on his mongoose lizard and sped off in the direction Azula had went, hoping to make it in time.
Azula had finally managed to reach the end of the trail, and there the Avatar before her, looking as though he was waiting.
"What, not gonna run anymore?" She called out to him as she hopped off her mongoose lizard and watched as he stood up, sending his flying lemur flying away.
"Who are you?"
"What, don't you see the family resemblance? Here's a hint,"Azula covered her left eye with her right hand,"I must find the avatar and restore my honor." Seeing the Avatar was not impressed, she smiled,"You can laugh, go on, it's funny."
"So what now?"
"Now, it's over. You're tired and you have no place to go. You can try to run again, but I'll catch you."
Aang took up fighting form,"I'm not running."
Azula smirked.
She got into her own stance,"You don't really want to fight me do you?"
It was then when an ostrich horse sprinted between them, and off his back dropped Zuko himself. "Yes, I do." He said as he removed his straw hat.
Aang was surprised,"Zuko?"
Azula was not, folding her arms across her chest,"I was wondering when you'd show up Zu Zu."
"Zu Zu?"Aang was almost certain this was all a giant sleep deprivation induced hallucination.
"Back off Azula, he's mine."Zuko struck a stance that allowed him to target both Azula and Aang.
A three way standoff ensued, with no one being particularly friendly it wasn't clear who would throw the first blow. Zuko looked back and forth between his two opponents. Looking at Aang, he saw someone who didn't even want to be there in the first place. Looking at Azula, he saw her smile deepen just a smidgen before she threw a targeted beam of blue fire straight at him. He was able to bend up enough of a defense that he wasn't instantly killed, but he was still send flying into the front porch of a building, which proceeded to collapse on him.
Azula then went after Aang, who attempted to fly off in the commotion, bending a stream of fire that forced him to drop back to the ground in order to defend himself lest he let his glider burn and end up weaponless and without a way to escape. As he crashed to the ground, he was horrified to see Azula already descending on him from the roof top with the goal of stomping his head in like a rotten melon.
So began an intricate dance between the 3, with Azula and Zuko expending their bending prowess trying to hit both each other and Aang, and Aang doing just enough in the fight to evade and not get himself killed. Soon enough Zuko attempted to pressure Azula, which she was able to hold off by dodging and returning most of his attempts to send her to Agni via trial by fire. This opening allowed Aang enough leeway to run up some stairs into a building, Azula tried to follow, but almost fell a few stories before she realized that most of the rooms floor had caved away, leaving basically the edges.
After gaining her balance, she looked up to see the Avatar air scootering in the middle of the room, giving her a cheerful almost smug wave.
She quickly side stepped along the edge of the remaining flooring as Zuko can charging up the stairs, only to find himself falling to the ground floor. Aang's ability with the air scooter soon ran out as though he was a character in a bad video game, and he found himself dodging around the edge of the room as Azula shot beams of blue fire at him at every twist turn and dodge before eventually knocking her to the ground floor where Zuko was just recovering from his fall.
Aang raced outside, only to cringe as Zuko was sent flying through the front wall of the building by his sister. Aang, seeing no other option, began to wall jump between two building in an attempt to get the high ground and escape. Instead of allowing his plan to come to fruition, Azula sliced through the edge of the abandoned building with fire just as he grabbed it, leaving him to try and grab at it for any kinda support, another slice and the edge of the building, as well as ang, fell through the open rough of the building next door.
Aang found himself trapped under a pillar as fire ignited the edges of the room around him, first blue, then a menacing orange. As he looked up, he saw Azula ready her fingers to send him to the Spirit World the hard way, before her hand was grabbed from behind by a whip made of water, which then threw her off balance and cut through the beam that was pinning Aang.
"Katara!" cried Aang, having never been quite so elated to see his friend (and potential love interest) in his life.
Azula then turned her attention to Katara, bending a wave of fire at the girl as she rushed out the door, Azula tried to pursue, only to almost get decapitated by Sokka.
Even as the 3 members of Team Avatar began to corner her, Azula liked her odds. Until she was put on her hands and knees by the earth shifting underneath her.
"Toph!" Team Avatar cried out, overjoyed at seeing their newest member was still okay.
Azula, seeing that she was probably not going to come out of this one on top, gave herself some covering fire and tried to run down an alley way, only to get belly bumped by the much larger Iroh into a corner. Soon she was surrounded, her back covered by the corner of a destroyed building, facing down the Avatar, a blind earth bender, the boy with the boomerang, the first girl to become a water bending master in the Northern Water Tribe, and the banished prince, all putting aside their differences to keep her at bay.
"Well, look at this," she surveyed them, subtly looking for the weakest link,"enemies and traitors working together." She raised her hands in apparent surrender,"I'm done, I know when I'm beat."
"Ma, ma. Princess, you know we don't surrender." The group turned and saw Naruto standing there, wearing a modified version of the standard fire nation military uniform. It was entirely sleeveless, showing his taught shoulders and muscular bottoms he wore the standard dark brown/black pants with a red sash as a belt that was tied over his right hip. On his feet he worse the standard hooked toed boots.
He dropped into stance, flickering his eyes between the members of the group that had assembled around Azula but was now forced to split their attention to cover the new threat as well.
"Princess, what is your stance on the lives of the traitors," Naruto finally asked after a few minutes of silence.
"They're," Azula getting the message and shooting a look at her uncle and brother,"expendable."
Azula then bent a stream of fire at Iroh that sent him to the ground in a heap. As Zuko cried out in outrage and threw himself at his uncle's body, Naruto bent an intense wave of fire at Team Avatar that Toph raised an earthen wall to protect them from, completely cutting off the line of sight they had on both Azula and Naruto. When the torrent stopped and Toph dropped the wall, Azula and Naruto were gone, leaving Zuko kneeling over Iroh's battered form.
To say Azula was pissed was an understatement. The plan had fallen through completely, and there were no leads on the avatar's where abouts at the current point in time.
She was mad at her friends for failing. She was mad at her uncle and brother for interfering. She was absolutely livid that she needed to be saved by Naruto.
She sat in her room on her bed, already changed into her night clothing which consisted of what was essentially a red silk robe, glaring at the ceiling as though she wanted it dead. As she did so, she slowly becam aware of the light coming from her window. It would flair and then go back down to normally. It was as if someone were-
'Fire Bending on the deck.'
She opened the door to her room, quickly looking left and right to assure herself that none of the ship crew were wandering the halls. Satisfied she'd be making her venture alone, she followed the corridor and an adjacent staircase to the main entry way of the ship. She peaked around the door frame, not exposing the rest of her body, just a singular eye.
It was Naruto, once again out at night practicing his forms, but this time he was bending, and this time each blow was filled with passion. Passion wasn't the word for it, it was more like rage. His face was caught in a seemingly permanent sneer as he went through the motions.
What also caught Azula's eye was that this time, he was shirtless. Sweat pouring down his chest and abs, as well as his back. With each strikes flames would go flying, and so would the hot salty bodily fluid.
Azula stood, almost transfixed as she witnessed him bend out all his aggression, all his anger. It was something to behold, he looked so natural with the look on his face, just as he looked natural smirking. And as he finished his kata, Azula couldn't help but be reminded of his fight that she had witnessed in the palace as he roared to the heavens, uncaring of who he might awaken, allowing a great golden column of light to enter the sky. He cut it off, shaking his head a little as he closed his mouth, and began to turn as to go back inside the ship and probably to his room.
Azula sprinted away as quickly and as quietly as her feet would carry her with the grace of a gazelle running from a lion. As she closed the door to her room behind her and put her back to it, she felt her heart beat erratically. Calming herself and her breathing, she laid down in bed.
'So much power, watching him bend… it's intoxicating.'
She closed her eyes, one last quiet parting thought fleeing her mind as she fell to slumber,'We could be unstoppable together.'
It was a thought she wouldn't remember in the morning when she met with her assembled group to discuss their plans moving forward, but her amber orbs would linger on his form a bit longer than usual.
Just finished this at 4 AM, figured I'd give it to y'all since the story has so many favorites and follows. It'll probably be a little longer before I post the next update, maybe a couple of days or a week depending how I'm feeling. But, yeah. Leave me comments about how to improve the story if you have some constructive criticism. I know I need to add more voice lines for Mai and Ty Lee as I go forward but to be honest with you I just got tired as hell, I've been typing for like 4 hours straight this shit aint easy dawg.
Kishi
btw my old account was 10tailedkishinasura, but I lost the password so I can only access it through the fanfiction app (worth a download even though it's a little buggy sometimes) so if you want to see what this story is based off of go slide over to that account. I think for the time being I'm going to stick to one story at a time, but this one isn't going to be too long anyway so I'll be on to another idea soon.