Chapter 02
Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or Avatar. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively.
A/N: Wow. First of all I'd just like to thank everyone for the kind words and the fact that so many people seem to like my fic. I never thought I'd get so much positive feedback. Secondly, I'm truly sorry for the long wait dear readers, but now I've finally completed the second chapter of Naruto: the last shinobi. The first chapter took about a month for me to write, so you might ask yourselves why I took so much longer when writing this. Well, there were quite a few different factors that played into this ecuation, such as writers block, insane amounts of school work, good old lazyness as well as some other things. For some reason I find it rather hard to write fight scenes and considering this chapter conatins a fairly big one, the long wait could partly be blamed on that as well.
Anyway, now to answer some commonly asked questions without revealing too much of the story. This would take place after Sasuke managed to defeat Orochimaru and everything up to that point is canon for the story (including the fight between Jiraiya and Pein as well as the things that are currently being revealed about Madara and the Uchiha clan as well as Naruto's parents). It however diverges from the manga since here, Naruto and the gang didn't instantly run after Sasuke once they heard what happened in Oto.
Furthermore, Naruto's awakening in the Avatar-world would take place some unspecified time between the two episodes "The Chase" and "Bitter Work", just so you know.
I've also recieved alot of questions regarding any possible pairings. Naruto will hook up with one of the girls from the Avatar-world, but there's still a loooong time left before that happens. I will also point out that most of the pairings that I regard as canon will remain unchanged, such as Sokka/Suki and Zuko/Mai.
Anyway, with all that said I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and I'll be waiting for those Reviews.
Chapter 02
Unknown Power
Naruto had interfered just in time to stop Azula's attack from burning Katara's body to crisp. After summoning a shadow clone to his side, he had quickly performed kawarimi no jutsu in order to instantly appear in front of the girl, switching places with a couple of small rocks that had been laying around. Once there, he and his clone had stared right in the eye of the blazing blast of intense flames that had been fired by the Fire Nation princess, watching as it kept coming closer and closer. They'd only had a couple of seconds at their disposal, but that would simply have to do as Naruto and his clone instantly got to work.
He doubted normal Rasengan wouldn't be enough for an attack of this magnitude and he feared that a Rasengan infused with his wind chakra would just fuel it further. Naruto had instead decided for a different aproach. Just as he and the girl he had met not even twenty minutes ago were about to get completely incinerated, he and his clone quickly extended an arm each towards the incoming attack, their hands united in a large sphere of quickly rotating chakra that only kept growing larger and larger.
During the short second when the focused blast of fire finally made contact with the Oodama Rasengan, time seemed to nearly stand still for both Naruto and Katara. The blonde shinobi wondered if his technique would really be enough to shield them from harm while the female Waterbender stared wide eyed at the scene unfolding before her, silently wondering how the heck two Naruto had managed to suddenly appear right out of nowhere.
When the attack struck the Oodama Rasengan, it was just like a flood that smashed right into a dam and the glowing orb of Chakra forced it to split into two separate directions. It all happened with such force that Naruto and his clone were forced to anchor themselves to the ground with Chakra, least they'd be blown away like leaves in a storm. All of this happened during merely a couple of hundreds of seconds, wich was enough time to make the blonde shinobi sweat profusely due to the extreme heat (making him absentmindedly wonder if it was a good or a bad thing that he didn't have a shirt on), before the fire ball finally detonated in a massive explosion.
Thankfully, Naruto's technique had been enough to save both himself and Katara from certain death, merely leaving some minor burns here and there on them that bore witness of what had taken place. He had sighed in deep relief once all the smoke and dust finally started to subside, proving that at least this situation was safely over and done with. However, his eyes narrowed as he looked across the plateau and stared straight into the golden eyes of the person responsible for this attempt of murder.
OoOoOoO
To say that Azula, princess of the grand and glorious Fire Nation, was angry would have been a grave understatement. She was furious beyond comprehention.
Ever since she was but a young child, she had relentlessly drilled herself towards absolute perfection and would settle for nothing less from neither herself nor those that served her. Unlike the rest of the young girls of the court, she had held absolutely no interest in wasting her time by playing around with stupid games or giggling about tales of strong and handseome warriors saving damsels in distress.
She had instead been much more interested in power and the means necessery to obtain said power. Just like a moth that was being drawn towards a flame, so too had the young Azula been drawn towards the mystical arts of Firebending, being absolutely enthralled by it and what it was capable of.
Even in the earliest stages of her training, it had been clear right from the start that she was something completely out of the ordinary. Everything had seemed to just come naturally for her. Like a fish in open water, it was as if she just knew instinctively what to do and like a sponge she was able to absorb move after move, technique after technique with such ease that it rendered her tutors speechless with amazement while her father couldn't be more proud of his little prodigy.
Azula's already impressive ego could only grow because of all the praise she recieved, especially since she knew very well that she was already far ahed of her older brother Zuko in terms of both skill and power at the time. But because of the fact that he held the status of oldest son, thereby ensuring him the right of becoming the next Firelord after their father's future retirement, or death, the knowledge of being superior to him only served to push the princess to new limits. Instead of just cursing the horrible bad luck she'd been dealt by fate and do nothing about her situation, she instead completed training after training, the one harder than the other. She refused to end her days as having merely been known as "the sister of the Firelord" or being married off to some old military officer. No, she had far greater dreams for herself and she fully intended to make them come true. One way or another.
But now, yet another obstacle had decided to interfere with her plans. The reason behind her fury was quite simple. She hated surprises, and now she had been absolutely dumbfounded by a person who she had at first immediately written off as a blabbering idiot with strange yellow hair. But this same idiot had managed to not only save the girl she had intended to kill in order to mentally break down the Avatar, but also succeded in blocking one of her most powerful attacks by using a strange technique of which she had never even heard about before!
Still, controling her emotions was an easy task for the ruthless princess and after merely closing her eyes for a short moment she soon had them back under her control once again. She was quickly back to being her normal nearly emotionless self and her red lips formed themselves into the ever present smirk that adorned her face as she coldly eyed the young man who had just finished his little speech and declared his challenge to her.
"Looks like we'll have to finish things a little later than I had expected, Avatar," she said as she glanced at Aang before turning her attention back to Naruto. "It seems to me that your new friend here has an unhealthy wish of getting burned, and who am I to deny such a request?" she finished with an evil smile as she eased herself into a battle stance while facing her new opponent.
Aang gritted his teeth in frustration as Azula dismissed him like he was nothing. He refused to believe this duel to be over and he was just about to voice his objection when Naruto suddenly called out to him.
"Aang, let me handle her," he said without ever letting his blue eyes leave their focus on the Fire Nation princess.
"I can't let you do that," replied Aang heatedly as he brought himself back up onto his feet, his staff once again in a secure two-handed grip. "You don't know what she's capable of."
"From what I've seen I think I know exactly what she's capable of," answered the blonde shinobi grimly as he recalled what Azula had just tried to do. Even though he was a ninja, a person who was supposed to be taught to kill, these sorts of things still really got to him. Why anyone would try to kill a person when they didn't even pose a direct threat to either you or your allies was something that the young Uzumaki still couldn't understand to this day.
"Katara!"
Naruto and Katara turned their heads around as they heard the voice of Sokka. The young warrior of the southern Water Tribe was limping his way towards them as fast as his injuries could allow. Once there he dropped to his knees and embraced his already kneeling sister in a bear-hug.
"I thought that I'd lost you," he admitted hoarsly with his eyes tightly shut. Katara blinked before a small smile appeared on her face as she returned the embrace. The siblings continued to hug each other in silence for a couple of seconds before Sokka finally broke the embrace. He then proceeded by placing his hands on Katara's shoulders and... started to violently shake her back and forth while simultaneously yelling at the top of his lungs; "Don't you ever do that again! Do you have any idea how scared I was?!"
Katara finally managed, with some difficulty, to utter an incoherent apology and her brother soon let go of her.
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of their antics, the entire scene oddly reminding him of how Sakura would occaisonally act towards him in similar situations (sadly without the hug-part though).This earned him the attention of the two siblings. He quickly noticed that Sokka seemed to be unable to look him directly in the eye for some reason and that he had a slightly guilty look on his face. The Jinchuuriki didn't bring this up however and instead flashed them with one of his fox-like grins.
"You should probably try to back away a little," he said as he looked back at Azula. "Things might get a little rough from this point."
"You mean you're actually serious about fighting Azula?" asked Katara with her eyebrows raised as she got to her feet, helping Sokka to do the same while offering her shoulder for him to lean onto. "Naruto, that's madness! Aang's right about this. You have no idea just how powerful she really is."
"I'll be fine, so don't worry about me. Just try to think of a way that'll take us out of here as fast as possible. Besides, things like not fully knowing what I'm up against has never really stopped me before." he replied with a grin as he brought his hands together in front of him, the index and middle fingers of both of his hands joined together in a cross. As always when he started to mold his chakra, the seal that kept Kyuubi trapped inside his body appeared on his exposed abdomen before he finally uttered the words that usually were the last thing people heard before he beat them into a bloody pulp.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Eveyone's eyes, including Azula's, instantly widened in astonishment as no less than four exact duplicates of the golden haired boy appeared all around him, each of them announcing their precence with a poof of white smoke.
"Alright, let's go!" roared the original Naruto, raising a closed fist into the air to punctuate his words, right before rushing off towards his waiting opponent. After a brief shout of 'yes boss', his clones were quick to follow their creator's action and sided up with him on each side.
Sokka was the first one to break the thick silence as the two Water Tribe siblings stared disbilievingly at the shrinking back of the mysterious person who they had discovered in the cave during the rain storm.
"We sure stumbled upon a strange guy, didn't we?"
And for once, Katara couldn't help but agree with her brother completely.
OoOoOoO
"You know, that new guy is kinda cute," mused Ty Lee absentmindedly as she dodged yet another boulder that had threatened to knock her head clean off from her shoulders.
"Ty, you can ogle boys later. If you haven't noticed, were're a little busy right now," sighed Mai annoyed as she tried to get a clean shot with a rather vicious looking shuriken-like weapon at a certain Earthbender. This wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do since the female shuriken master at the same time had to avoid getting her bones crushed by the large boulders that were currently being launched at her by said Earthbender.
Mai had decided to return to assisting her bubbly friend after Azula had tried to fry the Waterbending girl. Using their previous tactic, Mai was giving Ty Lee cover from a slight distance away while the former circus-acrobat would attempt to get close enough to hit their opponent's pressure points and by doing so also nullify her bending, rendering her completely defenseless. However, they seemed to have just as little luck now as they did before, but although their number one priority right now was to neutralize the young Earthbender as a threat, keeping her occupied and stall time until Azula had finished playing with her own opponents was just as important.
Toph cursed like a sailor as she hurled boulder after boulder at her assailants, while at the same time did her best to avoid being hit by Mai's deadly projectiles. Keeping track of Ty Lee wasn't exactly an easy feat either since the agile Fire Nation girl had a highly annoying tendency of often leaping into the air. Since Toph was dependent on the vibrations of the earth, she could only sense someone's prescence as long as they had contact with the earth itself. Normally this wouldn't have been much of a problem at all since her unique ability allowed her to predict attacks like very few ever could and she had also trained herself to quickly react to them with less than a second's notice. But Ty Lee was moving so fast that even her acute senses had trouble keeping up with her.
It was also thanks to her ability to "see" through the earth that had allowed her to know how the others fared in their own battles. When Naruto had saved Katara from getting incinirated by Azula, right before appearantly multiplieing himself, Toph had almost gotten herself killed because of the pure surprise she had felt when she sensed the act taking place. But if there were one thing the young Earthbender trusted in this world then that thing was her senses, and if they told her that the strange teenager that they'd found in the cave now was at five places at the same time, then he really was at five places at the same time. Any questions could wait for later as far as she was concerned.
With that said, and the others being busy elsewhere, that left Toph to singlehandedly deal with Azula's companions/body guards. These would normally be the kind of odds that she would be more than thrilled to face, but the ever increasing frustration that she felt towards the two dodging Fire Nation girls was really starting to get on her nerves and she wasn't above letting her irritation to be heard.
"Will you just stand still so that I can freaking hit you already!" she hollered at the top of her lungs, while at the same time trying to knock her opponents off their feet so that she could finish them off.
"Now what would the fun be in that?" chirped Ty Lee as she used her incredible circus acrobatics to practically dance her way around the dangerous boulders that kept flying her way, her happy smile never leaving her face even once.
Toph snarled in anger and slammed one of her bare feet onto the ground before quickly bringing said foot backwards, using her Earthbending to manipulate the surface of the earth to shift in the same direction as her foot, litterary pulling the earth backwards.
Ty Lee had expected to see yet another large piece of solid earth being launched at her and was as such not prepared for what actually happened. The female acrobat yelped in surprise as she felt the ground pull, nearly knocking her off balance before she managed to catch herself before she fell. She quickly looked up as she heard a sound that she'd become quite familiar with by now and almost instinctivaly let herself fall backwards, allowing her hands to stop her fall, effortlessly bending her back in an upside down U arc.
The distraction that Toph had utilizied aginst her cheerful opponent had almost been enough to hand her the victory, but because of Ty Lee's quick recovery she merely felt the swoosh of the large piece of rock against her exposed stomach as it passed over her.
"That was a close one," the acrobatic girl said after uttering a deep sigh of relief. She was just about to jump right into the game again, but then she noticed something else that managed to catch her attention.
Right in front of her face sat a small and fuzzy creature with large ears that stared curiously into her grey eyes with its own big green ones, all the while letting its long tail slowly wag from side to side.
With a gasp of delight, Ty Lee was up in a heart beat and quickly grabbed the lemur in a hug. "How cute!" she loudly exclaimed as she rubbed her cheek against the poor creature that was currently trapped in her tight embrace, shrieking in panic as it desperately tried to free itself from the grasp of its captor. Considering her personality, it shouldn't really come as a surprise for people to learn that Ty Lee was a real sucker for cute animals in all shapes and sizes, and the Avatar gang's own little mascot was a very cute animal by her definitions.
As the pink clad Fire Nation girl was busy cuddling with the lemur, she failed to notice the earth moving around her feet until it was all too late. As if the soil had turned alive it quickly grabbed a hold of her ankles and securely anchored her to the ground. Forced to let go of her little play mate, Ty Lee made a few futile attempts of freeing herself but it appeared as if she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this little pinch that she'd gotten herself into for some time.
"Aw, no fair," she declared sullenly with a pout as she crossed her slender arms over her chest.
Finally free, Momo ran as fast as his little legs could allow towards Toph and quickly took cover behind the powerful Earthbender.
"Aw, is that the sound of a sore loser I hear?," asked Toph with a smug smirk on her face and her hands firmly placed at her hips. "Thanks for the help Momo," she grinned as she squatted down and lightly patted the winged lemur's little head.
Momo wasn't exactly sure what he'd done to help, unless being caught by a loud and scary human female counted, but was pleased by the praise and the knowledge that he'd been able to contribute with at least some sort of assistance for his friend nonetheless.
"Oh, Ty," sighed Mai in exasperation as she pinched the bridge of her nose, deeply irritated by the fact that her friend had been outdone in such a humiliating manner. Being fond of fuzzy animals was one thing, but to be distracted by the mere sight of one in the middle of a battle was beyond infuriating.
Ah, well. It wasn't as if she really could do anything about it she supposed. There weren't many things the gloomy Fire Nation girl liked in this world, but her bubbly companion was one of those few exceptions that seemed to be able to brighten her days (a certain scarred prince being another). This was just another one of those quirks that was part of her friend's unique personality and she wouldn't want to change that for anything, no matter how annoying it could be at times.
But still, this meant that Mai would have to fight the young Earthbender completely on her own.
Reaching into the large crimson sleeves of her robe, Mai pulled out a new set of deadly blades and let her body relax itself into a loose battle stance that would allow her to immediately react at any second's notice. There was no way she would allow herself to be taken down the same way Ty Lee had.
Toph merely smirked as she eased herself into a stance of her own. She had to admit that these girls, despite not being Benders, had performed outstandingly well. Far greater than she'd first given them credit for and that had almost cost her this fight. She reasoned it was about time she wrapped things up and to show them the reason why she'd earned herself the nickname of "The Blind Bandit" during all those underground tournaments she'd secretly participated in before she joined Aang and his friends.
Her face took on a look of utmost concentration as she focused on the earth around her. She raised her hands into the air, her palms facing downwards, and suddenly slammed her foot down onto the ground. The sound of a minor explosion could instantly be heard as rock and earth crumbled into tiny, dust-like particles that all became part of a mighty torrent that burst forth towards Mai, completely enveloping her in a giant cloud of dust.
Toph didn't need her eyes in order to "see", but her opponent sure did and now she had effectively taken away the sense the Fire Nation girl needed the most in order to make full use of her special skills.
Mai coughed violently as she tried to wave away some of the dust in front of her in a futile attempt to regain her visual of her Earthbending adversary. This wasn't good. Not good at all. One of the disadvantages of her preferred style of combat was that she would most often be required to rely on her eyesight in order to nail a target. Now that she only had her ears to guide her she knew that she wouldn't be able to perform nearly as well as she usually would.
Hearing the faint sound of footsteps to the left of her, Mai quickly turned herself around and threw her blades at the spot where the sound had originated from. But the only thing she heard was when they inbedded themselves into the ground, indicating that she'd missed her target.
Once again she heard footsteps, this time to her right and she didn't hesitate to fire a small barrage of those fletched stilletos she always kept spring-loaded in the holsters around her wrists. But she failed to hit anything this time as well and she narrowed her eyes as she tried to make out any new sounds that could lead her to her enemy.
But everything had turned deathly quiete around her. No footsteps. No flying boulders. Nothing.
"Having trouble seeing?" came the mischievous voice of Toph as she stood right behind the now wide eyed Mai.
The shuriken-master quickly spun around in order to attack her younger opponent, only to stare dumbfoundedly up at a large triangular wall that had suddenly sprung up from the ground and reached above her head. The same thing happened behind her, then twice at both of her sides before thei tips of the walls joined together right above her head, trapping her inside a cage made entirely out of rock and earth.
Mai let out a sigh of annoyance as she sat down with her legs crossed, chin resting in the palm of one of her hands.
"Azula is so not going to like this," was all she said in a bored voice.
OoOoOoO
At the same time as Toph's battle was taking place, Naruto and his four clones were quickly aproaching Azula on speeds that no normal human could possibly match. The waiting Fire Nation princess couldn't help but frown as she watched her new enemy, or rater enemies, coming closer and closer. She briefly wondered if her mind was playing tricks on her since she knew very well that what she had just seen was a physical impossibility. She knew that no one could simply create perfect copies out of thin air, but she quickly crushed such thoughts and focused on the present. Every question she wanted answered could wait until the interrogation. ...If her opponent survived for that long that is, she thought with a malicious smirk as she unleashed a blue fire ball at him.
Naruto and his clones saw the incoming burning projectile. It was nowhere near as massive as the earlier one had been, but it was nevertheless still very impressive and as it aproached them they instantly started to put Naruto's plan into motion.
Naruto's skills as a ninja had certainly improved since his early genin days. The most obvious developement having taken place during those years of which he had travelled around the Elemantal Countries and trained under the tutelage of the legendary Jiraiya, one of the three Sannin that had once been taught by the Third Hokage himself.
The Toad Summoner had been a harsh but fair teacher and had done everything he could to prepare his newest apprentice for the bitter challenges that lay ahed of him (whenever he didn't spend his time trying to peek at girls that is). This often meant that he literally beat the knowledge into his student's head and sometimes even forced him to face intense life or death situations that would have broken most people both physically and mentally. But Naruto's indomitable spirit would always prevail in the end, to the great pride of his teacher.
Jiraiya had made it quite clear right from the beginning that he wouldn't really teach Naruto any new jutsus during their travels (except for trying to help him gain more control of Kyuubi's Chakra and during the development of the Oodama Rasengan) but to rather help him fully master what he already knew, teaching him how to better utilize his unique qualities – such as his enormous chakra reserves and his insane stamina - and to rid him of the blatant faults in his style and skills. Essentially to help him learn how to take care of himself in his future encounters with Akatsuki.
For example, one of the first steps had been to do something about his sorry excuse of taijutsu and during the years that they spent away from Konoha, it had evolved into something much more refined and fluent. While it was clearly nowhere near the Hyugas' Jūken in terms of elegance or grace, it was still a vast improvement compared to his earlier "style" that had looked more like something that a regular street fighter or thug would use.
His terrible chakra control was also something that had been greatly improved. While it was still below average at best, it now allowed him to execute his ninjutsu easier and much more effectively than ever before. Creating a flawless single handed Rasengan was like a piece of cake for the blonde shinobi by now and he was also capable of summoning toads that were up to the size of an elephant without having to resort to using his demonic chakra.
He had also learned how to use his Kage Bunshins in a more effective way than before. In his early teens he would have simply just created as many clones as possible and then hope for the best. Although stuff like that still happenend, now he would be more prone to just create a small number of clones where all of them would hold a specific purpose. The fact that Naruto gained all of their memories and experiences once they were dismissed or destroyed served to only further sharpen his skills. Using this advantage, and given enough time, he could gain a better grasp of how his opponents fought and how to better act against them. This had been one of the key elements behind his victory over Kakuzu of the Akatsuki (another being his newest and most dangerous technique, the Fuuton Rasenshuriken).
While the young blonde ninja was still very rash and would often run headfirst into dangerous situations without thinking, his sometimes uncanny ability to come up with nearly brilliant strategies as he went along wheighed up for this.
This was one of those moments.
Once the fire ball was so close that they could actually feel its heat upon their skin, they broke their formation. The two clones that were running at the left and right sides jumped aside while the original Naruto and the two copies that were closest to him leaped straight into the air, everyone effectively dodging the Fire Nation princess' attack.
Orochimaru might have taken all of his weapons away from him, but who said he couldn't just create new ones, thought Naruto with a smirk as his clones brought their hands together while they were all still in midair. They started to go through the seals necessary for performing the Henge no Jutsu and in a poof of white smoke, they both turned themselves into a pair of giant shuriken of which the blonde Konoha ninja was quick to grab onto, right before sending one of them spinning towards his enemy with a mighty throw.
Azula had followed her interesting new target with her golden eyes and although she couldn't help but be surprised of the things he had done, her red lips curved themselves into a smirk as she watched the incoming weapon that would most likely be able to decapitate her.
She simply took a step to the side and thus managed to avoid getting her head cut off, but her smug smile quickly faded once she heard a sound that she had only just begun to become familiar with. A distinct "poof" that seemed to follow every trick her strange opponent pulled.
The shadow clone, now back in its usual form, had used the ground as leverage and was now flying through the air and well on its way to make its knee connect with the back of Azula's head.
But Azula wasn't called a genious prodigy for nothing and managed to narrowly avoid the attack, while at the same time using it against her adversary. During the short time required for the clone to regain its momentum, the raven haired girl didn't hesitate to deliver a vicious roundhouse kick, followed by an intense arc of flames that brutally connected with its temple.
The clone was immediately destroyed. The quickly dissapearing white smoke being the only evidence that it had even been there in the first place. Azula narrowed her eyes as she briefly pondered upon this strange phenomenon. Not only had the boy with the marked cheeks and strange hair managed to duplicate himself, but the duplicants had then transformed themselves into weapons. At first the princess had considered the option that perhaps they were simply just illusions, tricks designed to fool the senses of a human, but her kick had immediatly put an end to that theory.
The feeling of her heel connecting with the doppelganger was unmistakenly real. But while these clones were indeed physical entities, the way it had "died" prove that they weren't exactly made of flesh and blood either.
Azula had fought and triumphed over Benders of all the remaining elements. She had crushed warriors that had mastered the most devestating martial arts this world had to offer. But despite all of her knowledge and experiences, she had absolutely no idea whatsoever what it was that she was up against now. She hadn't even heard of anyone practising arts that even remotely resembled these.
She would have to think about this later, she concluded as she eyed two of the remaining doppelgangers as they quickly aproached her from different angles. Each one of them were holding a smaller version of the weird sphere that had managed to stop her attack in their right hands. Although Azula didn't know what it was fully capable of, she wasn't willing to be on the receiving end of it.
One of the clones thrusted its arm forward, Rasengan swirling in hand, but cursed as it failed to hit its intended target. The agile Firebender who had managed to skillfully avoid the powerful ninjutsu, now somersulted through the air while simultaneously sending bursts of compressed blue fire into the unprotected back of the Kage Bunshin, destroying it just like she had done with the other one.
She barely had time to breath once she had her feet on the ground, before the third one pounced on her. It had come so quickly that she barely even had time to take note of it and was only saved because of the impressive reflexes that she'd acquired after several years of intense training as she used the clone's shoulder as leverage to jump away during its attack. If she had reacted even a tenth of a second slower than she actually did, it would have been her and not the ground that would have been hit by the bunshin's Rasengan.
Azula's eyes widened in a short moment of shock as she witnessed the amount of damage that the seemingly insignificant blue ball had managed to inflict upon the ground. Upon impact it had torn into the solid surface of stone and earth with a loud explosion, leaving behind a decently sized crater that was still smoking. If this was what it could do to such solid material, then she had absolutely no intention to find out what the same attack could do to human flesh.
The Firebender was however brought back from her thoughts as Naruto's doppelganger instantly went on the offense once it had gotten its bearings back in order. Using its hands as leverage, the clone jumped back onto its feet right before spinning around and aimed a swift kick to connect with its female opponent.
Azula brought her hands together and raised a protective shield made entirely out of flames in order to halt the incoming attack.
The clone cursed audibly, but still managed to avoid burning itself on the scorching barrier in the last second by altering its movements while still being in midair. After spinning itself around, the bunshin then proceeded by slamming its foot down onto the ground. And with the help of some strategically applied chakra, leaped into the air, flying straight over Azula's head before gracefully landing behind the very surprised Fire Nation princess.
With a snarl she quickly turned around, reshaping her shield with a couple of swift and simple hand gestures before finally releasing it in the form of a blast of blazing fire right at the blonde duplicate.
With less than a second to act, the clone managed to form a Rasengan just in time to defend itself from the fiery attack. The spinning orb of chakra effectively halted the intense flames' aproach, forcing them to split into two separate directions around it, just like the Oodama Rasengan had done before with the significantly larger blast. However, this also put the clone in a rather compromised position. During the seconds it took for it to stave off Azula's fire blast, it was left momentarily unprotected and the young Firebender saw her chance.
Azula didn't hesitate for even a second as this opportunity presented itself for her and she quickly sprung into action. Like a silent predator she pounced her prey and unleashed a rapid, and deadly, combo of fire empowered punches and kicks upon the shadow clone's body. As the furious attacks hammered its body and fire burned its naked arms and chest, there were little more it could do except crying out in agony before being ultimately silenced by a final blast of fire delivered at point blanc range to its face.
As the white smoke quickly started to dissipate into the air, Azula's golden eyes examined her surroundings, searching for the original blonde and she didn't have to wait for long at all before finding him.
Having had three of his four shadow clones destroyed, the true Naruto finally entered the battle. With a loud battle cry he descended upon Azula, his huge shuriken/kage bunshin being held in a firm grip in his right hand.
The princess narrowed her amber eyes and jumped back just in time to witness the weapon sink one of its four deadly edges into the spot where she had just been previously standing. Without wasting a second, the dark haired girl brought her hands up in front of her before landing and fired a rapid barrage of compressed fireballs upon her attacker.
With a grunt Naruto pulled the shuriken out of the ground and quickly used it as a makeshift shield to deflect the incoming white hot projectiles that threatened to singe his hide. Once they were all out of his way, and he finally had a clean shot, the blonde shinobi hurled the shuriken with all the power that his right arm could muster at his opponent.
Azula watched how the deadly weapon spun through the air on its way towards her. She quickly raised her right hand and with a look of utmost concentration, the Firebending prodigy formed a sword made entirely out of brightly burning blue flames. It extended from the tips of her index and middle finger and with a mere flick of her wrist she cut the shuriken cleanly in two, the heat of her blade melting its way through the faux metal like a hot knife through butter. The two separate pieces continued on their way for a split second before finally bursting into a cloud of white smoke that completely eveloped the young princess and at the same time effectively obscured everything from her view.
With an irritated gesture of her hand, the female Firebender easily dispatched the annoying veil that had been cast over her eyes and she was once again ready to take on the mysterious boy who was standing in her way from completing her goal of capturing the Avatar.
The only problem was that he was nowhere to be found.
With an uncharacteristically surprised look on her beatiful face, Azula started to look all around herself, wondering where the hell the blonde could have gone until her gaze was once again brought back to the place where she had last seen her opponent. This time however, she finally noticed something that her hawk like eyes somehow had managed to miss at first. By craning her neck slightly, she now saw that on the exact same place that Naruto had been previously standing, there was now a fairly large hole that went straight into the earth.
For a split second, Azula did nothing but stare at the sight in confusion before her golden eyes lit up as all the pieces suddenly fell together. As quickly as she possibly could she jumped back, luckily for her just in time to see the whiskered teenager burst through the ground in front of her with a raised fist that would have connected with her jaw if she had moved any slower. The uppercut couldn't have missed her by more than a couple of centimeters and judging by the wind that came in its wake, lightly slapping her in the face, she came to the conclusion that the punch most likely would have shattered her jaw if it had been allowed to hit its intended target.
Time seemed to almost slow down around the two of them for a moment as they flowed through the air. They were both so into this duel that they hardly even noticed anything that took place around them, being solely focused on each other. Sharp and hawk-like golden eyes stared heatedly into intense sky blue ones as each of their respective owners pondered their next move.
Azula was the first one to act. Without even as much as blinking she quickly summoned her fire blade and ruthlessly struck her opponent with it, effectively cleaving the blonde's body into two halves from right hip to left shoulder.
The onlookers that had all been anxiously following every single second of the brethtaking battle so far, were rendered completely speechless by the dreadful scene that was currently taking place before their very eyes. Katara quickly brought her hands to her mouth as she tried to stifle an audible gasp of horror at the sight of the appearant death of the strange boy they'd found in the cave. The boy who had just recently saved her life.
Azula couldn't help but feel incredibly satisfied by her work as she observed the Avatar and his rag tag team of friends. Not only had she beaten an extremely challenging enemy, once again proving her superior status to herself, but the look of utter despair that she saw on her targets' faces made her feel incomparably warm inside. Although it was truly a great pity that she hadn't been able to find out the secret behind her opponent's strange abilities, she couldn't help herself as her luscious red lips formed themselves into a triumphant smirk as she eyed the corpse of her fallen enemy.
...That is until the body suddenly burst into yet another cloud of white smoke that quickly dissolved into the air.
Before anyone could even voice their shock, the ground behind Azula exploded with a loud bang and the real Naruto revealed himself, perfectly fine, as he jumped out of the hole he'd created. Once again he'd proven himself worthy of the title " world's most surprising ninja" and all eyes where on him as his feet made contact with the ground, right before he rushed forward with remarkable speed.
"I've got you now princess!" he declared triumphantly as he came face to face with the female Firebender, a newly formed Rasengan in his right hand.
Azulas golden eyes widened in terror as she eyed the sphere of energy coming closer and closer to her while a feeling she wasn't entirely used to, yet hated, started to claim a hold of her heart. In a desperate attempt to at least dampen the impact, she fired a blast of compressed fire in the very last second before the Rasengan would hit.
Her attack did manage to move Naruto's hand sligthly out of course, but despite her best efforts, she was still hit with enough force to be sent spinning through the air before finally hitting the ground nearly ten meters away.
After silently lying on the ground for a few moments, Azula started to ever so slowly force herself back up again. It was a pretty drawn-out process, her entire body aching terribly to such a degree that she couldn't help but let out a couple of pained groans. She couldn't remember a single occasion during her entire life when she'd been in more pain than right now. If she didn't know any better she could have sworn that she'd been run over by a tank.
With some great effort, the princess was finally able to once again stand on her own two feet, but she was far from being in her best condition as she wobbled from side to side. Her mind was in a daze, her clothes had been torn and ripped in several places, her body was covered in bruises and her topknot, wich carried the royal insignia that normally kept her beautiful dark hair in order had been destroyed, making her raven coloured strands fall down her face in an uneven mess.
Luckily for her, she didn't have any broken bones. The reason behind this was that Naruto simply hadn't put everything he had behind his attack, but this was something she didn't know, and ,ost likely never would.
Suddenly, the dark haired girl felt something wet trickle its way down the side of her mouth and she slowly brought one of her hands to her lips, curious to see what it could possibly be. Finding what she was looking for, Azula brought the hand in front of her face and couldn't help but let out a shocked gasp at what she saw covering her fingertips. A crimson fluid she knew only all too well.
It was blood. Her blood to be precise.
The realization that someone had actually managed to hurt her enough to draw blood made something snap inside the princess. She closed her hand so hard that her knuckles turned white, completely ignoring the pain that her claw like fingernails caused as they embeded themselves into the palm of her hand, her face contorting into a mask of utter rage. Azula hardly ever lost control of her emotions, but for the first time in her life, her normally calm and calculating mind had been turned into a raging inferno and she could only blame one person for this.
Quickly turning herself around, she heatedly stared back at the one who'd dared to do something like this to her, golden eyes ablaze with fury and hatred as she looked at him as if she wanted to eradicate him from the face of the earth with her will alone. How did he even dare to do something like this to her?! Didn't he know who he was dealing with here?! She was Princess Azula! A member of the Fire Nation's royal family, keepers of the most noble bloodline in history and soon to be rulers of the entire world!
This mere boy that stood before her wasn't even fit to breath the same air as her, let alone defy her.
But he had done it anyway, and it was the way he did it in that infuriated her the most. He had managed to overpower her in a manner that shouldn't even have been possible! Azula had thought that she knew everything there was to know about the different combat styles this world had to offer, but nothing she'd ever read or experienced came even close to describe neither a technique that allowed its user to split himself into several doppelgangers, nor creating a force powerful enough to turn stone to dust without the use of Earthbending. She didn't understand how something like that could be physically possible.
Azula swore she would make him pay and suffer for this unforgivable insolence. Oh, he would suffer dearly. She would crush him in battle on this very plateau, and then personally drag his broken body to the Boiling Rock where he would get to spend the rest of his miserable existance under lock and key inside the most tightly secured prison the Fire Nation had to offer. Day and night alike he would know nothing but the pain she would inflict upon him, subjecting him to the most excruciating of torture she could possibly think of, never stopping until he finally begged her to end his life.
The Fire Nation princess was brought back from her malicious thoughts as she saw how her blonde opponent made a beckoning gesture with his outstretched arm, a smug smirk tugging at his lips as he eyed her knowingly.
At first she'd been just about ready to launch herself at him and tear his thoat out with her own hands, but then she immediately halted herslef once she realized something that made her mentally slap herself. Despite all her strict discipline and self control, she had allowed her emotions to get the better of her, and to only make matters even worse she'd also allowed her inner turmoil to become visible for her opponent to see. This was something she would have expected from her foolish older brother, but never in a million years did she ever believe that someone would've been able to make her lose her cool. Even if she'd lost an arm or a leg, a reaction like this was unexcusable from her. She cursed silently as all this sunk in and did her best to get her breathing and raging emotions back under iron hard control, just like her masters Lo and Li had taught her to do.
Once that was dealt with, Azula forced herself to smirk as she calmly raised herself to her full height in a as dignified a manner as possible, all of her pain seemingly forgotten as she now looked back at Naruto with her amber eyes. The same eyes that had seconds ago been burning with a violent fire were now once again as cold as ice.
"I've got to hand it to you," she started as she nonchalantly brushed some hair to the side of her face. "No one has ever managed to take me by such surprise before as you."
"I tend to get that a lot," replied Naruto with a chuckle as he flexed his right arm in a circular motion, quickly ridding it of any tension that might have developed in the muscles. While he was fairly confident that his clones had allowed him to get a fairly good grasp on how his opponent fought by now, he still held a suspicion that she hadn't shown him every trick she might keep up her sleeve. As such, despite his appearant care free look, he was still very much on his guard and anxiously awaited anything she might try to pull.
"Oh, I'm sure you do," Azula said in the same condescending tone as before. "You've done very well, but I'm starting to grow impatient here. Therefore I'm now giving you your final chance of getting out of this alive. If you and the Avatar surrender without a struggle, I'll consider the possibility of maybe sparing your lives along with your friends. I seriously suggest you to take this offer since I will not give it again."
"Sorry, no can do, princess," was all Naruto had to say to this. Having just been released from the captivity of one of Konoha's most dangerous enemies, not that he was sure how that had happened exactly, he had no desire whatsoever to just walk right into a new one. Not even the fact that the ones who were after him this time were a trio of extremely attractive girls managed to tempt him the least bit.
They also seemed to be after Aang, who they for some reason kept referring to as "the Avatar", whatever that meant. Although he'd just met Aang, Katara and the others, the blonde shinobi felt that he just couldn't leave them to fend for themselves, especially not after taking care of him after finding him.
"Well, at least I warned you," stated Azula with a smirk before her expression turned completely blank, negotiations clearly being over and done with. She spread her legs just enough to gain an even footing as she slowly brought her hands up in front of her.
Suddenly, the very air around the female Firebender started to crackle with intense energy as she moved her arms in quick circular motions. Her fingertips, by now completely enveloped by deadly electrical energy that was visible even to the naked eye, danced through the air as Azula continued guiding the lightning that kept building up.
This was one of the very reasons why Azula had trained so hard during her life in order to control her emotions. While it was true that ordinary Firebending could take great benefit from intense emotions such as rage, anger and hatred, using them to fuel the flames to all new levels of power, Lightningbending, on the other hand, was a different matter alltogether. The ability of generating lightning was one of the most powerful and complex secrets the Firebending arts had to offer, and only a select few possesed the qualities necessary to master it. "The cold-blooded fire", as it fittingly was called, required a complete absence of emotions and peace of mind, something very few of the generally hotblooded Firebenders could summon even for the shortest of moments.
But Azula was one of those select few, and she fully intended her opponent to receive a taste of what she was capable of.
"Oh, shi...!" was all Naruto managed to blurt out before his female enemy struck. He'd realized all too late what it was that Azula had planned to do. But even if he had, there'd been little he could have done to avoid being hit by the blinding bolt of lightning that she fired in his direction.
After all, no matter how much anyone claimed otherwise, no man could possibly outrun lightning.
The bolt hit Naruto square in the chest and he was now sent flying back by the incredible force of the blast. He roared in excruciating pain as the electric energy surged through his entire body, setting every nerve end on fire and making his muscles spasm uncontrolably before finally landing in a smoking heap on the ground.
Even though a single shot of the bolts produced by her Lightningbending was enough to slay most people, or at the very least mortally wound them, Azula wasn't actually that much surprised to see her prey groan in pain and then try to get back up again, although with some great difficulty on his behalf. So many things she'd thought to be impossible had happened during this strange day that one more barely even managed to faze her at all. While the first blast had failed to permanently end her opponents life, the young Firebender surmised that a second one would be more than enough to finish the job.
She quickly went to work with producing another surge of electric power, but was suddenly stopped when the voice of a certain Air Nomad interrupted her concentration.
"No! Leave him alone!" roared Aang as he summoned a powerful gale of wind that slammed into Azula's side, taking the Fire Nation princess completely by surprise and even managed to send her flying off her feet.
Azula snarled in agitation as she eyed the young monk, cursing her own carelessness for allowing him to sneak up on her. She made an attempt to turn herself around in midair so that she would be able to safely land on her feet, but Aang quickly put an end to that idea. By using his staff in order to amplify his already impressive Airbending abilities, the yellow clad boy created a small, but powerful, twister that served to keep Azula in the air for as long as possible.
With that done, Aang instantly went to Naruto's side to see if his newfound friend was alright after having to endure Azula's last attack. He turned the groaning older boy around so that he would be able to see his face, wincing involuntarily after seeing large nasty looking wound where he'd been hit. The skin around it had taken on an unhealthy black tinge and the pungent smell of burnt flesh was evident in the air. Shaking his head clear from both nausea and any feelings of guilt he might have had, Aang reached to check the blonde's pulse and was deeply relieved to find a beat that seemed to get steadier by each passing second
"Naruto, get a hold of yourself," urged the Avatar as he shook his shoulder, hoping to get at least some sort of reaction out of him to know that he was okay.
After a couple of seconds or so, Naruto finally raised his head, his spiky blonde hair standing completely on end, still faintly buzzing with electricity. His eyelids slowly fluttered open but his eyes seemed very unfocused, mostly just rolling around inside their sockets rather than fixing themselves upon Aang's worried face.
"...Kakashi-sensei... I've told you I don't like vegetables..." was all he managed to mumble out before the back of his head once again hit the ground with a light thud.
"This is so not helping any," complained Aang as he let out a deep sigh of frustration. "Come on, let's find the others and get out of here," he said as he as gently as possible placed Naruto's arm over his shoulders and stood up. He made a mental note to make sure Katara checked the older boy for any internal injuries he might have suffered once they were all safely away from this place.
"You're not going any where if I have something to say about it, Avatar," came the angered voice of Azula, making Aang turn himself around to see the Fire Nation princess as she walked towards them with slow but confident steps. Her entire posture practically screaming silent fury and her golden eyes glared daggers at him. She had wasted way too much time here and fully intended to wrap things up before anything else decided to drop in and make her day even worse than it already was.
Aang cursed inwardly at this turn of events, having believed that his tornado would have at least bought them some time to escape. The chances of him defeating Azula at his current level were slim at best, adding the fact that he now would have to look out for an unconscious Naruto made the possibility practically non-existant.
"It ends here, Avatar," said the female Firebender with an evil smirk as she formed a burning fire ball in her right hand. "It's game over for you now."
Beads of sweat started to form on Aang's brow, slowly running down his face as he started to mentally go through what possible options he might have in this situation. Everything seemed as grim as they could possibly get right now, but after catching a glimpse of something behind Azula's back, all his fears were put to ease.
"Oh, I'm not so sure about that, Azula," stated the young Airbender as he closed his eyes and gave her a wide grin that managed to reveal all of his sparkling white teeth, trying to look as innocent as one possibly could. "Something tells me that I'm not as cornered as you'd like to believe."
The raven haired girl raised a thin eyebrow in curiousity as she processed the Avatar's words. She couldn't understand why he all of a sudden seemed so sure of himself, when he only seconds ago had looked very much like a terrified rodent being caught by a sharp-toothed predator. She silently wondered what could have caused this change in her prey's demeanor, when she suddenly found herself in a brand new predicament.
Without even as much as a warning, the ground underneath Azula's feet opened itself like a large animal's maw and swallowed her whole, completely trapping her underground once the earth reformed itself around her. Before she even realized anything had happened, she was buried from her neck and down.
A low clapping sound could be heard as Toph calmly removed the dust from her hands, a very satisfied smirk being plastered on the young Earthbender's face as she calmy allowed her presence to be known to the now trapped Firebender.
The whole scene would probably have looked rather dramatic if a certain lemur hadn't been clinging onto the back of the girl's head.
"I just wrapped things up with those dolls of your's before I headed here. You really should have picked yourself another place for your little ambush, don't you think?" she grinned smugly as Momo chirped, neither of them paying any heed to Azula's angered growl whatsoever. "I thought you might be in the need of some help Twinkle Toes," she continued as she placed her closed fists on her hips and turned her attention to Aang, "and it seems like I arrived just in time to save your butt from getting toasted."
"That's one way to put it, but yes," replied the boy as he sent his Earthbending teacher a relieved smile. "Man, I can't wait to get this Earthbending-training started. It would sure come in handy," he said as he cast a sidelong glance at Azula, which she returned with a look that under normal circumstances would probably have made him quiver in fear.
"Don't worry, Twinkle Toes. We'll start as soon as we find some place where there's not that big a chance that we'll be interrupted," answered the blind girl. "By the way, how's the new guy?" she asked as she pointed a thumb at the blonde in question.
As if directly on que, Naruto raised his head, half lidded eyes still rolling and a silly grin on his face. "I command thee to bow down before the almighty Ramen King;" was all he said before his head once again rolled down, his chin resting on the top of his chest.
"I'll take that as a 'not so good'," stated Toph with a deadpanned expression after a short moment of silence. "I suppose we'd better get out of here and have Sugar Queen take a look at him. I had a quick chat with her and Sokka before I got here, and they should probably be here with Appa any second now."
"Don't you dare think this is over, Avatar," hissed Azula through clenched teeth, once again gaining the attention of her two enemies. "The very moment you least expect it, I will be there to get you and end this war. Mark my words."
"Well, something tells me that it will take quite some time before that happens," retorted Toph with a smirk as she lightly tapped one of her bare feet to the ground to emphasize her point. She was immensely entertained by the thought that when Mai and Ty Lee finally frees themselves, they would have to spend a fair amount of time trying to dig Azula out of the ground.
"Aang! Toph!"
Hearing their names being called, the two young benders turned their heads upward and (at least in Aang's case) saw how Appa, in all his massive and fuzzy glory, quickly made his descent towards the ground. It was Katara who had been calling out to them as she sat behind the flying bison's horn-crowned head, holding his reins in one hand while she used the other to wave at them. Although she was deeply concerned due to the state Naruto was currently in, she couldn't help but smile over the fact that Aang and Toph were both okay.
Sokka had taken a seat in the large "saddle" atop Appa's back, trying his best to get into a position that wouldn't cause all too much pain in his wounded arms and legs. Although his injuries felt worse than they actually were, Katara hadn't been able to heal them yet due to the simple fact that most of her water supply had been vaporized because of the extreme heat that had been caused by Azula's giant fire attack. Instead she had simply been forced to bandage him as best she could, but seeing that his friends were okay was enough to ease his physical pain somewhat. But the young Water Tribe warrior couldn't help but feel guilty over the harsh words he had uttered earlier as he took in the sight of Naruto's unconscious form. So much in fact that he hardly even noticed the state Toph had put Azula in, something the ponytailed boy under normal cicumstances would have found immensely entertaining.
As soon as Appa had landed on his six tree-trunk like legs, Aang went to face his big friend who greeted him with his usual low grumbling and a lick of his enourmous tounge.
"It's good to see you too, buddy," replied Aang as he patted his Sky Bison between his large, inteligent looking eyes. After spending several years together, Aang didn't really have any trouble understanding what was on his six legged companions mind, easily able to translate his low grunts and body language.
The massive animal hadn't been happy at all to be left out of the battle, always wanting to stand by his friend's side and protect him from harm. It was only because Aang had begged him personally to stand down that he had, although he wouldn't have hesitated a second to rush head first into the conflict if he'd been needed. Luckily, his human friends seemed to have managed to handle things perectly fine without his involvement, much of which was thanks to the strange, golden-haired human Aang was currently supporting.
Aang noticed what Appa was looking at with his large, brown eyes and flashed him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about Naruto, Appa. Katara will fix him up as good as new."
With that said, Aang used his Airbending to propel the two of them into the air before softly landing atop of Appa's back where everyone were now patently waiting for them. The young monk then proceeded with gently laying the blonde down in the passenger seat and then swtched places with Katara so that she would be able to inspect their newfound friend's wounds while he handled the steering.
With a tug of the reins and the uttering of the words "yip yip", the mighty beast that served as the group's main form of transport quickly took off into the air, leaving behind their beaten opponents without even as much as a last glance.
Safely back in the air, the element of which Aang felt the most at home in, the young boy couldn't help but smile happily at the familiar feeling of wind against his shaved head. Nothing could ever beat this incredible feeling of freedom that came with travelling freely though the sky, completely unhindered by gravity.
Katara, on the other hand, was solely focused on her task of examining Naruto, making her completely oblivious of anything happening around her as she wholeheartedly took on the role of a healer. However, despite the current situation, the young Water Tribe girl couldn't help but blush slightly as her hands gently traced their way across her patient's toned upper body. One thing was sure, the boy who was currently lying before her certainly was in great shape to say the least.
Katara's ocean blue eyes lingered for a split second on the beautiful necklace hanging around the whiskered teenager's neck, absentmindedly where he could have gotten something like that, but her gaze was soon drawn to the strange tatoo she'd briefly seen before that once again was present on his abdomen. This was something she couldn't wrap her mind around, no matter how much she tried. How, and why, did a tatoo suddenly appear when there'd been nothing there before? Hesitently she brought her fingers to it, greatly surprised to feel an unnatural warmth originating from it that seemed to spred to the rest of the body.
"So, how's he doing?" asked Sokka suddenly, effectively breaking her sister out of her reverie and making her look up at him. She was surprised to find a look of honest worry on her brother's features, allowing a brief smile to appear on her face as she realized that perhaps her brother wasn't a lost cause after all.
"Well, I'm not sure," confessed the Waterbender after a short moment of silence as she furrowed her brow in deep thought. "How was he hurt, Aang?" Katara asked as she looked over her shoulder. She hadn't been able to follow everything that had taken place, what with having to tend to her older brother's wounds and trying to convince Appa it was time for them to leave.
"Azula shot him with a lightning bolt shortly after he managed to blast her with one of those insane ball thingies he used to save you with. The bolt struck him right in the chest, leaving behind that nasty looking wound," explained Aang with a grimace as he clearly remembered the foul stench of burnt human flesh that had previously filled his nostrils.
After hearing this short explenation, Katara's eyebrows reached her hairline as her face took on a look of shock, for more than one reason. "Aang, are you sure that's what you saw," she asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice.
"Of course. I saw it with my own two eyes," replied the boy. "Why are you asking me this? Is there something wrong with him?"
"Well, I don't really know if 'wrong' would be the best term to use, just very weird," she stated as she shared a look with her brother, who right now shared the same confused expression as his sister. "Aang, that wound you mentioned, I cannot find it anywhere."
This was something the young Airbender never had expected to hear, causing him to quickly turn around in his seat. "What?! It's in the middle of his chest, as large as my hand. You couldn't possibly miss something like that," he said as he raised a closed hand to properly emphasize his words.
"Have a look for yourself then," was all she said and it didn't take long before Aang left his place behind Appa's head, now looking over Katara's shoulder to see what in the world she was talking about.
What he saw made his jaw drop.
The horrible wound he'd personally witnessed being inflicted by Azula's deadly attack, was nowhere to be found. Where it should have been there was now nothing but completely undamaged skin, lacking the slightest trace of even the smallest scar.
"B-but that's impossible," was all Aang could say as all eyes were on him now. "It was right there. I know it was"
Everyone shared the same look as they pondered this strange phenomenon, all of them silently wondering who exactly they'd brought with them.
Who, or what, was Naruto?
OoOoOoO
Once again, sorry for the late update. I hope the third chapter won't take as long to write, I keep a list of my current projects on my profile and how much I've progressed with them so check those out before you ask me when the new chapter will be out. Until then, this is ChaosGhidora who's signing off.