A/N: Well this was supposed to be a 4 chapter story but I like it so much that I decided to toke it from the beginning of the series to the end so here's the next chapter!

As always, I don't own Avatar. Please Review!

Chapter 5: Sparring

It was a day later and Shio was stalking through the forest. He stopped and tilted his head as if listening to something; "I know you're out there," he said, "You can't hide from me!" he stood there for a few moments, looking rather vulnerable, carrying a pair of three foot sticks in place of his ninjato swords. A/N: Ninjatos are just short, three foot long swords. Suddenly a blast of air shot form the treetops; the green clad teenager easily sidestepped the attack.

Then, from directly above the swordsman's head came a rustling sound followed by a yell of "Sneak attack!" as Sokka dropped down, trying to hit him with his club. Shio evaded Sokka's drop from the trees and blocked the warrior's wild swing with his sticks. While Sokka kept him busy, Katara snuck up from behind and tried to nail him with a stream of water; unfortunately he dodged to the side and the stream hit Sokka instead, sending him tumbling. Aang dropped from the trees and began to attack their opponent with a series of air assisted blows with his staff. Shio managed to block most of Aang's attacks but got a grazing hit to the side that briefly knocked him off balance.

Sokka and Katara rushed back in and Shio knew he would have to up the ante: he went on the offensive. As Katara came at him with another stream of water, he pivoted to his left, spinning around and taped her lightly on the side off the head with one of the sticks; "Dead," he said as Katara dropped to the ground in an over exaggerated fake death. Then as Sokka ran at him he swept the warrior's feet out from under him and poked him with the stick right where Sokka's heart was, "Dead," he said again. Aang hit him with a blast of air and managed to knock him back, but Shio bounced right back and after a brief scuffle, tagged Aang in the head too, "And dead."

The other three groaned and sat up as Shio sat down cross-legged. "Well," Sokka asked, "How'd we do?"

"Well, um..." said Shio, trying not to offend anyone.

"Oh, come on," said Aang, "You wanted to evaluate our fighting abilities. So be honest with us."

"And for the record," added Katara, "That fight was totally unfair. You're a much better fighter then we are."

"Ok, Ok," said the swordsman, "Honestly, you guys are…decent…fighters,"

"But…" Aang added, sensing the unsaid word.

"But, I've seen better. If you guys want to take on the Fire Nation you're going to need to be much better than that."

"Ok," said Sokka nodding, "What can we do to improve?"

"Well, for starters, Sokka: it's not a sneak attack if you yell sneak attack." This drew laughter from the other two. "Your attack form and stances need a lot of work too. Katara, I know that you haven't really had a master to study under so there's not much I can do there; but you do need to improve your standard hand to hand combat skills. Aang, since you're the only one who actually managed to hit me, you don't really have too much to work on, but you need to be less predictable, throw in a feint now and then. "

"Well that's all fine and dandy," said Sokka, "But how are we supposed to get better?"

"Easy," said Shio, "I'll train you."

"Huh?" said three voices in unison.

"Well I do have fifteen years of martial arts experience; so we should put it to good use."

"I think it sounds like a good idea," said Katara, "I want to be better at fighting so I can kick that stupid princess into the next century."

"That's the attitude we need! I would like to spend a day with each of you working on specifics."

"You mean now?" asked Sokka.

"Sure why not? It's not like you guys have any urgent plans to go anywhere."

"Um, actually we do," said Aang.

"Yeah," added Katara, "We kind of want to head to the North Pole so Aang and I can learn water bending."

"That's a very good idea," commented Shio, "But I think you can spare a few days; besides along the way we're going to see a lot of Fire Benders and I can't be hauling your asses out of the fire all the time."

Sokka sighed, "You have a good point. Can we start today though? I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

"That sounds good; I'd like to start working with Aang since he has the least amount of work to do."

"Ok," Aang got up and assumed a fighting stance.

Throughout the rest of the day Shio and Aang worked on Aang's technique. Often the sounds of the two sparring could be heard coming from the forest. They joined Sokka and Katara for lunch and dinner then went back to training. Late that night, as Katara was about to climb into her sleeping bag, Aang plodded back into camp looking worn out but satisfied.

"Well?" Katara asked, "How was it?"

He flopped down next to her sleeping bag, "It was awesome!" he said, "Shio actually knows some air bending moves!"

"How does that work? He's not even an air bender."

"He said that his master's master studied with the Air Monks for a time and learned some of their techniques. Shio just uses them for physical attacks, but he was able to show me some flaws in my stances and form."

"Wow," she said impressed "That's really cool."

"Yeah," said Aang, "He said to tell you that you're up tomorrow."

"Ok. Good night Aang."

"Night, Katara."

Over the next two days Shio worked with Katara and Sokka in turn. On the third day, before they left the area, they all got together to try to fight the group's newest member. This time all three of them managed to hit Shio several times; this was mostly due to the fact that they were able to coordinate their attacks together this time. After they were finished he bowed to them, "Great job guys, you've all improved a lot. You can still be better though, we can work on it more on the way to the Pole." They were just about to head back to camp to get packed up when they heard a loud crashing coming through the trees.

"Treetops! Now!" whispered Aang and they all shinnied up the nearest tree. As they perched on a large branch a squad of Fire Nation troops rode through on komodo rhinos passed right underneath them; at the head of the group was a familiar face: Prince Zuko. After the fire benders had passed they waited a few minutes in the tree. After Sokka had checked for vibrations using his knife and the tree they dropped down to the ground.

Suddenly, a voice yelled "There they are!"

"Damn!" cursed Shio, "Run! Get to the camp. The he let the other three run ahead of him and he brought up the rear. As several rhinos charged at them he fished into his jacket and brought out two explosive devices. "Cover your ears and don't look back!" he yelled to the others. He lit the fuses and tossed them at the approaching beasts and riders. A deafening boom and a brilliant white flash came from behind and the pursuit was stopped.

As the group ran into camp and began packing up, Aang approached the swordsman, "You didn't kill them did you?"

"No, those were flash-bang explosives. They temporarily blind and deafen. I made a promise and I intend to keep it."

The group breathed a sigh of relief as they took off and left the campsite behind. "Was that Zuko?" asked Katara.

"Yup," said Sokka, "He's back. The question is, why? His father gave him his honor back."

"Hmm," pondered Shio, "Maybe he took it back. Zuko let us leave without even putting up a fight to stop us. That's considered cowardice in the Fire Nation."

"Great," said Aang, "Now we have to watch out for him too,"

"Yup," said Sokka, "What do we do now?"

"Well," said Aang, "I thought since we just spent three days training we might go somewhere and do something fun!"

"That's sounds good," said Shio, "I could use a little R and R. what did you have in mind?"

"I thought we could go to the Southern Air Temple; so I can show you guys where I'm from."

"That sounds good!" said Katara and Sokka agreed.

As Aang pulled on the reigns and directed Appa where to go, the group relaxed and got settled for the long journey. In the distance the twice-disgraced prince screamed his frustrations to the sky.