It has taken a while again to make a new chapter to the story, but here I am again. It may take weeks or months toget something ready (really short attention span), but I can promise you this, more will come. As always, enjoy, ask, request, rewiew, whattéver you want. (As long as you don't flame). Anyway enjoy.
Sokka was nervous, which wondered even himself. Normally he would be confident about his skills to the point of annoying others, but this time he doubted his choice. Of course it was Sokka's idea to walk instead flying in hopes of being safe from the Fire Nation didn't feel so safe anymore. The forest did in theory give them better cover from fire army, but still Sokka had a strange feeling of being watched.
"I also feel like I'm being watched" Haku said suddenly, startling Sokka.
"Please, don't scare me like that" He asked. "And by the way, what gives you the right to read my thoughts?"
"Remember that time in the temple?" Haku asked pointing his eye. "Eye of truth"
"Well congratulations!" Sokka answered sarcastically. "For now my knowledge of the Ancients has no use whatsoever"
"It will be eventually, brother" Katara comforted creating spirals with her water. "Mine is also somewhat useless now, but it will improve, when we get to the North Pole"
Little did they know that a group of youths were following them through the forest, led by Jet.
"We must ambush them extremely quietly" He told to his troops. "Avatar's bending powers far surpass those of a normal man. He also has a waterbender and two ninjas with him. Mistakes are not an option, so everything must work pefrectly. Longshot distracts the ninjas while Sneers and Smellerbee attack. Meanwhile Duke and Pipsqueak take down the waterbender. As for myself, Avatar is mine. Are there any questions?"
Smellerbee raised her hand. "Why are we now working for the Fire Nation? I thought we were sworn enemies."
Before Jet could speak, Longshot tapped his neck. Others understood that Jet was forced to work for them.
"It is a sad thing to happen" Came a voice in the middle of the group. It was Haku hanging upside down from a twig. "You need more than a surprise attack to defeat me. I think we should talk, but first..." He then threw spikes on each of the group paralysing them.
However there were others watching them from the trees: A girl dressed in a fire warrior's armour holding a flute in her hand and a boy dressed entirely in leaves and possessing six arms, making him resemble a spider.
"It appears Jet's troops failed" The spider-boy said. "It's time to take the matter in our own hands. Let's go, Tayuya!"
"No Kidomaru!" Tayuya forbade. "Lord Orochimaru ordered us only to look after Jet and report the situations and that's what we'll do."
Kidomaru reluctantly agreed. He liked to fight, but knew better not to disobey orders. Both ninjas left the place silently.
At the same on the ground Sokka interrogated Jet, who was tied to a tree with his friends.
"We are not going to hurt you or anything" Sokka started. "We only want to know, why you are attacking us. Maybe we can help each other."
Jet looked at Longshot, who nodded. Thus knowing they could trust them, Jet spoke. "I am Jet, leader of the freedom fighters. We fight against the Fire Nation. Two days ago, when we were trying to blow up the dam close by, fire troops ambushed us. Now we were ordered to capture you admiral Zhao and his right hand Orochimaru, who..."
Aang gasped from shock. "Orochimaru?"
Jet turned his eyes towards Aang. "Do you know him?" He asked.
"You could say so" Aang answered. "Few weeks ago he made a giant snake attack me. Apparently he sent you to do the same."
"That would explain, why it extinguished the flames in the village" Katara continued. "What do you know about this Orochimaru, Jet?"
"Wait!" Sokka interrupted. "I was supposed to ask the questions!"
"I don't really care about who asks the questions" Jet answered to the fighting. "Anyway, I know this Orochimaru pretty well. After all he killed my parents"
Jet's story
"Orochimaru is extremely cruel, even to a Fire National. He travels around the world, searching for jutsus and secrets of immortality. Several warriors, ninjas and scientists have fallen after meeting him and my parents were no exception. Both my mom and dad were jonins of a ninja school in the village me and my friends grew up. About ten years ago the village were attacked by fire ninjas led by Orochimaru. Ninjas of our village fought valiantly, but were no match to Fire Nation's elite ninjas. All I could do was to hide and watch when they killed my parents and took away the scroll, which contained the jutsus of our village. Only I, Smellerbee and Longshot survived. On that day I swore to fight against the Fire Nation with all my passion and destroy them."
End of Jet's story
Aang and his friends were shocked from what they had heard, especially Katara, who was close to crying. Sokka, however, wasn't very convinced.
"So what do you want us to do now?" He asked. "Help you defeat Orochimaru?"
"No, no!" Jet screamed in shock. "If you do that, he will activate the seal in my body and make me attack you all. Besides even if I didn't have it, his camp is full of ninjas. And just Orochimaru is strong enough to defeat us all. For me it is good enough if you just escaped beyond his grasp"
"No, we will help!" Katara said. "There must be a way to release you from that seal and we will find it"
Sokka looked at his sister. "Since when have you been so determined to help someone?"
"We just can't go and leave him to slavery" Katara answered.
"Well spoken young lady" Came a voice. A man with large white hair dressed in red and grey outfit stood next to them. "I saw you close by and decided to help."
Sokka grabbed his boomerang. "I have a few questions to you. One: Who are you? Two: How did you get to us without being seen? And Three: Why would a Fire National help us?"
The man chuckled. "Answers in that order are these. I am Jiraiya, Toad Sage. This forest is crawling with spies, so I wonder why you saw only those six. And the reason I would like to help you is that I am also hunting Orochimaru. I am also an expert of seals, so maybe I can modify that seal"
"Can't you just destroy the seal?" Katara asked.
"I'm not sure. Maybe it is removed like that, or it lasts a lifetime." He explained. "It is possible to break it, but it may cost the owner's life."
"It's okay if you simply get rid of Orochimaru's control over me" Jet told. "And if the only way to do that is to kill me, do it"
"Let's not get hasty" Jiraiya said. "First I must see the seal. Release him."
Sokka cut down the ropes. Jet turned his back to Jiraiya and revealed his neck. Jiraya looked at the seal.
"This seal appears to be a modified killing seal" Jiraiya explained. "But instead of killing and harming you it takes the control of your body from you"
"How do you know something like that?" Sokka asked doubtingly.
"Normally a seal like this is put to head in order to harm the brains" Jiraiya answered. "But this one is next to the spinal cord allowing full access to nerves..."
"Which give signals to the muscles to move the limbs, giving the user of the seal full access to carrier's body!" Sokka interrupted looking astonished. "But the knowledge of how the seal works is only the first step. How do we unseal it?"
"Normally a seal like this is activated by making a hand seal" Jiraiya answered. "We just have to find out the hand seal that activates this and use it's opposite to-"
But Jiraiya couldn't finish the sentence, because suddenly Jet attacked him. Jiraiya managed to grab him from the wrists and disarm him. But Jet continued to struggle.
"I'm terribly sorry Jiraya!" Jet apologised. "I can't control my body!"
"Come out, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya shouted in the woods. "I know you are in here, so just come out and reveal yourself!"
A strange, snakelike man appeared from the woods accompanied by a spider-like boy dressed in leaves, a girl with fire armour and flute and a large young man in a dark green cloak and hat with gloves and boots made of stone. The snake-man came forth.
"It must be my lucky day." He said. "Not only did I manage to get the Avatar, but will finally get myself rid of you, Jiraya."
"We'll see who gets rid of who, Orochimaru" Jiraya threatened. "Tell me, are you still working with captain Zhao?"
"Correction, he is commander Zhao now!" Orochimaru corrected. "And soon admiral after twins return from their mission. But enough of talk. Kill them, but don't hurt the Avatar!"
"Tayuya, you capture of the Avatar!" Spider-boy gave orders to the girl. "Me and Jirobo will make sure the other kids won't interrupt you"
"Got it, Kidomaru!" Tayuya replied, making Aang her target.
Despite outnumbering their enemy, Sokka, Haku and the Freedom Fighters had trouble dealing with Jirobo and Kidomaru, because what they lacked in number, they took back in skill. Jirobo used his knowledge of earthbending to block the attacks, while Kidomaru attacked with his webs, forcing Aang's friends to hide.
"We cannot attack directly" Haku informed. "The spider can make some sort of metal from his skin, making my needles useless and there isn't enough water for me to make ice"
"I can give you some" Katara suggested.
"Thank you, but it won't be enough" Haku explained "I need a large presence of water, rain or mist to use my best techniques and now the sun is shining"
Longshot snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention and pointed right in front of him and then behind him. Smellerbee nodded understanding.
"We are close to the river" She translated. "What we need to do is to get those two there to have a better chance to win."
"And I know excactly how" Katara told to the others, who listened intensely. "I'll fill the ground around the river with water, so it becomes muddy. And when they are trapped, we strike with full force.
Others agreed to the plan and went to the direction of the dam, excluding Haku, Duke and Pipsqueak, who went to distract the ninjas, and Sokka, who went to help Jiraiya. Meanwhile Jirobo and Kidomaru were looking for them.
"I hope they didn't escape." Jirobo worried "If they get to help Avatar, the plan will fail."
"You don't need to worry about that" Kidomaru said. "They are now heading away from him. Besides I think Tayuya can take down a few extra"
"Don't be so sure, Kidomaru. Tayuya may be a great illusionist, but she's not a bender, while the Avatar's bending power equals that of a sacred beast"
"You may be right. Too bad Kimimaro is too sick to help. Better hope nothing goes wro-" But Kidomaru couldn't finish the sentence, because Duke's attack interrupted him. Suddenly Jirobo also got hit Pipsqueak, but soon regained his balance.
"Trying to attack with taijutsu, eh?" Jirobo commented. "It was a stupid thing to do, fat boy. I am good in earthbending but even better in taijutsu"
"You and I are around the same size" Pip-squeak reminded. "Actually you're a little larger, so you have no right to call others fat"
"Are we going to fight or just talk?" Jirobo asked, to which Pip-squeak answered by attacking. Jirobo blocked and smiled evilly.
Meanwhile up in the trees Aang was in trouble with three strange creatures. They looked like humans, but they had bandages all over their bodies and from their mouths came out strange ghosts. Aang had got touched by one of the ghosts and had felt himself getting damaged from inside. Luckily while her couldn't attack the ghosts, the creatures could easily be struck by airbending. At the same time Aang could hear strange music played by a flute.
"Those creatures seem to be moving according to the music" He thought. "I'm not as smart as Sokka, but even I know what to do. I just have to find that girl playing the flute and take her down"
Aang listened carefully to the music. He had been told by monk Gyatso that sound was in reality vibrations in the air. He now concentrated to these vibrations. Finally he found out Tayuya's hiding place, going to her direction silently like an owl. Little did he know, that it was exactly what Tayuya wanted. When Aang saw Tayuya, she seemed to be completely concentrated on the music. But when Aang made a sneak attack, Tayuya struck him down and strangled him. Aang tried to airbend, but nothing happened.
"Just as I thought" Tayuya said smiling. "You cannot bend air without air in your lungs. All I need to do is to suffocate you and take your unconscious body to Orochimaru"
Aang tried to struggle, but it was in vain. Soon his vision blackened and he fainted.
Jiraiya was also close to defeat. Orochimaru alone was a powerful opponent, but now he also had Jet aiding him through his seal, so Jiraiya didn't dare to use his best techniques, fearing he might kill Jet in the process. Also if Jiraya tried to disarm Jet, he would leave himself open for Orochimaru to strike. But the worst thing was that the hand seal Orochimaru used to control Jet, was not one of the twelve known ones. Instead he had invented own seal, which he used by his left hand holding the middle and ring finger down with his thumb while keeping index finger and pinkie up, thus having no known opposite seal to use. Also this allowed Orochimaru to use his free right hand to use his sword.
"Jiraiya!" Jet shouted. "As long as Orochimaru controls me, he is victorious! You have to kill me!"
Jiraiya wasn't willing to sacrifice Jet just to get Orochimaru. However he didn't seem to have a choice. But before Jiraiya could do anything, Jet suddenly stopped attacking. Both looked towards Orochimaru, seeing Sokka right in front of him. Sokka had put his right hand with opposite fingers into Orochimaru's hand seal, nullifying it.
"Didn't expect someone to invent the opposite to your seal, did you?" Sokka asked. "Your hand seal was created only to control seals, so it has no elemental value. All I needed to do was to use one to fit your's, just like finding a key to lock."
Orochimaru chuckled. "You are a smart kid, but you made a fatal mistake. I can turn my tongue into a poisonous snake to strike and you are now too close to me to dodge it. Goodbye!"
Orochimaru opened his mouth, where the snake came out. But before it could bite Sokka, he hit Orochimaru to the chin, making him bite the snake, which turned back to tongue. Orochimaru screamed in agony. Jiraiya saw the opportunity, creating a white orb of energy in his hand and running towards Orochimaru. Orochimaru called Jet to cover him. However Jiraiya, though hitting Jet, managed to spin his body to redirect the attack on Orochimaru's side, making him fly into the woods.
Meanwhile Kidomaru and Jirobo kept hunting the freedom fighters. Kidomaru had managed to get Duke out of his head and completely ensnare him in web, while Jirobo had absorbed lots of Pipsqueak's chakra, making him weak. Haku holding Momo in his arms talked to his pet.
"We must help our friends." He told. "I know you are scared, but we can't let them die. Do you still remember what we are going to do?" Momo nodded. "Good, lets go!"
Momo jumped from Haku's lap, while Haku made some hand seals. Soon there was another Haku standing in place of Momo. Both of them jumped out of sight. Suddenly they appeared again, one attacking Kidomaru and the other Jirobo. They both threw a needle at their targets and disappeared. Both dodged the needles.
"Did you see that, Kidomaru?" Jirobo asked.
"Just barely" Kidomaru answered. "We must be careful against him. I saw him earlier defeating all of the freedom fighters we sent only by those needles. He must possess great knowledge of anatomy, most likely to attack organs, chi and chakra. We must take him down quickly."
Both boys searched the woods for Haku. Soon Jirobo saw Haku's jacket behind a tree and informed it to Kidomaru through body language. Both moved silently towards Haku and attacked, discovering only the jacket. Also they were now deep in mud, which made their moving difficult and surrounded by mirrors made of ice.
"Now you are on my territory" Haku entering one of the mirrors and appearing on all of them. "I'll show you my true power"
Freedom fighters attacked. Jirobo and Kidomaru were great ninjas, but now the odds had turned against them. Mud slowed their movements and the needles Haku threw damaged their chakra. Realising they couldn't win, they decided to escape.
Kidomaru laughed "You may think you have won, but you haven't! We have the Avatar and he brings back several times the losses" After speech they both disappeared. Smellerbee and Sneers tried to follow them, but Longshot stopped them.
Aang however wasn't captured so easily as Tayuya thought. Suddenly his eyes and arrow started glowing and a large gust threw Tayuya backwards. She got back up and called her creatures to attack again, but they were all pushed back by the winds.
"You may have defeated my spirit servants, but you won't defeat my illusions." Tayuya changed the melody. Soon Aang saw himself chained, while his body just melted, causing him pain. In agony, Aang created a gigantic tornado, which hit Tayuya again, making her drop her flute. The illusion, which needed the melody to exist, disappeared. Seeing herself being no match to the Avatar state, Tayuya escaped, leaving Aang to recover.
Later all the good guys were recovering. Though they had won, many got hurt. Duke had almost choked under the web and the chakra absorb had left Pipsqueak weak. But Jet was in worst condition. Jiraiya's attack had left a deep round wound around his stomach. Sokka, though almost unharmed, was furious.
"I can't believe they all escaped!" He said furiously. "We should have destroyed them!"
"You should be grateful they retreated" Jiraiya answered to Sokka's tantrum. "Most of their victims don't live to tell the tale. We are lucky we met only the weakest of the sound elite and Orochimaru didn't bother to use his full powers."
Sokka calmed down, understanding Jiraiya's words. Meanwhile Haku and Katara took care of the injured.
"Luckily these damages are not deadly" Haku told to the others. "Jet will also survive. However some weeks to this wound to heal."
Jiraiya looked into the woods. "Tsunade told me once that in this forest there are lots of medicinal herbs. The might hasten the process"
"That's great, Jiraiya!" Katara enlightened from the news. "So where are these plants?"
"To tell the truth I have no idea" He answered looking embarrassed. "Tsunade never told any details. I don't even know what they look like. And even if I did, I don't have time to collect them. I have to kill Orochimaru and finish my books."
Suddenly Haku stood up. "Actually I know several medicinal herbs" He told. "I can stay here and collect them"
"Haku, wait!" Katara interrupted moving next to Haku. "You can't leave us just like that. We still need you!"
"When Zabuza sent me to aid you, you were all weak and inexperienced. But today, when you helped to defeat several deadly ninjas, you prowed yourselves capable of travelling on your own. I know you two can protect Aang as well as I could" Haku smiled with a gentle smile. Katara thought for a while and realised Haku was telling the truth.
"I guess the dream was true." She said shedding a tear. "I'm gonna miss you."
"And so will I" Haku took two scrolls underneath his clothes. "One of these contains several icebending techniques, that is for you and Aang. And the other has several jutsus, that is for Sokka and Momo. Speaking of which Momo will come with you, if that's okay to you that is."
"Absolutely!" Aang shouted happily. Haku chuckled.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Avatar's gang took off with one traveller less. Jiraiya disappeared into the woods and Freedom Fighters with one new member returned to their camp. When gang had travelled a while, Sokka took a piece of paper from underneath his shirt.
"What's that, Sokka?" Katara asked looking at the paper.
"Just something Jiraiya dropped." Sokka answered. "Maybe this will tell me how to create that orb." Katara turned to look at the sky, while Sokka looked at the paper. However, when Sokka found out what excactly was written what was written in the paper, he put it back quickly, blushing like a tomato.