Uzumaki's Wrath
Chapter 7
The gang had walked for quite some time thanks to Katara, but it was now night time and the gang was dead tired, even the Water Tribe girl. "I think we should stop for the night."
The rest of them groaned before falling over on the sand. Toph 'looked' up at Katara and asked, "Is there any more water left?"
"This is the last of it. Everyone can have a little drink." Katara said as she walked over to them and uncorked her water bag. Bringing the water into the air, they were surprised when Momo went after it and slashed the last of it on the ground.
"MOMO NO! YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!" Sokka screamed while clutching his head in panic.
"No hasn't." Katara said as he used her water bending to pull it out of the sand to give it to the others.
"Ooooh, right. Bending!"
"Tsk, drugged up drama queen." Kyuubi said while heaving a sigh.
Katara ignored the fox and turned her attention to her brother again after she gave the water to Toph and Naruto. "Sokka, let me see what you got from the library."
"WHAT!" Sokka shouted and he back up from in a panic, the juice still in a effect, making him like this. "I didn't steal anything!" His gaze went to the bag his was clutching then to Momo and he freaked out again. "IT WAS YOU! You ratted me out!" That made Momo hold his face and look like he was crying.
"My and just when I thought the fool couldn't get any dumber." Kyuubi drawled, making Toph and Naruto snicker.
"Sokka." Katara said tiredly. "I was there." She then took the bag away from him, making him look stupid….well stupider.
"It doesn't matter." Aang said bitterly. "None of those will tell us where Appa is." This made Naruto look at his traveling companion with sympathy. Something that Toph could practically feel on the boy. She was have to ask him about that later.
"No but we can find out where Ba Sing Se is." Katara said as he took out a scroll that had the constellations on it. "We can use the stars to guide us, that way we can travel at night when it is cool and rest during the day." She looked back at her group and found them asleep already and that made her sigh. "Just try to get some sleep, we'll start again in a few hours."
XXX
An hour later, Katara was asleep as well. Naruto choose this time to see if Aang was asleep. "Aang, you awake?"
"Yeah." The avatar said sadly. "I can't sleep."
"I figured as much and I should have said something sooner."
"What do you mean?" Aang asked.
"In my travels, I have been to the Oasis before and I know that is a place for mercs and hunters. Those sand benders are prime example."
"So wait, you have been in the desert before."
"Hell no." Naruto shot back. "I went far as the Oasis and then went around. I was not crazy enough to through it." He paused before saying. "While I was there, I always heard the benders blab about getting new stuff and then selling it to someone in Ba Sing Se. So what I am trying to say it that your best bet in finding Appa is to go where we were going anyway."
Aang seemed to think on this for a while before he turned his head to the blond. "Thanks Naruto."
"It is no problem Aang."
"Hey, it sounds like you lost someone too." Aang said, picking on Naruto's tone.
"Yeah…a long time ago."
"You think you will ever find them?"
"No…" Naruto said sadly. "While you lost Appa to hunters….i lost part of my family to the Fire Nation…forever."
Aang was shocked to hear that. It seemed like a bitter subject to the blond and he was about to ask more when Naruto spoke again. "Get some sleep Aang, I'll tell you about it later." Aang nodded before rolling over, his mind questioning what had happened to Naruto and where Appa was.
XXX
A few hours later, Katara begun to wake them up. She looked to Sokka and saw Momo trying to bury him. "Come on, we need to get up." She said.
Toph rose while smacking her lips. "Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud…now it tastes like sand. I thought I would never miss the taste of mud so much." While Katara went to wake up Aang, Toph went to Naruto. She could not see him, but he was sprawled out on the sand, snoring and drooling. "Come on blonde, let's get up!"
Naruto didn't even move, he just kept on snoring while mumbling in his sleep, "Not so…fast ladies. One….at a time. You'll…all….have chance to at the….kissing booth with….me."
This annoyed Toph to no end. She did not know why but it just did and she decided to give him a painful wake up call. She stomped right on his balls. "YWOCH!" he screamed in a high pitched voice, making Kyuubi, who had been watching, roll around on the sand, laughing his tails off.
"Oh that was rich Toph!" The small fox said in between breathes.
Naruto looked up at Toph with tears in his eyes, not that she could see them of course. "What was that for!"
"I had to get you up somehow." Toph said with a smirk. "Besides, it didn't seem like you were having that good of dream anyway."
Naruto grumbled something inaudible under his breath as Sokka and Kyuubi snickered. That was when Aang spotted a cloud that resembled Appa. Forgetting Naruto's words for the moment, hoping that Appa had escaped his captors, he shouted, "APPA!"
"Appa?" asked Sokka, who was still drugged up from the cactus juice. He looked up while rubbing Momo's tail on his face, and sayng, "Why would Princess Yue need him? She's the MOON!" She flies by herself."
"I am surrounded by idiots." Kyuubi said with a dead panned expression.
That was when Aang saw the moon light touch the figure and it turned out to be just a cloud. Naruto slowly got up after nursing his package and put a comforting hand on Aang's shoulder. Katara sighed while saying, "It's just a cloud." Her eyes then a lit up. "Wait! A cloud! Aang, fly up and bend the water into my pouch."
Aang looked at her with an angry look before he did what she said. A few minutes later, he was back, but… "Wow, there is hardly any water." Katara said as he looked in the water pouch.
"I'm sorry ok!" Aang shouted angrily. "It's a desert cloud, I did all I could. What's anyone else doing! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He point to the water tribe girl.
"Trying to keep everyone together." Katara said softly to herself as she pulled out the star map. "Let's just get moving, we need to head in this direction." She then begun to walk away from them, hoping they would follow.
Naruto, albeit awkwardly, hobbled over to her and said while putting a hand on her shoulder, "You are doing a good job of that by the why, you need to let Aang ride this out."
Katara blushed a bit, not that anyone could see it in this dark. "Thanks, but it is hard."
"I know." Naruto said as he walked alongside her before he back pedaled to Toph's side.
XXX
"Meow, that boy is good with the ladies…not that he know that." A blueish purple cat purred out with a smile on the shoulder of a blond haired girl.
"Tch…who knows." The blond female replied.
The cat smirked at her companion. "You know, after that display of power and his good nature, I think we have found the perfect mate for you, kitten."
"Not this again." The girl growled. "He is too young for me."
"Oh I don't think that" The cat said slyly. "That jutsu messed with you. It made you younger and well, need I say more."
"No."
"Oh come on Kitten. I can see the way you look at that bod….that kid is fit to all sorts of things! MEOW!"
"NIBI! Please stop the perverseness!" the girl begged her partner. "Besides we still have capture him."
"Oh that is the problem Yugito-chan." Nibi replied. "After that small display of power against the Shukaku, I think we really don't need to capture him. I am sure you heard that conversation with your enhanced hearing."
"Of course."
"Then I suggest we help him. That ass will not get the last laugh." The cat replied.
"Fine, but let's observe for now before we decide to do anything."
"Oh? So you can ogle him some more?"
"NIBI!" The young cloud ninja shouted with a blush, making the cat laugh.
XXX
"Hey, you guys here someone shouting?" Naruto asked as they walked.
"No. I didn't- OW! CRUD!" Toph shouted as she tripped on something. ""I am so sick of not feeling where I am going! And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert!"
"A boat?" Katara asked, walking up to it.
"Believe me; I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations." Toph growled out.
"Here, let me help with that." Naruto said as he bent down to help Toph. He enveloped his hands in chakra before rubbing her foot, making the pain go away faster. Katara smiled at that before Aang walked up to the boat and used his air bending to blow away the sand, revealing the boat.
While Toph got back up, she silently thanks her friend.
Katara climbed on top of the boat and said, "It's one those glides the sand benders use and look, it's got some sort of compass on it. I bet it could point us out of here!" She then tapped it to make sure it was working. "Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!"
"I don't know about that!" Kyuubi growled. It seemed that while they all were distracted, Sokka had half buried the fox and Momo.
"You know, there is a joke in there somewhere about this, I just can't think of it." Naruto said while scratching his head with the fox growled in anger.
XXX
It was still night time and that was ok with the small group. They had a better time travelling anyway and it was nice and cool out, especially traveling at the speeds they were on the sand glider. "The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts." Katara voiced her concern.
"Take it easy little lady." Sokka said, still in his loopy state as he held Momo's tail, who was floating in the air thanks to the speed they were going. "I'm sure the Sand Folks who built this baby know how to get around here." She just glared at her brother until she looked ahead again and saw a large rock like structure in the distance and the compass was point right to it.
"That's what the compass is pointing to! That giant rock must be the magnetic center of this desert!" She shouted happily.
"A ROCK! YES!" Toph shouted while pumping her fist, making the blond smile.
"Maybe we find some water there!" Katara said.
"And some shade." Naruto said lazily.
"Maybe we can find some sand benders." Aang growled.
XXX
When they got to the rock, the sun was not on the horizon, signaling that daylight was approaching. From atop the giant rock, the gang looked out on to the rising sun. Well, except for Toph, "Ahh solid rock!" She said as she fell on the rock and made a rock angel. After that they decided to explore the caves on this odd rock.
Sokka breathed in heavily and said, "I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice."
"Oh good!" Kyuubi said as he jumped on the boy's head. "Now it just needs to clear out the stupid! HA!"
"Why you!" Sokka as he about to hit the fox before his eyes cut to the strange honey like substance on the walls. "Oh look!" He said as he grabbed some of it and ate it, but it was nasty and tried to spit it out. "AGH! Tastes like rotten penguin meat!" He then hunched over and said, "Ahh I feel woozy."
"You have hallucinating on cactus juice all day and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave!" Katara screamed at her brother.
Kyuubi jumped to her shoulder and said, "It is like I keep saying, he is an idiot."
"No, I just have a natural curiosity," Sokka said weakly.
"You need to learn how to control that." Naruto said while patting him on the back, but it was too hard and the water tribe boy fell face first on the ground, making the fox laugh.
Toph spoke up at the point and said, "I don't think this is a normal cave…this was carved by something."
That made the group quiet down before Aang said, "Yeah, look at the shape."
"There is something buzzing in here." Toph said. 'Something that's coming for us!"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow before his eyes widened. Buzzing usually meant bees and in this time, animals are usually bigger. "Crap! GET OUT OF THE CAVE!"
Not bothering to question the blond, they headed his warning and ran like their lives depended on it. And it was a good thing they did because many huge wasp like creatures shot out of the cave as soon as they got out. "Damn…worse than bees….giant wasps!" Naruto shouted.
The blond, lifted a boulder and tried to hit one of them but it quickly move out of the way, however, it got in the way of one of Aang bending bursts. One of them landed on a nearby out cropping of rock, which all Toph needed. She launched the rock high in the air, knocked the thing away from them. When she blindly tried to do it again, it missed the one Sokka was fighting and landed dangerously close to the water tribe boy.
"What are you doing!" Sokka yelled while throwing his arms in the air. "That rock almost crushed me!"
"Sorry I can't tell where they are in the air!" Toph defended herself.
Oh I got this one!" Sokka suddenly said before running to the edge and wildly swing his machete at….nothing.
"There is nothing there!" Katara shouted to her brother.
"Huh?" He said looking around. He didn't see the large one coming at him from behind him until it was too late.
However, Kyuubi jumped in the way yelling. "Someone order an extra crispy bug?" The fox then bent some weak fire and burned off it's wings, making it crash to the ground. "Well your order is up!"
"Heh, I ordered well done not medium!" Naruto shouted a she sent a bolt of lightning at it, sending the thing flying away from them at high speeds while smoking.
While that was going Katara was in trouble. "We have to get out of here. I'm completely out of water to bend!" Then one of the giant wasps swooped down and capture Momo before carrying him off to the desert.
"MOMO!" Aang shouted, "I am not losing anyone else out here!" he then used his glider to fly off after his little friend.
Katara turned to the others and said, "Come on, where going down!" She then processed to guide them down the rock via a small out cropping path. When some of the wasps came down to them, she ordered Toph to shoot a rock he arm was pointing to. Using the earth to see where, she blindly shot one and hit the beast, bringing it down. Naruto used a combination of earth and lightning to shoot down the ones near him and Sokka.
This went on for a few more minutes and when Naruto saw that Aang almost had his furry friend, he said, "Alright, enough is enough! Toph, use earth bending to make sure you guys are stuck to the rock, I am ending this!"
"With what?"
"My Ionic Vortex!"
"So close to us?" Katara asked, concerned.
"Yeah, that is why I asked Toph to plant you guys in the ground."
"Ok, I'll do it." Toph said as she used her earth bending to bind Sokka and Katara to the ground by their feet. When she was down with herself, she said, "Ok we're good!"
"Ok…hold on tight because it is going to be windy!" Naruto shouted while Kyuubi held on tight to him. He went through the swirling motion before he threw the energy out into the air, creating another of his lightning tornados, which begun to suck in all the bugs and a lot of sand. A strand of lightning shot out and hit right underneath the group. That created the perfect image for Toph and she was impressed by it.
Aang, who had gotten Momo back, kept a good distance from the vortex so that they would not get sucked in. When it died down, he saw that all the bugs where now trapped on large amounts of glass.
"Oh nice glass work. Very original." Kyuubi said snarky like a rich person would.
However, there were still some pouring out of the stone hive and Naruto growled menacingly before the sand rose up and captured all the creatures, making the gang blink stupidly. Aang then asked, "Sand Benders?
"Or Gaara?" Naruto asked.
When the dust kicked up by the rising sand cleared, it was revealed that Sand Benders had helped them, they those guys did not look happy. A bearded guy looked at them and asked, "What are you doing in our land with a sand bender sailor? From the looks of it, you stole it from the humy tribe."
"We found the sailor abandoned in the desert." Katara quickly said. "We're traveling with the Avatar." At this the old leader raised his eyebrows. "Our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se."
A younger sand bender scowled and said brashly. However, his voice was very familiar to Toph. "You dare accuse our people of theft, while you ride in on a stolen sand sailor!"
"QUITE Gashwin!" The old man commanded. "No one accused anyone of anything! If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality."
"Sorry father."
Toph widened her eyes and said, "I recognize the son's voice! He's the one who stole Appa."
Naruto cut his eyes to Aang, who was already on a hair trigger because of losing Appa and he could already tell that this was going to end badly. "Are you sure?" Katara asked the other girl.
"Yeah, I never forget a voice." Toph replied and while Naruto inwardly groaned. Yep, the sand benders are screwed.
"You stole APPA!" Aang shouted as he pointed his staff at the son. "Where is he? What did you do to him?"
The son panicked and said, "They're lying! They're the thieves!"
"Are you sure about that?" Naruto said with his arms crossed as Aang freaked out and used his wind bending to destroy one of their sand sailors.
Aang glared at them and shouted. "Where is my bison! You tell me where he is now!" Aang then destroyed a few other sailors.
"I would do as he says. Besides, you screwed youself by opening your mouth. My friend has excellent hearing and never forgets a voice." Naruto said with a menacing glare at the son and his father.
"What did you do!" the father asked.
I-it wasn't me!" the son replied.
"You said to put a mussel on him!" Toph voiced.
"YOU MUSSELED APPA!" Aang went ballistic as he begun to transform into the Avatar state and destroyed some more sailors.
"I'm sorry!" the son begged, "I didn't know it belonged to the avatar!"
"Are you sure about that?" Asked Naruto, "You didn't seem to care that much when you tired to steal him the first time."
"What are you talking about?" the son fearfully asked.
"You may have had your face covered, but your chakra signature is the same."
"Tell me where Appa is!" The Avatar demanded.
"I-I traded him to some merchants!" The son replied fearfully. "He's probably in Ba Sing Se by now. They were going to sell him there!" Naruto shook his head, he hated it when he was right sometimes. "Please we'll escort you out of the desert! We'll help however we can!"
"Time to get out of the way." Naruto said as he and Sokka lead Toph away from the future blast zone.
Aang was getting angrier with each word and the wind around him was getting stronger. However, Katara stood by his side and when became too much, she held his wrist, stopping him from doing something stupid. The avatar glared at her but she just stared sadly back at him until he was calm again and embraced him in a hug, with the Avatar crying.
All the while, Naruto had his arms crossed with his eyes closed. "Fools." His only word to the sand benders.
XXX
"Meow….now that was another display of power, from the boy and this Avatar kid." Nibi said excitedly.
"Indeed." Yugito said before she turned her back and walked further into the desert.
"Oh and where are you going?" the cat asked.
"To that Gaara kid….i have a feeling we will be working together soon."
"Oooh!" Nibi said with a knowing smirk. "But get the sand man before anyone else does or you won't get his sand in your pants!" Yugito just sighed with a blush. Sometimes Nibi was too much and she liked it better when she could block the perverseness out. Now….she is constantly tortured by it.
XXX
A few hours later the blond from Cloud found the red head. Gaara took one look her and said, "Have you seen him?"
"Yes, they are headed out of the desert."
"I see." Gaara said before walking away.
"Hey! Where are you going!"
"To the Ruins of the Sand Village." He replied with his usual monotone. Yugito sighed before quickly following him.
XXX
That's all! Next chapter, is the serpant's pass. What will await them there? Just to remind everyone, this is a Naruto/Toph story. However, because Azula likes power, there will be a one sided crush for the blond. And some Naruto/Ty Lee….which I will elaborate on later….
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