Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.
Bodyguard of Azula
Chapter 6: Running away and Catching up.
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Bijū/spirit talking"
"Bijū/spirit thinking"
(Location: Naruto)
He floated in the air as the fight waged on below him. He knew he was dreaming because the battle below was being fought by shinobi. He didn't know who the man with red hair was, but he knew who his opponent was. The telltale black cloak with a red cloud was visible, marking the red haired man's opponent as a member of the infamous criminal organization, Akatsuki.
"I must admit, you're pretty tough," the blue-skinned shinobi said as he hefted a giant, cloth-covered sword onto his shoulder.
"So are you," the red haired shinobi replied. "But I expected nothing less from the O o Motanai Bijū (Tailed Beast without a Tail)." He sounded breathless, like the fight had taken a lot out of him.
"Ah, so you've heard of me," he commented, sounding pleased.
"Any shinobi worth their kunai knows who you are. I also know what you're a part of."
"Then you know that you're about to lose," he declared with a bloodthirsty grin on his face, taking the sword from his shoulder.
"Kisame," a voice called out from behind him. "You're taking too much time." The voice sounded a little bored, like he didn't really care about what was happening.
Kisame turned his head back to look at a black-haired man standing in a tree. "Oh, lighten up, Itachi. He'll be done in a few moments," he replied with a slightly chiding voice.
"Then it's best if you finish it now."
"I will not be going down so easily!" the red haired shinobi declared as he flashed through handseals. "Yōton: Shakugar‒"
He didn't finish the jutsu because at that point, Kisame had shoved his cloth-covered sword into his stomach. "My blade, Samehada, seems to enjoy your chakra," he told the red haired shinobi. Then he pulled the sword upward, tearing the cloth.
What was under the cloth was not a sword made of metal but of shark scales. As the blade cleared the red haired shinobi, it left a bloody trail on his body, making him stumble to the ground.
"Suiton: Suikōdan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!)," Kisame said as the rain all around them formed into a giant shark. The shark then flew straight at the red haired shinobi, causing him to scream in pain when the jutsu hit. Naruto didn't know how but he could feel the pain as well.
"NOOO!" screamed out Naruto as his eyes opened and he lurched upwards. He was in his room, in Yu Dao.
"Are you okay, kit?" the Kyūbi asked.
"The pain…it was so real," he panted. Sweat caused his night clothes to stick to his body. If he wasn't still reeling from what he had just seen and felt, he would've stripped out of them. But he could still feel the pain.
"What happened?" He knew his Jinchūriki had nightmares, but they never made him wake up in such a fashion. This was something new.
"I was…I was having a dream. It was the Akatsuki. They were…were fighting another Jinchūriki," he explained as he tried to get control of his breath back.
"Did you know the Jinchūriki?"
"No, but I…I saw the headband. He was from Iwa. Also, his hair and beard were red."
The fox was silent for a few minutes. "…So, they got the Yonbi."
"Yonbi?" repeated Naruto.
"You just described the Jinchūriki of Yonbi," he explained.
Before the blonde could ask another question, he heard a knock on the door. "Lord Naruto, are you alright? We heard screaming," a guard outside the door asked. His voice was muffled, but he sounded worried.
"Yes, I'm fine," he called out. "It was just a bad dream."
"Very well my lord. Please remember that you're leaving in two hours."
He looked outside (he had windows installed after the Fangirl incident). It was still dark, but he could see the first lights of dawn on the horizon. "Thank you for reminding me." As he listened to the guard leave, he looked out the window. "What was with that dream?" he wondered.
"I don't think it was a dream, gaki," the Kyūbi told him solemnly.
(Location: Earth Kigdom)
It had been some time after Toph had 'left' her family to join with Aang. Now it was dusk, and they were setting up camp. Since their departure from Gaoling, the group did not encounter any problem at all, until when Appa landed on what appeared to be a firm ground, but Toph was not happy at all. On the other hand, Team Guy was nervous when they were flying on the back of a large sky bison. No one back in the Elemental Nations would believe what the shinobi who found themselves on another continent will say when they boast of encountering hybrid animals on the Bending Nations.
"Hey, you guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft," Toph noted as she felt the earth around them.
"That's not grass," Sokka told her as he looked down at the ground. "Appa's shedding."
"Oh, gross!" Katara complained, lifting a foot off the fur. She really didn't want to step in sky bison fur.
"That's not gross," Aang told her. He didn't see what the problem was. "It's just a part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat."
"Aang is most correct! Springtime is so youthful!" Lee shouted.
"Yosh! And you all are in the springtime of your youth!" Guy cried out.
"Don't even think about hugging," Neji warned the two of them.
"We'll have Toph bury you up to your waists," Tenten threatened. The rest of Team Guy (or any of the others) didn't need to see that again.
"Ah, the beauty of spring," Katara said with sarcasm as she watched the shinobi team. Appa sneezed at that point, causing a lot of fur to fly upward and fall to the ground (as well as the group). "Stop, Appa, stop," she told him as he shook his head, getting rid of any other loose fur.
"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka told her. She turned around and saw him crouched on the ground next to Akela. "It makes a great wig." He turned around and on top of his head was a tall cone of Appa's fur. Akela had the same thing, but his was smaller.
"And a great beard," Aang announced as he hopped down from the saddle. He was wearing Appa's fur as a bushy white beard. Both of them laughed at what the other was wearing, Akela just rolled his eyes and pawed the wig off his head.
"I'm glad we have another girl in the group. There are times you two are disgusting," Katara said as she swept fur off her shoulders. Sometimes, she couldn't believe their antics. It was like they were five years old.
Toph walked up to Aang and Sokka. "Excuse me, does anyone have a razor? Because I've got some hairy pits," she declared as she raised her arms, showing that she had stuffed fur under her armpits. The three of them kept laughing, even more so when Aang had sneezed, slammed into Appa's foot and fell to the ground. Even Katara started to giggle. Team Guy just stared at them all, before finally joining the laughter.
"This thing is really moving, isn't it?" Ty Lee asked, sitting in a chair. She could feel the humming of the engine coming from the floor.
"So it would seem," Mai answered as she leaned against the wall. She felt the engine hum as well. She just felt it through the wall.
"I must hand it to War Minister Qin. He did on a fine job on this," Azula noted. The War Minister had been at Yu Dao working on a military project. The end result was hybrid of a tank and a train. When he heard that Azula was hunting for the Avatar and had stopped in Yu Dao, he lent the tank-train to her so that she could track him down.
The door to the next car opened and one of the engineers stepped inside. Attached to his waist was a safety line so that he wouldn't fall off when trying to get to another car. "Princess, we've found a trail on the Avatar. We're following it now," he told Azula.
She nodded. "Very good." The engineer saluted and left. She turned to Mai. "Is Naruto still checking our supplies?"
"Yeah, he's also checking on the mongoose dragons."
"Hey, Azula," Ty Lee said, sounding nervous. "I've got something to tell you."
"What is it, Ty Lee?" It was rare (very rare) to hear the acrobat talk like that. She was always confident and happy about what she said.
"Well…this morning, while we were still in Yu Dao, I had woken up early," she began to explain. "I wanted to stretch my legs a bit, so I walked around a little. When I walked past Naruto's room, I heard him scream."
Both Azula and Mai had an expression of surprise. They've never really heard Naruto scream (at least, not off of the battlefield). Yet, the tone used by Ty Lee sounded alarming to the others, as if she did not know what to do. "What happened?" Azula asked.
"It sounded like he had woken up from a dream. Then he started to talk to himself. I didn't hear much but I did hear the words 'Akatsuki,' 'Jinchūriki,' and 'Yonbi.' At that point, a guard had shown up, so I left." She looked at her two friends. "Do you know what those words mean?"
They shook their heads. There was a part of Naruto's background story that not even Azula and her friends learned, and it was certainly not a kind of story that the banished Crown Prince would have learned. As Naruto and Zuko never interacted much, even before the latter's banishment, the former did not bother to divulge much of his background to him.
"Do you think this has something to do with your vision in the swamp?" Mai asked Azula. She didn't know why, but she felt it was just so.
"I don't know." Everything they seemed to learn about her bodyguard's past seemed to have to deal with those people wearing the strange looking headbands. "But something tells me it also has to do with those people from Omashu."
The sun had set, and the sky had turned purple. Aang and Sokka were setting up the tent and sleeping bags while Katara dealt with the water. Guy, Lee and Akela had gone looking for firewood while Neji and Tenten had taken up positions in the trees to keep a lookout. The only person who wasn't doing anything was Toph. She was kicking back and relaxing against a rock with a piece of wheat in her took notice, so she went over to Toph.
"So, Toph," she began. "Usually when setting up camp, we try to divide up the work."
"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go," Toph told her. The Earthbender was completely relaxed. She didn't look she was going to be moving from that spot any time soon.
"Well, actually what I'm trying to say is some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent." Momo flew by with berries in his paws, which he dropped into Katara's hands. "Even Momo does his fair share," the Waterbender told her.
"Katara, I'm fine, I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire; I've already collected my own food and look." She bent two slabs of rock out of the earth to from a triangular shape over her head. "My tent's all set up."
Katara made a face. "Well, that great for you, but we still need to finish—" she tried to say.
"I don't understand! What's the problem here!?" Toph demanded, interrupting her. She was becoming impatient and annoyed
"Never mind," she said, walking away.
Later, Aang was Airbending the saddle off Appa's back. He managed to get it on the ground, but he also managed to put it on top of Sokka as well. As this was going on, Katara looked over at Toph and decided to give it another try. In the distance, Tenten started to gather enough firewood as Neji and Guy stood close to the banks of the river and kept an eye out, in case they ever encounter an ambush.
"It doesn't seem to look like we're going to be attacked soon, Guy-sensei," Neji turned his head to see Lee walk towards them. "Anything so far, Lee?"
"Not that I know of, but the geography around here is suitable for an ambush." Lee spotted Katara as she approached Toph. "On the other hand, I don't know what to make of the newcomer who is more content with just letting other people do the work for her."
"Hey Toph," she greeted as she walked back over. "I wanted to apologize for earlier. I think we're all just a little tried and getting on each other's nerves."
"Yeah, you do seem a little tried," Toph told her, not even trying to apologize back. In her mind, she wasn't doing or saying anything wrong.
Katara got irritated. "I meant all of us," she replied, trying to get her message across, but, it didn't.
"Well, goodnight." The Earthbender told her, crawling into her earth tent.
"Goodnight." She gave up and walked away.
That night, everyone except Lee and Tenten (who had taken over lookout duty from Neji and Guy) fell asleep. Toph lay in her earth tent sleeping peacefully, but suddenly came awake because of something. She kept her hand on the ground and concentrated, trying to feel what it was. "There's something coming towards us!" she called out as she came out of her tent.
"What is it?" Aang asked as they joined her.
She placed a hand on the earth again. "It feels like an avalanche, but also not an avalanche."
"Your powers of perception are frightening," Sokka noted with sleepy sarcasm. He wanted to back to sleep, but he also knew that he had to try and be alert.
"Confirm what she's saying, Neji," Guy ordered. Out of all of them, the Hyūga would be able to do so quickly.
Neji activated his Byakugan. "There is something coming this way and closing in fast," he announced, staring at a certain direction. From said direction, was said something.
"Should we leave?" Katara asked.
"Better safe than sorry," Aang replied.
They quickly broke down camp and boarded Appa. As the sky bison flew away, they all saw smoke in the distance. "What is that thing?" Katara asked aloud as they looked at the smoke that looked like it was following them.
"I don't know, but I don't want to find out right now," Sokka told her.
They had flown a good distance. When they finally decided to land, Toph was the first to get off. "Ah land, sweet land," she said as she apparently hugged the ground. "See you guys in the morning," she told them as she hopped up and started to walk away.
"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asked. They could use everyone's help with that.
"Really, you need me to help unload Sokka's and Lee's funky smelling sleeping bags?"
When he heard this, Lee took a sniff from his bag and fainted from the smell. Sokka saw this and brought his bag down to Akela. The wolf backed up immediately with his tail between his legs. "Sorry!" Sokka apologized instantly.
"Well yeah," Katara told her. "That and everything else, you're a part of our team now and—"
"Look, I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. I'm carrying my own weight," Toph told her off before walking away.
"That's not the point," she said, going after her. "Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful."
"What!?" exclaimed the Earthbender. "Look here, Sugar Queen. I gave up everything I had so I could teach Aang Earthbending, so don't you talk to me about being selfish!" She sat down and bent another tent out from the ground, effectively ending the conversation.
"Sugar Queen!?" demanded Katara. The response she got was a slab of rock coming out of the ground and covering the opening of the earth tent. "Did…did you just slam the door in my face? How can you be so infuriating?"
As they watched Katara essentially throw a tantrum around the tent, Aang looked at Sokka with apprehension. Likewise, Team Guy also hesitated to intervene in the argument between the two girls. "Should we do something?" Aang asked. He didn't know how to deal with this kind of situation, seeing as he never grew up with the opposite sex.
"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show," Sokka told him. He enjoyed it whenever Katara lost her cool and it wasn't directed at him.
Aang decided to approach Katara. "Okay, okay. You both need to calm down," he said to her, making her stop the tantrum.
"Both?" she asked before whipping around to face Aang with a look that could've possibly terrified a Bijū. "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!"
"I can see that," he said, doing the wise thing and backing off.
"That's enough!" Tenten barked. She stepped in front of Katara, blocking her off from Toph's tent. "We don't need to fight amongst ourselves when we're also battling exhaustion as well."
Guy nodded. "I agree. A good shut eye will calm everyone down." He frowned. "Though I wonder what is up with the smoke earlier."
Later, everyone was trying to sleep, everyone except Katara. "The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!" she called out, feeling moody and spiteful.
Toph's response was to bend a rock line at Katara, sending her up into the air and landing on top of Sokka and Akela, who slept next to the Tribesman. "Hey, how's a guy and a wolf supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earth quaking!" Sokka demanded after pushing Katara off of him. Akela barked in agreement.
The earth tent's door fell back into the ground and Toph appeared. "That thing is back," she announced, getting their attention again.
"Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes, just for a few minutes?" the Tribesman asked, trying to cover himself with his sleeping bag. He really wanted to sleep.
Aang noticed the incoming smoke. "I don't think so, Sokka."
He began to get out of his sleeping bag. "It was wishful thinking to begin with anyway," he grumbled mostly to himself.
They quickly got everything aboard Appa and flew away again, but the smoke was still there, following them. This time, Neji struggled to keep himself awake as his eyes drooped. Tenten grabbed her kunai and hid it under her sleeve, in preparation for a possible battle. "Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara asked aloud, not really expecting an answer.
"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph also asked.
"I don't know. But this time, I'm going to make sure we lose it," Aang told them. As he had Appa pour on the speed, the others just dozed.
"It seems like we're speeding up," Naruto noted. He could feel the engine humming faster through his feet. There was also that slight pull of gravity it had on him.
Azula looked at her bodyguard. She grew worried that her bodyguard was tiring himself out. Just after lunch, the blond almost tripped while the drill continued to move. "Naruto," she began. "Why don't you go to sleep? You've been awake since early this morning and have been working hard since. You need the rest."
"She's right," Mai agreed. The guy looked practically dead on his feet.
"Yeah, go and sleep, Naruto. We'll be with the mongoose dragons in the last car," Ty Lee chimed in.
Seeing as he had no argument, he nodded, but grew serious. "Alright, but I want you to wake me either when its morning or we've caught up with the Avatar."
Azula smiled. "Sleep well, Naruto," she told him as she left the car along with Ty Lee and Mai.
Appa finally landed on a flat part of a mountain. He landed and rolled onto his side, letting everyone in his saddle fall out onto the ground. Neji activated his Byakugan to scan the area for new threats coming to them, but only found the distant smoke coming closer towards them.
"Okay, forget about setting up camp. I'm finding the softest piece of dirt and going to sleep," Sokka told them as he scooted away in his sleeping bag. Akela followed tiredly after him.
"That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyway," Katara said snidely.
"Oh, I didn't realize baby needed someone to tuck her in bed," Toph retorted.
"That's enough, you two," Guy commanded. They didn't any more of this arguing. "We don't need any more tensions, as Tenten may have already dealt with it."
"Yeah, there's something after us and we don't even know what or who it is," Aang told them as he tossed his shawl over his head. He was just as tired as Sokka and wanted to sleep just as badly.
"It could be Zuko. We haven't seen him since the North Pole," Katara suggested. Truth be told, she was getting nervous about not seeing him around.
'Who's Zuko?" Toph asked.
Sokka gave her a summary. "Oh, just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world."
"What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?" Katara asked his brother with humor in her tried voice.
"This is a warrior's wolf tail," he replied without even lifting his face off the ground, pointing at his hair.
"Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky." She replied but yelped as Akela growled lightly at that comment.
"Oh, stop, Akela. You know she was kidding," Sokka told him. "Anyway, who's ever chasing us couldn't have followed us here. So, now would everyone just shush?" He lay back on his sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep. But Momo landed on his chest and started to make a racket. "No, Momo, shush. Sleepy time." Momo just went over his head, straight to the edge and continued to make noise. The Tribesman was the first one to get the point. "Oh don't tell me," he groaned as he put his head on the ground.
"That's impossible," Aang protested. "There's no way they could've tracked us." He had Appa fly faster and put more distance between them and whoever it was that was following them.
"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph told him. He ran over to the edge to look. Sure enough, there was the smoke and the tank-train coming at them.
"Let's get out of here," Katara suggested.
"Maybe we should face them, find out who they are. Who knows? Maybe they're friendly," Aang suggested in turn.
"Always the optimist," Sokka commented. The Air Nomad always did seem to believe that everyone was a potential friend to them.
"I don't think our unwanted guests are friendly," Neji said darkly, his Byakugan still activated.
The tank-train stopped and the car opened its side door. To Aang's and Katara's surprise, out of the smoke that bellowed out from the car, came Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai on mongoose dragons. The mongoose dragons then began to run up the trail that led Aang's group.
"It's those three girls from Omashu!" Katara exclaimed. They all got ready to fight, taking stances and drawing weapons.
"We can take them," Toph declared, "Three on three."
"Actually, Toph, there's eight of us., Sokka told her. She didn't count him or Team Guy.
"Yeah, did you forget about us?" Tenten asked, keeping her left hand over her shuriken holster, and her right hand over her hidden kunai.
"Oh I'm sorry," Toph said. "I didn't count you guys. You know. No Bending and all." She wasn't trying to be rude, but she thought because they weren't Benders, they wouldn't be able to hold their own in a fight.
Sokka got mad at the causal dismissal of their abilities. "We can still fight!" he told her angrily. Akela seemed to glare at her as well.
"Okay, three on three plus Sokka, Guy, Lee, Neji, and Tenten," she amended, trying to be a bit nicer and missing by a wide mark.
"That attitude will kill you one day, Toph," Neji remarked as Sokka reined in his temper. If she kept up with it, then she would be completely caught off guard when the day came that she fought a Non-Bender who could hold their own against her.
She said nothing in return, having returned her focus back to the incoming threat. She bent large rocks to come out of the ground randomly in front the three girls. The mongoose dragons they were riding just simply climbed over them. "Well, that didn't work," she thought.
"Well, we wanted to find out who they were, we found out. Now let's get out of here," Sokka told them. They all ran back to Appa and climbed aboard. Toph stayed at the edge and bent a big wall out of the surrounding rock to block the girls. Urging her mongoose dragon on, Azula blew open a hole in the wall by generating and directing lighting at it. They climbed through the hole and Mai shot off some small arrows at Toph. She bent the rock beneath her up into the air, which blocked the arrows and allowed her to jump off and land in Appa's saddle.
"Appa, yip-yip!" ordered Aang once he knew that she was aboard.
"Guys, I need a barrage!" Tenten told her teammates. They nodded and the three of them reached for either their kunai or shuriken. They proceeded to hurl whatever they had at the three girls, trying to slow them down. Both Mai and Ty Lee pulled back a bit to avoid the barrage, but Azula melted a hole in the barrage with her Firebending. The kunai and shuriken fell harmlessly around her.
"They got away," She noted. She turned around and headed back over to her friends. "Let's head back to the tank-train. We'll still be able to track them."
The two girls nodded in agreement. As they went back, Ty Lee looked at Azula. "Why didn't we wake Naruto?" she asked. She had thought that was the first thing they should've done.
"Because he needs the rest," Azula answered, honestly believing it. "Besides, we didn't catch the Avatar."
Appa flew on but even he was getting tired. "I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu," Katara said from where she sat in the saddle.
"I still think we could've taken them," Toph grumbled. They had had the better advantage, why didn't they use it?
"Are you kidding me?" the Waterbender asked. "The crazy blue Firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, but last time we saw them, one of those girls did something that took my Bending away. That's scary." She had never felt so helpless before in her life when that had happened to her.
"I remember Lady Hinata telling me about that," Neji said. "It sounds similar to the Jūken." He was curious to see if the two styles were similar in any way.
Tenten noticed that Lee had a troubled look on his face. "What's the matter, Lee?" she asked him, concerned.
"It's just something been bugging me, and I find it unyouthful," ge told her, a frown etched onto his face.
"What?"
"Those three girls were the same ones from Omashu, right?" he asked Katara.
"Yeah, that's right." It was hard to forget them. They made quiet the impression with that first meeting.
'What are you getting at, Lee?" Guy asked his student.
"If they are the same three girls, where was Naruto?" He thought the blond was supposed to be always right next to the Fire Nation princess. And yet, they didn't see him.
"That kid you were talking about back at home?" Toph asked Neji, who nodded in reply.
Before they could ponder the question further, they noticed that the sky was getting lighter. "Oh no, the sun is rising," Sokka groaned pointing to the east where the sun was above a mountain. 'We've been up all night with no sleep."
"Sokka, we'll be okay," Aang reassured him.
"Are you sure? I've never not slept before. What if I fall asleep now and something happens? And something always happens!" he asked, beginning to freak out. Akela bit him in the leg, making him yelp in pain. Once he was done, he looked down at the wolf. "Thanks Akela. I needed that." Akela just yawned in reply.
"Every time we land, those girls are there. So, we'll just have to keep flying," Katara told her brother. It seemed like the perfect idea at that moment.
"We can't keep flying forever," Aang replied. They were going to have to land at some point.
"Well, why don't you land right now and let them catch up?" Toph suggested. "We can still take them, even if they have that Naruto guy." She knew and they knew that they had the advantage.
"Toph, that 'Naruto guy' as you call him, defeated four of our teammates easily," Guy told her.
"So? You guys aren't Benders. It wouldn't take that much to beat you," she said a little dismissively.
"I think you've spent too much time with the most unyouthful Master Yu," Lee commented. She bristled at that comment. She was nothing like him!
"Also, Toph," Sokka said before she could reply. "Naruto isn't a Bender and he can see through the earth's vibrations as well." She was stunned. She thought she was the only one who could do it.
Appa kept flying and flying as the day went on. "So, what's our plan?" Aang asked in a tried voice.
"Don't know. Too tried to think," Toph told him. Her eyes were closed and she didn't have the energy to open them again.
"I'm sure we'll come up with something after a short nap," Katara said.
"Yes, sleep," Sokka agreed wholeheartedly. The two fell asleep. Then they started to float in the air above the saddle. Both Toph and Team Guy did as well, even Akela and Momo. Momo grabbed onto Toph's leg and Akela bit down on a saddle handle. They were shocked awake when they realized that they were only floating because Appa was falling.
"What's going on!?" demanded Toph.
Aang was hanging on by the rope. "Appa fell asleep!" he yelled. As they fell, Sokka brought Katara in closer while Team Guy made sure they didn't let go of each other. Aang had managed to bring himself down to Appa's head and then scooted down to his face. "Wake up buddy!" he cried.
As they neared a forest, Appa finally managed to wake up. He pulled into himself up a bit to fly but he still was going doing. After finally going through some trees, he crash landed on the ground, making all the birds fly away.
Aang slipped off Appa's head. "Appa's exhausted," he stated the obvious.
Akela barked out something that not only the other animals but even the humans could tell was sarcastic. If Kiba had been there, what Akela had barked would've roughly translated to "Thank you, Captain Obvious! What tipped you off!?"
"Okay, we've put a lot of distance between us and them. The plan right now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep," Sokka said as he walked from Appa with his sleeping bag. Team Guy got off of the sky bison as well. They were a little better off, but not by a lot.
Katara, tried and irritable, decided to beat an already dead horse. "Of course, we could've gotten some sleep early if Toph didn't have such issues," she said in a completely snarky tone of voice.
"WHAT!?" screamed Toph as she slammed her hands on the ground, creating a crack.
"Alright, alright," Aang cut in, trying to stop the fight before it started. "Everyone's exhausted, let's just get some rest."
"No. I want to hear what Katara has to say," the Earthbender said. "You think I have issues?" she asked Katara.
"I'm just saying," she began, "maybe if you helped earlier, we could've set our camp faster and gotten some sleep. And then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"
"You're blaming me for this!?" Toph demanded as she came near Katara, who threw her sleeping bag down and gave her a 'bring it' motion with her hands. Meanwhile, Sokka tried to go to sleep, but was distracted by what was going on.
Aang quickly said, "No, no! She's not blaming you." He tried to get in between them play peacemaker.
Neji touched the Airbender's shoulder and shook his head. "That's a bad idea, getting between two angry women," he said. Guy and Lee nodded in agreement. It was an even worse idea when said women could hear what you said. Aang still got in the middle of it
"No, I'm blaming her!" Katara shouted.
"Hey!" Toph barked as she tossed Aang out of the way (proving the point of the male shinobi). "I never asked you for diddly-doo-dah! I carry my own weight. Besides, if there's any one to blame, it's Sheddy over here!" She pointed at Appa.
"What? You're blaming Appa?" Aang asked. He couldn't believe anyone would try and blame the sky bison.
"Yeah, you want to how they keep finding us? He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!" Toph told them as she grabbed some loose fur from Appa and let it float away, proving her point.
"How dare you blame Appa?" he told her, coming to his bison's defense. "He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame, it's you! You always talk about how you carry your own weight but you're not, he is! Appa's carrying your weight! He never had a problem flying when it was just the seven of us!"
She waited as he yelled at her and then walked away from him. Earthbending her pack into her hands, she put it around her back. "I'm outta here," she stated.
Sokka and Akela stood in front of her, blocking her path. "Wait." The Tribesman told her. She simply bent him and Akela out of the way and continued walking.
A few minutes after Toph had disappeared from their sight, the reality of what Aang and Katara did hit them. "What did I just do!?" Aang asked with big eyes. "I can't believe I yelled at my Earthbending teacher. Now she's gone."
"I know," Katara told him. "We're all just trying to use to each other, and I was so mean to her." She couldn't believe that she had let her anger take control like that. She was usually more level-headed.
"Yeah, you two were pretty much jerks," Sokka told them with Akela nodding in agreement. He sat on the ground nearby with a drink in his hand. The shinobi team stayed silent and kept a lookout.
"Thanks, Sokka," Katara said.
"No problem."
She helped Aang off the ground. "We need to find Toph and apologize."
Sokka finished the drink in his hand. "Okay, but what are we going to do about the tank full of dangerous ladies and possibly Naruto chasing us?" he asked them. It seemed like quite the problem.
Aang looked over at Appa and grabbed some of the shedding fur. "I have a plan," he said as he watched the fur float away.
They got Appa into the nearby river and gave him a bath. Aang and Katara bent the water out of the river and onto Appa while Sokka, Team Guy and even Momo scrubbed him down. As they did that, the loose fur that Appa had went down the river. After they were done, Appa now stood on the bank with no more loose fur.
"Toph was right. Appa's fur was leading a trail right to us," Aang explained. "But now that he's clean, no more trail."
"Are you he's okay to fly?" Katara asked. Even though the bison was freshly cleaned, he looked exhausted.
"Appa does kinda seem a little tired," Tenten noted.
"He'll be fine as long as we leave his saddle and all our stuff here," Aang told them.
"Then it's a good thing we already hid them," Neji said. Before they had cleaned Appa, they had taken the saddle and everything that was in it and concealed it in the nearby forest. Unless someone really looked, they wouldn't see it.
Sokka looked over at Akela. "Akela, I want you to guard the stuff. Can you do that?" he asked. The wolf just gave him a look. "Right, sorry. Forgot who I was talking to," he apologized as they all climbed aboard.
Aang hadn't. He grabbed a nearby bag and began collecting fur that was on the ground. "I'm going to use Appa's fur to make a fake trail to lead the tank off course. You guys use Appa to try and find Toph."
"Aang, that's not a good idea. You should have someone go with you," Sokka told him.
"Sokka is correct. Lee or I should follow you," Guy said.
The only words to come out of Aang's mouth were "Appa, yip-yip." The sky bison was up and flying away before anyone could get off. The Air Nomad turned around and flew off in the opposite direction, the fur in the bag already falling out.
Toph kept walking as she near a forest. Suddenly she stopped as she felt a presence nearby. Taking no chances, she bent a rock line to behind a nearby bolder, where she heard a grunt of pain. Climbing stop the boulder, she looked at the person she had attacked.
The person turned out to be an old man rubbing his rear end. "That really hurt my tailbone," Iroh said to himself.
Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee stood outside the tank-train at the riverbank where Appa had landed. Sticking her hands into the water, Azula picked up some of the fur to examine it. "Wads of wet fur, how delightful," Mai commented with boredom.
Ty Lee put on a thinking expression. "Hmm, they're not wads. They're more like…bundles or…bunches? It's got an 'uh' sound," Sshe said aloud.
"…Clumps?" Mai finally suggested after watching her try to find the right word.
She perked up immediately. "Clumps, they're clumps!" she cheered as she gave Mai a hug.
Mai noticed the trail of fur leading away from the area. "The trail goes this way," she told Azula after breaking the hug with Ty Lee.
Azula had been knelling down to examine the fur left on the ground. Turning around, she noticed that a couple of nearby trees had the tops broken, like something had smashed through them. "The Avatar is trying to give us the slip," she announced. "You two head in that direction and keep your eye out for the bison," she ordered, pointing at the broken treetops. She walked over to the fur on the ground. "I'll follow this trail."
"Hold on, Azula," Ty Lee spoke up. "We should wake up Naruto."
She shook her head. "We'll be done soon enough." With any luck, they would have the Avatar before her bodyguard ever woke up.
"But Naruto told us to wake him up when it was morning. We've let him sleep long enough."
"Then he can sleep a little longer. I can handle the Avatar on my own and you two can take care of his friends," she insisted.
"But Azula—"
"This conversation is over, Ty Lee," she told her. "Get moving." Both Mai and Ty Lee mounted their mongoose dragons and went off. Azula briefly looked their way and then began to follow the trail of fur.
Aang flew on his glider away from the forest and into the desert. Checking on the bag, he realized that the amount of fur he had was almost gone. Looking ahead, he saw a small town in the desert. Landing at the edge, he noticed a small sign that read Tu Zin. He figured it was the name of the town.
He walked through the village, dropping fur, and keeping an eye out as he went. Finally stopping and dropping the rest of the fur and the bag onto the ground, he opened his glider. About to fly away, he stopped and turned back around to look the trail of fur. Making his choice, he closed his glider, sat down on the ground, and waited.
While Katara flew Appa, the others looked around to see if Toph was. "Toph couldn't have made it too far," Sokka said. No one was able to see her, even while flying on Appa.
"That may be," Tenten said. "But I still don't see her."
"Worry not, Tenten!" Guy announced. "Our Flames of Youth will surely find our friend!"
"Yosh! If we can't do that, we will do 10,000 around the village when we return! And if we can't do that, then we'll do 50,000 push-ups with 200 pounds on our backs!" Lee said in excitement.
Before anyone could say anything, Neji, who had his Byakugan active, tensed up. "We've got incoming!" he shouted.
Momo started to growl as he looked down on the ground. Sokka came over to where Momo was. "What is it Momo OH NO!" he began to ask but instead shouted in surprise when he saw what was coming after them. It was Mai and Ty Lee. "Katara!" he yelled out to his sister, turning to her.
"How did they find us?" she asked before urged Appa forward.
"Appa come on! We need to go faster!" the Tribesman urged the bison on.
Appa couldn't go any faster. "He's too tired!" Katara told them.
"Not good, not good!" Sokka looked to what was ahead. "We just need to make it across that river." If they could do that, then they would be safe.
Appa had begun to descend quickly, his tiredness getting to him. "Come on Appa, just a little further!" Katara urged as he began to crash through the top of trees. Taking a chance, Mai fired off small darts aimed at Sokka. He leapt back to avoid having his head pierced. Appa reached the river, but instead of flying over it, he skimmed through it before crashing into the opposite bank. Because of the crash, Lee and Guy flew off Appa and crashed into a tree, knocking them unconscious. Neji and Tenten also flew off, but they flew into the woods. Sokka, Katara, and Momo were the only ones who stayed on Appa.
Sokka stood up to look behind them. "We made it! We're safe," he announced when he couldn't see the girls.
"You did it, Appa!" Katara cheered. They got off the tried sky bison and gave each other a big hug. They were about to try and wake up Guy and Lee when Katara gasped. Looking back at the other side of the river, Sokka saw the two girls still riding their mongoose dragons. When they reached the riverbank, they didn't even slow down. The mongoose dragons ran across the water!
Katara reacted by bending the water in the river into a deluge and sending it at the two of them. While Mai simply had her mount step to the side, Ty Lee leapt from hers just before it was hit by the water. Katara uncorked her water pouch as she waited for Ty Lee to land. She didn't land right away. She leapt off a few trees before landing in front of Katara. Ducking under the water whip, she tried to jab at Katara. The Waterbender dodged the jabs and responded with water-disks, which she cartwheeled out of the way.
While this happened, Mai had crossed the river. Once she reached then bank, she shot off some small darts at Katara. Sokka moved in and blocked them with his club and boomerang. He threw his boomerang at Mai. She jumped off her mongoose dragon and shot off another round of small darts, this time from her leg.
Sokka also swiped those away. Mai decided to run after Katara, surprising him momentarily. That was all Ty Lee needed to get in close and hit him in the right arm, making him drop the retrieved boomerang. He turned and tried to hit her with his club, but she hit that arm as well. It went limp and the club fell from his grasp. He tried kicking, her but she made the leg go limp too. Swaying on one leg, he lost his balance and fell forward. She took that opportunity to hit him in the head. It didn't quite work out the way she wanted. She clutched her in pain and glared at the Tribesman. "Good try, but no!" he told her.
Meanwhile, Katara ran to the bank to bend water at Mai. She stopped the Waterbender by throwing knives at her. The knives pinned Katara to a tree behind her and made her lose control of the water, which just fell back into the river. Sokka showed up hopping away from Ty Lee. He felled down in front of Katara.
"How're you doing?" he asked her.
"Well, you know." It was the only thing she could think to say.
"I thought that when Ty Lee and I finally got you guys, it would be more exciting," Mai told them, she then felt a kunai on her throat.
"Does round two sound good to you?" Tenten asked from behind her. Neji also appeared behind Ty Lee. The two girls jumped away from the shinobi. They got ready to fight but they didn't expect what came next. The two of them were once again sent flying via Airbending from Appa's tail. They flew right into the river.
"Thanks Appa. I don't know what we do without you," Sokka told him. Appa responded by licking him in the face, to his discomfort.
"Appa!" scolded Tenten. "I wanted to fight that girl, why did you have to go and do that!?"
Neji stood above Sokka. With a few jabs in the right places, functionality was restored to his limbs. "Can we worry about that later, Tenten?" he asked her as he helped the Tribesman up. "We need to wake up Guy-sensei and Lee. I think the third girl went after Aang!" They quickly woke Guy and Lee up. Then they boarded Appa and then flew off.
As they flew away, Mai and Ty Lee waded out of the river and onto the bank. "Was it just me or was that guy kinda cute?" Ty Lee asked as she got the water out of her braid.
"Which one are you talking about? There were two of them," Mai told her. "You know what? Never mind."
Aang finally noticed that someone was coming. At first, he saw only a shadow and a dust trail but as the shadow got closer to the town, he saw that it was the same girl who had chased after him in Omashu. Once she had entered the town, she got off the mongoose dragon and walked forward. "Alright, you've got up with me. Now who are you and what do you want?" Aang asked her.
'You mean you haven't guessed? You don't see the family resemblance?" she asked back, sounding a little amused.
"Guy and his team seem to know who you are. But I want to hear it from your mouth."
"Well then, here's a hint." She put a hand over her left eye. "I must find the Avatar to restore my honor," She said in a false deep voice. He said nothing and just stared at her. "It's okay, you can laugh. It's funny," she told him as she brought down her hand.
"So, what now?"
"Now?" she repeated. "Now, it's over. You're tired and you have no place to go. You can run, but I'll catch you!" She was certain of that fact. She would find him, and she would capture him.
He stood up. "I'm not running," he declared. When she heard that, she gave a little smirk. This was just too perfect.
Once again, Naruto was floating in the air. But he also could feel tremendous pain. Looking down, he saw a giant statue that had nine eyes. About five of the eyes had pupils in them while the other four did not. The mouth was opened, and it appeared to be eating a large amount of chakra. The source of chakra was coming from the same red-haired shinobi Naruto had seen fighting Kisame. He was floating in the air surrounded by chakra. Also, some form of pink chakra was coming out of his eyes and mouth.
Forcing himself to ignore the pain, he looked down at the statue's hands. On nine of the fingers, he saw people standing on them. Some were just images, and some were actually there but Naruto knew who they were just by looking at the red cloud design on their cloaks. "The Yonbi is finally sealed," one member of the Akatsuki announced. All of the chakra had disappeared into the statue and the red-haired shinobi felled down to the ground, dead. The statue now had another eye with a pupil in it.
The pain had disappeared but then something odd happened. The statute's eyes swerved to look at him, even though he wasn't there. A deep voice came from the statue's mouth.
"YOU COULD 'VE STOPPED THEM! YOU COULD'VE HAVE SAVED HIM!" the voice roared at him.
While Naruto was visibly shocked, it seemed the members of Akatsuki were as well. It was then, with horror, Naruto realized that the pain he felt was what the red-haired shinobi was feeling when the Yonbi was being taken out of him.
"Kit, wake up!" the Kyūbi's voice rang out. Naruto opened his eyes and realized that he was still in the tank-train.
"Why…why did I see that?" he asked as he gasped for breath, sitting up from the makeshift bunk he had made.
"Are you okay?"
"I saw…I saw the Akatsuki sealing the Yonbi."
"Will you be alright?"
"Yeah." He looked around the compartment. He noticed that the side door was open, and daylight was streaming in. "Wait a minute, daylight?" he thought. He rushed out of the compartment and saw that it was the middle of the afternoon. Looking over to the engine, he saw the engineers standing outside.
One of them noticed him and waved at him. "Lord Naruto, you're awake!"
"Where is Azula?" the blonde demanded as he walked up to the engineers.
"The princess?" asked the engineer. "She and her friends left to search for the Avatar. Her friends went off in one direction while she went in another."
"Why didn't they wake me?" he immediately demanded. His eyes narrowed as he growled in frustration, furious at Azula's dismissal of his advice when it comes to the Avatar. He began to mentally draw up reasons to chew Azula out for later. "I told them to wake me up when it was either daylight or they had found the Avatar!"
"I don't know, my lord. The Princess told us not to disturb you and then left."
"Which way did she go!?" Hh grabbed the engineer's shirt, wanting an answer.
"S-she went that way!" he told him nervously, pointing at the trail of fur.
Naruto let go of the engineer and proceed to run in the direction the fur was leading. Once he was sure the engineers couldn't see him anymore, he increased his speed and ran even faster. "You better not be doing something stupid, Azula!"
After getting over the initial confusion, Toph sat down with Iroh as he brewed some tea. Once the tea was brewed, he poured it into two crude cups and handed one to Toph. "Here is your tea," he told her. As she stayed silent, he looked at her. "You seemed to be a little too young to be traveling alone."
"You seemed to be a little too old," she replied as she took the cup.
He gave a small laugh at the comment. "Perhaps I am."
"I know what you're thinking," Toph said. "I look like I can't handle being by myself."
"I wasn't thinking that," Iroh objected.
"You wouldn't let pour my own cup of tea." She pointed out. She had never poured tea for herself. Her parents wouldn't have let her.
"I poured your tea because I wanted to and for no other reason," he explained.
She didn't know why, but she started to talk about herself to him. She felt that she could trust him. "People see me and think I'm weak. They wanna take care of me. But I can take care of myself, by myself."
"You sound like my nephew," Iroh told her. "Always thinking you need to do things on your own, without anyone's support. There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. Not that I love you," he quickly assured her. "I just met you."
She gave a small laugh at that. "So, where is your nephew?"
"I've been tracking him actually," he admitted as he took a small sip of his tea.
"Is he lost?"
He lowered his cup. "Yes, a little bit. His life has recently changed and he's going through very difficult times. He's trying to figure out who he is, and he went away."
"So now you're following him?" she asked him.
"I know he doesn't want me around right now, but if he needs me, I'll be there." And that was a promise he intended to keep.
"Your nephew is very lucky, even if he doesn't know it." She put her tea down and stood up. "Thank you."
"My pleasure, sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights," he told her.
"No, thank you for what you said," She clarified. "It helped me." She bent down and picked up her pack.
"I'm glad." Iroh told her.
She started to walk away but stopped and turned around. "Oh, and about your nephew, maybe you should tell him that you need him too," she suggested.
Iroh said nothing as she walked away. He just drank his tea.
Azula stared down Aang. "Do you really want to fight me?" she asked almost tauntingly. She was a highly skilled Firebender who could hold her own while he looked like he would run at the first sign of trouble.
Then the cry of an ostrich horse was heard. One came out of an alley and its rider hopped off. "Yes, I really do," the rider said as he tossed his hat away, revealing his face.
"Zuko!" said Aang in surprise. The Avatar hadn't expected him to show up.
"I was wondering when you'd show up, Zuzu," Azula told her brother, crossing her arms. While she also hadn't expected him, she knew she could handle him.
Aang snorted a laugh. "Zuzu?" It was a funny name.
"Back off, Azula," Zuko said, moving into his stance, having a hand directed at both of them. "He's mine."
"I'm not going anywhere." She replied as she too went into her stance.
The three of them faced off in the beginning of a three-way fight. Each of them stared down the other two, trying to figure out who would make the first move. Zuko looked at Azula and moved his eyes to look at Aang. As he did, he noticed that Azula gave a little smirk.
She made the first move by throwing a blue fireball at Zuko. He reacted quickly by bending a shield of fire, but the blue fireball sent him crashing into a wood column. After staring at what happened, Aang opened his gilder and tried to fly away. Azula bent a large column of blue fire at him. He tried to block the fire by bending air through it. It worked, but he also fell back onto the ground.
Looking up, he saw Azula running along a rooftop. She leapt down in front of him and bent fire in a sweeping motion with her foot. He leapt and landed between Zuko and Azula. This set off a three-way bending barrage of fire and air. They kept changing positions, sometimes it was Aang in the middle, sometimes it was Azula. It got confusing for them, but they all just kept attacking the other two.
Finally, Aang leapt up a staircase and ran into a house. Azula followed him but immediately discovered that the room had no floor. Aang sat on an air scooter on the other side and gave a wave. She regained her balance and landed on the tiny space of flooring that was attached to the wall. Zuko, however, charged right in and crashed into the bottom floor.
Aang looked down at him but remembered that Azula was still there. She bent a stream of fire at him, which he quickly dodged by running along the edges of the wall and out the door, knocking her down to the bottom floor as well. He leapt off the staircase to avoid a burst of fire and landed on the ground. As he stood up, he saw Zuko being sent out of the building via a burst of fire. He fell down unconscious on the ground as Azula exited the building.
He leapt up between two walls to avoid her fire. Anticipating his next move, she bent a thin stream of fire to slice off the part of the roof he was on. He leapt to the rest of the roof, only to grab the edge. She sliced that part off as well as he tried to climb up. He got stuck under a large piece of lumber in the wreckage as Azula entered the room. She set the walls on fire and began to walk towards him as he was desperately trying to get the piece of lumber off.
Before she could anything, Katara appeared. Bending her water into a water whip, she distracted Azula by bending the water whip into grabbing her hand. As Azula tried to regain her balance, Katara used the water whip to break the piece of lumber which had Aang stuck.
"Katara!" he cried joyfully.
Azula retaliated by whipping around and sending a stream of fire at Katara. She ran out of the building to avoid the fire and Azula gave chase. As she was about to pass another door, Sokka and Tenten appeared out of it. She dodged Sokka's club and leapt out of the way of Tenten's kunai, landing in the street where Neji was waiting. She dodged his strikes by jumping back, but then heard "Double Dynamic Entry!" Turning around, she saw two different pairs of feet coming at her. She let that fly right over her by falling to the floor.
While she fought with Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Team Guy, a shadow appeared over Zuko's body. Opening his eyes, he saw a familiar face,
"Uncle," he said, surprised at Iroh's appearance.
"Get up," Iroh ordered. And he did.
Meanwhile, Azula was still fighting, but could never hit her targets. They kept moving and forcing her to go where they wanted her to go. They cornered her in front of an alley. She felt that something wasn't right and looked down at her feet. Suddenly they were somehow yanked from underneath her. Standing behind her, at the other end of the alley, was Toph.
"I thought you guys could use a little help," she told Azula's opponents.
"Thanks," Katara replied.
Azula got back on her feet and moved away. She bent two bursts of flame at them and then ran through an alley. Thinking she had escaped them once she was through the alley, she didn't notice Iroh and Zuko until she ran into Iroh himself. Finally, the ten of them cornered her in front of a ruined walled. "Well look at this," she announced. "Enemies and traitors all working to together, I'm done. I know when I'm beaten." She raised her hands in surrender. "You got me, a princess surrenders with honor."
But before anyone could do anything, a massive wind came in from behind them, making them lose their balance for a quick minute. Once they regained their balance, they saw someone standing on top of the ruined wall that Azula stood in front of. Everybody's eyes widened in surprise.
"Azula," Naruto growled. "I am not happy with you."
"Naruto, I—" Azula began.
He interrupted her. "You and I will have a talk later. Right now, I have to deal with this." He looked down at the ten people in front of Azula. "Zuko, Iroh, my fight is not with you. I recommend you leave," he told them.
"We'll take that recommendation," Zuko said, surprising the others. But he knew that with the way Naruto was right now, if he gave the chance to leave, it was best to take it.
As Zuko and Iroh began to leave, Azula spoke. "What's the matter, Zuzu? Lost your spine?" she asked him, trying to goad him back into a fight. He stiffened but refused to look back at his sister. Both he and Iroh walked away. Azula did not like being ignored, so she bent a fireball at her brother. Iroh saw the incoming fireball and pushed Zuko out of the way. The fireball hit him in the left shoulder, knocking him out cold.
"Azula, stand down!" Naruto ordered before she could do anything else. "Zuko, take him and go." Zuko did just that. He left the town, carrying his unconscious uncle. "Azula," the blonde began, "until I tell you, you are not to move from that spot or do any Firebending. Is that clear?"
"You can't—" she tried to say.
"Is. That. Clear?" he snarled. She knew better than to press her luck, so she nodded. "Good."
"Come on, guys. We can take him! He's just one guy and he's not even a Bender," Toph told the others.
Before anyone could say anything else, she felt someone grab her hair roughly and also felt a knife of some sort against her neck. "I'd changed that attitude of yours quickly, missy," the blonde said into her ear as the others (minus Azula and Team Guy) looked at him in shock. To them, it had looked like he disappeared from atop the wall and reappeared behind the Earthbender. "If you don't, it's liable to get you killed." He stepped away from her and walked past her. "We'll be leaving now," he told them, walking to Azula, taking her by the arm, and walked out of the ruined town. Once he was clear of the town, he hoisted Azula up onto his back and ran off at an incredible speed.
The remaining people there went back to the nearby Appa and climbed aboard. They flew back to retrieve Akela and their supplies. Soon afterwards, in the night, Appa once again found a flat piece of a mountain. He didn't land. He just collapsed onto the ground and fell asleep. Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Momo, Akela, and Team Guy just went to sleep in the saddle. It was the first full sleep they had ever since they first saw the tank-train and they were grateful for it.
When Mai and Ty Lee got back to the tank-train, they decided to go after Azula. The tank-train followed the trail of fur. They met up with Naruto and Azula, who had slowed down when he noticed the tank-train, in a different part of the forest after dark. "Hey! Are you guys alright?" Ty Lee asked.
"Not now, Ty Lee," Naruto told her as he marched Azula to the side of the tank-train, making her stand against it. "What were you thinking?" he asked her.
"What do you mean?" Azula asked back.
"I mean your idea of going after the Avatar alone. I told you specifically to wake me when you caught up with him!" he told her heatedly.
"You said it yourself. The Avatar was weak! I would have captured him easily if his friends or Zuko hadn't shown up!" she protested.
"That's exactly my point! I wanted you to wake me up because of them. My main worry about them isn't the Avatar, it is Sokka. And why did you try to attack Zuko after I allowed him and Iroh to leave!?" he demanded. That was something he had never taught her.
"You did what?" Mai asked her with half shock, half surprise. She never would've thought that her friend would do something like that.
"He didn't get hit. That old fool of an uncle pushed him out of the way," Azula told her.
She then felt a gust of wind go by her face rather violently. She turned to see Naruto's arm buried in the tank-train. The tank-train was made from Yu Dao metal, the finest metal in the Bending Countries, and Naruto punched through it like it was made from paper. "Iroh pushed Zuko out of the way because he knew his answer. You were about to kill your brother and possibly ruin your answer just because he didn't respond to your insult!" he growled. "It was not a time for you to be petty, Azula. Your life was at stake!"
"I was not in any danger!" she protested. She would've been able to handle herself.
"YES, YOU WERE!" he roared at her. "YOU WENT OFF ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT TELLING ME! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU IF YOU DON'T TELL ME WHERE YOU'RE GOING!? DO YOU WANT TO DIE, IS THAT IT? WERE YOU TRYING TO DO SOMETHING SO STUPID THAT WILL GET YOU KILL!?"
"No," she told him, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I just wanted to show that I could handle it myself. I honestly thought I could take him, and I thought you really needed the rest."
The next thing she knew, Naruto pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't ever scare me like that again. Understand? Never again," he told her as he held her.
She nodded against his chest. "I'm…I'm sorry." It didn't hurt her pride much when she said it to him.
He broke the hug. "Thank you." He looked at all three of them. "We should all get some rest. I'll take watch."
The three girls nodded in agreement and quickly went into the tank-train. "That was nicely done, gaki," the Kyūbi complimented.
"It was necessary, Kyūbi," he silently replied. "She shouldn't have done something so reckless."
"You would have done the same thing three years ago," the fox pointed out to him. It was the truth and they both knew it.
"I'm not the same person I was three years ago," he objected. "I know the consequences of charging in without a thought. She didn't and that's what she did today. She was overconfident and that would have gotten her killed." And while he hadn't been killed, he had lost a lot of soldiers for doing nearly the exact same thing (which was why he stopped).
The two of them stayed silent for a couple of minutes. "Why did you take watch, kit? You know that neither the Avatar's group nor Zuko will come after you," the Kyūbi asked out of the blue.
"Someone should still keep an eye out," Naruto said quietly, now knowing that they were alone.
"…You're trying to stay avoid the dreams, aren't you?"
"Why am I even seeing the Elemental Countries in my dreams? I left that all behind me."
"Not all of it," a new voice told him. Turning his head, he saw someone standing in front of the tank-train.
"Sifu," he greeted before looking around. "You've frozen us in a moment, didn't you?" Everything had seemed to stop.
"Very observant," Sifu told him in a dry voice.
"Do you know what's causing my dreams?" This was different from the other nightmares he had, and he knew it wasn't natural.
"Of course I do. I'm causing it."
He froze. Out of all the possible answers he could've gotten, he hadn't expected that for an answer. "Why?" he asked, wanting a reason.
"I feel I must remind you of the consequences of your decision to leave the Elemental Countries."
"What are you saying? That the dream of the Yonbi being sealed was my fault?" He couldn't see the sense or the reason of that. It sounded completely ridiculous.
"It wasn't a dream."
When he heard that, he froze. "You mean…you mean that actually happened?" he asked, not wanting to believe it.
"Yes," the spirit answered simply.
"The Yonbi was sealed…and he blamed me?"
"He felt your presence both when his Jinchūriki was being captured and when he was being sealed. He thought you were actually there and did nothing to help."
"Even if I had been there, there was nothing I could do to help." He wouldn't have made it past the entire Akatsuki group.
"And yet, there was the chance that you could've stopped those two from taking him."
"This isn't my fault!" he protested vehemently. For the love of Kami, he had been asleep when it happened!
"In a way, yes it is. Which is why every time one of your remaining brethren is taken, you will see what happens," the spirit declared. Then the frozen moment ended, and he disappeared.
"Are you going to be okay, kit?" the Kyūbi asked. The fox was concerned, now knowing that there was a possibility that Naruto would get a different kind of nightmare whenever he slept.
The blond looked to the sky, watching the stars twinkle in the night. "I just hoped that Gaara is still alive," he said, mostly to himself. There were now two other Jinchūriki still left alive, three if Gaara was indeed, still alive. And he hoped that his friend from Suna was one of those three.
(Location: Elemental Countries)
The Akatsuki once more gathered in meeting. This time, they gathered in the same place. The day the Yonbi was sealed and the Gedō Mazō had spoken had put them on edge, so they decided for the time being to always meet in person. "We have captured six of the nine Bijū," the leader announced.
"Which means there are only three more to find and capture," a hunchback member said.
"Well, let's go find them already! I'm getting bored here," announced a member with purple eyes.
"Hidan, shut up. You're annoying," an eerily green-eyed member told him.
"Make me, Kakuzu!" Hidan challenged.
"There they go again, hm," a long-haired member said.
"Enough," the leader spoke, his purple, rippled-like eyes stared at both Hidan and Kakuzu. "We have new information about the Kyūbi."
That made everyone pay attention. "Where is he?" Itachi asked calmly.
"A month ago, one of our spies in Konoha informed us that a shinobi team had encountered the Kyūbi in the Bending Countries. After informing us, he was ordered to book passage to the country known as the Earth Kingdom."
"When was this?" the hunchback member asked.
"A month ago. He left immediately for the Earth Kingdom. "
"So why are we just learning about this now?" Kakuzu asked.
"Our spy also learned of a seal in the mission records room that sends messages and people, if enough chakra is added, to far locations, like the Bending Countries. Before he left, our spy carefully made a copy of the seal and stole copies of the receiving seal tag. He sent us these as he left. The reason we waited this long was for the spy to reach the Earth Kingdom." He looked at two members. "Itachi, Kisame, you will be the ones to go through the seal and retrieve the Kyūbi."
"Why them!?" yelled Hidan. "I want to send that entire continent to Lord Jashin."
"The reason is because Itachi and Kisame have dealt with the Kyūbi before. They are the most experienced in dealing with him."
"Anything we should know about the Bending Countries?" Itachi asked.
"They are currently in a war that has lasted for the past century. Do not attract attention to yourselves."
"Do we have any information on the target?" Kisame asked.
"None that is new. I expect that the Kyūbi will be different from what you remember, so I'd advise caution when dealing with him."
"Well, it'll still be interesting to see the kid again," he said with a grin.
"When do we leave?" Itachi asked the leader.
"Immediately," he answered.
End
Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
If you're mad that Naruto didn't fight Team Guy, don't worry. That's next chapter.
As to how Azula, Mai and Ty Lee trying to figuring out Naruto's past, don't worry. Soon, he'll tell them a few things.
I'm trying to make sure that I keep the timeline that I created correct but it's a bit difficult when they don't tell you what month of what season Aang and his group is in.
I'll see you all next chapter!