Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.
Bodyguard of Azula
Chapter 7: Training and Fighting
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Bijū/spirit talking"
"Bijū/spirit thinking"
(Location: Earth Kingdom)
Two days had passed since the fight in Tu Zin. They had spent the night in a rock quarry. Now it was early morning and the only people who are supposed to be up that early is Team Guy. The reason the word "supposed" was used was because that Aang was also up and excited too.
"Today's the day!" he said excitingly as he leapt into the air. He landed next to Sokka and Akela. "Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting Earthbending! And this place, it's perfect. Don't you think?" He looked down at the two. "Sokka, Akela?" Both of them managed to throw him a glare at the same time. "Oh, the two of you are still sleeping, huh?"
"Too early for this," grumbled Sokka. Akela growled sleepily in agreement.
"Sorry," Aang whispered.
Suddenly, the ground began to rumble and a nearby earth tent broke open. "Good morning, Earthbending student!" Toph announced.
"Good morning, Sifu Toph," Aang greeted in return as she walked over to them.
"Hey, you never call me Sifu Katara," Katara said with a little bit of jealousy from where she sat in her sleeping bag.
"Don't take it personally, Katara," Neji told her. He had seen the same kind of look on Academy students who had just technically graduated. "He's just excited."
Aang began to rub the back of his head. "Well, if you think I should…" He wanted to be polite to everyone, not rude.
Sokka sat up, glared at the two of them and grumbled something at them. "Sorry Snoozles. We'll do our Earthbending as quietly as we can," Toph told him before bending a rock to jut out of the ground beneath him, sending the bag skywards. It was probably not one of her better ideas. She was immediately pinned by Akela, who had his teeth at her throat.
"You know, Toph, for a supposed genius that was pretty stupid of you," Sokka told her as he stood above her. The sleeping bag felled down to the earth harmlessly as they all stared at the scene.
"What? How did you…?" she tried to ask. She thought that he was still in the bag when she sent it upward.
"You need to stop underestimating Nonbenders." He looked over at the wolf. "Let her go, Akela." He did as he was instructed, releasing Toph from his jaws.
"You trained your senses and your body very well, Sokka. You are very youthful!" Lee shouted out. He had seen what the Tribesman had done and was impressed by what he saw.
"Focus, Lee!" barked out Guy. "While Sokka is indeed youthful, we must get going." His student nodded in agreement and got serious again.
"Where are you guys going?" Katara asked them. She had gotten out of her sleeping bag and was now standing up, looking at them.
"To get Naruto," Neji answered. He was ready to go and was just waiting for the rest of his team to be the same.
"Why? The last time that happened, he almost killed Hinata." She could still see the kunai in the Hyūga's stomach and the blue, swirling orb that inched closer and closer to her face.
"He is still our teammate and our friend!" Lee stated.
"You do know that Naruto doesn't see it like that anymore, right?" Sokka asked. It was obvious back in Omashu. But then he remembered that this shinobi team wasn't there. They still believed that Naruto would come back.
"It doesn't matter!"
"Then how are you going to find him? I thought that Team Kurenai was the tracking team." These guys looked like they were the fighting team.
"Lady Hinata has taught me some things on how to use the Byakugan with tracking," Neji told them. It had taken a while, but he managed to pick up a few things.
"Also, just because we aren't a tracking team doesn't mean we don't know a few things about tracking," Tenten stated. Despite how her sensei might act, he believed in a through education. As such, they had a basic understanding of many shinobi fields.
"Okay, what's your plan for tracking him?" the Tribesman asked them.
"We will head back to Tu Zin and then track him from there," Guy told him. "Now we must be off. Come, my youthful students! Let us track our wayward friend with the power of YOUTH!" The four of them took off in an impressive show of speed.
After they left, Aang hopped over Toph. "So what move are you going to teach me first?" He asked excitedly. "Rockalanche? The Trembler? Oh, maybe I could learn how to make a whirlpool of land!" He would've continued if his new teacher hadn't placed a hand in front of him.
"Let's start with 'move a rock,'" Toph told him before walking away.
"Sounds good, sounds good!" he replied, giving her a clap.
Akela gave a yawn and woofed something at the Air Nomad. If Kiba was there, the yawn and the woof would have translated to "Suck-up."
A couple of minutes later, Toph and Aang stood in front of two big rocks while everyone else watched from the sidelines. "The key to Earthbending is your stance. You've gotta be steady and strong," Toph explained as she showed an Earthbending stance. "Rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you've gotta be like a rock yourself."
"Like a rock, got it," Aang repeated.
"Good. Now the actual motion for this one is pretty simple." She took one step towards the rock and at the same time, punched the rock. The rock slid across the quarry until it hit one of the walls. "Okay, you ready to give it a try?" she asked him.
He mimicked the stance he was shown. "I'm ready." He tried to punch the rock but instead, he slid backwards until he crashed into a still sleeping Appa and fell to the ground
"Rock beats Airbender," Sokka stated drily. Akela nodded in agreement.
A younger Iroh ran over a hill with a single tree. He had a smile on his face, for behind him was his son, Lu Ten. "I got you, Dad!" he said happily, pretending he bent a fireball at his father.
Iroh turned around and pretending to be hit, he fell to the ground. Lu Ten jumped onto his stomach, the two of laughing happily. The sky then turned dark and began to rain. A much older Iroh knelt before a grave. "My beloved Lu Ten," he said. "I will see you again."
Just then, he heard a familiar voice say "Uncle." Opening his eyes, he saw Zuko looking at him with worry. Looking around he saw that he was in an abandoned shack. He tried to sit up but felt pain in his left shoulder. "It's been sometime since I've been to hit that close to the heart," he noted.
Zuko looked away. "I'm sorry about that. I should've seen that fireball coming," he apologized. He really should've seen it coming.
"Do not blame yourself, nephew. I chose to push you out of the way."
"I know." He reached for the tea that was brewed and poured some into a cup. "I hope I made it the way you like it." He handed the cup to Iroh. He had tried to do it the right way, but he wasn't sure.
The Dragon of the West brought the tea to his lips and drank. He made a face (his nephew had not done it the way it liked it) but was able to hide it quickly. "Good," he told Zuko as he dared himself to take another sip. 'That was very…hm…bracing."
Zuko poured him another cup and gave it to his uncle. When he wasn't looking, Iroh threw the tea out the window behind him. "So, Uncle," he began. "I've been thinking. It's only a matter of time before I run into Azula again. I'm going to need to know more advanced Firebending if I want to stand a chance against her. I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her."
"Well yes, you should do that. But you do have a point." After a little struggling, Iroh managed to stand up. "It's time to resume your training," he declared. Zuko looked a little more hopeful at those words.
"I don't understand what went wrong," Katara said, looking at Toph as Aang walked back to the rock. "He did it exactly the way you did it."
"Maybe there's another way," Aang offered. He approached the rock in an Airbending stance. "What if I came at the boulder from a different angle?" That should solve the problem, right?
Toph grabbed the back of his shirt. "No, that's the problem. You've got to stop thinking like an Airbender. There's no different angle, no clever solution, no trickitiy-trick that's going to move that rock." She shoved him out of the way. "You've got to face it head on. And when I say head on, I mean like this!" She leapt at the rock and shattered it by simply head-butting it!
"Whoa!" Aang said in surprise. As he tried to come to terms with what he just heard, Katara decided to try and help by going after Toph, who had walked away.
"I've been training Aang for a while now," she said once she got up to the Earthbender. "He really responds well to a positive teaching experience. Lots of encouragement and praise, kind words," she clarified. "If he's doing something wrong, perhaps a gentle nudge in the right direction."
"Thanks, Katara," Toph replied. "A gentle nudge, I'll try that."
By the time Team Guy returned to Tu Zin, they still noticed the lack of activity there, having been long abandoned due to the iron mines running out of ores to harvest. Lee could see a large mountain range overlooking the abandoned town, which he and his team later learned from a wandering cabbage merchant the name of the mountain range. The cabbage merchant also revealed that he was going over the Xishaan Mountains and into the border with Zeizhou Province of the Earth Kingdom. After another half hour of conversation between Team Guy and the cabbage merchant, he soon went off in his direction, leaving them alone with crucial information.
"We got lucky, thanks to that cabbage merchant," Tenten announced. "The tracks were made on hard ground, not sand. Plus, the wind hasn't been blowing hard around here." She was checking the footprints by the town entrance.
"Indeed, we also know which way Naruto went!" Lee said as he came back into the town. He seemed excited about something.
"What do you mean?"
"Naruto made the same kind of footprint both Guy-sensei and I make when we run laps around the village. I don't think he knew about the footprints and if he did, he was probably hoping that they would be blown over by the wind," he quickly explained.
"Neji, confirm!" Guy ordered.
Neji nodded and activated his Byakugan to look in the direction of the tracks. "It's very faint, but I can sense Naruto's chakra signal in that direction," he said after looking around for a couple of minutes.
"I thought Hinata said you wouldn't be able to see Naruto's chakra unless he used a jutsu," Tenten said.
"No offense to Lady Hinata, but I am better in using the Byakugan," he replied, boasting slightly. "Naruto's control is still incredible though. That's why his chakra signal is faint to me."
"Nevertheless, we have found his trail!" Guy announced loudly. "Now we will go forward with the power of YOUTH!" While not all the team agreed with how he said it, they all agreed on what he meant. Sure enough, they were following the trail at full speed (which in Team Guy means that both Neji and Tenten can easily stay with Guy and Lee. You see, in that team, full speed is directly below Youthful speed).
"I'm bored." Mai stated as she lay on the ground outside the tank-train, looking up at the sky.
"You're always bored, Mai," Ty Lee told her, lying on the ground beside her.
"Well, now I'm really bored."
"Mai, please give it a rest. Just think of this as a break," Azula told her. The three girls hadn't been able to do much for the past two days. After spending a day fixing the hole Naruto made in the tank-train, the engineers found that they needed more wood as fuel for the fire. That meant another day for finding wood in the nearby forest. Today was the day they were supposed to move again. The engineers just needed a little more time to get the wood down to proper size.
Meanwhile the girls had sparred, ran, relax and basically did anything that kept them from getting bored. "Hey, where's Naruto?" Ty Lee asked out of the blue.
"Yeah, where is he?" Mai asked as well, genuinely curious.
"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him for the past two days," Azula said before shrugging her shoulders. "Well, if he had to do something and wanted to be left alone, we should respect his wishes."
"You're sure acting nonchalant about him, considering you like him."
"What!?" the princess of the Fire Nation would like to say that she didn't squeak, but she did. "I-I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Uh-huh, and I'm the Avatar," she replied in deadpan.
"C'mon, it's so obvious, Azula! You like him," Ty Lee said with a smirk. It wasn't often that they could Azula flustered like this. "Did that small crush you had on him grow when we weren't looking?"
Azula blushed a little bit. "Well…I don't know. I haven't been sure since Yu Dao." That had left some doubts in her mind.
"You mean that fiasco with Kori?" Mai asked.
She nodded. "She told me what he had told her. He said that a crush can turn to love if you realize that your crush has imperfections. Right now, I don't think that Naruto has any imperfections." She tried to think of some but couldn't. If he had any, he kept them well hidden.
"Oh, I know an imperfection!" Ty Lee said. "He's always polite and serious but also cheerful."
"Ty Lee, that's not an imperfection," Mai told her. "However, I do know an imperfection that he has." That got everyone's attention.
"What's that?" Azula asked.
"He's secretive. He's never told us about his past or who those people with the Avatar are to him."
"Yeah…you're right. Also, he didn't really tell us about the people we saw in the swamp, just that they're dead," Ty Lee pointed out. It was something that vaguely annoyed her, because it was not a major issue that she had to deal with.
"What's he hiding from us?" It was a question they all wanted to have answered but knew that it wouldn't come from him (at least, not voluntarily).
"I don't know." The acrobat had a frown on her face for a brief moment, and then brightened up. "But what I do know is that you do like him, Azula," she told the Fire Nation princess.
"And how can you tell?" she asked with sarcasm in her voice. Silently, she didn't want the conversation to continue. But she also knew that nothing short of an act from the Spirits would make Ty Lee stop now.
"Because there are days where the two of you act like a couple," she answered. "You argue and fight, but you also work well together in and out of combat."
"She's got a point," Mai noted. They had seen it so many times, it didn't surprise them anymore. "Also, we're pretty sure that Naruto likes you as well."
"What? What do you mean?" Azula asked, surprised. She didn't think that the blonde had thought of her like that.
"We're quite confident in the fact that Naruto wouldn't let any girl sleep with her head on his naked chest," she said with a dry smirk.
Her blush, which she had been trying to get rid of, got redder. "You saw that?"
Mai now had a little smirk on her face (it's not every day the Princess of the Fire Nation got flustered). "We walked in on you guys the next morning. I decided that the both of us would leave you two alone. Ty Lee kept grousing about the fact that neither of us were good artists."
"If you had made any pictures, I would have burn them!" she hissed at Ty Lee.
"Then it's a good thing we didn't make any," the acrobat replied easily enough. "There is another thing that tells us Naruto likes you."
"What's that?"
"He yelled at you for putting yourself in danger. I don't think I ever seen someone act that protective with you." Before Azula could reply, there was a sudden wind coming from the nearby forest as well as the sound of something to cut the air. "What was that!?" Ty Lee asked, lifting her head up and looking around.
"I don't know but let's go check it out!" Azula said as she leapt off the ground and charged into the forest. Secretly, she was glad the conversation was over with.
Naruto looked around and saw all the scarred tree trunks. "Okay, need to work on size," he noted.
"Look on the bright side, you finally managed to get the thing working," the Kyūbi said to him.
"Yeah, and I almost fell over because the thing was too big and heavy. Just look at all the trees." They all looked like a fierce battle just taken place and they received the blunt of it. And that was just from the one jutsu he was trying to create.
"True. I still think that using a Kage Bunshin would help." It certainly helped in the past, why couldn't it do the same in the present?
"For training, yes," the blonde agreed. "But it would be a crutch in battle. I want to be able to use this thing on my own." Not every enemy he faced would give him the precious seconds he needed to create it.
"You said the same thing when you started to practice using the Rasengan with only one hand," the fox commented. That had been a long two months (especially since those months were during a siege).
"And I was right," he replied. "Still, it needs work. The thing only lasts a few seconds and I want to be able to throw it." He still had to figure out how to do that.
That was when Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai appeared behind him. "Is everything okay, Naruto?" Azula asked him. She was concerned because she saw the trees surrounding them. But she didn't see any enemies.
"Yes, everything is fine," he said, trying to assure them. "I was working on something and it turned out to be a little bigger than expected." He turned around to look at them. What he saw, made him stop and give them a onceover. "Sunning ourselves, were we?"
They looked down and then realized that they went to check on the disturbance in their undergarments, giving him quite the show. "Pervert!" cried Ty Lee. She tried to him, but with no success.
"Nothing of the sort, Ty Lee," he replied as he dodged the strikes. "I'm just stating the obvious."
"Calm down," Mai told a blushing Ty Lee, holding her back.
"Do you enjoy the view, Naruto?" Azula asked her bodyguard with a smirk. She didn't normally do something like this (she was a princess, damn it. She had her pride), but she took a pose for him.
He looked at her and then looked at her. "Let me put it this way: I'm glad the three of you know how to defend yourselves."
"Why's that?"
"If you ever did something like this back home, you would have a lot of guys coming after you," he told them. It was the truth. He wasn't making any of it up. They were all quite beautiful, all three of them. And yet, his attention was on his princess.
"Kit, we've got incoming," the Kyūbi said suddenly, getting his attention.
"What is it?" he silently asked, becoming alert. Whenever the fox said something like that, it was best to pay attention.
"It's faint, but I think it's the shinobi team that's currently with the Airbender brat. You know that weird guy who keeps going on about youth?" It was hard not to notice that guy whenever he was around.
When he heard that, his eyes went flat. "Azula, are the engineers almost done with the wood?" he asked the princess.
"They only need another half-hour to be done," she told him, not sure as to why he wanted to know that.
"When they're done, have them set off immediately. As for you three, please get dressed and join them when they leave," he ordered.
She was immediately suspicious. "What's going on, Naruto?"
He looked away. "I'm going to get company soon and I don't want you three to be around when they get here," he said shortly.
But they understood what he wasn't trying to say. "…Is it that group of people from Omashu?" Ty Lee asked, deciding to be the one to break the silence that had momentarily fallen around them.
He shook his head. "It's a different one."
"It's that group that was with the Avatar at Tu Zin, isn't it?" Azula asked. He nodded once. "We're staying," she stated, the other two nodding in agreement.
"No you're not. When the tank-train leaves, you will be on it." His voice was firm. He wasn't going to budge on this.
"We can take them!" Ty Lee declared. She was certain of it. A couple of strikes from her and they would be down for the count.
He looked at her. "Ty Lee, I know that you and Mai were about to fight two of them when the sky bison sent you into the water. Be glad that it did that. You would have lost in seconds. When this team fights seriously, they tend to rearrange the surrounding landscape. You are leaving in the tank-train, no arguments."
Azula was about to argue again, but then she saw the look in his eyes. They held the seriousness of a soldier about to go into battle. At that point, she knew it was pointless to argue. "Very well," she agreed. "Just promise me one thing."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Promise me that you'll win."
He smiled. "You doubt my ability to win a fight?" he asked with a hurt voice they all knew was faked. But they left anyway, leaving Naruto alone in the clearing.
"KEEP YOUR KNEES HIGH, TWINKLE TOES!" Toph roared at her student. Aang currently holding a big boulder on his back and was trying to walk. Every time he made a step, Toph would bend the earth beneath his foot to rise a little bit. After two steps, the weight of the boulder sent him off to the side and into the ground.
Next, she stood in front of a flat piece of stone. Rubbing her hands, she dug through the rock like it was sand. He tried to repeat her actions, only to hurt his hand at the first attempt. After that, he stood in a stance and waited. The waiting was causing him to sweat. Suddenly, Toph came out of the rock to his right and shouted "Rock-like!" at him. He yelped and fell backwards to the ground. She simply bent the earth underneath him to stand him up again and flicked his forehead.
After borrowing Sokka's club (she would've just taken it but the fact that Akela was there and growling lightly convinced her to change her mind), she handed it over to a blindfolded Aang. She then had him play the Earthbending version of Whack-a-Mole. He kept missing at first but finally managed to hit one, earning him a slight nod of approval from Toph.
Next, she bent the earth to raise a wall on both sides of them. Then she drew a line in the ground and bent the surrounding rock into armor, covering her from head to toe (save for her eyes, which is kinda redundant). She charged straight at Aang. He grabbed hold of her when she crashed into him and began to push her back. After some struggling, he managed to push her back across the line.
She then had him stand on what can only be described as two earthen stilts while tossing and catching a weight. She moved between the two stilts and punched them, sending a shockwave up both of them. Aang didn't move, so the shockwave just blew through him and his clothes. She gave him a single nod of approval, making him smile.
Sokkaa stood in a tree, watching as a small furry creature came by and eat a patch of grass. "You're awfully cute," he said. "But unfortunately for you, you're made of meat." He kept watching the creature. "Just a bit closer," he muttered. When the creature finally left the grass and came near the tree, he acted. Yelling a battle-cry, he leapt down with machete in hand, ready to kill the creature. Unfortunately for him, he landed on top of a crevice. He got buried up to his waist. The creature simply walked up closer to him.
"Gotcha!" he cried, about to swing his machete again. This caused him to be buried even further but he managed to spread his arms out. The result was him buried up to his armpits, allowing him to move his arms freely. He tried to move his body out of the crevice but with no success. "You are one lucky little meat creature," he told said creature, which only wagged its tail in response. He was glad Akela had stayed behind to take a nap on Appa. The wolf would have been rolling around on the ground in wolfish laughter.
"Lightning is a pure expression of Firebending, without aggression," Iroh told Zuko. "It's not fueled by rage or emotion the way other Firebending is." He reached for the new batch of brewed tea. "Some call lightening the cold-blooded fire. It is precise and deadly, like Azula."
"Or Naruto," Zuko replied. He could still remember that night on Ember Island.
"True," Iroh agreed. "To perform the technique requires peace of mind."
"I see, that's we're drinking tea, to calm the mind." It made a little sense to him (he briefly wondered if that had to do with the fact he spent three years with his uncle).
"Oh yeah, good point," Iroh said. He was drinking the tea because he was a tea enthusiast. "I mean, yes." After they had finished the tea, they left the shack and walked over to the nearby cliff edge. If either of them looked out to the distance, they would've seen a familiar ruined town. "There is energy all around us," Iroh began. "The energy is both yin and yang, positive energy and negative energy. Only a select few Firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance and, in the moment, the positive and the negative energy come crashing back together, you provide release and guidance, creating lightning." He motioned Zuko to step back. When he was sure he had enough room, he began to move his arms in a circular motion, already generating lightning. Once he was done, he shot his right hand, which was folded save for two fingers, forward and the lightning that was stored was fired off into the air.
"I'm ready to try it." Zuko stated after he watched the display.
"Remember, once you've separated the energy, you do not command it. You are simply its humble guide," Iroh warned him, idly rubbing his left shoulder. "Breathe first."
He did indeed breathe and began to copy Iroh's motions. The first thing that Iroh noticed was wrong was the fact that his fingers were not generating lightning. When he shot his fingers out, he didn't generate lightning. It just exploded in front of his face, sending him crashing into the ground.
Naruto had sat down against one of the tree trunks in the clearing. It had been an hour and a half since the tank-train had left with the girls in it. He waited in anticipation, wondering as to how he would fare against Team Guy, as opposed to how he and Azula's group managed to fight Team Kurenai to a standstill in Omashu.
"They're here," the Kyūbi said. Even though the surrounding area was quiet, the fox knew they weren't alone.
"I know," Naruto silently replied, having noticed that he had guests. He looked out to the clearing. "You might as well come out. I know you're there," he called out.
The echo of his voice seemed to reverberate around the trees, becoming fainter each time it was heard. The forest was silent after the echo disappeared, but the people who were looking for him landed into the clearing. They stared at each other silently for a few minutes. "…You took your time getting here," the blonde finally said.
"Come quietly, Naruto," Guy told him, his tone unusually serious. "You're surrounded and you have no back up."
He barked out a laugh. "From 'let's go home' to 'come quietly,'" he said, mostly to himself. "Next thing I know, Team Asuma is just going to try and blindside me."
"When did you find about Team Asuma being here?" Lee asked.
"Just now, thanks," he replied with an amused smirk. The Konoha shinobi had the decency to look ashamed. He had just unintentionally revealed a piece of information that the blonde shouldn't have heard.
"Where are the girls, Naruto?" Neji asked him. The Hyūga had activated his Byakugan momentarily before arriving and only saw the blonde there. It made him wonder where the women he was supposed to be with were. "Whenever they go, you are usually with them. Isn't that the case? I'm starting to understand their patterns now."
"They left. This isn't their fight."
"Have you told them? Do they know about your past?"
"No, and if I had my way about it, they never will."
"That is most unyouthful of you, Naruto! Hiding your past from a girl, have you no shame?" Lee demanded.
"Shut up, Lee," he curtly ordered. "It's my past and it's my choice to tell them or not."
"Naruto," Tenten said. "We know all about the Kyūbi. You don't have to hide it anymore." Silence fell all around them as her words echoed momentarily in the air.
"…Tsunade told you, didn't she?" he asked after a few moments, finally breaking the silence. It made sense to him. Only the Hokage would do something like that, telling the others about what he held.
Neji nodded. "And showed us the results of it too," he said.
Those words brought back a memory of what he saw, making him silently will it to vanish. He still had nightmares about what he read, and in some nightmares, he appeared in place of Naruto, as the Jinchūriki that was targeted for abuse, despite his possession of the Byakugan.
"Let's cut to the chase, shall we?" the blonde asked as he walked forward, away from the trunk of the tree. "The four of you want me to come back. I'm not going anywhere. So that leaves us with only one option." He brought his hands up into a familiar handseal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
They all heard a POOF! Beside Naruto was not ten, a hundred or even a thousand clones, there was just one. "We fight," the clone said. The two of them then got into different stances. The original went into a high Waterbending stance while the clone went into a low Firebending stance.
"Naruto, please," begged Tenten. "We don't want to fight you." Even though he had made a clone, he was still outnumbered and outmatched. They just wanted to resolve this peacefully.
He snorted in derision. "Don't lie to me. I know you want to fight me."
Lee decided to begin the attack by charging forward, hoping to catch the two blondes off guard. "Konoha Senpū (Leaf Whirlwind)!" he cried as he leapt at his opponents.
As the leg reached the two, the Naruto in the Waterbending stance pressed both palms against the underside of the leg. Pushing upwards, he sent Lee into an unexpected flip. As Lee began to face the ground, the blonde put his palms on his back and guided him towards the clone. The clone reacted quickly to the incoming target. He shoved an elbow into Lee's chest and then punched him hard in the stomach with his other fist. He brought his body into a turn and snapped-kicked Lee in the chest, sending him flying back to his teammates.
"Lee! Are you alright!?" Guy asked with concern as he caught his student.
"I am fine," Lee told his sensei, putting his feet back on the ground. He turned to glare at Naruto.
"What kind of style was that? It looked like both Waterbending and Firebending," Neji asked. While he didn't have a lot to go with, he had also never seen the two opposite elements work in tandem like that before.
"While I was being trained in the Bending stances, I began to experiment in secret with a clone to see how two styles that the opposites of each other were could be used in tandem. What you just saw was the result of that experiment. You may have two shinobi skilled in the Gōken (Strong Fist) and a shinobi skilled in the Jūken (Gentle Fist). But this…" He and his clone switched styles, just to prove his point. "This is my own style, the Tsuinken (Twin Fist)."
"Stop this, Naruto," Guy pleaded. "We don't have to fight!"
"That's bullshit, Guy. You commanded me to come quietly, and that sounded like an order!" Naruto told him. "And we both know it." Both he and the clone charged at Team Guy. Having no other choice, they retaliated.
"This time we're going to try something a little different," Toph told her student, walking past him. "Instead of moving a rock, you're going to stop a rock. Get in your horse stance!" she ordered. Aang did as he was told. "I'm going to roll that boulder down at you," Toph pointed to said boulder. It was on top of a nearby cliff, sitting in front of a ramp. "If you have the attitude of an Earthbender, you'll stand your stance and stop the rock. Like this." She showed him the motion of the stance.
Katara decided to intervene, trying to be helpful. "Sorry, Toph, but are you sure this is really the best way to teach Aang Earthbending?" she asked.
"I'm glad you said something. Actually, there is a better way." The Earthbender reached down for Aang's belt and took it off. She then warped it around his eyes. "This way, you'll really have to sense the vibrations of the boulder to stop it. Thank you, Katara," she told the Waterbender.
"Yeah, thanks, Katara," Aang repeated childishly. She could only chuckle awkwardly in return.
Toph had climbed up to where the boulder was. With a simple push, she sent it down the ramp and at Aang. Katara waited nervously nearby while Aang face the oncoming boulder. Just as the boulder and Aang were about to hit each other, he chickened out and jumped over the boulder. The thing just kept on rolling until it smashed into a cliff wall.
He took the blindfold off and the first he saw was a very mad Toph. "I-I guess I just panicked," he tried to defend himself. "I don't know what to say."
"There's nothing to say!" Toph told him angrily. "You blew it! You had a perfect stance and perfect form. But when it came right down to it, you didn't have the guts!" She shoved him to the ground.
"I know, I'm sorry," he told her, not trying to stand up.
"Yeah, you are sorry." She shoved her face into his. "If you're not tough enough to stop the rock, then you could at least give it the pleasure of smushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a jellied-bone wimp! Now, do you have what it takes to face that rock like an Earthbender!?" she demanded.
Instead of rousing his spirits and/or his resolve, her little speech had the opposite effect. "No. I don't think I do," he admitted in a defeated voice. It was just too difficult to understand.
Katara once again decided to intervene. "Aang, it's no big deal. You'll take a break and try Earthbending again when you're ready. Besides, you still have a lot of Waterbending to work on. Okay?" she asked him, trying to be upbeat.
"Yeah, that sounds good." He got up and followed Katara.
"Yeah, whatever," Toph told the two of them. "Go splash around until you feel better." She walked away as well. But she hadn't given up yet. She was going to teach Aang Earthbending whether he liked it or not.
Zuko kept trying to generate lightning but the end results kept going blowing up. "Why can't I do it?" he asked his uncle, angry with himself. "Instead of lightning, it keeps exploding in my face, like everything always does!"
Iroh got up from where he sat. "I was afraid this might happen. You will not be able master lightning until you dealt with the turmoil inside you."
He turned to face his uncle. "What turmoil?" he demanded. It didn't sound like it to him, but he wanted an answer.
"Zuko, you must let go of your feelings of shame if you want your anger to go away."
"But I don't feel any shame at all. I'm as proud as ever," he objected.
"Prince Zuko, pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame."
"Well…my life has been nothing but humbling lately," the exiled prince admitted. Not only was he exiled from the Fire Nation, but he was also on the run from them as well.
Iroh looked away for a moment in thought. "I have another idea. I will teach you a Firebending move that even Azula doesn't know, because I made it up myself." His nephew looked back at him and gave an appreciative smile.
"You probably think I deserve this, don't you?" Sokka asked the small creature, who was currently sitting on his head. In response, it looked down at him. "Look, I'm sorry I hunted you, but that's just the natural order of things. Big things eat smaller things, nothing personal. But this time it didn't work out that way."
The creature yawned and turned around a couple of times before sitting down again and rubbed his nose. "I admit it, you're cute," Sokka told the creature. "…Okay, you convinced me. If I get out of this alive, it's a karmically correct, vegetarian existence for me. No meat." He paused for a second as he realized just what he had uttered. "Even though meat is so tasty," His eyes grew watery about the subject. The creature leapt off his head and ran off. A fly flew nearby, but Sokka swatted at it, making it go away. He found that the most comfortable way to put his arms was to cross them and put them on the ground in front of him.
The creature came back with an apple in its mouth. "Hey, looks like my karma's already paying off," Sokka said as the creature dropped the apple and pushed it forward with its nose. "That's okay, I got it." He simply reached for his boomerang and used it to scoop up the apple. "See? The boomerang does come back." He began to munch on the apple.
The battle kept going on. Despite being outnumbered and his refusal to add more numbers to his side via clones, Naruto and the one clone he did have fought Team Guy on even ground. After foiling Lee's and Guy's double attack, he fended off Neji. Tenten all the while was staying in the back, throwing weapons at him in the hopes that he would be distracted. While she didn't pin him down, she did manage to take care of the clone.
Now Team Guy stood across from him, all of them lightly panting. "You have improved, Naruto," Guy told him as he and Lee stood in Naruto's view of Tenten. "You would have made a fine Konoha shinobi."
"I was a fine Konoha shinobi," he replied. "Everybody else was too busy sucking up to the Uchiha to notice." Nobody cared about him. They just went right to Sasuke when talking about his team.
"That's not true!" Lee objected. "Not everyone did that!"
"So, you're admitting that people did it?"
He faltered. "Well, I…"
"While I admit that Teuchi, Ayame, Iruka-sensei, Jiji, and a few others didn't do it, everybody else pretty much did. Even you, Lee," the blonde said in accusation.
"I most certainly did not!" the Konoha shinobi objected.
"You most certainly did. Do you remember the first time we met? It was during the Chūnin Exams. You met us and the first thing you demanded of us was to fight the Uchiha and only the Uchiha. You didn't even acknowledge me as a threat." It had been something that irked him when they first fought. Ironically enough, it vanished when he watched Sasuke get beaten.
"But he does acknowledge you as a threat now. That's why we're fighting," Neji said. Then he smirked. "Although, I had to say that the fight is over."
Behind Naruto, in the trees, Tenten held a katana in her hands and launched herself at the blonde. She swung at his side, hoping to injure him so that Neji could get in close and paralyze him. Or so she thought.
"What the…?" she thought in surprise as a loud CLANG filled the air in the clearing. Naruto had blocked her strike with his jian. It was almost like he was expecting it. "How did you…?"
"Did you honestly think that you got the clone?" he asked in a bored tone.
"Of course, I did!" she thought. She had taken the clone out with a kunai to the heart and to the head!
"You thought that you had taken the clone out by piercing its heart and head with kunai, correct?" he asked her again, with the same bored tone.
"What? How did…" She narrowed her eyes as she realized the truth. "It was a Genjutsu!" she growled.
He smiled. "A minor one, designed to fool you into believing what you wanted to see happen to actually occur."
"You can use Genjutsu as now?" Lee asked in surprise. As far as he could remember, the blonde couldn't grasp the concepts of Genjutsu. This was something they had not expected.
"I know a few," he said in answer.
"Then how do you explain the smoke!?" Tenten demanded. If she hadn't gotten the clone, why had it been covered in smoke before disappearing?
"Shinobi tools 101," he answered shortly, like it was the most obvious thing.
They were all confused by those words. Then Neji remembered his days in the Academy and the lessons he learned. "The clone used a smoke bomb," he said in realization. Suddenly, it all made sense.
"Correct," Naruto said in agreement. "Just because I haven't been in the Elemental Countries for three years, doesn't mean I don't know how to make a smoke bomb. They were always useful for pranks when I was younger."
"So how did you know what I was going to do?" Tenten asked him. "How did you know that I was behind you when you didn't look behind you?"
Once again, he smiled and tapped his head with his free hand. "The clone told me."
While three members of Team Guy looked confused, one got the point. "You know the secret of the Kage Bunshin?" Guy asked, surprised by the fact. He never would've thought that Naruto would discover it on his own.
The blonde nodded. "I give credit to my teacher," he said, mystifying them.
"You flatter me, kit," the fox told him.
"Is it flattery if it's true?" he silently asked back.
"Yes, and it makes it even sweeter."
"So that was his plan," Guy realized. "He used the Genjutsu and the smoke bomb to allow the clone to disappear into the trees. When the clone saw what Tenten was about to do, he dismissed himself so that the original could get his memories." It was a good plan. He was willing to admit that.
"Tell me saw something, Tenten," Naruto asked, bringing everybody's attention back to what was going on. "Are you any good with that katana?" He looked at the weapon in her hands.
She gave a little snort of disbelief. "I am a master of weapons." It was an insult to her for him to even think she wasn't.
"I didn't ask if you were a master of weapons. I ask you if you were any good with the katana." There was a difference, he knew that much.
"What do you think?"
His answer was to simply swat the katana away and smacked her side with the flat side of his jian. "Not very, apparently," he stated as she yelped in pain.
"Why you…!" She swung the katana at him again. He twisted to the side to dodge it and slapped her on the ass with the flat side of his jian. She kept trying and trying to hit him with the katana, but he had moved into an Airbending stance and thus was always moving. Every time she tried to hit him, he'd twist or turn out of the way and then would hit her with the flat side of his jian. She was soon getting bruises everywhere and was also getting angrier.
"WILL YOU STOP THAT!?" she yelled at him as she attacked him again with the katana.
"Why should I?" he asked in return as he blocked the strike. "It's very entertaining."
"Tenten!" called out Neji. "Break off high-back!"
It was a term that Team Guy used when in a combat situation. To break off high-back meant the person who was currently fighting the opponent would jump away in a high backflip. Meanwhile the rest of the team would send a barrage of kunai and shuriken at the opponent. While they were distracted by this, the airborne person would land and engage again, taking care of the distracted opponent. She broke contact with her katana and went airborne with a high backflip. Then he saw the oncoming barrage. But he did something that Team Guy wasn't expecting. He knelt down on one knee with his head bowed low. This way, the barrage of kunai and shuriken passed harmlessly over his head. Then a voice from the woods called out.
"Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind style: Great Breakthrough)!" A huge gust of wind flew out of the woods. Not only did it stop the barrage, it redirected it back at the throwers. Team Guy leapt out of the way of the incoming barrage. When it had passed, Naruto had stood back up like nothing had happened.
"What…? How...?" Lee tried to ask but was unable to form the question.
"Did you really think I wouldn't be able to learn new Ninjutsu while I was here?" Naruto asked the team, amused by their reactions. Before they could answer, another voice spoke up. "And did you really think I wouldn't learn what my elemental affinity is?" A person walked out of the woods, revealing himself as another Naruto.
Guy then realized his mistake. "The clone didn't just dismiss himself, he made a second clone!" he thought silently.
"How do you know what your elemental affinity is?" Neji asked in stunned surprise. "Or even an elemental jutsu?"
That was something they hadn't learned until they were Chūnin "Once again, I give credit to where credit is due," Naruto told them. The clone moved into an Earthbending stance while the original went into an Airbending stance while also keeping his jian out. "Weren't we in the middle of something?"
While Momo was trying to catch a frog (and failing), Katara and Aang stood in a marsh moving a small blob of water in a circle between the two of them. "You know this block you're having is only temporary, right?" Katara asked Aang.
"I don't want to talk about it." He replied.
"You do realize that's the problem, don't you? If you face this issue instead of avoiding it—" she tried to tell him.
"I know, I know, I know, I know, I know! I get it, alright?" he cut her off, letting the blob of water fall down into the pool they were in. "I need to face it head-on like a rock, but I just can't do it! I don't know why I can't, but I can't."
"Aang, if fire and water are opposites, then what's the opposite of air?" she asked him, trying to help him out.
"I guess it is earth." It was the only element that she hadn't spoken of.
"That's why it's so hard for you to get this. You're working with your natural opposite, but you'll figure it out. I know you will." She reached behind her back and plucked out a reed. "Think fast!" She threw the reed at him. Aang reacted quickly, bending the water to slice the reed in half. "Excellent, you have the reflexes of a Waterbending master."
"Thanks, Katara." He then bowed to her. "Sifu Katara." She gave a small smile and returned the bow.
"Fire is the element of power," Iroh lectured Zuko, drawing the symbol for fire in the dirt with a stick. "The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will and the energy and drive to achieve what they want." He drew the symbol for earth. "Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring." He began to draw the symbol for air. "Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom. Also, they apparently had pretty good senses of humor." He grinned at his nephew.
Zuko just stared at him so he continued, drawing the symbol for water. "Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe can adapt to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything."
"Why are you telling me these things?" Zuko finally asked his uncle. He wasn't seeing the point.
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places," he explained. "If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale." To emphasis his point, he drew lines, separating the four elements. "Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations, will help you become whole." He drew a circle around the elements, making them all whole.
"All this four elements talk is sounding like Avatar stuff," his nephew commented.
"It is the combination of the four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful." He pointed the stick at Zuko's chest. "But it can make you more powerful too. You see, the technique I am about to teach you is one I learn from studying the Waterbenders." Zuko looked slightly hopeful.
Aang sat on a big rock, trying to meditate. As he did, Toph came over and sat down nearby. "Aang, I found these nuts in your bag," she told him, holding up a bag with a little Aang face on it. "I figured you wouldn't mind, and besides, if you did, you're too much of a pushover to do anything about it."
"As a matter of fact, I don't mind. I'm happy to share anything I have," he told her in an even tone.
"You know, I'm really glad you feel that way. Because I also have this great new nutcracker." She picked up and twirled Aang's glider staff.
Aang turned around with a look of unease as she brought the staff down on the nut cracking the shell open. "Actually, I prefer if you didn't—" Crack! "That's an antique, handcrafted by the monks—" Crack! "It's a delicate instrument!" She would break it if she kept doing that!
"It's not the only delicate instrument around here," Toph said mockingly as she and Momo ate the nuts. She walked away, banging the staff against rocks along the way. She was trying to get him mad, to come after her and take the staff back.
Instead, he just went back to his meditation. But moments after she left, Katara came by. "Hey Aang, have you seen—?"
"Meditating here!" he cut her off.
"It's important," the Waterbender assured him. "It's almost sundown and Sokka isn't back yet. I think we should search for him."
He turned to face her. That was troubling. Sokka was never one to disappear on them for long. "We'll find him faster if we spilt up." He got off the rock and the two of them went in two different directions.
They had fought for hours. While Team Guy had enough numbers to keep Naruto occupied while the others caught their breath, Naruto had his stamina and his style. He had them guessing by switching the styles that he and the clone were using when they didn't expect it. He had lost count of the number of times he had moved into a Firebending, Airbending, Earthbending or Waterbending stance while fighting them. He also kept them on their toes by sometimes using Ninjutsu at them, though he could only use Wind style jutsu. As a result, they had pretty much torn up the surrounding woods. But he was also getting tried himself, plus his jian had been destroyed at some time during the fight.
Now once again, Team Guy stood across from him. "Well, thank you for the exercise. But I'm afraid I must be going," he suddenly announced, surprising them. He dismissed the clone and began to walk away.
"Don't turn your back on us, Naruto!" Guy yelled at him. "You're not going anywhere!"
"Why not?" he asked as he walked away. He was putting a show of bravado, trying to make it look like he had just gotten bored instead of getting tried.
"If you do, we will come after you," the leader of Team Guy told him. "We will follow you and we will take the girls hostage."
He stopped but he kept his back to them. "And what would you do with them?"
Neji smiled to himself. "We have him," he thought. "We'll take them hostage and if you don't come with us, we will kill them."
"It is unyouthful, but we will do it," Lee said. If he was younger and less experienced, he might've objected to the idea. But he wasn't.
"You could do that," Naruto acknowledged, finally turning around to them. But there was a smirk on his face. "But then that would mean the failure of your mission and the Fire Nation's victory in the war, I think Azula wouldn't care if you killed her if that was the outcome."
"What do you mean?" Tenten asked with suspicion.
"It's simple. You take me hostage or kill the girls; the Avatar and his friends die."
"How would…?" Neji began to ask. Then he understood. "You've had a clone tracking us since Tu Zin!" It seemed like the thing the blonde would do.
"Then all we'd have to do is knock you unconscious when we take you with us!" Lee said. If they did that, the clone wouldn't know to kill Aang and the others.
"Wouldn't work," Naruto replied, pointing at the woods behind him. "Did you think the first clone only made one other clone?" he asked them.
"There's a second clone!" Guy silently realized. "He's watching us right now. The minute we take Naruto hostage, he'll dismiss himself and that will let the other clone know what will happen, allowing him to kill everybody back at the rock quarry!"
"I am leaving now. You can try and follow me to take the girls. But I know where the Avatar is at this moment, I could put you on a false trail that would lead you nowhere near the girls. So, good-bye." He walked away. When he was about to disappear from their view, he stopped again. "By the way, you'll have until dark."
"What!?" shouted Lee. "What do you mean!?" But he didn't answer, he just disappeared.
"He means that if we don't get back to the others by the time its dark, the clone's going to…" Neji didn't finish that sentence. They all knew what would happen.
"We must go, now!" Guy ordered. They all ate soldier pills and ran back the way they came at full speed. They had to get back to the others now!
Sokka was trying to reach for the creature, but had a hard time considering the creature was behind him and was pulling on his wolf tail. "Okay, karma person or thing, whoever is charge of this stuff," he said aloud. "If I can just get out of this situation alive, I will give up meat and sarcasm…okay?" The creature finally pulled off the small band of leather that held the wolf tail together, making the Tribesman give a small yelp in pain and giving him some really messy hair. "That's all I got. It's pretty much my whole identity. Sokka, the meat and sarcasm guy, but I'm willing to be Sokka the veggies and straight talk fellow…deal?"
"You might want wait on that idea," a now familiar voice told him.
He looked up and saw the robed spirit. "Sifu," he said in greeting. Turning his head to look at the creature, he saw that it was frozen in mid-motion. "Frozen in a moment?" The spirit nodded. "Are you in charge of this whole karma thing?"
"No, but I happen to be good friends with the person who is. But more importantly, I'm here to talk to you," Sifu told him.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"You," he answered. "You don't have to put yourself down like that. Meat and sarcasm are not your whole identity."
"Well, what else is there?" It seemed like everything at that point to him.
"How about the fact that you're a planner, a thinker, an inventor, or that you're good with weapons?"
When he heard those facts, he knew that it was the truth. But he still had doubts. "What are you trying to say, Sifu?" he asked, wanting a straight answer.
"Do you know why you're with this group?"
"I had to tag along to make sure my little sister didn't do something stupid and come up with the plans in the process?" he asked, half sarcastic and half serious.
"True, but you're also here to remind the Benders that they are still human. You're here so that they never get a swelled head and think that they are all-powerful. They see you and they see what they can become without their Bending."
"So I'm a reminder that they could just be as weak as me?"
He couldn't see it but somehow, he knew that the spirit was grinning. "Did I ever say that you were the weakest? If anything, you're the strongest one in the group."
"…Thanks, Sifu, I needed that," he said quietly. That last part made him feel a bit better.
"That's what a sifu does, he teaches and encourages." With that said, Sifu disappeared, and time began to flow again.
At that point, Aang showed up. "Aang, thank goodness! Have you got any meat?" Sokka asked, happy to see his friend.
Aang ran up to him. "Sokka, are you okay?" he asked. He reached for The Tribesman's arms and tried to pull him out of the crevice. It didn't really work.
"Stop, stop! You're going to pull my arms off!" Sokka told the Avatar. He could feel his arms being pulled but the rest of his body was staying put.
Aang stepped back. "Hm, I bet I can Airbend you out of here," he said. Sokka could hear the uncertainty in his voice. The Airbender tried to bend a huge column of air from underneath Sokka's feet. But the only result was his hair being shaped up into a semi-Mohawk, which was flattened by the hilt of his machete.
"Seriously, Aang, I know you're new at it, but I could use a little Earthbending here," he told his friend, looking expectedly at him.
Aang turned to face away from him. "I can't, I can't do it," he admitted, feeling embarrassed by that simple fact.
"Well, if you can't Earthbend me out of here, go get Toph."
"I can't do that either."
"You can't, why not?" It was a simple enough of a request. Why couldn't he do it?
"It-it would just be really…uncomfortable," Aang said, trying to explain.
"Uncomfortable?" Sokka asked with full and obvious sarcasm. "Well, I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable."
"Thanks, Sokka," the Air Nomad told him, sitting down next to the crevice and completely missing the sarcasm. "This whole Earthbending thing really has me confused. There's so much pressure. Everybody expects me to get it right away. I-it puts me in a really awkward position."
"Awkward position, I think I know the feeling," he said, again with obvious sarcasm.
But again, Aang didn't get it. "I-if I try, I fail. But if I don't try, I'm never going to get it. I feel like I'm caught between a rock and hard place." It felt embarrassing to him. He was the Avatar. He was supposed to be the master of all four elements. And yet, he couldn't even do one of them. He just didn't know what to do.
Sokka just looked at him. "Aang, can you do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Bring your head down closer to me." Aang wasn't sure what he wanted but brought his head down anyway. "A little closer," Sokka urged him. He brought it closer. "That should do it." And without warning, the Tribesman proceeded to smack him upside the head, hard.
"OW! What was that for!?" Aang demanded with tears in his eyes. He had never known Sokka to do something like that. The sting that came with the smack seemed to burn on his head, making him feel all of it.
"Are you done whining? Stop being a little kid who stops doing something because you yelled at about doing it wrong once. Get your act together," the Water Paragon ordered him, his voice becoming hard.
"I just told you I—"
"I don't care, Aang!" Sokka shouted him down. "Stop having a pity party! This morning, you woke up everybody because you were so excited to learn Earthbending. You say it's hard for you to learn this, well no duh! Did you expect it to be easy? Toph said it herself, it's a stubborn element. That means you must be stubborn as well. Stop complaining about it being hard and deal with it!"
He sat there in silence until he finally nodded his head. "You're right, Sokka. Sorry about complaining there."
"Don't apologize to me. I've been here all day." Just then the creature came back. "Aang, this is my friend, Foo Foo Cuddlypoops. Foo Foo Cuddlypoops, Aang," the Tribesman introduced the two of them.
Aang picked up the creature. "Aww, what a cute name for a little baby saber-tooth moose-lion cub," he declared, standing up.
"Really?" wondered Sokka. "He looks nothing like a saber-tooth mouse-lion."
"It's hard to tell before their giant teeth and horns grow in." He looked closer at Foo Foo. "What are you doing out here, little guy? Did you lose your mama?" The loud growl behind him was his answer. Turning around, Aang saw Foo Foo's mother, a fully grown saber-tooth moose-lion.
"Waterbenders deal with the flow of energy," Iroh explained to Zuko as the two of them practice a basic Waterbending move. "A Waterbender lets their defense become their offense, turning their opponent's energy against them. I learn the way to do this with lightning."
"You can teach me how to redirect lightning?" Zuko asked, surprised. That was something he had never heard before.
He nodded. "If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips, up your arm to your shoulder, then down to your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called the sea of chi. Only in my case it is more like a vast ocean." He laughed at his own joke. Zuko said nothing, so he continued. "From the stomach, you direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the lightning through your heart, or the damage could be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion, to get a feel for the pathway's flow." He took a stance. "Like this."
Zuko copied the stance and began to mimic his uncle. Slowly but surely, they went through the motions. "Now, are you focusing your energy? Can you feel your own chi flowing in, down, up, and out?" Iroh asked him
"I think so," Zuko said. It felt a little weird, doing a form that wasn't a part of Firebending.
"Come on, you've got to feel the flow." Iroh moved his arms like a worm to emphasis his point. They kept practicing a few more times. "Excellent, you've got it!" He said when he saw that his nephew's movements had gotten smoother.
"Great, I'm ready to try it with real lightning!" Zuko exclaimed.
"What? Are you crazy? Lightning is extremely dangerous," he protested.
"I thought that was the point. You're teaching me how to protect myself from it." That was what the exiled prince thought. How else was he supposed to see if it worked or not?
But Iroh had a look of semi-panic on his face. "Yeah, but I'm not going to shoot lightning at you! If you're lucky, you will never have to use this technique at all."
Frustrated and annoyed, he looked out to the horizon and saw storm clouds gathering. Suddenly, he had an idea. "Well, if you won't help me, I'll find my own lightning." He took off on the ostrich horse in the direction of the storm clouds.
"Hey there," Aang said to the adult animal. "We found your cub." He held up Foo Foo to emphasize his point. Then he put him on the ground and watched as he ran into the bush behind his mother. "See? We have no problem with you, we're friendly."
Mrs. Cuddlypoops didn't seem to agree. She lowered her head and looked like she was about to charge. "Aang, I don't think that worked," Sokka warned him. Mrs. Cuddlypoops roared her challenge and charged at them. When she got close to Aang, he bent the air to send over his and Sokka's head. She landed safely and looked like this was about to charge. "This is bad," The Tribesman said. "Get me out so I can fight."
"I don't think that's—" he tried to say.
"We don't have the time, Aang. Get me out of here!" Sokka ordered, cutting him off. He did the Earthbending motions, but Sokka was still trapped in the crevice. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cuddlypoops began to paw the ground.
"Oh no!" said Aang before jumping over to a nearby rock. "Woohoo, look at me!" He started to do a silly dance to get her attention. It didn't work. She charged directly at Sokka, intent on goring him. Realizing what was about to happen, Aang hopped of the rock and knock her aside via Airbending.
Again, Mrs. Cuddlypoops landed safely. "Please don't leave me like that again," Sokka said. That had been a very scary moment for him.
"I won't," Aang told him. For the third time, Mrs. Cuddlypoops charged. But this time, he was ready. When she got close, he blasted her with a lot of air, making her skid backwards. She finally got the hint and decided to leave.
At that moment, both Sokka and Aang heard someone clapping. Turning their heads to the sound, they saw Toph sitting on nearby rock. "What are you doing here?" Sokka asked her.
"Just enjoying the show," she answered. She sounded completely relaxed.
"What? You were there the whole time?" Aang asked her.
"Pretty much."
"Why didn't you do something?" he demanded, outraged. "Sokka was in trouble! I was in trouble! You could've gotten him and help us get away"
"Guess it just didn't occur to me." She tossed a nut down to the ground, pulled out Aang's gilder staff and swung it down to crack the nut.
The idea was stopped when Aang grabbed hold of the staff. "Enough, I want my staff back!" He was sick and tired of her attitude. He wanted what was his and he wanted it now!
She let go of the thing and hopped down from the rock. "Do it now," she ordered him.
"What?"
"Earthbend, Twinkle-toes," she clarified. "You just stood your ground against a crazy beast, and even more impressive, you stood your ground against me. You've got the stuff."
"But—" he tried to protest.
"Do it!" she shouted at him. Angry and annoyed with her for everything that had happened that day, he didn't know what else to do. So he channeled those emotions and did as he was told. He took the stance and pushed a nearby rock. It went sliding away before falling over. "You did it! You're an Earthbender!" Toph told him.
"I can't believe it!" Aang said with joy. He had thought it was difficult but now? It had been easy.
"Ah, this is really a wonderful, touching moment," Sokka said with subtle sarcasm. "So could you get me out of her so I can give both a big, snuggly hug?" He was beginning to feel his legs go numb.
"No problem, Sokka," the Avatar told him. He was about to try and do it when Toph stopped him.
"Actually, you should probably let me do that. You're still a little new to this. You might accidently crush him," she warned him.
"Yeah, no crushing, please," Sokka agreed. He didn't want any crushing happening to him. She walked over, bent him out of the crevice up to his knees and pulled him the rest of the way out by his hair.
Later, they got back to the camp area where they met up with Katara, Momo, and Akela. "You found him," Katara cried, running over and giving her brother a hug.
"Sorry about that," he apologized. "I was hunting a saber-tooth moose lion cub and ended up being stuck in a hole." He threw a look at his wolf. "Don't even start, Akela," he warned. Akela just grinned wolfishly.
"Hey Katara, look what I can do!" Aang called out. He bent a large piece of rock down to the ground.
"You did it! I knew you would," she told him. She then whispered to Toph. "You tried the positive reinforcement, didn't you?"
"Yep, it worked wonders," the Earthbender answered. Next time, she would be sure to use it.
The resident sky bison decided to make an appearance. "Appa, Appa!" Aang said excitingly. "I can Earthbend now. The key is being completely rooted, physically and mentally unmovable." Appa decided to give Aang a big lick, which sent him flying. This sent both him and Sokka into hysterics.
"Hey, guys," Toph called out. "Team Guy is back." She could feel them coming through the earth.
Sure enough, Team Guy appeared in under a minute. "Spread out, we have to find that clone!" Guy ordered.
"Hey, what's going on?" Aang asked, making them stop.
"Naruto had a Kage Bunshin tracking us since we left Tu Zin. If we don't find it before nightfall, it's going to sneak in and kill you," he quickly explained.
"That's impossible," Toph protested. "I would've felt him. There's nobody here except us." She was sure of it. Her feet never lied to her.
"She's right," Neji said, as he looked around with an activated Byakugan. "I don't see anyone except for us." He kept looking around, but he saw no one.
"Hang on," Tenten said. "It's possible that he knows about Toph being able to see via the ground and he definitely knows about the Byakugan. He might be staying just out of range so that we won't see him."
"If that's true, we have to look for him now before he gets to us," Guy said. He turned to the others. "You four stay here. Under no circumstance should all of you go to sleep!" If they did, the clone could easily sneak in and slice their throats.
"Guy, wait!" Sokka yelled, stopping Team Guy before they ran off.
"What is it?" They had to go and this wasn't the time for distractions.
"There's a piece of paper in your headband," he pointed out. Guy reached for the piece of paper, opened it, and read what was written.
"Guy-sensei, what does it say?" Lee asked. Guy didn't say anything. He just simply handed the paper to Neji, who read it to the group.
You people sure are gullible. There was only the one clone.
"He was…bluffing?" Lee asked as if he couldn't believe it.
"He couldn't have been!" Tenten protested. "He told us about the hidden clone."
"No, he didn't," Neji said as he remembered the conversation. "He only asked us if we thought the first clone had only made one clone. He also never actually said that he had sent a clone after us, we came to that conclusion ourselves."
"He must have put the note in my headband during the fight," Guy noted. "That means…" He stopped talking as all members of Team Guy realized what it meant.
"It means what?" Toph asked. She didn't know what it meant, and she would like some clarification.
"It means that Naruto knew what we were going to try to do if he tried to leave the fight. He knew that we would threaten to go after the girls. He had his bluff ready before we had even gotten there," Neji explained. He never felt so foolish before. They had been duped into not going after him when they had the chance.
Katara then saw that Guy was crying. "What's the matter, Guy? What's with the tears?" she asked him.
He smiled. "These are tears of happiness. He really was a fine Konoha shinobi."
The storm raged all around Zuko and yet he stared defiantly at it. "You've always thrown everything you could at me. Well, I can take it, and now I can give it back!" he yelled. Thunder boomed and lightning struck in the distance, but none of it came near him. "Go on, strike me!" he roared. "You've never held back before!" And yet, the storm seemed to mock him.
Finally, his tears mixed with the rain and he howled his frustration to the sky. As he cried on the mountain top, he heard a voice in the distance. "Why?" it asked faintly. It sounded like an echo that faded away in the storm.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Zuko commanded as he rose to his feet. He tried to see who it was talking but saw nothing.
"Why?" it asked again, this time more clearly.
"What do you mean 'why?'" He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a faint shadow moving in the clouds. He tried to follow the shadow, but lost sight of it.
"Why do you do this? What are you trying to prove?"
"That I am not as weak as everyone thinks I am. To prove I don't have to fear lightning!" And, he silently added, to also prove that he wasn't afraid of his sister.
Thunder boomed but oddly enough, there was no lightning. The voice chuckled. "You should always fear lightning boy, fear it and respect it," the voice chastised him as the shadow reappeared.
He kept his eyes fixed on that shadow, trying not to lose it. "If you want to say something, then come out and face me instead of hiding like a coward!" he ordered with all the authority he could muster.
"INSOLENT CHILD!" roared the voice, suddenly enraged. Before the prince's eyes, he saw a pair of solid gold eyes flash briefly in the storm clouds. "DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO YOU INSULT!? IF YOU WISH SO MUCH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, THEN COME AND TAKE IT!"
He heard a bestial roar before he saw a large stream of lightning coming directly at him. He quickly took the stance his uncle showed him. But then he realized something just as the lightning struck. He realized that the booming of thunder sounded more like the flapping of wings. He took the lightning in through his arm and let it travel down, but it wasn't easy.
It felt like his entire body was being tortured. "Arrgh! The pain! It's too much! Let it stop, dear Agni, let it STOP!" his mind screamed as it was clouded by pain. He felt like he couldn't hold on, that he would die if it went on. But as the lightning was about to reach his heart, he broke through the cloud of pain. "No! I will not die because of this!" He then forced the lightning down into his stomach and then up into his other arm. And then, he threw the lightning in the same direction it came. As it disappeared and the echo faded away, he stood just there, panting in the rain and trying to get his breath back.
Then he heard the voice again and this time it was laughing. "It has been a long time since someone has insulted me to my face, and an even longer time since someone has tried to fight me. You remind me so much of him," it said. It didn't sound enraged anymore, more like it was fondly remembering something.
"Who's him?" Zuko asked cautiously. Lightning struck down in front of him, making him leap back. But what he saw surprise him. In the exact spot where the lightning struck stood another Zuko. It was the same face, the eyes and the same build. But that was where the similarities ended. To start off, Zuko could see through him a little bit, so he knew that it was a shade. He wore an ancient set of armor and his hair was tied back in a braid. But it was the scars that set him apart. Like Zuko, his left eye had been burned. But unlike Zuko, his right eye has also been burned, giving him an almost mask-like appearance. "Who is that? I-is that me?" the exiled prince asked.
"No, but you are related to him," the voice told him.
"How?" He asked, idly wondering how the voice was sure of that. He looked closer and saw that the shade wore something familiar around his neck. "That's the Fire Nation Paragon Medallion. This man was a Paragon of the Fire Nation?"
"He was the first. He was a good man," the voice said, the fondness becoming more obvious.
He looked out into the storm again, looking for the shadow. "Who are you?" he called out, wanting to know.
Again, the eyes showed themselves. This time, they came with a head. It was vague and covered by the storm clouds, but he could tell it was a dragon's head. "I am the dragon that many searched for but only a few will meet. You have joined those few." The head, eyes and voice disappeared, and the storm kept on raining, this time without the thunder and lightning.
Zuko fell to the ground in surprise. He had just insulted, talked to, and threw lightning at a legendary dragon that his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father had all searched for in their youth.
He had just met the Dragon King, the firstborn of Agni, Bahamut.
End
Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
To start off, I've been toying around with an idea for this story. I've been thinking of putting in a Bleach element and put in Zanpakutō. Now I wouldn't put it in randomly. I would give a little backstory as to why they're there in the first place. I would also only keep it to three people, which would be Zuko, Sokka, and Naruto. I was planning on having them get the Zanpakutō much later in the story, not in the next few chapters. Also, they wouldn't become Soul Reapers when getting the Zanpakutō. I've got the names, releases and basic Shikai and Bankai ideas for Sokka and Zuko. I'm still working on Naruto, which is why they get them later. So let me know what you think of this idea.
If the fighting between Naruto and Team Guy was too short for your taste, I apologize. I'm still trying to figure out how to write a battle scene. But at least I'm trying, there are authors out there who will put in a (Insert fight scene here) and ask others to help them.
I know I used Bahamut for the name of the Dragon King, but can you blame me? If I said "Dragon in a video game." what would be the first name that popped into your head? Plus to me, the ending in that episode always seemed a little weak.
Also, I do know I changed Sokka a bit in this chapter. Aang was doing "Poor, poor pitiful me" a lot in this episode and I thought he desperately needed to be hit on the head. I also thought that Sokka would be the one to do it. Some of you out there might call it bashing, I call it much needed dose of tough love. The way the kid mopes in some of those episodes, he needs it.
If I had translated Twin Fist in Japanese wrong, please let me know. The Internet cannot always be trusted with these things.
I'll see you all next chapter!