CHAPTER 29: GRIEVANCES OF A REFORMED FIEND
(Disclaimer: Avatar The Last Airbender belongs to Nickelodeon and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OC's)
(PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO "SHUJINKO: THE FOURTH MEMBER", BUT A DIFFERENT STORY WITH SHUJINKO AS THE MAIN CHARACTER. THIS STORY WILL NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT WHATSOEVER IN "SHUJINKO SHIPPUDEN". I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO SHUJINKO'S ORIGINAL STORY)
Summary: One night, a stranger breaks into Shujinko's house and tries to steal one of the most mystical objects in the history of the Ozuma clan: The Eye of Kazemaru. When Shujinko tries to stop him, the two of them activate an ancient and forgotten power of the gem by accident, which sends them to another dimension where a certain bald-headed monk has to master the four elements in order to defeat the evil Fire Lord. What kind of impact will Shujinko's presence have in the Avatar universe? Who is this stranger and what does he want? Get ready for one wild space-time adventure
After the stress-fest that was the meeting with the Council of Five, the members of Team Avatar decided to take a small break from all the craziness that had been revealed to them and let their overcooked brains cool down. It was only for a day, but those twenty-four hours of rest did wonders for their mental health, allowing them to gather together the following morning and plan their next move with a clear head.
To say that they had their work cut out for them was a gross understatement. Somehow, they, a bunch of teenagers had to find a way to convince the most powerful man in the nation on paper that his entire reign was built on a lie and get him to listen to them over the person in whom he trusted the most, who also happened to be the most powerful man in the nation in practice. Oh, and they were only given fourteen days to make it happen before the generals arrived at the royal palace with the Earth Kingdom Army at their backs, of which four days had already passed.
However, instead of focusing on how to handle this monumental challenge, Team Avatar ended up discussing an entirely different, yet no less important subject: Appa had been missing for long enough and they had to find him already.
There was a silver lining in all this mess. By bringing him up in one of his threats, Long Feng had claimed to know where Appa was being kept, making him and the Dai Li the prime suspects. Maybe the whole thing was just a bluff, but now that they knew what kind of power Long Feng had, him holding a huge flying mammal captive in utmost secrecy was perfectly within the realm of possibility.
That being said, there was no chance in hell they would get reunited with Appa by approaching Long Feng and politely asking for their Sky Bison back, so they were going to have to try something else.
Sokka argued that even if Appa was no longer in Ba Sing Se, he had to be spotted by at least a handful of people when he was brought to the city as a matter of sheer probability, to which the rest of the party concurred. Therefore, instead of going straight to the source, they would have to reach out to the common folk, and the most effective way of doing this was via the wonderful invention known as the printing press. Once this was decided, the airbender left to find the best printing house in Ba Sing Se.
Luckily, staying as honored guests of the city with all of their expenses paid saved Team Avatar a lot of cash, which allowed them to fork over enough dough from the Earth Rumble tournament to put in a huge rush order. The owner of the establishment Aang visited was hesitant at first since he had other assignments to wrap up, but a few extra gold pieces on top of the base price afforded his complete cooperation. By the end of the day, nearly a thousand missing posters were printed. The posters showed a fairly detailed illustration of Appa and included all the necessary information to contact Team Avatar, offering what was left of the money from the Earth Rumble tournament as a reward.
While Shujinko was on board with the idea of circulating these all over the capital, he did warn his friends that in doing so, they would quickly and inevitably draw the attention of the Dai Li, and by extension, Long Feng's. The king's advisor already considered them persona non grata, and although handing out fliers wasn't quite the same as spreading the truth about the war, it still wouldn't sit well with him.
Bearing this in mind, the gang split up and set out to distribute the posters in each ring of the city. Katara and Shujinko would go to the Lower Ring; Sokka and Toph would go to the Middle Ring; and Aang would glide above the Upper Ring dropping posters everywhere. None of them knew what to expect, but if there was a one-percent chase that doing this would help them find Appa, then they had to give it a shot.
They owed him that much.
|Ba Sing Se, Lower Ring|
After several days of living in the high society, surrounded by wealth, elegance, and the finer things in life, Shujinko felt as though he was in a completely different dimension walking around the Lower Ring.
During their welcoming tour with Joo Dee, Team Avatar had been informed that this part of the capital was by far the biggest in all of Ba Sing Se, as well as the most populated. To put it simply, this was where poor citizens lived, and other than its size, the Lower Ring didn't leave much of an impression on Shujinko. Cold as it may seem, the golden eyes of the Chūnin had witnessed more gut-wrenching sights than people struggling to break even. Of course, those were his thoughts at the time as he watched the less-than-glamorous side of town from the coziness of Jo Dee's private monorail car.
However, now that he was actually exploring the Lower Ring, the Ozuma couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised. He had seen poverty before, but never so much of it cramped up together in one place, almost as if the locals here were actively trying to demonstrate how miserable their situation was. Some districts were in a better state than others, yet none of them were developed enough to be labeled "humble", not even for courtesy's sake. They made the most rotten, filth-infested slums of the Hidden Leaf Village look respectable and hygienic in comparison.
Damn it, it even surpassed Tazuna's village in the Land of Waves. The two sites were about on par in terms of impoverishment, but at least there was enough space in Tazuna's village for everyone's poverty. On the other hand, the Lower Ring was like one huge trash bin filled with more garbage than it could handle, perfumed by the smelliest of stenches.
"Hey, you there," a voice called from behind.
The golden-eyed boy turned around to see a man with greasy black hair and ratty, ill-fitting clothes staring him down. He didn't look much different from the majority of the Lower Ring residents except for the knife he was gripping, for which the Ozuma felt a spark of curiosity as he had never seen daggers with wavy blades before. Shujinko would've liked to hold that weapon and give it a few test swings if it weren't for the fact that it was being pointed at him.
"Gimme everything you got, and be quick about it,"
"Sorry, I don't have any money on me right now," Shujinko said. The tone of his voice was not a pleading one. In fact, it didn't have much of a tone at all. The Chūnin responded the same way he would respond to a pesky beggar who was asking for some loose change; with respectful disinterest.
Understandably, the thief wasn't expecting this kind of reaction from his victim or lack thereof, evidenced by the look of disconcertment on his face and the awkward silence that came after. "W-Well, it don't have to be just money," he said, pulling himself out of his confused state. "Anything valuable will do. Just hand over those odd boots o' yours or whatever,"
"My boots?" Shujinko asked, pointing down at his navy blue shinobi boots. He was wearing his usual gear, having left his fancy clothes at home, though he did keep his hair bun in place as a minimal camouflage effort. While he had certainly caught more than a few odd stares thanks to his normal outfit, only an ignorant would parade around the slums of the Lower Ring flaunting the finest silk in the land, which would be the equivalent of holding up a sign that said Hey dirty peasants, I'm a dumb rich boy, feel free to rob me blind.
The aforementioned point wasn't invalidated by the fact that he was being mugged at this precise moment.
"I'm afraid I can't do that either. You see, I'm pretty fond of these boots and I don't own a second pair. If you want my advice, you should try your luck with someone else. I got nothing to give you as it is,"
The boy's nonchalant attitude, combined with the sheer audacity of giving him advice, rattled the thief to his core and caused him to lose his temper. "Hey, cut it out already! This ain't no joke!" he yelled while raising his knife. "You think I'm playin' around or somethin'? Do as I say or else!"
"Else, then,"
"… W-What?"
"You gave me two options: Either I do as you say or else. I choose else," the Ozuma answered with the same calmness Iruka would display while explaining whatever subject his class was about. He even took a step forward himself, further closing the distance between them while maintaining eye contact, though he did steady his hands in case the man was unlucky enough to try to harm him. "Well? Are you gonna do something or not? My friends are expecting me and I'd rather not keep them waiting if I can avoid it,"
The Chūnin didn't need to be a mind reader to know what was going on inside the bandit's head. His face said it all. The man had resorted to anger both as a result of his own confusion as well as an intimidation tactic, probably hoping to threaten Shujinko into compliance. Now that the thief's bluff had been called, not only had his confusion increased, but his anger had also been replaced with fear, just like a loud dog after realizing it'd been barking at a wolf.
Some people, perhaps most, would assume that any man or woman who found themselves in this position would prioritize their own survival and flee, but the golden-eyed teenager had learned that wasn't always what happened. In some cases, their pride was bigger than their fear and they felt compelled to go through with whatever warning they had given. In others cases, their fear turned into hysteria, causing them to take leave of their senses and allow emotion to guide their hand, almost always to their own detriment.
Fortunately, nothing of the sort took place this time. Daunted by how insanely unfazed the boy was, the thief made the smart call of shoving off, to which the Ozuma turned around and went on his way as if nothing had happened.
Shujinko had spent a fair amount of time in this part of the world, enough to familiarize himself with many things he once thought ludicrous or remarkably unusual. However, being confronted by people vastly inferior to him in terms of overall power was not one of them. In his homeland, he was another shinobi of the bunch. He liked to think he was strong for his age, which he probably was, but whether that was true or not, the reality was that there were way more ninjas who could beat him than ninjas whom the Chūnin could defeat. That undeniable fact was neither good nor bad. It was just what it was, cut and dry.
But here… Here, he was a god.
… Okay, that was going way overboard, but he certainly wasn't human either. Whichever category he fell under, and at the risk of overfeeding his own ego, Shujinko honestly believed he was at the top of this part of the world's strength chain, a spot he shared only with the hooded man for now.
He didn't consider benders to be weak. In fact, some of them had wondrous skills that he himself lacked, but they simply weren't ninjas. With the exception of the hooded man, none of the fights he had partaken in these foreign lands had forced him to do anything past "taking them seriously", let alone go all out as he had during his battle at Tu Zin. If he wanted to, Shujinko was fairly certain he could kill anyone who stood in his way, be it through direct violence, subtle deception, or a combination of both, for while he knew what benders were and what they could do, benders had no idea what he was and what he was capable of.
That was the difference.
What did that make of him, then? A super-human? A demon? A heaven-sent hero who was meant to help end the Hundred Year War or an unnatural killing machine who happened to join the side of the good guys by mere coincidence?
Shujinko thought about it for a while, but he eventually gave up on finding an answer. He didn't belong in this part of the world, so trying to figure out what his place and role were in it was pure folly.
Just as he was done pondering over existential conundrums he never thought he'd ever find himself reflecting upon (yet again), the Chūnin espied Katara sticking what seemed like the last of her posters on a wooden fence and whistled loudly to get her attention. The waterbender turned around and perked up at the sight of Shujinko, walking toward him at a hurried pace. "Hey there, I just finished putting up my share of the posters. What about you?"
"I'm done too. Come on, let's head back. I've seen enough of this place," he replied, to which Katara nodded. The pair of teenagers stepped onto the sidewalk and began making their way out of the Lower Ring.
"Gosh, I hope doing this was worth the trouble," Katara started to say, stretching her arms. "Don't get me wrong, I'll do whatever it takes to find Appa, but this was so boring. I almost ran out of spots to hang these posters, and it's not like this side of the city is small or anything,"
"Sure, but think about it like this: It's better to overdo it than underdo it. We wouldn't have gotten much done handing out five pamphlets each, and with this many posters of him up, Appa is sure to become the talk of the town. He damn well better be after all the work we've put in,"
Katara chuckled at that. "You got that right. I just hope at least one person shows up with information on Appa's whereabouts," she said, to which the Chūnin nodded in agreement. The pair of adolescents remained quiet for a while, having nothing else to discuss until the girl from the Southern Water Tribe came up with another topic of conversation. Few were the chances in which the two of them got to speak in private, and she wanted to make the most out of those instances even if it resulted in nothing more than idle chit-chat. "By the way, I see you were done with your share of posters before I was. How long did it take you?"
"About two to three hours, maybe,"
"Two to three hours?" Katara repeated, her eyes wide in disbelief. "It took me at least twice as much to put up all of my posters, and we split them into equal shares. What did you do to finish the job so quickly? Some kinda ninja trick or what?"
Shujinko couldn't help but smile somewhat sheepishly. "Well, let's just say a certain clone was kind enough to lighten some of my load,"
"… You mean-"
"Yup. Gotta love the Shadow Clone Jutsu,"
The waterbender shook her head and heaved a reproachful sigh, though she couldn't stop a small smirk of amusement from tugging at her lips. "I honestly can't believe a guy like you would rely on Ninjutsu to get such a menial task done. Still, if I could make clones of myself, I can't say I wouldn't use them for things like that. Not all the time, but maybe every now and again… Speaking of Ninjutsu, I've been meaning to ask you something,"
"Sure, fire away,"
"You told us that every jutsu you perform consumes some of your chakra, that the amount of chakra you lose depends on the jutsu itself, and lastly, that depleting the last drop of your chakra reserves means death," the waterbender said, getting a nod of confirmation from Shujinko. "I don't know if I'm phrasing this correctly, but how do ninjas measure their chakra in the first place? How do they keep track of it?"
The Ozuma crossed his arms in front of his chest, closing his eyes as he thought about how he should answer Katara's question. "… It's a bit tricky to explain. A jutsu's chakra cost isn't like a math problem that can be solved by adding and subtracting specific numbers. I wish it were that simple, but in reality, it's… it's kinda like a feeling that you grasp somehow, and the more you practice a certain jutsu, the more precise your grasp on that feeling becomes. Eventually, it gets to the point where you just understand it perfectly, if that makes any sense,"
"I'm not sure it does, but okay. Sounds like something I'd have to experience myself in order to get it. What about the Shadow Clone Jutsu? How much chakra does it take you to create a bunch of clones?"
"Ah, now the Shadow Clone Jutsu is a special case. Unlike the vast majority of techniques, the chakra cost of the Shadow Clone Jutsu has its own rule: In order for it to work, I must split my chakra evenly between myself and the number of clones I intend to make. Therefore, if I create a single shadow clone, my chakra gets cut in half. If I create two shadow clones instead of one, there'd be three of us in total, meaning that's two-thirds of my chakra gone, and so on. It's the closest thing to a Ninjutsu formula that I can think of,"
"… So, every time you've used your shadow clones for one thing or the other, you… Your chakra was…" Shujinko watched in full detail as a look of raw panic spread over Katara's face. Frozen in her place, the waterbender's jaw went slack and her pupils dilated, acting as if the Ozuma had just committed the most profane of sins right in front of her. "… Are you out of your mind? Why didn't you tell us about this before? You can't keep something like this a secret from your friends!"
"Hold on a second, I didn't keep anything a secret. You guys simply never asked me about it,"
"Seriously, Shujinko? One shadow clone takes half of your chakra. Half of it! You just wasted all of that chakra for the sake of putting up posters faster. And I've seen you create two or even three of them at a time! If we'd known this from the start, we wouldn't have let you use such a dangerous technique so casually,"
"Excuse me, but that's a call only I get to make. My chakra, my decision. You don't hear me dictating to others what they should and shouldn't do with their bending abilities, do you?"
"Because making use of them doesn't put our lives in danger! How do you not see that? Don't you remember what happened after your fight with the hooded man? The strain that was put on your body from all those jutsus you performed? You were bedridden for almost a week,"
"But I won, didn't I?" Shujinko countered, conveniently omitting the fact that it was a mud clone of the hooded man whom he had bested, not his enemy in the flesh. "Listen, I took a calculated risk against that guy and it paid off. I get that you're worried, but I know my limits better than anyone, Katara. Otherwise, I wouldn't be alive today, so I'm asking you to let it go,"
"I'm not letting anything go unless you promise me you'll only use that jutsu as a last resort from now on. Swear it to me,"
The Ozuma gave Katara the most skeptical of stares. "You're kidding, right?"
"Do I look like I'm kidding? Now say it,"
"Nope, not happening,"
"Shujinko, I'm warning you, you're seriously starting to get under my skin,"
"You're getting under your own skin,"
"What's that even supposed to mean?"
Shujinko threw his head back and let out an exasperated sigh, fed up with the bothersome turn the conversation had taken. "It means I would've kept my mouth shut had I known you were going to make a mountain out of an ant hill. That being said, can we please move on already? Cuz' I gotta tell you, this has gotten pretty annoying,"
Not the nicest thing to say to a friend, the Chūnin would admit. Katara's heart was in the right place and she was just trying to look out for him. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was indeed not a technique to trifle with. Nothing dangerous enough to be considered a Forbidden Jutsu should be taken lightly. Shujinko was well aware of its risks and so was Katara now, but apparently, she didn't understand that he did understand this. He was no Academy student who needed to be told the difference between a paper shuriken and a real one.
He would've let all of that slide had it not been for what the waterbender had asked of him near the end of the discussion. Even though it wasn't meant to have that effect, the Ozuma felt rather insulted by Katara flat-out demanding him to promise her what she wanted. If such a request had come from Kakashi or Lady Tsunade, then Shujinko would've assented out of duty and respect, but although Katara was someone precious to him, she was sorely mistaken if she believed he held her in the same regard as those two. She was a comrade as well as a friend, and a close one at that, but she was neither his mentor nor his superior.
Shujinko was willing to accept the immediate consequences brought about by his harsh words. He was expecting Katara to make a few unflattering remarks or fall quiet and ignore him for the next hours, maybe even the rest of the day if she was really pissed. What he wasn't expecting was for the waterbender to take off and leave without saying a word, precisely what ended up happening.
"Hey, where are you going? Wait-" But it was no use. The girl from the Southern Water Tribe made it to the end of the street and turned left, disappearing out of his sight.
000
The softest of tears rolled down Katara's cheeks as she caught her breath after running for Spirits know long. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, but it did little to abate the intensity of her emotions as more tears followed.
With all the dignity and poise a crying adolescent could muster, the waterbender began to walk into a deserted alleyway that was barely wide enough for four people to walk abreast. Considering how packed the Lower Ring was, finding an empty place like this by chance was a miracle in its own right, so she took the opportunity to deal with her inner turmoil in private. She didn't know how Shujinko hadn't tracked her down yet, but she hoped it would take him a lot longer, for she couldn't bear the thought of the Chūnin finding her like this, or worse, wanting to talk to her after the way he blew her off.
'That idiot. That selfish, inconsiderate idiot,' Katara thought, snarling as the image of the Ozuma's face inevitably materialized in her mind's eye. The idea of inflicting physical harm upon a fellow member of Team Avatar was one that had never entered her head before, but if that face were in front of her right now, the daughter of Hakoda was unsure if she'd be able to stop herself from giving it a well-deserved slap. 'He… He doesn't understand. He can't get anything through that thick skull of his,'
She was furious with Shujinko, with his dismissal of her concerns, with how casually he had revealed the secrets of the Shadow Clone Jutsu and its inherent risks, and with how he had expected her to simply nod absentmindedly as if they were discussing a trivial subject. If this revelation had come from someone of lesser intelligence, then perhaps Katara would've been less surprised, but she knew for a fact Shujinko was smarter than that and she wasn't about to start making excuses for him.
For all this, the anger she felt towards him right now was more than justified in her eyes. However, regardless of how hard Katara pressed her teeth together or how many disparaging adjectives popped inside her head to describe the Chūnin on the spur of the moment, nothing could change what the waterbender truly felt past the layer of indignation her heart was enveloped in. Deep down, Katara was sad. Sad and frustrated by Shujinko's inability to comprehend what made her so upset despite him claiming otherwise.
Even if the Ozuma wasn't aware of it, he was simply too important to Katara, and it killed her inside to know that he was gambling with his life every time he used Ninjutsu, whether the situation warranted it or not.
And what did he have to say on the matter? "Shut up, you're being annoying,"… Maybe not in those words, but that's what his response condensed down to. Spirits, how could one boy be so clever and so imperceptive at the same time? And more importantly, why did that boy have to be Shujinko of all people?
If he were anybody else… If he were anybody else, she would…
"… Katara,"
Upon hearing her name, the waterbender turned around to see an individual standing at a corner of the alleyway. For a split millisecond, she thought he was Shujinko on account of the boy's brown hair and her own teary eyes, but a single blink later, Katara realized two things. First, the boy standing before her was not Shujinko. And second, he was no stranger either, for she immediately recognized who he was.
After all, it was hard to forget the face of Jet, the guy who caused a flooding and almost got away with wiping out an entire village of innocent people after making you an unwitting accomplice. Typical of a girl's first crush.
Speaking of floods, warm blood flooded Katara's cheeks, though without the fuzzy sensation in her stomach that she experienced whenever she was flustered. Not that she wasn't flustered, for she most certainly was, but not in a good, giggling, giddy sort of way. Whatever measure of befuddlement she felt upon seeing Jet was vastly overwhelmed by her nigh instinctive desire to pummel the gallant bastard and ask questions later, or maybe not ask any questions at all, so long as she fulfilled the pummeling part of her wish.
"Katara, wait! I've chan-!" Jet's pleas fell on deft (and burning-red) ears as Hakoda's daughter opened her zahato and performed the water whip, her bending technique of preference, hitting him right in the gut and sending Jet tumbling back, who barely managed to stay on his feet after getting half his wind knocked out of him.
But Katara was far from done. In the midst of her initial attack, she noticed five oak buckets lying next to each other on the sidewalk, all of which contained brownish, sludge-filled water. Normally, she would retch at the thought of bending such filth, but this time, Katara saw these buckets as the perfect ammunition for the occasion. "Tell it to some other girl, Jet!" she exclaimed, gathering the rancid liquid and launching it all at once in the form of a projectile.
Jet had just enough time to draw his hook swords and cross them in front of him. Although he managed to block Katara's attack, the force behind it pushed Jet several feet back until he was at the dead end of the alley, leaving him completely cornered. The punishment would've continued had it not been for Jet dropping his weapons in front of the waterbender, which caused her to stop and stare in mild surprise.
"I'm not here to fight!" he shouted with what little oxygen remained in his lungs. The rebellious teenager took a moment to catch his breath, which felt particularly nasty for him as he was covered in stink. "I get that you're mad at me, but please hear me out,"
"What's going on here?" Katara recognized the voice of her brother coming from behind. She turned around and saw Sokka approaching the scene, joined by Aang, Toph, and, to her misfortune, Shujinko. "Hold on, is that...?"
"… He is," the Avatar said, sporting the same awestruck expression on his face as Hakoda's son. "What are you doing here, Jet?"
"Aang. Sokka. It's been a while since the last time we saw each other," Jet responded, employing a stern tone to conceal his awkwardness. He briefly glanced at the two new faces that were present as well, belonging to a boy and a girl. "Looks like you've made a few friends along the way,"
The Chūnin furrowed his brow as he studied the stranger with his eyes. Funnily enough, the name did ring a bell. He then recalled Sokka mentioning a certain 'Jet' to his sister shortly after Team Avatar's successful neutralization of the massive Fire Nation drill. Shujinko had mostly spaced out during their exchange due to how tired he was, believing the conversation to be nothing but irrelevant banter between siblings. He did, however, remember Katara not holding Jet in the highest opinion, something about a betrayal if memory served him correctly.
"Drop the friendly act and tell us why you're here already!" Katara demanded, assuming a fighting stance as water poured out of her zahato once again. Her body tensed when Jet reached into his inner pocket, only for him to pull out one of the many wanted posters Team Avatar had put up around Ba Sing Se.
"You guys are looking for Appa. I know where he's being kept. I'm not asking you to let bygones be bygones, but how about we call a truce and find him together?"
|Meanwhile, Upper Ring|
Iroh was in a good mood. In fact, he was jubilant and brimful of optimism, feeling the closest thing to childish enthusiasm a man of his age had a right to experience.
Yesterday, the firebender had been accosted by a well-dressed man and two assistants of his during work hours at the Pao Family Tea House, who complimented him on his tea. It was hardly his first time getting praise from customers, yet Iroh thanked him for his kindness all the same. The gentleman introduced himself as Quon, a wealthy and respected entrepreneur who was looking to expand one of his ongoing businesses, and to that end, he made the Dragon of the West an offer that would tempt even the most humble and modest of gurus: The opportunity to run his very own tea shop in the Upper Ring of the city.
Few were things that Iroh would describe as a dream come true, and this was one of them. Quon promised him complete creative freedom over the establishment as well as a fifty-fifty split of the profits. He even gave him the keys to a nice little apartment in the Upper Ring that was located fairly close to the shop. A pretty sweet deal by anyone's standards, though the one perk that truly made the Fire Lord's brother happy was being able to bestow upon the shop any name of his choosing.
Iroh didn't think twice about it. He approached a crestfallen Pao and wished him good luck… But not before giving him one final piece of advice: Even though he did own the shop, he didn't own the tips that were given to the employees, so he should stop hoarding them.
Just then, the door was slid open and Zuko entered the living room of their new domicile. Iroh looked at his nephew over his shoulder and smiled broadly at him. "Ah, Prince Zuko. You arrived just in time. I've come up with several possible names for our new shop, but I'm still unsure which one to pick. The Jasmine Dragon is a strong candidate, I must say. It's imposing, elegant, and has a dramatic flair to it that is bound to entice customers, but I'm open to suggestions if you have any,"
"My suggestion is that you should stop wasting your time and start focusing on what's really important," was the scarred firebender's response as he walked over to his uncle and handed him a sheet of paper. "These posters are all over town. The Avatar is here in Ba Sing Se. His pet is missing, and I'm not going to miss this chance in favor of your tea shop,"
Iroh slowly raised an eyebrow as he read the content of the poster, his previous enthusiasm forgotten. That was the Avatar's Sky Bison alright. "This is indeed unexpected. What do you want to do about this strange coincidence?"
"Capitalize on it," Zuko replied. "We know they're here, but they don't know we are too. If I can find the bison before the Avatar does, I can use it as bait to lure him in and get the drop on him at last,"
"You could try to do that, yes… But why would you?"
"Why would I?" The banished prince spat out those words as if they were venom inside his mouth, glaring daggers at his uncle. "How can you ask me that after all this time, old man? Have you forgotten who I am and what my mission is? Or do you simply don't care about what happens to us anymore?"
"I could ask you the same. Believe it or not, there is more to life than just your goal. Good things are happening to us. Why squander this opportunity?"
"Speak for yourself! Nothing good has happened to me since the day I got this scar! Nothing at all!" Zuko snapped, snatching the missing poster from Iroh's hands. "If you think I'm enjoying any of this, then you're gone in the head. I hate having to live a fake life, wasting my time serving tea to a bunch of idiots. But you, you love it, and because we're stuck together, you want me to delude myself into thinking this is as good as it gets. At the end of the day, we're both liars, but at least I don't buy my own lies,"
"Lies? Where's the lie in wanting to live in peace and without hurting anyone? Is that so terrible a prospect?" asked the Dragon of the West, receiving nothing but a click of the tongue in return as Zuko walked past him and headed to his bed. He needed to determine how best to proceed and listening this nonsense wasn't going to help him in this regard, or in any regard for that matter. "You've always been brave. Brave enough to act according to your own beliefs," he heard his uncle say, which got Zuko to stop just as he was about to step out of the living room. "But are you brave enough to question them for once? That, dear nephew, is my suggestion to you,"
|Back in the Lower Ring|
It felt weird being with Jet felt once again. Weird in the sense that they were walking around the Lower Ring with him instead of freezing him inside a block of ice, something Katara promised she'd do to Jet at the first sign of suspicion. Finding Appa was Team Avatar's top priority at the moment. No excuses, no cop-outs, no 'But I hate this guy!'s. Therefore, with various degrees of reluctance, Jet was given the chance to assist them with their search.
Shujinko and Toph were the two members of the group most open to the idea of letting Jet give them a hand as they had no previous history with him, which didn't mean they didn't have their own doubts. Aang and Sokka were less than thrilled with Jet and didn't really want to have anything to do with him, but the hope of having Appa back ultimately trumped their misgivings. As for Katara, she'd rather jump off a cliff than accept Jet's cooperation, though she ended up agreeing to tolerate his presence for the sake of Appa and because she knew she was outnumbered.
"So where are we going, Jet?" Sokka asked.
"There's a big warehouse a couple of blocks from here. It's used for housing livestock that later gets sold in the market, like Llamapacas and Moo-Sows. I worked there as a hired hand soon after I got here, but the pay was lousy and the foreman was a bully, so I ended up quitting almost three weeks later. I'm fairly certain Appa's being held captive there,"
The Blind Bandit narrowed her eyes as she walked behind Jet. "What gives you that idea? Just because animals are kept there doesn't mean that's where we'll find the only Sky Bison left in the world,"
"I know that. Here's the thing: Although the job and foreman in charge both sucked, the other manual laborers were decent people and we still talk every now and then. I bumped into one of them a few days ago, and he wouldn't stop talking about how close he was to resigning just like I had. When I asked him why, he said the laborers had their hands full with the latest merchandise that had been brought to the warehouse. According to this guy, the owners of the place were paid good money to keep a big, furry animal with horns and three pairs of legs on their premises. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
The rhetorical question was left unanswered as the Avatar curled his hands into fists, his face twisted in a scowl of anger and disgust. Together, he and Appa were the last living remnants of the Air Nomads, but to him, Appa was so much more than a beloved relic of the past. He was his friend, one that was no less close to him than any of the members of Team Avatar. The bond they shared was as unique as it was intense, and even though Aang was determined to keep his emotions in check during this critical moment, the thought of Appa being treated as an unfeeling object for sale filled his veins with fire.
"As you can imagine, that description immediately made me think of Appa, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Besides, even if I was correct, there wasn't much I could do about it, but then I saw Katara putting up those missing posters and everything was made clear," Jet said before taking a deep breath. "I don't expect you guys to forgive me for what I did. I just wanna prove I'm not the person I was when we first met, and if doing this helps improve your opinion of me a little, then all the better,"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Jet," Katara warned him, a cold glare in her eyes. "Until we see Appa, our opinion of you will stay very much the same. You trying to do the right thing now doesn't change what you tried to do in the past,"
Upon hearing that, Shujinko opened his mouth to speak, only to close it without uttering a single word. Normally, he'd have no issue telling a fellow member of Team Avatar anything. In this case, it was to stop antagonizing the one person who had a lead on Appa, no matter how justified their grudge against him was. However, he and Katara have just had a falling out that, while not irremediable, was still extremely fresh, so there was a good chance anything he said to her right now would add fuel to the fire.
Luckily for the Chūnin, Sokka was better positioned to reason with Katara, which he did, or attempted to anyways. "Hey sis, I'm not thrilled with this arrangement either, but squabbling with Jet won't get us any closer to finding Appa. Let's try to work together, alright?"
"Oh, so you're on his side now? Did you forget the disaster your buddy Jet here caused? The town of Gaipan and its people almost got wiped out thanks to him,"
"Yeah, almost, and as the guy who saved them, I'm asking you to please put your feelings aside for the moment. If Aang and I can do it, then so can you. You'll have plenty of time to resent Jet after we rescue Appa," A sole loud scoff was the waterbender's response, which in sibling language translated to "I'm willing to compromise with extreme reservations and prejudice for the time being, but don't expect me to make any promises". Reasonable enough, her brother supposed.
While Sokka and Katara engaged in family diplomacy, the brown-haired boy and the Blind Bandit shared a look that expressed incredulity at its peak, frowning at each other with one eyebrow so cocked it threatened to reach their respective hairlines. This Jet fellow tried to erase a whole town out of existence, including its inhabitants? Why? What was he hoping to accomplish back then? And what did Sokka do to thwart his efforts?
Shujinko wanted an answer to all of that and more. Even so, he had enough gray matter to realize that by asking them out loud, he risked undoing the momentary peace Sokka had just achieved. Ghastly as it were, the fact that Jet knew where Appa was mattered more than his previous attempt at offing the entire population of a town. If he really wanted to satiate his curiosity, he could always do so at a later time and out of Jet's earshot. 'At least now I know why Katara hates that guy with a passion,'
000
"This is it, the place I was talking about," True to his word, Jet took Team Avatar to a remote warehouse on the outskirts of the Lower Ring. As far as warehouses went, this one was certainly big, and unlike the vast majority of buildings in the Lower Ring, the one in front of them seemed to be in good condition, meaning that it wasn't a loud sneeze away from collapsing. The smell of wet wool and manure was certainly abundant, if not invasive.
In spite of that, Shujinko couldn't help but notice a strange absence of people. There were no hired hands, foremen, or even casual bystanders in sight, which struck him as odd for a place where a creature that surpassed the ten-ton mark was supposedly being kept. He couldn't even see or hear any other animals. The Ozuma would be the first to declare himself ignorant about farms, stables, and the livestock industry in general, having seen horses and cows on a handful of occasions in real life, but either his preconceptions on the subject were painfully erroneous or something else was afoot here.
Without further ceremony, Team Avatar entered the grounds of the private property. The stench increased as they advanced, but other than that, the place was as good as abandoned. 'Don't be hasty. There might be a reason why there's no one around. Jet worked here, so maybe he knew it'd be closed today,' Shujinko told himself, trying to remain optimistic for a change, but the seeds of doubt sprouted within him all the same. He was simply too much of a ninja to ignore his own suspicions.
Before long, they reached the entrance of the warehouse, silence reigning supreme. A wide barn door stood before them. Jet went to open it, but Shujinko approached him from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him stop. "I got this," he assured Jet, employing a tone of voice that while not hostile, made it clear he wasn't asking. Jet felt slightly put off by this but complied nevertheless.
Shujinko positioned himself on the left side of the entrance and started to push. The door was heavy, but it did slide across its tracks, albeit slowly. 'It's unlocked,' the Chūnin confirmed, which accentuated his wariness. Mustering his strength, he quickly slid the door halfway open and stepped into the warehouse….
"… It's empty," Katara stated as the rest of Team Avatar entered the warehouse, stumbling across all sorts of stuff that wasn't a Sky Bison or any other living creature for that matter. "Jet, I swear, if this is your attempt at setting us up,-"
"How many times do I have to repeat myself? I'm here to help you with your problem, not make more of them. Besides, look around you. There's no one here except for us,"
"Guys, check this out!" Aang said as he sauntered off in the direction of one of the timber columns that supported the warehouse's roof, kneeling next to it and picking up a fistful of mud-stained fur, which he then brought to the rest of the gang for his friends to see. "Jet is right! Appa was here!"
Sokka took a tuft of the fur and held it close to his face. "Are you positive? It does look like Appa's fur, but it could just as well be from another animal that was also here at some point,"
"I've been around Sky Bisons my whole life. I know what their fur looks like and how it feels to touch it. This is definitely Appa's,"
"See? I told you I knew where he was," Jet said, smirking confidently.
Despite being glad to have made some headway in their search for their companion, Katara didn't like how Jet was ingratiating himself with the rest of the gang by proving his usefulness, regardless of the fact that being useful to them for this specific purpose was the only reason they had accepted Jet's offer in the first place. The waterbender was so apprehensive of her former crush that she feared she'd lower her guard if he were to receive as much as a particle's worth of validation from her, so Katara was determined to give him none.
"Wow, you lead us to a bunch of dirty fur. That's great, but newsflash, Appa is still missing. Can you help us find him now or is this the part where we cut you loose?" she asked, only to be dismissed by Jet, who simply walked to one side of the warehouse and started opening drawers and cabinets, tossing away whatever was inside them. "Hey, what are you doing? Do you wanna leave this place a mess because you hated working here or what?"
"The foreman I worked under kept a ledger where he recorded every transaction. Figures, buyers, sellers, it's all there. If we can get our hands on it, it may tell us where Appa got sent off to," he replied, engrossed in his task. "Come on, it's gotta be in here somewhere… Aha! Found it!" Jet retrieved a thick leather-bound book and started flipping through the pages at a fast pace, gesturing for Team Avatar to come closer. "Let's see what the latest entry has to say,"
Species: Sky Bison
Units: 1
Place of provenance: Si Wong Desert
Name of buyer: Undisclosed
Name of seller: Undisclosed
Purchase price: Undisclosed
Destination: Whaletail Island
"Alright! Whaletail Island, here we come!" Aang yelled cheerfully, jumping and pumping his fist in the air. The grin on his face lasted for a couple more seconds before it was replaced by a sheepish expression. "… Uhh, anyone knows where Whaletail Island is?"
Katara, who had already laid her brother's map on the floor, gave the monk a grim look once she found the location. "Far," she said somberly, to which Aang's face dropped.
"… Monkey feathers. Well, how far are we talking about?"
"Very far," The waterbender gestured for everyone to gather around her, and once they did, she placed her finger on one of the many islands that the Southern Archipelago was comprised of. The island was situated on the South Sea, off the southwestern coast of the Earth Kingdom and north of the Southern Air Temple, whereas Ba Sing Se took up nearly the entire northeast corner of the nation. In other words, the two places were separated by the entire southern half of the Earth Kingdom, which Shujinko suspected was just as big as the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind, if not bigger.
... Crap.
"Hey gang, a gentle reminder that one of your friends is blind. As in, I can't see what's drawn on a map or measure the distance between the places shown there," Toph piped up with her brow furrowed. "How long would it take us to get to Whaletail Island from here? Any estimations, Sokka?"
"Just eyeballing it, I'd say… About two weeks and a half if we travel by ship, maybe even longer,"
"Two weeks and a half!? Maybe even longer!?" the airbender exclaimed, pressing his hands against his cheeks and pushing them down enough to expose the pink tissue at the inner corner of his eyes. "Double monkey feathers! If only we'd gotten here earlier! That stupid Long Feng just had to snatch Appa away from us at the last second! Argh, I hate that guy!"
As the Avatar continued to proclaim his loathing for King Kuei's right-hand man, Shujinko began pacing around the warehouse, trying to come up with a way to resolve this predicament they were in. "This complicates everything," he said as if the obvious needed to be stated. "For starters, we'd have to find a ship with a crew to take us there since walking and flying are both out of the question, and if we do sail to Whaletail Island, two weeks and a half just to get to our destination is too long a delay. Many things can happen within that time frame if our experiences are any indicator. There's also the matter of tracking down whoever bought Appa, which could be…"
His monologue came to a halt once he noticed the young monk was sitting on the dirty ground of the warehouse with his legs spread, his forearms resting on his knees, and his head hanging low. He seemed tired and defeated, but most of all, sad. The Ozuma gulped, reprimanding himself for being so insensitive. In his eagerness to determine the technical and practical aspects of the problem on their hands, he had failed to take Aang and his feelings into account, speaking of Appa as if he were a stolen object that they needed to retrieve rather than a dear companion that they missed.
Though he would never dare say it out loud, Shujinko couldn't bring himself to view Appa as a friend. To him, the Sky Bison was more like a buddy's pet: He cared about the creature and didn't want anything bad to happen to it, but he wasn't going to pretend that losing Appa forever would be the same as losing Aang, Katara, Sokka, or Toph. Whether this made him cold of heart or not, that was just how he felt.
Be that as it may, Shujinko was well aware of the profound bond Aang shared with Appa and how attached he was to his Sky Bison, so he really had no excuse for the unkind behavior he had just displayed. "What do you want to do?" he asked the airbender, knowing that an apology would fix nothing. "Whatever you decide, I'm with you,"
At first, Aang remained quiet and said nothing, but then he got up, stood firmly on his feet, and turned around with a look of absolute determination in his eyes that anticipated his answer. "I'm not abandoning Appa. He's one of us, and if he was shipped off to Whaletail Island, then that's where I'll go. I'll find Appa even if I have to follow him to the end of the world,"
…
"Well said, Aang. Just as I expected from you… But if you're going after Appa, what are we gonna do about the…" Shujinko hesitated for a moment as his golden eyes briefly lingered on Jet. "… The thing?"
"… What thing?"
"The thing that five guys came to our house one night to discuss, that we're supposed to keep secret and that we only have a little more than a week to prevent. You know, that thing,"
…
"TRIPLE MONKEY FEATHERS!"
000
|Lower Ring streets|
"JET!" a feminine voice called from behind, making everyone turn around.
Shujinko saw two individuals running toward the leader of the Freedom Fighters. One of them was a boy, tall and skinny, almost gangly, who wore a conical straw hat and had a quiver full of arrows with red fletching strapped to his back. The other one was a girl (or so Shujinko suspected, for he had never seen a person with such gender-misleading features since Haku) with short hair and two red stripes on each cheek, who wore black garments underneath a leather cuirass.
Regardless of who they were or what they looked like, his first instinct was to assume they were going after Jet with harmful intentions. He was swiftly proven wrong, however, as the girl literally threw herself into Jet's arms, who barely managed to catch her without tumbling to the ground. "Smellerbee? Longshot?"
"Oh Jet, thank goodness we found you!" Smellerbee said on the verge of tears, clinging onto her leader like an inconsolable child. "We didn't know if we were ever going to see you again!"
"C-Calm down, Smellerbee. I'm alright," Jet was visibly disconcerted as he tried to untangle himself from the crushing hug, noticing everyone's eyes on him. The fact that they were in public only increased the feeling of confusing uncomfortableness. "Look at me. What's got you so alarmed? Did something happen?"
"What do you mean, 'did something happen'? The Dai Li arrested you four days ago! You had us worried to death!"
"Hold on, you were arrested by the Dai Li!?" Katara exclaimed, turning to Jet with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Why? What did you do now, Jet?"
"Nothing! I have no idea what she's talking about! I didn't get arrested!"
Without needing to be told what to do, Toph approached the group and buried her hands into the surface of the ground, blocking out the ongoing argument among the Freedom Fighters to focus on their heartbeats patterns. Using her seismic sense, she locked on to them along with every single physiological reaction their bodies emitted, such as their breathing rhythm and the circulation of blood through their veins. Emotional outbursts exacerbated these kinds of reactions, so determining who was lying and who wasn't should be a piece of cake for someone of her skill.
And so she waited… And waited… And then waited some more. It wasn't that the vibrations were telling her nothing. If anything, they were quite loud, but…
"So what's the deal, Toph?" Sokka inquired, thinking that the earthbender had taken her sweet time just to be thorough. When she stood up and turned around, the look on her face was one of disconcertment and apprehension, as if she'd stumbled upon certain knowledge she wasn't supposed to be privy to.
"This… This is impossible… They're both telling the truth,"
|At night|
"Okay, there's gotta be something we're not seeing here," Sokka said, walking back and forth across the small one-room flat that Jet and his friends were renting weekly.
The room was practically barren except for two mattresses that had no sheets on them and a couple of empty wooden boxes that served as chairs. It had just enough space to house three or four people, if at the cost of having no privacy whatsoever, so the members of Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters had no choice but to huddle together. All except for Jet, who looked none too comfortable sitting on a box near the center of the room, surrounded by scrutinizing gazes that he was the sole target of.
"Let's go over the facts once again. According to Jet's buddies, he was arrested by the Dai Li not long ago and has never worked at any warehouse in the city or outside of it. Jet insists that he did and denies ever getting arrested. These two claims clearly contradict each other, yet Toph insists they both check out. There's only one explanation for this: One side has to be lying without being aware of it, ladies and gentlemen, and that… Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever,"
"You can say that again," Smellerbee commented with her back leaned against a wall while her fingertips slowly slid across the blade of one of her daggers. "Longshot and I have stuck by Jet's side way before we even set foot on Ba Sing Se. If he'd gotten a job somewhere, we would've known about it, and we were present the night he got arrested by the Dai Li. We saw it with our own eyes,"
"But if Jet never worked at that warehouse from earlier, how did he know where to find it?" Katara countered. "Not only that, but he also knew about the ledger as well as the transactions recorded there. You can't know something like that unless you've been there before and seen it with your own eyes,"
Jet crossed his arms in front of his chest, sick of hearing all these comments about him that painted him as a senile old man who had no recollection of his actions. "Also, if I'd gotten myself arrested like you say I did, don't you think I would remember it? It's not like I would refuse to admit it; I've done other things in the past I'm way more ashamed of,"
"Look, we can argue about who did what and who went where all night long, but we'd just be going in circles. It's like I said: One side has to be lying without being aware of it. That's not something that just happens. We need to determine which side is lying and figure out why they don't know they're lying,"
All the way from her spot on the mattress, Toph took a break from scratching her armpits to join the conversation. "That's good and all, but how exactly are we supposed to do that? I know we've done our fair share of detective work in the past, but this is way above our non-existent payroll. We don't have a single clue to go on, and it's not like we can bust into the Dai Li headquarters and kick their butts until we get some answers… Actually, on second thought…"
"Let's not do that, please," the Avatar pleaded. His eyes then landed on Shujinko, who was sitting near the corner of the room with his gaze fixated on the floor, seemingly disconnected from the situation. "Shujinko, you've been quiet for a while now. Do you have any idea of what could be happening?"
Slowly, very slowly, the Ozuma raised his gaze. "More or less, but not really,"
Toph let out a snort. "That's a clear answer if I've ever heard any,"
"What I mean by it is that I have somewhat of a theory, but it's a stretch and a long one at that,"
"At this point, I'm willing to listen to any possible explanations, no matter how farfetched they might be," the son of Hakoda assured him. "Go on, let's hear it,"
"Fine, but I'm warning you, there's gonna be a lot of preambles for this one, so no rushing me or asking me to get to the point… Okay, so do you remember when I said Ninjutsu was one of the three main branches of the shinobi arts? The other two are called Taijutsu and Genjutsu. Taijutsu refers to hand-to-hand combat, such as punching, kicking, grappling, and other variants of that nature that involve close physical contact. Genjutsu, the branch we'll be focusing on, is the complete opposite of that,"
"Genjutsu is the complete opposite of Taijutsu?" Sokka asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "What does that mean? Do you fight with your mind instead of your fists or something like that?"
"Close enough, actually. Genjutsu is all about creating illusions to deceive your opponents, making them believe that something is real when it's not. As you all know, human beings have five basic senses: Touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. The organ in control of these senses is our brain," Shujinko made a pause, wondering what words to use for the second half of his explanation. "Basically, by casting a Genjutsu, a ninja manipulates the chakra flow of a target's cerebral nervous system, which is linked to the five basic senses. Therefore, the victim might look at the grass and see it colored blue, or touch cold water and mistake it for blood. To put it simply, it affects our perception of everything, and the more skilled the caster, the more realistic his illusions will feel to the victim,"
Once he was finished, Shujinko was met with looks of puzzlement on behalf of the rest of Team Avatar, which didn't surprise him in the slightest. In fact, he suspected he was the only person in the room who knew what a human brain even looked like. From what he had seen so far, this part of the world was severely underdeveloped in the field of medicine compared to the shinobi continent. Ninjas had spent countless years studying every nook and cranny of their fleshy being, trying to understand it, enhance it, cover its weak points, and even conduct experiments on it. The knowledge they gained helped them sustain their lives as well as end their enemies'. Having a basic grasp of Medical Ninjutsu could make a world of difference on the battlefield.
Be that as it may, the Chūnin had been traveling with his friends and teaching them all sorts of stuff about ninjas for months now, so they still managed to comprehend at least some of what he had just told them. The same couldn't be said about Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot, all of whom were staring at Shujinko as if he had recited a long tongue-twister full of gibberish. No doubt they were thinking he had several screws missing in his head, though the Ozuma didn't have the time or the disposition to give them a rundown about what ninjas were and what they could do, plus doing so would only baffle them further anyway.
"What the heck was all that drivel just now?" Smellerbee demanded to know. Longshot kept quiet, though the look on his face expressed the same confusion his female friend was feeling. True, they didn't know the first thing about Shujinko, but he was still spouting way too much nonsense for a logical human being to discern.
Frowning, Sokka crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Let's pretend we understand all this stuff about brains and illusions and what have you. How does this help us figure out what's going on with Jet?"
"Patience, I'm getting there. This might sound crazy, but-"
"You? Say something that might sound crazy?" Toph interrupted him, faking surprise. "Why, how preposterous! It's not like you've ever done it before,"
"AHEM… But, some Genjutsu are so powerful that can erase a person's memories and replace them with fake ones. There are limits to this, of course, but it's generally enough to control people and misguide them into doing something they otherwise wouldn't do. Think of it as a mind-control ability of sorts,"
"… That sounds… scary," Aang admitted, feeling rather uncomfortable by the information the Chūnin was providing. The hooded man and Shujinko were the only two ninjas he knew of, and the things he'd witnessed from them were far beyond impressive, worthy of the label "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes". The idea that there was a whole continent of people who aside from manipulating the elements of nature and fighting like superhuman warriors, could also attack their enemies' minds with illusions and false memories, was unnerving, to say the least.
If he hadn't met the Ozuma, Aang would find it impossible to believe that a good person could come from such a society, where individuals were taught and trained to enact violence in every conceivable fashion. He shuddered to think what would've happened if instead of them, Shujinko had bumped into the likes of Zuko, Azula, General Zhao, or Fire Lord Ozai upon his arrival. Confronting the Fire Nation was dangerous enough on its own, but if they had a shinobi on their side, the war would stop being "just" dangerous and evolve into a freaking nightmare.
Katara was having the exact same thoughts as him, which prompted her to probe deeper into the matter. "Can you do that stuff, Shujinko? The mind-control thing, I mean,"
"Nah, not in the slightest. My Genjutsu skills are nothing to brag about if I'm being honest. Kakashi-sensei has taught me how to identify illusions and break them, but casting them is another matter entirely. Doing so requires exceptional chakra control that I simply don't possess. Also, while Genjutsu can be very effective in a one-on-one match, it's usually not the best option when dealing with more than one opponent at a time. Because of these factors, few shinobi decide to specialize in this branch, but those that do master the art of Genjutsu can be extremely dangerous to take on. Personally, it's never suited my style of fighting, so I'd rather focus on the areas I have a knack for and improve upon them without completely neglecting my Genjutsu,"
…
"Anyways, my theory is that if Jet was indeed arrested by the Dai Li, they might've done something to him that's comparable to a Genjutsu. His friends are telling the truth while he's telling what he believes to be the truth because that's what he remembers. I have no idea how this could've been accomplished, but if you ask me, this is exactly the sort of thing a maniac like Long Feng would do. It's the perfect tool for silencing dissident voices,"
"That's enough of this!" Jet shocked everyone by making a beeline toward the Ozuma before grabbing the collar of his vest and pulling him up, forcing Shujinko to get on his feet. "Listen kid, I don't know who you are, but I'm not gonna sit here and listen to any more of your nonsense," Jet said, his face barely a few inches away from his. "Whatever this 'Genjutsu' thing is, it's got nothing to do with me, so don't talk about me like I'm some sort of nutjob, you got that?"
"Jet, let go of Shujinko right now!" Katara shouted as she left her seat and approached the two boys, opening her zahato in case a water whip was required. "We need to get to the bottom of this and he's doing his best to help!"
Still clutching Shujinko's vest, Jet turned his head around and gave the waterbender a look that perfectly encapsulated his aggravation and disbelief. "Doing his best to help? Katara, did you somehow miss all of the hogwash he just spouted? If anything, he's the one who needs to get his head checked, not me! And why are you all playing along with him, anyway? You don't honestly think he's making any sense, do you?"
"He does to us and that's all you need to know, so leave him be if you don't want things to get ugly!"
Jet was about to retort when he felt the Chūnin's hand around his wrist. His grasp was loose, almost soft, and intended to calm him down. When he stared at Shujinko, Jet saw an expression of calmness and understanding, the kind of look a father would give to his young son in an attempt to get through to him.
"Listen Jet, I know all this talk may come off as irrational prattle. I don't blame you if you think I'm insane. In fact, you're better off assuming that I am and turning a deaf ear to whatever I say, but don't doubt that I'm trying to help you. That's what we're all here for. Nevertheless…" Jet's eyes widened as Shujinko's grip suddenly hardened while his got weaker. Aside from applying more force, the Ozuma pressed his thumb firmly against the tendons just below the palm of Jet's hand, making it considerably more difficult for him to maintain a steady grasp on the vest. "… I don't like people laying hands on me like this, so take yours back or you'll find out what I can do with mine,"
Upon hearing the blunt warning, members of both Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters rushed toward their respective friends to separate them from one another, "Come on, Jet! This isn't the time to start a fight! Just do as this guy says and ignore him!" Smellerbee pleaded, getting a hold of her leader's forearm.
Team Avatar said nothing to Shujinko despite surrounding him, for they knew he wasn't angry or feeling truly heated. However, they were also aware that Shujinko didn't hesitate to answer violence with violence, regardless of whom it came from, and Jet had no way of knowing the kind of beating the Ozuma could deliver to somebody if he wanted to, which was why they felt compelled to prevent the altercation before Jet could lament the loss of any teeth.
Fortunately, level heads prevailed. The leader of the Freedom Fighters reluctantly unhanded Shujinko and the golden-eyed teenager returned the favor, though that didn't stop Jet from shooting a nasty glare at him as he returned to his seat. Meanwhile, Shujinko continued to stare at him with the same expression of cold seriousness as before. This irritated Jet even more, though, at the same time, he had to give him some credit: For all his crazy talk and absurd ideas, the guy had nerves of steel.
"Anyways, back to what concerns us. There's a major implication that needs to be addressed. If my theory is correct and the Dai Li altered Jet's memories, there's a very real chance this whole thing was just a ruse from the beginning," For a second time, the Ozuma felt the need to stop for a minute and put his thoughts in order before proceeding. "I think Appa might still be here in Ba Sing Se, or that at least he's not on his way to Whaletail Island like we were made to believe,"
His statement left the other members of Team Avatar wide-eyed, though none more than Aang, who jumped out of his seat as if he'd just gotten bit in the butt. "You think Appa is still here? But… But the ledger in the warehouse-"
"Could easily be a fake lead fabricated for this exact purpose. Think about it: Long Feng wants us gone from the city as soon as possible. He also knows that we're looking for Appa. Then, soon after making our search public with the missing posters, Jet comes up and takes us to an abandoned warehouse where we find the ledger, and what does the ledger shows? It shows that Appa got shipped off to somewhere far, far away from Ba Sing Se, the same place Long Feng wants to kick us out of. Does that smell like a coincidence to you?"
"… I mean, when you put it like that… I guess not,"
"Let's assume that your theory is right on the money," Toph began to say. "What can we do to bring Jet's true memories back? Because if we don't, we'll stay empty-handed no matter what,"
"That's the problem. Whatever was done to Jet, it's not Genjutsu, so I can't break him out of it. Either we find a different method, or we charge blindly into a fight with the Dai Li that may or may not be completely pointless,"
Although the situation hardly called for it, Sokka saw the opportunity to poke a little fun at his sister and couldn't help but take it. "A different method, huh? If that's the case, maybe Katara could give Jet a kiss. That should bring some memories back, am I right?"… No answers were given by the waterbender, not even a scoff or a dirty look. Instead, Katara got up from her seat and headed to the door in silence, avoiding everyone's stares with each step. "H-Hey sis, where are you going? Come on, I was just messing with you. No need to get angry,"
"Sorry, I just need to get some fresh air. I'll be back in a minute," Without another word, Katara stepped outside and closed the door, leaving behind a room filled with awkwardness.
The boomerang-wielding boy started to nervously rub the tip of his wolf tail between his fingers, hard-pressed to tear his gaze away from the floor. "Geez, now I kinda feel like a jerk. I didn't mean to upset her. It was only a brotherly joke,"
"A bad one," Aang told him plainly, sounding perhaps a touch more offended than a non-victim in this scenario had any right to be. Instead of getting on the defensive, Sokka decided not to argue his case and quietly accepted the verdict of the social jury, convinced that he had pushed the envelope a little too far this time, regardless of his lack of malicious intent. He liked making fun of her sister every once in a while, and he enjoyed getting a reaction out of her, but he'd never dare hurt her feeling on purpose.
It took her longer than the others expected, but eventually, Katara returned to the room, looking slightly fidgety and a shade paler. "… There might be a way for Jet to regain his memories,"
And then, he caught it. It was brief, but he caught it. Before any other voices were heard, before she looked away, there was a split instant in which the gazes of Katara and Shujinko met directly, and that was all it took for the girl to give herself away. During that fleeting, insipid moment that left as soon as it came, Shujinko stared straight into her cerulean eyes, which conveyed but one single emotion that was aimed at him and him only.
Guilt.
Aaaaaaaand that was the end of chapter 29. Hope you all liked it.
(Warning: Insultingly long author's note ahead)
If you're curious as to why I included the scene with the thief at the beginning, just know it's not part of some super relevant plot that's meant to pay off big time. Consider it a whim of mine.
Also, I'm curious to know your thoughts on how Shujinko views himself in the Avatar world. If it wasn't plain enough, the part where he considers himself a "god" was just me being overly dramatic and isn't meant to be taken seriously, even if it does add a reference point.
The part where Shujinko explains to Katara the whole chakra cost thing and how ninjas measure their chakra is nothing but my own headcanon. I'm sure I'm not the only fan of the Naruto series who has asked himself "How do ninjas know how much chakra they must put into one jutsu to make it work? Do they instinctively know it or do they learn through trial and error?". Taking into account that ninjas die if they completely run out of chakra, I'd say they should know the answers to these and other questions at least in-universe.
From now on, Katara's water skin/pouch will be referred to as "zahato", which is the name of an old leather container that was used in real life to store liquid. The reason behind this change is that (almost) every time Katara opens her water skin/pouch, it's to immediately perform Waterbending for offensive/defensive/healing purposes, and so using the word "water" twice in the same sentence comes off as awkward and repetitive to me.
On a small note, I decided not to use the word "brainwashing/washed" in this chapter. While it is a very fitting term to describe what the Dai Li do to their victims, I find it hard to believe that the characters of A:TLA in this time period would be familiarized with such a concept. It's not like brainwashing is a common or well-known practice in the A:TLA universe, so to me, it comes across a bit too "meta".
Think of it this way: Sokka was born and raised in the Southern Water Tribe. He spent all of his life there until the beginning of the series, after which he began his travels with Aang and Katara. Taking into account what Sokka knows and what we, the omniscient audience, know, it makes no sense for a guy like him to know what brainwashing is and how it works. Honestly, it would've been more believable (in my humble opinion) for Jet to be accused (not by Sokka in particular) of being bewitched or something like that. This is just my take though.
While we're still on the subject, I also decided to cut out "Old Sweepy" from the story and replace him with a ledger instead. The reason for this is that Toph's in-built lying detector (not the proper term for it, but whatever) didn't react at all when Old Sweepy fed them that bull about Appa being shipped off to Whaletail Island in the show. This leaves us with three options: A) This was an oversight from the authors big enough to be considered a plothole. B) Just like Jet, Old Sweepy was brainwashed by the Dai Li to say all of that stuff. C) Old Sweepy is a damn bastard who lied to Team Avatar just for fun.
Though option B is plausible, I find it too convoluted for my taste, and filling up a ledger with false information would achieve the same results with far fewer in-universe risks, so that's what I ended up doing. Let me know what you guys think about this specific change I made.
Not sure when the new chapter will drop, but let me tell you something: It's gonna be a doozy. I've been looking forward to it since before I even uploaded the first chapter of this story. Damn it, it makes me want to start working on it right away.
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Peace!