THE SCROLL
Shinra still couldn't get the words out of his mouth.
"How... What.. how do you know me?!"
The old man smiled. "I can see whatever Aang does if I choose to. And I became aware of your arrival almost immediately. But right now we have important things to discuss"
"Such as...?" Shinra tilted his head.
"I am fully aware that you are far away from your home" Roku started. "And that you miss your loved ones dearly. But I must ask a favor from you; please stay and help Aang end this war, even if you find a way home before the war ends. So much life has been lost this past century.. so much destruction.. all because of something I could've prevented. Now Aang has learned about the comet, I have no doubt that he will be able to defeat Fire lord Ozai"
"Wait, the comet he kept talking about?" Shinra furrowed his eyebrows. "What about it?"
"That comet is what helped Fire lord Sozin start the war, he and his army used it's power to deal a deadly first strike against the other nations a hundred years ago"
"It was that much of a power boost?" The ninja tilted his head.
"Indeed" Roku nodded. "A power boost much bigger than you can imagine. That same comet, Sozin's comet, will return by the end of the summer and Fire lord Ozai will use its power to finish the war. If he succeeds, it would do such damage to the world that even the Avatar wouldn't be able to repair it"
"Shit..." Shinra's eyes went wide. "So Aang has to master all the elements by the time the comet's here... how on earth is he gonna pull this off?"
"I know he can do it" Roku said, calm reassurance in his tone. "He has done it before. The experience of the past avatars are with him"
Shinra nodded slowly, silently asking the previous Avatar to go on.
"But even so, help from his friends would take him even farther" Roku continued. "I have seen what you are capable of.. and what you contain. Your help would be invaluable in ending the war. So I humbly ask of you to fight alongside Aang until the Fire lord is defeated"
Shinra looked down and pursed his lips. He did want to help this world from the onset but now he was asked to keep fighting even at the cost of turning down a way back home.
Would it be worth it?
Shinra blinked and remembered the kind of person he was. He couldn't just leave while he knew another world was in the middle of a war.. just from how Kakashi Sensei described the last Shinobi world war, Shinra knew it was far less than pretty. This world has been suffering the same situation for a century straight. Deep inside, he knew he couldn't just leave.
But at the same time, he longed to go home. What if he never got to go home after the war ended?
The ninja sighed before looking up at him. "... I definitely wanna help but I'll have to think about it"
Roku smiled softly. "Even when unsure, you're just like him..."
This caught Shinra's interest. "Just like who?"
"An old friend of mine" Roku responded simply. "Take your time to think. I understand how hard this could be for you. Just know that your help so far has been more than appreciated. I will let you slumber peacefully now"
"And if you want to talk to me again and know when I've made up my mind?" Shinra asked. "You just gonna keep appearing in my dreams? Cause that's honestly creepy"
"You are more spiritually inclined than you realize" Roku explained. "I'm always watching through Aang's eyes and will appear to you when you have your answer"
"Even creepier" Shinra deadpanned. "But definitely appreciated. I still don't know a lot about your world but I promise I'll help in any way I can"
The ninja bowed respectfully to the previous Avatar.
"Take care, Shinra" Roku said. "We are always watching over you"
"Thank you..." Shinra nodded. "... Wait, we?"
Unfortunately, before he could get any answers, Shinra felt his dreamscape start to fade.
"Shit..."
Shinra slowly let out a groan as he opened his eyes, the morning sun immediately hitting his face and making him close his eyes again. "Crap, that's bright..."
"He's awake!" Katara whispered, leaning closer to the boy and causing Aang and Sokka to come over as well. The group had chosen not to fly again till Shinra was fully awake.
"Hi" Shinra greeted them simply. That earned a chuckle from Katara.
"How are you feeling?" The waterbender still looked concerned.
"Besides the slight sleepiness clinging to me, I think I'm okay" Shinra slowly sat up.
"Good to see you up again" Sokka gave him a strong pat on the back. "Katara kept checking your heartbeat to make sure that the fox hadn't killed you"
"Thanks, Katara" Shinra looked up at the waterbender. Even after spending some time with Tsunade, Shinra still wasn't used to being fussed over that much.
"Thanks for helping us out back there" Aang added. "We owe you one. And we owe the nine tails one too"
Shinra could hear the old fox let out a scoff. "I doubt he
did it willingly.. he just doesn't want to die while he's contained inside me. Plus he just scoffed at us"
"He's pretty grumpy huh?" Sokka raised an eyebrow.
"Oh you don't know the half of it" Shinra shook his head.
"Is.. is he hurting you in any way?" Aang looked at Shinra in concern. The boy smiled at the thought of Aang being worried about him.
"Minus the 14 years of neglect and hatred he made everyone have towards me, he hasn't physically hurt me" He shook his head.
Both Aang and Katara looked horrified.
"Don't worry about it, really. I got through it" Shinra smiled. "What happened while I was out?"
The three then filled their friend in on everything that'd happened and basically repeated what Roku had told him.
"Sounds hard, but still doable" Shinra nodded. "So now we have to work twice as fast?"
"Exactly" Aang said.
"Now come on, you need food after all that happened" Katara slowly dragged him to his feet with Sokka's help.
Once they got off Appa's saddle and were having breakfast, Shinra internally debated whether or not to tell them that he'd seen Roku himself. After a few seconds, he decided to speak on it.
"Aang, full disclosure; I met Roku" he turned to the monk.
"What?" Aang looked at him.
"I met Roku while I was knocked out" he repeated himself. "I don't know if it was a dream or a vision, but he filled me in on what happened while you were in that room.. and the comet situation"
"But.. how does he know you?" Aang asked.
"Apparently he can see everything you do" Shinra said. "Also he technically is a spirit so I guess he can do it anyway"
"What is it with you two and spirits?" Sokka looked between Aang and Shinra, the latter shrugged.
Shinra deliberately kept Roku's proposal out of his explanation as he hadn't made up his mind about that yet. In all honesty he wished he didn't have to choose. He missed Konoha and while he wouldn't tell the others at the risk of sounding like a needy baby, he felt homesick most nights since they'd set out to head to the North. And yet, he also grew to care about Aang, Katara and Sokka too much to just leave them to fight this alone. He couldn't even solve this with clones cause they only lasted so long before turning into smoke.
Shinra felt like no matter which choice he made, he'd be abandoning his friends.
The chūnin shook his head and tried to forget about it for the meantime and focus on his food.
A couple hours later, the group was once again airborne, with Sokka sitting on Appa's head and navigating the bison. The rest of them sat in the saddle.. well, most of them did. Aang kept pacing back and forth.
"Would you sit down?! Sokka called to him. "If we hit a bump you'll go flying off"
"But Roku said I have to master all the elements before the comet comes!" Aang kept pacing.
"Well let's see," Sokka replied. "You pretty much mastered Airbending and that only took you 112 years. I'm pretty sure you can master the elements by next summer"
Shinra reached into his pouch and threw a pellet at Sokka's head. "Ow!"
"Adding to his pressure isn't gonna help" Shinra chided the self-proclaimed water tribe warrior.
"I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole!" Aang panicked.
"Nice going, Sokka" Shinra snarked. "Aang calm down, don't panic. You're the Avatar, meaning you'll learn the elements easily considering how many times you've done it before in your past lives"
"Exactly " Katara added. "Also if you want, I can teach you some of the stuff I know"
"You'd do that?" Aang asked.
Katara nodded. "Besides, someone else has some training to do as well"
Shinra then realized she was looking at him. "Me?"
"Yes, you" Katara narrowed her eyes. "You've been staring at those books for weeks but I've yet to see you actually try anything out"
"It's not that easy" Shinra immediately said. Even he knew that was a lie. He was just scared.. and a little lazy.
"Uh-huh" Katara was unconvinced.
"Let's see if we can get you guys a puddle to splash in" Sokka quipped.
The group currently stood in front of a massive river basin
"Nice puddle" Sokka deadpanned. Aang and Katara however had huge smiles on their faces.
Appa immediately jumped in, sending a massive splash of water on Momo who screeched angrily.
"Yeah! Don't start without me, boy!" Aang was about to take off his robes.
"Remember why we're here" Katara brought him back to earth and immediately turned around. "Shinra, get back here!"
The aforementioned boy froze in his tracks as he was already quietly stepping into the bushes nearby.
"Get to training" Katara folded her arms. "Now"
The boy let out a heavy groan before trudging back to the others.
"So you two are playing in the water" Sokka pointed at Aang and Katara. "Ninja guy's playing with his magic chakra stuff. What do I do?"
"You can clean the gunk out of Appa's toes" Aang stretched a lone tree branch with leaves on it.
"So while you're all training, I'm supposed to be picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?" Sokka asked.
"Mud and bugs" Aang smiled.
"Okay" Sokka shrugged, taking the branch.
Meanwhile, Shinra walked over to a spot not far from the group but enough to give them all enough space. He opened his backpack and pulled out the book, flipping through all the techniques he knew already and those he couldn't use currently till he landed on the one he'd been looking at for weeks. He figured since he had recently unlocked an affinity for Wind, he might as well learn more wind release techniques than just air bullets and the Gale Palm.
Wind Release; Great Burst.
Monkey_ Bird_ Ram_ Tiger_ Boar_ _Clap_ _Spread Fingers_
Seemed straightforward.
However, Shinra knew the keyword was "seemed". It had seemed the same way with learning the lightning blade, but after almost maiming his own hand on the first try, Shinra had learned not to get cocky or too comfortable trying a technique for the first time.
The chūnin placed the book on a rock and stepped back a bit as he heard Aang and Katara begin their training. Letting out a deep breath, Shinra began weaving the hand signs one by one. He attempted to clap his hands after making the boar sign but a violent burst of air between his hands forced them apart and blew him backwards a considerable distance, almost knocking into Aang.
"Hey!" The bald monk turned to Shinra as that little accident had distracted him from bending the water in front of him and also in turn distracted Katara.
"Sorry" Shinra got back to his feet.
The ninja looked at his palms which honestly were hurting a little from that amount of air pressure. "Damnit... too much chakra"
He had to try it again to make sure.
One more attempt saw the same results, except in this case, he fell flat on his ass. The chūnin grabbed his hair and groaned. He knew very well what this meant...
More chakra control training.. yippee.
The boy let out a grumble as he unzipped and discarded his vest and fished out a kunai from his pouch and walked towards the nearest tree. Channelling chakra to the bottom of his feet, Shinra started to step on the tree's bark and essentially walk up the tree without use of his hands. The boy managed to go about ten steps upwards before he heard the tree's bark start to crack.
"Shit" Shinra immediately stopped the flow of chakra and let himself land back on the ground with a backflip.
"What's wrong?" He heard Katara ask.
"I stopped chakra control training for two weeks and it goes from too little to too much" Shinra sighed. "I gotta fix this.. you guys go back to training"
He put his kunai away and reached both hands upwards to the tree and high above his head. He then channeled chakra to his palms and immediately they stuck to the tree, causing his palms to glow a light blue. The ninja slowly pulled himself upwards, depending not on the grip of his hands but the adhesive strength of the chakra connecting him to the tree.
And thus, he began practicing chakra pull-ups.
After about ten minutes, Shinra felt the chakra in his palms give way. He immediately let himself drop to the ground on his feet. Coincidentally, he'd heard a giant splash coming from the river. Turning around, the boy noticed Sokka was wet... And all the stuff on the saddle was now floating down the river.
"What the hell happened?!" He looked at the other three.
"Ask these two" Sokka grumbled, pointing at Aang and his sister. "It was bad enough when he was just an Airbender"
"Sorry," Aang rubbed his neck. "I'm sure we can find some way to replace all this stuff"
The group headed down to a port not far from the spot they'd chosen to land. Luckily that port also had a market. As the group walked through it, Shinra noticed the looks they got from most people. They were mostly glares from rough looking guys.. probably some kind of petty criminals. Katara and Sokka were visibly nervous about the glares, Aang had a huge, amazed smile on his face while Shinra kept a neutral, almost unimpressed expression, something he'd learned from being around people like Sasuke, Kakashi even Shikamaru.
After shopping for a few hours and replacing their missing supplies, they walked out of the last shop.
"Okay we've only got three copper pieces from the money King Bumi gave us so let's spend it wisely" Sokka advised.
Shinra wasn't that worried, they mostly hunted, fished or gathered their food for the most part anyway. And Katara even made their soap out of a few plants.
"Make that two actually" Aang spoke, pulling out a bison shaped whistle from his pocket. "I couldn't say no to this whistle!"
He blew on it and no sound came out. Or more specifically, no sound humans could hear came out. Shinra could've sworn he heard something... But the nine tails heard it loud and clear, and he was annoyed.
"It doesn't even work" Sokka shook his head. Momo then screeched.
"Even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk" Sokka added.
"No offense Aang, but I'll hold on to the money from now on" Katara gently told him. Aang didn't argue and dropped the two copper pieces they had left in her hand. Shinra patted Aang's shoulder gently.
"It might actually come in handy" the ninja tried to cheer him up. That got a smile out of Aang.
As they headed back out of the port, they passed a ship with a guy basically advertising. He was dressed in a green outfit and had on hoop earrings.
"Fire Nation, Earth Nation, Water Nation. So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here!" He announced. "Don't be shy, come on by!"
"You there!" He called out to the group. "I can see from your clothing that you're world travelling types. Could I interest you in some exotic curios?"
"Exotic what now?" Shinra raised an eyebrow.
"What are curios?" Aang asked.
The man paused for a second. "I'm not entirely sure, but we got em!"
The strange looking guy then led Aang into the ship. If Shinra was being honest with himself the guy creeped him out but he, Sokka and Katara followed him in regardless.
The group looked through the ship which had an assortment of collectibles and strange items. A strange looking kunai in a corner caught Shinra's eye but before he could even think of going close to it, a voice caught their attention.
"I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur"
The group turned to see a man dressed in what could only be described as a pirate outfit. Shinra could've sworn he'd fought one of those during the land of waves mission... And what the hell was that thing on his shoulder? It looked like a weird cross between a parrot and a lizard. "That beast would fetch me a hefty sum if you're interested in bartering"
Aang immediately held Momo close to his chest. "Momo's not for sale"
The pirate's eyes turned to Shinra. "What's in the bag, kid?"
"None of your business" Shinra retorted sharply, tightening his grip on the backpack.
"Guys look at this!" Katara called. Aang and Shinra both looked to see a waterbending scroll.
"A waterbending scroll" Aang whispered.
"Check out these crazy moves!" Katara added.
"They do look really cool" Shinra scanned the scroll to see a variation of moves on the scroll. Honestly, the thought of manipulating water without weaving hand signs sounded hella convenient.
"Where'd you get a waterbending scroll?" Aang asked. The pirate immediately grabbed the scroll off the table and rolled it up.
"Let's just say I got it up North for a most reasonable price; free"
"So you stole it" Shinra folded his arms.
"Wait a minute" Sokka started. "Sea loving traders, with suspiciously acquired merchandise.. and pet reptile birds.. you guys are pirates!"
"Congratulations, Captain obvious" Shinra deadpanned.
"We prefer to think of ourselves as high risk traders" the earrings guy from earlier said.
"So how much for the 'traded' scroll?" Katara asked.
"I already got a buyer" the pirate replied. "A nobleman from the Earth Kingdom. Unless of course you kids got 200 gold pieces on ya right now"
"I got this, Katara" Aang leaned towards the girl. "pirates love to haggle"
"Wait, wait we have two copper pieces..." Shinra said. "I don't really know how money works in this world but I doubt you can haggle 200 gold pieces to 2 copper ones. It's not possible"
"He's right " Katara nodded. "We should get out of here anyway"
"What was that about, Katara?" Aang asked.
"Yeah I was just browsing through their boomerang collection" Sokka added.
"I'll just feel a lot safer when we're away from here" Katara said. Shinra noticed how fidgety she was being. He knew that body language.
"Katara... What did you do?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Hey you! Get back here!" The first pirate from earlier yelled at them.
"Told you all the haggling would pay off" Aang smirked.
The group turned around to see at least five pirates holding multiple sharp objects pointed at them.
"Of course" Shinra sighed.
"I don't think they're here to trade with us" Katara said. "Run!"
Of course everyone besides Shinra obeyed. The chūnin immediately spawned about five clones, all of which leapt at the pirates to at least buy them some time before Shinra himself bolted, arms pulled backwards as he leaned his body forward.
Once he'd caught up with the others, Shinra noticed a familiar looking man being strangely affectionate with a cabbage nearby. As the team ran past him, Sokka and Katara knocked down a few cabbages, Aang jumped over the cabbage cart and Shinra jumped over the cart, slapping an explosive tag to it.
"I'm so sorry..." Shinra said before kicking the cart backwards with all his strength and making the tiger hand sign as the pirates got closer.
The tag immediately detonated, blowing up the cart and taking out a good number of the pirates.
"Sorry!" Shinra kept running.
"My cabbages!" The man cried. "This place is worse than Omashu!"
As the group ran through the alleyways, they were met with more pirates in front of them. They were cornered.
"Now who wants to taste the steel of my blade first?" The pirate with earrings asked, swinging his blade.
"Taste lightning, bitch" Shinra immediately weaved the hand signs for the thunderclap Arrow, only to be stopped by Aang.
"Shinra, that's too much!" the monk protested. The ninja groaned and stopped halfway.
"Any better ideas?" Shinra asked as the pirates got closer.
Aang was going to open his glider but he then realized all four of them wouldn't fit on it.
'Kid, summon the toads, Now!'
Shinra immediately listened and weaved the hand signs.
'please be Chief Toad.. please be Chief Toad!'
The ninja bit his thumb and immediately slammed his palm on the ground.
In an instant, a massive plume of white smoke came between the kids and the pirates. Once it cleared, a huge toad was seen standing between the two groups.
Shinra smiled. "It worked"
Unlike his son who was yellow, he was a dull, rusty red, but around his eyes and on his lips and chest were brighter red markings. He had on a blue jacket as well as a giant knife strapped to his back.. standing before everyone was Gamabunta, the Chief Toad.
"Chief!" Shinra called out.
"Shinra, is that you?" The massive toad boomed. "Why did you summon me?"
"We're kinda being jumped right now" the ninja pointed to the pirates behind him. "And we need to get out of here"
The toad turned to the pirates and a smirk played on his lips. "Ganging up against one of my henchmen, hm? Disgraceful"
With that, the chief toad easily swatted the pirates away. "Now hop on. Let's get out of here!"
Aang, Sokka and Katara however we're dumbstruck. They knew Shinra could summon toads, but since when could they get this huge?
"Guys!" Shinra's voice snapped them all out of their daze. He'd already grabbed onto the Chief's shirt. The others immediately followed suit. "Chief, I'll tell you where to go"
"Hold on tight, young ones" Gamabunta warned before finally leaping out of the vicinity, all the kids hanging onto his back.
After getting them back to camp, Gamabunta set the kids down gently and then went back to Mount Myoboku.
"I used to kind of look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible" Aang said.
"I know.." Katara said with a smile before pulling out the waterbending scroll from the ship. "That's why I took this"
"You stole their scroll! No wonder they were trying to hack us up!" Sokka complained.
'Now where have I seen this before?' The nine tails rhetorically asked.
"Naruto..." Shinra sighed. The entire situation gave him deja vu to the night Naruto stole the scroll from Grandpa Third's office... Granted, Shinra by extension learned the Shadow clone Jutsu as well but still. What was it with his friends and stealing scrolls for training?
"That's also why you were all nervous" Shinra added.
"You put all our lives in danger just to learn some fancy splashes!" Sokka kept going.
"These are real waterbending forms" Katara argued. "You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending"
"I can't believe I'm agreeing with Sokka but he's right " Shinra shook his head. "Katara I get that you and Aang need to learn waterbending as fast as you can but that was reckless. What if we couldn't escape those guys?"
"Thankfully we did" Katara gave Shinra an appreciative smile.
"Summoning that giant toad was amazing by the way" Aang added.
"Thanks, but I can't summon the Chief all the time so let's not make it a habit" Shinra replied before frowning. "Ugh. I sound like Kakashi Sensei"
"Well, we have the scroll" Aang said. "We might as well use it"
"Why do I get the feeling this whole thing is gonna come back to bite us?" Shinra sighed with a shake of his head.
"I just wanna try this one move first, then it's all yours" Katara said to Aang who held the scroll up at her. "The single water whip.. looks doable"
"That's what I said earlier about the technique I'm learning" Shinra said from where he was. He was back on the same tree doing pull-ups. "Then I almost blew myself into the water. Just don't expect it to be too easy"
Katara nodded in appreciation even though Shinra couldn't see her before proceeding to practice.
Meanwhile, Shinra finally let himself drop from the tree. He'd done 200 pull-ups altogether, counting the ones he did earlier. Thankfully he'd managed to stick to the tree all through the exercise.
He closed his eyes for a few seconds before making the hand signs for the technique once again. After the boar hand sign, Shinra thrust his palms forward, definitely expelling wind but not with half as much power as the first time. As if to make it worse, it barely got past three feet on front of of him.
"Fucking hell!" Shinra charged chakra to his fist and was about to punch the tree...
"Why can't I get this stupid move?!"
The ninja turned around to see Katara with a red spot on her head.. and she looked mad. What'd happened?
"Don't worry, you'll get it" Aang said. He then put down the scroll and did the move perfectly. "You just gotta shift your weight through the stances.. see, the key to bending is-"
"Will you please shut your air hole?!" Katara snapped. "Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!"
"Katara!" Shinra went over to them.
"What?!" She glared at him.
"He was just trying to help you!" Shinra pointed at Aang who already seemed to be close to tears. Katara immediately realized what she'd done.
"Oh my gosh, Aang" Katara looked at the Airbender with remorse and picked up the scroll, handing it to him. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me. Here, this is yours. I don't wanna have anything to do with it anymore"
"It's okay, Katara " Aang took the scroll from Katara.
"What about Momo?" Sokka pointed out. "He's the real victim here"
"I'm sorry Momo" Katara went to pet him affectionately.
"And what about me?" Sokka asked.
"Dude!" Shinra gave Sokka a glare that told him to stop talking.
That night, Katara couldn't help herself. She knew she'd told Aang that he could have the scroll but she needed to just learn this one move.
But why was it so hard?!
"C'mon water, work with me here!" Katara groaned as she hit herself with it for the fiftieth time.
"Getting angry won't help"
Katara spun around, here eyes wide. She relaxed once she saw who it was. "Shinra, you should be asleep"
"So should you" the boy shrugged. "I thought you said you left the scroll for Aang"
"I..." Katara looked down. "I'm sorry. I just really wanna figure this out"
"Believe me I get it" Shinra nodded. "That wind release technique's been kicking my ass all day. And in your case Aang's learning so quickly so it feels even worse"
"Yeah.." she admitted.
"I was you once" Shinra leaned against one of the trees. "Not too long ago actually.. my teammate Sasuke was ahead of me in everything. He learned everything so fast and it was infuriating. He even nicknamed Naruto and I 'dead last'"
"The same Sasuke you fought before ending up here?" Katara shook her head. "He sounds awful"
"Honestly, Sasuke wasn't exactly the whole problem. At some point I realized I was focused on Sasuke way too much, he was my yardstick. But I completely forgot something; Sasuke's eyes actually analyze and copy every power he sees. So technically, he was cheating. Also, there was this one kid, Rock Lee. He's basically our equivalent of a non bender. Katara, you should've seen this guy beat Sasuke just in seconds.. with pure hard work"
"Really?" Katara looked at Shinra with amazement.
"Oh yeah, Sasuke couldn't keep up" Shinra chuckled. "And Lee saved my ass more than once when it was life and death. This guy has fought the most dangerous people with no powers at all.. and beat them"
"He sounds so strong..." Katara mused.
"You're as strong as he is" Shinra looked up at her. "I see how bad you wanna improve.. you remind me of Lee.. and myself. The hunger you have is gonna make you insanely powerful once you finally get the moves right, and I know you will. Embrace the struggle.. it's part of the process"
Katara couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Shinra"
"Anytime, Katara. Now can we please go to bed?" Shinra stretched.
Before Katara could do anything beyond chuckle, the two heard a noise. They tensed and immediately went to check it out. Katara poked her head through the bushes and spotted a riverboat.
"Zuko.." she whispered.
"Oh c'mon!" Shinra sighed.
They ran back to the clearing only to get faced by a pirate. Shinra charged forward and landed a quick punch to the man's midriff, knocking him back a few feet. He turned back to catch up with Katara, only to see her being held by Zuko.
"I'll save you from the pirates" the prince told her.
"Get your filthy hands off her!" Shinra was about to charge at the prince but found himself held back by the same pirate from earlier. The chūnin immediately stomped on the man's foot and flipped him over his head. Unfortunately, the group seemed to have come prepared as a good number of pirates dog piled on him before he could move further.
"I'm ready for your tricks this time, traitor" Zuko looked at Shinra who rolled his eyes from his position on the ground. Was this guy deaf or something?
Both Katara and Shinra were tied up to trees, surrounded by both pirates and Fire Nation soldiers.
"Tell me where he is and I won't hurt you or your brother" Zuko told Katara.
"Go jump in the river!" Katara spat.
"And sit on a porcupine for good measure" Shinra added.
"Try to understand" Zuko walked around the tree Katara was tied to. "I need to capture him to restore something I've lost.. my honor"
"And perhaps in exchange" Zuko continued, pulling out Katara's necklace. They'd thought she lost it after they freed the Earth Kingdom prison. "... I can restore something you've lost"
Shinra couldn't help but notice the position Zuko was standing in right now; Right behind Katara and pretty much whispering in her ear.
"Gross"
"Silence, traitor!" Zuko glared at him.
"Fuck you!" Shinra shot back.
"Where'd you get my mother's necklace?" Katara asked.
"I didn't steal it if that's what you're thinking" Zuko walked back towards her.
"You found it and chose not to return it" Shinra tilted his head. "Pretty sure that's called stealing"
"That reminds me" Zuko looked at Shinra. "I keep hearing rumors that you're supposedly from another world. I don't know if I believe that"
"I don't care if you believe it or not" Shinra said. "The fact of the matter is that I am"
"Are you from the spirit world?" Zuko tilted his head.
"Nope" Shinra said. "But I sure as hell am not telling you about my home"
"How stupid do you think I am?" Zuko's flare returned.
"You're a whole grown ass man with a high ponytail" Shinra gave him a flat look. "I don't think there's much going on upstairs"
Before Zuko could do much other than literally heat up, the pirate Captain spoke up. "Enough of this garbage! You promised the scroll!"
Zuko then pulled out the waterbending scroll, holding it over an flame in his free hand. "I wonder how much this is worth"
The pirates gasped in horror.
"Find the boy, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy" Zuko ordered.
"We don't" Shinra deadpanned.
A few hours later, Aang and Sokka got caught as well.
"I'm sorry, Aang" Katara said. "This is all my fault"
"No it's not, Katara" Aang reassured her.
"If we're calling shit as it is, then it is her fault" Shinra spoke. "No offense, Katara"
"Yeah, he's right" an elderly man, the same one who seemed to always be around Zuko added. Katara looked at both of them weirdly.
"Give me the boy" Zuko demanded.
"After you give us the scroll" the Captain countered.
"You're really gonna trade the Avatar over a stupid piece of parchment?!" Sokka asked.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Shinra hissed at him. The water tribe boy winked at him, causing Shinra to furrow his eyebrows.
"Don't listen to him!" Zuko said. "He's trying to turn us against each other"
Shinra's eyes widened a bit in realization. He couldn't help but smile... An evil smile.
"Your friend is the Avatar?" The Captain asked.
"Yep" Sokka smiled. "And not only that, but I'm sure you've heard by now that a kid with otherworldly abilities is traveling with him too"
"Yes we have" the Captain nodded. "A strange boy who leveled Roku's temple alongside the Avatar"
"That's me!" Shinra played along, giving a foxish grin similar to Naruto's. "And I bet if you turned us both in, the Fire lord would pay a loooot of money"
"You guys would be set for life!" Sokka added.
"Keep the scroll!" The Captain faced Zuko. "We can buy a hundred with the money we'll get for these two"
"You'll regret breaking a deal with me" Zuko immediately shot fire at the pirates who jumped back, letting go of Sokka and Aang. After about a minute of struggling, Shinra managed to get his tied hands to make the cross sign, immediately spawning two clones to cut both he and Katara loose. All four of them then scattered in different directions.
Shinra hadn't gotten beyond ten steps before was faced with a pirate. The older man swung a sword at him multiple times, luckily Shinra parried each swing with a kunai in his right hand before striking the pirate in the solar plexus. Taking advantage of his stunned state, Shinra delivered a hook kick to take the man to the ground before moving on.
He then ran into Aang and Sokka. "We gotta find Katara and get out of here while these douches are distracted"
After a few minutes of fighting through the thick cloud of smoke, the three boys made it out and found Katara trying to push the pirates' ship back onto the water. "Help me get this back onto the water!"
The gang all started to push all together but the boat barely moved.
"We'd need a team of rhinos to budge this thing" Sokka complained.
"A team of rhinos, or two waterbenders" Aang looked at Katara who smiled and nodded.
The two benders managed to push and pull the water enough to get the ship back into the river.
"Everyone on board!" Katara called and everyone complied and they immediately set sail. Unfortunately, the pirates were chasing after them either Zuko's boat.
"Can this thing go any faster?!" For the first time, Shinra was concerned.
"I don't know, this wasn't designed by the water tribe!" Sokka replied. The pirates caught up and were starting to board the boat, luckily Katara knocked one back with the water whip.
"You just did the water whip!" Aang and Shinra both smiled at her simultaneously.
"Congrats Katara" Shinra added.
"I couldn't have done it without you two" Katara smiled back.
"Will you three stop getting all mushy and help me out?!" Sokka yelled as two pirates attacked him at once.
Shinra immediately rushed towards the scuffle, weaving hand signs without much thought, just hope.
Monkey, Bird, Ram, Tiger and Boar.
The ninja then clapped and thrust his right hand forward. A huge burst of air similar to what would come out of an air canon blasted the pirates away from Sokka. Shinra immediately followed with a lightning blade to one pirate while Sokka whacked the other with the his club.
"I finally did it!" Shinra smiled at no one in particular. Katara gave him a proud smile as only she knew what he was talking about. Then she noticed they were heading towards a waterfall.
"Guys look!" She yelled.
"Oh shit!" Shinra's eyes widened.
Aang immediately grabbed his whistle and blew it furiously.
"Have you lost your mind?!" Sokka yelled. "This is not time for flute practice!"
"Guys I don't know if I can summon the Chief in time for this one!" Shinra looked around. He was barely able to finish the sentence before Zuko's boat crashed into the ship, sending them all over the waterfall.
Luckily, Appa heard Aang's whistle earlier and once again flew in right on time before the group could all plummet into the water below.
About thirty minutes later once all the adrenaline had worn off, Katara turned to Aang.
"Aang, I'm sorry" she apologized. "You were just so good at waterbending so quickly and I got so competitive that I put us all in danger"
"It's okay " Aang smiled.
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" Katara added.
"Is that really how you feel?" Sokka waved the scroll at Katara. Katara immediately perked up.
"The scroll!" She immediately reached for it but Sokka kept it out of her reach.
"What did you learn?" He asked.
"Stealing is wrong" Katara said. Sokka then handed it to her and she smirked. "Unless it's from pirates!"
Both Shinra and Aang couldn't help but laugh. The former was honestly glad he'd gotten the hang of the Great Burst earlier. Letting out a sigh, he couldn't help but think back to Roku's words earlier.. he still found himself unable to choose. Either choice he had seemed like a contradiction of his own ninja way.
These friends or the ones back home?