The four were brought to the throne room of the King of Omashu and forced to kneel. The four looked up to see a very old man in green robes who had a crown with two very long horns coming out of both sides. The old man looked at Aang and Naruto before humming to himself as if in confusion and surprise.
"Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for vandalism, traveling under false pretences, and malicious destruction of cabbages," one of the guards said, addressing the king.
"Off with their heads! One for each head of cabbage!" The merchant, who for some reason was present, yelled angrily. Naruto just scoffed before turning to him.
"Seriously? Weren't your cabbages rotten anyway? How did you even get in the city?" Naruto asked, making the merchant nervous. Aang just nudged him in the arm, trying to get Naruto to shut up. The blonde just looked at him with a 'seriously?' look.
"What? If anything, he's the one who should be getting punished for trying to poison the citizens. Also, who the hell sells cabbages?" Naruto asked.
"Silence! Only the king can pass down judgement. What is your judgement, Sire?" the guard asked as the king looked at all four of the 'criminals' closely. Sokka had a face full of nervousness, Katara had one of innocence, Aang avoided looking at the king entirely, and Naruto gave him a cold stare right in the eyes.
"Throw them..." the king started as Aang, Katara, and Sokka started to get nervous. Still, Naruto, on the other hand, he was getting ready to fight his way out, which would be more difficult than normal considering he wasn't close to the earth to grow trees.
"a feast", the king finished, which surprised everyone in the room and earned an angry groan from the cabbage merchant.
"Ha! That's what you get for selling cabbage, you dumb mother-" however, he was then stopped by Katara leaning over and hitting him hard in the head. "Okay, okay, I'll stop".
Later the group of four are sitting at a very long table as the king is standing behind them, chuckling.
"The people in my city have gotten fat from too many feasts. So, I hope you like your chicken with no skin," The king says while putting an arm around Aang.
"How about you? I bet you like meat," The king says, turning to Sokka and shoving a drumstick into his mouth. "You have no idea how wrong that sounds," Naruto says.
The king then walks back to his seat on the other side of the table before once again striking up a conversation. He turns to Naruto before speaking.
"Young man, please tell me, why aren't you eating any of the food I am offering you?" the king asks.
"Well, if I am being honest, it's because I don't trust you", Naruto responds with no hesitation. "Naruto!!!" Katara yells, not wanting him to be so impolite.
"No, no, it's okay," the king says to Katara before turning back to Naruto. "And why is that? Why do you not trust me? I have been nothing but generous to you, have I not?" The king asks.
"Well, besides the fact that you are a crazy old man, I believe you are hiding something," Naruto says, which makes some of the guards angry as they start to step forwards to defend their King before getting waved off by him.
"And what is it that you think I am hiding?" The king asks. "I don't know yet. I was hoping you could tell me, your majesty," Naruto says, putting extra emphasis on his last two words. The king, however, just ignores Naruto and asks Aang a question instead.
"So, tell me, young bald one, where are you from?" the king asks, which just annoys Naruto as he didn't get an answer to his question. "I'm from Kangaroo Island", Aang answers.
"Oh, Kangaroo Island, eh?" the king rhetorically asks. "I hear that place is really hopping", he jokes as he just gets blank stares from the four before Sokka bursts out in laughter. The other three just stare at him with a 'you can't be serious' look, making him uncomfortable.
"What? It was pretty funny," Sokka says, embarrassed that he was the only one who laughed. The king then grabs everyone's attention by yawning.
"All these good jokes are making me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay," The king says while leaning to his side and grabbing a drumstick out of his sleeve before launching it towards Aang. Naruto gets up and leans over to catch it, but it is too late as Aang is forced to use air bending to stop it. All the guards in the room gasp at the sudden reveal that Aang is an Airbender.
"There's an air bender in our presence and not just any air bender... the Avatar," the king says, standing up. Aang just looks at him nervously, still using his air bending, keeping the drumstick in the air before dropping it on a plate quickly. "Now, what do you have to say for yourself, Mr Pippenpadlopsicopolis?" the king asks in an accusatory tone.
"Ok, you caught me. I'm the avatar... doing my avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out," Aang says awkwardly before he pulls the cloth on the table up and looks under it. "No fire benders here. So, good work, everybody. Love each other, respect all life, and don't run with your spears," Aang says as the four of them back up towards the exit.
"We'll see you next time!" He yells before being stopped right at the exit as they were stopped by two guards who crossed their spears, blocking the way. Naruto turns to them angrily. "Move..." he says, slowly tilting his head to the side ", before I make you move", he threatens as the guard gives him a look of amusement, thinking Naruto was just a helpless kid.
Naruto chuckles before grabbing the guards spear and snapping it in half over his knee. The guard was stunned by this. The other guard then charges him with his spear forward before Naruto grabs the spear and throws it and the guard holding onto it, over him and to the side of the room.
The first guard, who has now regained his composure, goes up to Naruto to engage him in hand to hand combat. That proved to be a great mistake, however, as Naruto dodged his first few attacks until the guard left his midsection open as Naruto landed a hard kick to his ribs, knocking him down before bringing his leg up and slamming his heel onto the guard's helmet rendering him unconscious. Katara, Aang, and Sokka watched in shock at what was happening as, for some reason, they weren't able to move to help their friend.
The king watched in interest as the second guard got back up and ran at Naruto once more with his spear. Naruto seeing this jumped into the air and twirled horizontally to the ground twice before sending his leg forward and kicking the spear out of the guard's hands as it stabbed into the wall. The guard then ran forward and kicked the back of Naruto's knee, making him go down to one knee before putting his fists forward, ready to attack if Naruto moved. "Surrender", the guard ordered.
"You know... I don't think I will," Naruto said before jumping up and sending a mid-air roundhouse kick straight to the guards' temple, knocking him out. Four more guards came in and surrounded Naruto as they slowly closed in. Naruto once again jumped up, kicking two of the guards forward away from him before he landed on his back.
The other two guards stood above him before Naruto spun his body around, kicking the legs out from under the two guards and making them fall on their backs. Naruto then performed a kip-up, getting back on his feet.
He turned to one guard who ran at him, trying to clothesline him.
Naruto grabbed his outstretched arm, twisted it, and threw him over his head before swiftly knocking him out with a punch to the face. Two guards then came at him at once, which put Naruto on the defensive. He had a guard on either side of him, sending quick punches his way. One pulled his arm back from a missed punch as the other began to send one.
Naruto seeing this as his chance, grabbed the second guard's arm and threw him over himself, causing him to crash into the other guard. He walked up to the two guards on the ground as they looked up at him in fear before Naruto sent two quick punches their way, knocking them both out.
The last guard who had finally got up looked around him to see 5 of his fellow guards on the ground. He looked up at Naruto, who had a pure rage in his eyes, almost scaring the guard to death, his eyes as red as blood. The guard then fainted out of fear.
Naruto turned to the king, who was still looking on in interest but right now, he was incredibly impressed. Eight more guards ran into the room, circling Naruto.
"Look at what I just did to your fellow guards. What makes you think you will be any different?" Naruto asked. "You're outnumbered 8 to 1. Stand down!" a guard ordered.
"I like those odds," Naruto says before he starts to take on eight guards at once. This fight lasted 15 minutes as Naruto was mostly blocking and evading while sending quick but brutal strikes every time he had the chance. Five of the eight guards were down, with three remaining.
"Surrender or else your friends will pay!" one of the guards says as Naruto turns to see Aang, Katara, and Sokka all trapped up to their necks from the earth coming out of the ground.
This, however, only angers Naruto as he sees his friends being held hostage. He is about to go back to fighting the guards before he sees the scared looks on Sokka and Aang's faces. He then looks at Katara as he moves his head to the side angrily to look at the guards. He closes his eyes before reluctantly putting his hands up and dropping to his knees.
The guards hesitantly walk forward and restraints Naruto before the king stands up.
"That was a most impressive young man. But how come you didn't use your greatest tool? Fire bending is very powerful, yet you refrained from using it?" the king said, which confused Naruto and the other three, but they didn't get the chance to correct it.
"Tomorrow, you and the avatar will face three deadly challenges. But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber," The king says.
"My liege, do you mean the good chamber or the bad chamber?" a guard asks, confused.
"The newly refurbished chamber", the king answers. "Wait. Which one are we talking about?" The guard asks again.
"The one that used to be the bad chamber, until the recent refurbishing, that is. Of course, we've been calling it the new chamber, but we really should number them," the king says awkwardly.
"Uh... take them to the refurbished chamber that was once bad!" the king orders as two guards escort Katara, Sokka, and Aang first before calling in about a dozen guards to escort Naruto alone just in case.
When Naruto finally gets to the chambers the others are in; he sees a big open room with three beds, all already taken by the others who are asleep. Naruto begins walking around the room quietly, looking for a possible way out. He put his hand on the floor but couldn't feel the earth; he couldn't woodbend with no earth nearby.
After about 20 minutes of looking around, Naruto concluded that there was indeed no way out. Not really feeling tired, Naruto instead goes and sits on the ground between Sokka's and Katara's bed. He begins to meditate.
As he meditates, he begins to feel a pull as he opens his eyes and sees a reflection of himself. But the reflection was different. Sure it moved in unison every time Naruto moved but instead of wearing Naruto's normal clothes, his reflection's clothes were different shades of red with gold lacing. "Who are you?" Naruto asks as his other self stops copying his movements.
"I am you," Says the other Naruto. "That's impossible. If you are truly me, then show me the brand I have on the back of your neck," Naruto ordered. The other Naruto listened as he turned around and brushed the hair that was covering it away.
The real Naruto stepped forward and examined it only to see it was a different marking. Instead of the symbol, which means family, it was a symbol Naruto was not familiar with.
"This symbol isn't the symbol of the family," Naruto says.
"No, it isn't. This symbol is the symbol of the dragon," the 'fake' Naruto says before his brand starts to glow orange causing the 'real' Naruto to move closer to it before a dragon launches out of it and starts to fly around the chamber.
Naruto watches it move around in the air before turning around to see another... him? But the Naruto he is looking at doesn't seem to be able to see him or the first fake him.
Naruto and his first copy of himself watch the third version of him jump up and fire bend!? And not just fire bend but fire bend white flames. "What am I watching? I can't fire bend, so this can't be me," Naruto says to his copy.
"No! you can't fire bend, can you?" the copy asks. "Well, at least not yet," he says before disappearing. Naruto looks behind him only to see the dragon from before coming right at him and opening his mouth to eat him.
Naruto's vision goes black before he comes back to the real world. He launches forward, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. "Naruto? Are you okay?" he hears the voice of Katara asking.
"What's wrong?" Naruto turns to Katara, who has a face full of worry. "Sorry, did I wake you up?" Naruto asks. "Yeah, but it's fine," She says, pulling, bringing her legs up and dangling them off the edge of the bed. "What happened?" she asks. "N-nothing, Katara, go back to sleep," Naruto says, trying not to worry her.
Katara looks up around the room and sees both of the other beds taken by Sokka and Aang. "Were you sleeping on the ground?" She asks. "No. I wasn't sleeping at all," Naruto answers.
"Well, come on," she says, patting the space next to her. "You can share with me," Katara says, surprising both Naruto and herself at how bold she was being. "Katara I-" Naruto starts but is stopped when he is pulled up by Katara.
"I'm not taking 'No' for an answer," Katara says. Naruto just nods, knowing that when Katara is set on something that there is no convincing her otherwise.
She lays down first, moving to the side before patting on the mattress, telling Naruto to lay down next to her. Naruto just nudges his shoulder before awkwardly laying down next to her.
Katara smiled that Naruto was comfortable now; she lay down, closing her eyes to sleep. "Is much better, isn't it?" Katara asks.
"Yeah, u-um, much better," Naruto says, nervous and flustered. "Uh, anyway, goodnight Katara" Naruto said, looking at the other side of the bed.
"Goodnight Naruto"
After a couple more minutes, Naruto starts to doze off to sleep as well.
Naruto wakes up to the sound of earth bending. He looks behind him and does not see Katara there anymore. He sits up and looks around to see Aang just waking up too and notices that neither Katara nor Sokka are there.
Aang turns to see a guard. "Where are my friends!?" Aang asks with a higher tone, his voice unusually not that of a friendly mong anymore.
"The king will free them if you two complete the challenges", The guard answers. "And if we fail?" Naruto asks. The guard turns to look at Naruto and slightly flinches after hearing the voice of the 15-year-old boy who was able to take down 11 of Omashu's best guards with nothing but his own body.
"He didn't say," the guard answered after regaining a little bit of his courage. "Your staff please?" he asks with a hand out. Aang throws him his staff.
"And I am going to have to restrain your hands," he says. Naruto walks up to him slowly, which, to say the least... scares the guard.
Naruto looks him dead in the eye, only sending more fear through him before turning around and putting his hands behind his back. The guard quickly forms cuffs made of the earth around Naruto's hands before escorting him and Aang to where the king currently is.
Aang and Naruto are currently in front of the king in his throne room. "First, avatar, what do you think of my new outfit? I want your honest opinion," the king says. Aang just looks at him weirdly before answering. "I... guess it's fine," Aang says. "Excellent. And what do you think of it?" The king says.
"Honestly, I think it looks kind of dumb", Naruto says dismissively. Aang just coughs, telling Naruto to take back what he said.
"I mean... turn around," Naruto says, which the king does. "Nope, still ugly," Naruto says, bored.
"Naruto!" Aang yells. "What? I don't want him going out and embarrassing himself. Also, if you are earth kingdom, then why would you ever wear purple?" Naruto asks. "Well, you were honest. You've passed the first test," the king says.
"I did?" Naruto asks, surprised. "Well... not one of the deadly tests," The king says with a grin. "Of course not", Naruto mumbled, slightly shaking his head.
"The real challenges are much more... challenging," The king says. Aang dashed towards the king and got in his face. "I don't have time for your crazy games. Give me my friends back. We're leaving!" Aang yells.
"Oh, I thought your friend over there would be the one to refuse, not you," the king said as Naruto just glared at him. An opening was then made in the side of the room to reveal Katara and Sokka being held by two guards.
"Nevertheless, I will give your friends some special souvenirs. Those delightful rings are made of pure Genomite, also known as the creeping crystal. It's a crystal that grows remarkably fast. By nightfall, your friends will be completely covered in it. A terrible fate, really. I can stop it, but only if you cooperate," the king finishes as Sokka screams as the crystal starts creeping up his hand.
"I'll do what you want," Aang says with panic evident in his voice. At the location of the first challenge, Naruto and Aang are on a platform made of earth in a cave. They are surrounded by stalagmites coming up from the ground.
In the middle of the cave is a ladder reaching up to a key dangling on a chain that is hooked to the ceiling. Around the ladder and key is a circular waterfall completely covering it.
The king can be heard laughing like a maniac on a balcony above as Katara and Sokka, who are behind him, are watching carefully.
"It seems I've lost my lunchbox key, and I'm hungry. Oooh, there it is. Would you mind fetching it for me?" the king asks. Naruto just turns to Aang. "I've got this", Naruto says, stepping forward before being stopped by Aang.
"Wait. He doesn't know you're a wood bender. Maybe we should keep it that way," Aang says as Naruto hesitates but eventually nods in agreement letting Aang take the lead on this one.
Aang then jumps off the platform going from stalagmite to stalagmite. He then jumps at the bottom of the ladder before attempting to climb up it. This soon proved too much for Aang as he was launched out of the waterfall and straight towards a spike which was going to impale him if Naruto didn't catch him first.
"Ok, it's my turn now. I really don't care if he knows I can wood bend anyway," Naruto says as he puts Aang down. He walks up to the bottom of the waterfall before stopping and taking a deep breath.
Suddenly trees grew around him, creating like a shield around him, protecting him.
He quickly climbs up the ladder and rips the key off the chain before jumping off to the side. He then bends some wood into a spike before putting the key on the tip and launching it right above the King, hitting the wall and shattering as the key falls down in front of him.
"Impossible! You should be able to bend only fire," The king says, for the first time looking surprised.
"I'm not a fire bender!!!" Naruto yells out to him, his eyes red again, something the king notices. Later at the site of the second challenge, Naruto and Aang are down in an arena where a small rabbit-like creature is sitting on the pillar.
The challenge was to bring the king's pet flopsy to him. "I found flopsy!" Aang yells out. "Bring him to me. Daddy wants a kiss from flopsy," the king yelled out.
"Come here; flopsy", Aang says as the two approach the little bunny before hearing and feeling a loud thud come from behind them. They turned around to see a giant goat gorilla.
Aang laughed nervously before the giant creature tried to smash the two by clapping his hands. The two both jumped backwards, avoiding the attack before they saw flopsy running away.
"Naruto, you distract this guy while I get flopsy", Aang says before running off.
"Hey! Why do I have to distract the big guy?" Naruto asked but got no answer as he was forced to run from the goat gorilla. After distracting him for a few minutes, Aang ran up next to Naruto.
"Flopsy?" Aang asked as Naruto jumped to the side, trying to avoid getting hit by the creature, but when he looked back, all he saw was the creature cradling Aang in his arms and licking him. Flopsy then ran up to the king and laid on his back before rubbing his belly.
Aang and Naruto jumped up out of the giant pen and in front of Katara and Sokka. Naruto then saw that the crystal had grown so much that it went all the way up to their shoulders and all the way down to their ankles.
At the sight of the third challenge, Aang and Naruto are standing in front of the king on a balcony overlooking an earth bending arena. "Your final test is a duel. Or I guess a truel?" the king said, grinning more than ever before.
"As a special treat, you may choose your opponent," the king said as two people walked in and stood next to him. The man on the left had a spear in his hand and two swords on his back.
The man on the right was huge and carried a giant axe. Aang looked over to Naruto as if asking who he should pick, which just gained a nudge of the shoulders, signalling that he doesn't know or really care. "Point and choose," the king says.
"So, you're saying whoever I point to... that's the person I get to fight?" Aang asks. "Choose wisely," the king says. "I... choose... you!" Aang says while pointing at the king. "You know, out of all the things you could have done, this was the worst decision," Naruto said, knowing the king was an Earth bender, but not just any earth bender; he could feel the king's chi was all around his bones which meant...
"Ha Ha! That's because it was," the king said as he stood up straight and threw his robe off, revealing an incredibly fit body underneath.
The king then launched the two back and into the arena before jumping down himself.
"You thought I was a frail old man, but I'm actually the most powerful earth bender you will ever see! And you. You were onto me from the start, which is most impressive. So for that..."
The king says as he stomps his foot in the ground, which makes the edge of the arena go down, and water flows up to take its place, "I'll let you use your wood bending".
The king then kicked up three boulders and sent them at Aang while Naruto was growing wood around him and using the heart tree technique as he made eight different arms of wood come out from behind his back. Aang dodges all the boulders sent at him.
"Typical air bender tactic, avoid and evade. I'd hoped the avatar would be a little less predictable," the king said before sending another boulder at Aang, making him jump up and spin his staff so he would stay in the air.
"Don't you have any surprises for me? Sooner or later, you'll have to strike ba-" the king started but was cut off when wood wrapped around his leg and pulled him in the air before slamming him to the ground.
"Sorry, what was that? You didn't finish!" Naruto said as he pulled him up again just to slam him back to the ground. He went to do it for the third time, but before he could, a small boulder was sent his way, causing him to sidestep.
The king then threw a boulder at the ceiling right above where Aang was knocked to the ground by falling debris. Aang started to run towards the king, who just sent earth pillars up from the ground, causing Aang to dodge before being launched up by one.
"Oh, you'll have to be more creative than tha-" The king started but was once again cut off by Naruto, who hit him with wood to the face and knocked him to the ground.
"Why do you keep interrupting my one liners? Don't you know it's rude?" the king said, sending a boulder towards Naruto, who just wrapped wood around it and flung it back at the king.
"Why do you keep forgetting about me? Don't you know that's rude?" Naruto quipped before the king sent another boulder his way, but Naruto just crushed it with wood. However, when the two pieces of the boulder fell to the ground, it kicked up a large dust cloud making it impossible for Naruto to see.
Out of nowhere, a pillar of earth hit Naruto and launched him back into the arena walls, where the king then restrained his limbs to the wall. Now stuck and having no way to get back in the fight, Naruto was forced just to watch Aang get beaten by the earth king.
After a couple of minutes of just watching Aang get his ass handed to him, Naruto was having enough as he ripped his hands-free from the restraints before bending wood and crushing the restraints on his feet of dropping him down.
As he looked back up at the fight, he saw Aang and the king on either side of the arena. "How are you gonna get me from way over there?" the king tauntingly asks Aang.
"I'm not," Aang says, which confused the king before he was blasted back into the wall by wood.
"I am," Naruto said as he shot towards the king a dragon-shaped wood, the king immediately used a pillar to block it. Still, the dragon crushed through it before tying himself around the king, the mouth open with sharp spikes for teeth enough to tear a man apart, Aang for a second, thought Naruto might crush the king, but the blonde stopped the dragon just an inch from his face.
"Haha. Well done. You fight with much fire in your heart," the king says as then bends the earth below him, making him fall in before reappearing on the balcony from before.
Naruto and Aang got up to the balcony using their bending as they stood in front of the king and the almost fully covered Sokka and Katara.
"You've passed all my tests. Now, you must answer one question," the king says. "That's not fair! You said you would release our friends if we finish your tests," Aang yelled.
"Oh, but what's the point of tests if you don't learn anything?" the king asks. "Answer this one question, and I will set your friends free. What is my name?" the king asks. "From the looks of your friends, I'd say you only have a few minutes," the king says before he walks off.
"How am I supposed to know his name?" Aang asks, clueless.
"Think about the challenges. Maybe it's some kind of riddle," Katara says. "I got it!" Sokka yells, gaining everyone's attention. "He's and earth bender, right? Rocky!" Sokka exclaims. This is just greeted by silence and blank looks. "You know, because of all the rocks?".
"We're gonna keep trying, but that is a good backup," Katara says.
"Ok, so back to the challenges. We got a key from a waterfall, we saved his pet, and we had a duel... or truel, I guess," Aang says. "Well, that doesn't help at all. There is no correlation between those things," Naruto says. "I know his name," Aang says. "You wanna share it with us?" Naruto asks.
"Bumi", Aang spoke, almost shouting. They join in a hug as Naruto, Katara, and Sokka are standing a little away from them.
"Yeah, that's nice and all, but could you maybe stop our friends from... you know, dying?" Naruto asks. Bumi just reaches forward and shatters the crystals catching a piece in his hand.
"Genomite is made of rock candy," Bumi says before taking a bite out of a piece. After having a conversation with Aang about how he must master the four elements, Bumi asks to speak with Naruto alone.
"Is there a reason that a crazy old king wanted to talk to me?" Naruto asks.
"Hey! Who are you calling old?" Bumi asks, which just earns a blank stare from Naruto. "Ok, I'm old. But I wanted to talk to you about something important. As I'm sure you noticed, I originally thought you were a fire bender. That was not a mistake, however," Bumi said, which Naruto raised his eyebrow at, but Bumi could feel he had half-crossed a line.
"You can woodbend, you know for a long time, I myself had thought of bending wood, but I never was able to do, as for me believing you can fire bend..."
Naruto listened to Bumi for a whole hour before returning to his gang. Naruto says his goodbyes and starts to head out of the city to where the others are with Appa.
As they flew away from Omashu, the blonde couldn't help but think of what King Bumi told him.