Naruto is currently practising his wood bending as Sokka approaches Katara and Aang, who are just lounging around. When Sokka reaches the two, Aang jumps up to his feet in front of Sokka. "Great. You're back. What's for dinner?" Aang asks. Sokka opens the bag he was carrying in front of the two.
"We've got a few options. First, round nuts and some kind of oval-shaped nuts. And some rock shaped nuts that might just be rocks," Sokka says as he throws a rock behind him. "Dig in," He says before getting whacked in the back of the head by wood.
"That's not food, you oaf," Naruto says as he walks over to the three.
"Seriously, what else you got?" Katara asks. Sokka looks inside his bag as Naruto turns and looks at Momo, who is playing with the rock shaped 'nut' that Sokka collected for food. A loud and deep boom can be heard in the distance.
"What was that?" Sokka asks nervously. Another loud boom can be heard just seconds later, causing Sokka to become even more nervous. "It's coming from over there!" Aang yells out as he and Katara start to run towards where they heard the boom. Naruto and Sokka just stand still, watching the two run off as if they're crazy.
"Shouldn't we run away from the huge booms, not toward them?" Sokka asks only to receive no acknowledgement from the two.
"You have got to be kidding me," Naruto says before running after Katara and Aang. As Naruto catches up to Katara and Aang, he follows their line of sight and sees that they are watching a man earth bend.
"An earth bender," Katara says in awe. "Big whoop. Earthbenders have the highest population of benders in the world," Naruto says to Katara, only to earn a glare from her. "Let's go meet him", Aang proposes excitedly.
"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously," Sokka says to which Naruto nods in agreement before he hears Katara shouting. "Hello there! I'm Katara. What's your name?" Katara asks in a friendly tone.
The earth bender turns and sees Katara as Naruto runs up to her and steps in front of her protectively, just in case he was hostile. The earth bender sees Naruto and starts to run away, using earth bending to block them from following him. Aang runs up to Naruto and Katara before yelling out to the earth bender. "Nice to meet you!" Aang yells, only earning a facepalm from Naruto before the male wood bender turns to Katara.
"Katara, what made you think it was a good idea to sneak up on a stranger like that? An earth bender too? You could have been killed," Naruto said, annoyed. "I just wanted to say hi," Katara said, trying to defend herself. "Besides, I have you to protect me, right?" Katara asks.
"You make me tired, Katara," Naruto says quietly.
"Hey, that guy's got to be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village. And I bet that village has a market," Aang says excitedly.
"Which means no nuts for dinner," Katara says, also excited. "Nuts? I think you mean rocks," Naruto jokes as Katara and Aang run off in the direction the earth bender went.
"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts," Sokka yelled out. Momo flies past him, following Katara and Aang as Naruto and Sokka follow behind. "Yeah, I hate them, too," Sokka says as he trails behind Naruto.
Eventually, they reach the village and go into the market, where they start to look around. Katara and Naruto walk before they spot the earth bender from before walking into a building. Katara excitedly follows the bender into the building with Naruto close behind. As they walk in, they see the earth bender they ran into earlier and a woman behind a counter.
"Hey! You're that kid. Why did you run away before?" Katara asks, causing the boy to get nervous. Naruto just stands behind Katara awkwardly as he scratches the back of his head.
"Uh... you must have me confused with some other kid," The boy says nervously.
"Yeah, Katara, I think you have the wrong person," Naruto says awkwardly.
"No, she doesn't. We saw you earth bending," Aang says as he and Sokka walk into the building. "They saw you doing what!?" The woman asks angrily, almost shouting at the kid.
"They're crazy, mom. I mean, look at how they're dressed," He says, trying to get himself out of trouble.
"Hey man, I'm on your side, but that was low," Naruto says to the boy.
"You know how dangerous that is. You know what would happen if they caught you earth bending," The mother says to her son, disappointed. They then hear banging on the door.
"Open up!" says the voice of a man. Sokka looks through the blinds of the front window and sees fire nation soldiers were the ones at the door.
"Fire nation! Act natural!" Sokka whisper yells. The woman goes and opens the door as one of the soldiers walks in and looks around the room. He sees Aang with a hat on, leaning against a barrel with a dopey smile on his face, Katara awkwardly eating some berries, Sokka weirdly studying an apple, the earth bender unconvincingly deep in thought, and Naruto, who was actually doing a decent job at being natural by looking at the products on the shelves.
"What do you want? I've already paid you for this week," The woman says to the soldier. The fire nation soldier just turns to her with an evil smile.
"The tax just doubled. And we wouldn't want an accident, would we?" The soldier asks before creating a ball of fire with his hands. "Fire is sometimes so hard to control", the soldier threatens. This angers Naruto as he gathers some water from a barrel around his palm.
"Not when you have water," Naruto says before throwing the water to douse the fire, causing steam to blow up in the soldier's face. This angers the soldier as he glares at Naruto.
"Since you're just a teenager... I'm going to give you another chance. You can apologise now, or I'll light this whole store up in flames. You're choice, young man," He says threateningly. Naruto glares at the man before looking over at the woman who had fear in her eyes.
"Apologies for my immaturity... sir," Naruto says through gritted teeth. The soldier smiled smugly at the young wood bender.
"That's more like it," He says before kicking Naruto backwards onto his back. He then walks over to the woman and takes the money for 'taxes' put in place by the fire nation. "You can keep the copper ones," he says, dropping the copper pieces on the floor. He then walks out of the building, slamming the door. Katara immediately runs over to Naruto and helps him up off the ground.
"Nice guy," Naruto says sarcastically. "How long has the fire nation been here?" Naruto asks the woman who was picking up the copper pieces off the ground.
"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships," The woman answers.
"They're thugs. They steal from us. And everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it. Well, except you, I guess. But look how that turned out," The boy says angrily.
"Quiet Haru! Don't talk like that!" Haru's mom yells. "Why shouldn't he talk like that? Those guys are jerks. Also, for the record, I could have totally taken that guy. I just didn't want your shop to get burned to a crisp," Naruto says defensively.
"Also, Haru's an earth bender. He can help," Katara says. "Earth bending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities," Haru's mom argues.
"How can you say that? Haru has a gift. Asking him not to earth bend is like asking Me not to water bend. It's a part of who we are," Katara says, not truly grasping the reasoning behind Haru hiding his bending.
"You don't understand," Haru's mom says.
"I understand that Haru can help you fight back. What can the fire nation do to you that they haven't done already?" Katara asks, not expecting to hear anything worse than she has heard before.
"They could take Haru away, like they took his father," Haru's mother says as everyone looks at her in shock, well, except for Naruto.
Later, Haru takes the four of them to his family's barn. "My mom said that you can sleep here tonight. But it would be best if you left in the morning," Haru says with a hint of sadness.
"Thanks. I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all your hay," Aang says before they start to unpack.
Appa just looks at Aang with a look. 'How are you going to do that?' Before starting eating hay like a giant bison.
Katara goes on a walk with Haru leaving the three boys alone. Naruto didn't think anything of it until Aang brought it up.
"What do you think they're doing, I mean on their walk?" Aang asks curiously.
"It's a walk; what do you think they're doing, Aang?" Naruto asks, not understanding why Aang would ask a question like that.
"No, Aang's right. They're probably out there smooching," Sokka says, trying to be funny.
"They better not be," Aang says under his breath; however, Naruto hears this. "What, you have a crush on Katara or something, Aang?" Naruto asks in a teasing tone.
"What!? Of course not. I mean, it's Katara," Aang says, trying to get away from the question.
"Smooth", Naruto says under his breath before chuckling.
"Hey! That's my sister you're talking about," Sokka says. This makes Aang become nervous, and Naruto starts to laugh. Aang and Sokka begin to talk to each other as Aang tries to explain what he meant, only for his explanations to make it worse.
This happens until Katara comes back with a huge smile on her face. Katara explains what happened on her and Haru's walk and how Haru saved an old man with his earth bending. While Katara talked about her little story, Naruto was in the corner singing quietly under his breath.
"It was so brave of Haru to use his Earth bending to help that old man," Katara says with a hint of awe.
"You must have really inspired him," Aang says as he listens to Katara intently.
"I guess so," Katara says before turning to Naruto, who is singing quietly.
"You gonna just sit there and sing only to yourself?" Katara says with a grin and an eyebrow raised.
"I don't think-" Naruto starts to disagree but is cut off by Aang. "Yeah! Sing something for us, Naruto!" Aang says excitedly. Naruto looks at the excited smile on Aang's face before looking over at Katara and seeing a warm and encouraging smile. He looks over at Sokka, who just shrugs his shoulders. "Okay," Naruto says, accepting defeat before walking. He starts to sing a song.
Living life is fun, and we've just begun
To get our share of this world's delights
high hopes we have for the future
And our goal's insight
no, we don't get depressed
Here's what we call our golden rule
Have faith in you and the things you do
You won't go wrong, oh-no
This is our family jewel
Naruto sings the opening part of the song as Aang continues to have that huge smile on his face as he starts to sway back and forth. Naruto looks up, and he sees Katara watching him intently and happily. She listens closely to the lyrics as she quickly picks up on the fact that it's a song about family.
Naruto sings the chorus before he looks up at the others with a smile as there is a break between lyrics.
We are family
Yeah, yeah, sing it to me
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Oh, I can hear you now
Get up everybody and sing
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing
Naruto continued to sing his song, but now he was singing with more confidence.
After several minutes of singing, he stops.
Naruto finishes the song and looks up to see Aang clapping ecstatically as Katara smiles brightly at him.
"That was really good, but we should probably go to sleep. We're leaving at dawn," Sokka says. This causes Katara to turn sharply towards her brother.
"Dawn? Can't we sleep in for once?" Katara asks, annoyed.
"Absolutely not! This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops. If they discover you're here, Aang, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. Goodnight!" Sokka says before turning away from them.
"I'd rather eat fireballs than nuts", Katara quips. "Goodnight," Sokka says, causing Aang and Katara to laugh. Naruto watches all of this go on in front of him before Katara blows out the candle that is lighting up the room. As soon as the others fall asleep, Naruto sneaks outside to master his Woodbending; he knows he is close to doing what he is trying.
As he walks to find a suitable place to train, he hears stomps of people. He runs behind a fence and looks around the corner to see fire nation troops walking towards Haru's house. They knock on the door and wait until Haru opens it.
"That's him! That's the earth bender!" An old man yells while pointing at Haru. The fire nation soldiers then grab Haru. Naruto intervenes; he kicks the soldier in the back, not wanting yet to reveal that he could wood bend.
"Hey, assholes! Leave the guy alone," Naruto yells.
Several soldiers rush towards Naruto, who jumps, kicking one of them in the head, his nose broken, the soldiers start whimpering around in pain.
Another fire bend at Naruto, who ran around before jumping over the soldier, a single kick, knocking him unconscious.
"Die," one of them yelled behind Naruto before letting out a burst of flame towards the blonde who hid behind a rock before rushing towards the soldier who was caught off guard by his speed as Naruto kicked his knee, breaking his leg.
The soldier screamed out in pain; Naruto was about to knock him unconscious when...
"Don't move, or I will scorch them," three other soldiers yelled, aiming their fists towards the kid and his mother.
One of them holds a palm engulfed in flames close to the kid's face.
Naruto clenched his teeth in anger; he knew he couldn't defeat them without risking Haru, who looked as white as snow.
Naruto raises his hands and surrenders.
Naruto and Haru are taken onto a fire nation navy ship together as they are being taken towards an earth bender prison. "Why didn't you defeat them?" Haru asks quietly. Naruto looks at him before responding.
"I couldn't just risk you. Besides, they are most likely taking us to a place far away from any land. Why do you think we're on a ship?" Naruto says. Haru nods in understanding before responding.
"You better have a plan cause I don't think you can take down how many soldiers there are at this prison," Haru says.
"First of all, I can take down as many soldiers as I need to. Second of all, no, I don't have a plan, but I'll come up with something," Naruto says before they arrive at the prison, which was a giant metal ship that was in the middle of the ocean, miles away from all land.
Haru, Naruto, and a couple of other earth benders walk off of the ship they were transported on and onto the prison ship, where they line up, side by side. A couple of minutes later, a man who seemed to be a higher ranked officer of the Fire Nation comes out to 'greet' them.
"Earth benders, it is my pleasure to welcome you aboard my modest shipyard. I am your warden. I prefer to think of you not as prisoners but as honoured guests. And I hope that you will come to think of me as your humble and caring host" The warden monologues as everyone, but Naruto looks at him. The warden notices this and walks towards Naruto before hitting him across the face. "Look at me when I am talking to you," The warden says, trying to be intimidating. Naruto just scoffs before looking at the warden.
"Isn't that better?" The warden asks.
"You hit with as much power as the fire nation has honoured", Naruto insults, angering the warden. The warden sends a kick towards Naruto's midsection, causing him to fall to his knees.
Naruto breathes heavily before looking up at the angry face of the warden. "I guess the same can be said for your kicks", Naruto quips. The warden grabs Naruto by his collar and pulls it upwards.
"You may have the strength to rebel now, but trust me when I say that same strength will quickly diminish," The warden says quietly yet sternly.
"Maybe after a few years here, me and you will be on even ground," Naruto says before the warden throws them to the ground.
"Take them away", The warden orders the guards. The guards escort the group of prisoners to the main yard. Haru and Naruto look around before Haru's eyes land on a man far away. He starts to move towards the man, with Naruto following behind him. When Naruto finally catches up with Haru, he sees him hugging an older man. Naruto walks up to them as Haru turns to them.
"Naruto, this is my father," Haru says, gesturing to the man next to him.
"I'm Tyro. I'm sorry for what happened, but I appreciate that you tried to save my son," The man says as he shakes Naruto's hand.
"Don't worry; we will leave soon," Naruto trying to lighten up the mood.
"I'm afraid that we are doomed here," Tyro says before turning away and sitting down on the ground. Naruto just looks at him, shocked, before turning to Haru.
"I guess being here so long has done some damage on their souls. I'm going to go look around, maybe find a way to get all these people out of here," Naruto says before walking off, leaving Haru with his father.
Naruto walks around and uses his physical prowess to get to higher places to have a view of the whole courtyard. As he is looking around, he sees a familiar face, Katara. He jumps down to the ground below him and rushes over to Katara before grabbing her arm.
"Katara, what are you doing here?" Naruto asks, almost yelling as Katara turns and looks at him.
"Naruto!" She yells before wrapping him into a hug. Naruto lightly hugs her back before pulling away.
"What are you doing here?" Naruto asks again.
"Haru's mom told us that you two got captured", Katara answers. Haru then sees Katara and runs up to the two.
"Katara? What are you doing here?" Haru asks.
"It's my fault you two got captured", Katara answers.
"So you got yourself arrested?" Haru asks as if Katara is crazy.
"It was the only way to find you guys", Katara answers. Haru leans back, slightly impressed by Katara.
"You've got guts, Katara. I'll give you that. Come on; there's someone I want you to meet," Haru says before leading the two back over to Tyro. "Katara, this is my father, Tyro," Haru says before turning to Tyro. "Dad, this is Katara", Haru introduces.
"It's an honour to meet you," Katara says while bowing. Tyro reaches over to a bowl of soup and hands it to Katara.
"Have some dinner, Katara", Tyro says. Katara happily takes the bowl before looking down at what's in it and making a disgusted noise. "It's not as bad as it looks", Tyro adds. Katara looks at him before hesitantly taking a spoonful of it. After swallowing it, she once again makes a sound of disgust.
"It's still pretty bad, though," Tyro says with a small smile. A fellow prisoner then walks up and puts his hand on Tyro's shoulder.
"Tyro, the prisoners, are complaining that there aren't enough blankets to go around", The prisoner informs.
"I'll talk to the guards. In the meantime, make sure the elderly are taken care of. The rest of us will simply have to hope for warmer weather," Tyro says. The prisoner nods and walks off to do as he was told.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your escape plan?" Katara asks, which earns a sigh from Naruto.
"Excuse me?" Tyro asks, confused.
"You know, the plan to get everyone off the rig? What is it? Mutiny, sabotage?" Katara asks.
"The plan? The plan is to survive, wait out this war, hope that one day some of us can get back home and forget this ever happened," Tyro answers in a somewhat depressing way.
"How can you say that!?" Katara exclaims. "You sound like you've already given up", Katara quickly adds. "That's because they have. You can't help the ones who don't want to be helped," Naruto says, which is seemingly just ignored by everyone, slightly annoying Naruto.
"Katara, I admire your courage, and I envy your youth. But people's lives are at stake here. The Warden is a ruthless man, and he won't stand for any rebellion. I'm sorry, but we're powerless," Tyro says sadly.
"We'll see about that", Katara says with determination in her eyes. She walks over to a table and grabs a pot lid and a ladle.
"What is she doing?" Haru asks Naruto.
"As if I would know", Naruto jokes.
Katara bangs the ladle and pot lid together, gaining the attention of all the prisoners. "Earth benders! You don't know me, but I know of you. Every child in my water tribe village was rocked to sleep with stories of the brave Earth Kingdom and the courageous earth benders who guard its borders. Some of you may think that the Fire Nation has made you powerless. Yes, they have taken away your ability to bend. But they can't take away your courage. And it is your courage they should truly fear because it runs deeper than any mine you've been forced to dig, any ocean that keeps you far from home. It is the strength of your hearts that make you who you are, hearts that will remain unbroken when all rock and stone has eroded away. The time to fight back is now! I can tell you that the avatar has returned! So remember your courage, earthbenders! Let us fight for our freedom!" Katara monologues. Naruto looks around and sees hope growing in the earth benders eyes before it quickly fades away and turns back to despair.
Timeskip
Naruto and Katara are currently sleeping on the cold metal ground of the prison ship when they are both suddenly shaken awake. They lean up and see Aang, who has a finger to his mouth, signalling for them to be quiet. Katara and Naruto follow Aang over to the edge of the ship, where they see Sokka and Appa, who are floating in the ocean.
"Your 12 hours are up. Where's Haru? We've got to get out of here," Sokka says urgently.
"I can't," Katara says with a guilt-ridden look on her face.
"We don't have much time. There are guards everywhere. Get on!" Sokka orders as Aang jumps onto Appa, leaving Naruto and Katara still standing on the ship.
"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asks.
"I'm not leaving. I will not give up on these people," Katara says sternly.
"What do you mean you're not leaving!?" Sokka whisper yells.
"We can't abandon these people. There has to be a way to help them," Katara insists.
"Maybe she's right. What do you say, Sokka?" Aang asks with a smile before turning to look at Sokka.
"I say you're both crazy! Last chance. We need to go now," Sokka demands, pointing the finger at Appa.
"No," Katara says defiantly.
"I hate when you get like this", Sokka says before the guard spotlight thing hovers right next to them. "Come on; we better hide," Sokka says before the four run off. Aang goes over and tells Appa to fly away for now. Naruto turns back and sees that two of the guards saw Appa. He quickly kicks them overboard, leaving them to die. He quickly catches up to the others who are hiding behind a pile of cargo crates.
"We don't have much time. What are we going to do?" Sokka asks impatiently.
"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane," Aang says, earning 'are you serious' looks from Sokka and Katara. Naruto starts to think about it and comes to the conclusion that it could be possible if Aang could go into Avatar State.
"The warden would run away, and we would steal his keys", Aang adds, which causes Naruto to sigh.
"Wouldn't he just take his keys with him?" Sokka asks.
"I'm just tossing ideas around," Aang says defensively. "I tried talking the earth benders into fighting back, but it didn't work. If there was just a way to help them help themselves," Katara says sadly.
"For that, they need some kind of earth or some rock, something they can bend", Sokka concludes.
"But this entire place is made of metal," Katara says, causing the four to come to a roadblock. Naruto looks around before looking up at the sky and seeing the smoke coming out of the ships exhaust ports.
"That's not completely true. Look," Naruto says while pointing up at the smoke. "They're probably burning coal. In other words, the earth," Naruto concludes.
Timeskip
Naruto, Katara, and Sokka are currently leaning over a vent in the middle of the prison courtyard. "It's almost dawn. We're running out of time. Are you sure this is going to work?" Katara asks Sokka.
"It should. These vents reminded me of our little trick back at the village. We're going to do the same thing, but on a much bigger scale," Sokka says before gesturing to the huge area around him. "There's a huge deposit of coal at the base of this island. And the whole system is ventilated. Aang closed off all the vents except one. When he does his airbending, the coal only has one place to go, right back here," Sokka explains.
"There's the intruders!" A guard yells.
Naruto, Katara, and Sokka all stand up and look up to see that they are surrounded by guards who have spears in hand. "Stay back! I'm warning you!" Sokka says before pulling out his boomerang.
"Katara, Naruto, Stop. You can't win this fight," Tyro yells.
"Listen to him well, children. You two are one mistake away from dying where you stand," The warden says while walking up to the three. The rumbling is then heard before a huge amount of coal launches out of the vent and in front of the earth benders. Aang quickly follows the coal, jumping out and landing next to Naruto.
"This is your chance, earth benders! Take it! Your fate is within your own hands!" Katara yells while holding up a piece of coal. Naruto looks around and sees Haru try to step forward but is stopped by Tyro. The warden's maniacal laughter is then heard behind the gang.
"Foolish girl. You thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people?" He asks in a condescending tone.
"Look at these blank hopeless faces. Their spirits were broken a long time ago. Oh? But you still believed in them. How sweet. They're a waste of your energy, little girl. You failed," The warden claims before turning around to walk off.
"Alright, that's enough!" Naruto yells out in frustration before kicking the warden's face; a crack is heard as Warden's nose starts bleeding.
"How pathetic. One foolish little boy thinks he can take on the Fire Nation? Look around you, boy. You are all alone," The warden says before being hit in the head with a piece of coal.
"He's not alone," Haru says before walking up next to him. The warden huffs before sending a blast of fire at the two, only for it to be blocked by a wall of coal. Naruto and Haru turn around to see Tyro and a couple of other prisoners bending the coal in front of the two.
"FOR THE EARTH KINGDOM! ATTACK!" Tyro yells, causing all the prisoners to run forward and start to fight the fire benders.
Naruto rushes forward to engage with the warden.
The warden sends fire towards him, but Naruto crouches before it hits him before he jumps and hits Warden's nose again with his fist, and again, and again. Jumping, he hits him in the chest, effectively knocking him to the ground. He watches as the earth benders move the coal under him and the other guards before hovering it above the water.
"NO! PLEASE! I can't swim," The warden begs. "Don't worry. I hear cowards float," Tyro says before releasing his control over the coal, letting them fall into the ocean.
Timeskip
Naruto and Katara are currently on a smaller escort Fire Nation ship with the now-former earth bender prisoners. Haru walks up to the two before speaking. "I wanted to thank you two for saving me, saving us," Haru says, looking at his father and the other earth benders. Naruto nods at him while Katara awkwardly scratches the back of her neck.
"All it took was a little coal," Katara says sheepishly, which Naruto smirks at.
"It wasn't the coal. Thank you for helping me find my courage, Katara and Naruto. My family and everyone here owes you much," Tyro says gratefully.
"So, I guess you're going home now?" Katara asks.
"Yes. To take back, my village," Tyro says before turning to the rest of the earth benders. "To take back all of our villages! The Fire Nation will regret the day they set foot on our land!" Tyro yells, earning cheers from everyone.
"Come with us," Haru says.
"We can't. Your mission is to take back your home. Ours is to get Aang to the North Pole," Katara says.
"That's him, isn't it? The avatar," Haru says, looking over at Aang. "Katara, Naruto, thank you for bringing my father back to me. I never thought I'd see him again. I only wish there was some way-" Haru starts but is cut off by Katara.
"I know," Katara says, reaching for her necklace, only to realise that it's not there.
"My mother's necklace! It's gone!" Katara yells.
Somewhere else, Katara's mother's necklace is picked up by Zuko