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Naruto yawned as he sat up slowly, stretching his limbs as the sun rose on the horizon. Another thing he had noticed since he started fire bending, he rose a lot earlier. Luckily that prevents him from being rudely awakened from his slumber, at least for the most part.
Naruto slipped out of his sleeping bag quietly and walked over to the cliff they were camped out by. Toph chose this place to start Aang's training. It was pretty ideal being closed off and...well, rocky. Grabbing onto a ledge, he pulled himself up with a grunt, brushing the dirt off his hands after.
Naruto sighed as he sat down and crossed his legs below him. The downside of having spirits in his head, they make you meditate all the time. Clasping his hands in front of him, he began to breathe deeply. Naruto focused on the sun's heat as it began to take over the shadows. Naruto wasn't sure how much time had passed as He focused on his breathing and his chi.
In...and out.
In...and out.
In...and-
"Tea is ready." Iroh suddenly said. The gang wasn't sure yet of Iroh and Zuko being with them, well, more Zuko than Iroh, except for Aang, Naruto, and Toph.
The blonde could have sworn that Sokka had slept with an eye open last night, just in case they were attacked.
As Naruto rose from his seated position, he couldn't help but notice the sweet aroma of freshly brewed tea wafting through the air, prompting his senses to come alive. With a smile of anticipation, he made his way over to Toph, who greeted him with a delighted grin, eagerly waiting for him to take a seat beside her. As he settled in, the wise and gentle Iroh approached with a warm teapot and began to pour the fragrant liquid into their cups, filling the air with the sound of gentle tinkling and the steam rising from the cups.
Naruto grabbed two cups filled with tea, the warm steam emanating from the cups was like a soothing balm to his senses, and he couldn't help but savor the moment. Giving one to Toph, Usually, she was not one to be easily impressed by such gestures, but the look on her face suggested that she was genuinely touched by Naruto's kindness this time.
"Thanks," Toph said, her voice ringing with gratitude, before playfully punching Naruto's shoulder. He winced slightly, feeling the force of her punch, but couldn't help but chuckle as Toph's mischievous grin brightened up the place.
"So, what are your plans for today?" Naruto asked everyone else around him. Since they were all sitting around a fire, the silence around the group was annoying, so Naruto figured he might as well try to start a conversation.
"I will train twinkle toes in Earthbending," Toph said with a sadistic grin on her face; Aang gulped. He had been excited to learn earth bending, but the way Toph was grinning made him a bit uncomfortable.
"Earthbending, that's a good start. When you think you're ready, me and Zuko can teach you Firebending," Iroh said with his old voice filled with wisdom.
"I thought you would train me in deflecting lightning, and I'm not interested in teaching him how to Firebend," Zuko interrupted the conversation with a clear frown on his face, his face full of frustration.
Here we go again, Naruto thought. They couldn't even stay calm for five minutes, feeling the tension slowly increasing as Sokka and Katara turned to look at Zuko.
"Excuse me, Princess, but it's you who wanted to join us, Zuko. Aang will need to learn Firebending to take down your fire daddy." Sokka countered, standing up and glaring at Zuko, who growled, releasing steam from his mouth.
"Sokka, there's no need-" Aang's words trailed off as Sokka prepared to punch Zuko. Just as Sokka was about to throw a fist, two trees grew under them, lifting both of them in the air. Now being upside down as a branch was holding their ankles, both Zuko and Sokka tried to free themselves.
"Enough. Aang will need to learn Earthbending first. Iroh, take your nephew to learn whatever." Naruto ordered the old man, who nodded with an impressed look. The blonde turned to look at Sokka and Zuko were still trying to free themselves. "Now, will you punch each other once I free you?" Naruto demanded, his eyes narrowed toward Zuko and Sokka.
"Tell that to the ponytail!!" Both shouted at the same time while pointing fingers at each other; Naruto rolled his eyes before releasing both Zuko and Sokka from the tree. Both fell on their butts, letting out loud groans of pain.
"Wow, Naruto, never thought you could sound so rough," Toph whispered with a low husky tone to the blonde, taking him completely by surprise.
"What do you mean?" Naruto turned around to face her, but Toph simply whistled innocently with her hands behind her back. After the tension disappeared, they drank tea and ate food. Aang was very excited to start learning Earthbending.
"Today's the day! Can you believe it?! After all that searching, I'm finally going to learn earth bending." Aang whispered/shouted as he began jumping around. His brow twitched as Naruto let out a breath of annoyance.
"And this place, it's perfect! Rocks are everywhere." That is a very astute observation. Still, Naruto smiled at his enthusiasm. He had waited a long time for this, after all. A grumbling noise came from the form of Sokka, and he chuckled behind his hand.
"Ready to train, student!" Toph's voice echoed through the canyon. Naruto ducked as a slab of stone shot over his head. She seemed to have carried over some theatricality from her Earth Rumble days.
"I'm Ready, sifu Toph." Aang greeted with a bow. He was being weirdly formal...probably trying to make up for bad-mouthing her before. Katara frowned from her she was sitting, sitting up slowly and brushing out her hair.
"Hey, you never call me sifu Katara." She pouted slightly. Naruto nodded in agreement.
"I can dig titles, though I'd prefer Master Naruto. " He smiled, pointing at his chest. Even though Naruto wasn't even teaching him. He's been rather adamant about not learning fire-bending after the last incident. Katara rolled her eyes at him but smiled in amusement. Aang chuckled slightly before their attention was drawn to the, again, grumbling form of Sokka. He was glaring heatedly at us from his sitting place.
"Sorry, snoozles, we'll try to do our bending as quietly as possible," Toph smirked before kicking the ground with her foot. Suddenly Sokka shot into the sky, screaming as the earth below him pushed up. Naruto simply stepped backward as he crashed right in front of him, creating a cloud of dust. He stood up while in his sleeping bag and began...shouting at us?
"Girbejdljkg!" Honestly, it was just a bunch of gibberish to him. He said something about 'noise' before finally hopping on his merry little way to find a quiet place to sharp his knives. Naruto patted Toph on the back slightly with a smile on his face.
"Nice, I approve." She grinned up at him while Katara just shook her head in disapproval.
"Oh, be nice to him. You know he's sensitive." She stated with a slight smile. Aang just ignored them as he hopped in front of Toph in excitement.
"So what are we going to learn today?! The trembler? Or maybe I can make a tornado of earth! I can't wait!" He was practically vibrating. Naruto merely put his hands behind his head casually and took a couple of steps backward.
"Well, while you two go at it, I'll go out for supplies. " He offered, pointing over to Appa. Aang looked over at him in slight disappointment.
"You're not gonna stay and watch?" He questioned with a tilt of his head. Naruto merely shrugged.
"I figure it won't take long for you to figure out anyways, plus I'll have lots more opportunities to see you in action. Someone has to go out for supplies, and it's not going to be Mr. Sleepy over there. Or the angry Fire Prince. Katara, I'm assuming you want to stay and watch?" Naruto asked, looking over his shoulder at Katara.
She nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, I figure it will be interesting watching Toph teach Aang." She smiled, but something in that smile told him she was more worried for Aang's sake. Understandable. Naruto's assuming Toph isn't the gentle type.
"Alright, well, there was a river further down the canyon, so I'll stop there for water and maybe some fish. You guys want me to stop by a nearby village for anything?" They shook their heads, but Sokka called out for some more meat besides fish. Naruto rolled his eyes but mentally jotted it down anyways.
"Got it. I should be back by sunset at the latest. Make sure you don't destroy the canyon while I'm gone." He waved toward them as they said their goodbyes. Katara gave him a slight hug before Naruto loaded up on Appa. Thankfully he was all rested up since their little run-in with Azula.
"Ready, boy? Yip, yip!" Naruto whipped the reigns slightly and steadied himself as Appa shot up into the sky. Naruto waved down to the others below as they grew smaller in the distance. Sitting back against the saddle, he sighed.
"Hm...I feel like today will be interesting."
After a short ride, Naruto pulled Appa down to the river. Naruto hopped off his head, rubbing his nose gently as he landed on the ground.
"Go drink up, boy. I'll just be a minute." He huffed slightly before walking closer to the river to do just that. Naruto walked over a little further upstream. Bending down, Naruto uncapped Katara's water skin and dipped it into the river to fill it up. Just as he went to cap it again, the ground shook below him, and he stumbled, falling back onto his butt.
"Whoa, what was that?" Naruto quickly got up, brushing off his legs. No way was it Aang and Toph, this river was too far to feel that. Unless Katara pissed off Toph again, another crash drew his attention to the south, where a plume of smoke rose above the canyon. Naruto tossed the water skin into Appa's saddle and hopped up in a rush.
"C'mon boy, let's go check it out. Yip, yip!" They shot into the sky not a second later, heading straight for the smoke. Naruto set Appa down on the cliff above the canyon and grabbed Aang's bison whistle from his bag. Thank goodness he left it here.
"Okay, stay up here, boy. If I need help, I'll whistle for you." He grunted in, what Naruto assumed to be, acknowledgment as he tied the whistle around his neck and jumped down into the canyon. Smoke filled his lungs as he fell deeper in. Naruto coughed, covering his mouth with his sleeve to try and block what he could.
Soon Naruto reached a clearing. The sound had stopped, and at that moment, he felt it. He whirled around, coming face to face with...
"Well, what do you want, Azula?"
Aang
Meanwhile, things weren't going good for Aang, as Toph smacked her fist against him while explaining the basics of earthbending. "Your stance is the key to earthbending. Earth is a stubborn element, unyielding if you're not stronger than it. To move a rock, you have to be a rock yourself."
"Be like a rock. Got it."
"Good. The actual motion of this move is pretty simple." Toph took up a horse stance and punched a rock, sending it flying into the canyon wall. "Ready to give it a try?"
Aang gives a determined nod. "I'm ready." He takes up the same stance as Toph did and, with the same strong motion as her, strikes at the rock...
Only to be blown back into Appa on the opposite side of the small canyon. He gives out groans of pain while he hears Sokka making a snide comment about something beating an Airbender.
Given what just happened, the Avatar wouldn't be surprised if Sokka said it was a rock. Aang gets up with another groan and walks back toward the rock. It didn't look like it had budged at all! "I don't understand. I did just like you. Maybe if I approach from a different angle, then..."
"No, that's the problem; you're thinking like an Airbender. There's no different angle you can approach. The rock doesn't care from which direction you strike; it only cares if you're stronger than it. You need to take it head-on. And by head-on, I mean like this!" Toph leaps forward and smashes a boulder with her head.
Her actions dumbfound Aang, but he understands what she's getting at. He needs to change his mindset if he is to earthbend drastically. This is nothing like waterbending, whose fluid movements were similar to airbending, making it fairly quick for him to pick up. "Okay, let me try again," he said with resolve. He took up his horse stance and stared the boulder down. I am stronger than you, he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, he strikes the rock...and nothing happens. The boulder didn't move, but he at least didn't.
"Well, I guess that's something of a start," Toph said dryly. After that, Aang's training consisted of throwing rocks at him and being stopped mid-air with his hands, forcing his hands to stay in knife form while cutting into sand, and sumo wrestling with Toph while she wore a suit of rock. The hardest part of Avatar's training was being blindfolded and trying to sense vibrations in the earth with his feet. And all the while, Toph was yelling like a crazed hog-monkey.
And I thought learning waterbending under Master Pakku and Katara was hard, Aang thought bitterly to himself. But he kept trying his hardest.
Zuko
Finding peace of mind was harder than Zuko thought. Every time he emptied his mind and let go of any thoughts, images of his father or sister and their malice smirks came into his head, causing rage to swell through him. When he let go of those thoughts, he saw images of his mother and cousin Lu Ten, overwhelming him with grief.
"Well, nephew," his uncle said, getting up. "Do you feel at ease?"
"I-I think so..." the prince of fire said with uncertainty. He didn't want to discuss what went through his mind at the moment, so after getting up, he gestured he was ready to continue the lesson.
"Very well." Iroh sensed that something was bothering Zuko but decided not to press the issue for now. "Lightning is a pure form of expression, not fueled by emotion like other forms of firebending. It is not used with aggression, and this causes some to call lightning cold-blooded fire. It is precise and deadly, much like Azula...and your father."
Iroh moves closer to the cliffside and looks out over the scenery. "There is energy all around us. The positive energy is yin, and the negative energy is yang. When a firebender separates these energies, it wants to restore balance, and they come crashing back together while you provide release and guidance, creating lightning."
He motions Zuko to stand back. Moving his arms in circular motions, he separates the energies in and around him, causing sparks to form on his fingertips. As he moves his arms, the sparks become brighter and more powerful. Then he extends his arms forward, causing the lightning to shoot out and thunder through the sky.
"I'm ready to try it!" Zuko said with excitement.
"Remember, once you separate yin and yang, you no longer command them. You are merely their humble guide as they come back together. Breathe first."
Zuko took a deep breath in and concentrated on separating the energies in him. As he moved his arms like his uncle did, he didn't feel much energy flowing through him like normal firebending. He pushed that thought aside, knowing this was something new and different. When he extended his arms forward, he was expecting at least a small amount of lightning to shoot from his fingers...
But instead, he got a plume of smoke and a crackle of sound at the tip of his hands. With a confused look, he turned towards his uncle, who gestured to try again. Zuko tried a half dozen more times, getting the same results. "I-I don't get it. What am I doing wrong?" he said, dismayed.
"I-I'm not sure. I haven't seen this before when training to bend lightning..."
Zuko was shocked that his uncle didn't understand, for once, what was happening when it came to any part of firebending. He was the most knowledgeable man Zuko knew. "You-you haven't seen this before? Wh-what does that mean?" he asked with a mix of panic and frustration.
"Well, when a firebender fails to create lightning, it ends up being rather...explosive," Iroh hummed in thought. "Try bending normal fire, nephew."
Zuko nodded and tried to shoot fire from his fist...only to get a puff of smoke. Confused and feeling slightly panicked, he tried again and again, only to get smoke every time. Zuko looked at his hands for injuries but found none. "Did-did Azula block my firebending somehow?"
"Hold your hands out, Zuko. Let us try something." Zuko did as told, wondering what his uncle was going to do. Iroh created a small plume of fire and placed it in Zuko's hands. And the small flame stayed lit. Zuko breathed in, and the fire increased in size and temperature. So he can still bend fire, but he can no longer create it...
"It appears you have lost sight of your inner fire nephew," his uncle said thoughtfully.
"What does that mean?" Zuko asked in confusion.
"It means you have lost your drive, your purpose. Chasing the Avatar was what gave you that before."
Zuko furrowed his brow while seriously considering doing that, but he shut those thoughts away.
"So...I need to find a new purpose to gain sight of my inner fire?"
Iroh beamed with pride at the insightfulness of his nephew. "Yes. Just like choosing your own destiny."
Naruto
After his little interesting talk with Princess Blue Fire, Naruto smiled proudly. He had listened to Iroh and Zuko on how lightning works. The blonde couldn't wait to try himself. He wondered if his lightning would be black, just like his black flames.
Despite the...detour Naruto took while out, he still managed to refill the water skin, catch a couple of fish, and return to their camp by sundown. However, he didn't bring back Sokka some meat. Not a huge loss.
Naruto grabbed the bag full of fish and Katara's water skin from Appa's saddle as he landed before hopping off with a grunt.
"Naruto, you're back!" Katara hugged him happily. Naruto hugged her back, shrugging slightly as she released him.
"Course, not like I was doing anything dangerous. " He smiled widely. Toph, Aang, and Sokka appeared from behind her.
"What in the world happened to you? I wasn't even gone a whole day!" Naruto exclaimed. He looked like he had spent a week in some underground, secluded cave. He was covered in dirt and scratches. Even his usual ponytail was pulled out and exchanged for his poofy, long hair.
"I went through a really eye-opening experience, Naruto. I was stuck, and it made me really think about-."
"I learned how to earth bend Naruto! Look!" Aang excitedly cut off Sokka, pushing his fists towards a nearby boulder and sending it into the Cliffside. Naruto whistled in awe.
"Wow, nice! See, I was right. You got it in no time at all. " He stated proudly. He rubbed the back of his head nervously as Toph smirked from beside him.
"Heh...yeah, it was easy." He shrugged. Naruto looked at him, slightly confused, before his attention was drawn to Katara's gasp.
"Naruto, what happened? Where'd you get this wound?" She questioned, pulling his arm out and revealing the shallow gash. Naruto winced. Forgot about that.
"When I was catching some fish...I fell on some rocks. I was being a bit clumsy. " He laughed slightly, hoping she couldn't smell his fear. Naruto had a feeling that if she found out about his little excursion with Azula, the fire nation princess would be the least of his worries.
Katara stared him down for a second with an intense glare before seemingly accepting his answer. She pulled some water out of her recently filled skin and put it against his arm to heal it. Naruto thanked her before turning to the others.
"So, I think that we should probably get a move on soon. I think some of the fire nation citizens saw me in the village. " He hastily explained as they shot him confused looks. They all looked at each other before shrugging.
"Well, better to be safe than sorry, I suppose." Aang agreed. Naruto hid a major sigh of relief. Even if Azula said they would take a day to rest, Naruto wouldn't put much faith in that. Soon Iroh and Zuko returned, and again. Zuko and Sokka were glaring at each other like kids.
They quickly packed up their things before loading up on Appa. As soon as they were in the air, Naruto examined the ground, looking for any sign of approaching princesses.
Toph quickly hugged his arm since they were mid-air. As Naruto sat beside Toph, he couldn't help but notice the way her hair cascaded down her neck, tempting him to run his fingers through it. He hesitated for a moment, but the urge was too strong to resist, and he found himself reaching out to caress her silky locks. To his delight, Toph hummed contentedly, a small smile playing across her lips, as though she was enjoying the attention.
"What did you two learn?" Aang asked Iroh and Zuko. The prince frowned slightly as if wondering whether he should tell them or not.
"Just a few things about lightning. When the time comes, you will learn it too." Iroh answered casually. Zuko rolled his eyes, shaking his head, before deciding just to close his eyes and pretend they weren't there.
Just as Naruto was fading to sleep, Aang's voice rang out.
"Hey, why does Appa seem so tired?"
"Crap...uh, he swam some laps?"