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The Last Woodbender Chapter 22 (The Chase)
🕑 Added 2023-02-15 19:40:09 +0000 UTC"So you're saying you are from Kyoshi Island?" Toph asked as they were flying around on Appa. Since she was the new member of their crew, Naruto wanted to know more about her, starting with simple questions, which eventually led to Toph asking more about him.
"Yes, born and grew up there. Kyoshi warriors are quite fierce warriors even if they are not benders." Naruto said as Toph kept hugging his arm close.
Since they were above ground and she could hardly feel anything outside of Appa, she hugged the nearest object, which ended up being Naruto's arm, not that the blonde was complaining about it.
"Ohh, wow. How did you end up meeting the Avatar?" Toph asked with a broad smile. For the following two hours, Naruto told her of their adventures, well, the fun parts, not really bothering much to talk about the boring parts, like Zuko, for example.
Naruto was about to start telling her of their pirate adventure, with Katara stealing a Waterbending scroll when Appa landed.
"Thanks for the arm," Toph said, punching his arm lightly before quickly jumping down; feeling the ground below her feet made her feel relaxed.
"Hey, you guys picked a great camping site. The grass is so soft." Toph stated as she stood in a pile of Appa's...fur. Ah, the beauty of spring. They had stopped at a little spot in the woods to camp for the night. Appa hadn't even been standing in the same spot for more than five minutes, and already there was fur everywhere.
"That's not grass, Toph...Appa's shedding." Sokka explained as he grabbed his sleeping bag from the saddle. Katara looked down at the ground in disgust.
"Aw, gross!" she shuddered. Aang stood up from where he was on Appa's saddle with a smile.
"It's not gross. It's spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat." He countered in all his monk-iness. Suddenly Appa sneezed, creating a storm of fur over their heads. Huh, it kind of looked like snow in a weird way.
"Appa, stop! Ew!" Katara began spitting fur out of her mouth as the bison shook himself next to her. Sokka began gathering a bunch of fur in his hands.
"It's not that bad, Katara. It makes a great wig." He announced, showing off the tower of fur on his head. Aang joined in, jumping off Appa's saddle with some new facial hair. How did he even get that to stick there?
"And a great beard!" Naruto added, showing off his new majestic beard to everyone. The two boys began laughing at each other as Katara just rolled her eyes.
"I'm just glad there's another girl in the group because you three are disgusting." She added after seeing what he was doing.
"Fur angel..." Naruto chuckled, moving his limbs out and in. Toph suddenly stepped by him, catching their attention.
"Excuse me, does someone have a razor? Cause I've got some hairy pits!" She brought her hands up behind her head, exposing bunches of fur she stuck in her armpits. Naruto and the guys began laughing loudly before the blonde caught a whiff of his beard.
He sneezed an air-powered sneeze, blowing himself right into Appa. He fell face-first into the ground with some more fur stuck to his back, making him look like a porcupine. They all began laughing even harder, and Katara even giggled a little too.
Would you look at that. They're bonding!
As the sun began to set, they all began to get the campsite ready. Aang quickly got the tents up while Sokka gathered the firewood, and Katara got out the food and water. Naruto lit the fire as soon as Sokka piled on the wood and brought over the sleeping bags. Some movement in the corner of his eyes drew his attention. Katara had stood up and was walking straight towards Toph, who was just relaxing off to the side.
"So, Toph, usually when we set up camp, we try to divide up the work." She started off.
"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go." Toph replied simply. Naruto walked over to Sokka and bumped his shoulder slightly.
"How long do you think they're gonna last?" Naruto questioned quietly. He glanced over to them and just shook his head.
"I'm predicting a full-out war by the morning." He sighed. Naruto hoped he was wrong, but he was inclined to agree. Naruto focused back on the conversation as Momo suddenly dropped some berries into Katara's hands.
"See? Even Momo does his fair share." She tried again, trying to get her point across. The point simply went over Toph's head.
"I'm fine, Katara. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire. I have my own food, and look! My tent's all ready." She announced, earth bending a stone tent around her. Katara faltered for a second before narrowing her eyes.
"Well, that's great for you. But we still need-."
"I don't get it! What's the problem?!" Toph cut her off in frustration. The two stared down at each other for a second before Katara just huffed.
"Nothing...never mind." She grumbled, stalking away. She began swirling the water in the pots a bit too roughly. Naruto walked over to her as he set down her sleeping bag in their tent.
"Don't be too hard on Toph. She's a little new to this whole teamwork thing. Until now, she's either had everything done for her or done things for herself." Naruto whispered, kneeling down next to her. She huffed slightly, but her shoulder sagged.
"Yeah...yeah, you're right. It's just a little frustrating." She sighed. Naruto patted her shoulder before moving to put his bag into the tent.
"Just try to get along." Naruto shrugged. He didn't expect them to be best friends or anything, especially with how their personalities clashed. But, considering they were on a world-saving mission, their differences would have to be put to the side. Naruto shot a small flame at Toph as his version of goodnight. Hey, she shot a rock back at him, so it was a mutual understanding.
Naruto said goodnight normally to the guys before heading inside his tent and curling up in his sleeping bag. A few minutes later, a huffy Katara entered as well.
"So...guessing you talked to Toph again?" Naruto yawned out, rubbing his eyes. She just glared at the ground and promptly crawled into her sleeping bag without another word. Naruto rolled his eyes. Sometimes Katara could be rather stubborn.
Shrugging it off, He just tried to focus on sleep.
"There's something coming this way!" Toph's shout awoke Naruto. Naruto quickly sat up and crawled out of the tent, shaking Katara awake on the way. They all ran over to Toph as she knelt on the ground, feeling it with her hand.
"What is it?" Aang questioned, looking around in alarm.
"It feels like an avalanche, but not." She stated simply, looking confused. Sokka rubbed his tired eyes.
"Your powers of perception are frightening." He muttered out.
"Should we leave?" Katara asked, ignoring Sokka. Naruto looked off into the distance with an uneasy feeling in his gut.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not be here when something avalanche-like arrives." Aang just nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, better safe than sorry."
They quickly packed up camp and loaded back up on Appa. He launched into the air, and they all looked back behind them. There was a plume of black smoke rising from some tank-like machine.
"What is that thing?" Katara whispered out. Toph looked rather lost, so Naruto tapped her on the shoulder.
"It's like a big, metal tank thing coming for us. And there's a giant cloud of smoke rising from it." She let out an 'oh' of understanding as they flew farther from the death machine.
"Land, sweet land! Well, see you guys in the morning!" Toph announced as she quickly jumped off the saddle. Katara followed after her as Naruto, and the guys began unloading stuff.
"Actually, Toph, could you help us unload?" She asked gently. She was going for the straightforward approach now. Let's see how this goes.
"Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?" She questioned, looking at Katara with a raised brow. Sokka promptly sniffed the said bag and made a gagging noise. Naruto rolled his eyes at him.
"I told you to buy a new one," Naruto grumbled, grabbing his own bag from the saddle.
"That, and everything else. You're a part of our team now and-."
"Look, I didn't ask you for help with unloading my stuff! I'm carrying my own weight." Toph countered. Naruto felt like now wasn't the best time to mention that Toph was only carrying a single bag anyways.
"That's not the point! Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful!" Now that was a bit of an accusation. Toph's only been with them for a day.
"What?! Look here, sugar queen, I gave up everything I had to teach Aang earth bending. So don't you talk to me about being selfish!" She promptly sat down and created a tent around her, this time adding a stone door. Naruto leaned over to Aang.
"Didn't she want to leave?" Naruto whispered. He just shrugged helplessly.
"Sugar queen?! Did you just slam the door in my face?! How can you be so infuriating?!" Katara then proceeded to kick at the walls and door of Toph's abode. Aang and Naruto shared helpless looks as Sokka just grinned.
"Should...we do something?" Aang questioned hesitantly.
"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show," Sokka said in amusement. Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course, he would enjoy this. It is rather rare that Katara loses her temper like this, at least at someone rather than them. If Naruto weren't so tired, he might think it was funny too.
Aang cautiously walked over to Katara with his hands raised in a placating gesture. "Okay, okay, you both need to calm down." He insisted. Ohhh, bad move Aang.
"Both? I'M COMPLETELY CALM!" She practically screamed in his face. He immediately backed up, like, five feet.
"I-I can see that." He smiled nervously before stepping away and hiding behind the blonde. Naruto patted his head.
"It's okay. She can't hurt you." Naruto said, talking as if Aang was his child or something. Katara stalked over to the sleeping bags as the boys nervously joined her. Naruto looked over to Toph's tent and sighed. Might as well. Naruto walked over to the tent and stood right in front of the door, knowing she could see him.
"Yo, can...I come in?" Naruto questioned. There was a moment of silence before the door suddenly shifted back into the ground. Toph was facing away from it as he crawled into the tent. She shut the door behind him as soon as he was in.
"What? Here to call me selfish too?" She huffed angrily. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Katara didn't mean that. She's just a bit sensitive right now. She doesn't like it when people don't try to help out." Naruto explained with a shrug. They all had their ticks. This was Katara's. Toph blew her bangs out of her face.
"I just don't get what the big deal is! So what? I didn't help unload the stuff. Big whoop." She grumbled. Naruto had the feeling this was more of a rebellious thing than an 'I don't want to help out' thing.
"Katara can be a bit bossy sometimes, but she has good intentions. She just thinks everyone should pitch in to make everyone else's life easier. To be fair, Toph, you do only have one bag. It wouldn't be a huge hassle to help with someone else's, right?" she didn't reply to him, but the door behind him opened, signifying the end of their conversation. Naruto sighed but crawled out.
"Just think about it, okay, Toph? Goodnight." Naruto waved as the door closed in front of his face again. In a contest between stubbornness, He really doesn't know who would win between these two. Naruto walked over to the others and crawled into his sleeping bag.
...
...
...
There was approximately three minutes of silence before Katara just had to speak up.
"The stars sure are lovely tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!" She yelled. That was a little low. A grunt sounded from the stone tent, and Naruto quickly moved out of the way just as it launched Katara into the air. She landed on Sokka with a yelp.
"Hey! How's a guy supposed to get any sleep with all this shouting and earth quaking!" He whined, throwing Katara off of him. Suddenly Toph's tent came down as she looked at them in alarm.
"That thing is back!" She announced. Sokka groaned as he pulled the sleeping bag over his face.
"Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can just get a few minutes of sleep." He mumbled. Looking to the side, He saw a large cloud of smoke that was alarmingly close to them. Naruto sighed and pulled the bag off his face.
"Not this time, c'mon, let's go." Naruto pulled him to his feet as they grabbed their stuff again and climbed back on Appa.
This time, as they flew away, Naruto could see more of the machine. There appeared to be some sort of carriage behind it. What was it carrying?
"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara questioned, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph added in.
"That thing is ridiculously fast. There's no way it should've found us so fast." Naruto groaned. Traveling by flying bison is much faster than by land.
"I don't know how it found us, but this time I'm gonna make sure we lose it," Aang stated from the front. They watched as the machine grew more distant as they flew away.
They flew over hills and forests and all the way to the top of a mountain. There's no way they should be able to follow them here. Appa just collapsed on his side, throwing them to the ground.
"Okay, let's not worry about setting up camp. I'm just going to find the softest pile of dirt and fall asleep." Sokka muttered as the caterpillar crawled away. Katara glared as she pulled her sleeping bag in as a pillow.
"That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyways." She huffed. Naruto groaned as Toph retorted.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that baby still needed to be tucked in." She glared back.
"Ugh, Shut. Up." Naruto grumbled as he used his fire to heat the ground beneath him. It became nice and warm as he lay on it.
"C'mon guys, there's something after us, and we don't know what or who it is." Aang groaned as well.
"It's definitely fire nation. That's all I know." Naruto yawned. There's no mistaking that machinery and menacing look.
"It could be Zuko. We haven't seen him since the North Pole." Katara suggested. Toph's head popped up in surprise.
"Who's Zuko?" She questioned.
"Oh, just some freak with a ponytail that's chased us all over the world," Sokka explained from his spot. Katara shot him a smirk.
"What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?" She looked pointedly at his hairstyle. The blonde chuckled slightly.
"This is a warrior's wolf tail!" He countered.
"More like a warrior's mistake..." Naruto grumbled. He shot him a glare as he smiled innocently at him.
"Oh, shut up. Anyways, whatever was chasing us couldn't have followed us all the way here. So let's all just...sh..." He whispered, collapsing on his back. Momo suddenly jumped on him and began to screech.
"No, Momo, sh...sleepy time." He insisted, but Momo only got more rowdy. He ran over to the cliff side and jumped up and down.
"Oh, don't tell me!" Sokka groaned.
"That's impossible! There's no way they could've tracked us." Aang frowned. Naruto ran over to the edge of the cliff, gazing out.
"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph assured. Her feet have great distance. Naruto pointed to a plume of smoke that was getting closer.
"And I can confirm her feet! This is witchcraft! How in the world did they follow us?! We flew over a canyon of spikes, for goodness sake!" Naruto yelled, getting annoyed.
"We should get out of here," Katara said, turning towards Appa. But Aang stood his ground.
"Maybe we should stay and face them, find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly." He shrugged.
"Not likely, considering our track record." Naruto sighed. The machine stopped a little ways away from them, and one of its carriers opened. And look and behold, out came Princess Azula herself and her merry friends. Naruto groaned.
"Why couldn't it have been Zuko?" Sokka complained. Things could never be easy for them, could they? The girls were riding on weird lizard things that were surprisingly fast.
"It's those three girls from Omashu!" Katara gasped. They all got down in stances as they approached.
"Well, hello there, Princess. I didn't know I gave you such a good impression that you would chase me so far and wide." Naruto said with a cheeky smile.
The small girl beside Azula giggled while the Princess's face was as blank as ever.
"We can take 'em! Three on four!" Sokka looked at Toph with a raised brow.
"Um...actually, there's five of us, Toph." He corrected.
"Oh, I didn't count you. No bending and all." Naruto had to laugh at that.
"I can still fight!"
"Okay, three on four plus Sokka." She changed, making him turn red with anger. Toph threw her hands out, sending a wave of boulders at the girls. Their lizards just ran up and over them with deftness.
"I want one of those." Naruto pointed. Katara rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards Appa.
"You can think of crazy creatures later. We need to go!" "Not Anymore." Naruto interrupted, getting tired of playing cat and mouse. Slamming his hands on the ground, several large trees grew around the stupid machine. The girls had no time to react as the machine was completely crushed before being lifted up in the air, the trees still crushing it until it was barely the size of a human.
"Wow, good job. Plant boy." Toph cheered, finally someone who was as destructive as her. They all climbed into Appa's saddle except for Toph, who made a stone wall in front of the girls to slow them down, which it didn't do. Azula simply shot lightning at it and blew a hole big enough for them. Naruto watched closely the way she shot lightning. He figured that move could come in handy later.
The girl to the left swung her arm out at them, sending arrows their way. And Naruto really wanted to know where she kept all those. Toph launched herself off the ground with a rock and landed in Appa's saddle just as they took off. The blue fire was shot after them as they flew away, but Naruto made sure to block all of them with his black fire.
"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu." Katara frowned, slumping in Appa's saddle.
"I still think we could've taken them," Toph grumbled. Naruto knew he alone could have fought with Azula one-on-one, and the others would be able to handle the other two.
"Are you kidding? The crazy blue firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, and last time that other girl did something that took my bending away...that's scary." Katara protested, hugging herself.
"Yeah, plus that tank thing that brought them here was still behind them. There were probably some more people in there." Sokka added with a wave of his hand. Shooting Naruto a look knowing the blonde had probably killed whoever had been inside, not that Naruto cared about casualties. Toph raised a brow and jerked a finger in his direction.
"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't our resident fire bender have Black fire? At least that's what I've heard." She shrugged. Naruto pumped his fist up in the air.
"Better than Azula's!" Naruto announced proudly. Their attention was drawn to the horizon as the sun began to rise. They've been up all night?
"Oh no, the sun is rising! We didn't get any sleep last night!" Sokka exclaimed, grabbing his face dramatically. Naruto groaned and pushed him to the side.
"Your voice is not helping," Naruto mumbled, face-planting into the saddle.
"Sokka, we'll be okay..." Aang added from the front, but the drowsiness in his voice wasn't very convincing.
"Are you sure?! I've never gone without sleep before! What if I fall asleep now when something happens? And something always hap-Oomph!" Naruto cut him off by physically grabbing the back of his head and slamming it into the saddle.
"Shut. Up." Naruto practically growled out.
"Every time we land, those girls find us, so let's just keep flying," Katara suggested. Naruto sighed and crawled over to the side to pet Appa.
"We can't keep flying forever."
"So...what's the plan?" Aang yawned out. Naruto just tossed his hand up in the air lazily.
"Dunno...yay," Naruto replied as he turned on his side. Toph sat beside him, completely collapsed against the saddle.
"Too tired to think..." She added.
"We can come up with a plan after a short nap," Katara suggested as she lay on her back. Sokka practically beamed at that thought.
"Yes...sleep." He muttered happily. Just as Naruto closed his eyes, his gut suddenly felt a drop, and the wind began to rush upwards. His eyes shot open as his body started to leave the saddle. Naruto yelped and quickly grabbed onto the side.
"What's going on?!" Toph screamed out from beside him. She lost her grip for a moment, but Naruto managed to grasp her hand at the last second.
"Appa fell asleep!" Aang announced in a panic. Appa fell asleep?! Great, they were all gonna die. They all screamed as the ground below them began to get closer and closer.
"Naruto, do something?" Katara begged with her eyes closed.
"I can't Woodbend if I'm not touching the ground." Naruto retorted.
Suddenly he felt a jerk forward as Appa awoke just in time just as they neared the tops of the trees.
Naruto simply jumped off the saddle and flopped onto the ground. Sweet land! The others climbed off of Appa next, with Katara and Sokka hauling their sleeping bags.
"Okay, we've put a lot of distance between us and those girls. Let's just follow Appa's lead and get some rest." Sokka suggested, tossing his bag onto the ground. Naruto nodded, his face still buried in the dirt.
"Of course, we could've gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues." And Katara just had to speak.
"What?!" Toph screeched. Naruto groaned, plugging his ears.
"I should've just let myself be killed by Azula..." Naruto grumbled. It would be better than this torture. Aang walked up to Toph with his hands raised.
"Alright, alright! Everyone's exhausted. Let's just get some rest." He said, trying to calm the earth bender down to no avail.
"No, I want to hear what Katara has to say! You think I have issues?!" She demanded, turning to face Katara. Naruto thinks they both have issues, but hey. No one was asking Naruto.
"I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier, we would've been able to set up camp sooner. Then maybe we could've gotten some sleep, and then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!" Katara accused.
"It would've made a five-minute difference at best! The crazy ladies would still hunt us down." Naruto corrected in frustration. Was he the only one thinking straight?
"You're blaming me for this?!" Toph glared furiously. She began to stalk towards Katara, who merely tossed her bag to the side and made a 'come at me' motion. Aang tried to step between them with a nervous smile on his face.
"No, she's not blaming you!"
"Oh, I'm blaming her!" Katara retorted. Toph took another step forward, merely tossing Aang to the side with ease.
"Listen, I never asked you for diddly-doo da! Besides, if there's anyone here to blame, it's sheddy!" she announced, pointing at the bison. Aang looked down at Toph with a shocked and angry look on his face.
"What?! You're blaming Appa?!" Great, now he was all riled up.
"Yeah, you wanna know how they keep finding us? He's leaving a trail wherever we go!" She explained, grabbing a clump of fur to prove her point. Now that she said it, it actually made sense.
"How dare you blame Appa! He saved your life three times today! If anyone's to blame, here it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you don't. He does! He never had a problem flying when it was just the four of us!" Aang yelled, marching up to her face. Naruto stood up at that point, putting a hand on Aang's chest and pushing him back slightly.
"He never had to fly with no sleep before Aang. One person would hardly make a difference." Naruto retorted and narrowed his eyes at him. But, the damage had already been done. Toph merely looked at them all before stepping to the side and grabbing her bag.
"I'm out of here." She stated simply. Sokka stepped in front of her with his arms out.
"Wait-!" And then he was promptly bent to the side. He stared down at his feet in shock as Toph just marched past him. Naruto groaned and rubbed his forehead in frustration. Turning to Katara and Aang.
"Great, look what you did now. I'm going to go try to make sure she doesn't completely run off. You guys come find us when you've cooled off." Naruto said coldly, grabbing his bag before running to follow Toph. Sokka looked like he wanted to stop him but just nodded in acceptance when he saw his expression. Naruto heard Katara and Aang vaguely call out to him, but he ignored them. He had an earth bender to catch up to.
Comments
Drinor
Glad you liked it.
Drinor
Glad you liked it.
Mauricio Sanchez
Can't wait for the next chapter
salty dummy
Keep up the good work 💙
