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The Last Woodbender Chapter 19 (Naruto vs Azula)
🕑 Added 2023-01-31 19:27:27 +0000 UTC"The Avatar, this is my lucky day!" Azula exclaimed. She was about to chase him when a blast of black flames stopped her. She quickly jumped away but felt the heat from the dangerous flames despite the distance.
When she landed, her eyes settled on Naruto, who was smirking at her. "I have my Black Flames. Let's see which one is better?" Naruto challenged, his hands being engulfed in flames, the ground itself starting getting warmer because of the black flame.
Azula licked her lips slightly. She was quite intrigued. "I saw your poster. You're quite famous. I'm quite excited about this Duel."
"Ah, so it is true. There's a fire bender traveling around with the Avatar. Honestly, I had my doubts that one of the fire nations would ever dare to turn their back on their nation. But, here you are...and with fancy black fire to boot." She stated casually as they circled each other. Naruto sent her a smirk.
"Hate to break it to you, beautiful princess, but I was never part of your nation in the first place." Lifting his arms, he clenched them tightly and watched as the black fire daggers formed in his hands. He made a 'come at me motion' with his right hand and was not disappointed.
If there was one thing Azula was proud of herself, it was her skill.
Since she was a child, she had trained to show everyone that she was much better than her useless brother and to prove to her mother that she was better than Zuka. The hours of effort, sweat, and even gore that she put into training under the watchful eye of her strict father was all worth it. The training she had received from her father, although it was against her will, had made her a fighter like no other.
For a very long time, Azula had no equals in terms of strength, she was one of the best in The Fire Nation, and she knew that the only people that she knew she couldn't beat were her own father and Uncle. Despite being a traitor, Azula knew Iroh wasn't given the Title 'The Dragon of The West' for nothing.
But now that she was fighting this new fighter, someone she had only heard of, she felt four things that she hadn't felt for a very long time.
Satisfaction, pride, excitement ... and fear.
Satisfaction to see that Naruto was everything she had been expecting. He was able not only to stop the blows she gave him but also to be able to evade them if required.
Pride when she saw Naruto deliver punches and kicks with deadly precision. If Azula didn't know, she'd thought Naruto had trained in fire bending since he was a child.
Emotion, because she recognized that she was enjoying the fight. For almost ten minutes, they had both been locked in a fight that forced each one to their limits. Azula had never fought anyone who would corner her like this. Every time she used her fighting moves, it was to beat her opponent. Kill if necessary. Now, she was fighting someone who was forcing her to get the best of herself, and that caused adrenaline to flow through her veins and her heart to pump with an emotion that she had never felt before.
And above all ... fear for being feeling all that. Fear that perhaps she might have found someone that could outmatch her!
A knee to her stomach snapped her out of those thoughts and caused her to spit out some saliva. Fatal mistake in a fight, getting lost in your thoughts. That forced her to focus on the fight she was having. She reacted just as quickly and launched a powerful blow that connected with Naruto's cheek, causing him to take a few steps back.
They both gave in to their attacks to catch their breath. They were exhausted and breathing heavily. Their bodies were covered in bruises and scrapes from the number of times they knocked each other down, but neither had the intention of giving up. You only had to look into their eyes to know that.
Naruto spat out saliva mixed with blood from the last blow.
She's deadly, that something you don't see every day, Naruto thought with a smirk, that Azula returned.
With that in mind, he lunged once more at Azula.
She raised her arms just in time to stop a roundhouse kick from Naruto, though the force of the blow caused her to stagger and her arms to burn. A hiss of pain escaped her lips before she reached over to Naruto and struck him hard at the level of the liver, though Naruto managed to block it just in time. Azula hit him with her knee in the face, though Naruto raised his arms just in time to protect himself.
Azula swung her shin at thigh level, landing satisfactorily. Then, she kicked again, this time at head level, intending to end the fight finally. But Naruto blocked her kick and grabbed her leg, causing Azula to use only one foot to stay upright. Naruto swept her kickstand hard, and Azula fell to the floor, though she was able to drag Naruto to the floor next to her by grabbing him by the shirt.
Both stood up, breathing heavily as they tried to find any openings.
"Wow, you're much prettier from up close," Naruto said. This actually caught Azula by surprise for a moment, and that was all Naruto needed to punch her stomach before kicking her in the face, sending her crashing into the ground.
Azula felt blood on her lips. She licked it before standing up once again. Fighting dirty. I love this, Azula thought before engulfing her hands in blue flames. Same for Naruto. Golden eyes looked at Blue Eyes as both rushed towards each other, sending a blast of blue flames; Naruto docked before swinging forward, launching a burst of black flame along with something else, much to Naruto's shock. Azula jumped to her left just in time before sending another blast at Naruto, who quickly jumped upwards.
The heat of the flames was painful to his skin, and he felt himself sweating from the incredible heat. Landing on his foot, Azula threw a massive fireball; Naruto quickly slammed his hands on the ground, creating a wooden shield to protect himself. The flames almost burned the wood, but the smoke created was all Azula needed to get behind Naruto with a fist covered in fire, but the blonde saw through that, quickly whirling around with his own fist covered in black flames.
BOOM
Both Naruto and Azula were thrown to the opposite side; Azula hissed in pain, and her eyes widened to see her hand was burned slightly, perhaps a first-degree burn. Her eyes went to her opponent; Naruto was already standing, but seeing that his hand was also burned, similar to hers, made Azula smile in satisfaction to know that she, too, had hurt him.
"Can you still keep going?" Azula asked with a challenging look.
"As much as you want, Beautiful Princess," Naruto said teasingly, much to Azula's... annoyance and something else.
With a shout of fury, Azula jumped into the air and spun her leg around, shooting an arc of fire at him. Running forward, he dove on his knees. Leaning his head back, he felt the heat as the flames passed above. The heat nearly scorched his face before he was able to stand straight up again. He leaped at the girl with his daggers and swung his arms out, lashing them at her. Nimbly dodging and weaving,
Wincing as some of her flames nicked his arm, Naruto quickly rolled to the side before swinging his leg out, encased in black flames. Azula seemed to disperse it and retaliate effortlessly. Naruto had to admit that Zuko was nothing compared to his sister. Too bad that fight had to be against Naruto right now.
Suddenly, Naruto saw sparks jump off her fingertips, making him stiffen in alarm. No way she could bend lightning? Seeing the smirk on her face, Naruto knew he couldn't risk it. He quickly formed another wooden wall that exploded when the lightning struck. When the smoke cleared, he saw she had jumped off the side of the structure they were on, diving down. Cursing under his breath, he quickly followed after her. Dang it! She was just trying to get him out of the way!
He bent his legs as he landed roughly in one of the carts and quickly shot jets of fire out of both his hands. The jets shot his cart forward as he hurried to catch up with Azula's cart. He could see bursts of dust and fire and assumed that Aang was fighting back.
Naruto managed to catch up to them right as Azula did some sort of cartwheel within her cart, sending a wheel of blue fire at Aang and Bumi. Okay, neat trick. But it was not so awesome when she was trying to barbeque his friends. Just as he was about to try and intervene, a large rock randomly popped out of the ground right in front of Azula's, and consequently his own, cart.
"Crap!" he gasped and quickly jumped backwards and out of the cart as it basically exploded. Shooting fire out of his feet, he slowed himself down just in time, too, as he came face to face with the rock. Sighing in relief, he collapsed on the chute, but a grunt suddenly drew his attention. He looked to his side and saw the fingertips with those scary nails.
Azula! Naruto quickly scrambled over and looked down at the princess, who was gazing in the direction that Aang and Bumi had disappeared. Cautiously, he slowly reached down his hand as her face snapped in his direction. If looks could kill...
"Um...do you need some help?" Naruto questioned, smirking, mentally convincing himself that if she tried to burn his hand off, he could block her flames. She merely stared at his hand in what looked like annoyance before swinging her arm up and blasting a stream of fire at him. He quickly leaned back and fell on his butt before jumping over the side of the chute and shakily landing on the roof next to us.
"Yeah, I thought you would do that..." Naruto sighed, rubbing the back of his head as he saw her pull herself up.
"As much as I enjoyed our date. I will have to go." Naruto said before he quickly jumped onto another roof.
Azula looked furious at him as if he had just said the stupidest thing he could have.
Naruto had the feeling that they would be seeing each other again. That was not a happy feeling... Right?
Later
"So...we're looking for someone who waits and who listens? Well, that narrows it down." he sighed sarcastically as Aang merely shrugged in response. He had just regaled us of his tale with Bumi, the king who could earth bend with his face. Please leave it to Bumi to give such vague details. Speaking of Bumi...
"Um, what's going to happen to Bumi now? Doesn't the fire nation know he can earth bend still? How is he going to be able to break out later if they cover his face?" Naruto questioned in curiosity.
"Hope they don't cover his face? I don't know...I think we can just leave that to Bumi." Aang offered with a 'what can you do' expression. Naruto sighed. Only idiots would leave an earth-bending king with the ability to earth-bend. He sincerely hoped Bumi would have idiotic guards.
"So, what's the plan now?" Katara intervened, leaning forward from her spot next to Sokka and Naruto in the saddle. Aang seemed to think about it for a second before pulling a map out of their bags and laying it out.
"Well, there are still a couple of earth kingdom villages on our way from here to Ba Sing Se. I think we should make stops at those and check things out. We might find a teacher for me there. If not, then I'm almost positive Ba Sing Se will have one for me." He explained with a smile. Sokka nodded before pulling the map closer to himself and beginning to plan their route.
That's Sokka, their local map guy.
As he and Katara began debating what would be the safest and fastest route, he leaned closer to Aang.
"Are you sure you're okay leaving Bumi here?" Naruto asked with a slight frown. He had been so adamant about getting the king out before. Examining his face, he looked for signs of regret or sadness to address. Thankfully, he found none as he smiled at him.
"Yeah, it was his choice, and I respect that. I trust him, and I know this isn't goodbye. I just hope we can find an earth-bending teacher sooner rather than later." He stated, rubbing the back of his head. He smiled before bumping his shoulder lightly with mine.
"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll find the right person when it's time. My only hope is that they're not boring or something like that. Insulting Sokka can only entertain me for so long." Naruto muttered the last part under his breath.
"Very funny, Naruto," Sokka grumble.
Seeing his expression Aang lightly touched Naruto's shoulder.
"Naruto, are you okay?" Aang asked, slightly concerned.
"I'm fine. I was just thinking about some meaningless stuff." Naruto brushed away the concern as if it were a fly.
"Speaking of meaningless, why were you flirting with the Crazy Princess?" Sokka suddenly asked, looking at Naruto as if accusing him of something. This made both Katara and Aang look at Naruto, completely bewildered.
"Yes, so what? And it was just fun. There's nothing between us. Hell, I don't even know her." Naruto answered with a clear hint of annoyance, glaring slightly at Sokka.
"She's our enemy," Sokka exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing.
"Thank you, captain obvious. And don't worry about her. Next time we meet. I will defeat her." Naruto promised with a grin. Aang frowned slightly; he still remembered how Naruto killed General Zhao back at the North Pole.
Azula
"We are following them. I won't let the Avatar escape from me." Azula ordered with much more fire in her voice than usual. The poor soldier was trembling before he quickly bowed his head.
"Of course, Princess." He said before leaving the room as quickly as possible. As soon as the door closed, Ty Lee decided to open her big mouth.
"I can't wait to see them again; perhaps you will get to meet your boyfriend too, Azula." Ty Lee said with her enthusiastic tone with a smile; Mai's eyes widened as Azula turned to both of them with a glare that could turn anyone to ash.
"What did you say, Ty Lee?" Azula demanded with a low-calm tone. That sounded more terrifying than usual. She didn't know how her friends knew that the boring firebender had flirted with her, much to her annoyance.
"Naruto, that was his name, right? He flirted with you." Ty Lee said casually, clapping her hands together as if it was the most adorable thing ever.
Azula's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "How do you know that?"
"We have ears, Azula," Mai answered with a blank face as usual. Azula exhaled. The blonde had made her blood boil like never before, with both excitement and annoyance.
"He's our target too, and if we face him again. Naruto is mine to fight." Azula ordered, eyeing both of her friends, who nodded accordingly, wanting her friends to know not to mess with him. But it seemed her words were differently interpreted by Ty Lee.
"Goddess No. Me and Mai would never get in the way of you enjoying quality time with your boyfriend." Ty Lee said enthusiastically, with a broad smile.
Azula groaned loudly before walking away, not wanting to deal with her smartness right now.
