Chapter 73: Toph
"And now the moment you've all been waiting for!"
In an underground, dimly lit hall, a large rectangular arena was located in the middle. The arena had stairs running down to a lower, oval shaped area. Seats for spectators started at the same level as the arena. Sitting among the crowd, team Avatar seemed rather excited about what was going on… well… at least one of them…
"WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO" Shouted Sokka. "YEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHH!"
"The Boulder versus…. Your champion… the Blind Bandit!"
As Xin Fu, the announcer, introduced the new fighter, the lights seemed to focus on a single person. A short, black haired girl with bangs covering her milky-green eyes, almost half of her body was hidden behind a massive Champion green belt as she raised the belt up above her head.
"She can't really be blind," Said Katara, observing the small champion girl. "It's just part of her character…. Right?"
"I think she is…" Said Aang looking at her as if he had seen her before.
"I think she is…" Said Sokka with a deadpan face… Before instantly shouting while gesturing down with both hands "GOING DOWN!"
In the center of the Arena;
"The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young…. Blind…. Girl."
"Sounds to me like you are scared, Boulder… " Said the blind girl mockingly as she pointed at her opponent.
"The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings…. And now he's ready to bury you… in a rock-alanche!"
"Let's dance then…. The Pebble!" The girl threw her head back and laughed.
"It's on!" the Boulder replied as he took one step forward. As his heel hit the ground, a smirk appeared on the blind girl's face as her opponent took a second step, but this time the blind girl suddenly kicked the arena surface, creating a shock wave through the arena floor that churned up the ground in the direction of the Boulder in a straight line.
Once the Boulder felt his feet meeting the shock wave from the blind girl, he was forced down onto the ground in a perfect split.
"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Exclaimed the poor Boulder in pain as his crotch was forced to stretch in angles that were never attempted by him before.
Grinning evilly, the blind girl stomped the ground with her other foot's heel, suddenly making a pillar of rock rise right below the Boulder's crotch, which was only a few inches above the ground.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" This time it was not just the Boulder, every single male in the audience, including the announcer, shared the dread and closed their legs in reflex.
"EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!" Shouted Sokka with a pale face while protecting his crotch with his hands.
"I don't understand why every single other man screamed like they were the ones in pain…." Said Katara in confusion.
"You don't understand men, Katara," Said Sokka with a sage expression "We share pain…." A lonely tear fell from one of his eyes as he stared at the horizon.
"…. Okay…?" Said the young waterbender.
Even Aang looked incredibly uncomfortable, though he tried to maintain his serene expression, but his crossed legs and trembling hands expressed his real thoughts.
Back in the Arena, Toph was satisfied with her performance considering the shouts she heard from both her target and the audience, so without further ado, she simply did a motion with her right hand, forming three pillars of earth that launched the Boulder outside the Arena.
"A-and your winner, and still champion…. The Blind Bandit!!!!" Said Xin Fu, the muscular announcer with long dark hair, his legs were almost crossed but one could see that he was using his entire willpower to remain serious and aloof towards the situation.
"How did she do that?" Asked Katara in confusion, again, the girl was supposed to be blind!
"Heartlessly…" Said Sokka, still protecting his crotch.
"She waited…. And listened…" Said Aang, remembering what Bumi told him in Omashu.
As Xin Fu jumped back towards the arena from his raised announcer platform, he shouted to the crowd "To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat the Blind Bandit!"
For the first few seconds there was only silence, until Aang raised his hand "I will!"
Xin Fu looked disappointed for a moment, but nodded and accepted the challenge anyway.
"Go Aang! Avenge the Boulder!" Shouted Sokka with passion in his voice.
Feeling the newcomer walking into the Arena platform, Toph smirked "Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!" The audience was relentless.
"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you" Said the disguised Avatar as he put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture.
"BOOOOO!!!!" Shouted Sokka with a disgusted expression that was short lived considering that Katara slapped him in the back of the head right away.
"Don't boo at him!"
Back in the arena, Aang could be seen gliding inches above the ground after dodging the first strike from Toph.
"Somebody's a little light on his feet! What's your fighting name? The Fancy Dancer?" Said a focused Toph as she concentrated on her earthbending skills. "Now… where'd you go?..."
"Please, wait!" Shouted Aang as he finally touched the ground.
Unfortunately for Aang, his move to throw Toph's rock back at her was met with an earth wall, Toph had been ambushed before, and although she never had fought an airbender before, she didn't just trust her earthbending, but also her other senses.
As soon as the Avatar touched the ground, Toph grinned "Gotcha"
Aang could only watch as one of his feet was swallowed by the Arena.
"Let's see you dodge me now… Twinkle Toes…" She grinned as she pushed the Earth Wall she used as defense towards Aang with incredible speed, pushing him out of the arena.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH!" Everyone shouted in excitement.
"And there we have it! The unmatched! The victorious! The Blind Bandit!" Shouted Xin Fu while pocketing his bag of coins.
Grabbing her Champion belt back, Toph wore a huge smirk on her face as she simply escaped through the wall, thwarting any plans that Aang had about reaching out to her for a talk.
After everything was over, Team Avatar went on an investigation tour through the city of Gao Ling, first being the Earthbending School, but no one seemed to know anything about the Blind Bandit.
Finally, the team managed to get some clues due to Aang's dream about a white flying boar, the sigil of the Beifong family, which led them to their current situation.
Lao and Poppy Beifong seemed happy as they stared at their guests, they heard about the Avatar coming for a visit and prepared a welcome feast for all of them.
"Avatar Aang. It's an honor to have you visit us." Said Poppy with a happy smile on her face.
"In your opinion, how much longer do you think the war will last?" Asked Lao with a friendly face, but his eyes were sharp and focused.
"I'd like to defeat the Fire Lord by the end of summer, but I can't do that without an earthbending teacher first…" Aang said while staring at Toph, making her annoyed.
"Well, Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land." Lao said as he pointed towards the pompous, second-rate earthbending 'Master' that was having dinner with them. "He's been teaching Toph since she was little."
"Then she must be a great earthbender! Probably good enough to teach someone else!" Said Aang with a beaming smile.
Toph didn't like what he said, so she sent a fissure under the table at him.
"Ow!" He shouted, as Lao cast an odd glance towards his daughter who merely ate her soup.
"Toph is still learning the basics." Said Yu.
"And what about firebending? Have you already secured a teacher?" Asked Lao while eating his meal.
"Hmm… Well I didn't think that far ahead, having to master earthbending first and all…" Said an uncomfortable Aang, he didn't like the idea that he needed to learn firebending at all!
"But… We met one very strong firebender a while ago, who seemed friendly enough. If it comes down to it, I will request him to teach me…" Said Aang reluctantly.
"I don't think Madara will teach you Aang, he said he would never teach his firebending to anyone" said Sokka offhandedly while using a toothpick.
That single offhand comment raised the eyebrows of almost everyone in the room.
Poppy's were twitching furiously;
Lao's were sweating… a lot... as he stole quick glances towards his wife while pretending that everything was fine;
Toph's almost reached her hairline as she had to hold herself back, she really wanted to trap Aang with her earthbending and ask him some questions right now.
Yu, on the other hand, was clueless and simply looked at everyone's reactions then simply shrugged.
"W-well…. Shall we move to the living room for dessert, then?" Said Poppy while controlling herself, regardless of anything, she was a noble lady and would always follow the right protocol.
Later that night, while everyone was already sleeping on the comfiest beds in the world, thanks to the Beifong's wealth, Aang was patting Appa outside, staring at the night sky.
"Goodnight, Buddy." The Avatar said softly, staring at his sleepy flying bison.
As he was about to leave, his path was blocked by Toph, who stared at him with a seriousness that she didn't have even when playing the Blind Bandit role.
Aang just moved into a defensive position, expecting the worst.
"Relax. Look, I'm sorry about dinner. Let's call a truce, okay?" Said the blind girl, which indeed made Aang let down his defensive position as the two of them headed out to the yard.
"Even though I was born blind. I've never had a problem seeing." Said Toph as she walked along the side of the bridge and jumped down, hitting the ground. "I see with earthbending, it's kind of like seeing with my feet. I feel vibrations in the earth, and I can see where everything is… You… That tree… Even those ants over there."
"That's… That's amazing!" Shouted Aang in excitement
"But my parents don't understand, they never did… and to be honest, they don't even know that I can do it. It's not even about me being good at hiding it, it's just that they are so sure that I'm helpless that they don't even pay attention."
"Is that why you became the Blind Bandit?"
"Yeah... It's the only place where I can be myself." Said Toph.
"Then why stay here where you're not happy?" Asked Aang, confused.
"They're my parents. Where else am I supposed to go?"
"You could come with us!" Said an excited Aang.
"Yeah. You guys get to go wherever you want. No one telling you what to do, that's the life!" She said excitedly before getting downcast "It's just not… My life…"
"It can be your life, your life is yours to go wherever you want!" Aang said sagely.
Chuckling, Toph shook her head "It's not that easy Twinkle Toes… Things are expected of me."
"Then… What do you want?"
Taking a deep breath, Toph turned to Aang "You mentioned Madara…"
"Yes?" Aang was confused. "Do you know him?"
"Know him? He is my brother!"
"WHAT?!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan Starting strong this week! I had to skip a few chapters of Book 2, but hey those were... booooriiiiing.... and were absolute filler, i mean who here wants to read about Avatar Kyoshi's trial and all that crap right?
Anyway, for those who doesn't know, sundays are my day off. I don't write on Sundays because even i deserve one day to just chill, am i right?
Now i did spend my day off on the comics, and boy o boy that shit breaks canon hard. They ruined Lightning and Metalbending for me... like... for real...
Azula with her instant non-deadly lightning. I mean, Iroh pretty much teach Zuko that lightning is deadly and cold just like Azula, but in the comics Zuko takes a dual lightning to the chest and stands up the next panel saying "I'm okay" >_>.
So while i will follow the comics story to certain point, i will not follow it on it's entirety, i will NOT make lightning something so feeble that its just like a knockback jinx from Harry Potter!
As for metal bending, one of the things that i found cool is the limitation, Toph always needed to touch metal to bend it, it was a limitation that made it even more awesome because limitations actually adds to the skill instead of subtracting, but on the comics she can just ... do it like telekinesis... >_>
Oh yeah.. Katara can fly on the comics using waterbending to form a midair ice slide... and Aang can create an airbubble for himself while 200 feet deep underwater... not BEFORE diving...
Yeah... im gonna change some things... >_>
Anyway, Author's Rant is over, i hope yall have a great day! you beautiful Sausages, i wont be aiming for top 1 this week XD but if we reach there... yaaay if we don't... well... i will always know that we can do it again if i write on the sundays lol XD.
Chapter 74: Running Away from Home
A blob of mud flew from the shores of the artificial lake underneath the bridge that they just crossed and instantly hit the Avatar straight on the head, making the poor bald boy fall on the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Stop squealing!" Toph frowned her eyebrows "If joining you means that I will have to deal with a squealing little girl, you better not even try to convince me anymore!"
"Blergh" The poor Aang could only spit the mud that managed to enter his wide mouth while cleaning his face with his airbending. "There were worms in there!!"
"Yea? So what?" Toph raised an eyebrow "When I was out practicing my earthbending I would spend a long time in the Foggy Swamp… and you don't even want to know what I had to eat to satisfy my hunger." A smug grin appeared on her lips
Ignoring the blind girl, Aang bent a little bit of water from the artificial river, washing his mouth with it before spitting at the ground.
"You really are a little girl, aren't you… Twinkle Toes?"
"Can we please stop this talk about me and go back to the talk that you are Madara's SISTER!?" Exclaimed Aang in exasperation.
"What's wrong?" her grin grew even more sarcastic as she removed her hair adornment, letting her long black hair flow down like a river "Can't see the resemblance?"
Aang's mouth went wide, but he covered it with his hands, he didn't want Toph sending more worm filled mud balls into his mouth.
"N-Now that you look like that…."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Toph started laughing, she even fell on the floor "Oh, I wish I could see just this one time! The look on your face must be priceless for you to sound stupid like that!" after several seconds of laughing, the blind girl finally stopped "No, we are not blood related, but Madara is my big brother even if we don't share blood, he was the only one that ever accepted who I really am, always encouraged me, shared stories of his adventures across the world with me and never treated me like a helpless, powerless blind doll."
Toph's tone became rather melancholic as she kept talking about her relationship with Madara, as if flashbacks started coming to her mind.
"It saddens me that I don't even know what he looks like, all I've heard were details from former employees that left the family estate and joined him years ago. They always told me that we indeed looked alike, especially our hair... although Madara's is more…"
"Spiky? Wild? Like a long mane?" Said Aang, raising one finger.
"Yeah… Whatever that means…" The girl had a gentle smile on her lips.
"So… you don't know what I look like as well? And Katara? Sokka? Even The Boulder?"
"Nah, I know… Well, as well as someone in my circumstances can, my senses can capture details, but… He was gone before I fully mastered it, and never came back. Not that I could blame him, I've heard talks about him around here back then."
Aang didn't know what to say, honestly, he didn't have a decent talk with Madara, they met after the Oasis attack, but the Avatar didn't really know how to bridge the gap between them so back then he decided to just sit and watch Sokka bombard him with questions about training and fighting techniques. At the end of the day, Madara and Aang had very limited interaction.
"Well…" Aang tried to break the silence "If you decide to come with us… We can go and meet up with him!" he concluded with a beaming smile.
Toph's lip trembled emotionally a bit, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I will think about it…" she said as she walked away, back towards her room.
The Avatar stood there with a thoughtful expression as he watched Toph walk back alone, after she was gone he took a deep breath and decided to follow her example and sleep for the night.
The next day came, and Aang finally understood what Toph said, about being treated like a waste.
Wherever the blind girl went, she was surrounded by at least ten people, seven guards and three maids. Also, for some reason, he and his group were not allowed to meet with her for the whole duration of the day, it was only during the parting banquet that they shared a room, but even so… Many more guards were around.
"So, I assume that after you leave, you will go back to searching for an earthbending teacher?" Asked Lao, with a tired expression, the nightly talk with his wife wasn't pleasant at all! 'Dammit Madara, even after years you still do this to me!'
Aang just stole glances at Toph for a moment, he couldn't see her struggling… but for some reason he could… feel it?... but, not wanting to ignore the patriarch, he answered.
"Yes, we have a long journey ahead."
Nodding Lao concluded their dinner "I wish you good luck Avatar Aang."
As both him and Poppy stood up, Toph also did so, but contrary to their elegant movements, she did so abruptly.
"Mom, Dad… I wish to talk to you..."
"Not now, Toph, it's already time for you to go to bed" Said Lao, basically ignoring the girl's pleas.
But as he was about to walk through the doorway, it was blocked by an earth wall, which shocked the couple and made them look back at an equally flabbergasted 'Master' Yu, then at Toph… finally noticing her hand raised, signaling that it was her who did it.
"I'm tired of this, I am not a frail porcelain doll like you think I am… "
Master Yu immediately went to bend the earth back down, but for some reason the wall slightly trembled but didn't budge, making Toph smirk a little bit.
"I am strong, not even that pompous prick over there can outmatch my earthbending!" She narrowed her eyes "I wish to teach the Avatar earthbending."
"Preposterous Toph!" Shouted Lao "You are a weak, frail, blind girl, and MY daughter! I won't allow you to travel around with these people, or ANYONE for that matter!"
"You don't understand who I am! I love fighting, I love earthbending! I am really… really good at it! And I want to go out adventuring like Madara!" She spoke, undoing her earth wall now that she got her parent's attention
"DON'T MENTION THAT NAME!" Shouted Poppy in anger. "He almost destroyed our family! You have no idea how bad of an influence that boy was on you! I regret it.. I REGRET THAT I ALLOWED YOUR FATHER TO KEEP HIM HERE!"
'Allowed me?' Lao's eyebrows twitched furiously "Toph…" His voice lowered "It seems we gave you far too much freedom, from now on you will be guarded and cared for 24 hours a day!"
"We are doing that for your own good, sweetie." Added Poppy, with a soft tone.
Toph could only sigh and lower her head as her father kicked the Avatar and his team out.
"Sorry… Goodbye, Aang…" a single tear fell down her face as she too was escorted to her room.
Entering her room, she could only sit down by her bed and hug her knees while tears kept flowing.
For several minutes she sat there, with her head lowered, but eventually she raised her red puffy eyes that narrowed dangerously as she suddenly stood up. "I'm tired of this!"
Stomping the ground, she opened a secret hole in her room's floor that had a few sacks of coins, her Championship belt and her Blind Bandit clothes.
Team Avatar could only follow the guards, honestly even if Aang wanted to help, this was a family issue, not an international calamity, he had no power here and he knew it.
As Sokka was fixing Appa's saddle, he turned to Aang;
"Don't worry Aang! We can always ask for the Boulder to teach you!" He said in excitement.
The poor Avatar could only give an extremely forced smile "… Yeah… We can search a bit further…"
"Don't worry, we will find you a teacher. There are plenty of amazing earthbenders out there." Said Katara while putting a hand on the bald boy's shoulder.
"Not like her." Said Aang with a saddened expression.
As the group was ready to leave, they heard a voice in the distance;
"Wait!" Shouted Toph, running towards the group, donning her Blind Bandit clothes and carrying a satchel.
"Toph! What are you doing here?"
"My dad changed his mind… He said I am free to travel the world!" Said the girl with a light smile on her face;
Sokka and Katara exchanged knowing glances, before the elder brother turned to the blind girl and smirked at her;
"Well, we better get out of here before he 'changes his mind' again…"
"Good idea!" Said Toph
"You're gonna be a great teacher, Toph!" Said Aang with a happy smile.
"You can bet that I will! I learned from the best!" She grinned and for some reason Aang felt a nasty shiver run down his spine "Speaking of which…" She then turned her face towards her family estate and took a deep breath before removing her hair adornment and tossing it on the ground, letting her hair flow freely.
…
Inside a minimalistic Japanese styled room, with clean tatami floors and open shoji doors that led to a stone platform connected to a private koi pond, the sound of the bamboo-scare and rustle of leaves is the only thing that could be heard.
On top of the tatami floor laid Madara, facing down, with his torso exposed. And laying besides him was a fair-skinned woman with dark brown hair tied in a bun and bangs covering one half of her beautiful face, she had bright blue eyes and wore a black yukata with blue and purplish-blue roses artistically embroidered into it, with a blue sash around her thin waist.
The woman was carrying a thin bamboo stick, and beside her she had a small box with many flasks of what looked to be different colors of ink and many other sticks just like the one that she was holding.
"We are almost done with our weekly session, Mr. Uchiha." Said her soft calm voice, as she kept slowly piercing Madara's back with the bamboo needle. A painting of one blue and one red dragon coiling around a big Uchiha Fan in a sea of flames could be seen being painted in Yakuza style, although not finished yet.
"Thank you, Hanya." He said as a soft towel was pressed to his back for several seconds before he sat up and adjusted his own black yukata.
Shaking her head with a smile "Don't mention it, at least you are not loud like Mr. Lei, he used to scream a lot back then…"
"I remember," Madara chuckled. "Even though his was way simpler, with only green…"
The woman could only chuckle, "More colors does not equal more pain, Mr. Uchiha."
"Then it seems that he is still just as wimpy as he was back then" Madara shrugged. "And just managed to mask it better."
They both stood up and Hanya escorted him to the exit of her shop, and once they arrived, she bowed "Thank you once more for giving me this opportunity Mr. Uchiha."
"Stop that woman, every week you thank me for it and honestly, it's not needed. You have talent for this kind of stuff and I would be glad to always keep you around here even if that was your one talent."
"Then let me thank you for not forcing me to be a healer just because I am a waterbender…" She said with an emotional face.
"Being born with the gift of bending does not force one to go down that route, it opens a door yes, but we all should be able to decide our path." Madara said offhandedly as he waved his hand and walked back towards his not-so-humble abode.
As he was walking, enjoying the sight of his 'upgraded' resort, Nari appeared out of nowhere, right beside him;
"Mr. Uchiha,"
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT WOMAN!" Shouted Madara as he got a jump-scare "You need to seriously stop doing that!"
"Hmm?" Nari tilted her head to the side with an innocent expression.
Staring at his innocent looking mother figure Madara's eyebrow could only twitch a little bit before he calmed down by taking a deep breath.
"How can I help you today, Nari?"
"We received what appears to be the first batch of Northern Water Tribesmen that wish to live here…"
Yeah, ever since the siege fiasco, many Water Tribesmen wanted to move here. Not everyone in the North had a good life. It's a tough environment and the sources of food are also very scarce. They survive, yes, but some of them want more than to simply survive to live another day.
"That's interesting… But did that really deserve the scare?"
"Well… You will be interested to know that we have a special guest now…"
"Who?" Madara raised an eyebrow, not very interested but simply playing the part.
"…. Princess Yue…"
"… Shit…"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Hello!!! Here am i! with your new chapter!
Today i dont have any rant or massive texts to write here, and it's kinda weird... x_x
I want to let you all know that i will skip a LOT of book 2 plotline, because everything is kinda... not that exciting?.. i mean who wants to see Jet again, right?
I will not skip the WHOLE god damn thing, but i will skip the less important details, because i don't want to rewrite the plot exactly word by word as someone complained the previous chapter...
Oh yeah that is a thing! someone complained that i'm copying the whole damn thing word by word, and while i am keeping a LOT intact, i am doing quite a few subtle changes that are slowly adding up... its not a WHOLE NEW PLOT, no its not.. but it won't play the same due to Madara.. who isn't even RELATED to the plot, and that is the point!
Anyway, i hope yall enjoyin my work, im putting a lot of my heart into this, contrary to what some people might believe...
HAve a great day you wonderful sausages, you are all beautiful in your own 'special' way! :D
See you tomorrow!
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