Chapter 43: Undercurrents
The sun was setting over the horizon and small snowflakes fell over the land as a gentle breeze blew from the east.
A big flying bison could be seen flying above the blue ocean below, which had a few icebergs every ten miles or so. Yet as the beast flew north, fewer and fewer Icebergs could be spotted.
"That was… Horrible!" shouted Sokka with an exhausted expression while he guided Appa as they flew on the large bison's back.
"I can't believe it either…" said Katara, sitting on the saddle that rested over the back of the creature, tending to a bald boy's wounds. "To think that they managed to push the Avatar to such a sorry state…"
"Ouch! Katara!" shouted the bald boy covered in wounds, half of his body was purple and swollen.
"Oh! Sorry…" Katara showed her tongue like a brat, and recoiled meekly "I am not that good at nursing wounds, luckily you were just beaten and nothing too serious."
Sokka stared at her with a deadpan face. "Yeah… Nothing serious… He was just treated like a punching bag! I mean seriously… What kind of food do these Fire Nation people eat to make them so strong?! Can't they share a bit with us?!" he exclaimed.
"Ouch!" a shout of pain interrupted the talk again.
"I am done Aang," said Katara "You just need to rest now…" She concluded and covered him with a thick blanket.
"Well, on the bright side, we managed to escape!" said Aang with a bright smile that didn't fit very well with his half-swollen face. "But… man… that teenager really managed to beat me black and blue…" Shivers ran down Aang's spine when he remembered the fight he had to endure to miraculously escape the ship.
Sokka leaned back on Appa's neck and poked his nose with his pinky finger. "Well… at least you managed to glow blue and escape…" after flicking the nasty goober that he managed to excavate from his nose he continued "Imagine how hard it would be for us, people who can't glow…"
Drifting below, on the calm southern sea waters, a single metal ship could be seen following the trail of the flying creature.
BANG.
A loud sound echoed from one of the chambers of the ship.
"I can't believe he managed to escape!" shouted Zuko in anger, oh and how angry he was! Not only was he angry but also incredibly dumbfounded, utterly dumbfounded. 'How did that happen?!'
"Relax, Prince Zuko," said a calm old voice from the side of the room.
"Uncle! How can you be so calm right after having the Avatar escape our grasp like that?!" shouted Zuko.
The old man simply shrugged and finished pouring tea into his cup. "Well…" he took his time drinking the first sip before finishing with a smile and a nod, a delay which pissed off Zuko even further. 'Can't you finish your damn words first?!'
"Ahh... Good tea!" said Iroh, but upon noticing his nephew's eyebrow twitching aggressively he simply coughed "Ahem… as I was saying… There's no need to be like that, anger will not make the ship sail faster, and through this experience not only did you manage to learn that the Avatar is indeed back, but we also got his trail…"
BANG
Another sound echoed as Zuko, once again, punched the metal wall of the ship in anger.
"On top of that.." said Iroh cheerfully, "How many people can claim to have beaten the Avatar that bad, hm? You sure achieved something that only a few across history managed to do, Prince Zuko."
"And who cares?!" Zuko shouted back. "He is but a child, his airbending skills are quite impressive, but on the other hand… he is AWFUL at fighting, and yet he managed to escape! How can I face Teacher after such shame?!" he asked as he stared at the black kimono with red clouds that was placed on the wall as an adornment, right below his beloved twin scimitars.
The old man caressed his beard with a thoughtful expression. "I believe he would be quite impressed that you managed to beat the Avatar to such a state by yourself…" Those words brought a tinge of happiness to Zuko's angry visage, but the next words made him shiver so hard that he had to sit down and take a breather "…either that or he would step up your training…"
Iroh had to use all of his willpower to not beam or overreact toward his nephew. 'Zuko didn't talk about honor, or his father's acceptance, his first worry was Mr. Uchiha's reaction!' he took a sip of his tea to cover his growing smile. 'Oh, my dear nephew… I am so happy!'
The night passed quickly, and as the first rays of light spread through the horizon, the three kids on top of the flying bison woke up. Sokka slowly walked towards the edge of the saddle, turning to his sister and speaking with a sleepy voice, "Katara, turn to the other side."
Without waiting for any reply, he untied his pants and relaxed "Ahhh…"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" shouted Katara with anger and embarrassment, which startled Aang and made him look toward Sokka as well.
"Morning stuff… you know…" Sokka replied nonchalantly as he was taking his time.
""THAT'S SO GROSS!"" Shouted both Aang and Katara, which in turn startled Appa, who started to move a bit erratically, almost throwing Sokka off his back.
The event quickly passed, although Katara was no less angry, and Aang was no less grossed out by it.
"Aw come on! Everyone pees in the morning, it's natural and healthy, perhaps we should get a bucket for you…" said Sokka while sitting on the saddle and munching some dry meat, the provisions they prepared for the trip.
Katara, who was on Appa's neck guiding him since the bison refused to let Sokka sit there after that little event, turned towards her brother. "Gross…sometimes I wonder if we are really siblings, you know… "
Sokka, deciding that his breakfast was more interesting than that talk, simply waved his hand dismissively and kept munching his food.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the girl turned to the bald boy. "By the way, Aang, how did you do that yesterday? We were in such a hurry and worried, that we couldn't really sit and talk about it… That waterbending that you did to escape…"
Quietly, slightly downcast while sitting on the opposite edge of the saddle, Aang replied "I don't know. I just sort of… Did it."
"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?"
"Because…" Aang avoided his gaze, his expression saddened "I never wanted to be.."
After quite a long pep talk, the trio decided that Aang should learn the element of Water first, then Earth, and finally Fire. Ironically this was the same thing that the Monks told Aang and it still felt weird for him to suddenly be seen as the Avatar instead of just an ordinary airbender.
The final destination was settled, the North Pole. Katara was way more excited than Aang about such an adventure, though, the poor girl didn't even know how much crap she would have to endure… sigh… ignorance is bliss, isn't it?
"And Sokka. I'm sure you will get to knock together some Firebender heads on the way!" cheered Katara.
Gulping his water Sokka just stared at his sister with a deadpan expression. "If they fight like that guy… I think I should learn how to flee first and strike second…"
Aang's smile cracked as he remembered the beating he received, but he resolved himself to never be beaten like that ever again! Ohh, you poor bastard, you don't even know…
After another day of flying, they finally could see land on the horizon as a huge mountain range came into sight, although very blurry due to the distance.
The Avatar was more cheerful than before, he believed that the Air Nomads were still there but just hiding, Katara was staring at him worriedly, while Sokka instantly thought that the booger he removed from his nose was incredibly interesting to stare at.
Down below, in the southwestern location of the Earth Kingdom, Zuko's ship finally docked in a Fire Nation naval base known as Ketu Harbor, which was the closest outpost to the Southern Water Tribe that the Fire Nation had, and since the ship needed to be repaired and resupplied, Zuko had no choice other than this place.
'Damn Avatar not only managed to escape but also damaged my ship quite a bit…' sigh "Ah, Teacher would beat me up so hard if he knew…" Zuko hung his head low as he walked down the hatch towards the harbor, with Iroh on his tail.
They already had a talk on the ship, and no word about the Avatar's return should be said, if that news was to spread, the Prince's chances would diminish exponentially, so they came up with the idea of crashing into an Earth Kingdom ship beforehand.
Iroh was just humming and eating some snacks while following his nephew, an old man needs to enjoy his retirement after all.
"Prince Zuko?" a solemn deep voice came from their right, and when the duo turned their heads, they spotted a tall man with sideburns dressed in a Fire Nation uniform.
The man walked with his head held high, almost like he was looking down on his new guests, while taking long strides with his hands behind his back.
Zuko used all his willpower to hold back his emotions, partially he had contempt and dislike for this man, but on the other hand… after spending half a year with his teacher and hearing what this man was called by him… he had to hold back to not chuckle as well.
"Captain Zhao." Deciding on a neutral response, Zuko tried to keep his emotions in check.
The man smirked with a scowl on his face "It's Commander now." He turned to Iroh and bowed slightly. "General Iroh. The great hero of our nation."
Iroh bowed back. "Retired General."
"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests anytime. What brings you to my harbor?"
"Our ship is being repaired," said Iroh while pointing towards the ship "and resupplied as well."
"That's quite a bit of damage, what happened? Did you find an enemy of the Fire Nation that I should be aware of?" Zhao asked with contempt.
"Just an Earth Kingdom ship crashed into us," said Zuko with his eye slightly twitching, yes, he improved but he was still kind of a brat, there was no way that just six months of Madara would fix all of his shortcomings.
"Really?" Zhao narrowed his eyes, staring at the Prince with a smug smirk, he too felt what happened yesterday, this was too much of a coincidence. "You must regale me with all the thrilling details." His words were more like a command than a request at this point, and he could see how nervous Zuko was just by staring at his eyes, which made his smirk grow even crueler.
"Join me for a drink?"
Zuko was losing it, that smirk on Zhao's face gave him flashbacks that he really wanted to avoid, but suddenly he remembered something, calmed down, and smirked back, which was instantly noticed by Zhao.
"It's not really that thrilling, out of nowhere a ship appeared and crashed into us… You know… " his eyes narrowed and his smirk grew wider. "Like a Ghost…"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan Hello yall!
i hope you all are having a wonderful day and enjoying this lovely week!
Thank you for all those who sent your support to my lovely little cat, she is doing better and growing stronger every passing day ^_^ it actually warms my heart seeing the support.
Talking about heart warming circunstances... im quite baffled with the royal welcome from yall... i don't consider myself any kind of 'legendary writer' or anything like that, im a simple guy who likes to write for fun when the inspiration strikes.
My main goal was always write the kind of novel that i would love to read, i've been reading a lot of works and between surprises and disappointments, i still hold my own ideal story and narrative, so i try to deliver just that.
Thank you for all the "welcome back"s and "thank you for the chapter" although some might believe that those are irrelevant, but to me they are not, all of your comments are appreciated! all of them makes me more and more inspired to keep writing, i like knowing that people out there loves my work that much <3
Now, there's not much to say today, nothing negative at all!... all the toxicity in the comments left months and months ago, so everyone that stayed is awesome.. obviously!
Stay that way, awesome!, and see you next chapter you wonderful sausages!
Chapter 44: Challenge
Zuko is currently sitting in a tent, flanked by two Fire Nation soldiers while Zhao paces back and forth with a thoughtful expression, trying his best to hide the annoying frown on his face.
"So.. a twelve-year-old boy bested you and your Firebenders" Zhao stopped pacing and stared at Zuko with contempt. "You're more pathetic than I thought."
The whole ordeal was revealed after Zhao guilt-tripped Zuko to speak, putting, in his words, his 'Loyalty towards the Fire Nation' on the line, something that Zuko would always do his best to protect... foolishly.
The Prince was angry, but his angry face sprouted a smirk. "Oh? Like you are one to talk… At least I didn't lose while commanding over a hundred soldiers and run away disgracefully, the Avatar was the one to run away from me not the other way around."
Zhao was livid, he was about to jump on Zuko when Iroh stood up and took a step forward, placing himself between them, stopping Zhao's aggressiveness instantly.
"You better be careful, exiled or not, a Prince is still a Prince." Said the old General staring at Zhao.
The man with sideburns stared at Zuko with all the anger in his heart. "I hope you enjoyed your opportunity to capture the Avatar, Prince Zuko, because you won't have another chance."
Zuko frowned more. "Like I need your permission to do that."
"You tried and failed!" Zhao walked intimidatingly up to Zuko, "Capturing the Avatar is too important to leave in a teenager's hands. He's mine now."
Gritting his teeth Zuko stared back at Zhao. "Really? You will capture him? You? Who failed to do anything against the last kid that you fought and had to run away with your tail between your legs like a coward?"
The temperature in the room started to elevate, Zhao was beyond angry at this point, but Zuko didn't stop.
"At least my honor was taken away for standing up for what I believed, I had to face the Fire Lord because of it, but yours on the other hand? Was tossed away with your pride and dignity while you ran away from an eleven-year-old criminal!"
Even Zuko didn't quite understand what he said or why he said it, it just came to him and it felt right to say it like that, but instantly Iroh's eyebrows were raised and a gleam could be seen in the old General's eyes.
"We should leave, Prince Zuko," said Iroh, not giving Zhao the opportunity to retort his nephew.
"Our ship was not that badly damaged, and we have enough provisions to reach another Fire Nation colony, there's no need for us to be delayed here."
Zhao took a step forward but Iroh's gaze made him freeze.
"You better not force my hand, Commander Zhao," said the old General while narrowing his eyes.
Zhao stared at Iroh, then at Zuko. "My authority as Commander dictates that I can hold your ship in this harbor until it's fixed, it would be too dangerous to let a broken ship sail on the seas, it could bring a disaster towards the Fire Lord's family...." he grinned, "such are our military laws, and not even you can defy them, General Iroh… But don't worry, a couple of days at most should be enough to fix it and by then you are free to leave."
The only reaction that Zhao's speech brought from Zuko was an eyebrow raised in suspicion. "I am not holding you hostage or locking you up, as the General said, exiled or not you are a Prince and are free to go once your ship is fixed." Zhao turned away and walked towards the door.
"You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of warships under my command and you? You are just a banished Prince. No home, no allies. Your own father doesn't even want you." He grinned as he sneakily looked toward Zuko.
That was enough to make the Prince explode. "You are wrong! Once I deliver the Avatar to my father, he will welcome me home with honor and restore my rightful place on the throne!"
Iroh faced his nephew and spoke sternly, "Prince Zuko, that's enough."
But Zhao didn't allow it to end like that, he turned his face toward the teen and spoke with a victorious smirk. "If your father really wanted you home, he would have let you return by now. Avatar or no Avatar. But in his eyes, you are a failure and a disgrace to the Fire Nation."
"That's not true!" shouted the Prince.
"You have a scar to prove it."
The two stared at one another for several seconds, until Zuko spoke first, with wrath in every word.
"Maybe you'd like one to match"
"Is that a challenge?"
"Agni Kai. At Sunset."
"Very well…" Zhao said resuming his walk. "It's a shame your father won't be here to humiliate you, but I guess your uncle will do."
"Let's see you talk about shame after you get beaten by another 'kid', I wonder if another defeat like that will be enough to rip that proud badge off your armor."
After the Commander left, Iroh turned to his nephew.
"Prince Zuko, have you forgotten what happened last time you dueled a master?" he asked worriedly.
A dark shadow cast over Zuko's face. "I will never forget."
As the sun was setting on the horizon, a man with a long black mane could be seen walking through several high-class buildings, he wore a long black yukata with his clan sigil on the back and had one of his arms folded inside his yukata, with his hand hanging in front of his abs, in the classic 'Itachi style', while the other hand was holding a kiseru of his own while enjoying the view.
Taking a deep puff from his kiseru he stared at the red-ish sun over the horizon and exhaled smoke with a grin.
"I wonder if it's following canon, I did change Zuko quite a bit…" he mumbled to himself, "but I don't think I did enough to derail the story. If all Zuko needed was six months of intense training to capture the Avatar, then this war has no hope of ending on good terms whatsoever."
Enjoying his kiseru for a few more seconds he thought.
'I wonder who the reincarnator is… I also wonder if it's someone with knowledge of this world, or just a random person…' he sighed. 'Not that I am worried, with me around unless the reincarnator finds a way to screw with Vaatu, there's no way for him to beat me in combat, but the portals are closed and it will take almost a century before they open again…'
He smirked and joked to himself, "I really wish that just hearing my name in this world is enough to make the reincarnator shit himself in fear, or he could be a Madara fanboy…" He shivered. "I really hope it doesn't come to that…"
"Mr. Uchiha," a soft female voice could be heard from behind.
Turning around with a huge smile on his face he greeted the newcomer. "Hello there Nari, how can I help you?" she hasn't aged a day, nor did Jackie or Kaliya.
"The plans are in motion, the workers are doing their best to fit everything into the time period of one month like you requested, but are you sure about this?" She asked with a certain worry in her voice.
Madara just grinned, "Don't worry Nari, everything will be according to plan, just make sure to keep our vehicle in top condition, we will be using it to travel soon enough."
"Sigh," she lowered her head. "By the way, where is Kaliya? I haven't seen her since earlier today?"
Madara shook his head with a sigh, "I gave her a task, and now I am all alone in my house…"
Nari gave him a mischievous grin while wiggling her eyebrows. "Aww, poor Mr. Uchiha, now he doesn't have his girlfriend with him, he will be lonely and sad…"
He, in response, simply stared at her with his classic Saitama face. "Really? After a whole year of you teasing me like that you still expect me to blush like I used to?"
She in return just gave him a motherly smile. "Well, I guess not… But I will miss those times regardless."
"You know," said Madara while taking a puff from his kiseru, "Jackie really has a loud mouth…"
Her eyes narrowed and she stared at the kiseru for a second and shook her head 'if I didn't know how resistant his body is against such a meager toxin, I would never accept him smoking that poison…' but then her narrowed gaze was fixed on Madara's face.
"Yes .. and?"
He shrugged. "It seems that our Avatar awakening interrupted your couple activity yesterday morning… Poor Jackie, had to go to work without enjoying it… I bet he was all lonely and sad~" he grinned as he spoke his final words.
Nari didn't disappoint, she turned red, not only out of embarrassment, but she was also fucking livid as well.
'I bet she is more angry than embarrassed right now.. heh..'
"Oh, he did comment that to you?" he could hear her teeth grinding against one another.
"And Kaliya, she was in the room too..." he shrugged, but his evil smile grew larger.
Nari's eyes narrowed even further; he could faintly see a demonic presence around the woman.
"Good to know~, Madara dear… If you excuse me, I have some important things that I just remembered that I have to do…" She said while calming down a bit, but there was something wicked in her eyes.
"It's fin-" he was instantly interrupted by Nari.
"You will leave in one month, right?" She asked with a sweet smile, to which he just nodded as cold sweat covered his back.
"Good to know~," she said those words gently, turned around, and walked away, always displaying the proper elegance and etiquette required from a noble.
"Oh … poor Jackie… poor … poor Jackie…" he came back to his kiseru.
The sun disappeared on the horizon as he kept enjoying the view.
He was about to turn away and walk when his Sharingan, against his own will, activated. He felt a rush of energy coming from the south, it was different from the pillar of light, it was more intense, if before the boy that carried Raava had awakened, now Raava's power itself has awakened.
He was not the only one to feel it though. All across the world, in every Avatar temple, the sign of the Avatar's return appeared, from Fire Sages to Water Spiritualists.
Different from before, this time only the Temples and Statues of previous avatars showed any sign, even those attuned to spirits didn't fell it.
"So, he did reach the Southern Air Temple…" he narrowed his blood-red eyes, which glowed ominously.
A grin appeared on his face. "Isn't that nice? When the plan simply… Works perfectly?" he chuckled and walked away. 'I have things to take care of before our meeting… take care of yourself as well… Firecracker…'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Hello there yall, i hope you are having a wonderful day as always.
I came here to post another chapter, this week is being stressful, luckly i finished these chapters beforehand XD and quite a few more.. i'm still writing though, so dont worry.
My stress is not serious though, nothing healthy related to me, my family or my cats, nah... is very nerdy though... you see... we play Final Fantasy XIV and this week we are fighting to get a house plot for our guild... its basically a lotto to see if we get it or not x-x and i hate it because the RnG gods have forsaken me since birth.
All i can say is that everything is going well, about the fanfiction... i hope you all are enjoying the pace, i know its quite slower than the previous arc, but again the whole ATLA canon happened in less than a year, so i can't just rush it like i did before... Madara had some timeskips that lasted longer than the whole TV show in book 1: Fire XD.
Im trying my best to juggle POVs without adding that immersion breaking tag like:
---Location: Omashu---
Royal Palace - 6 PM - Aang POV:
ALWAYS HATED THOSE!
For those that might dislike the current pace, i can only say that im doing the best i can, and i am rather satisfied with it, so if you don't like it... its more like a "you" problem XD
For those who likes it, yall awesome as always, i have the best community in this website and that's something that i will always brag about, you guys make me want to keep writing this shit! XD have a great day, see you in the comments and stay awesome.
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