Chapter 168: Chapter 167 – Undercurrents

‘Curious, very curious.’ muses Orochimaru. He had to admit that out of all the former cultivation candidates in the records, Azula is the one with the most secrets. Especially the way in which that transmitter of hers does not correspond to any known sealing technology. Her Dao had been perfect for concealing it too. He had no doubt that her particular Dao is extremely rare and he still marvels now at how well it disintegrates and recreates matter, going against all known laws of entropy.

He had read once in a dated tome about a clan of Spirits called Phoenixes which can do something similar, albeit to a lesser extent. No one has heard of that clan of Spirits in a very long time now though. If they are as strong as the writer of the tome explains, it is possible they are in hiding or undertaking a supervisory role to the Shinobi World similar to the role that Shinobi World ambassadors play in subsidiary worlds.

Orochimaru has no doubt there are beings far stronger than himself, the tailed beasts, and even the Sage of Six Paths out there. He leaves Azula’s apartment with that internal monologue running, ‘Soul Tier 3 is not the end of cultivation! It cannot be, because knowledge is endless! Limitations like environmental chakra density, lifespan, laws, and even normality itself should all be disregarded. Secrets are hidden all throughout this world for the taking!’

‘I must be cautious though. Azula might be connected to the mythical Phoenixes, whom I suspect are far stronger on average than our Konoha elites. Perhaps all of this is Fate playing its hand. It seems preparations are in order.’

~ ~ ~

“Did you see that finisher by Blue Fire?! It was perfect!” P’Li rambunctiously jumps and punches.

Meng Hua disagrees, “Eh, I think he got lucky.”

“I agree with Meng. Red Earth walked into that fire blast. It should have been an easy dodge.” added Ghazan.

“Ghazan, I bet you weren’t even watching.” grumbles P’Li.

Zaheer comes to his girlfriend’s aid, “It was an elaborate trap. Blue Fire had long noticed that Red Earth preferred dodging to his right.”

“It’s two-two. Looks like you’re the tiebreaker again, Zina!” says P’Li as she looks to her best friend at her side.

Zina cheerfully smiles and hums with thought, just to increase the suspense. “Hmmmmmm..”

(A/N: image credit to Minya1995)

They are walking along the streets of Republic City in the late evening. Her and her friends spend most of their nights watching a new sport called pro bending. Zina loves taking in the excitement of the crowd and cheering for whoever her friends are cheering for. The pro benders are incompetent at bending compared to her family, but it’s still fun regardless, especially with her friends.

Zaheer is the leader of the posse. He’s the brains of the group and a nonbender. P’Li is his girlfriend, a combustion bender, and at least a foot taller than the rest of the group. Ghazan is a snarky lavabender. Meng Hua is a punkish waterbender. She had been born without arms, so she actually uses water tendrils as arms to do day-to-day activities.

(A/N: Fanart credit to polapaz321. Left to right: Ghazan, Zaheer, P'Li, and Meng-Hua.)

Zina had met the group while exploring the city and intentionally befriended them seeing how much P’Li reminded her of Tulen. Since then, they have met after work hours every day to go to the bar, clubs, restaurants, and shopping wherever. They are all great friends and Zina’s role in the group is mostly as the one that happily funds the group’s antics.

“Zaheer wasn’t bluffing! Blue Fire is a much smarter bender than the others.” Zina finally passes judgement.

Ghazan and Ming Hua groan while P’Li cheers. Zina continues, “So we’re going to that new tea place today?” She tries to change the topic, but P’Li is relentless. “Yes, but Zina, isn’t it time you formed a pro bending team with Ghazan and Meng Hua? For my sake at least!”

The others chuckle and Zina lets out a good-natured whine before saying, “It’s just not my thing, P’Li.”

As a combustion bender, P’Li keeps the diagram on her forehead covered at all times so as not to scare others. She lacks the ability to firebend, so she definitely cannot participate in pro bending. Ghazan is luckier, since lavabenders can still earthbend normally.

P’Li wants nothing more than to see her friends dominate the pro bending scene. She begs, “Please, please, please!”

Darkness sets in as they pass through an area of the city without proper torchlight. Zina raises her hand to generate a flame to light the area and is about to respond to P’Li with another rejection when it becomes apparent that several shadowy figures are watching them from the nearby alleyways. The group quickly comes to alert.

Zaheer pulls a baton off his back, extends it into a staff, narrows his eyes, and says, “I told you guys that we were done with all that Triple Threat Triad bullshit after we paid off our debt. Do you all want another beating?”

The streets of Republic City are rife with crime after sunset. Being the most prosperous city in the world and having unrestricted channels of travel ensures that this is the case. Back when Toph had been Police Chief, it had been a bit safer only due to her reputation, but not by much. Her daughters, Lin and Suyin, are both training a team of earthbenders in metalbending to deal with the crime issue.

For now though, it's every man for himself after dark. Ghazan takes a stance and Meng Hua releases water from the two bottles on her waist to form water tendril arms. P’Li shuffles uncomfortably, but eventually unwraps her forehead. Zina stands in front of P’Li. She has long noticed that despite being a nonbender, Zaheer is the most adept at combat out of the entire group, even against benders. On the other hand, the giantess combustion bender is the most vulnerable.

The dark figures make no overt motions, but the group hears a few steps in the dark. Zina increases the brightness of her flame to reveal that there are 4 figures fully cloaked in black in the alleyways surrounding them and 2 more on the roofs of the buildings next to them. Neither of the groups make a move following the light revealing them. Zina is growing increasingly unnerved by the situation. These 6 figures are too composed and disciplined to be from a gang like one of the triads.

One of the taller ones from the alleyway steps forward and removes part of his or her facial mask to reveal eyes the color of golden flames. Zaheer cannot help but jolt and begin trembling. A deep voice addresses the group, “Hello.” The man with golden eyes drops a momentary glance at Zaheer, turns to look at Zina directly, and continues, “Come with us and your human friends will face no danger.”

Zina’s eyes shrink. Not even her friends know that she’s not fully human, but this person had implied it. She tries to keep her cool, but according to her training, the information gap between her group and the enemy is too big. Before she can agree to turn herself over, P’Li inhales deeply and fires a combustion blast. She is too hot headed to let some shady people take away her best friend. Zaheer shouts, “No! Don’t fight..”

Midway through Zaheer shouting, the golden eyed man leans back, spreads his arms, and through some technique they could not catch, deflects P’Li’s combustion missile into the sky!

“..RUN!” Zaheer shouts and takes off.

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None of them have ever seen anyone deflect a combustion missile before.. so they are all fairly positive these guys are out of their league. They immediately follow Zaheer’s orders and follow him in making a break for it away from the golden eyed man who seems like the leader. The figures in front of the alleyways watch them pass by and the figures above them glide along the rooftops, following them without difficulty.

Zina is confused. This is a chase, right? Why do they seem so nonchalant? She looks back while running and all she can see through the dark are those golden eyes staring back at her. Each time they blink, they get closer and closer, almost like teleportation, or at least being so fast as to create an optical illusion of it. Ghazan stomps on the ground to pick up a piece of earth, spins it in the air into a lava disc and chucks it back at the leader, all while running as fast as they can.

“Who are these guys, Zaheer?!” whispers Ming Hua urgently.

While the disc approaches the leader, he retrieves an item from his pocket. When the disc is just in front of him, his hand lights up and a sharp flame extends out of the baton-like item to form a sword, which slices the disc cleanly in two. The flame disappears to return the surroundings of the leader into darkness, only his golden eyes a reminder that he is even closer than before.

Zaheer grits his teeth and looks around. He picks up his pace and vaguely says, “They want Zina.”

P’Li grunts and says, “Obviously, but why!?”

Zaheer looks into the distance, turns to Zina to find her looking back at him anxiously, and slows down. The group comes to a stop in front of the place they had planned to visit. There is better lighting here. Zaheer and Zina are the only ones not out of breath. “What do you know that we don’t, Zaheer?” asks Zina calmly, finally picking up the fact that Zaheer may have secrets of his own.

By now, the enemy leader is approaching their position at a leisurely walking pace. The other cloaked figures have also arrived.

Zaheer looks down and confesses, “I’m a planted spy. I’ve been assigned to watch you, Zina. I orchestrated everything, including our friendship..”

P’Li staggers backwards and the others gasp.

“..but these past few years of friendship with you guys and one year with you, Zina, have been so beautiful. I don’t want them to end.” Zaheer’s thin eyes tremble and he smiles widely.

Zina replies with a gentle smile, “So you know about me? Well, I don’t care either. The past doesn’t matter, Zaheer. We’ll have many more years of friendship ahead of us. Besides, you owe P’Li an apology. She might think you’ve been faking your feelings this whole time.”

Ming Hua asks curiously, “Why are you guys talking like it’s the end of the road?” She turns to them viciously and says, “All we have to do is beat these guys up!”

Zaheer shakes his head with a wry smile, “We don’t stand a chance against them. Zina, go ahead and escape with your fire thrusters. The worst they can do is torture us to bait you back, but don’t worry, we can handle it.”

“You should know me better than that..” Zina takes a stance, “I don’t abandon my friends!”

The enemy leader, who is now 10m (32 ft) away, says in a deep voice, “This is all very touching, but it’s time to go.”

Zina says to him, “If I go with you peacefully, do you plan to hurt any of us in the future?”

For some reason, she believes those deep golden eyes won’t lie, as if lying is an affront to their dignity.

The man points to P’Li and Ghazan and arbitrarily declares, “For daring to use lethal force, they will each lose an arm.”

“No! I won’t let you hurt my friends. They were just trying to protect me.” Zina’s eyes harden and her red hair brightens in hue.

“Irrelevant.. These are the rules. The nonbender boy had plenty of time to explain our identity.” Each of the cloaked figures draw their batons and approach. They have not even summoned their fire yet, but Zina still backs up slightly at the intimidating display.

Zina shouts, “Then you leave me no choice!” She had never killed anyone before, but she is willing to for the sake of her friends! Her hair catches fire and her sleeves burn off to reveal resplendent fiery feathers. She chucks fireballs at her opponents with both hands and her mouth.

Although they are slightly taken aback by the flamboyant display, the mysterious pursuers quickly unleash their swords of fire and slash apart the first volley of fireballs. Zina has more lined up for when they are done though. She had spurt out dozens of small puffs of fire with both hands that floated up into the air awaiting her command. Finally, with a mighty flap of her fledgling wings, the fireballs all home in on whichever target is nearby. It is clear that the pursuers are not ready for such a widespread bombardment of fireballs simultaneously from the fast steps they take backwards.

“ENOUGH!” the leader says as he jumps and twirls in the air to somehow push most of the fireballs away from his subordinates in a maneuver reminiscent of when he had redirected the combustion missile. The fireballs that do make it past him are easy for his lackeys to block. Zina breathes heavily. She stares intensely at the leader, who seems to be lowering from his position in midair slowly. That move of hers had been particularly chi-intensive. She blinks just as he is about to touch the ground, but that turns out to be a mistake.

The next thing she knows, she loses sight of him. She looks around with panic and hears two thuds behind her. Zina swings her head around to find that Ghazan is out cold, Zaheer has been disarmed of his staff, and the leader has his sword of fire against P’Li’s neck. He had made sure to keep it close enough to her neck for her to be unable to inhale deeply, which is required for her to fire a missile.

Meng Hua did not even get a chance to react. All she can say when she sees this is, “Shit.”

“Stop resisting or else she dies.” the enemy leader declares. Zina knows when she is beat. Tears rise to her eyes and she tries to think of something, anything, but nothing comes. Zaheer nurses his hand and advises her in an uncharacteristically high-strung voice, “We’ll be OK, Zina.”

She drops her arms, sighs, and requests with her head lowered, “Fine. Please don’t take away their arms.”

Another loud thug signals another body falling to the street. Zina looks up to find the leader lowering his sword of fire onto the arm of an unconscious P’Li. “No!” she screams.

A dim light rises from the tea shop like the first ray of sunrise that marks a brand new day, entirely dispersing the fire from the sword before it can drop upon the arm. An aging, gentle voice interrupts the tense proceedings with a nearly nonsensical suggestion, “How about we all settle down and have a nice cup of tea?”

 

(A/N: You already know who it is :D)

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