The Rough Rhinos: Part Two

The Rough Rhinos quickly surrounded the four of them, cutting off any path of escape. The panic crowds dispersed into nearby buildings and watched fearfully through the slitted windows. Some hid in barrels while others hid in food carts far away from the showdown that was about to begin.

"Wait, you don't understand," Suki scooted away from Azula and Naruto. "We're not actually with these two."

"Does it look like I care?" Mongke scoffed at her. "You were talking to them, so that makes you an accomplice."

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Tell that to the judge," Mongke quickly threw his fist out, and a fireball burst forth towards Suki.

Suki hastily rolled out of the way, and the fireball exploded into small flames upon contact with the ground. She lunged at Mongke, but he managed to keep her at bay with his firebending. Meanwhile, Ogodei, a shirtless, robust man with dark skin, twirled his bolo over his head and swung it at Naruto with lightning speed.

Naruto somersaulted out of the way with relative ease, "Im gonna bury you all six feet deep, dattebayo!"

He charged at Ogodei while dodging a barrage of strikes by a hairs length. Naruto quickly leapt high into the air and launched a whirlwind of golden flames at Ogodei.

"Argh!" Ogodei screamed as the whirlwind of flames knocked him off of his mount.

Naruto quickly tied Ogodei's leg with the chains of his bolo and wrapped the other end to the Komodo Rhino. With a cheeky grin, Naruto gave a hard slap to the Komodo Rhino's butt cheek, and it cried out a loud piercing roar. It suddenly ran off into the distance while dragging Ogodei across the street with it.

"Damn you!" Ogodei's voice echoed from afar.

"One down four to go!" Naruto yelled out.

Tenten twirled the sanjiegun in her hands as she stared vigilantly at the man, Vachir, a tan-skinned archer donned in light red armor, with a flaming arrow pointed directly at her.

"Go ahead," Tenten smirked. "Shoot me if you're not scared."

Vachir clicked his tongue in irritation and released the nocked arrow. The flaming arrow pierced through the air as it soared towards Tenten. With a cracking swing of her chained staff, the flaming arrow was suddenly split in half. Vachir narrowed his eyes as he fired more flaming arrows at Tenten.

"You can do better than that!" Tenten smashed the arrows to pieces and bolted towards Vachir.

Vachir tried to pull a knife from his waist, but he was too slow. Tenten had dazed the archer with a powerful swing to the head and kicked him off of his Komodo Rhino.

"You guys don't really seem like elite warriors to me," Tenten taunted.

Meanwhile, Azula stood before Kahchi in a poised manner. Her calculative gaze stared at the guan dao, a heavy polearm, in his callous hands. Kahchi tightened his grip around his guan dao with both excitement and slight fear; in front of him was the firebending prodigy on par, if not, better than the previous Fire Lord Azulon. He wanted to witness the skills of a true prodigy, himself.

"You must be Kahchi," Azula impassively said. "My uncle once wrote some rather descriptive stories about you all."

"I'm flattered that the disgraced princess knows of my name," Kahchi sarcastically said in a deep and gruff tone.

"Don't kid yourself," Azula conjured blue flames. "Old men like you should just retire already."

"We'll see about that," The ground suddenly rumbled as Kahchi charged at Azula with his Komodo Rhino.

Kahchi slashed his guan dao downward, but he had hit nothing but empty air. Azula flipped through the air and landed behind Kahchi. However, he quickly slashed horizontally before Azula had a chance to attack. Azula retreated backwards and multiple azure fireballs erupted from her fists.

"Hah!" Kahchi spun his guan dao like a cyclone and blocked the flaming projectiles. The flames ricocheted off of his rotating polearm and strewn across the ground below.

Azula clicked her tongue, "Let's see how you block this."

A pillar of enormous fire rage forth with incredible might as Kahchi widened his eyes with shock. His skin and clothes were seared, and he quickly fell over his mount from its overwhelming power. Kahchi suddenly passed out as his limbs sprawled across the ground. Azula smirked in contempt and walked over his body with nonchalant steps. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the streets, and a large dust cloud scattered into the air. The dust cloud shrouded everyone within its grasp as it slowly spread out.

Naruto coughed up a bit of dust, "You guys okay?"

Azula covered her eyes from the dust, "I'm fine."

"Yeah," Suki replied through occasional coughs. "The big boom guy was totally unexpected."

As the dust cloud settled, Naruto glanced at the man who caused the explosion. Yeh-Lu, an explosive specialist, garbed in heavy armor and a helm that shielded his face, stood in absolute silence. His intimidating aura radiated as he slowly pulled another explosive out of his bag.

"I'll distract him," Naruto stood up again. "You find a way to take the big boom guy out."

Suki nodded at him, and Naruto quickly rushed towards Yeh-Lu. Yeh-Lu lit up the dynamite in hand and threw it at Naruto. However, Naruto fired a streak of gold fire towards the dynamite, and it exploded in midair. The thick, black smoke rapidly blocked Yeh-Lu's vision, and Yeh-Lu tried to swipe the cloud of black smoke away. But, Suki suddenly appeared in front of him through the thick smoke.

"What!" Yeh-Lu screamed in shock.

Suki spun his helm around with a fierce spin kick. Then, she quickly grabbed his head and slammed him against the saddle.Yeh-Lu reached in his bag for another dynamite, but Suki kicked it away before he had a chance to light it up. She stomped his head in, effectively knocking him out.

"Whew, nice work there, Suki." Naruto gave her a thumbs up.

Suki wiped the sweat away from her forehead and smiled, "All in a day's work."

"Shit," Mongke stared at his defeated men with furrowed brows. The four adolescents were unexpectedly strong for their age, and he and his men had severely underestimated them. He backed away with his mount as they slowly paced towards him.

"Look who's being hunted now," Naruto smirked. However, the sound of a marching army turned his attention away from Mongke. His face slowly fell as dozens of Fire Nation troops rushed towards them from a distance.

Mongke glanced behind him and noticed the reinforcements coming. He then turned to Naruto with a sneer on his face, "Tell me, who's being hunted again?"

"Funny you should say that," Naruto chuckled nervously. "I guess it's our queue to haul ass."

Naruto quickly bolted towards the other way with three girls trailing behind him.

"You're not getting away this time!" Mongke shouted as he trailed behind them with the Fire Nation soldiers in tow. The kids ran through the winding streets while avoiding numerous obstacles on their path. They leapt over carts and slid under tables as they made their escape. Tenten pushed a fruit stand onto the ground, causing some soldiers to trip over the rolling fruits.

"This is all your fault, Naruto!" Suki yelled at Naruto as she tried to keep up with his speed.

"What do you mean my fault!"

"If you hadn't stolen from us, Tenten and I wouldn't be here with you right now!"

"What kind of logic is that!"

An old merchant suddenly walked through the street with a cart full of cabbages. He noticed four kids running towards him.

"Ah, kids, no need for the rush!" The old merchant happily said. "My cabbages are still for sale!"

Naruto and Suki slipped through the cabbage cart with precise leaps while Azula and Tenten ran around it, completely ignoring the cabbage merchant.

The cabbage merchant drooped his shoulders and sighed, "I guess not."

Mongke suddenly smashed through his wooden cart as the cabbages flew everywhere. To add insult to injury, dozens of Fire Nation soldiers ran over his cabbages as they continue to give chase. The cabbage merchant stood there in utter disbelief as he stared horrifically at his destroyed cabbages.

"MY CABBAGES!" The cabbage merchant pulled on his hair in agony.

Mongke slowly closed in on them with his Komodo Rhino as the townsfolk moved out of his way in loud panic. He conjured flames and fired them off in rapid succession.

"Woah!" Naruto quickly ducked under the flaming projectile. Naruto counterattacked with his own flames and struck a few soldiers down. Azula had also taken out some soldiers with her own fire as well.

Naruto couldn't risk the three girls being captured by the Fire Nation, so he would need to buy time for them to escape. He would rather be the only one captured than have all of them captured. He suddenly stopped in the middle of the road and faced towards Mongke and the Fire Nation soldiers.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Azula stopped running.

"Go on without me," Naruto summoned golden flames and narrowed his eyes at his enemies. "I'll hold them back."

"Are you stupid?" Azula argued. "You can't hold back an army alone!"

"Trust me, princess," Naruto glanced back at her. "I'm stronger than you think."

"No, Naruto, let me help you."

Naruto shook his head, "Please, Azula, just trust me on this one and go." His voice grew more stern.

Azula bit her lips with hesitation. She gazed at Naruto's blue eyes one last time before she finally agreed. "Fine, but you better come back to me, or I'll hunt you down and kill you myself."

"That's a promise!" Naruto grinned at her.

Tenten quickly grabbed Azula's arm and dragged her away, "C'mon, princess, let's go!"

As the three girls disappeared through the street corner, Mongke slowly stopped a short distance away from Naruto with Fire Nation soldiers standing behind him.

"So, the little fox wants to play hero now?" Mongke crossed his arms. "How cute."

"You talk a lot of crap for having your elite group be beaten by a bunch of kids," Naruto retorted.

The two of them narrowed their eyes at each other as Fire Nation soldiers took their stances with spears in hand. Tension slowly build up in the quiet streets of Yu Dao as Naruto stood against an army in defiance.

It was now or never.