Chapter 11: The Drill

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30TH APRIL HIATUS: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/katsura369

I am going on a very important journey soon and for the first time in years won't be able to write. Even when I went on holidays I was always working on my stories but this specific trip won't allow me the time.

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CHAPTER 11

Their journey through the Serpents Pass was considered the climb of the story, and what usually meant to follow was the descent into the calmer, stale part of the chapter. The reprieve for the weary characters. Unfortunately, there was no such luck, as everyone was about to learn.

Ba Sing Se was a good distance, but the walls' magnificence stretched for miles away and was within the distance, Katara and the rest of the group could view it and take in the magnitude of the structure that stood between the Firenation's victory to the hundred-year war and the final safe haven in the earth kingdom.

Aang had gone ahead of the group, to start his search for Aapa, with Momo accompanying him. While Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Sakura stayed to help the refugees get to the city. They had to move at a slower for the good of Ying and her newborn baby Hope. Sakura and Katara ensured that the group took frequent stops so that they could monitor the health of both.

Sakura had been wrapped into a query session with any one of her companions who were curious about her abilities.

"So how did you walk on water again?" asked Sokka.

"I already explained to you, that I use chakra to perform jutsu that allows me to do these kinds of things," Sakura didn't want to blurt out the reminder that she wasn't from this world.

The group was keeping pace until they saw Aang and Momo returning. The monk's eyes were setting off the alarms in their heads, which coupled with the concerned expression. They thought the grim moments had passed, and now they felt as if Aang was about to deliver another one.

"Aang, what are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Appa?" Katara asked.

Aang's gaze remained serious, his brows furrowed as he recounted what had stopped him in his tracks. "I was... but something stopped me—something big.

Sokka felt a knot tighten in his throat. "How big?"

They soon found out.

..

..

After reaching the massive wall of Ba Sing Se, a structure that cast a shadow far over and was too high to see the top from the bottom. Aang and Toph used their earth bending to lift the group onto the top of the wall, the stone beneath their feet rising to give them a better view of what was approaching. As they reached the summit, Aang's worry became clear to all of them.

There, in the distance, was an enormous metal structure crawling slowly but steadily toward the great wall. It was like nothing any of them had ever seen—a colossal drill, looming over the landscape like a harbinger of destruction. Painted on the top, unmistakably, was the Fire Nation insignia: a dark red flame emblazoned in gray paint.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked, leaning against the edge, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared at the mechanical monstrosity advancing toward the city.

"We need to stop that thing before it breaches the wall," Aang said.

But before they could act, a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers spotted them. Dressed in thick layers of green armor, the soldiers approached quickly, "What are you people doing here? Civilians aren't allowed on the wall!"

Aang wasn't deterred by the hostile welcome, he stepped in front of his group, his childish features evaporating. "I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever's in charge."

The Earth Kingdom soldiers hesitated, clearly surprised. They exchanged glances before nodding. "Follow us."

..

..

..

The three refuges that were traveling with them had been taken off the wall and hopefully out of harm's way-if they could figure out how to stop the drill. Sakura, Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph were all taken by the Earth Kingdom soldiers to the general who was in charge of dealing with this dilemma. The general was an elderly man, with an apparent carefree (if not somewhat arrogant) persona; he welcomed the group's presence he told them that their help was not needed for this situation.

"Your help is not needed." The general stated confidently as he looked at the groups of youngsters on the other side of his desk.

"Not needed?" Aang asked in disbelief, wondering if this general had seen the drill heading toward the wall. Sakura wondered if he was perhaps a bit senile for making such a declaration based on what they had just witnessed.

"Not needed." Confirmed the general, Saan. He stood up from his desk and walked around, gesturing for the group to follow him back outside from the stone canopy that was set in intervals on the outer wall. The gang followed him back out while the general spoke to them.

"I assure you the Fire Nation cannot penetrate this wall." He stated. They came to the front where they were able to see the drill which was ever so steadily coming towards the wall. Its size appeared to have affected its speed, although that just created more anxious suspense for the near future. 

"Many have tried to break through it but none of them succeeded."

"What about the Dragon of the West? He got in." Toph interjected crossing her arms over her chest.

"Technically yes but he was quickly expunged; nevertheless that's why the city is named Ba Sing Se-the impenetrable city. They don't call it Na Sing Se" he laughed before stopping suddenly "That means penetrable city."

Sakura spoke up, in the most respectful way she could muster, although as a shinobi she had come across many clients with a similar position, it was still a challenge to trim her tongue of thorns when facing a person with such dismissive behavior. "I see, so general you already have a plan to handle the drill?" 

"Don't you worry" the general said walking towards the edge of the wall. A telescope is set to search for any attempting intruders ahead of time. "To stop it, I've sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terror team."

Sokka couldn't help but admire the group name which just made Sakura raise a pink eyebrow at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sokka asked "It's a good group name!"

Sakura sighed and shifted her gaze to the open landscape. The drill loomed above everything, dominating the horizon, but it wasn't the only thing drawing her attention. Three large metal tanks formed a triangle around the drill, and she could make out a handful of figures moving toward the massive machine—probably the team General Saan had boasted about. From this distance, it was hard to see clearly, but the dust and debris flying in the air indicated earthbending at work.

Toph, standing close to Sakura, leaned in and whispered, "I'm kinda torn between whether or not I want these guys to succeed."

Sakura glanced sideways at her, tilting her head in thought. "Well, if they succeed, the city stays safe," she mused. "And we don't have to wrack our brains trying to stop the drill ourselves." She sighed, already feeling the weight of their current dilemma. "So yeah, I'm going to lean toward hoping they pull it off."

Toph snorted lightly. "I guess that makes sense. But something tells me this is going to end up in our hands."

From their vantage point, Sakura and the group watched the Earth Kingdom platoon attempt to intercept the monstrous drill. Compared to the colossal machine, the soldiers were nothing more than ants, their earthbending attacks barely scratching the surface. Massive chunks of earth were hurled at the drill, but the metal plates deflected each assault with ease, making it clear that this machine had been meticulously designed to withstand such attacks. The earthbenders couldn't even use the ground beneath it to stop its progress—the drill's immense weight and momentum crushed any attempts to manipulate the earth in its path.

Though the general stood at a distance, the futility of the soldiers' efforts was painfully obvious. Their bending, which had served as a defense for the Earth Kingdom for so long, seemed laughably ineffective against the Fire Nation's technological prowess. Dust and debris clouded the scene, but even through the haze, it was clear that the drill was winning this battle. Only General Saan could view the full extent of that.

Two women had exited the drill, and attacked his men, they dropped almost instantly from a single flick of those girl's wrists every time. Taking down the hulking soldiers like it was a day-to-day task.

"We're doomed!" exclaimed the general which made Sokka smack him. 

"Get a hold of yourself!"

General Saan rubbed his cheek, "You're right, I'm sorry,"

Toph then chided in, "Maybe you'd like the avatar's help now?"

"Yes please." He said looking down at Aang.

..

..

The five teens started to examine the drill and try to consider their options. Already determined that a direct assault wouldn't get them anywhere. They needed to take down the drill before the enemy realized what was happening. Sakura thought of a direct assault, but she wasn't familiar with this kind of machinery and if a direct single hit was going to do enough damage to something of that size. It was made of metal and steel and well, something she could certainly dent but she didn't know how this machine was fully running. Even if she damaged the outer shell, if the inner mechanisms were safe, that would be pointless. There weren't even wheels she could damage to prevent its movement.

"So, how are we going to stop it?" Aang asked out loud and although it sounded like a general question thrown in the air for anyone to catch with an answer, Katara and Aang were both looking to Sokka rather expectingly as if he had the answers in his hands and they were waiting for him to throw it at them.

 Sokka's eyebrows furrowed in discomfort, his arms crossed over his chest, "What?"

"You're the idea guy" Aang pointed out.

Sokka narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips, and looked back at the drill, "So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan? That's a lot of pressure."

"And also complaining guy," Katara added with a smile

"That I can live with." Sokka shrugged

Sakura stared out at the drill, "Well we need to come up with something fast because it doesn't look like we've got a lot of time,"

The group continued to just stare out at the drill, unable to find a solution to this large problem when they heard alerted shouting.

"WE'VE GOT INJURED OVER HERE."

Sakura and Katara sprinted toward the commotion without hesitation, their friends following closely behind. As they neared the scene, they found a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers huddled around several injured comrades. There was a makeshift infirmary set up in one of the canopies on the wall; where all the soldiers that had been sent to stop the drill were now lying on wooden benches in two lines down the room.

"I'll take the right side you take the left," Katara said, looking at Sakura. The kunoichi nodded and took off to deal with her first patient. As the two started treatment, it wasn't long before Katara made an interesting and disturbing discovery. The soldiers who had been sent out to the frontlines had no physical signs of injury, and these were the earth benders who dealt with the direct assault against the drill.

Sakura checked for signs of poisons but detected nothing, or find any needles marks.

"He's Chi is blocked." Katara explained coming up to her "I've just talked to one of the soldiers and he said that he was hit by a bunch of quick jabs. I know who did it too."

"You do?"

Katara nodded, "Yes, it was Ty Lee. She's a girl from the Fire Nation and she's able to take people's bending away and paralyze them by hitting certain points in the body. When I fought her, she was able to take my bending away with a few quick jabs." One of the soldiers had described this happening to him and his comrades when he woke, and Katara doubted many people fit the description of a girl with the ability to cut off a person's chi.

Sakura was modestly impressed from hearing this, to achieve something like that one would have to know the human body better than the back of their own hand. It wasn't easy for her to do something like that despite her medical expertise, and to be able to do it in the middle of battle was even more commendable, too bad it was on the wrong side.

This was a specialty of the Hyuga clan, who were gifted the eyes to see through the body and be able to properly attempt this. In her world, to block someone's chakra they have to physically be able to see the meaning that in this world people must have a network similar to the chakra, but it was chi instead. She assumed that the network was maybe a little less complex than the chakra network.

"So she blocked their chi huh? That means she can do the same to you guys,"

"She's not even the real problem." Aang turned towards the drill with a knowing look. 

"He's right." Sokka closed his eyes with a distressed expression, "If she's here; then that means that the Fire Nation princess Azula is here as well. And she is not a big fan of ours," 

"You guys sure have a lot of enemies," Sakura observed.

"No just the Fire Nation, but they're enough," Katara said. 

"That's not even the half of it." Sokka told her "You should meet her brother, he spent half a year chasing us around the world."

"Great, can't wait to meet him," Sakura nodded; she was really starting to truly understand the state of this world and the conditions that this war had left them in. That just compelled her more to help them in any way she could.

"I'm going to try something," Sakura said placing her two fingers together and allowing chakra to flow from it. Creating a blunt edge around the tip of her finger. If she made it sharp she would be able to cut through the skin like it was paper.

She closed her eyes gently, her mind drawing to a closed focus, as she drew her fingers over the earthbenders chest and then quickly jabbed him, almost too fast for onlookers to see. She hit him on the right and left side of his chest, right above his collar bone, and then down his arms in four quick jabs.

The earthbender gasped before sitting up straight quickly, craning his neck as he felt his body begin to grow lax, his muscles contracting and then turning slack under his skin. 

"What-

Sakura smirked "Thought so."

"What did you do?" asked Sokka.

Holding up her fingers she began to explain "I coated my fingers in chakra to make direct contact with the points where the chi was being blocked. I didn't know exactly where that was, but the tiny bit of chakra I used to spread throughout the body worked its way through his system and unblocked it," 

An awestruck Katara praised her friend, "That's amazing. We could've really used you back in Omashu when Ty Lee and that knife-throwing maniac went after us. But how did you know where to find the right points?"

She placed a hand on her villager's headband, proudly, "I'm a medical ninja; I know the human body inside and out as well, and also where I come from we have a clan that specializes in using this sort of technique for combat. A friend of mine who's part of that clan taught me some of the basic and easiest pressure points to hit even with the naked eye. It's really an amazing technique; they're able to take down their opponents from the inside."

Hinata taught her the basic pressure points that lie within the human body, which coupled well with her medical ninjutsu. It had taken months to perfect since she didn't have the eyes to see through the body.

"Yeah, the inside, that's the best way to describe hwo Tylee takes down her opponents despite their difference in size, and power,"

The choice of words pulled a chord in Sokka's mind and it began to play an idea, that made him dance with excitement. "That's it! That's how we're going to take down that drill! The same way Tylee took down the earth benders!"

"By hitting its pressure points!" Toph exclaimed in realization,

Aang went towards one of the windows where he was able to see the drill, "We'll take it down from the inside."

..

..

..

With the drill's pace, they anticipated it would be less than half an hour at most before the wall was penetrated, which didn't leave a lot of time to create intricacies for this one-shot plan. And the best choice was to take action. Which started with the five teenagers leaving the safety of the high walls and entering past the front lines. They hid in the trenches previously used by the Earth Kingdom army. It was a struggle to hear anything and communicate with the vibrations of the drill churning the earth.

They were able to hear Toph when she instructed them to follow closely after she created a cover of dirt and dust to cloak them from being spotted by those within the drill. This was unofficially a stealth operation.

They followed Toph's silhouette through the cloud of dust, until dropping into a hole she made in the ground that closed above them. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, Sakura and the others realized. Practically being buried alive, the air was hot and you could smell the dry air making it hard to breathe, it was dark, which Sokka accidentally and candidly pointed out to the blind girl.

Everyone did their best not to accidentally jab each other.

"It's so dark down here; I can't see a thing," Sokka complained,

"Oh no, what a nightmare!" Toph mock exclaimed and everyone went silent.

"Sorry,"

Toph then created a pathway to follow until they were underneath the drill, she then cleared a tunnel straight up that took them directly beneath the metal canopy. Sokka directed them to an opening at the bottom. Aang jumped and hooked his legs under a pole before hoisting up Sokka, Katara, and Sakura. He waited for Toph with hands hanging but they remained empty while the girl remained stationary.

"Toph what are you doing?"

"I am not going in that metal monster, I can't use my bending in there. I'll try and slow it down out here,"

It was doubtful she would be able to make much of a dent in delaying this heap of mobile metal, but no one argued. The group understood that Toph wouldn't even be able to see in the machine.

"Okay good luck," Sokka told them,

"Same to you,"

With that, the five began their mission to stop the drill.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and Remember to stay strong! I'll see you soon!

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EARLY CHAPTERS FOR MEMBERS NOW: (BMAC MEMBER)

- (Bleach crossover) Kunoichi amongst Reapers: exclusive chapters (Sneak peek on Tumblr)

-Commission: Demon slayer x My hero academia (PART 1 & 2)

- Kunoichi amongst Benders (Avatar x Naruto crossover) ( 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)

-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter (79, 80, 81)

-Kunoichi amongst Heroes WHAT IF SPIN OFF: Dorms and Exams

-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter ( 33,34, 35)

-Crossroads of Fate chapter 24, 25, 26, 27

-Through the Looking Glass chapter 30, 31, 32. 33, 34

-(SEQUEL) Through the Spyglass chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6

-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi

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