Battle

It was a tough journey down the mountain for Bo, his thoughts in a jumble and mood at a low.

'What do I do now?' Bo asked himself as he reached the base of the mountain.

He felt that he had fairly limited options. Wander the world without much purpose and live with the fear of the fire lord possibly winning, or put his newfound strength to the test and meet up with the aang gaang.

"I don't even have to join aang, I can drop by Ba Sing Se and see if they need a hand. Afterwards I'll travel to the twin dragons and see if I can gain some inspiration!" Bo thought aloud.

Satisfied with his plan, Bo set off towards the city of Sho Chu to see if he could join some caravan to Ba Sing Se.

Arriving at the city gates, Bo began his search. Most caravans he approached immediately rejected him flat out without an explanation. However there were a few that have him some time but the moment he said he was a fire bender they turned him away.

Upon further thought, it wasn't a great idea to tell people headed to Ba Sing Se he was there mortal enemy. Bo approached another caravan with a scheme in mind.

Walking up to the lead wagon who had a middle aged man and woman tying some supplies onto the back, Bo engaged with the duo, "Hello! I'm a humble earth born citizen looking for a fresh start at Ba Sing Se! By any chance are you heading to the capital as well?"

Turning to the young man, the middle aged trader looked at him with scrutiny, "Aye we are going to the capital, what's it to you?"

Bo, summoning every ounce of his inner Hollywood said, "I am a member of the legendary Divine Devouring Dragon Style Dojo, I want to offer my services and guard your caravan in exchange for a ride to Ba Sing Se."

Looking at Bo with even more doubt, the trader said, "Diving Devouring- what was it? I've never heard of that dojo."

The traders wife suddenly spoke up, "Dear, I believe I've heard of it. It's a local dojo with a renowned hermit as it's master."

Hearing his wife's praises, the trader looked back at Bo, "Alright fine, but we can only take you there, getting a pass will be entirely up to you!"

Thinking it over for a second, Bo decided that his priority was to get to the city itself, when he arrived he could figure out how to enter later on.

Nodding his head, Bo said, "Deal!"

And just like that, Bo hopped onto one of the dozen or so wagons in the caravan and before long the line of carriages rolled on to Ba Sing Se.

———

As the day went on, Bo decided that while he obviously couldnt practice much firebending he could tweak with his ocular abilities.

Starring intently at the passing country side, Bo would inject some chi into his ocular chakra pools and see what he could discover.

To an outside observer, one would immediately notice the shift from his onyx black eyes and into a deep dark red with a twirling tomoe.

What Bo discovered was in line with what he remembered from Naruto. Which was with a single tomoe he had heightened vision, heightened memory recollection which was how Uchiha would master hand signals so fast, and heightened reflex's to match his better sight.

(A/N: lmk if this is wrong it's all from my memory watching the show as a kid)

Satisfied with what he discovered, Bo thought he could sneak a sharingan whenever he saw someone bend and collect their style and techniques to make one of his own.

Obviously Bo didn't think much to hide his sharingan, after all with a world with sprits and benders he didn't think a goofy looking eye would draw much attention.

'I wonder how I would upgrade my sharingan to two tomoe? Is it like the Uchiha where more trauma is required or does it follow more pg avatar rules?'

With these questions, more soon followed, 'How about ems? Is that even possible?'

Shaking his head, Bo dispelled these thoughts, 'One step at a time! Lets just get to Ba Sing Se and see if the gaang have arrived or not.'

———-

And just like that the caravan rode on for a few more days with Bo striking up conversations with his fellow guards and practicing his sharingan.

"-and then I said, 'I'm not avoiding you it's just business!'" Bo said dramatically, leading to an outburst of laughter from the caravan guards.

"Hohoho, that was a good one Bo well be sad to part ways at Ba Sing Se!" One of the beefy guards said happily. The other guards nodded as well in agreement.

Bo, blushing from the praise humbly said, "Don't worry Mako, let share a meal at that restaurant you told me about!"

Bo was in a good mood, 'My proficiency with the sharingan has increased and I've made some pals, things are finally turning!'

Suddenly, one of the head guards yelled, "Ambush!- *gugh*" mid yell the guard was interrupted by a wack to the head from an arrow.

Immediately, the caravan went into a state of chaos with dozens of bandits pouring from out of the tree line and on into the trail engaging in fierce combat with the caravan guards.

Bo wasnt one to fall behind and got into a defensive stance next to one of the wagons to ensure it's passengers safety.

Before long a trio of bandits rushed towards his wagon with ravenous looks on their faces.

Unwilling to fire bend unless as a last resort, Bo activated his sharingan and intercepted the trio of bandits.

Seeing the bandits up close, half dressed in earth kingdom armor, Bo realized that these weren't ordinary bandits but deserters and runaways.

The bandits had yet to notice Bo as he dashed to intercept them, recalling some of the teachings from his master Jeong Jeong:

'Your chi is like water, your body is a vase. Manifest your chi with your breath and passion!'

Discarding the commonly strict and rigid forms of the fire nation, Bo adopted a stance that allowed for freedom of mobility and extreme adaptability.

With a widening of his eyelids and streaming of chi, Bo activated his sharingan and struck his first blow.

Catching bandits off guard, Bo precisely punched one of the bandits in the jaw.

The blunt force sent shockwaves into his brain whitening his eyes and knocking him out cold.

The remaining two bandits, infuriated by their comrades collapse, yelled furiously, "Prepare to die punk!"

Bo, shifting his right foot, ducked under one of the bandits swinging spear and hurled his fist into his stomach causing the bandit to spew out his lunch and collapse on top of his other fallen comrade.

The remaining bandit tried to catch Bo off guard, swing at his far right with his sword. Naturally this was caught by Bo's sharingan and he deftly avoided the strike and swung his foot tripping the bandit onto his face.

Either knocked unconscious or to humiliated to get back up, the trio of bandits were down for the count.

Bo smiled at the sight, glad that his training and suffering had paid off.

However, things weren't over, looking to the rest of the caravan it seemed that Bo's wagon had gotten the lighter brunt of the attack and the rest of the guards were still in a intense clash.

About to go engage some of the remaining bandits, Bo heard a sudden scream.

"Aghghg!"

Turning to the source of the scream, Bo saw a protruding spike of earth and a man been propelled backwards from the sheer force of the blow.

"An earth bender!"

The caravan had no benders among its guards, so the sight of a large man fully clad in earth kingdom armors sent a chill down the caravan guards spines.

The guard who was sent flying crumpled onto the ground only a few feet from Bo.

Bo, recognizing the guards robes dashed to his side, it was Mako!

Dropping by the fallen guards side and inspecting his wounds, Bo's face turned grim.

Mako, noticing Bo's expression chuckled with a wince and said, "Heh, looks like this is it for me Bo… Sorry I won't be able to show you the restu…"

His eyes glazed over and Bo felt his pulse stop.

The large earth bender shouted, "Hahaha, Surrender all of your possessions and I may spare your lives!"

Many of the bandits grinned, used to getting their way with the caravans that were defenseless against even a mediocre bender.

What they failed to notice was a young man with black hair and blood red eyes clutching his buddy in his arms, as tears streamed down his face his single tomoes began to spin rapidly.

They spun into a blur and came at a sudden halt, revealing the sight of two tomoes in each eye.

Setting Mako down and closing his eyelids, Bo stood up and looked at the earth bender responsible.

The earth bender, chuckling at the sight of the caravan guards pissing themselves, felt a sudden tingle at the back of his neck.

With widened eyes, the earth bender followed his instincts and jumped back, what appeared in the place where he had just been was a torrent of flames.

Shocked and angered, the earthbender yelled, "A fire bender?! Show yourself!"

Just as he finished talking, the man in question dashed forwards. Bo's fists we're engulfed in burning flames and his red eyes were locked onto the earth bender.

Meeting Bo's eyes, the earth bender felt a queasy feeling in his stomach, 'Those aren't the eyes of a boy!'

Realizing that holding back would result in death, the earthbender got into stance and shot his fists forward.

The earth shook and a pair of pillars shot towards Bo at lightning speed.

Engulfed in anger, Bo set aside any technique and moved with instinct.

Seeing the pillars from a mile away Bo used his flames to shoot into the air and funneled his flames into a vortex blasting it towards the earth bender.

Unwilling to go down with a fight, the earth bender shot his fists into the earth and a massive wall of earth burst out of the ground and absorbed the brunt of the flames.

To the earth benders shock, the flames destroyed his earth wall into smitherings and continued on their trajectory.

Realizing he was out of options, the earth bender braced himself.

The wave of flames crashed onto the earth bender and burned the earth black.

Landing amid the flames, Bo saw the charcoal remains of the earth bender.

Exhausted from breaking beyond his limits, the flames dyed out and Bo swayed and soon the world turned into a blur…

———