As the gang enter the fire nation thanks to Katara and Aang using water and airbending. As they land in front of a cave and stop bending Sokka declares.
"We will live in a cave...after cave.........after cave." His head slowly dropping down after each "cave" was said.
"Sokka we don't have to become cave people. We can just get disguises." Katara says looking in disgust as Momo eats a bug that was in the cave.
"But where could we find clothes to-" Sokka began to say when Aang calls out for them. they run over and see a bunch of clothing drying outside.
"This isn't a good idea I mean these are someone's clothes." Aang says when Katara suddenly runs out of the bush they were hiding behind.
"I call the silk robe!" She happily yells as she yanks it off the pins that were holding it.
"Well if we really need to. I call the uniform!" Aang yells as he follows after Katara.
As the group begins to raid the area stealing clothing Shinta calmly walks through taking things carefully. While he grabs the last piece of the outfit he hears a voice call out for him, echoing in his head.
"...Shinta..." the voice calls out again as he turns to see where it came from but sees no one. He notices the others running off to change so he quickly follows but the voice calls out for him once again as he reaches an area behind the waterfall.
"......Shinta...Wúyòng......Murderer." It says as he gets behind the waterfall. He ignores it once more and quickly begins changing into the clothing he stole, when he finishes changing he feels a pain on the side of his face which he quickly touches as he feels blood start to slip down.
"......Su...nako?" He questions as he realizes who's voice it was, he starts getting flashbacks from his younger days. He snaps out of his daze as he quickly unties his hair and reties it much lower than where it was and uses some of his hair to cover his scar. He heads out from behind the waterfall, he walks towards where the others are meeting up.
"You-You look beautiful Katara......but your mothers necklace." He hears Aang point out to Katara as she realizes she could no longer where the necklace she held very dear to her heart.
"Oh...yeah you're right. It does make it seem very obvious that it's from the water tribe." She looks down sadly as she removes it.
"Don't worry we can find another necklace you can wear while we blend in." Shinta says making his presence known causing the others to face him.
"Wow you look really cool." Aang says as Shinta walks over to them.
"Not really these are just normal clothes that most people where." He says looking down at the cloak and kimono combo. He looks down at there shadows and looks to the north to see what time it is to see if all the shops could possibly still be open.
"We should get going it's almost the afternoon and the streets are going to become very busy." He says looking towards the others as they nod in agreement. They begin making there way towards the village sneaking around until they reached a shop to buy some fire nation jewelry or accessories.
As they make there way towards the meat shop Aang continues using his extremely out of date terms from centuries ago to greet the citizens of the fire nation. Shinta keeps cringing each time wanting to correct him, but he himself didn't really know that much about the fire nation for he was born in one of the colonies. When they finally reach the meat shop Aang hesitates to go inside since he is a vegetarian and can never eat meat.
"Wait are we heading in there?" He ask causing them all to stop just a few inches from entering the shop.
"Well yeah we are." Sokka replies nonchalantly.
"Sokka you know that I don't-" but before Aang could finish Sokka cuts him off.
"Oh come on Aang everyone eats meat. Even the meat eats meat!" He throws his arms into the direction of cow like animal that is possibly eating a relative.
"It's ok Aang you can stay out here while we go get what we need." Katara says as she smiles a bit towards Aang causing him to blush and Toph and Shinta to both smirk at the two knowing there hiding feelings for each other.
"Ok." He replies as the others enter the shop. While inside a young artist notices Shinta, engulfed by his beauty they run over to him and gently grabs his cloak.
"Excuse me sir but can I please use you as a model for a painting." they quickly ask surprising him.
"Oh uuuum..." he begins to look around for an answer.
"Come on Shinta." Katara nudges him slightly.
"Fine I'll let you use me as a model. So where are we headed?" He ask as she leads him out of the store.
"To the school my class needs a model to practice on there painting." She answers quickly as Shinta's eyes widen as he's dragged towards the school.
An passes when finally the next class comes in which shocks as he sees Aang mixed in with the group of kids. Aang's eyes also widen as he sees his friend sitting in front of the class.
"Shinta what are you doing here?!" He questions loudly when the teacher glares at him.
"Kuzon be quiet. Do you even know who this is?" The art teacher ask when Shinta comes up with an answer.
"He's my little brother." He says with a smile.
"Oh really, well I guess your brother will be the painting model for today." The teacher says calmly as the students begin to sit down. A few minutes go by in silence as Shinta sits there awkwardly as the teacher watches her students carefully noticing Aang's struggles trying her best to help the young boy.
When school ended Shinta waited outside paiently for Aang. When he finally exits the school he notices Shinta waiting for him.
"Oh hey you waited for me." Aang cheerfully says as they begin making there way back to the cave.
"So how was school going so far?" Shinta ask awkwardly.
"It went great!" Aang says cheerfully as he begins telling him of his first day in a fire nation school which last all the way to the cave. As they enter Shinta walks by the others and heads slightly deeper into the cave which confuses them until Sokka ask Aang where they both were.
Meanwhile in the deeper part of the cave Shinta is curled up into a ball leaning against the wall as he thinks about what life could have been.
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A young boy runs around outside his home chasing a girl at least a year younger them. There father watches them carefully as a soft smile rest on his face.
"I'm gonna get you sissy!" The boy teases as he continues chasing her as she turns to stick out her tongue
"No you can't big brother I'm much faster than you and papa will protect me!" She yells back as she runs towards there father and climbs into his lap surprising him.
"Aizu, sweetie be nice to your brother." He tells after witnessing the scene before him.
"No! Big brother is a meanie!" She huffs and pouts as there mother walks out of her working area.
"What's going on?" She ask as she sees her son rush over to her and hug her leg.
"Sissy is being a tattle-tale even though I was just playing with her." He whines as his mother picks him and sits him down in between her and his father.
"Your just a big meanie!" Aizu yells towards her brother and he begins to cry.
"Aizu apologize he was just playing with you. We both know I will protect both of you no matter what."there father says.
"Really papa?" She ask.
"Yes really, now apologize to your brother so I can get dinner started. I'll cook both of your favorites." He says smiling as Aizu nods.
"I'm sorry big brother. I didn't mean to make you cry." She apologizes looking down at her hands when her big brother hugs her.
"It's ok sissy I forgive you." He says smiling.
"Well you two should go wash up so your hands will be clean and you can eat dinner." There father states as they pull away from the hug and Aizu gets off her father's lap and runs inside with her brother following close behind her. As the two children leave the mother scoots closer to him.
"You're doing a great job raising them Shinta." She smiles kindly as she kisses his cheek.
"Thank you Sunako. I can't believe I'm still worried about raising our children even though we're both doing an amazing job so far.
"We are Shinta, our young family of five." She says with a playful smirk on her face when the slow realization of what she said appears on Shinta's as he looks down at her stomach and reaches out a hand to touch it.
"You-You mean your...." he stutters a bit in shock as she tackles onto the porch hugging him.
"Yes!" She cries out as tears of joy stream down her face. Shinta hugs and begins crying as well.
"I love you so much Sunako." He proclaims as he holds her closer.
"I love you too Shinta." She says looking up at him. Then everything began to fade away as started to call out for his family
"Sunako!, Aizu!, Aiko!" He screams as the world vanishes around him and he falls into an abyss.
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Shinta wakes up gasping in shocking and covered in sweat in his mat which confuses him.
'I don't remember lying down here.' He thinks to himself when he notices Toph waiting for him to wake up.
"You're finally awake lightfoot." She says with a smirk as she gets off her rock "chair"
"Where did the others go?" He ask sitting up.
"Aang came back to get them because he got in trouble at school and they needed to pose as his parents." She answers nonchalantly.
"Oh...Well let's go shopping for tonight's dinner, I'll cook." He says as he gets up and picks up the cloth that wrapped around him, he heads for the entrance of the cave when Toph stops him.
"Where do you think you're going?" She says as she uses her earthbending to block his way.
"To go get cleaned up and go by stuff for dinner...?" He answers confusingly not understanding why Toph stopped him.
"Sokka and I followed you when you didn't come back from going deeper into the cave we heard you scream that girls name again so you better tell me what's going on." She demands actually sounding a little concerned. Shinta sighs and walks over to where the fire once was.
"......The story in between me and Sunako is a tale of monster finally finding the love of his life but it was violently taken away..." he says as he sits down. "The tale of a dragon out for blood and a woman who wanted revenge." He looks back at Toph when he notices the others have already returned and we're listening.
"Shinta...what happened to Sunako?" Katar ask as she steps out from the line with the others. He sighs and looks down.
"......she was......my wife." He says sorrowfully. "We married when I was 14 she was 15...I never really padded a lot of attention to her but......I truly did love her even up to the point when she died." He says as memories of her flash before his eyes.
"How did she die? Sokka ask quizzically, he sensed something was off about this tale.
"She was killed by an earthbender assassin trying to get back at me for killing there brother......If only I was home I could have saved her." He grips onto part of his clothing tighter.
"...Oh...I'm sorry I asked." Sokka says apologetically.
"It's ok..." he says as he stands up. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up." He leaves the cave and sighs as he knows they would reject him if they knew the truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The gang were getting the cave ready for the secret dance party that Aang planned.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Aang?" Katara asks as she sets up a few candles.
"Yeah I'm sure. I mean why not let them have a little fun in there lives for once." Aang smiles as he earthbends a stage for The Flame-O's to play. Toph is moving something's with Sokka into the back of the cave when she decides to reveal something.
"...He was lying." She says as she continues moving some of there belongings.
"Who?" He ask suddenly stopping and raising an eyebrow.
"Shinta he was lying. An earthbender assassin didn't kill his wife." She says calmly as she finishes moving there stuff when she hears Sokka hit the cave wall with his boomerang in anger.
"That lying little- I'm gonna kill him!" He yells, anger in his voice was quite obvious.
"Sokka calm down maybe it was someone else who killed her." Toph says grabbing Sokka's arm.
"Or maybe he killed her himself!" He says angrily when a pebble hits him the forehead confusing him.
"If he did then you would need proof that he did and I don't think he would want to talk after what he revealed to us today." Toph says as she begins dragging him out from the back of the cave.
"Now shut your mouth and don't tell the others what I told you until you have something to prove it. Got it?" She says stopping quickly.
"I promise, now...can you let me go my shirts going to rip if you keep holding it any tighter." Sokka says pointing towards her hand that's holding his shirt.
"Fine." She moves away from him and let's him fall face first onto the hard earth.
"...ow..." Sokka mutters into the ground when he hears Toph yell that the students are here and then the others scrabbling to get things together. He quickly gets up to help when they finally arrive.
~~~~~~~~~~Short Timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~
The party his going on with no trouble so far the kids have just began dancing as Aang joined them. Shinta smiles a bit seeing the others enjoying themselves, knowing the near death experience and possible loss of all hope had scared them all in away and it was nice just to take a break and have fun.
"If only I didn't take my job so seriously I could relax better than I do now." He mutters and takes a sip of his drink when he notices Aang and Katara have caused the crowd to stop as they danced together.
"They make a cute couple...Katara and Aang...Kataang?...sounds like a cute couple combination name." He says to himself when the dance finally ends. Sadly there was a rat amongst them who told the headmaster of the school, he arrived to the party with two guards and quickly spotted Aang.
"There he is! Get him!" The headmaster orders as Aang begins to run causing the rest of the gang to do the same. A few minutes pass when they finally reach the back of the cave then they escape.
The gang now ride upon Appa as they fly away and head to the next place they could stay in. As Katara was talking to Aang Shinta noticed Toph and Sokka were starting at him. He blinks a few times in confusion when Sokka gives him a death glare which worries him.
"Sokka why are you glaring at me like that?" He whisper yells causing Sokka to scout closer and Toph to scout closer to Shinta on his opposite side.
"What's going on?" He ask worriedly.
"We know you lied about who killed your wife so tell us the truth!" Sokka whisper demands.
"I-I-I-I.........I promise I'll tell you all the truth when we reach my old home." He answers looking down knowing that he couldn't lie to them again.
"You better." Sokka mutters as they continue on there journey.
Will Sokka ever trust Shinta? How will the others react to the truth?
YOU ARE READING
Avatar the last airbender: The Samurai
FanfictionI do not own ATLA the show belongs to it's creators. The only thing I own is the character I created for this fanfiction.
