Boulders

Siltstone

Please remember to keep this a PG party!!

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Toph sat bolt upright the second she regained consciousness.

For a second she was still in the room with the dead man, still fighting him, but when she reached down with her bending she found neither him nor Tobi. Instead, there was a rough blanket draped over her lap, and she sat on a rickety sofa.

A few hanks of hair torn loose from her bun during their fight brushed her neck. Toph's fingers found their way up to her head and she felt at her scalp with careful fingers.

She had lost the fight.

How long had it been since she'd lost? She couldn't really remember; she'd never fought before the Bagdermoles taught her proper Earthbending, and after that, in the arena, she'd always won.

That one time when Aang had surrendered in the palace of Ba Sing Se did not count.

Toph supposed that she had sort of kind of lost in the fight with Shikaku, Shikamaru, and those two other dudes, but that had all been a misunderstanding. It didn't really count.

Or at least, that was what Toph told herself.

She bent her hair back into place and slid the blanket off of her. The second she touched her feet to the cold stone floor, it hit her.

Pain.

Toph's hands came up, one to the back of her head, the other to her stomach. The undead man had hit her, multiple times. Her sides ached and her head pounded where he had ended the fight.

It was a dull, bruised ache, not like the sharp, throbbing sting of burns. It had been worse when Zuko had accidentally burned her, or when she had escaped with Orochimaru.

It still hurt.

"You awake?" Kisame's low, gruff voice sounded from her left. Toph's head turned abruptly, facing the large man even though she couldn't see him.

"Where is he?" Toph asked.

It was futile; the undead man had entirely outmatched her. If she went and faced him again now, she'd have no chance.

For the first time, Toph understood why Sasuke was so desperate for power.

He was quiet, letting her take in the difference of power between herself and the dead man. It was an incredibly huge gap, and as much as Toph was hesitant to say it...

Earthbending alone wouldn't be enough to defeat him.

He was just too quick. Even at her fastest, Toph's bending was too slow to stop him.

And that was just his speed. He probably also had some other insane power like Tobi, with his teleporting. From what Toph could tell of this society, power begat power, and those stronger than another ruled.

She remembered Tobi's calm, steady heartbeat even as she attacked him with gusto.

If that man was stronger than Tobi...

Could she really even dream of beating him?

Kisame shook her out of her reverie and slight dispair with a few words. "You hungry?"

Toph let her hands slide from where they held bruised skin and forced herself to stand. She stretched, feeling the ache in her stomach and back and side and-

All over, really.

"Do you have to ask?" Toph took a deep breath, feeling her skin pull tight over her sore spots. "I'm starving."