Thanks for the reviews! Man, summer's almost over and I've been procrastinating on my AP assignments. I'm a failure "/ Hahaha! I'm just trying to get in as much as I can before school starts.

OMG. I almost threw up when I saw a Back to School sign: It was so depressing to look at. LOL!

The Calling
Book One: Earth
Chapter Two: The Rubies in Obsidian

-

“Move your feet, traitor! Water tribe filth!”

The tunnels beneath Lake Laogai were beginning to leak more than they ever had; it was beginning to overcrowd with different kinds of benders (with the exception of airbenders). Rin and Kakashi stumbled through the cobblestoned passageways, nodding sympathetically to the already barred prisoners.

“Kakashi?” Rin whispered, it was obvious that she was frightened; However, Kakashi knew that she wasn’t frightened for their well being. He nodded to his wife in reassurance, deciding to keep quiet about the existence of their daughter. Rin trusted her husband, but could not think about anything else other than Sakura: Was she okay? Has she been eating? Has she been in trouble? All she could do is hope for the best…

…the best, obviously, wasn’t coming for the moment. At the end of one of the more isolated tunnels was a small prison cell. The small, creaky door was swung open and the Dai Li escorts shoved the couple behind bars and locked the doors. “This ought to keep you two from organizing something.” Decided the harsher agent of the two escorts. “And don’t even think about escaping because we will know.”

They walked away, but not without spitting into their cell. Rin glared and moved to remove the spit (and flick it frozen and hard against their faces), but Kakashi just shook his head. “Don’t worry; their time will come.”

“I hope so. And soon.” Rin responded quietly, watching them ridicule a frightened, furry creature in the cell diagonal from them.

-

When morning broke, a sea of merchants washed over Ba Sing Se’s streets, all of them preparing for the day. The bustle that echoed through the city left its sleeping undisturbed; all except Sakura. Her jaded stare followed the different people jogging to their shops and she sighed.

‘I hope Mother and Father are okay…’ she grimly thought. She tried not to think about her parents too much and turned from the window and to some skipping rocks that rested on her bedside table. Sakura immediately thought of her newly discovered earthbending ability. “How did I do it?” she whispered to herself, quiet enough so that Hinata wouldn’t be disturbed her voice.

‘First the man was going to attack Hinata…and I pushed my arms out in front of me’ Sakura looked at her small, pale arms and pushed them out in front of her, as if she were testing them, ‘Force. I forced the…energy? No…Father called it something else – catra? C…cha…cha…kra. Chakra!’

Sakura’s lips curved into a small, triumphant smile. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to remember what her father had said about the elements’ natures.

“Fire is from the sun; it comes from the life around us. Water is, as your mother always lectures us about, from the moon: you push and pull the waves of the water. Be like water.”

“Okay – fire and water are opposite. Then, what about air and earth?”

Sakura thought deeply about Kakashi’s simple answer. “ Air is from the sky bison that roamed the Temples of the Air Nomads – until the fire nation attacked them. Now, the Avatar is the last airbender. Ever.”

“Wow! What about earth, Father?!”

“Earth, Sakura, is from the blind badger moles. They are blind and listen to the movements around them before moving themselves. Earth is one of the trickier elements, because you must remain so head strong.”

“That’s amazing Father! How did you know all of that?”

“Our family is a mix of all sorts of different benders: I am a firebender, your mother is a waterbender, your mother’s great aunt was an earth bender, as was my grandfather’s uncle, and our greatest ancestor was an airbender. She was killed in the fire nation infiltration.”

It all came back to Sakura: Earthbending was in her blood! It took deep thinking to connect everything together, but she knew that she had inherited this gift from both sides of her family.

“Head strong…head strong…” she murmured again and again. Sakura was beginning to turn red because the most she could do was shake the skipping rocks a little. After another failed attempt, Sakura sighed and threw her arms up in the air. “How am I going to do this?!” she scolded herself.

Little did Sakura know, when she forcefully threw her arms in the air, the rocks floated upward and flew against and though the wall on Hinata’s side. She woke up quickly and hopped out of bed, her water ready and frozen into shards. “Wuzgoinon?” she slurred.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Sakura squeaked to Hinata and Naruto as his head popped in through the hole in the wall. “I was trying to…and – and then I…it just…it was an – I’m sorry!” she stammered out. Naruto grinned and looked at the size of the hole created by skipping rocks.

‘She has potential’ Naruto thought to himself, he looked back at Sasuke and winked at his apathetic expression. “Its okay!” Naruto waved her apologies. Sakura shook her head. “Its so embarrassing! I’m a bit –“

“– new?” Naruto finished. “Its okay, I was like that two ‘bout two or three years ago. It goes away with training.”

Sakura quickly flew over to the hole in the wall and looked into Naruto’s curious eyes. “You’re an earthbender too?”

Naruto’s wide grin seemed to give her hope. “Uh-huh. Nice meeting a new bender, the name’s Naruto. And that – “he pointed into his room towards Sasuke, “– is my best friend, Sasuke.”

“I’m Sakura! And this is my friend, Hinata.” Sakura replied, just as cordially. Naruto’s gaze dropped lower until he spotted the sitting form of Hinata. Almost immediately their mouths gaped open and their eyes widened in unison. They had the image of a pair of frightened goldfish.

Pink colored their light complexions (Naruto’s was a tad bit darker, due to his tanner skin color) and they immediately averted their stares. “N-Nice to meet you…” Hinata murmured quietly. Naruto nodded and gave another welcoming smile. “You too! Oi! Teme, come say hi!”

Sasuke emerged next to Naruto and stared blankly at Sakura and Hinata. “Hn.” He grunted and then disappeared from their sight. Naruto looked nervously at the girls and laughed off his friend’s rude behavior. “He’s really shy…and quiet…and if he grunts, it’s because he has a speech impediment.”

“Mmph. Dobe.”

“See?!”

The girls laughed at Naruto’s humorous explanation of Sasuke’s antisocial attitude. They all exited the inn together to find some food for the rest of their stay in Ba Sing Se. A few streets down from the inn, the small group found an affordable little market that sold favorites from around the world. Sakura nearly skipped in joy when she saw her favorite strawberry-flavored Pocky sticks.

“Yay! I can’t believe they have them!” Sakura cheered, skipping in circles around Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke. “I don’t get it.” Naruto said loudly, snatching up three bowls of packaged ramen. “What’s so good about sticks with pink stuff on it?”

Sakura stopped and stared at Naruto disbelievingly. “What’s so good about them?!” She quickly ripped open a box, pulled out a stick and stuffed it into Naruto’s mouth.

Hinata laughed at Naruto before quietly accepting one from Sakura. “You too, Sasuke!”

The dark-haired firebender shook his head defiantly. “I don’t like sweets.”

“Aw, come on teme! Mm…they’re good!” Naruto spat at Sasuke after inhaling his Pocky. Sasuke grew more irritated and shook his head. “I don’t want one.” He said with finality. Something in his tone told Sakura that he was not one to mess with…and it was true.

“Just one, teme!” Naruto chided.

“Shut up, Naruto.” Sasuke growled, bubbling with irritation. Sakura took this as a sign to back away from him; it was obvious that Naruto did not have that little voice in his head that told him when to stop.

“Sasuke, quit acting like a priss and take one! Sakura’s still waiting!”

“NO. You are so annoying!” Sasuke loudly shot back, looking up to glare at whoever was in front of him. His eyes were no longer their dark color, no, they were instead blood red. The pools of ruby that glared furiously into Sakura’s own emerald-colored ones contained three comma-like tomoe. They spun round and round and Sakura could feel the fear building up in her at once.

She barely heard Naruto hiss out to Sasuke. “Oi teme! Put that away, man. I was just kidding!”

As Sasuke’s eyes transformed back to their original, harmless color, Sakura’s knees buckled. Sasuke looked at her calmly as she staggered forward, noticeably off balance. She just could not get past the red eyes…

“Sakura? Sakura!” her name was called out many times, but she could still feel herself falling down a long dark tunnel.

“Sakura!” …down…down…

“Sakura!”

-

Sakura awoke in her and Hinata’s inn room, she was greeted with two worried-looking faces. “She’s moving!” Naruto happily announced.

“We can see that, Dobe.” Another voice, Sasuke’s, coldly snapped. Naruto snorted, mumbling something along the lines of ‘its all your fault, anyway’.

Sakura could feel something soft and wet placed upon her broad forehead. Hinata had entered the room from their small kitchen, holding up what looked like a tea tray. “Drink up everyone!” she said, passing everyone a small cup filled with the hot liquid.

“How are you Sakura?” she asked.

“Ugh…brilliant. I suppose.” Sakura answered, groaning as she attempted to sit up. Before she could sit the full 90-degrees, two large hands shot out to her shoulders and gently pushed her back down to her bed. Her head spun wildly, and she decided to just lay there for the time.

“You should rest.” Sasuke firmly told her, his eyes black and hard, but gentle. Sakura did nothing to try and argue with him; she didn’t ever want to look into the eyes again. Red…powerful…frightening…three things she thought of whenever the term firebender flooded her mind.

Now that Sakura thought about it, Sasuke was quite the average scary firebender. The only difference was that he was not ruthless or evil. (However, Sakura was still slightly afraid of him and his scarlet glare).

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Naruto questioned suspiciously. Sakura weakly nodded, but everyone knew that she was lying. People who were well weren’t the color of guacamole.

Everyone decided to drop the matter since Sakura seemed to be a very stubborn person; hence, the earthbending. Naruto’s face brightened up considerably when he remembered Sakura’s newly developed skills.

“That reminds me! Sakura – are you ready to start your earthbending training?”

Some color flooded back into her cheeks and Sakura smiled widely. “Yes!”

“Good. Starting tomorrow, you will be trained by an old friend of my family. She’s a really good teacher, better than me at least.” Naruto added thoughtfully. Sakura let out a yelp of joy and hopped out of bed, ignoring the spinning sensation. “Thank you Naruto! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The only thing that made her lay back down was Sasuke’s questioning stare. Hinata laughed and took the wet rag that was on her forehead. “I think its best that everyone went to bed.”

-

Late, in the middle of night, a cool wind brushed though the prison cells underneath Lake Laogai. A tall, cloaked figure peered into the cell of Kakashi and Rin. “You’re going to tell us everything you know about it.”

Kakashi chuckled carelessly and waved his hand toward their visitor in a condescending manner. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. As long as we’re still in here and alive, you can’t do a single thing. Not to me, not to my wife.”

The figure let out a small, spine-shivering laugh. “We can, however, do what we please to your daughter.”

Horror crossed Rin’s baby face and she knew that they weren’t bluffing. Kakashi did not seem to buy into their threat. “Maybe you can, but I doubt you’d be able to take her down without a fight.”

The man scoffed and left them to their thoughts. On impulse, Rin spun around to stare at her husband with horror-struck eyes.

“She’s defenseless!” Rin whispered. Kakashi shook his head. “No, she’s not. She’ll be fine…Tsunade’s here.”

“And she’ll find her?”

Kakashi appeared to be smiling down at his wife. He patted her hair and kissed her cheek reassuringly. “I doubt that anyone can miss pink hair.”

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