Chapter Text
She had never met the Avatar. For very obvious reasons. One, she lived in a small village on the outskirts of Omashu. The war didn’t reach that part of the Earth Kingdom since the place was almost non-existent. Two, even if she did live in the capital, he never stayed for more than a few days. He would be with King Bumi doing Avatar duties. On the few times that she had visited the capital, she lived downtown and never ventured anywhere except where Aunt Ming worked. There was a hundred meter distance between her clinic and her house. The Avatar would never visit that part of the capital.
Plus Sakura didn’t stay at her aunt’s house for more than a week. She usually stocked up on medicine and supplies to take back to the village since she was the village doctor. She had trained for three years under Lady Tsunade before she moved away. Apparently, she came from the Land of Fire but surprisingly, it wasn’t the Fire Nation or any of the islands. The yellow haired woman had passed by their village when Sakura was ten years old. She had intended to stay for a little while before proceeding on her journey. She ended up staying for five years, with three years being spent on training Sakura. The other year was trying to convince to teach her what she knew.
Sakura was a dedicated learner. She caught on fast. It wasn’t because she was good at healing. She had a natural affinity for sensing Chi. After making sure that she taught her all she knew, Tsunade packed her bags and left. It was a very teary goodbye between the two of them. Sakura grew up without knowing her parents. She was left at the orphanage when she was still a toddler. Tsunade was the closest person she had to a parent.
In their small village, they took care of each other as much at the could which was through sharing work. When she turned six years old, Sakura left the orphanage. She was too old to be there. Wood was very expensive to build new houses since they were pretty much a forgotten village. She built the house by herself. That’s how she learnt that she was an earthbender. It wasn’t really a house, it was a big stone cube with an entrance. It did the job to keep her away from the cold.
She was the only bender in her village. As such, she was in high demand. There were some things which could only be done through bending.
She got enough money to buy new clothes and food until she met Tsunade. She didn’t have an earthbending teacher so she practiced by herself. On the days she visited the capital, she bought earthbending scrolls. The first one she received at seven years was a gift from her neighbour whom she called Aunt Ming. She lived in the capital and had come to visit her sister when she heard that there was a young earthbender in their village. Whenever Sakura visited Omashu, she slept over at her house.
After Tsunade left, Sakura officially became the village doctor. Though she insisted on doing it for free, her patients begged her to take the money. She was doing too much not to be paid. For the next five years, Sakura would work at the small clinic built by the villagers. She took on students of her own. Though they weren’t able to bend Chi like her and Tsunade, she taught them enough to take on patients on their own.
She heard about the Avatar but never bothered to find out about them. Being in a forgotten part of the world, the war didn’t reach their side. Still, whenever she went to Omashu, she heard about him. During the time that the Fire Nation had taken over the city, Sakura visited only two times. She was forced to go to Ba Sing Se which took twice the amount of time as compared to Omashu. She ended up having to travel for two weeks. She was an earthbender so it was a little bit faster than on foot. The journey back would be longer since she had a lot of things to carry, which again, she used her earthbending to carry.
When she was twenty years old, she became tired. Sure, she enjoyed being a healer but she had been healing for way too long, it was getting boring. Ten years of training and healing, and then some It didn’t help that she didn’t have a family to speak. It became glaring obvious when she checked out the clinic, going to her empty house that the villagers had built for Tsunade.
When she visited Omashu to buy new earthbending scrolls, she saw a poster. There was an invitation for all earthbenders to attend Toph’s Metalbending Academy. She had asked Aunt Ming about it later that night.
“Ahh, Master Toph. She’s a splendid young woman and one of the best earthbenders in the world. She invented metalbending and was generous enough to share it with the whole world,” the older woman told her as she chopped onions. “Oh plus she’s friends with the Avatar,” she added. That caught her attention. “Is it really true that the Avatar can bend all four elements?” Sakura asked curiously. “Obviously. That’s how he defeated the Fire Lord and put an end to the war,” Ming replied. The war had ended four years ago.
“Any chance that I’ll meet the Avatar if I go to this academy?” she asked, playing with the end of her hair. She had been growing it out for the past two years and it now reached the middle of her back. “I didn’t know you were a fangirl,” the woman giggled mischievously. Her face warmed involuntary. “I’m not a fangirl. That’s all everyone has been talking about for the past five years. I wanna see if he really exists,” she huffed out. “There’s no need to be shy, dear. You’re not the first and definitely not the last. I’m sure you’ll meet him if you go to Master Toph’s academy. They are friends after all. Maybe he’ll pop up someday.”
The Avatar visited the academy two months after Sakura had joined. Master Toph was brutal. She was a menace. She was a slave drive. Sakura loved every second of it. The challenges were gruesome but effective. She always enjoyed going up against the blind earthbender. She was the only person who was able to keep their master on their toes. Ha! Take that Tiki! By the time they finished training, she would be so exhausted that she barely had time to think of anything else. She almost forgot part of the reason why she joined the Academy in the first place.
“Did you read the third edition of Icha Icha?” Tiki asked her as they headed to the training grounds. They were the same age and shared their dorm with Maya and Min Min. “Why do you read porn? You’re too young for that,” Sakura said with an eye roll. “We’re both twenty smartass. Now did you read it or not?” the brunette asked again. “Yes though I wish the author would get rid of the porn. I had to read three paragraphs describing how boobs bounce,” Sakura deadpanned. “It’s your fault that Master Tsunade sent you those books. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have know them,” Tiki remarked with a smirk.
Tsunade had sent her a letter soon after she started learning at the academy. She hadn’t forgotten about the woman but she was sure Tsunade had forgotten about her. The letter said that she was sending her books to get rid of them because one of her workers was addicted to them. There was no return address. After a week, a box came containing at least twenty books. Toph didn’t care about it as long as it didn’t interfere with their training. The books were passed among the sixteen students.
“How was the plot?” Tiki asked. “I’m not a fan of the enemies to lovers trope. I see the appeal but I prefer strangers to lover or even friends to lovers,” Sakura replied. “You’re such spoil sport. Anyways, we got a live action enemies to lovers trope. The Fire Lord actually got married to the Water Tribe Ambassador!” she squealed in excitement. “And you’re telling me this because?” Sakura asked. “Don’t you know?” Tiki was betrayed. She went into a detailed story explaining the love story of the two people whom Sakura had no interest of.
“I can’t wait! They’re visiting with the Avatar. In fact, they must’ve arrived since everyone is headed to the training grounds,” she squealed again. Sakura stopped midstep. “The Avatar is here?” she asked in bewilderment. “Did you not hear anything I said? Whatever, follow me. Master Toph wants everyone to be present when they arrive,” Tiki stated as she rolled her eyes, grabbing Sakura by her forearm.
When they arrived at the training grounds, everyone was already there. Master Toph was seated on a stone chair, picking her nose in boredom. “Good morning Master Toph,” both girls greeted with a bow. She didn’t reply. The young woman had a tendency of not replying if she didn’t feel like it.
“Everyone in position! They’re here!”
Sakura jolted and hurried to join Tiki who was already standing in line with the others. Sakura was the youngest and recent addition to the academy so she was at the end of the line, furthest away from Master Toph. There were sixteen of them in total with one cook since no one was able to cook a decent meal. They cleaned the school by themselves.
A loud groan came from the entrance and there was a gust of wind such that they had to close their eyes. When she opened them, four people were headed towards them. Two were dressed in blue, one in red and another in orange.
“Urgh, even your heartbeats are in sync with each other. Can you guys be a little less obvious?” Toph snorted. “Master Toph, a pleasure to meet you,” the first man to arrive said with a bow. He was dressed in red and black, standard Fire Nation colors. He had a burn scar on his left eye. Her hands itched to look at the scar, it had to have been poorly treated to scar that much. Despite the scar, he was unfairly attractive. She heard Tiki whistle lowly beside her and she resisted the urge to face palm. Her friend had already checked him out and came to the same conclusion as her though she was more mature about it.
“Good to see you Sparky. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for the wedding but hey, at least you can have your honeymoon here,” she said with a genuine smile on her face. The man bowed again. Coming up behind him was a young man dressed in blue. She turned to Tiki as if to ask if he was from the Water Tribe. They wore blue, obviously. However, Tiki’s attention was still on the Fire Nation man, almost trembling with excitement.
“You really have a student with pink hair,” the man said as he passed Toph, walking towards her with his hand stretched out. He was wearing metal arm guards on his elbows. Sakura flexed her fingers a bit and he stopped walking, his hand frozen in mid air. “I promise I won’t do anything funny Toph. You can let go now,” the man said with an eye roll. “Oh that’s not me,” the earthbender smirked. “Rule number one for a female metalbender: never let strange men touch you without permission,” Toph recited.
He looked guilty. “Right, sorry,” he apologized, looking at Toph. His arm struck back to his side and he was dragged back to where Toph was standing. “Rule number two: they have to be at least ten feet away from you,” she hummed smugly. It seemed to click as his attention went back to Sakura. “You’re the one doing this?” he asked in wonder. As if to prove her point, she flexed her fingers again and he was suddenly suspended in the air.
“H-Hey!” he yelped.
“You can let him go now Sakura. I taught you well,” Toph spoke. Sakura was tempted to drop him but thought better of it. She gently let him back to the ground again. “Scary,” the man shuddered as retreated back to the Fire Nation man. “Allow me to introduce you to my students. Maya, Min Min, Aizen, Rodan, Noen, Zoro, Guryu, Bozo, Dakai, Wanda, Joga, Kuru, Ping, Nalu, Tiki and Sakura,” she said as she pointed to each of them.
“Students, this is the Gaang. The numbskull is Sokka, the ridiculously attractive man you’re ogling is Fire Lord Zuko. He’s married by the way so don’t any of you go about making moves especially you Tiki-“ “Master Toph, I would never-“ “That over is there is Sugar Queen, the Fire Lady. She’s also a master waterbender so she’ll freeze your ass if you try to do anything funny. Then we have Aang who’s trying to make himself invisible. I’m sure you know all about him.”
They all bowed. “Everyone, go practice in the training room whilst I attend our guests.”
That day, Master Toph didn’t come for practice. Sakura was grateful because she was having terrible period pains. Though the master earthbender understood female biology, she was never subject to these types of pains so she didn’t understand why Sakura would want to sleep on the ground instead of an actual bed during that time of the month.
Sakura woke up in the middle of night. She was very hungry since she was in too much pain to eat. She heard Tiki talking about jam pies which the cook had made for dinner. She was craving something sweet. Dressed only in chest bindings and shorts, she made her way to the kitchen. Her hair was let down and protected her bare back from the cold. She turned on the lights and went about looking for the jam pies in the cupboards.
She found it in a large metal container. It looked so appetising, her mouth was already watering. She went to the table, took a knife and cut a slice which was too big. She tried to eat it but it was too big. Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she put the slice of pie in her mouth. The slice was halfway in her mouth when a noise caught her attention. Refusing to be disturbed, she proceeded to devour the pie.
It was only when a handful of the pie was left when she noticed that there was someone standing at the entrance, looking at her with a baffled expression. She choked on the pie, using her hair to cover her red face. How long had he been standing there? Did he see her inhale the pie like it was no man’s business?
She coughed then swallowed the rest of the pie. She prayed to the gods that whoever they were, they weren’t someone important because she had just made a fool out of herself. She pushed her hair to the side, finding the person looking away though his mouth was pinched as if he were trying not to laugh. He was bald, shirtless with weird blue tattoos on his skin.
Her face went even redder and she wanted the ground to swallow her. “Excuse me,” she said as she headed towards the door, making sure not to touch him as she passed. She hoped that he would not tell anyone about it.
When she woke up the next morning, she was feeling a lot better. She tied her hair into a bun then headed to the kitchen to help make breakfast. She arrived to find the cook complaining that someone had eaten the remaining pie over the night. “Are you sure you left it in the kitchen?” she asked innocently. “Of course I’m sure! I’m not old! It’s all gone!” the cook moaned. Sakura had taken half which meant that someone else had taken the remaining pie or the person whom she had met in the kitchen had eaten it. Most likely because she had done it first. She prayed that he didn’t snitch.
After breakfast, they grouped at the training grounds. Toph was waiting impatiently for them. “The Avatar requested to join you in your training. I said he could do so in the afternoon because I need to prepare you. I trained him personally so I know that he would kick all your butts. I want you to be better than what you are so that it doesn’t reflect poorly on me as the greatest earthbender in the world,” she told them.
Training was to duel against her. She was even more brutal than before that even Sakura didn’t last a minute against her. They went through several sessions before she released them for lunch. The Avatar would join them soon after lunch.