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The air was hot and smelled like metal, you could taste iron on the tongue with each inhale, and it was an intricate craft of work, Sakura recond as complex as the human nervous system, with the way the machine hissed and moaned through its movements. It was all part of its design. And she would be awestruck if it wasn't a destructive force meant to tear down the walls of the last stronghold of the earth kingdom and her only hope of keeping the avatar's attention long enough to assist with her problem. At the moment she was otherwise occupied.
Sokka realized that a machine this big would need to have engineers on constant patrol, and they would likely have a schematic of the drill. All he needed to bait one of them, was to hit a pipe until a gasket blew, immobilize the engineer, and take the schematic from them. And that's what they did. Katara froze his entire body, which meant he wouldn't be going anywhere or alerting anyone for a while.
Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Sakura were huddled around the schematics, eyes scanning the layout of the massive drill. The intricate drawings were overwhelming at first glance, but Sokka had already zeroed in on the critical parts—the braces. They connected the inner workings of the drill to the heavy outer shell, holding the entire structure together like the spine of a colossal beast.
"So, if we take out these braces," Katara said, tracing the lines with her finger, "the drill will fall apart from the inside?"
"Exactly," Sokka confirmed. "The outer shell is tough, but the inner framework is what keeps it moving. If we can cut through enough of these braces, the whole thing will come crashing down."
Aang straightened himself. "Alright, let's do it."
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..
..
While the plan had come as offhandedly simple. Entering the area where the braces were located doubt loomed over them as did those same braces they were meant to break apart to stop the drill. It wasn't just a simple room, but a courtyard. Even for Sakura breaking these braces would be problematic for her strength, there were over several dozen, metals thick and larger than trees, all interconnecting to add to complications, it was specifically designed in a way that it would hold its integrity even if the braces were cut through. They would have to get through many of them to stand a chance to bring down the shell.
"I don't know if this is going to work," Sakura admitted.
"Well, it's all we've got right?" Sokka stated. "So let's get started,"
He then turned with an expectant expression towards Katara and Aang. The two got to work, standing on opposite ends of the beam they began to exchange a compressed blade of water between them to cut through the metal which was working in slicing through but the effort was tedious and this just confirmed Sakura's theory that it would not work.
They were going to take too much time to cut through these braces. 'There has to be another way,'
Katara and Aang could feel the steam coming off, as the sweat clinging to their backs from the constant movements of straining their muscles to maneuver the water and keeping it sharper than a blade.
Sokka watched them in full spirits; not really understanding their frustrations, which greatly irked Katara. Especially when he started cheering for them.
"Come on team, don't quit now we're-
He stopped when Katara turned around have gave him a menacing expression.
"I mean you're almost there!"
A few more slices and passing the water to one another and the first brace was finally cut through; everyone watched with hopeful expressions for something to happen to the drill as the now separate pieces of metal began to slide away from each other but their hope quickly vanished when it stopped.
Katara sighed in frustration, "At this rate, we won't be able to do enough damage before the drill reaches the wall."
Aang sat down on the other side of the brace, looking distraught, "I don't know how many more of those I have in me,"
Sakura crossed her arms, looked over at the pillar, and walked over, ignoring Sokka asking what she intended to do, because she showed him, taking the palm of her hand over the metal, she began to push. Listening to the creaking, until finally, it moved out of place. There was a slight tremor from the effects of her actions. But there was nothing that followed. No Butterfly effect as they wanted. The drill was still moving forward.
Or at least they thought it was until they felt the drill shaking around them and for a brief moment relief washed over.
"Did you hear that?" Sokka asked, grinning, "We took it down. We better get out of here fast!"
They started to head toward the way they came until they heard someone speaking on the intercom; which was basically a line-up of open pipes that sound traveled through; that was placed right above the exit way.
"Congratulations crew; the drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory!"
"Oh boy" Sakura swallowed heavily.
"This is bad," Katara stated
"We're putting everything we got into busting these braces but it's taking too long!" Sokka sighed.
At Sokka's statement, a stroke of realization hit Aang, "Maybe we don't need to cut all the way through. Toph has been teaching me that you shouldn't give one hundred percent of your energy into any one strike. Sokka takes a fighting stance."
Sokka moved into a rather awkward-looking fighting stance, with his arms in front of him but his back bent too far forward in a curve and his legs too far apart that had plenty of openings, but it didn't matter since Aang was just using this to demonstrate his idea. "You've gotta be quick and accurate, hit a series of points, and break your opponent's stance and when he's reeling back you deliver the final blow, his weight becomes his downfall."
Aang hit Sokka with a few light blows to break his stance and then hit him lightly on the head making him fall down; enough of a demonstration to get his point across.
Sakura's gasped, smacking her hands together "I get it now; we're going to weaken the drill from the inside instead of destroying it."
"By weakening the braces instead of cutting all the way through!" Katara exclaimed with a newly determined glint in her eyes.
Then I'll go to the top and deliver the final blow." Aang pointed to the top of the drill.
"And boom; it all comes crashing down." Sokka finished with a wide smile.
Aang then looked at them with a serious expression "Everyone inside that the whole world is counting on us."
"Great, no pressure," Sakura clicked her tongue, but her plan had formed in her head. "Sokka show me those schematics,"
Sokka's eyes were full of questions but sensing the urgency in her tone, he laid out the schematics in front of her. Sakura silently went over, while Katara and Aang gathered together.
"What are you doing Sakura?" the water bender asked. They were on a short timeline, and her question revealed she didn't believe this was appropriate.
"The control room, where is it?"
Sokka only had to look for a few seconds at the unfolded sheet of parchment. Making sense of the mess of lines and gears to see the entire outline of the drill. His finger hovered over a specific section, a small square on the diagram. "It's got to be here. But why do you want to know?"
Sakura's eyes were trailing long, the path she was intending to take towards the goal. "It just occurred to me, that if I can get to the control room, I can shut this thing off. That'll give you more time to cut through these beams and bring it down."
The three looked at her with total shock, jaws dropped as low as they could, and eyes as wide as possible. It seemed like her words managed to freeze the atmosphere, all they could hear was the clanking of the machinery and the hiss of steam. When Sokka saw her eyebrow quirk with questions, he decided to elaborate on their response.
"Are you crazy! You're talking about marching into the heart of this drill!"
"Yes, and putting a dagger through it so it'll top beating, what's the problem?" She threw up her shoulders to her neck. "It'll be easier to stop this thing if I do this right? We should've done this from the start,"
"Yeah, except it's probably crawling with guards we'd have to fight through," Katara said. That would be like kicking a bee hive and expecting to take on every bee that attacked you. They would be swatting as they were swarmed from all directions. This approach usually didn't end well.
"Even if you get there, do you know how to turn it off? And even if you do, they've got a ton of engineers who could just turn it back on! We'd have to fight everyone on board just to keep it shut down! It's a suicide mission!"
Sakura folded her arms across her chest, her expression unfazed by Sokka's outburst. "I'm not worried about the engineers. I'll turn off the drill, and I'll hold the control room. You, Aang, and Katara focus on cutting through the braces. Once they're destroyed, this thing will be permanently out of commission."
It was a plausible plan in theory, but whether or not they would be able to deliver completed depended on Sakura's part in this play. If she stumbled, then they would all be in jeopardy.
"That's too dangerous," Katara protested. "You'll be fighting them alone, and we have no idea how many soldiers are in there."
Aang nodded, his expression tight with concern. "We can't let you do this by yourself."
"I'll be fine. I can get into the control room before anyone even notices me, and even if they do…" Her words hung low before she smashed them into her fist, "I'll make sure they're knocked out before they can do anything about it,"
Sokka grimaced. "Well, that's… disturbing."
Aang seemed to be weighing the scales of this idea, but Sakura remained steadfast in her stance. They couldn't afford to hesitate, not when there were so many lives on the line, more than that so many people's freedom. "Alright, you take care of things in the control room, we'll handle things down here,"
Sakura gave a faint smile, the smallest crack in her otherwise impenetrable demeanor. "You got it,"
And this was the first time, the three friends saw someone move like a phantom, dematerializing before their eyes, leaving only the faintest breeze with her steps.
"What the heck?"
..
..
..
For a shinobi, stealth had to be drilled until it seeped through and stained their very instincts. Even for Sakura, who had been off duty obtained practiced experience, when taking her special excursions outside of the village.
Sakura moved through the tight corridors of the drill with the grace of a shadow, her steps light and deliberate, barely a whisper against the metal floor. The air inside was hot and stifling, a result of the vast machinery grinding away at the earth outside, but she paid it no mind. She brushed through the area's swarming with engineers and Fire Nation soldiers patrolling the interior.
She was nothing more than a light breeze passing through, not a single eye caught sight of her presence. Running in the shadows, using the piping and steam as cover the same she would use fog and foliage. She had to make a turn upwards to reach the control room on the upper floor of the drill. The soles of her feet silently gripped onto the metal walls, she ran up and kept going until she was stuck on the roofs of the floors.
The control room was structured so that it had limited mobility, which would allow the entire room to move while staying connected to the drill. Sakura realized this, when she opened the entrance, a hatch that was meant to lead up into the control room, and her head was whipped by her hair as she hit the outside world again. The sands were harsh and she could feel the vibrations of the drill strongly. She could even see it from where she perched.
But craning her neck, she realized there were some who were getting a much better view, standing on top of a ladder-like structure, was the entire control room that had become a mobile pavilion.
Her hands pulled her up as if she was gripping cotton until she made it through the entrance. In this case, she could not go unnoticed. Several soldiers had been sitting at the silvered windows, no doubt enjoying the view of the outer wall being skewered, Sakura's occupation was concentrated more on the state of this control room.
There were not many controls here. In fact, most of the room was an open plain, with sitting areas and opened pipes that sunk back down into the drill.
'How am I going to shut this thing off from here?'
"Who are you?!" The one who addressed her was an older man, with a topknot, in the same Firenation Armor she had seen before. But he stood out amongst the group of soldiers that were already taking the stance to bend their flames.
"This is the control room right?" Sakura asked, rubbing her neck.
"What business is that of yours!?" The man who addressed Sakura was the war minister Qin. Sakura observed the room, a smile playing on her lips. "I need to stop this drill, but I'm really clueless on how to do that, could you help me?"
"Get her!" Qin ordered. Immediately flames were thrown at Sakrua in all directions possible, it seemed to be a direct hit in that instance. But as the flames died down, there was nothing left standing in her place.
"Where did she go!?" exclaimed Qin,
"I don't see her sir!"
"Well find her you fools now!"
"Yes sir!" Soldiers mimicked, moving from their positions to being searching what seemed to be in vain and there were not many spaces for a person to hide. "And inform everyone that we have an intruder!"
"Oh, I can't let you do that,"
Qin heard a light chuckle which lifted his chin, and he saw the girl sticking to the ceiling, hanging upside down from her feet. But that was only for a passing moment before, she flashed away and came up behind Qin. Kicking under his knees to weaken his stance, grasping a hand firmly behind his back and a kunai to his neck, pressing the blade at the tip of his jugular.
"Seems like you're the one running this operation. So you should be able to give the order,"
A bead of sweat ran down Qin's face from his forehead, as his heart pounded so loudly in his ears he barely registered what Sakura said to him, "W-What?"
"Tell your men to back off," Sakura whispered to him. The soldiers had grown tense now, watching but no one dared attempt to strike, very aware of the kunai knife ready to slither into the war minister's skin.
"Stand down now!" Qin shook with his order, but the men did as they were told, hands lowering.
"I want this drill shut down now," Sakura warned that she would not take any answer aside from compliance, and shifted the kunai a little deep to tear at the first layer of skin.
Qin closed his eyes, his mouth trembling and tongue thick as he barked out the order, "S-Shut it down! Tell the men to shut down the drill now!"
There was an instance of hesitation about this, but then Qin shouted "ARE YOU DEAF SHUT IT DOWN!"
Soldiers and engineers rushed towards the controls and some towards the pipes, calling out orders to pull levers and turn switches. It took almost five minutes in the process, but the drill's vibrations from digging into the first wall came to a slow halt.
"Well now that that's taken care of," In a swift flick of the wrist, her hostage fell to the ground unconscious. As she expected from dropping that blood in the water, a frenzy started, as the soldiers moved in to attack. Hopping on the balls of her feet, Sakura evaded the first soldier, who came at her with fists of flames. She sidestepped, to get to the center of his form, and knocked him back with a heavy hit that became a two-for-one special, as he flew into another comrade, taking both of them.
She didn't stop moving, twisting around to evade another ball of flames. They were very well controlled though, cautious of their surroundings it seemed, they couldn't risk a massive break out of fire since they were in close quarters and the fire was not biased in who it burned. However when it came to fire bending, Sakura realized that there was always a foreshadowing, it may barely be a second, but the heat would hit her skin before the fire even attempted to make contact and that was enough time for a counter if you were seasoned enough in the art of combat.
She was on the next soldier swiftly, in a blur of red and pink, before another motion to bend could be made, she delivered a sharp blow to the chest, a single hit was enough to pierce through the armor and strike him unconscious. The process was to rinse and repeat until there was no one standing but her.
The soldiers, though skilled in bending, lacked physical discipline and reflexes compared to that of a ninja. They moved sluggishly in comparison, relying on their bending to do the heavy lifting, but their elemental prowess was no match for Sakura's sheer speed and strength.
In the silence of the room, Sakura let out a small breath as she walked towards the front staring out the window where the drill was connecting to the wall. Now, Aang and Katara just had to finish sawing through those beams so that they could take it down in the strike.
'I should probably check on them,' She was ready to turn away when the corner of her eye was hooked by a usual color that did not match the scheme of the dessert outline and the walls of Ba Sing Se. A bright electric blue.
At first, it might've been a trick but then Sakura saw it the second time and frowned. "What is that?"
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- (Bleach crossover) Kunoichi amongst Reapers: exclusive chapters (Sneak peek on Tumblr)
-Commission: Demon slayer x My hero academia (PART 1 & 2)
- Kunoichi amongst Benders (Avatar x Naruto crossover) (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes chapter ( 80, 81, 82, 83)
-Kunoichi amongst Heroes WHAT IF SPIN OFF: Dorms and Exams
-Kunoichi amongst Pirates chapter (34, 35, 36)
-Crossroads of Fate chapter 25, 26, 27, 28
-Through the Looking Glass chapter 30, 31, 32. 33, 34, 35
-(SEQUEL) Through the Spyglass chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6
-SPECIAL HALLOWEEN CHAPTER: Shinigami amongst Shinobi
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