The road stretched endlessly, but a good night's sleep left them feeling refreshed to continue.
Toph remained lying on the ground, next to her Naruto was also resting.
The girl had not left him all night, and slept next to him, almost close to him, and now she used one of her hands to caress his hair, which was silkier and softer than hers.
With a calm expression, the girl moved a little closer, resting her head against the boy's shoulder.
If he took care of him.
I had to at least take the opportunity.
"Toph?" Katara approached in silence, already tired of watching everything from a distance, "You have to rest a little, you slept very little."
"He wouldn't have slept if he had been in his place," the blind bandit murmured dryly, who continued to rest her face against the Uzumaki's shoulder, feeling warm even when he wasn't awake.
And the beating of his heart gave him a feeling of calm that seemed like a symphony that he could listen to all his life, without ever getting bored.
"..." Katara couldn't argue anything against what the blind girl said, she could bet that, if any of them had ended up as injured and in a coma as him, Naruto wouldn't pay an arm and wouldn't let go of them until he made sure they were safe. that they were fine.
"Why don't you wake up?" Giving a soft sigh, the teenager moved away from the boy a little, to stand up and run her hand over her face, and down to her chest, her heart rate was still lower than normal. . And there seemed to be no sign that she would wake up anytime soon.
"I don't know... normally, people in a coma can stay like that for weeks... until, well."
The evolution of medicine, not as advanced as they would like it to be, between the 100 years war and the rift between the three remaining nations, did nothing to discover new ways of treating people, who were in this situation.
They suffered from malnutrition, exhaustion, and possible muscle atrophy, and then finally ended up dying, it was a cruel fate to see how a loved one was withering away, no matter how carefully you treated and cared for them, in the end, if they didn't wake up, everything would end.
Toph didn't want to finish listening to what the waterbender wanted to say, they took the body of her best friend, I placed it back on the sled, to take the ropes and start walking, there was still a long way to go.
The other members of the Avatar team and the small family of refugees saw the girl's actions with concern, they hoped that none of this would end in tragedy.
The trip had continued as they had planned, going unnoticed under the gaze of the Fire Nation ships patrolling the area, unfortunately, their luck had to run out at some point.
They reached a large valley between the mountains, where there was at least a two-hundred-meter stretch of water.
"Aang, help me," Katara stood at the head of the group next to the Avatar, and with simultaneous movements, began to create a bubble around them as they passed through the deep river.
The walk was more careful and slow.
And Toph gripped the rope tightly, carefully dragging the stretcher; she felt very nervous about being surrounded by tons of water that could crush her and Naruto, who right now was the most vulnerable of the group.
"Is that a fish?"
The earthbender's eyes widened when the air bubble suddenly burst, and the river fell on them. The girl was unable to do anything when she was pushed by the water. Her first reaction was to pull the rope and jump on the stretcher where he is.
"No, no, no, no!" But she had barely managed to touch his arm when the strong current of the river ended up separating him. Under dozens of meters of water, Toph desperately tried to look for a foothold, but it was all water.
The earthbender shook abruptly. Even if she had practiced swimming before, it was one thing to swim in shallow water with someone who was always watching you, and another very different thing was to have to be in a huge river, under attack by a giant monster.
Toph was losing strength; she couldn't orient herself and felt like her body was sinking like a stone. But from one moment to the next, she felt hands grab her torso and drag her to the surface, coughing up water. The girl felt horrible about the water that had entered her nose and ears.
"Naruto!" was the first word she screamed. Whoever had pulled her out of the water was going to get it; they had to have gone for him, they had to have rescued her best friend. "You have to go for Naruto! Move! Go get him!"
"Well, you can make a clone and rescue him. Does that work for you?"
"..." Toph stayed still when she heard that voice; her hands and feet rested on the ground, feeling everything—his weight, his way of breathing, his heart.
"I'm just going to fall asleep for a while and look at this, what a mess." Naruto shook his head, trying to get rid of the excess water in his ears. It was horrible to wake up and the first thing to see was a giant sea monster. Luckily, he was able to see Toph, not very far away from him under the water, and get her out before something bad could happen to her. "But hey, I saw you swimming down there, not bad, although you still need a little practice."
"…"
"I told you, didn't I?... I'll never let you go," the Uzumaki said with a big smile, while resting one of his hands on the blind bandit's head.
"..." the girl's shoulders shook uncontrollably, head bowed, and gasping for breath, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the shinobi's neck. "Stupid! You unhappy bastard! Damn little girl!" Silly…"
Naruto just stayed on the ground, surprised, while he felt how Toph continued muttering insults against his shoulder, where she hid her face from him.
Slowly, he hugged her back; the fact that they were both soaked and he was still covered in bandages over most of his body made it a little uncomfortable, but at a time like this, he didn't care. Smiling, he squeezed Toph in a warm hug.
"Eh... this is awkward."
The two teenagers, still hugging each other, tilted their heads when they heard Suki's voice, who was not far from them, trying to catch his breath after getting out of the water, not expecting to see the Orange pillar hugging the earthbender.
She didn't think twice and pushed Naruto away from her; she didn't want to give anyone the wrong idea; she wasn't hugging Naruto; rather, he was hugging her.
"It seems like a lot of things happened," the shinobi said curiously, as he stood up and took off all the bandages; most of his wounds were healed, and his left arm was almost fixed, just a little pain when moving it. " And what is that?"
He didn't expect to see Aang and Katara fighting a giant sea serpent; the truth is he was tempted to join the battle, but they did it very well.
In her distraction, she almost fell when she felt a weight on her back. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a smiling Yoru, who gave her a big hug, happy to see him recovered.
"Magician!"
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PAT REON I'D:- Alzero ]