The Airbending Test
Airbending was one of the four great bending arts of the world. The very basis of the art was freedom. One had to be fully able to go with the flow of life and the wind. One's feet had to be ever moving going from one stage to another in life. Like the great air bison an airbender had to let the winds of the world be their guide and partner throughout life.
The greatest of airbenders were known as masters. Masters were in tune with the air and themselves in all things. Some of the best airbenders could detect the changing of weather days ahead with a mere feeling of the slightest of breezes.
Naruto had nothing but the utmost respect and awe of the masters. He dreamed of the day he would step up to mastery. Growing up with the feats of the masters around him had impressed upon him the sheer power and ability of the rank.
When he became a master he would learn to do all the great techniques. Naruto aspired to be a sort of master of masters. He could imagine it now, leagues of masters would gather around to hear of his exploits in complete amazement.
There was only one obstacle to his bright future. It was his teacher Yangchen. Naruto admired her most of the time. With a wave of the hand he had witnessed her dispel tornadoes and unleash a mighty gale with a single breath.
She had guided him every step of the way in his path to becoming a master. His earliest memories were of her teaching him the way of the air monks and airbending. Those were times he would always cherish, but he felt that she was holding him back as of late.
For years he had been nudging and prodding her into allowing him to test for mastery, but she had rebuffed all of his requests. It didn't make any sense; he was ready to be a master. Anything those old monks around village could do he could do almost as well, though he had nearly blown himself off a cliff before. Then there was the time he had dumped the water supply over the village while getting air gliding down. But, all of that was in the past. Naruto was practically a master already.
Today was the day he was going to prove himself once and for all. Yangchen had finally agreed to let him take the test for mastery.
"Are you ready to accept me as a master?" Naruto asked with a boisterous and infectious smile as he followed his teacher and the other witness masters. He couldn't help the spring in his step as he imagined gaining the same arrow tattoo as the other villagers.
"Not so fast, my student. If you should pass the exam, I'll be more than happy to warmly accept you in our ranks," she said with a gentle smile and laugh. Yangchen's laughter rang like wind chimes.
Although she said otherwise, Naruto was convinced that her laugh was some kind of airbending trick. It was a trick that he had been very incapable of mimicking. On his best day he sounded like a dying buffalo yak. Well she would have to tell him when he became a master himself.
The procession of masters led him to a grassy plain not far from the village. Two pillar like structures were mounted deeply into the ground and rose tens of feet into the air. At the very top of each pillar was a rectangular slab that wobbled at the slightest of winds.
"Be prepared, Naruto," she advised before leaping into the air in a graceful leap. In a single spin she landed on the slab in a meditative sitting position causing all erratic movements to cease.
That was the first part of the test. One had to be able to use slight wind currents to create a sort of barrier that would keep the platform from slanting to any side while sitting on them. This had been a point of issue for him for quite awhile, but he had learned eventually.
Naruto used a jet of air to rocket himself to the top of the pillar. Opposed to his teacher's spin, he went with a flip and slammed into the slab. The sudden weight caused the platform to shake with abandon. His eyes widened as he quickly began regulating the air around him to keep the fragile balance. His own seat did eventually calm down but he had to suppress the flush as he noticed all the masters taking note of his little delay. It was just a minor hiccup nothing to be too worried about.
Teacher and student sat across of each other in meditative sitting positions. Naruto eased his breathing to increase his sensitivity to the currents around them.
Yangchen reached into a satchel on her waist and pulled a single green leaf from its contents. With no more than a soft blow from her lips it glided gently in the space between them before descending into his opened up palm.
"Your test will be to guide that leaf in one piece back to my palm through the winds I will create. Should either your body or the leaf touch the ground, then you've failed the test. Are you prepared?"
Naruto nodded his head and nearly sent himself over the edge. He had to be careful. Following flat on his face was not helpful for his rise to mastery.
Yangchen spread her arms wide before quickly slamming her hands together. In a mighty clap, four great tornadoes roared to life. Each was thrice the length of the pillar he sat on. The tornadoes were equidistant to them both and were steadily coming closer.
The delicate balance he had attained was ripped from his control. Naruto had to rapidly compensate from the shaking slab as the current became volatile. Sweat dripped down his face as he forced the platform to a stop and found his balance again.
"You may begin," she said, her voice cutting through the roaring winds.
Naruto gulped as he watched the tornadoes coming closer. He brought the leaf to his lips and blew it with a deep breath. If this worked, he could surprise his teacher and overpower the force of the tornadoes. Not even a foot away from him, he had to put a hard break on this strategy.
The four sources of wind on the plain were pushing and pulling the leaf in all directions. If he continued with the plan, then the leaf would've been torn to shreds. Naruto grit his teeth and closed his eyes. He released his senses to the winds themselves.
Each of the tornadoes had their own currents that led into their different directions. When each of Yangchen's bended tornadoes came closer together it made reading the currents much more difficult. Naruto couldn't force the leaf through the currents instead he weaved them through the weakest points of the colliding winds. He followed the flow and gently pushed the leaf closer to Yangchen. It was an effort to keep the leaf high enough to get to her palm in one piece.
The southern tornado forced his platform to shift rapidly forward. His eyes snapped open as his concentration was broken. The protective barrier of air that he used to oppose the wind forces shattered and he nearly fell. Blowing a small funnel, he stopped his fall.
But his loss of concentration had left his leaf unprotected and it was being sucked into the depths of the western tornado.
"No, no, no," he cried out. His voice was drowned out by the harsh winds.
Naruto bit his lips as he noticed how unaffected all the masters around him were. Yangchen looked like she was enjoying a light breeze while the observing masters' clothes were hardly moving. It was frustrating how simple they made it appear.
Naruto wasn't one to quit though. He waved his arm around and reconstructed his own little air bubble, mitigating the forces of the winds on his person. The platform was in stable condition, but his clothing was flapping wildly.
Hastily falling back into his meditative state, he took control of the winds directly affecting the leaf. It was already being sucked in, but instead of fighting it Naruto had the leaf cycle around the funnel. When it looped to its original position near the funnel, he pushed the leaf into the colliding winds to flutter back to the center.
His initial cheer died down as he noticed just how close the tornadoes were now. There were so close he could've reached out and dipped his hands into the furious funnels. Naruto was straining under the pressure of preserving his hold on the platform as well as his protected condition.
At this point the space between him and Yangchen was so chaotic that the leaf was spiraling out of his control. Naruto struggled to keep track of the currents on him, the pillar, and the leaf. His own breathing grew wild and frenzied.
"I got this. I trained for this. I will become a master!" he screamed at himself. It had to be true. This was just the struggle just before the finish line. All he needed was his second wind.
Naruto gasped as he felt the leaf twisting in half. He couldn't defuse the currents on it soon enough to prevent ripping into pieces.
"Keep it together!" he roared in desperation.
As he cried out, great winds originating from the leaf exploded in a deafening roar that consumed the dispelled the converging tornadoes in their entirety. Little pieces of the leaf fell limply to the ground.
"You have failed," Yangchen said in a legitimately compassionate voice.
Naruto couldn't even look her in the eyes. He jumped off the platform and just looked at the broken leaf, the proof of his complete failure. Even as she walked towards him, he kept his sight down. This had been an utter failure in every respect. Now it just felt foolish that he could rise to the rank of master.
A firm but gentle hand raised his chin upwards so his eyes could meet his. There was nothing but empathy in her wise eyes, "Do not be disheartened my student. You are young and there's much time for you to reach new heights. Why are you so adamant for mastery here and now?"
"I wanted to make your proud. If I became a master before my journey, it would've proved just how good of a teacher you were. And, I wanted to be a master just like everyone else in the village."
Yangchen released that exasperated sigh he was used to hearing throughout his childhood, "We do not practice airbending for the sake of pride or others but to commune with the air around us in the hopes of stepping closer and closer to enlightenment.
Do not let your lack mastery discourage you. Each of the masters here holds decades of experience over you. It is unreasonable to expect yourself to reach such high standards so soon.
Understand this: you have a lot of potential. You need only learn to control that massive well of power within you. Uncontained power is tool too dangerous to yourself and those around you."
Naruto turned away in shame, "But what your stories about Avatar Aang? He became an airbender master at 12 years old. I'm the same age but I haven't reached his level. Why haven't I gained that control? I train for hours a day and meditate just as much. "
Yangchen's lips fell into a stern frown, "I am not teaching Aang so his accomplishments are neither my concern or yours. Control will come alongside experience. Experience you will gain when you roam the world yourself, but enough of this. I believe it would be best for you to take a break and center yourself." She gave him an encouraging smile that lifted his mood just that little bit.
"Yes Master Yangchen," he said with his smaller tired smile.
Naruto walked back to the village with slumped shoulders, refusing to look at the other observing masters in the eyes.