Chapter 9

A/N: Wow, this is my tenth chapter! I hit the forty review mark, which puts me way ahead of where I planned to be by this point. My goal was fifty reviews for this story total, but now I want to double that by the end. More importantly, here is chapter 9! Hope you like it!

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Zuko woke up feeling better than he had in... well, ever. He still couldn't quite believe that Katara liked him, but as usual, there were problems. Both of them wanted to at least try being together, but they knew that it wouldn't go over well with the others. Aang would be crushed, Sokka's head would probably explode (which was perfectly fine by Zuko), and Toph would give them crap about it for the rest of their lives. They decided to wait until they could work things out with everyone else.

This was not an idea that Zuko was fond of. He had opened up to someone who returned the feelings he had for her, and Zuko wanted to go for it. He wanted to actually start trusting people, developing relationships, and living his life. Basically Zuko wanted to do everything he hadn't been able to do before. But he also understood that there would be consequences, and he couldn't afford to be selfish. He still had to earn the trust of both Aang and Sokka.

As long as he didn't concentrate on that, Zuko was in a great mood. Adding to his happiness was the fact that they were way ahead of schedule. Travelling through the night before had put them much farther than he had guessed, and he had overestimated the distance to the My Lai forest. In fact, He, Suki and Katara could arrive by midday if they kept their current pace up. The only problem was that this would put them five days ahead of their companions, but he didn't mind the idea of spending five days with Suki and Katara.

He actually kind of liked Suki; she was smart, kind and incredibly talented. He hadn't actually seen her fight, but based on Katara's testimony, the girl was one of the best warriors in the world. Zuko wanted to test her hand to hand combat skills at some point; maybe she could give him a run for his money. He always liked having a little competition because it made him work a lot harder. Zuko was definitely a competitive guy.

He walked out of his tent and began to go through his basic firebending stances. He was concentrating on what his uncle had taught him before he left. Firebending was supposed to be fueled by one's drive, not their anger and rage. This made Zuko happy, he hadn't been as angry recently and he had been worried that his firebending would weaken. He had a drive, and he knew his destiny. He was going to help Aang defeat the Firelord and save the world.

As Zuko was finishing up the basics, Katara walked outside of her tent. She was used to getting up early to cook breakfast for the Gaang, but Zuko was always up earlier than her. The prince definitely rose with the sun.

She looked over and saw Zuko going through some basic moves, and she decided that she wanted to spar with the firebender. She hadn't practiced much recently and she wanted to know whether or not she could kick his butt. "Hey Zuko, can I practice with you?"

"Uh, sure. If you want to. You wanna spar or just practice?" Zuko wasn't surprised at her request, just that she hadn't wanted to fight him earlier. He knew that Katara was as competitive as he was and assumed that she wanted to know who was better.

"Let's do a little sparring, but no holding back." Zuko smirked. She definitely wanted to know who was better, and so did he.

"Sounds good, but it is morning. I have a huge advantage over you and I want to win this fair and square."

"Well, you aren't going to win, but if you do we can spar again tonight. That way I'll have the advantage." She walked over to the tent she shares with Suki and woke the Kyoshi Warrior. "Zuko and I are going to have a sparring match, we will be back soon."

Suki groaned in response and pulled her pillow over her head. It was still too early for normal people to be waking up. Katara led Zuko to a nearby stream and stripped down to her bending outfit. She turned to face Zuko, who was facing the other way. "What are you doing Katara? I thought we were going to spar. You don't have to take your clothes off!" Katara laughed at him.

"This is my bending outfit. I train Aang like this all the time. It's no big deal." Zuko turned around to face her with dark red cheeks. He kept his eyes pointedly higher than her head, making sure they didn't stray to... lower places.

"So you teach the kid how to waterbend in that?" She nodded. "And yet you wonder why he likes you so much." This made Katara blush. She hadn't thought it was a big deal. They weren't that revealing, were they?

"Can we just start already?" Zuko took a stance in response. She found it odd that as soon as he began fighting he was no longer awkward at all. It was like fighting was Zuko's ultimate comfort zone. Katara drew a water whip and shot it at Zuko. He effortlessly dissolved it and sent a stream of fire back her way.

The two exchanged light warm up blows for about five minutes. Then Katara decided to step it up a bit. She shot two jets of water at Zuko simultaneously. One was aimed low and one was aimed high. Zuko jumped and dissolved the upper jet with a fiery back flip. He shot a quick blast at Katara upon landing and then quickly moved to her right side. Katara blocked the blast but lost sight of her opponent in the resulting steam. She saw a small red spot in the corner of her eye and turned just in time to avoid another burst of fire. She quickly drew a large ball of water above her head and froze it into a dozen ice daggers.

Zuko noticed the daggers and shot a large jet of fire to melt them, which was exactly what Katara was hoping for. While he was distracted she collected enough water for two water whips. She used them like extensions of her arms and tried to pin Zuko with them. He moved far too quickly and tried to close the distance between them. There was no way Katara stood a chance in close combat and they both knew it. She turned her whips into a large wave that prevented Zuko from getting close enough. Zuko was washed back but he quickly regained his footing. He avoided the jet of water that Katara intended on pinning him to a tree with by rolling to the side. As he straightened up he shot a huge comet-shaped blast of fire at Katara, who had no choice but to roll away. She was not as good at this maneuver and Zuko jumped on the small window of opportunity it provided him. He closed the gap between them while firing high, arching blasts of fire. Katara was forced to concentrate in these and she didn't notice Zuko closing in on her.

Right as he was about to close in on the waterbender, Zuko tripped. He landed on top of Katara, pinning her to the ground. Both benders automatically blushed furiously, and Zuko was frozen in place. Their eyes met and they stayed that way for about ten seconds. Zuko was about to kiss the girl when they heard Suki clear her throat loudly. Zuko pushed himself off of Katara as hard as he could, and his force combined with her own sent him falling into the stream.

The firebender was now embarrassed, blushing, sweaty, and soaking wet. He wasn't fond of the combination. "Wow, sorry to interrupt, I thought you two were sparring." Zuko looked away and Katara blushed harder. Her face was about as red as a Fire Nation flag at this point.

"What makes you think we weren't? That's all we were doing. Just sparring, nothing else." Katara was talking twice her normal speed and trying to stop shaking. Suki laughed as Zuko tried getting up only to slip again. He wasn't very coordinated when he was in an awkward situation.

"Right Katara, I believe you completely. Anyway, we need to get moving, so if you two could stop making out for two minutes, we need to pack up." Suki almost laughed again as she saw the two benders' faces contort angrily. The blushes both teens wore made their faces look even funnier. Zuko's was so red that his scar was barely noticeable.

"We were NOT making out!" Zuko and Katara yelled at the same time, but Suki ignored them.

"Whatever." She walked back to begin packing up. Katara put her clothes back on and began walking back before Zuko stopped her. She thought be was going to try to kiss her again, but unfortunately, he didn't.

"I win." He said as he held up his shirt. "Could you dry my clothes off, and don't forget that we have another match tonight." Katara bent the water out of his clothes as she argued with him.

"You did not win, it was a tie. I could've still beaten you easily." Zuko scoffed as he started back toward camp.

"I expect you to prove it tonight."

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Toph had just about had it with this whole flying thing. Sokka was convinced that Zuko and Katara would be able to get to the forest at least three days earlier than they had thought, so he decided that they would not stop flying until they got there. He said that Appa might be able to reach My Lai by later tonight, but Toph was convinced that Sokka was insane. He kept talking about shortcuts despite the fact that they could just fly over any obstacles in their path.

"Hey Sokka, is that it?" Toph pointed to the left of the saddle.

"What are you talking about Toph; there aren't even any trees over there. What could possibly make you think that it's the... Really?" Toph snickered at Sokka's pathetic memory. It was a joke that really never got old.

"Seriously Snoozles, when are we gonna get there? I'm sick of not being able to see anything, and I hate flying bareback. We really need a new saddle Twinkletoes." She yelled assuming that Aang was steering Appa.

"Don't yell! I'm right here. And I know we need a new saddle. It's just a little tough to find a flying bison saddle in the middle of the Fire Nation. It's not exactly a common product." Toph groaned. She really didn't want to spend the rest of the war holding on to Appa's fur. It was kind of painful after the first few hours.

"We should be at the My Lai forest within twelve hours, Toph. I will work on a saddle for Appa as part of his invasion armor, so stop complaining." Sokka moved to Appa's head to steer as Toph stuck her tongue out at him... Well, his general direction.

"I just don't see why we are working so hard to get there. There is no possible way that Sparky and Sugar Queen could get there this early. They are on foot and travelling with an old man who is probably pretty beat up. Doesn't sound like the fastest group of travelers on the planet."

"She has a point, Sokka. Couldn't stating in one place for a few days be really dangerous? Maybe we should just stop here for the night. We could continue again in the morning. Whataya say?"

Sokka turned back and yelled over the wind. "I say we are getting there tonight. There is no way we are going to be discovered in the middle of a forest. Who would be looking for us anyway? You two need to stop complaining and leave me alone!"

"Sorr-ry. I didn't realize it was that time of month again, Sokka. Geez." Aang had no idea what that meant, but it seemed to make Sokka really mad.

"Hey, shut up. I'm just worried about my sister, so back off."

Toph laughed. "Sure, I totally believe you. I think we have some herbs to help with the cramping if you need it." Sokka was about to continue yelling at her, but decided that ignoring her was a better solution.

"You know, I think I need some of those herbs Toph. These training sessions have been making my legs cramp up really bad." Sokka tried to suppress his laughter, but he couldn't. Toph was already laughing her head off at the monk, so Sokka just gave up and joined in. Aang was so naive sometimes.

"What's so funny guys?"

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"So, how was your sparring match? Did you have fun?" Suki was having the time of her life pestering her friend. Katara was miserable at hiding emotions and that made it even more fun to annoy the waterbending master.

"It was fine. It was a sparring match, nothing too special." Katara turned her head to hide her blush. They both knew she was lying... poorly.

"Yeah, though it ended a bit oddly. Why was Zuko on top of you again?" Suki was having a hard time containing her laughter. She was starting to think that the two hadn't been sparring at all.

"He tripped while sneaking up on me. Zuko is actually very clumsy." Said firebender snorted at this, but didn't bother turning around. He really didn't want to have Suki talking to him. It did not look like fun.

"Are you sure? Maybe he wanted to fall on you." Katara got an idea to get Suki to back off of her.

"I don't know. He might have done it on purpose. It wouldn't be the first time he held me in one spot. Did you know that he tied me to a tree once?" Zuko stumbled up ahead of her and Katara barely bit back a laugh.

"No way. He did not." Katara smiled and nodded. "You tied her to a tree?" Zuko still refused to face the two girls. They were starting to test his patience.

"I was trying to capture the Avatar. I was trying to force her to give me information." Zuko talked in a voice that clearly showed how annoyed he was. Suki really loved this conversation.

"So what exactly did you do to force her?" Zuko and Katara turned scarlet at the girls implications.

"That's disgusting! I would never force a girl into doing something like... that." Zuko tried to stop thinking about different ways that whole tree scenario could have played out. He hated hormones.

"Yeah Suki. All he did was hold my necklace in front of me." That didn't really help.

"Wow Zuko, that's awfully bold of you. How long had you two known each other? Three weeks?" The two benders kept making things worse for themselves every time they spoke, so Zuko decided that he was done with the conversation.

"You know what? It doesn't matter what I say, you're just going to twist it to sound terrible. Believe whatever you want, but we were just sparring." Zuko turned his attention back to walking. He could see the forest in the distance, they were getting really close.

"Last time I checked most sparring matches don't end in make out sessions. You were lying on top of her for at least half a minute!" It was a slight exaggeration, but Suki made her point.

"We didn't even kiss Suki! And Zuko is right, I'm just not gonna talk any more. So ha." Katara crossed her arms and worked her way ahead of the warrior, who was laughing at her friend's lack of maturity.

"Take it east guys, I'm just joking around." Both Zuko and Katara relaxed at that statement. They were worried that Suki had known about their still undecided relationship. "Besides, I think you two make a great couple."

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"Princess Azula! There are three figures headed this way. Two girls and a guy. It looks like your brother, but I'm not entirely sure." The lookout was thrown to the side as Azula took over his post.

"Let me see... So, little Zuzu has made some friends. How cute. Everyone, clear up camp. We don't want Zuko to know that we have ever been here. He needs to have his guard completely down for this plan to work out." Azula had heard that her brother had split off from the Avatar to avoid detection. She assumed that Zuko would take a more direct route to the forest, so she wasn't surprised that he had arrived first. She was also completely prepared with a plan.

"Yes ma'am!" the crew all set off to clean their campsite up. They knew that all they needed to guarantee a victory was the element of surprise. Azula planned to use this as much as physically possible.

Ty Lee approached her friend. She had received a response from Mai four hours ago, but she had been afraid to give it to Azula. "Umm, Azula? This is a message from Mai. You might want to take a look at it." Azula grabbed the letter and opened it carelessly.

Azula,

I am honored that you want my assistance on this mission of utmost importance. It is nice to know that you recognize and appreciate my talents. That being said, I am not going to waste my time helping an arrogant, self-centered, psycho freak like you with anything anymore. I'm sick of being treated like your servant and I am not going to do it. To Ty Lee, sorry. I wish I didn't have to ditch you and leave you alone with Azula, but I can't stand being controlled by her any longer. Good luck, you are a really good friend.

-Mai

Ty Lee could practically see Azula's blood boiling with rage, but she had to agree with Mai a little bit. Azula really did treat them more like servants than friends, and it hurt her a bit. "So Mai is refusing to follow orders from her princess, is she? Very well, she will be executed for her cowardly betrayal. Ty Lee, take your position and get ready, it's time to get rid of my brother."

Ty Lee did as she was told and decided to leave out the fact that Mai was leaving Omashu until the war was over. Azula didn't need to know where Mai was going, and Ty Lee didn't want her friend to get hurt.

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There it was! The mountain range that was only thirty miles in front of My Lai forest. Sokka knew that they could get there in time. He was right, as always. "Ha, see that? I was right... again!" Aang was asleep and Toph was fairly close.

"Actually, I don't see anything, but congrats. The sooner we can land, the better." Sokka ignored the earthbender. He wouldn't let his friends depressing attitudes get him down. He was going to be reunited with his little sister and never let her out of his sight again. He hated being away from her and not knowing how she was doing. Sokka knew that Katara could take care of herself, but that didn't mean she had to.

"Hey Aang! We're almost there!" Aang snapped awake at his friend's loud voice, and he shot up into a sitting position. Unfortunately for him, Toph was right over the top of him trying to find her sleeping bag. Their foreheads collided hard, leaving both benders with painful headaches.

"OW! Twinkletoes, what did you do that for?" She rubbed her temples while Aang shook his head. This was definitely not the best way to wake up in the morning.

"What do you mean me? Why are you crawling over me in the first place?"

"I can't see where I'm going and I need my sleeping bag. You should probably look before head butting the air as hard as possible."

"Guys, that isn't important. We are almost to the forest; we could be there within four hours! Isn't that great?" Aang turned to glare at him while Toph glared at a cloud off to Appa's left. Sokka figured it was probably meant for him, but both she and Aang were pretty dizzy.

"Why did you have to wake me up like that? It isn't even important! You could have just woken me up once we got there!" Sokka had thought that Aang would be just as happy as he was to be close to meeting with Katara again. Apparently he was wrong.

"I figured that you would want to know. You seemed just as worried as I did." Aang blushed and turned his head. "Seriously though, we are gonna get to see Katara again soon. Aren't you guys happy?"

"Sure Snoozles, we are both thrilled. You can just wake me up once we get there, alright?" Toph finally found her bag and quickly curled up inside it. It got really cold flying on the back of Appa; there was a lot of wind.

"Yeah, I have to agree with Toph. Wake me up when we get there. In the meantime…" Aang lay back down and closed his eyes. He was used to the wind so he didn't need a sleeping back. Sokka stared at his friends incredulously. They should have been just as excited as he was. Did they not care about his sister? That couldn't be it; both of them cared a great deal about Katara. He assumed that they were just really tired. He turned back to the reigns with a shrug and concentrated on finding his sister.

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They were almost there. After walking all morning, Suki, Katara and Zuko were ecstatic to see My Lai forest come into view. It was perfect because it was so dense that they could hide for weeks, and they just had to sit back and wait for Aang and the others to arrive.

Suki had gone back and forth between normal conversation and annoying Katara about her relationship with Zuko. He felt bad for her but wasn't willing to be pulled into the conversation again. The few times that Suki had tried to annoy Zuko, he completely ignored her. He knew that the silent treatment wasn't the best way to make friends, but he didn't really care at this point. All that mattered was getting to their destination, avoiding being humiliated once again by the Kyoshi Warrior, and trying to control his anger long enough to get to the forest without killing his third traveling companion. He found that controlling his anger was a lot easier while he was laughing at Katara's discomfort. She was handling Suki's antics very poorly, which made the whole thing funnier.

"Zuko, is this it?" Katara was trying to change the subject from her conversation with Suki, which had something to do with kids and the possibility of a double bender.

"Yeah, this is the My Lai forest. It's pretty dense but I'm sure we can find a clearing somewhere." Zuko hadn't turned around the entire trip and wasn't about to start now. Suki thought he was being rude but Katara knew by now that he was just being himself. He didn't really care about being polite when it came to getting things done.

"Great, my legs are getting tired. I'll tell you what, you two find a clearing and I'll find some fire wood. But remember, I'll be back soon and you two are far too young to have kids." Suki smiled evilly as she headed off in a different direction. She could practically here the blush on Katara's face when the waterbender yelled at her back.

"That's disgusting Suki! We are not together! And we are just going to find a clearing and set up camp, so stop thinking like that." Katara huffed in annoyance and turned to Zuko, who was facing her. She hadn't expected that and she quickly turned to hide her blush.

"I think I see a small open spot right through there." Zuko pointed and Katara forced herself to stop blushing before following it. It looked like there might be a small clearing there, so they headed in that direction. Zuko was starting to get a weird feeling that they were being watched, but he always had that feeling when he was in forests. He heard a twig snap but dismissed it as Suki collecting fire wood. He came into the clearing and looked around. It was definitely big enough for them to set up camp, and Appa would have plenty of room to land. It was pretty much the perfect spot. He heard Katara inhale sharply, and was confused as to why she found a clearing so appalling.

"Don't move, Zuzu." He turned to see Azula holding a small blue flame to Katara's neck. His sister had the waterbender in a headlock and Katara was staring at him. Her eyes were wide with fear, but Zuko knew that any sudden movement would cause Azula to kill the girl. He needed to think of something, and fast.

"What are you doing here, Azula?" The girl smiled in her own evil fashion.

"What does it look like? I'm going to use the girl to capture the Avatar. It's kind of sad that you never thought of this plan. I have to ask though, why aren't you traveling with the Avatar. I thought you were a full blown traitor and you were going to teach him firebending. I guess you're too stupid to think of that as well." Zuko's eyebrow twitched as he tried to keep his anger under control.

"Put her down Azula. You don't need her for anything and-" he was cut off as Ty Lee jumped from behind him and quickly blocked his chi.

"Actually, I think she is going to stay with me for awhile."

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A/N: Okay, that's chapter 9. Finally we get to the important part. School starts tomorrow (my school starts late, but so does my summer) so I won't be writing anything tonight. It may take until Saturday to get the next chapter posted, so sorry in advance. I worked pretty hard to get this one out today, right after posting chapter one of my other fic. Hopefully I won't be swamped with homework this week, but AP Calculus will have something to say about that. Oh, and this is the two week anniversary of this story! 14 days and 10 chapters! It's more like 8 because I posted four in the first two days. Also, I plan on doing the response to reviews every tenth chapter, mostly so you guys don't have to read them every time. I try to respond to them personally, but I usually end up not getting it done.

So, First things first. I really appreciate everyone who reviewed, and I'm glad that so many people stuck with this for ten chapters. So thank you to Lily123236219, DecemberDove, Remember When It Rained, ZutaraxTaangxSukka, Invisible Firebender, rubyprincess57, CatDawg14 and zutaraluvr10, as well as all of my anonymous reviewers from Jadelyn3352, nina, SAVANNAH, Sydney, Louise and Wolf. You guys are great and I really appreciate that you took the time to write a review.

Special Shout outs to:

AnnaAza- Thanks for being not only my first ever reviewer, but also for multiple reviews. Acts of Kindness was one of the stories that finally inspired me to start writing fanfiction, so it means a lot that you read my story. (Guys, you can blame her for this pathetic story.)

Sokkantylee- Tied with AnnaAza for my most repetitive reviewer. I really appreciate the undeserved compliments. Sorry that my plot is so predictable, but it will get less obvious in the future.

Cooking-ninja18- Thank you for all of the reviews as well as the help and advice. I really needed it.

ThousandMileRoad- Thanks for all of the reviews. Hopefully you don't hate this cliffhanger as much as the last one; it isn't quite as dramatic in my opinion.

Bridget Friste- Thank you for reviewing as well. I'm glad you don't hate me, and again, this cliffhanger isn't that bad. And yeah, school is annoying.

Tosharino- I'm really glad you like the story so far! Thanks for the reviews.

Animegamer89- Thank you so much for the reviews, although I didn't think the last chapter was as great as you did. Hopefully this sparring scene is better than the previous one, I tried to pick up some things from your story, Melting the Ice.

Wenfler- Thanks for the reviews as well as the pm's. They work just as well. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I am looking forward to the next chapter of your crossroads story. (It's called Crossroads of Destiny if you guys are interested.)

Alright, so that should be everyone. If I missed someone, you have permission to flame me mercilessly. You know you want to, too. Anyway, I also want to thank everyone who has favorite or put this story on their alert list. That is really awesome, and I can't believe how many people like this story so much.

And finally, thank you to everyone who has read this story all the way to this point. I expected to get like fifty readers per chapter at the most, but I have gotten way more than that, so thanks. It's really nice to know that people were willing to give this story a chance, despite the incredibly crappy prologue. I really hate that prologue and I think I'm going to edit it eventually. Thanks again everybody!