Hey I'm back with Chapter 12!! And sorry I'm 2 days late!

Disclaimer: Me owning Avatar? Get real!

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Chapter 12: The Guru

Katara trudged through heavy mud and thick brush as she made her way through the forest. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, she hoped she would find a town or something soon. Katara was a little bit afraid, she had never traveled alone before and to make matters worse she was alone in the Fire Nation. Although she knew she could not stay with Zuko.

It was about mid-day, she could tell from the immense heat, when she arrived at a rather large town. Katara was hot and sweaty, with her red dress almost in shreds, she just wanted to find some nice cool water. Upon entering the town she spotted a sign that read: Welcome to New Azulan. Katara shuddered as she read the name of the former Fire Lord, from stories she had heard he was a ruthless man just like his father Sozin and son Ozai. She wondered inspite of all that if he loved Zuko. The Waterbender quickly snapped out of her thoughts when she saw a fountain in the center of the town. As she ran toward it she saw an old bearded man meditating on the edge of the fountain. He was wearing nothing but a yellow cloth draped over his skinny body and his skin was so dark, darker than hers. She was about to go over and talk to the man, when a large armored fire nation guard approached him.

"Sir you cannot meditate or sit on that fountain," said the guard to the old man.

"But the spirits told me I must wait for someone here," he replied with in strange accent. Katara watched in horror as the Fire Nation guard grabbed the old man off the fountain and twisted his arms behind his back.

"That's it old man, you're coming with me," the guard growled.

"Leave that poor man alone," screamed Katara as she whipped the guard onto the ground with water from the fountain. The old man gave her a smile as he was released. Suddenly a ball of fire went soaring past Katara's head as the guard stood up and retaliated. He started just throwing everything he had at her, too bad the young Waterbending master was quicker than he. The elderly man watched Katara attack with quick sharp water whips and flying icicles. The Firebender guard beagn to get quite flustered by her precise attacks, but then he noticed out of the corner of his eye a huge wave of water spilling out of the fountain. The wave began surrounding him as he frantically watched the girl wildly move her arms in circular pattern. Then she froze him in the wave dove just like she had done to Zuko at the North Pole.

Katara knew the Firebender would be out of there in no time, so she sprinted up the old man a grabbed his hand and ran back into the woods. They ran for quite awhile before stopping. Katara was surprised someone so old could run so fast. They stopped at a pond in the woods and sat on a rather large boulder, catching their breath.

"Thank you for saving me Katara," offered the old man.

"Wow wait how do you know my name?" asked a shocked Katara.

"The spirits told me, you're the one I have been waiting for." When she gave him a weird look he added, "Do not be alarmed my intentions are good I assure you."

"So who are you?" She questioned the wrinkled man sitting crosslegged in front of her.

"I'm Guru Pathik!"

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Zuko miserably hiked through the forest in the opposite that Katara had gone. For while he had pondered whether to go after her or not, but he decided just to let her go, because that's what she truly wanted. And he wanted to make her happy. So now the sullen teenager made his way through the tall trees and in the vague direction of the Fire Palace. He had to save Iroh, he owed him that much, but he had no idea how he was going to break into the palace without being noticed. Zuko pushed that out of his head for now, he wished Katara was here with him. Maybe she could have been able to come up with a plan or it would be at least be easier from him to think of one with her around. He started to grow angry at himself for getting so worked up over a girl, he should have known better. Although he was angry at himself, Zuko couldn't bring himself to be angry at her.

As he moved on, Zuko felt even worse as he thought of the stupid Avatar giving her a warm embrace when she found him. He hated that kid, at first he had because he couldn't capture him, but then his hate for him subsided a little when he offered to be Zuko's friend. Zuko's dislike for the monk began to grow again, when he gave him a nasty "she's mine" look back in the cave, but his hate came back full circle, when he had found out the Avatar had hurt Katara's big heart.

The young Firebender was so wrapped up in thought he did not here the shuffling of feet behind him.

"Hey you give us your money," shouted a squeaky voice from behind him. Zuko whirled around and took a fighting stance. He found himself looking at a short greasy man with long black and two front teeth missing, holding twin swords. There was another man standing next to the greasy one, he was also quite repulsive. He was a large hulking man with short matted brown hair and held a large mallet in his big meaty hands.

"I said give us your money!" Demanded greaseball.

"I don't have any," answered Zuko opening his empty pockets, he really was not in the mood for this.

"Hey Kazi, I recognize him, he's the fugitive Prince," boomed big boy's deep voice.

"Yeah you're right Kama," Kazi said to Kama ignoring Zuko. "We'll get a bundle of money for turning him in."

"Yuh hear that Princey, you're coming with us," Kama boomed to Zuko.

"Or what?" Zuko impatiently asked, he just wanted to get this over with.

"Or we'll mess you up real bad, I don't think you want anymore scars?" squeaked Kazi the greaseball.

"Right, I could take both of you fools," boasted Zuko. Apparently this comment had deeply angered greaseball, because he charged toward Zuko yelling failing his swords every which way. Zuko merely moved out of the way, then shot multiple blasts of fire at the idiot. Kazi freaked out and dropping his swords and ran behind Kama who had been standing there the whole time.

"Get him!" Kazi ordered unsteadily as Zuko picked up the two swords. Kama came at Zuko swinging his large mallet back and forth, Zuko caught the handle of the mallet in between the two swords. He pulled the hulking Kama downward with the swords. As the big man stood up Zuko set the two swords on fire and sent a whirlwind on fire at the two amateur criminals. The two men cowered in fear as Zuko approached them, then he reached down and grabbed the hilt that hung at Kazi's waist, and placed the two swords in it.

"Thanks for the swords, filth," The seventeen year-old called back to the two pitiful men as he walked away. Although they had been easy to defeat, Zuko was quite pleased with himself as he continued on his journey.

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"So you're the Guru who helped Aang," inquired Katara as she stared at the Guru who sat across from her on the boulder.

"Yes, and you're the women he loves."

"He told you that?" Katara asked blushing. Something lit up inside her that made her happy, but then she remembered Zuko. She felt torn between right and wrong. "So um what did you need to talk to me about?" She asked trying to forget the dilemma at hand.

"That spirits told me I had to show you your way."

"The way back to Aang and my friends?" She excitedly questioned the Guru.

"If that's what you want, but first you must drink this it cleanses the soul." He said while taking a canteen out of his robe.

"What is it?"

"It's a kind of juice." Katara reluctantly drank the contents of the canteen only to find out the taste was quite disgusting.

"Eww, it tastes like onions and bananas!"

"That's because it is onion and banana juice, quite delicious! Anyway I must show you the path to the people you care about most."

"How?"

"Everything is connected by invisible strings, incredible isn't it? Well first you must close your eyes," instructed Guru Pathik. Katara nodded and closed her trusting blue eyes. Then she felt the Guru hold two fingers to her forehead and she saw to lines, blue and red stretch across the blurry terrain of the Fire nation. The two lines seemed to go in the same direction for awhile, then the blue veered off to the far right and the red veered off to the far left.

"You can open your eyes now, and everytime you close your eyes you will see the two paths," said the Guru.

"Why are there two paths?"

"Because they're are two people you want to find. The blue one, is the path of the person you are most familiar and comfortable with, the path you feel is the right one. And the red path is the path of the person who is dangerous, passionate, and is the one who intrigues you the most, the path you feel is wrong," the old man explained. Katara knew if she took the blue path she'd find Aang and if she took the red path she'd find Zuko.

"Which one do I choose?"

"That is up to you," the Guru laughed as he stood up to leave.

"Wait, what if I choose wrong!" She screamed as the strange old man walked away.

"That depends on what you determine wrong as," Guru Pathik called back to her. When he was completely out of sight Katara slumped onto the large rock they had been sitting on and contemplated her decision.

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Hello!

How was it? I had originally wrote this chapter yesterday, but then I read it and it was complete crapola. So I deleted it and rewrote the chapter today! Yeah so that's that, thanks for the reviews!!!! Cya in chappie 13!!!

Beauty