Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.

Bodyguard of Azula

Chapter 26: Grudges and Promises

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/spirit talking"

"Bijū/spirit thinking"

(Location: Fire Nation)

They had made camp on the top of a small mountain. They sat around the campfire, telling ghost stories, as it was the perfect kind of night to do. Sokka had just finished with his story, much to Aang and Toph's curiosity. "Well?" he asked them.

"I think I like 'the man with a sword for a hand' better," Aang told him. This one didn't have the same level of scariness as that one.

"Not my greatest, I'll admit," he agreed.

"Water Tribe slumber parties must stink," Toph commented. "Though it could be better than any Air Nomad stories Twinkle Toes have told us."

Aang grinned sheepishly. "Since we're always in the Temples, we don't have any interesting stories to tell other than the ones about where a monk discovers some secret passageway within the Air Temples."

"No, wait! I've got one!" Katara said from where she sat in front of the fire. "And this is a true Southern Water Tribe story."

"Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" Sokka asked her as he sat down, sticking the tip of his jian into the ground.

"No, it happened to Mom." That got everyone's attention. "One winter when Mom was a girl, a snowstorm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, Mom noticed she hadn't seen her friend Nini since the storm. So, Mom and some others went to check on Nini's family. When they got there, no one was home. Just a fire flickering in the fireplace remained. While the men went out to search, Mom stayed at the house. When she was alone, she heard a voice 'It's so cold and I can't get warm!' Mom turned and saw Nini standing by the fire. She was blue like she had been frozen. Mom ran outside for help, but when everyone came back, Nini was gone."

"Where'd she go?" Her brother asked, desperately trying to hide behind the stump he was sitting against. That story was creepy, and he was sure that he had seen that house.

"No one knows," she answered. "Nini's house remains empty to this day, but sometimes, people see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Nini is still trying to get warm." The silence that followed felt almost scaring to them.

"Wait!" Toph suddenly cried, placing her hand on the ground. "Guys, did you hear that?" She stood up as the others held each other in fright. "I hear people under the mountain. And they're screaming."

"Nice try," Sokka said after forcing himself to calm down and let go of his sister. Akela, however, just rolled his eyes at the Tribesman.

"No, I'm serious. I hear something."

"You're probably just jumpy from the ghost stories," Katara told her. She knew that she was.

The blind Earthbender would've protested, had she not felt a change. "It just…stopped," she said.

"Alright, now I'm getting scared," Aang declared.

"Hello, children," a voice said from out of nowhere, making Sokka, Aang, and Katara scream in fright and hug Toph. The voice came from an old lady standing in the shadows of the forest. "Sorry to frighten," she told them, walking into the firelight. "My name is Hama. You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night. I have an inn nearby. Why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warms beds?"

"Yes, please," Sokka said. She walked away and they followed.

"You got everything, Azula?" Naruto asked, standing by her door. He was watching her getting dressed and getting everything, she needed for the day.

"Yes," she answered, turning to face him. "Where are the others?"

"They're already waiting for us."

"Then let's go." She walked out of her room and Naruto followed her. They walked down the corridor before running into Yāo Jing. They didn't say anything and neither did she. She just kept on walking and so did they.

"I think that's the first time she didn't at least try and kill you or me with a glare," the blonde remarked as he took a quick look back.

"You're right. It feels…somewhat weird," Azula agreed as she looked at him.

"According to the servants, Chun's photo is always with her," he informed her. "It had fallen to the floor one morning and the maid knelt down to pick it up. Yāo Jing almost killed her for doing that until she apologized profusely and fled."

"Are you sure?"

"They would never lie about something like that. She's gotten possessive about it." And that was something he never would've thought she'd do. He had thought that she would burn the photo.

"Ironic, isn't it?" she asked. "That she'd be possessive about the photo of the mother she didn't like when she met her."

"I would be too, if I had one."

She flinched when she heard that. "Sorry."

"Why do you people keep apologizing?" he asked with a joking smile. "You're beginning to make it sound like you murdered my parents."

Even though it was a joke, she still winced a little. Thankfully, they met up with everyone else before he saw it. "There you guys are!" Ty Lee said with a small pout from where she stood on the steps. It was obvious that the acrobat had been waiting a while.

"Sorry, she wanted to make sure she had everything," Naruto told her. Azula didn't say anything in reply.

"Um…guys? Do we have to do this?" Kori asked hesitantly from where she sat on the steps. She hadn't planned on doing this and quite frankly, she was still unsure about.

"Yes, we have to," Mai said, standing next to Zuko.

"Come on, Kori, it's your last day here in the Fire Nation," Temari told her. "We might as well spend it having fun."

"I know, but I was supposed to stay a few more weeks," she said sadly. That had been the plan.

"I'm sorry that your father sent you a letter saying he wants you to come home earlier than expected, Kori. But what's happened has happened," Azula told her. "Now let's go have some fun."

"Time for shopping!" cheered Ty Lee. The girls all started down the steps leading away from the palace. The guys just stayed there for a couple of more minutes.

"Men," Naruto said to Zuko, Gaara, and Kankurō with a solemn voice. "This will probably be the last chance to pray to whatever deity or spirit that gives you strength. I'd recommend praying to them because we will soon be shopping with girls."

"Hey you guys! Hurry up!" Kori called from down the steps.

"We'll be right down!" Naruto told her before looking back at the other three guys. They all said a quick prayer and joined them.

"Thanks for letting us stay here tonight." Katara told Hama as they all sat around a table inside the inn. "You have a lovely inn."

"Aren't you sweet?" Hama said. "You know you should be careful. People have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in," she told them as she sat down in her own chair.

"What do you mean 'disappearing?'" Sokka asked.

"When the moon turns full, people walk in, and they don't come out. Who wants more tea?" she asked them, holding up the kettle. They all looked at her with nervous expressions. "Don't worry, you are all completely safe here. Why don't I show you to your rooms and you can get a good night's rest?"

She took them to their rooms.They went to sleep, or at least tried. Sokka was kept awake by the creaking of the house. After a particular loud one, he grabbed his jian and drew it. Akela, having heard the jian being drawn, opened his eyes and raised his head. His expression pretty much said "Would you put that thing away? I'm trying to sleep here."

"Sorry, Akela," he said, putting the jian back in its scabbard. "But this place is creepy. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to fall asleep!" The wolf just rolled his eyes and put his head back down. He went back to sleep and within fifteen minutes, Sokka had joined him. When he opened them next, he was half-way on the floor and saw both Hama and Katara standing over him.

"Time to go shopping!" declared Hama.

"I hate shopping with girls," Zuko, Gaara, Kankurō, and Naruto thought in unison as they walked behind the girls. As the guys in the group, they were the pack mules. Zuko and Naruto got lucky when Mai and Azula respectively targeted them as their pack mules. Given that they didn't shop much and as such, didn't buy every single thing they laid eyes on, their loads were fairly light. Kankurō and Gaara weren't so lucky.

"Look, another store!" Ty Lee said, pointing at said store.

"We noticed," Naruto told her dryly as everyone turned to look at the store.

"It's another clothes store," Kori pointed out to the acrobat. "We've already been to plenty of those."

"But it's not just any clothes store," Ty Lee said slyly. She knew what kind of store it was, having been there several times before.

"Oh, please don't tell me it's not what I think it is," the guys thought again in unison. They were really hoping that it wasn't what they thought it was.

"It's an undergarment store!"

They walked through the marketplace carrying baskets of food (Sokka used his jian to carry his). "That Mr. Yao seems to have a thing for you," Katara noted to the old innkeeper. "Maybe we should go back and see if he'll give us some free komodo sausages?"

"You would have me use my feminine charms to take advantage of that poor man?" Hama asked her with a raised eyebrow before cracking a smile. "I think you and I are going to get along swimmingly!"

"You won't have any ash bananas till next week?" they heard a customer ask a shopkeeper as they passed by.

"Well, I have to send the boy to Hing Wa Island to get them, and it's a two-day trip," the shopkeeper explained.

"Oh, right. Tomorrow's the full moon." The customer sounded nervous when he said that.

"Exactly, I can't lose another delivery boy in the woods."

"Something is going on here in this town," Sokka stated. He, Aang, and Toph were a little behind Katara and Hama, so they could talk amongst themselves.

"Maybe they offended a spirit?" Aang suggested. "I bet if we take a little walk around town, we'll find out what these people did to offend it."

"Not everything that happens to people have to do with the spirits, Aang," the Tribesman reminded him.

"I know that, but I can still help people. It's what I do," he said with an easy grin.

"I never said you didn't."

"Why don't you take all those things back to the inn?" Hama suggested to the group, stopping in the middle of the street. "I just have to run a couple more errands. I'll be back in a little while."

"This is a mysterious little town you have here." Sokka told her right to her face.

"Mysterious town for mysterious children," she replied cryptically before walking away.

They made their way back to the inn and started to put the food away. "That Hama seems a little strange," Sokka told them as he placed a basket on the table. "Like she knows something, or she's hiding something."

"That's ridiculous," Katara replied as she placed her basket on the counter while Aang and Toph put the rest of the baskets on the ground. "She's a nice woman who took us in and gave us a place to stay. She kinda reminds me of Gran-Gran."

"But what did she mean by that comment 'mysterious children?'" he asked his sister.

"Gee, I don't know," she said sarcastically. "Maybe because she found four strange kids camping in the woods at night? Isn't that a little mysterious?"

He still didn't buy it. "I'm going to take a look around." He walked away to look around the house. The other three couldn't just stand there. They went after him.

"Sokka! Sokka, what are you doing?" she asked him as he climbed a staircase. "You can't just snoop around someone's house."

"It'll be fine," he told her as he went looking through rooms, trying to find something out of the ordinary for someone from the Fire Nation.

"She could be home any minute," Aang pointed out. They would have a hell of a time trying to explain themselves if they got caught.

"Sokka, you're going to get us all in trouble," Katara told him. "And this is just plain rude."

"I'm not finished yet," he replied as he tried to open a cupboard. "Come on!" He managed to open it, revealing puppets shaped like humans. He was surprised but managed to hold himself from stumbling back and drawing his jian.

"Okay, I know Kankurō used puppets, but that's still pretty creepy," Aang admitted. The puppets before them looked lifelike, almost too lifelike.

"So, she's got a hobby. There's nothing wrong with that," Katara reasoned as Sokka closed the cabinet and kept on walking. "Sokka, you've looked enough. Hama will be back soon," she tried to tell her brother.

He climbed the stairs into the attic and tried to open a door, only to find it locked. "She's just an ordinary puppet-loving innkeeper, huh?" he asked. "Then why does she have a locked door up here?"

"Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff!" Sometimes she wondered if her brother didn't understand the concept of the word "privacy".

"We'll see." The Tribesman looked through the keyhole to see what was inside. "It's empty, except for a little chest," he told them all.

"Maybe it's treasure," Toph suggested. Sokka drew his jian and used it to pick the lock.

"Sokka, what are you doing?" Katara demanded. "You're breaking into a private room!"

"I have to see what's in there." His curiosity was aroused and damn it, he was going to satisfy it. The lock clinked and the door opened.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Aang said as they walked into the room. Sokka ignored him as he picked up the chest and tried to open it.

"Maybe there's a key around here," the Tribesman said, realizing it was locked.

"Ooh, hand it over!" Toph told him. He handed her the chest. She took off her bracelet and bent it into the shape of a key, which she stuck into the lock and began to work on it.

"Come on, come on!"

"This isn't as easy as it looks," she remarked while Katara kept looking on nervously.

"Guys, I don't know about this," Aang said.

"This is crazy, I'm leaving!" Katara declared.

"Suit yourself," Sokka told her. "Do it, Toph." As she walked away, Toph successfully managed to pick the lock, opening it. Katara came back as they began to open it.

"I'll tell you what's in the box," Hama said from behind them, catching them by surprise. They turned around to face her while Sokka tried to hide it behind his back. She walked and then waited. He relented and handed the box to her. She took it, opened it and pulled out…a comb.

"It's an old comb?" Sokka asked, completely surprised by the fact.

"It's my greatest treasure," she told him. "It's the last thing I own from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe." What she said stunned both Sokka and Katara.

"You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" Katara repeated, making sure she didn't hear wrong.

"Just like you," she said, putting the comb back in the box.

"How did you know?" They had tried to keep it a secret from everyone they had met in the Fire Nation.

"I heard you talking around your campfire."

"But why didn't you tell us?" Sokka asked, suspicious. Ever since he met her, he felt that something felt off about her. The fact that she was from the Southern Water Tribe did nothing to quash that feeling.

"I wanted to surprise you!" she told them. "I bought all this food today so I could fix you a big Water Tribe dinner. Of course, I can't get all the ingredients I need here, but ocean kumquats are a lot like sea prunes if you stew them long enough."

"Great," Aang muttered, remembering his last experience with sea prunes. It was not pleasant.

"I knew I felt a bond with you right away," Katara said. She knew she had been right when she felt that Hama felt like Gran-Gran.

"Sorry we were sneaking around," Sokka told Hama, his voice full of apology.

"Apology accepted," she replied. "Now let's get cooking!"

"No," Naruto said.

"Please," Ty Lee asked them with a pout.

"No," Zuko said.

"It's for Kori," The acrobat urged them.

"Um…I don't think we actually need them in the store," Kori said. She knew that she didn't need them in there.

"There, you see?" Kankurō asked Ty Lee.

"We'll stay out here," Gaara said, crossing his arms and silently daring the girls to say something in protest.

"Forget it, Ty Lee. They're not going to come into the store for undergarments," Mai said. She didn't know why her bubbly friend wanted them to come in the first place, considering what happened last time with Naruto.

"Thank you, Mai," Naruto told her.

"But having them in there is half the fun!" Ty Lee complained.

"For you!" accused Kankurō. He did not see any fun for men inside that kind of store.

"Ty Lee, we do have an excuse not to go in there. It's for the sake of our health," the blonde explained to her.

"How's that an excuse?" It sounded like a weak one to her.

"Look at us." He gestured to him and the other men in the group. "We're hot. If we go into that store, one of us might realize that we might need to get something. So, we'll grab it and go to the back to try it on. And I'm pretty sure you remember what happened the last time I did that in a clothes store. Imagine that times four."

"He's got a point, Ty Lee," Kori said with a light blush on her cheeks. She had heard that story and she could see it happening. But she didn't want that kind of chaos. "Let's just go inside, please?"

"Fine," she said with annoyance. They walked into the store and began to browse. "What did they think we were going to do to them?" As if to answer her question, a small knife flew and slammed into the wooden wall in front of her. Attached to the knife was a piece of paper. As the others gathered around her, she looked at the piece of paper, which read:

Do I have to list the reasons I gave at Kouzan again?

Naruto

"How does he keep doing that?" she demanded.

"You're never going to find out, Ty Lee, so drop it," Azula told her before walking away to look at something.

After Aang had run to the shed to feed Appa and Momo, everyone sat down to a Water Tribe dinner. "I'd steer clear of the sea prunes," the Air Nomad whispered to Toph.

"I thought they were ocean kumquats," she replied, not bothering to whisper back.

"Close enough."

"Who wants five flavor soup?" Hama asked. They all raised their hands (except for Toph, who just shrugged). To their surprise, she bent the soup out of the dish and into their bowls.

"You're a Waterbender!" Katara exclaimed in delight. "I've never met a Waterbender from our tribe."

"That's because the Fire Nation wiped them all out," she replied sadly. "I was the last one."

"So how did you end up out here?" Sokka asked her. That part was the one that was making him curious.

"I was stolen from my home," she said as the memories flashed through her mind. "It was over sixty years ago when the raids started. They came again and again, each time rounding up more of our Waterbenders and taking them captive. We did our best to hold them off, but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued. Finally, I too was captured. I was led away in chains, the last Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe." Katara walked over and put her hands on her shoulders in comfort. "They put us in terrible prisons here in the Fire Nation. I was the only one who managed to escape."

"How did you get away?" Sokka asked, still suspicious of her. "And why did you stay in the Fire Nation?" Wouldn't she have wanted to come home?

"…I'm sorry," she said after a moment of silence. "It's too painful to talk about it anymore."

"We completely understand," Katara told her. "We lost our mother in a raid."

"Oh, you poor things," She patted the young Waterbender's hand.

"I can't tell you what it means to meet you," Katara told her. "It's an honor. You're a hero."

"I never thought I'd meet another Southern Waterbender," she replied with a smile. "I'd like to teach you what I know so you can carry on the Southern tradition when I'm gone."

"Yes! Yes, of course!" the young Waterbender cried excitedly, standing up and clasping her hands together. "To learn about my heritage, it would mean everything to me."

"Hold that thought," Sokka said, standing up. "Sorry, Hama, but our group needs to have a talk."

"Please, don't let me stop you," she told him, the smile still on her face.

The four of them (including Akela) walked out of the house and into the shed. "What's this all about, Sokka?" Aang asked.

The Tribesman turned to face the group once the door to the shed was closed. "Katara, I want you to stay away from Hama. Something doesn't feel right about her," he told his sister.

"Enough with your paranoia, Sokka," she said with exasperated annoyance. "Hama is one of us. She's from our tribe." If they couldn't trust someone from their tribe, being a tribe would lose all meaning.

"Then why didn't she go back after escaping the prison?" he asked her. "Why did she stay here?"

"That's it! I've had enough of your stupid and baseless paranoia!" she told her brother, starting a rant. "Tomorrow morning, I am making Appa fly you back home where you can—"

SMACK!

The sound echoed through the shed. Aang, Toph, Appa, Momo, and even Akela were surprised and caught off guard at what just happened. Sokka had simply walked to his sister and slapped her across the face.

"Katara, for once in your life, you are going to shut up and you are going to listen to your big brother," he told her with complete seriousness. She was too shocked at what happened to speak. "It is true that I have been paranoid, I'm willing to admit that. But I've been paranoid because I have been worried about your safety and then the safety of this team. You seem to have gained the notion that every time I'm paranoid about something, I'm wrong. When I told you what I felt about Colonel Qing, you ignore me and told me to grow up. When I made my feelings about Shù Yè known repeatedly, you told me to stop being paranoid and I tried that. Look what happen both times. You led Colonel Qing to the colony, and if Naruto didn't risk his life to kill the Colonel, everyone in Kouzan would have been killed. Shù Yè turned out to be Naruto and had you listened, we might've not lost Ba Sing Se. You need to get your head out of the clouds, Katara and stay away from Hama."

Hot tears of angry and humiliation fell from Katara's face. "I am going to learn what Hama has to teach me," she told him. "Once I'm done, I expect you to apologize before I have Appa send you home." She turned around and stomped out of the shed, slamming the door open.

They left the undergarment store and kept on walking through the streets, looking at random things. "Hey look, a new weapon store," Mai said, pointing at the store in question.

"Let's see what they got," Kori said, a little excited to see what they had. They walked in and started looking around.

"Hey, Zuko," Temari said as she and the prince of the Fire Nation looked at the swords. "Have you ever thought of getting a new pair of Dao swords?"

"I made the swords I have, Temari," he replied. "Why would I throw them away?" She just shrugged her shoulders in reply. "Also, I have the distinct feeling if that I throw them, they'd get pissed."

"They'd get pissed?" she asked, unsure if she had heard him right.

"Actually, it's singular, not plural," he amended.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure, but I think that my swords are somehow sentient. Like there's a spirit living in them," he tried to explain. It sounded ridiculous, but it was the only way he could explain it.

"How can a sword be sentient?"

"One word, Temari: Samehada," Naruto said, having overheard them.

"Oh, good point." She had forgotten about that infamous sword.

Kori was looking at lengths of chain for her spiked meteor hammer when she noticed something interesting. She was looking at a black leather belt. It was beautifully crafted, but they noticed the two holes in the side. "That's good work right there," she noted, getting everyone's attention.

"It's a prototype," the shop owner explained as he came over to them. "The belt has dagger scabbards built into it. It might have a little extra weight, but you'll still be able to fight with it on."

"Why has no one bought it?" Mai asked.

"Nobody really uses daggers around here. They've already got a sword, a pike, or Firebending." He walked away, going back to his store.

"Why don't you buy it, Mai?" Kankurō suggested. "You use daggers."

"I use knives," she told him pointedly. "There is a difference."

"What about you, Azula?" Kori asked the princess of the Fire Nation. "You've trained with daggers."

"True, but Father believes that I only need my Firebending," she explained. "He knows that I've practiced with daggers, but that's it. He'll be furious if I bought something that had to do with daggers." While she talked, Zuko and Mai shared a look with each other and nodded.

"That's a pity," Temari said.

"Let's keep going," Ty Lee said. They all walked out of the store and back onto the street.

Katara was determined to prove her brother wrong, going with Hama to learn what she had to offer. They walked away from the village, so they could have privacy. They soon arrived at what appeared to be an open field, filled with small flowers and large patches of grass. "Growing up in the South Pole," Hama began, "Waterbenders are totally at home surrounded by snow and ice and seas. But as you've probably noticed on your travels, this isn't the case wherever you go."

"I know," Katara agreed. "When we were stranded in the desert, I felt like there was almost nothing I could do." She had never felt so helpless until then.

"That's why you have to learn to control water wherever it exists."

"I've even used my own sweat for Waterbending," the young Waterbender told the old Waterbender.

"That's very resourceful, Katara," she praised the girl. "You're thinking like a true master. But did you know you could even pull water out of thin air?" She bent water out of the atmosphere and covered her fingers with it. "You've got to keep an open mind, Katara," she said as the water froze, turning into ice and giving her claws. "There's water in places you never think about." She hurled the claws at a tree and saw that they had struck the bark. Katara watched it all in amazement.

"This has got to be the nicest natural setting in the Fire Nation," Aang declared as he looked down at a river and the surrounding area. "I don't see anything that would make a spirit mad around here."

"So it could be a human," Sokka pointed out as he stood by a tree with Akela at his side.

"Or maybe the Moon Spirit just turned mean," Toph suggested from where she stood next to Sokka and Akela.

"Toph, the Moon Spirit is a gentle, loving lady," the Tribesman told the blind Earthbender. "She would never do something like this."

"And you would this how?" she asked him.

"I knew her when she was still human." That was the only he was going to say. Thinking of Yue still hurt.

Aang noticed a nearby villager walking by. "Excuse me, sir," he said, running over to him. "Can you tell us anything about the spirit that's been stealing people?"

"Only one man ever saw it and lived," the villager answered after thinking it over. "And that's Old Man Ding."

"Where does Old Man Ding live?" Toph asked him, grabbing his arm to see if he was lying or not.

"Wow," Katara said as she and Hama walked through a field of flowers. "These flowers are beautiful."

"They're called fire lilies," Hama told her. "They only bloom a few weeks a year. But they're one of my favorite things about living here. And like all plants, and all living things, they're filled with water."

"I met a Waterbender who lived in a swamp and could control the vines by bending the water inside." It had been one of the most impressive displays of Waterbending she had ever seen.

"You can take even further." The old innkeeper spun in a circle, bending the water out of the flowers and then hurled it at a rock, cutting it to pieces.

"That was incredible!" Katara exclaimed before looking down at the withered flowers. "It's a shame about the lilies though."

"They're just flowers," Hama said dismissively. "When you're a Waterbender in a strange land, you do what you must to survive. Tonight, I'll teach you the ultimate technique of Waterbending. It can only be done during the full moon when your bending is at its peak."

"But…isn't that dangerous?" she asked with concern. "I thought people have been disappearing around here during the full moon."

"Oh, Katara. Two Waterbender masters beneath a full moon? I don't think we have anything to worry about." She began to walk out of the field and Katara followed.

All in all, Naruto and the others had a fun day out on the town. If they had been able to take a photo, they would've taken several. It was the kind of day that made it seem like there was nothing wrong with their lives. All they had to do was to have fun and be with their friends. But even the day had to obey one of the ancient laws of the universe: All good things must come to an end.

"That was great!" Ty Lee cheered as they walked back to the palace.

"Yeah, it was," Temari agreed.

"Despite being a pack mule, I'd have to agree," Kankurō said. The stuff he was lugging was liable to put a cramp somewhere in his back.

"Stop complaining, Kankurō," she told her brother. "I saw you at that puppet store. You were surrounded by teenager girls. You looked like you were enjoying yourself."

"Actually, I was trying to make sure I didn't make an ass of myself," he replied. If he had done so, the Puppeteer Corps would never let him live it down.

"What I found funny was that Gaara was swarmed by little girls," Naruto said with laughter in his voice. "You looked like a big, red-headed teddy bear," he told the Kazekage.

"It was kinda cute to watch," Ty Lee admitted. The little girls had all but swarmed over him. But he handled them well and didn't favor one over the other. When it was time for him to leave, they almost had to pull him out of there.

"I thought of it as practice," Gaara told them.

"Practice for what?" asked Mai. What could that have been practice for?

"For when I become a father." They were all surprised when they heard that. That hadn't been an answer they were expecting.

"So, you're planning to be the father of a horde of girls? You're going to have your work cut out for you, Gaara," Naruto said, making the others laugh. "But in all seriousness, I think you would make a great dad."

"Thanks, Naruto. I think you would too." That comment managed to make both Naruto and Azula blush at the same time (nobody asked why Azula was blushing, they weren't that dense).

"Well, I know today was fun and all," Kori said, getting everyone's attention. "I better go back to my room and pack." The mood felt somber. Everyone had just remembered that she was leaving.

"Come on, Kori," Azula said, placing her hand in the girl's shoulder. "I'll help you pack."

"Thanks, Azula." The two of them walked away and the others dispersed, taking what they bought with them.

Night had fallen at the village and mostly every villager who lived there were inside. Sokka, Aang, Toph and Akela walked through the streets, looking for a specific person. "Old Man Ding?" asked Aang as they found the man they were looking for.

The man turned towards them and swung his hammer, accidently hitting his thumb. "Dang blame it!" he swore before looking at them. "What? Can't you see I'm busy? We've got a full moon rising. And why does everyone call me that? I'm not that old." He tried to pick a board and failed. "Well, I'm young at heart." Aang decided to help him with the board. "Not ready to get snapped up by some moon monster yet at least."

"We wanted to ask you about that," Sokka said as he picked up the hammer and started hammering in the nails.

"Did you get a good look at the spirit that took you?" Aang asked the old man as they held the board in place on the window.

"Didn't see no spirit, just felt something come over me like I was possessed. Forced me to start walking toward the mountain," he pointed at said mountain. "I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs. It just about had me into a cave up there. And I looked up at the moon for what I thought would be my last glimpse of light. But then, the sun started to rise, and I got control of myself again, I just high-tailed it away from that mountain as quick as I could!"

"I don't think a spirit would take people to a mountain," Sokka said.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Toph suddenly. "I did hear people screaming under the mountain. The missing villagers must still be there!" They looked at the mountain and, without saying a word to Old Man Ding, sprinted towards it and then up it. "I can hear them," she said after putting a hand on the ground when they were properly on the mountain. "They're this way." They ran off into a different direction, the one where Toph was running towards.

"Can you feel the power the full moon brings?" Hama asked Katara as they walked through the woods on the mountain. She stopped and inhale through her nose. "For generations, it has blessed Waterbenders with its glow, allowing us to do incredible things!" The veins in her arms bulged out, making Katara look at her with small surprise. "I've never felt more alive!"

"This is the place," Toph declared as they stopped in front of a cave.

"I can't see anything down there," Sokka said. It just looked like a black hole leading into the mountain.

"That's why you have me." She grabbed his hand. "Let's go." They jumped into the cave and went forward until they ran into a metal wall and door. Undeterred, she bent the metal door off its hinges and knocked it down. They ran down the tunnel with Aang and Sokka carrying torches. They soon found the missing villagers, chained to columns.

"We're saved!" one villager said. Toph got to work getting the people out of their chains, using her space rock to pick the locks.

"I didn't know a spirit made prisons like this," Aang noted. "Who brought you here?" he asked the villagers.

"It was no spirit," a woman said.

"It was a witch," a second villager agreed.

"A witch?" asked Sokka, already getting a bad feeling. "What do you mean?"

"She seems like a normal old woman, but she controls people like some dark puppet master!" the woman explained as Toph undid her shackles.

He realized what she meant. "Hama!"

"Yes, the innkeeper!" the first villager agreed.

"I knew it! I knew there was something off about her!" Why didn't he act on it sooner?

"We have to stop Hama!" Aang declared.

"I'll get these people out of here," Toph told the two of them. "You go!"

"Akela, stay with her!" Sokka told the wolf before handing his torch to the woman and running back down the tunnel with Aang.

As a cat owl hooted and flew away, they faced the moon. "What I'm about to show you," Hama told Katara. "I discovered in that wretched Fire Nation prison." She could still remember what happened to her. "The guards were always careful to keep any water away from us. They piped in dry air and had us suspended away from the ground. Before giving us any water, they would bind our hands and our feet so we couldn't bend. Any sign of trouble was met with cruel retribution. And yet each month, I felt the full moon enriching me with its energy. There had to be something I could do to escape. Then I realize that where there is life, there is water. The rats that scurried across the floor of my cage were nothing more than skins filled with liquid, and I passed years developing the skill that would lead to my escape. Bloodbending," What she said made Katara nervous. "Controlling the water in another body, enforcing your own will over theirs,"

She remembered the years of practicing and developing the skill with perfect clarity. "Once I had mastered the rats, I was ready for the men. And during the next full moon, I walked free for the first time in decades. My cell unlocked by the very guards assigned to keep me in. Once you perfect this technique, you can control anything or anyone."

"But…to reach inside someone and control them?" Katara asked. "I-I don't know if I want that power." It sounded wrong, so very wrong.

"The choice is not yours," Hama told her. "The power exists. And it's your duty to use the gifts you've been given to win this war. Katara, they tried to wipe us out, our entire culture, your mother!"

"I know." Spirits, did she know. But it still sounded wrong.

"Then you should understand what I'm talking about! We're the last two Waterbenders of the Southern Tribe. We have to fight these people whenever we can, wherever they are, with any means necessary!"

That was when she realized that Sokka had been right the entire time. "It's you…you're the one who's been making people disappear during the full moons!"

"They threw me in prison to rot, along with my brothers and sisters!" she stated, a crazed look beginning to form on her face. "They deserve the same! You must carry on my work!"

"I won't! I won't use Bloodbending and I won't allow you to keep terrorizing this town!" Katara declared, pointing her finger at her. Suddenly, her arm twisted around. She tried to stop it, but it didn't work.

"You should've learned the technique before you turned against me!" Hama made her stand stiff. "It's impossible to fight your way out of my grip! I control every muscle, every vein in your body!" She began to play around, treating Katara like she was a puppet.

"Stop, please," she begged as she was forced to her knees with tears in her eyes. Hama only cackled in response. The cackling stopped as Katara forced herself to stand up again, the tears disappearing. "You're not the only one who draws power from the moon! My bending is more powerful than yours, Hama. Your technique is useless against me!" She declared. She drew water from the ground and threw it at Hama, who returned it.

This went on for a few more times, before Hama bent the water out of two trees behind her (which shattered the trees), deflected the attack from Katara and sent it at her. She simply slammed her palmed against it, shattering it into droplets, surprising Hama. She took advantage of the surprise by using her Waterbending to knock the old innkeeper down to the ground.

As she stood up again, Sokka and Aang appeared out of the forest behind her. "We know what you've been doing, Hama!" Sokka told her.

"Give up!" Aang ordered her as he took a stance. "You're outnumbered!"

"No!" she replied, standing up from where she fell. "You've outnumbered yourselves." She took control of them both, making them go stiff as a board, and sent them at Katara.

She dodged them and bent water at Hama. Her response was to bend the water out of another tree (destroying it) and bend it into a wheel of water, blocking her attack. "Katara, look out!" Sokka told her as he unwillingly stood back up and drew his jian. He swung wildly at her, forcing her back. She knocked him aside with water she bent out of the ground.

"This feels weird!" Aang declared as he was forced to attack her. She used her water to knock him up against a tree and then froze him there.

"I'm sorry, Aang!" she apologized.

"It's okay!" he assured her. Sokka came back at her, forcing her to destroy a tree by bending the water out of it and knocking him against another tree, freezing his sword hand against it.

"Don't hurt your friends, Katara!" Hama mocked the young Waterbender. "And don't let them hurt each other!" She bent them out of the ice and hurled them at each other.

"NO!" she cried as Sokka's jian was about to pierce Aang. They suddenly stop and had control over themselves. Hama, however, suddenly stiffened. Katara had no other choice. To save her brother and her friend, she had been forced to use Bloodbending on Hama. As the old innkeeper was forced to her knees, everyone heard a howl of a wolf in the air.

"Looks like Toph brought a few friends," Sokka remarked as Toph, Akela and the missing villagers arrived.

Hama was soon clasped in irons. "You're going to be locked away forever!" one villager declared.

"My work is done," Hama said before looking back at Katara. "Congratulation Katara, you're a Bloodbender." She cackled as she was taken away.

Katara fell to the ground, crying. Both Aang and Sokka knelt beside her to give her comfort. "I'm sorry, Sokka," she sobbed. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Katara," he told her. Now wasn't the time to tell her he told her so. He had to be a big brother.

"No, it's not," she said, the tears still falling. "You told me the truth and I blew you off, like I always did. I could've seriously hurt someone because of my pride. You and Aang nearly died because I was so arrogant."

"It's over, Katara." He gave her a hug. "She's gone and she won't be able to hurt anyone where she's going."

"But it's still my fault." And it would haunt her for the rest of her life. She had nearly killed her own friends and family because of what happened.

Azula walked down a corridor, going to her room. It had been a long, fun-filled day and she was tired. "Where's your friend?" Yāo Jing asked her, standing against a nearby wall. "That colony trash, where's she at?"

"Kori is not trash, Yāo Jing," she replied, turning to face her. "You would do well to remember that."

"You still haven't answered my question. Where is she?"

"Why do you even care?" The last time she had checked, her bastard sister didn't even want to be in the same room as Kori. "You're not really interested in the friends I make."

"I'm curious."

"She left. She went back home."

"That's a pity. I was hoping to get to know her better."

Her hands covered themselves in blue flames when she heard that comment. "You touch her, you even look at her, and I'll…!"

"You'll what?" Yāo Jing asked with a smug smirk on her face, knowing that she had her little sister.

"I'll burn your photo of Chun," the princess of the Fire Nation threatened her, only to be suddenly slammed into the wall behind her. Her sister held her there by her neck and was slowly choking her.

"You do that, and I will give you a slow horrible death!" she snarled. Her eyes were furious and…scared. She was scared that the photo would be destroyed.

"If I were you, Yāo Jing," Naruto said from behind her, the sound of a jian being drawn echoing through the corridor. "I would let her go unless you want your head flying through the air without your body attached."

She let Azula go, letting her fall to the ground. She started to walk away when Azula spoke out, making her stop. "Do you wish you had more time to spend with her? Or so you could get to know her more?" she asked her sister as Naruto helped her up.

"It doesn't matter and it's none of your business," she told them without turning to face them. She walked away, soon disappearing.

"Do you really need to antagonize her, Azula?" Naruto asked as he put the jian away.

"She threatened Kori," she answered as they walked through the hallways to her room.

"So, you threatened her with Chun's photo?" After what they had learned, that was probably not a good idea.

"It was the only thing I knew that would get to her," the princess of the Fire Nation replied. "I didn't think the reaction would be that extreme."

"Did you forget our conversation this morning? You know the one about the maid?"

"I'm sorry, okay," They fell silent as they entered her room. Before she did anything else, she turned to face her bodyguard. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

He stayed at the door. "Why was that letter a forgery?"

She instantly froze when she heard that question. "W-what are you talking about?"

"I'm not an idiot, Azula," he told her. "I know you forged that letter from Mr. Morishita. Now I want to know why."

"Because…" she tried to say it, but was having a hard time.

"Because…?" he repeated the word, albeit as a question.

She summoned up her courage and finished what she was going to say. "I was trying to protect her. You heard what Yāo Jing said and you know what she meant. I wasn't about to let Kori be in trouble because of family politics. I knew that the safest place for her to be right now is at Yu Dao, at her home."

"Why didn't you just tell her to leave?" He had thought the two of them were friends.

"She had been looking forward to this trip and I didn't want to hurt her feelings by making her leave early. I also didn't want her to hate me." That would've hurt her even more then what she had done, she was sure of it.

"So, you made that letter."

"To protect her from my family," she said with complete seriousness. "And…well, to protect her from the other thing as well."

They both knew what the "other thing" was, but did not speak of it. "I see," Naruto said. "You did this to protect a friend."

"Yes, I did."

"So, you finally managed to find your answer."

She nodded. "It took me a while. I couldn't really figure it out until after what happened to us in Ba Sing Se. Then it came to me, and I slowly began to figure it out. I finally got it after Ember Island and after I met Chun."

"So, what is your answer?" He knew that she knew it, but he wanted to hear her say it.

She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. "My friends and my family are important to me. If anyone harms them, that person will know suffering and pain," she vowed.

He smiled. "I see. Then it's a good thing I sent a messenger hawk to Mr. Morishita, explaining what you did and asking him to play along." He turned around and started to walk away, only to stop and turn around again. "Azula, if you consider family important, then will you still follow your father?"

"Leave that to me," She told him, turning to face her room. "I'll handle that when the time comes."

"As you wish." He bowed to her. "Goodnight, Azula."

"Goodnight, Naruto." She heard the door close behind her. "Yeah, I'll handle it," she muttered to herself with a bit of self-mocking. "Like it'll be that easy."

End

Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews you've sent me.

For the record, I've been planning that slap. I've planning it ever since the beginning. To me, this was one of those episodes that could've been avoided if Katara had just thought with her head instead of her heart. Just because someone is from the same place as you, doesn't they're on your side. It doesn't even mean that they share the ideals either. If she was captured by the Fire Nation, escaped and then stayed there, she was not going to be playing with dolls and being the nice old lady that entire time.

It had also come to the point where I felt that Sokka really needed to do something about Katara every time she thinks he's wrong. And nothing gets your attention and shuts you up at the same time better than a slap across the face.

Kori left. Did you really expect her to be there when the invasion happened? That would've made me keep her around until the Boiling Rock or have her come with them. At that point, things would've gotten way too complicated.

Sorry if I was a little short on the Royal Family side of the story. I knew if I kept to just Team Avatar, there would be those of you who complain about it. Also, I've never really had one of those days myself, so I'm just guessing what would happen based on what I've read (and I'm not just talking about Fanfiction here). Personally I would never be a pack that was me, I would tell the girl to carry her own damn bags. She bought them, she can haul them. You don't like it, tough shit.

I'll see you all next chapter!