When Chi Meets Chakra: A Space-Time Adventure

by jido96

After confronting a mysterious man who had broken into his house, Shujinko Ozuma, a fourteen year-old Chunin, gets thrown into the Avatar universe by accident. There, he will meet Avatar Aang and join his group as they fight against the Fire Nation. But who is this mysterious man? And why does he knows about the Ozuma clan's past? Will Shujinko ever return to his home?

30. Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30: LAKE LAOGAI

(Disclaimer: Avatar The Last Airbender belongs to Nickelodeon and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OC's)

(PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO "SHUJINKO: THE FOURTH MEMBER", BUT A DIFFERENT STORY WITH SHUJINKO AS THE MAIN CHARACTER. THIS STORY WILL NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT WHATSOEVER IN "SHUJINKO SHIPPUDEN". I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO SHUJINKO'S ORIGINAL STORY)

Summary: One night, a stranger breaks into Shujinko's house and tries to steal one of the most mystical objects in the history of the Ozuma clan: The Eye of Kazemaru. When Shujinko tries to stop him, the two of them activate an ancient and forgotten power of the gem by accident, which sends them to another dimension where a certain bald-headed monk has to master the four elements in order to defeat the evil Fire Lord. What kind of impact will Shujinko's presence have in the Avatar universe? Who is this stranger and what does he want? Get ready for one wild space-time adventure

---

|Lower Ring at night|

Regardless of their age, nationality, and spiritual beliefs, one thing could be considered true for all monks: They were not known for being boastful. Such an attitude was pretty much incompatible with a lifestyle devoted to peace, wisdom, and humbleness. They had little use and regard for material goods outside of the ones that covered their bare necessities and found more joy in sharing than in keeping.

More often than not, monkhood came with the detachment of worldly concerns, and to that end, they tended to seclude themselves from the rest of society alongside their spiritual brothers and sisters, thus forming a small community of their own. As a result, these people disconnected themselves from many things, including emotions that were all too meaningless and yet all too human, such as egoism, vanity, and the desire to elicit envy from others.

However, if Aang were to be asked if there was anything he'd like to brag about, the answer to that would be the friends he had found in Team Avatar: They were all different in their own way, with unique qualities and shortcomings that set them apart from one other. But no matter how many contrasts and discrepancies could be drawn between them, there were also similarities to be found. One thing they all had in common was the trust they shared, and Aang trusted them with his heart.

But as much trust as Aang had in each and every one of his friends, he'd be lying if he said he had no misgivings about what was going on right with Katara now.

It all started when Katara came back after a brief pause and announced that she might be able to do something to solve the confusing problem that Jet's memories had proven to be. Those were great news indeed. Quite unexpected, but great all the same. When asked about it, Katara refused to elaborate, arguing that she wouldn't be able to pull it off if she were to reveal what her little trick entailed. As if the situation couldn't get any more enigmatic, the waterbender then requested everyone to go for a walk as she needed to work with Jet alone, asking her friends to just have faith in her and assuring them that she would explain everything once the issue was taken care of.

Needless to say, the rest of Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters were puzzled by Katara's petitions and odd behavior. Smellerbee was particularly skeptical of the waterbender and demanded to know what was it that she was planning on doing with Jet, but the lips of the daughter of Hakoda remained sealed. In the end, Jet had to step in and ask Smellerbee and Longshot to follow Katara's instructions even though he himself had his fair share of doubts. Not knowing what else to do, the members of both parties reluctantly complied and went for a late-night stroll, feeling more wariness than hope.

After traipsing around the crummy, unsavory streets of the Lower Ring for roughly an hour, the gaggle of teenagers voted in favor of checking in on Katara and Jet, if only just to get an update on whatever the heck they were up to.

"I really hope those two are done by now," Aang commented as he held Momo in his arms and gently scratched the scruff of the Winged Lemur's neck. "I know I already said this, but I just can't get over how odd Katara was acting. What could be so special about the way she's helping Jet that she has to keep us out of the loop?"

Bored out of his mind, Sokka grabbed his boomerang and threw it at an angle that would allow the weapon to come back to its owner. "Your guess is as good as mine, buddy. My sister has never been the secretive sort. Still, I suppose I'm fine with whatever method she's using as long as she makes it work in the end,"

"Wanna know what I think?" Toph asked ever so innocently as she intertwined her fingers and placed her hands on the back of her head. Just like Sokka, she too was bored, and she couldn't think of a better way to entertain herself than messing with the pair of lovable dunces she had come to call friends. "I think Katara and Jet have been smooching up a storm this whole time,"

"What?" Aang and Sokka asked simultaneously. The latter was caught so off-guard that he forgot to catch his boomerang and got smacked in the head by it almost immediately after, which put him out of commission for a few seconds. "Come on, Toph. You're not being serious right now, are you?"

"Hey, it makes sense when you think about it. From what I understand, Katara used to have a thing for Jet back in the day. Seeing him again might've reignited that old flame. Obviously, she doesn't want to make her true feelings for the guy public, so she sent us away without giving us a proper reason. Don't you get it? It was nothing more than an excuse to get some privacy," As if more emphasis was needed, Toph puckered her lips to make a disgusting squelchy kissing noise.

"Nah, that's beyond impossible," Sokka said as he got back up, rubbing the spot on his head where the boomerang had hit him. "Katara having feelings for Jet is about as likely as me having feelings for Gran Gran and her fish cakes. I mean, I do love Gran Gran, but not like that, and her fish cakes are an abomination. Besides, my sister is too good for a forest-dwelling pretty boy with anger issues, even if he is doing better than before,"

Knowing that the bait had been taken, the earthbender's lips curled into a devilish grin."Look who's talking. Weren't you the one who told Katara to kiss Jet in the first place? Don't try to deny it, we all heard you make that interesting suggestion. In fact, I daresay you were the one who planted the idea in your sister's head. Not my fault she decided to go through with it, though I will give Katara some credit. I never would've thought a goody-goody like her could be so bold,"

"I was joking when I said that! Good grief, what is it with you people? Am I the only one with a sense of humor around here?"

"Katara would never do something like that. She's never been into Jet at all," Aang stated with a degree of certainty that was almost suspicious. "… And if she ever was interested in him, it was long ago and not the case anymore,"

"You may be right, Twinkletoes. But then again, maybe you're not. Maybe Katara has a certain type and Jet happens to tick all of her boxes. It can't be easy to have a thrilling dating life when you're traveling around the world and fighting a war at the same time, and now that Jet's here, she wants to enjoy a bit of romance before-"

"No, she doesn't!" Aang shouted, much to the surprise of everyone else around him. Even a couple of locals turned their heads around, though the airbender took no notice of them as he continued to frown at the Blind Bandit, gripping his staff unnecessarily hard. Longshot and Smellerbee looked at each other with equally awkward expressions on their faces and lowered their pace in hopes of staving off some of the attention they were getting from curious bystanders.

"Okay, okay, settle down. Sheesh, I was just having a bit of fun with the pair of you. I know that Sugar Queen isn't that type of girl, but we could use some levity right about now," the Blind Bandit said before giving Aang a frown of her own. "You know, I might not be the most hilarious person ever, but you didn't have to get so worked up over a joke, Twinkletoes. Was my little jape that awful or is there something you wanna get off your chest?"

Only then did the Avatar realize he might've expressed his convictions a bit too loudly, followed by his cheeks turning rose red. "I… You're right, I overreacted. I'm sorry, Toph,"

"Meh, no harm done. Still, why the outburst? What was so offensive about what I said?"

"N-No, I wasn't offended or anything. It's just… I guess I'm feeling more anxious than I realized. Jet's memories might be the key to everything. If he doesn't get them back, we might not get Appa back. There's a lot on the line right now, and not knowing what Katara is doing in the meantime isn't helping," Toph accepted Aang's explanation with a shrug of her shoulders while making a 'mhm' noise, allowing the airbender to breathe a little easier.

The young monk hadn't forgotten how he felt watching Shujinko and Katara at Bosco's birthday party. Those two seemed so cozy and comfortable talking together; they could've easily been mistaken for a young couple in his opinion. Part of him wanted to believe they were just putting on an act so as to blend in with the crowd, but a grain of critical thought was enough to invalidate that theory. They were sitting pretty much by themselves with none of the guests' eyes on them, so it was silly to think the Chūnin and the waterbender had been flirting with each other to avoid looking suspicious. Aang wasn't the most astute twelve-year-old in the world, but he was not that gullible either.

He had managed to push this memory to the corner of his mind due to the number of things that were revealed to the members of Team Avatar during and after their meeting with Long Feng. Now, those previous feelings of insecurity and jealousy were rearing their ugly heads again thanks to Toph's inopportune jest, as if Aang didn't have enough on his plate already.

"So anyways, what's up with that friend of yours?" Smellerbee asked, referring to the absent Chūnin. "Don't get me wrong. I try not to be judgmental of other people, but I don't think I've ever met someone half as strange as him. All that balderdash he spewed was enough to make my head spin, yet you three acted like he was making perfect sense. Anyone care to fill me in?"

Even though he knew it was only a matter of time before this topic came up, Sokka couldn't help but let out a whining grunt all the same. "Yeah, about that, I think I'm gonna sit this one out. Aang, the floor is all yours,"

"Huh? You want me to…?" Smellerbee's gaze turned to the Avatar, who couldn't help but press his lips together in slight discomfort. "… Uuhm, okay, so the thing is… I mean, it's hard to explain. Basically, it's like… Maybe I should start with-"

"What Twinkletoes is trying to say is that you're better off not asking about Shujinko," Toph said, coming to her friend's aid in her classic straightforward fashion. "It'd take too long to explain and you wouldn't understand half of it, let alone believe anything we say,"

Smellerbee exchanged glances with Longshot before letting out an incredulous scoff, half amused and half in disbelief. "You talk as if he's some sorta mythical entity. Meanwhile, we're literally walking with the Avatar in the flesh, the legendary master of all four elements who hasn't been seen for the last hundred years. Compared to him, Shujinko can't possibly be that big of a deal,"

"Yup, you said it. He's not that big of a deal, so why bother asking about him?"

Toph's retort didn't sit well with the female member of the Freedom Fighters, who was getting fed up with the blatantly elusive answers she was receiving. They were deliberately keeping her and Longshot in the dark, and to add salt to the wound, they weren't even shielding their intentions behind a pretext such as "Sorry, we don't talk about our friends' personal lives behind their backs" or something to that effect. It wouldn't have been enough for her to drop the subject entirely, but it still would've been better than the poor excuse of an answer she got.

Usually, Smellerbee refrained from snooping into other people's lives for the same reason she didn't appreciate others prying into her affairs. In broad terms, if something or someone had nothing to do with her or the Freedom Fighters, then she saw no reason to concern herself. However, it was different this time. Jet's well-being was on the line, and if Shujinko influenced any decisions with his crazy talk, then she had every damn right to inquire about him and no one could tell her otherwise.

It wasn't that she was opposed to the golden-eyed boy or had a grudge against him. Frankly, he was too much of a stranger for either of those things to be the case. All the same, they were expecting a little too much of her if they thought she wasn't going to call out the bizarre stuff that came out of Shujinko's mouth, and the fact that the other members of Team Avatar were so nonchalant about it only made Smellerbee more determined to learn the truth.

'I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another,' Smellerbee thought as the two groups made it to the last street, the front of the one-room flat now within sight. 'For now, Jet is my only concern,'

Coincidentally enough, Jet and Katara stepped out of the flat just as they were about to get there. Upon seeing them, Smellerbee heaved in a breath, but before any words could abandon her lips, she and Longshot were already being approached by their leader, who looked as though a divine revelation had just dawned upon him. "Longshot, Smellerbee, you two were right. You were right about everything. I never worked at that warehouse, and I did get arrested. All those memories I thought were real turned out to be a lie, like… Like a dream that wasn't my own. I'm sorry I didn't believe you,"

His words caught Smellerbee off-guard, but the initial shock wore off fairly quickly, taking her only a few seconds to wrap her arms around Jet in a comforting hug. "Don't worry; you don't have to apologize. You're okay now and that's the only thing that matters," Loyal to his personality, Longshot said nothing, though he did pat Jet on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring nod as a way to complement Smellerbee's sentiment.

"I take it Jet's got his memories back?" Toph asked, to which Katara nodded solemnly.

"He does, and that's not all. We think we know where Appa might be,"

"Wait, you do?" Aang asked, his eyes widening in utmost surprise.

"There's a place between the Lower Ring and the Agrarian Zone called Lake Laogai. Jet's memories are still fuzzy, but he recalls being taken to a hidden base of the Dai Li that's located there. According to him, that base is big enough to keep a creature as big as Appa locked up, though he doesn't remember actually seeing him while he was held prisoner. Still, it's a solid lead if you ask me, not to mention the only one we have,"

The Avatar's eyes shone with renewed vigor. "Then we're going to Lake Laogai tonight. I refuse to keep Appa waiting any longer,"

"Alright Katara, time to spill the beans," Sokka said, ready to ask what was everyone's minds. "What did you do to make Jet remember what happened to him?"

"Nothing too special, really. We simply went over everything he did over and over again until he remembered enough details to piece the real story together. Jet did most of the work; I only asked him questions and pointed out inconsistencies here and there," It was honestly funny the way the anticipation shown on her brother's face turned to incredulity, but Katara couldn't bring herself to smirk in amusement. Instead, she remained impassive, or at least tried to.

"Wait, that's it? You just talked? I mean, I'm glad it did the trick, but that was a whole lot of mystery you hit us with just to have a private chat with Jet. Why ask us to leave if that's all you were gonna do?"

"To ensure that no one would distract Jet or make him feel pressured," Katara replied without missing a beat, to which Sokka nodded in understanding. It made sense, he supposed, though he couldn't help but feel like his sister had prepared herself for his question, almost like she was too ready to answer him. The waterbender's attitude was making his "sibling sense" tingle, more so when he noticed her eyes darting left and right. "Where is Shujinko, by the way?"

"Dunno. Probably out there somewhere,"

Whether she tried to hide it or not, Katara was visibly alarmed by Aang's response, further confirming his suspicions. "He… He's not with you? Why?"

"He did come with us, but he left after a while. Turns out one of his kunai was missing. He figured he must've dropped it somewhere along the way, so he excused himself and went looking for it on his own. I guess he doesn't wanna lose any of his ninja tools given how much he uses them," Sokka replied nonchalantly before throwing in the baited hook. "Anything you'd like to share with us, sis?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing, it's just that you seem overly concerned for some reason. Just because Shujinko isn't here right now doesn't mean he's in trouble, and if he is, well, he's not exactly the defenseless type, is he? No need to worry,"

Katara snorted while crossing her arms in front of her chest, turning away from Sokka and Aang rather overdramatically. "Of course I get worried; I'm the only one of us who does. Whenever you boys run off on your own like that, it always ends badly, so forgive me for not feeling all that calm right now. It doesn't have to do with Shujinko specifically," As if her behavior wasn't odd enough, she then took a couple of steps away from them, only to turn around with a thoughtful expression on her face almost immediately after. "You know, I just realized we haven't eaten anything since breakfast,"

"There's a food market two or three blocks from here," Smellerbee said, pointing her finger in the direction of the place of interest."It's mostly empty by now, but there might be a few merchants still around. If you hurry, you should be able to get there before the last of them leave,"

"Now that Sugar Queen mentions it, I think we could all do with something to eat," Toph commented, followed by her belly letting out an audible growl of hunger. "I know I can,"

"Great; you guys wait here while I go get us some food. I'll try to make it quick,"

"Want me to go with you, Katara?" Aang offered her a helpful smile as he gave his staff a twirl. "With my glider, I could fly there in no time and buy everything we need right away,"

In spite of her efforts, the smile that Katara gave in return was less than convincing. "Thanks, but I'd rather go alone. It's not that far anyways,"

"Are you sure? It's dark out there, plus you might need someone to help you carry groceries. There are eight of us in total; that's a lot of –"

"I'll manage, okay?" The waterbender's curt response caught the monk flatfooted. A few seconds of silence later, Katara weaved a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose, her lips pressed down into a thin line. "Sorry Aang, I didn't mean to be rude. I'm just a little stressed out at the moment, but I'll get over it in a minute. Seriously, it's not your fault, not one bit,"

"… If you say so,"

Though not without reservations, Sokka concluded that whatever was causing his sister's odd behavior could be addressed and unpacked at a later date, so he decided to cut her some slack for the time being. "You heard my sister, Aang. Let her go last-minute shopping like she wants. Meanwhile, you and I can think of a strategy to rescue Appa. We can't let Shujinko do all of the planning, am I right?"

---

|Later|

As far as fruits go, Katara wasn't all that fond of oranges. They were too sweet for her taste; they left her fingers sticky as well as smelly; and she found it rather bothersome not being able to eat them without peeling them first.

Nevertheless, Katara was currently making her way back from the food market with two baskets of oranges after convincing the last merchant there to sell her some of his goods before leaving. The merchant had enough of them to feed Katara, her friends, and the Freedom Fighters, so she disregarded her own preferences and bought the lot, including baskets to carry them all. Ignoring her arms' protests, the waterbender had deliberately taken a longer route back so that she could have a few more minutes to gather her thoughts.

Everything had gone as smoothly as it could have, she supposed. Jet's real memories had reawakened and no one had interrogated her too strongly about it. The other members of Team Avatar seemed willing to give her the benefit of the doubt as they had more pressing issues to focus on, or maybe they simply didn't feel the need to ask her questions right now. Either way was fine with her, to be honest.

As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Katara would sit her friends down and come clean to them of her own accord. She owed them as much. In fact, had the circumstances been different, she would've had no need to deceive them in the first place. Alas, what was done was done, and all she could do now was to move forward and wait patiently for the appropriate moment to disclose everything.

'They'll understand,' Katara assured herself, her hands tightening. 'He will understand,'

"… Katara,"

The waterbender stopped dead in her tracks as the baskets fell to the ground, causing some of the oranges to come rolling out. Startled, she looked at the alleyway to her right and saw the silhouette of a person walking toward her. Instinct kicked in, and Katara got into a combat stance as she opened her zahato, ready to defend herself against who she assumed to be a foe.

"Who are you?" Katara asked the approaching figure, receiving only silence in return. It didn't matter, however, as the answer to her question was revealed shortly after. "Shujinko? What are you-?"

To the waterbender's absolute shock, Shujinko grabbed her by the wrist and began to pull her into the same alleyway he'd just walked out of. "Shujinko, what do you think you're doing!? Stop it!" she protested, but to no avail. The golden-eyed boy kept dragging her around in silence like a furious father whose child had exhausted his patience, caring not for what she had to say.

It wasn't until Katara started yelling that the Ozuma finally spoke to her. "Shut up and listen to me. You and I are gonna talk,"

"Talk? Talk about what? Why are you doing this?"

"Don't you dare play dumb with me, Katara. I swear it won't end well for you," Shujinko snarled as he finally stopped dragging her into the alleyway, though his hand remained firmly wrapped around her wrist. Katara was barely aware of this, however, as she was too busy trying to wrap her head around what was happening. "You owe me an explanation, for all the good it'll do,"

"I have no idea what's gotten into you, but you're not getting anything from me acting like this! I don't even know what this nonsense is about!"

"Oh, you don't? Fine then, let me clue you in,"

Shujinko proceeded to lean in even closer to the waterbender, the tip of their noses nearly coming into contact. Among the confusion and the proximity between the two of them, Katara started to think that the Ozuma was going to kiss her right then and there. Such senseless notion died a dog's dead before it could begin to make her feel nervous, however, as Shujinko's face stopped a mere inches away from hers, the anger in his eyes too intense to be mistaken for anything else.

"I know how you got Jet to remember what happened to him. I know it because I saw what you did to him with my own eyes. You never told me you were able to work miracles with that glowy water of yours,"

As if a spell had been cast over her, Katara's body went stiff at the same time that her skin grew rough, invaded by goosebumps. She opened her mouth to say something, but the words got stuck in her throat. "You… You…" was all she could articulate as she gawked at the brown-haired boy with her eyes peeled.

Regardless, no questions or responses were required from her. Hakoda's daughter wasn't stupid; she understood perfectly well what the Chūnin was referring to… which meant the worst-case scenario had come to pass.

He knew.

Somehow, Shujinko knew.

"The moment you asked us to leave the room, it became obvious that you were hiding something, but I couldn't shake the feeling that you were hiding it from me in particular. So, I trusted my gut and went back to find out what was going on. The windows and the drapes were closed, no doubt by you, but the holes in the roof were just wide enough for me to peek through them. I watched and heard everything from up there: Jet recalling his first days in the city and how he suspected two guys of being firebenders; you encouraging him to keep rummaging through more memories; and the Dai Li taking Jet to Lake Laogai. Are you gonna tell me I imagined all of that?"

What followed next was a deep and heavy silence, interrupted only by the Ozuma's loud breathing as he inhaled and exhaled through his nostrils. Katara remained quiet, unable to meet Shujinko's gaze with how intensely he was staring at her, and she didn't have it in her to even attempt to break away from his grip. She'd been caught dead to rights and she knew it.

"This entire time… You had a Waterbending technique that helps people regain their memories this entire time and you withheld it from me, knowing full well how badly I needed it. Not once did you ever mention its existence. I never would've found out about it if I hadn't spied on you earlier, and don't say you were planning on telling me or some other stupid excuse like that. After everything we've been through, you still wanted me to believe there was nothing you could do to help me... I never would've thought you capable of something like this,"

"Shujinko, I know this looks bad, but please calm down and hear me out befo-"

"Looks bad?" the Ozuma repeated, breaking into a low, throaty chuckle charged with ire and incredulity."You've got some nerve, you know that? That lecture you gave me this morning about how I shouldn't keep secrets from you, and then this happens. Never mind the hypocrisy; this… This is beyond cruel… I thought we were friends,"

"I am your friend!"

*CRACK*

It happened so fast that Katara didn't even have enough time to gasp in shock. With trembling lips and eyes like dinner plates, she watched as Shujinko pulled his fist out of the wooden fence after punching a hole through one of its boards, his hand sporting several scratches as well as a few splinters. The Ozuma didn't seem to register any pain. In fact, he welcomed it as a way to dull some of the anger that was boiling up inside of him before it spilled over.

"Friends don't stab each other in the back, Katara. And they sure as hell don't make fools out of the people they care about," the Chūnin said coldly, making the waterbender flinch. He could see her shrinking before him like a helpless creature, which only encouraged him to keep verbally stabbing her. "No matter how you try to rationalize it, the fact is you could've helped me regain my memory and chose not to. I'd probably be in my village right now if I could recall the events that lead me here. And if not, at least I wouldn't have to ask myself the same questions every night, wondering how I ended up in this damn mess. So quit beating around the bush and answer me already. Why didn't you reveal this technique to me before? Was it because you wanted me to stick around to fight the Fire Nation or do you just not want me to return home? Do I matter that little to you?"

"THAT'S NOT IT!" Katara finally snapped, yelling right in the Chūnin's face. Shujinko opened his mouth to retort, but like the unswung stroke of a sword, his breath got stuck in his throat when he noticed the waterbender's eyes welling up with tears. Only then did he realize how hard he was grabbing Katara and instinctively loosened his grip. It made no difference, however, as the pain in her wrist was insignificant compared to how badly his words had wounded her. "… That's… That's not it at all… You idiot,"

"Then why? Why did you keep me in the dark?"

"… Because I didn't want to put you at risk,"

Shujinko blinked in perplexity. "Put me at risk? At risk of what?"

…

|Agna Qel'a, Capital of the North Pole, before the Siege of the North|

"Now, now, ladies, settle down. Our class is about to begin,"

Yagoda glanced at her students, all of whom were now waiting quietly for her to proceed. It was rewarding to be shown this level of deference, one that she had earned with kindness and patience. She certainly preferred this over the cold, rigid discipline that war veterans instilled into young troops.

Before getting started, she took a moment to smile at her newest student sitting at the back, a girl by the name of Katara, who immediately caught and returned the gesture. Not only was she from the Southern Water Tribe, but she was also none other than the grandchild of Kanna, an old friend of Yagoda back in the day. Spirits, she was truly the spitting image of that woman! Yagoda had to end the smile and redirect her gaze elsewhere before she got caught up in her own memories and began reminiscing about simpler times, lest her students thought she was going senile.

"Sifu Yagoda, is everything alright?" one of the girls asked, having taken notice of her absent-mindedness.

"Apologies, my dear. Us elderly folk tend to get more distracted than we care to admit," Yagoda replied, eliciting a few respectful laughs from her students. "Luckily, the rest of you are still blessed with youth, so I expect your full attention. Today's lesson will be more demonstrative than practical, but special all the same,"

…

"In the days of old, when meeting the Fire Nation on the battlefield was a matter of 'when' and not 'if', most warriors of our tribe would return home with all manner of wounds. Cuts, broken bones, and burn marks were too common a sight. Some of them came back missing an arm or a leg, and those that did could consider themselves fortunate if their maimed limbs didn't get infected. Otherwise, they would have to lose more of their body if they wished to keep on living, and sometimes, even that sliver of hope and mercy would be denied to them,"

…

"However, not all injuries are visible to the human eye. Some of our warriors would come back home alive and in good health for the most part, yet broken all the same. Whatever their experiences on the battlefield were, these men were changed by them and became a husk of their former selves. They were stunned with fear and dread, unable to speak much of the horrors they'd seen, and in some instances, they couldn't even recall the memory that tortured them at all. This affliction came to be known as 'frozen mind',"

…

"With patience and practice, our people developed a healing technique to restore what had been taken away from these hapless souls. It was given the name 'Ice Shattering' in reference to the affliction it runs counter to, and although you won't be practicing this technique for some time, I will explain it to you,"

…

"As the name implies, the purpose of the 'Ice Shattering' technique is to shatter the ice of a frozen mind, breaking a victim's memories free of their constraints. If successful, the victim will remember everything he went through and will no longer be tormented by the illusions or false fantasies that once plagued his conscience. This does not mean he'll be fine right away, but at least he'll be able to get better and recover the lucidity he was deprived of,"

…

"But heed me, young ones, for this technique is anything but riskless. By making use of it, you are forcing another person to relive moments of their life, and more often than not, those moments are what caused them such distraught in the first place. Some may come back from the darkness, but those that don't will be swallowed by it fully,"

…

"I hope you never have to perform this technique on someone else. However, should you ever find yourselves in a situation where no other choice is available, never forget this: If you're not careful, you might shatter more than just the ice of a frozen mind. You'll shatter the victim's mind in its entirety, and a shattered mind, my beloved girls, is a mind beyond repair,"

|…|

"… I had never attempted the Ice Shattering technique up until now," Katara admitted, suffocating beneath the avalanche of shame that crashed down upon her, her skin crawling with the weight of her own revelation. "Jet is the first person I've used it on, and I only did it because I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't even sure if it would counter the effects of whatever was done to him. It was a shot in the dark more than anything,"

To say that Shujinko was at a loss for words was an understatement. It was as though he had lost the ability to speak altogether. All he could do was to keep opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of the water, but even a fish would be able to discern the emotions he was experiencing right now better than him. It wasn't until Katara spoke again that the Ozuma finally began to understand that which had replaced his once scalding anger towards the waterbender, a mistake born of a false betrayal.

"In the end, I suppose I did gamble with Jet's life, and I didn't even have the decency to warn him about it. If that makes me a horrible human being, then I'm just gonna have to accept it… But even if I am horrible, I could never, ever gamble with your life, Shujinko. You're… You're just too important to me,"

Katara almost broke down after her heartfelt confession. Almost, because the next thing she knew, Shujinko was holding her close to him, with one hand placed on the back of her head and another above her waist. Katara would've gasped, but the hug had taken the breath out of her body, and not because the Ozuma was squeezing her too hard or anything. After the initial shock, the waterbender got ahold of herself and threw her arms around Shujinko as tightly as she could, melting in the warmth of his embrace.

No words were exchanged during the hug, which ended up lasting for longer than mere friendship permitted. Katara couldn't remember the last time she'd hugged someone so effusively, though she couldn't remember much of anything at the moment. If the brown-haired teen had asked her to stay like this for the rest of the night, the waterbender would've raised no objection. In fact, with the way she was feeling right now, ending the embrace before sunrise would've been a disappointment.

Eventually, Shujinko put a tiny bit of distance between the two of them, to which the daughter of Kya begrudgingly conceded. The Chūnin then grabbed Katara's hands and held them softly, gazing into her eyes while staving off the impulse to look elsewhere. It was a contradictory sensation all around, like the sides of two magnets that attracted and repelled each other at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Katara," he said, his thumbs brushing over her knuckles just like he used to do with Tenten. It never even crossed his mind that such physical affection was completely unnecessary; he simply did it because it felt right and because the waterbender didn't seem bothered by it. "I'm sorry for everything I did just now. I shouted at you, berated you, and even manhandled you. My… My emotions got the better of me and I wasn't thinking straight. Not that that's any excuse. I'm truly, truly sorry,"

Sniffling, Katara retracted her hand and wiped away the tears at the corner of her eyes. "You don't need to apologize," she assured him, making a conscious effort to ignore the fact that Shujinko could probably hear the snot sliding inside her nostrils. "After everything that's happened to you, I can't blame you for reacting the way you did,"

"It's not just that. You've been looking out for me since day one and you've always had my best interests at heart. I should've known you had your reasons for not wanting to help me the way you helped Jet, but instead, I rushed to conclusions like a moron and disrespected you. I can't express how ashamed I am, and if you give me the chance, I'll do everything I can to earn your forgiveness,"

The young shinobi couldn't remember the last time he had apologized to anyone so profusely, but he meant every word of it. He was riddled with regret and disgrace, and while Katara didn't blame him for his brashness, the Chūnin sure as hell did. The only way this could've been worse was if the rest of the gang had been present to witness this mess.

"I know I shouldn't be asking anything of you, not after this, but…"

"What is it?" the waterbender asked, sounding all too willing to assist him however she could. Shujinko took notice of that, which made it even harder for him to say what he wanted to say, for he felt as though she was taking advantage of Katara's kind nature by making a request despite having no right to. Nevertheless, he swallowed his bitter guilt and proceeded to vocalize his petition.

"Right now, finding Appa is our top priority. Everything else can wait. But once he's back with us, I want you to… I need you to use that technique on me,"

And just like that, what little sense of peace had been built around the two teenagers went up in smoke like one of Shujinko's shadow clones. Doubt, skepticism, and nervousness assaulted Katara, who once again found herself struggling to maintain eye contact with the Chūnin. "Shujinko, I… It's not that I don't want to help you, but…"

"But?"

"But what you're asking for is… Well, it's not small or simple. Just because the Ice Shattering technique worked on Jet doesn't necessarily mean it'll work on you as well. Don't forget this was my very first attempt. For all we know, it could've been a fluke," Katara reasoned, noticing the growing look of dissatisfaction on Shujinko's face. "But once we get back Appa back, maybe we could go to the Northern Water Tribe. Sifu Yagoda and the other healers there know a lot more about this technique than I do. I'm sure they can-"

"No, please, don't give me that," the Chūnin cut her off with a shake of his head, employing an impatient, yet not rude tone of voice. "I'm sorry for being difficult, but I just can't take it anymore. It's always the same: We travel around looking for answers, and as soon as I start getting my hopes up, something comes up and we're back to square one. I'm sick of it. I don't want to visit other places or meet new people, not when you can help me restore my memories here and now,"

"And if something goes wrong? What if I end up fracturing your mind by mistake? Or if the memories you relive turn out to be too much for you to handle? If either of the two happens, you'll never be the same again and your efforts of getting back home will have been for nothing, and it'll all be my fault. That's not something I can live with,"

"Have faith in yourself, Katara," Shujinko replied, raising the girl's hands to chest level before softly pressing them together and enveloping them with both of his own. "You can do it. I know you can,"

Had circumstances been different, Katara would be blushing brightly right now and flutters of excitement would've taken up residence in her belly. More than once had she daydreamed about having the Ozuma this close to her, holding her hands under the moonlight and gazing into each other's orbs of yellow and blue, with no one around to disrupt the magic of the occasion. It was the quintessential romance scene painted by an adolescent mind. She was well aware of how maudlin it was, but damn it, she had a right to her own fantasies, did she not?

The irony was not lost on the waterbender. This moment right here was practically identical to the one she pictured in her head, yet all she could feel right now was uncertainty. She wanted to help Shujinko, Spirits knew she wanted, but not like this. Not if it meant the potential irreparable loss of Shujinko's sanity.

Far from helping her, the fact that the Ice Shattering technique had fixed Jet's memory made it more difficult for Katara to argue her case. Before that, she would've been able to truthfully claim that she had never used it before and give herself some buffer, but not anymore. She had now set a precedent with Jet, and even though said precedent was nothing more than a one-time success in every way, the Chūnin required no further convincing.

"And if something does go wrong, so be it. Whatever happens to me will be no one's fault but my own. I understand the danger that comes with what I'm asking for, and I'm willing to go all in with you by my side. Are you?"

"Always," Katara replied without a shred of hesitation. "But what about the others? We can't do this behind their backs. It's bad enough that I already did just that in order to restore Jet's memories. We have to tell them about this beforehand, and I'm sure they'll weigh in whether you want them to or not,"

"Don't worry, I promise I'll let them know. If they support my decision, that's great. If they don't think it's worth the risk, I won't try to convince them of the contrary. At the end of the day, it doesn't really make a difference, not because I don't care about what you guys think, but because the choice is still mine to make, only I can't do this without you. I'm sorry for having to put you in this position. I wish I didn't have to, but… I just… It's been so long. I'm begging you, Katara. Don't keep me suffering like this,"

Katara tried to fight it. Truly, she did. The voice inside her head was yelling at her to stop for a moment and evaluate every aspect of Shujinko's wish before she gave her answer. This was something that merited hours of careful consideration at minimum and she was well within her right to request them. Even if this was Shujinko's decision, her involvement in it was arguably more determining than his. After all, he was the one who wanted this, but it was ultimately up to her to make it happen.

Eventually, the rational side of her gained traction and she was able to push her feelings aside. Once she felt secure enough, Katara began to separate her lips before sucking in a quick breath to articulate her response, ready to tell the Chūnin she'd have to give a lot more thought to the matter before anything was decided...

… But then, whether by instinct or choice, Katara looked into Shujinko's eyes one more time, and the tower of resolve she'd built came tumbling down. Those canary yellow gemstones of his were staring at her with a desperation that she simply could not ignore, and the longer she gazed into them, the louder their desperation grew. After what felt like an eternity, Katara closed her mouth and gave the Ozuma her answer in the form of a fearful, but unmistakably affirmative nod.

As soon as she nodded, the waterbender realized she was in for a world of apprehension and self-doubt that would keep her awake at night. She could already feel her insides twisting with trepidation. Still, it was worth it just to watch the agony fade from his eyes, to see them shine with peace and reassurance for once. She only wished they would stay that way, for if there was one person who needed hope now more than ever, it was the boy in front of her.

"Thank you, Katara. I won't forget this,"

---

|Hours past midnight|

The headquarters of the Dai Li was exactly like how one would picture an underground secret base to be.

After reaching Lake Laogai and finding the hidden entrance, Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters were met with a long corridor carved out of stone that was roughly as wide as a two-way street, with several closed doors on each side. The place was dark as befitted a secret base, countered only by an array of phosphorescent crystals set along the walls, which emitted a delicate tone of aquamarine. Rather than a corridor, it would be more accurate to describe it as a dimly lit tunnel with shadows, silence, and coldness in abundance, made all the more sinister by the pallid shade of green light from the crystals, which added a sense of foreboding mysticism.

In other words, it was not a place that transmitted serenity and comfort, not that it surprised our intrepid group of trespassers. Even so, as they made their way across the corridor, the Ozuma couldn't help but feel… on edge. Naturally, he wasn't going to feel at ease in a situation like this. Shinobi or not, you'd have to be pretty reckless or lack a considerable amount of gray matter to wander around enemy territory as if it were your backyard.

But there was something else, something that went beyond the spooky scenery and the inherent dangers of the situation at hand. His instinct was telling him with full certainty what his brain only dared to speculate: That evil deeds had been committed here. Or rather, that this place had been built for the sole purpose of committing evil deeds, and such purpose remained the same to this day.

After walking for about a mile, the echo of a chorus of voices reached their ears. The echo grew louder as they moved forward, but the voices ceased before they could make out what they were saying. Not long after that, the gang espied a segment of the path where a stone bridge stood between the corridor and its continuation.

Once they got closer, the Ozuma silently indicated the rest of the search party to stop for a moment and assumed a crouching position before stepping onto the bridge, hiding behind its parapets. Then, as slow as a tortoise, the Chūnin glanced down below him, exposing himself as possible. Two minutes passed before his friends joined him, wondering why Shujinko wasn't saying anything or even making hand gestures at them.

A total of twenty women dressed exactly like Joo Dee were standing in four rows of five each. None of them were moving a muscle or making a sound, almost as if they were mannequins made of flesh and bones rather than human beings. One Dai Li agent stood before them like some drill sergeant in the presence of his platoon.

"I am Joo Dee," the agent said all of a sudden. "Welcome to Ba Sing Se,"

"I am Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se," the ladies repeated in unison, not a trace of emotion to be found in their voices.

"Our walls create order, and order forms peace,"

"Our walls create order, and order forms peace,"

"I am but a humble servant of the Earth King, who watches over us all,"

"I am but a humble servant of the Earth King, who watches over us all,"

As the women kept repeating every single one of the agent's statements, Sokka felt his insides churn, as did many of the individuals around him. "This… This is messed up. Like, seriously messed up," he whispered, thoroughly appalled by the twisted spectacle he was bearing witness to, yet unable to look away from it all the same. "I knew Long Feng and the Dai Li were a rotten bunch, but this feels like something straight out of a nightmare. Who does this to people?"

"Someone who's sick in the head," Toph replied, scowling with disgust. Her parents were the biggest control freaks she knew, but not even they would resort to something as sordid as this just to keep her in check. At least, she didn't think them capable of it, and she decided to not give any more thought to the matter, fearing that she might change her opinion should she persist.

"Is there nothing we can do to help these poor women? Nothing at all?" Katara asked. "I know we came for Appa, but leaving them with these people feels so…" Her heart was in the right place and everyone around her shared the same sentiment. Nevertheless, the moment the question left her mouth, Katara regretted asking it. They all knew what the answer to that was, yet none of them wanted to be the one to give voice to it.

In the end, it was Shujinko who said what was on everyone's mind. "We can't get them out of here and save Appa at the same time," he stated, feeling as though he was sipping on poison with every spoken. "Besides, there's no way to know how they'll react if they see us, not when they're like this. They might freak out and alert the Dai Li of our presence, and if that happens, we won't be able to save anybody. All we can do is forge ahead and rescue these women once we actually have the means to,"

Under normal circumstances, Team Avatar would've shamed the Chūnin into oblivion and accused him of being heartless, and not without good cause. To the likes of them, the idea of abandoning these women to their luck as they were being stripped of their personhood and conditioned to act, talk, and think as the Dai Li wanted them to, was nothing short of egregious. On this occasion, however, no one could judge him for speaking the truth of the matter, cruel and cold as it was.

As they crawled across the bridge and closed the remaining distance to the other side, one thought was unilaterally prevalent amongst them: Once they reunited with Appa, they would spare no effort to ensure the downfall of Long Feng and the Dai Li. The things they were doing to their own people behind the king's back weren't just crimes against Ba Sing Se or the Earth Kingdom as a whole.

They were crimes against humanity itself.

000

"This place is certainly big enough to keep Appa locked up, but I don't see him," Katara commented, barely able to make out her surroundings.

Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters arrived at an enormous cell where numerous chains hung from the dark ceiling. Even with its dome-like structure, the place was spacious enough for three or four buildings to fit comfortably inside. The only thing she could see with clarity was the exit at the far end of the cell, a gate exactly like the one they'd just entered. If it weren't for those gates as well as the smooth stone floor she was walking on, Katara would've easily mistaken this place for a cavern.

"He's down here somewhere. I can feel it. We just have to keep looking," Aang replied as he turned to Jet. "You sure you don't remember anything about this place that could help us find Appa?"

Jet shook his head. "I'm afraid not. The agents who arrested me placed a blindfold around my eyes as soon as we reached the lake, so I couldn't see much of anything. When they removed it, I was tied to a chair in a small dark room,"

"Is that where they, humh, changed you?" Sokka used the most polite term he could think of.

"And for the better," The words came not out of Jet's mouth, but from an echoey voice above. Shujinko and the others stopped walking and looked at the ceiling in search of whoever had spoken just now, yet saw no one. Then, a square gap on the opposite side of the cell split the ceiling open, allowing a flat metal platform held by chains to descend.

Instead of reaching the ground, the platform stopped halfway through and remained suspended in the air. The figure of a person stepped forward, revealing himself to the members of the search party. Shujinko and his friends recognized the individual right away, and although his presence was far from welcome, none of them could say they were surprised to see him there. He was, after all, the one running things around here.

"You could not help yourselves, could you? You just had to stick your little noses where they don't belong," Long Feng said, smugness seeping through his lackadaisical tone of voice. "I must confess I've put up with several interlopers in the past, but none so dedicated as you lot. Such vacuous achievement is almost worthy of admiration,"

"… I know who you are," Jet looked like he was about to blow a gasket as he pointed his finger at the royal advisor. "You were there watching your men burrow their way into my head! You ordered them to do it!"

"Ah, so you remember what was done to you? I must say, you proved yourself a most stubborn subject, young man. For a moment, I thought I would have to get rid of you since you would not yield, but no will is unbendable. Eventually, we managed to tame you, though I wasn't counting on you reverting back to your unruly self. It would seem our methods could use some improvement, nothing that further experimentation cannot remedy. Practice makes perfect, as they say,"

"Why, you twisted son of a-!"

If not for Longshot and Smellerbee, who anticipated their leader's reaction and restrained him from behind just in time, Jet would've hurled one of his hook swords at the royal advisor with the intention of committing first-degree murder. Never before had he felt such hatred towards someone who wasn't a firebender. People like him were… No, not people, monsters like him didn't deserve to live.

"Hmph, I suppose some amount of recognition is in order. You successfully infiltrated the Royal Palace, you saw through the ruse I laid out for you at the warehouse, and you even managed to find our secret base. Personally, I've never bought into the belief that fortune favors the bold, and yet you make a strong case for it with your constant meddling. It's a pity that such crafty and resourceful youngsters have chosen to become enemies of the Earth Kingdom, but there are limits to my leniency, limits that you have brazenly overstepped,"

"That sophisticated vocabulary of yours must really help you feel smarter. Too bad it doesn't help you look any taller," Shujinko replied. "Listen carefully, Short Feng. Give us Appa back, and in return, we'll leave this place without hurting you. Or, we can hurt you until you give us Appa back. Either way is fine by me. I know a glass jaw when I see one, so unless you want yours broken, you'll show some intelligence and go with the first option,"

Not his finest display of negotiation skills, the Ozuma would admit. Frankly, the whole thing was just a formality, a last-ditch Hail Mary to see how Long Feng would react. To the surprise of no one, his terms were met with a throaty chuckle. "My, my, aren't you a gutsy one. You amuse me, but seeing as I'm not particularly intimidated by the bravado of a mere child, I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer. Now, allow me to extend one of my own: Stand down and surrender this very instant. If you comply, I'll see to it that you're not treated so… inclemently,"

Toph responded to that by making a chuffing noise with her lips that sounded like the sneeze of a horse, mocking the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se and his counteroffer. "You are asking us to surrender? Do some math, buddy. There are eight of us and only one of you. You're not winning this fight, not with those odds,"

"Very true," Long Feng said before quickly extending his right arm sideways and raising his fist skyward.

Immediately, the entire cell began to shake. It was as though Long Feng had summoned an earthquake, only the ground was barely moving at all. Before long, a series of vertical slits appeared from almost every corner, splitting the surface of the walls apart and opening rectangular gaps, followed by Dai Li agents stepping out of them en masse. The members of Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters huddled together instinctively, standing in a circular formation with their backs turned to one another.

"These odds, however, do inspire a great deal of confidence in me. Dai Li, arrest the Avatar and all his companions. Show them how we take care of juvenile delinquents here in Ba Sing Se,"

000

|Meanwhile, elsewhere|

"Expecting someone else?"

Visceral growls reverberated around Appa's jail cell as the Sky Bison gritted his teeth in defiance, warning the intruder to stay away from him. This intruder had a sword in each hand and wore a demon-like mask of white and cobalt blue. To Appa, the true identity of the man behind said mask mattered little. He did not recognize him, and so he was hostile.

Fettered, malnourished, and surrounded by fetid piles of his own doing, Appa had just enough strength left to stand on all six of his legs and make himself look more threatening. One would think a Sky Bison would have no need to resort to such tactics given their already imposing size, but fear was a core component of every living creature, and after everything Appa had gone through following his capture at the hands of the Tampai Tribe, his instincts were now in command of him. Unable to break free from his restraints, he was ready to inflict harm upon those who would inflict it upon him or perish in the attempt.

"Growl all you want, you're still coming with me," the intruder remarked as he closed the door behind him, unfazed by the guttural threats uttered by the beast. He began to approach his soon-to-be prize, only to hear the door behind him slid open once again. Believing himself caught, he immediately turned around brandishing his two swords, ready to engage in combat with… "… Uncle?"

"Oh my, if it isn't the enigmatic Blue Spirit. What a surprise to find him here of all places," Iroh said, leaning against the door frame while stroking his beard. "And he's with the Avatar's lost bison, the same bison my nephew talked to me about this very afternoon. A most peculiar coincidence if I do say so myself,"

After a moment of hesitation, Zuko relented and unmasked himself before his father's brother. It was pointless to keep his face hidden now that the jig was up. Besides, something was telling him that Iroh had been aware of his secret identity for quite some time. For all the flaws that man had, Zuko could not accuse him of lacking wits. "How did you find me?"

"Traveling alongside has taught me a thing or two about tracking people down," the Dragon of the West replied as he moved away from the door frame and took a few steps forward, shortening the distance between him and his nephew. "The reason I'm here is because whether you believe it or not, you desperately need someone to talk you out of going forth with this idiocy,"

"Listen to me, uncle. I-"

"No, Zuko, you listen to me and listen well," Iroh cut him off, and the way he spoke was such that Zuko couldn't help but comply, genuinely taken aback. Few were the instances in which the retired General went against his affable nature by openly showing hostility, and for the first time ever, the exiled prince was the one on the receiving end of it. "What will you do now that you've found the Avatar's bison? Keep it locked in our new apartment? Turn the living room into a stable, perhaps?"

The severity in Iroh's tone, along with a dose of derision that was most atypical of him, made for a disquieting combination that Zuko wasn't quite sure how to deal with. He remained quiet a little while longer until his pride and stubbornness helped him find his voice again. "… First, I have to get it out of this place,"

"And then what!?" the old firebender snapped, having had enough of his nephew's stubbornness and lack of foresight. "It is always the same with you, Zuko! You never think these things through! This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Pole! You went after the boy, and once you had him, you had nowhere to go!"

"I would've figured something out!"

"No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would've frozen to death and you know it! It is only thanks to them that you are still breathing, and yet you insist on pretending that they have somehow wronged you! Is this how you plan on regaining your honor? By acting with none?"

"ENOUGH!" Zuko yelled as he turned around and faced away from Iroh, his voice laced with more pain than fury. "I don't care about what happened at the North Pole! That's all in the past, and you're insane if you think they had noble intentions in mind when they spared my life! You told me that everyone has a destiny, uncle. I'm doing what I must to fulfill mine,"

"Is it your own destiny you are trying to fulfill? Or is it a destiny someone else has thrust upon you?" Iroh shot back, his voice a touch softer than before. "Zuko, I implore you, put an end to this obsession. There's still time to change this path you're on. You can do better. You can have better. You can be better, but not this way. Not by holding on to your prideful mask. Set free the true prince within you. The prince who went to his uncle's rescue when he was captured by Earth Kingdom soldiers; who placed the safety of his crewmembers above his personal quest during that storm; who was unjustly punished as a boy for valuing the life of others. That is who you are. Now answer me this: What do you want? What is it that you truly want?"

Overwhelmed by emotion like never before, Zuko poured all of his anger, doubts, and frustrations into a single roar that echoed throughout the jail cell right before sending his swords slamming against the wall.

000

A clean knee to the chin had the Dai Li agent in front of Shujinko dropping to the floor like a ragdoll, completely knocked out cold. The earthbender's body wasn't even lying fully still on the ground when the brown-haired youth moved on to his next opponent, another agent who had the misfortune of being within his range.

The brawl against Long Feng's henchmen was in full swing and the physical layout of the cell was growing more disfigured with each slab and column raised from the ground. Chunks of rock were being thrown indiscriminately, and their targets were forced to either smash them or move out of the way if they wanted to stay alive, almost like a prehistoric version of dodgeball with fist-fighting and geokinesis added to the mix.

Having never faced earthbenders before, let alone Dai Li agents, Jet, Longshot, and Smellerbee, quickly realized they were outmatched. Years of targeting Fire Nation soldiers had taught them quite a bit about ambushes and how to set them up, but not how to neutralize them now that the shoe was on the other foot. But despite being surrounded and outnumbered, the Freedom Fighters were fast and nimble combatants, having developed those qualities living as rogues in the woods. Therefore, even though they couldn't properly attack them, they still managed to stay in the fight by way of keeping their opponents busy with distractions.

The members of Team Avatar were the ones handling the bulk of the enemy platoon. As extensive as their training was, the Dai Li were unfamiliar with Aang's Airbending-based attacks and certainly didn't possess Toph's level of mastery over Earthbending. The Water Tribe siblings held their own by working together with Katara on the offensive and Sokka watching her back, wielding his club with both hands and shattering any chunks of rock flying their way. As for Shujinko, though he was tempted to use Ninjutsu in order to end the fight quicker, he ultimately settled on old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat as he didn't want to expose his "otherworldly" abilities to Long Feng, the Dai Li, or the Freedom Fighters for that matter.

Still, due to the large presence of Dai Li agents and the incoming attacks coming from every angle, the Ozuma thought it wise to give himself an edge by entering Sage Mode, a change that no one noticed thanks to all the mayhem that was taking place. With his eyesight and his reflexes at their peak, the brown-haired teen was able to avoid multiple rock projectiles that would've turned his skeleton into a collection of fractured bones had they landed.

Amidst the chaotic rumble, only one person remained still, observing the fight from a distance instead of participating in it.

Slack-jawed, Long Feng stared in shock as a bunch of adolescents humiliated his ruthless enforcers in the heart of their own base, taking them down one by one without suffering any casualties themselves. Their battle prowess was impressive enough on its own, but even that was overshadowed by their impeccable, almost telepathic display of team coordination: They alternated between fighting separately and assisting each other with sublime swiftness and without having to exchange words.

It wasn't long before the majority of his agents, roughly two-thirds of them, laid on the ground either unconscious or too injured to do anything, and that was when the Earth King's right-hand man confirmed two things: First, that this was not a fluke. And second, that he should've fled this fight the moment he started it.

Katara had just finished smacking a Dai Li agent with her water whip when she caught sight of a retreating figure in the background, to which her eyes snapped open. "Long Feng is making a break for it!"

"Quick, get him!" Sokka shouted.

Jet, who happened to be close to the exit when he heard Katara's yell, was the first to reach the end of the cell, where the golden-eyed boy soon joined him after sprinting across the battlefield. The other members of the search party were held up by the remaining Dai Li agents, who did everything they could to stall their chase before they were inevitably put out of commission.

*CLANGGGG*

Before they could go any further, a loud banging noise erupted behind the Ozuma and the leader of the Freedom Fighters, prompting them to turn around. An iron portcullis made of bars as thick as a man's leg had been lowered, blocking access to the gateway they had just entered and separating the two adolescents from the rest of the search party, who had just made it to the other end of the cell.

"Everyone step aside!" the Blind Bandit ordered as she got into an Earthbending stance and raised a boulder off the ground, intending to smash the portcullis open.

However, just as she was about to proceed, her seismic sense alerted Toph of another problem that demanded their attention. Another platoon of Dai Li agents burst into the cell, determined to finish the job their defeated comrades had started. This second platoon was comprised of about the same number of agents as the first one, and while the Freedom Fighters and Team Avatar had demonstrated they were more than a match for the Dai Li, they were now one member short each.

"We can handle them! You go after Long Feng; don't let him escape no matter what!" As soon as he was done talking, the Avatar took off with the others to deal with the second wave of Dai Li agents, leaving Jet and Shujinko without a say on the matter.

"I guess it's up to us, then," Jet said, facing away from the gateway. "Come on, let's go,"

000

A while later, the Chūnin and the leader of the Freedom Fighters walked into a dark, rectangular chamber that was easily as big as a church, yet looked more like a barren basement. The area itself was empty, save for the sawed-off pipes of all sizes sticking out of the walls. The lack of doors, entrances, and hallways that could lead to somewhere else, suggested that this place was the headquarters' outermost room.

"Where did that bastard go?" Jet asked, looking in every direction. "He can't have gone far; we were right behind him,"

Shujinko opted to stay quiet as he studied his surroundings, a frown quickly forming on his face. Jet was right; it was almost impossible Long Feng had outrun them just now, especially given that the chamber was practically a dead-end. Could he have made his escape by going inside one of the pipes? They were the closest thing to an exit route this place had to offer, but the pipes that were big enough to fit a person inside were fairly high up there on the walls. Without Earthbending or the use of equipment, the idea of Long Feng reaching them so quickly was extremely unlikely at best.

*BRMMBRMMBRMM*

The silence was broken by the sound of rock grinding against rock. Jet and Shujinko turned around just in time to watch the entrance getting swallowed by its stone block wall, followed by a hole opening on the ground at the center of the chamber and Long Feng emerging from it like a human mole. "You may have bested my agents, but this is as far as you go. Surrender now or you won't live to see another day,"

"Care to prove that statement?" Jet retorted, taking a defiant step forward. Before he could take another one, however, he was pulled back by the golden-eyed boy.

"Stay here and watch my back. I'll handle him," Shujinko told the swordsman. The tone of his voice brooked no discussion, though of course that didn't stop Jet from starting one as he glared at the young shinobi.

"Why? You think I can't dodge a few rocks?" he asked. Only then did he notice what seemed to be thick yellow lines around and below Shujinko's eyes, whose pupils also seemed unnaturally dilated. However, before the leader of the Freedom Fighters could actually verify what he was seeing, Shujinko quickly stepped forward and turned his back to him.

"No, but we need him alive, and you have every reason to want him dead. If you kill this man in anger, we won't be able to get anything out of him,"

Whether Jet agreed with him or not, Shujinko couldn't be bothered to wait for a reply, and so began his slow walk towards Long Feng. Vexed by how casually his threat had been dismissed, the scheming minister assumed an Earthbending stance that shattered the ground around him. "Your overconfidence betrays you, boy. Now your life is forfeit,"

*WOOSH*

The Ozuma didn't even flinch as the chunk of earth came crashing against the wall behind him, having dodged it by simply stepping to the side before resuming his walk, not going any faster than before. Taken aback by this, the Grand Secretariat of State took another shot at him, yet his projectile was once again dodged with almost mocking ease. At no point did Shujinko hasten his pace or performed any sudden moves.

His calm demeanor as he approached Long Feng exasperated the earthbender and made him grow nervous, which in turn worsened his aim. Soon, Shujinko didn't even have to hop sideways in order to avoid getting hit by the incoming rocks flying his way as ducking down and swaying his body was enough to deflect them. Meanwhile, Jet was observing this from behind, experiencing a mix of awe and morbid curiosity. He wasn't even worried that Long Feng might switch targets and try to kill him instead, for he was too fixated on the Ozuma.

Speaking of whom, Shujinko decided it was time to stop playing nice and stuck his hand inside his back pouch until his fingers touched what they were looking for. He had given the Grand Secretariat ample time to back off, and besides, showing off his reflexes had never been his main intention anyway. He simply needed to get close enough to Long Feng in order to take his shot… and now he was.

*FWIISH*

"A-Arrrgh!"

A scream of pain tore from Long Feng's throat. The Secretariat of State staggered backwards, clutching his right wrist in desperation. Droplets of blood spilled onto the marble floor as a result of the shuriken that was sticking out of the dorsal side of his hand.

A look of utter shock adorned Long Feng's face as he stared at his red-soaked appendage, giving the Chūnin plenty of time to take aim and throw another shuriken at him. Five seconds later, the most powerful man in the Earth Kingdom was howling and gasping in agony as he squirmed on the ground like the overgrown maggot that he was. The second shuriken had gotten him in the lower part of his left thigh several inches above the knee joint, and while neither wound was fatal, both of them were painful, especially to someone whose flesh had never tasted sharp steel before.

When Long Feng raised his gaze, he saw Shujinko and Jet standing close to him, not a trace of compassion to be found in their expressions. Desperate, Ba Sing Se's Administrator in Chief turned to flee, but his pathetic attempt was cut short by the Ozuma, who grabbed his right forearm and pulled him back down in an instant.

Jet made his own contribution by stepping on Long Feng's left hand and pressing his foot down, making sure that his hostage wouldn't be able to make any sudden moves with it. Just for good measure, he then sheathed one of his hook swords and held the other one close to the cultural minister's head, ready to make him suffer some more should the need arise.

"You really should've picked the first option when you had the chance," Shujinko remarked as he abandoned Sage Mode, not letting go of the advisor's wrist. "I don't like torturing people, not even psychos such as yourself, so tell us where Appa is before you make me do more of this,"

Long Feng struggled for a bit, though he quickly gave up after confirming the futility of his efforts. His two underage captors had no intention of softening their hold on him, and with his wounded body facing the ground, he was absolutely defenseless. "You… You impudent wretch… How dare you do this to me!? I'll have you- Aaauughh!"

A brief wince crossed Jet's face as he watched the Chūnin bury his shuriken deeper into Long Feng's hand, causing him to yell his lungs out and more blood to leak out of the wound. It wasn't as if the leader of the Freedom Fighters was particularly squeamish about violence as he had seen plenty of it ever since his days as an orphan. He wasn't opposed to what Shujinko was doing to Long Feng right now. If anything, that maniacal son of a Viper Bat deserved worse as far as he was concerned.

However, what did amaze him was that someone this ruthless was a fully patched member of Team Avatar, and a respected one at that judging from what he had seen and heard so far. No matter the circumstances, Jet knew for a fact that Aang and Katara would never assent to this kind of practice, much less take part in it. They just didn't have it in them. Either Shujinko had a dark side to him that the others weren't aware of, or they were aware of his ways and he had somehow managed to earn their acceptance in spite of it.

Whatever the case, Jet had caught glimpses of Shujinko during their earlier encounter with the Dai Li, and he could see why they kept the golden-eyed boy around. The kid was absurdly good at fighting; taking on a number of agents and making them look like chumps. He was strong, agile, and fast. On top of that, he clearly knew how to use those throwing stars of his, and he sure as heck didn't mind getting his hands dirty.

Jet would never admit it, but back in the heyday of the Freedom Fighters, he would've salivated over the prospect of recruiting a guerrilla of his caliber.

"Next time, I'm twisting it," the Chūnin said, shaking the blood off the joints of his fingers with a wave of his hand. "Are you gonna cough up or not?"

A couple of seconds passed before Long Feng lifted his head off the floor, wheezing furiously. His face had turned purplish after shouting so loudly and there were flecks of spittle around his mouth, his collected, Machiavellian countenance nowhere to be seen. And his eyes… His eyes showed no fear. Outrage, disbelief, indignity, and perhaps a spoonful of humiliation or two, but no fear.

Shujinko kept his threatening expression in place, but internally, he was screaming a long string of swear words that would've made Kakashi, an individual who was perfectly comfortable reading erotic literature in public, feel some degree of awkwardness. If Long Feng wasn't afraid of him, then he would not yield to him yet, meaning that Shujinko was obligated to continue hurting the man until the agony overwhelmed his resolve.

This was one of the aspects of being a shinobi that Shujinko detested: It was one thing to wound your enemies while fighting them; it was one thing to kill them in combat; but inflicting excruciating pain upon a man who was already beaten and had no means to defend himself made the brown-haired teen feel rotten inside, even if he was rewarded with precious, precious information. Death could be grizzly and dirty sometimes, but torture tainted one's soul.

"… Jet," the king's right-hand man began to say through gritted teeth, aiming his gaze at the young swordsman. "The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai,"

"… I am honored to accept his invitation," Jet replied, his voice cold and monotone all of a sudden, to which the Ozuma turned to him with narrowed eyes.

"What are yo-"

*FWOOSH*

… Five seconds and a yelp later, Shujinko landed several feet away from where he was previously standing with beads of sweat dampening his forehead, breathing heavily while feeling as though his heart had jumped to his throat. A long lock of his hair was missing, but he couldn't care less about it, not when his mind was occupied trying to figure out why did Jet try to remove his head from his shoulders just now.

He wasn't finished catching his breath when Jet lunged at him with both arms cocked back, ready to make mincemeat out of him. "No, wait-!" he shouted, but it had no effect on the leader of the Freedom Fighters, who tried to slash him with his right hook sword before attacking with his left one. Both attempts resulted in failure, and so did the ones that came after as Shujinko evaded every swing and thrust aimed at him.

'No good, he's not thinking rationally,' the golden-eyed boy thought, hopping aside just as Jet brought one of his swords down, hitting naught but air. The Ozuma couldn't tell whether it was due to the reasonless state he was in or if this was simply how he engaged his opponents in combat, but Jet fought like a wild animal: Both relentlessly and mindlessly. No matter how many times he missed, Jet would swing his swords at him and chase him around, constantly repeating the same fruitless pattern. His attacks were so predictable that Shujinko could dodge them all night long if he wanted to.

Unfortunately, Team Avatar didn't have all night. One way or another, Jet needed to be stopped, and since the task of doing so had fallen to Shujinko, he had no other choice but to rely on the only type of medicine he could dispense at the moment: Tough love.

With this in mind, Shujinko allowed Jet to approach him. Once again, he dodged his attack as well as the second, and just as his opponent was about to attempt a third one, the Chūnin took advantage of that brief interval of time between strikes and delivered a lightning-fast left hook to the face. The blow dazed Jet for a few seconds, but he quickly recovered himself and lunged at him again, only for Shujinko to duck down and deliver a sturdier hook with his right fist.

Despite staying on his feet, the second hook had Jet wobbling backwards and dropping his weapons, more stunned than injured. As expected, Jet stuck to his ineffective strategy and charged at him yet again, and Shujinko felt almost bad for having to take on such a disadvantaged opponent who couldn't control his own actions. Something was telling him that the young swordsman wouldn't back down no matter how many punches to the face he took, and since beating him to a bloody pulp wasn't the idea, he would have to adopt a different approach.

He waited until Jet was about to bulldoze him to the floor before jumping over him, grabbing him by the hair in mid-air with his right hand and wrapping his legs around his arms and torso. Immediately after, Shujinko wrapped his left arm around Jet's neck, placing him in a rear naked choke. Kakashi had taught him a few non-lethal techniques to neutralize threats such as this one, though he also advised him against using them on physically superior opponents as the chances of them being able to turn the tables on him were not low.

The two boys wrestled on the ground with Shujinko restraining Jet from behind. "That's enough, Jet! Calm down and listen to me! You gotta fight back whatever's controlling you!" the Ozuma shouted, rolling along with the beast he was trying to subdue, but his words fell on deft ears as Jet refused to give up.

Amidst the struggle, Shujinko caught sight of Long Feng reaching the end of the chamber, having left a small trail of blood in his wake. The Secretariat of State extended his arms sideways and the wall in front of him slowly began to open, revealing what could only be the entrance of a secret passage. Shujinko couldn't believe it; the rat bastard was slipping from his fingers!

This brief lapse of concentration allowed Jet to grab ahold of the Chūnin's left hand and bite into his forearm. Shujinko hollered, his eyes squeezed shut as Jet buried his teeth deeper into his naked skin. Jet managed to get on his feet with Shujinko still glued onto his back, but instead of shaking him off, the leader of the Freedom Fighters kept biting him.

"Stop!" he shouted at both Jet and Long Feng, yet neither one of them obeyed. In fact, Jet took his rabid dog performance even further and began to furiously shake his head while still biting the Chūnin, causing him twice the pain. "CUT IT OUT, DAMN IT!"

*BAAM*

If Jet was a dog, then the Ozuma became a ram, slamming his forehead against Jet's skull in a brutal clash of craniums. The leader of the Freedom Fighters let go of him and clumsily staggered forward like he was drunk, babbling in pain and unable to steady himself as he covered the back of his head with his palms. Not one to leave a job half done, the Chūnin ran up to the young swordsman and knocked his lights out with a kick to the face that sent Jet sprawling on the ground.

Without a second to waste, Shujinko drew another shuriken from his back pouch and imbued the weapon with wind nature chakra for a sharper edge before flinging it in Long Feng's direction, a last-ditch effort to thwart his escape. The shuriken made a hissing sound as it whizzed through the air. Time slowed down…

…

*TCHIN*

…

The Ozuma's expression drooped into a grimace. His shuriken had ricocheted off the wall and it now lay somewhere on the chamber floor, having failed to reach its target in time.

Long Feng had gotten away, and Shujinko could only stand there like a helpless child and listen to the distant noises that reverberated through the chamber. Somehow, he was certain they were coming from the secret exit the king's right-hand man had used to escape, and it wasn't long before the noises ceased, which told him that Long Feng had effectively left the headquarters' premises.

*BROOOOM*

As if a bomb had gone off, the entrance of the chamber suddenly burst open, sending large chunks of rock flying everywhere while raising a big cloud of dust. Shujinko spun around as he performed the Bird hand sign, fully intending to use Ninjutsu to demolish whatever enemy had appeared. Letting Long Feng escape had fouled his mood and he no longer felt like pulling his punches for the sake of keeping a low profile, consequences be damned.

To his surprise, no enemies entered the chamber. Quite the opposite, in fact. Aang and Toph climbed over the tiny mountain of rubble in front of them, followed by Sokka, Katara, and finally, the Freedom Fighters. Shujinko heard his friends calling out his name and asking him about something, but their voices were then drowned by a much louder one.

"JET!" Smellerbee cried as she and Longshot darted across the chamber with the rest of Team Avatar behind them. When she got there, she ran past Shujinko and knelt next to her leader, who looked almost dead as he lay still on the ground like a worthless ragdoll. "What happened to him!? Is he…!? Is he…!?"

"Calm down, he's just unconscious," Shujinko informed the girl, who looked as though she was seconds away from suffering a panic attack. Everyone turned to the Ozuma, who made an uncomfortable gesture with his mouth before revealing how Jet had ended up like that. "I'm afraid I had to knock him out, for his safety as well as mine,"

"Explain yourself,"

To everyone's surprise, those words came from the mouth of none other than Longshot, who had only communicated through body language and facial gestures up until this point. Speaking of facial gestures, the look on his face right now was quite a severe one as he openly glowered at the Ozuma. Not only that, but he also had an arrow notched and his bowstring slightly pulled back, as if him talking for the first time wasn't enough to let everybody know he wasn't joking.

Not wanting to deal with another ally-turned-hostile so soon after Jet, the golden-eyed boy obliged the young archer. "When Jet and I got here, Long Feng tried to eliminate us with a surprise attack. His ambush failed and we ended up subduing him. Everything was under control, but then Long Feng recited some kinda passphrase that sent Jet into a frenzy. He nearly hacked my head off with his swords and kept trying to kill me after that. I don't think he could even hear my voice in the state he was in. The only way I could stop Jet was by force, so that's what I did,"

"What about Long Feng?" Sokka inquired.

"He got away while I was busy with Jet. I don't know where he is, but if he has any sense of self-preservation whatsoever, his plan will be to get as far away from here as possible. He could be anywhere right now,"

"Which means he's out of our reach," the Avatar surmised somberly. "He didn't tell you where Appa is before he escaped, did he?"

Deep down, Aang already knew what the answer was, but he still dared to hope. They'd come too far and taken too many risks to leave without his life-long friend, which was why Shujinko shaking his head felt no less painful than a dagger through the gut. "No, and if he had, I wouldn't have believed him anyway,"

"So what should we do now?" Katara asked. "Leaving Appa behind is the last thing in the world that I want, but we can't stay here for too long either. Don't forget, this place is hidden beneath a lake. The Dai Li might be willing to destroy their secret base just to prevent our escape. Actually, based on what I've seen today, I'm pretty sure they are willing to do it,"

"I hate to break it to you, but I don't think Appa is here," Toph said, gaining everyone's attention. "I've been trying to pinpoint Appa's location. Even in a place like this, I should be able to determine where he is based on his heartbeats, which are way heavier and easier to sense through vibrations compared to humans. I'm not picking up any of his heartbeats at the moment, which can only mean one of two things: Either I'm not as good as I think I am, which is impossible, or they've taken Appa somewhere else,"

Shujinko opened his mouth, only to close it almost immediately after with a forced expression. The last thing Team Avatar needed to hear right now was that maybe Appa was indeed here and that the reason why Toph couldn't sense the Sky Bison's heartbeats was because… because his heart was no longer beating. The brown-haired teen had to shake his head in order to get rid of such a grim notion, logical as it could be.

Would Long Feng be willing to kill Appa as some sort of power play? The Chūnin knew enough about Long Feng's sense of morality to know that the head of the Dai Li would lose not a wink of sleep over the death of an animal, Sky Bison or otherwise. If anything, he was more likely to get a kick out of sick stuff like that as long as he was an observer and not the executioner. People like him felt completely at ease with hundreds of corpses on their conscience, provided that their blood didn't stain their hands.

Gatō, the rapacious business tycoon who once terrorized the Land of Waves and placed its entire economy in a stranglehold for his own monetary gain, was a perfect example. That drug-peddling pig was, directly and indirectly, responsible for the deaths of many innocents, men and women alike, and he regretted their deaths as much as a thirsty man regretted drinking a jug of ice water. The only people whose lives improved under him were the gangs of thugs and cut-throats on his payroll, who were allowed to do as they pleased as long as they followed their employer's orders without delay or hesitation.

Ultimately, his greed and his ego were what drove him to double-cross Zabuza, who endured dozens of stabs from swords, spears, and daggers just to make sure Gatō would die the way he deserved: With his tuxedo pants full of excrement and his pudgy head a good five feet away from the rest of his blood-soaked body.

"In that case, there's no point in us lingering here any longer," Sokka declared, breaking Shujinko out of his ruminations while placing a hand on the airbender's shoulder. "Sorry Aang, but we have t-" Before he could finish his sentence, a yelp came from behind, to which they all turned around in alarm. What they saw caused every single hair that they had to stand on end.

With one arm wrapped around her shoulders and collarbone, and a blood-smeared shuriken next to her throat, Jet had taken a petrified, breathless Smellerbee hostage.

---

Aaaaaaaand that was chapter 30. Hope you all liked it.

My apologies for taking so long with this chapter. I had some issues with my internet connection at home, which slowed down the progress considerably. I also had difficulty describing a couple of locations within the Dai Li headquarters, so excuse me if you find some of them lacking or repetitive as I didn't have a whole lot to work with in my humble opinion. Hopefully, the length of this chapter makes up for the delay.

Speaking of which; holy shit! Over 17.000 words, baby! This is without a doubt the longest chapter I've ever written for any of my stories; period. In this regard, you'll have to forgive me if certain paragraphs or dialogues in this chapter feel somewhat rushed or underdeveloped compared to my usual work. Truth is, I just wanted to finish this chapter as quickly as possible once I realized it was going to be twice as long as a regular one.

The reason behind the length of this chapter is that I wanted to wrap up as much stuff as I could in order to give the next chapter plenty of "breathing room", so to speak. You'll understand why once the next chapter comes out.

Just so we're clear, what Katara did to unlock Jet's memories in the show was generic Waterbending healing, not a specific technique with an anime-ish name such as 'Ice Shattering' lol. I just decided to tweak things to make it more interesting. Just like with brainwashing, characters in the A:TLA universe era don't have the knowledge that we do regarding PTSD and the emotional/psychological effects that trauma has on people, so I did my best to portray it in a way that would be coherent in the context of this story by using allegories and what not.

(Note: Also, while I did some research on the matter, I'm not knowledgeable enough to even consider myself an armchair psychologist, so don't be surprised if you found any inconsistencies or errors on the subject that aren't related to the narrative aspect of it)

By the way, and in case you didn't know or forgot about it, Yagoda is a canon character. She's the old healer at the Northern Water Tribe who used to be friends with Kanna, A.K.A. Gran Gran.

As you might've noticed, I added a bit more dialogue to certain scenes because I felt they needed it, such as the scene where the gang comments on the Dai Li's brainwashing of several women. In the show, this scene feels a lot less impactful than it should've been. All we get is Sokka making a creeped-out face that lasts for all but two seconds. I get that it's not a central point of the story as a whole, but realistically, watching something like that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. I hope I was able to do this scene some justice by having the members of Team Avatar express just how repulsed they are by the Dai Li's methods, especially since these are human lives they're perverting.

Another scene I couldn't resist adding more dialogue to is the one between Iroh and Zuko. Just to make it clear, I think this scene was done masterfully in the show. The reason I made it a bit longer is because this is the only scene (if I recall correctly, that is) where we get to see Iroh putting his foot down and confronting Zuko with some much-needed tough love (or maybe tough guidance? Whatever, you get what I'm saying). Due to this, I couldn't help but take the opportunity to have Iroh hurl a few more truths at Zuko's face and tell him that what he's about to do is dishonorable, that he can be a better person, and that he has to let go of his obsession with the Avatar and move on.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the last part. Long Feng's "torture" at the hands of Shujinko might be the most graphic scene in this story so far despite being fairly short. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed making that evil piece of trash suffer, even if it was only a fraction of what he deserves. Seriously, given all the heinous stuff he's responsible for, it surprises me that we never saw or heard from Long Feng again after Book 2, not even in the post-show comic books (feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken on this though). We can only assume he was punished by Azula / the Fire Nation or by the Earth Kingdom once the war was over, or maybe both of them.

However irrelevant it may be, I enjoyed writing about Gatō from OG Naruto. I know, I know, his impact as a character was about as significant as a fart in the wind when looking at the full picture. Hell, I don't think he's ever mentioned again after the Land of Waves arc, and that's the first damn arc of the series… but what can I say? I'm a sucker for callbacks. Besides, I'm sure a man like Gatō would bear more importance in-universe given what little we know about him.

(Fun fact you might not be aware of: In the anime, Zabuza kills Gatō by going all stabby stabby on him, but in the manga, he straight up decapitates him, so that's what I went with)

Lastly, I've decided to start adding asterisks (*) to every onomatopoeia. Let me know if you agree or disagree with this small change.

Don't forget to Review, Favorite & Follow

Peace!