Naruto/Azula

Chapter 4

As she chased them across the level, Aang decided to stall to her. Using his staff, he bent the air to cause a nearby scaffolding to collapse in front of Mai. Stopping quickly to avoid being crushed, she threw a doubled bladed knife that ricocheted off the wall and towards Aang. Sensing danger, he turned and rapidly spun his staff, causing the knife to hit the staff. Mai quickly launched another round of projectiles. But before they could even reach their target, the platform where the group stood suddenly dropped down, taking them with it. As it fell, another platform took its place, like they were never even there. Mai just gave a bored sigh and headed back to her family.

Meanwhile the group had landed in a tunnel. As they looked to see where they were, they noticed that they were surrounded by Earth Kingdom soldiers. After staying silent for about minute, Sokka looked at both Aang and Katara. "And the two of you thought there wasn't going to be a resistance." He told them. Aang looked sheepish while Katara threw him a dirty look.

Fire Nation circus

"So, Ty Lee is in there somewhere." Azula said as she looked at the circus being set up.

"Yes, although they're going to be moving soon." Naruto noted. No one paid attention to the two of them, they were all too busy going about their business.

"Alright then, I'll go in and look around for her." She began to walk into the circus ground with Naruto just behind her. When they finally spotted Ty Lee, he hung back to see how Azula would do. "Ty Lee, could that possibly be you?" She called out to her friend, standing before her.

"Azula!" chirped the girl who was currently doing a handstand on a finger per hand. After getting her feet on the ground and bowing, she leapt and ran over, giving the Fire Nation Princess a hug. "It's so good to see you!" She said with excitement.

"Please don't let me interrupt your... whatever it is you're doing." Azula told her. She immediately flipped backwards into a position where she was sitting on her elbows with her feet in the air in front of her. "Tell me, what is the daughter of a nobleman doing here? Certainly our parents did not send us to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls to end up in... places like this." She asked Ty Lee as she watched a couple of the circus workers struggle with a platypus-bear only for said platypus-bear to lay an egg (she could have sworn that one of the workers had said "Oh great Agni, not another one."). Had that been any other time, she probably would've found that amusing. "I have a proposition for you." She told Ty Lee. "I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my old fuddy-duddy uncle, don't you?"

"Oh yeah, he was so funny." Ty Lee answered with a giggle. When she thought of Iroh, she was always tempted to laugh.

"I would be honored if you join me on my mission."

She flinched a little when she heard those words. "Oh... I, uh... would love to." She flipped herself back onto her feet. "But the truth is I'm really happy here. I mean my aura has never been pinker!"

"Ty Lee, please." Azula said, almost pleadingly.

She grew curious. "What's the matter, Azula?" It wasn't like her to speak like that to anyone. She always seemed to look confident in what she did.

She looked down at the ground, suddenly embarrassed by what was going through her head. "There's a plan I came up with and I'm trying to figure out how to do it. I think that if I have you and Mai by my side, I can figure it out."

Ty Lee walked to the princess, taking her hand and gently holding it. "Are you still having the nightmares?" She asked quietly.

Azula brought her face back up and Ty Lee didn't see the confident princess of the Fire Nation. She saw the terrified little girl who would run to her room every time she slept over after having the nightmare, so she wouldn't be alone. "Yes." Azula whispered.