"If you really want to make amends for what you did... I want you to stay here, Toph needs to be alone, she's angry, she needs to calm down."
"..." Doubtful, the Uzumaki stared at the waterbender, slowly nodding his head, and shortly after, heavily fell to the ground.
Did all that really happen?
He was still having a hard time processing everything that happened.
"I... I wanted us to be more... more than... I... I just wanted... to be happy and be with you."
Those words kept repeating in his head.
She loved him?
Naruto ran his hand through his hair, almost tearing it off a little from the force he used.
He always saw himself as someone strong, someone who could endure a lot. He forced himself to be strong, so as not to break when he was a child.
He fought difficult battles.
Against enemies who were simply monsters.
And he preferred to fight all of them together, alone.
Instead of having to deal with the painful, strange emotions that ate away at his chest.
Now, he knew he had a fragile heart.
"What do I do?"
At times like this, he could only ask himself, waiting for an answer that didn't come.
Seeing how distressed the Uzumaki felt, Katara sat down next to him, and hugged him tightly.
"I'll go talk to her," he murmured softly in the blonde teenager's ear, stroking his back to comfort him. It was obvious that he felt terrible.
"Thank you..." he thanked, letting himself be enveloped in the hug, resting his head against the waterbender's chest, who hugged him tightly.
"No, I'm sorry for all of this… if I hadn't been so stupid to get Toph's hopes up, to clarify things, everything wouldn't have ended like this."
"..." Naruto felt the girl's hand caress his hair, and her other hand clinging to his jacket. He stared for a moment at the red marks on the girl's knuckles.
"But don't worry... I took care of it."
Naruto pulled away from the girl, as if on fire, and gave her an incredulous look, the pieces starting to spin in his head.
"You…"
"I want you to stay away from Azula," Katara's soft expression left, now leaving a cold one.
"You can't decide-" he couldn't continue when he was abruptly interrupted.
"Of course I can!"
"…" Naruto took a step back from the sudden scream, but frowning, he took a better look at the girl's injured fist. "What did you do?"
"What I had to do." Katara raised her right hand; she had forgotten to heal it since she faced the princess until she got here.
"You're not my mother, Katara. I don't need you to defend me, much less tell me what to do."
The look between both teenagers was intense and heated; neither would leave their position no matter how hard the other pushed.
"The Fire Nation... that girl... you don't know the amount of damage they've done in these hundred years. You've only been in this world for less than a year! I've been here for a lifetime, and I refuse to watch you get hurt for trusting the wrong person!"
"I'm already tired of hearing what they say about her! What you do with Azula is exactly what you did with me in the crap of my village! You just spew hate without even knowing her! Are you as stupid as them?!"
"Unlike you! She did do bad things!" Katara felt furious at how he dared to defend her and even compare her to himself. What blasphemy. "She was a soldier! She hurt and killed people! Innocent people! Do you really think that talking to her will change that?"
"…"
"Do you think she's any different from that woman that tried to kill us?"
"…"
"Answer, Naruto!"
"I... I don't know." Naruto looked down, slowly opening his jacket and taking out the photograph they had taken last night. Looking at it for a few seconds, he looked Katara in the eyes again. "But... I have faith in her."
"You shouldn't have it with the wrong people."
"I have to... sometimes people need to know that there is at least one person who believes they can change."
The silence between the two teenagers lingered, the verbal fight reaching a stalemate, leaving them alone in a dense atmosphere of dead silence.
It ended abruptly when someone knocked on the door.
"Lord Uzumaki, we have a problem," one of the Dai Li agents arrived and knelt in front of the door. "We require your presence."
Naruto glanced once more at Katara, who turned her back on him and headed in the direction where Toph had gone. The discussion would have to wait for now.
….
What had happened?
How could she be demeaned in this way by a mere peasant girl?
Why was his blood boiling with fury at her threat to stay away from Naruto?
Since when… was he so weak?
Azula was sorry.
He had weakened.
Not just physically.
His will became weak.
Did she really just stay on her knees like a little girl before the waterbender after that hit?
She would never have allowed this before.
She was once a great firebender.
That he would have fought against that peasant woman and would not have stopped until he had his head on fire in a sewer pit.
Did these feelings make her weak?
The love for his uncle and brother.
Patience and acceptance of these dirty peasants.
Love… towards him.
The anger in his chest increased, his rage coursing through his veins, causing small blue flames to dance around his hands.
"I know you're a monster..."
That dirty peasant girl.
She...
She...
He was like everyone.
How those refugees she escorted here, if they had known who she was, would have thrown stones at her and crucified her.
Like those who pretended to be his friends, but when he saved the waterbender brat.
How did they thank him?
They told him to leave...
After everything he did!
I hated them… I hated them all.
I would kill them, I would kill them all.
Azula's eyes widened, as she felt something hot touch her skin, the flames engulfing her hands had heated her bracelet, not enough to leave a burn.
But enough to make her feel pain and catch his gaze.
"Why would you believe that?"
"Because I believe in you, I believe... no, I'm sure you're a good person"
He…believed in her.
He supported her, he loved her.
Not just him, his uncle, his older brother.
"Azula?" Zuko had been silent for a long time.
Seeing the different facets that his younger sister showed, who remained on the ground, sitting against the wall, in the same place where that girl from the Southern Water Tribe knocked her down.
Finally, she slowly stood up, still feeling dizzy, but didn't fall over, when her older brother held her by the arm.
"Come on... let's go to uncle" Zuko said quietly, his sister's response was a silent 'yes', and she stood up on her own, to retrieve her backpack.
As the two brothers were about to leave, they stopped when they heard the sound of footsteps coming from the entrance of the apartment. The two stared in shock at the person who had just entered through that door.
"You…"
[ If you want to read advance Chapters then go to Pat reon and support me there.
PAT REON I'D:- Alzero ]