45 Agni Kai

"Remember your firebending basics, Prince Zuko. They are your greatest weapons."

Zuko, who was kneeling in front of his uncle, smirked. "I've faced someone way more dangerous than this in the past."

The Prince stood up and turned around, facing his opponent who mirrored his movements on the other side of the arena.

The sky was dyed a shade of sunset red, and a few patrol soldiers are around the arena doing their job. In the big arena there are only 2 shirtless men today, the young teen with a ponytail and the middle-aged man with sideburns.

One of the Fire Nation soldiers standing on higher grounds, seeing that the duo has readied themselves for battle, rang a large gong.

Both take on Firebending stances.

Beams of fire fly through the arena back and forth as both men keep their distance. Zuko kept his overly aggressive Firebending stance, putting himself in disadvantageous positions to increase his battle prowess.

Zhao, on the other hand, was fighting steadily, almost like an Earthbender, he was stable and simply deflected every attack or dodge with minimal effort.

Zuko kept jumping and doing exaggerated movements that cost his stamina and breath, in less than five minutes of battle he was already breathing hard.

'No… This is not how it should've been!' thought Zuko, dodging a well-aimed fire blast from Zhao. 'I trained to be better than this!' he looked around and saw his uncle's mouth moving like he was trying to say something to him but Zuko couldn't hear it.

'Teacher…'

Zuko's eyes narrowed and his pupils contracted.

Abandoning his Firebending stance, he lowered his body and dashed towards Zhao.

Both Iroh and Zhao were shocked by that change.

One fire blast after another, Zhao tried his best to hit the Prince that abandoned the offensive completely.

Zuko dodged the first by sliding on the ground, and the second he managed to jump above.

'Those movements…' Zhao's eyes trembled as flashbacks came to him, he was completely out of it for a second.

'This is it!' Zuko thought as he aimed a compressed fireball directly toward Zhao's legs.

Caught off guard, Zhao retreats clumsily, which didn't escape Zuko's sight.

Using it to press his advantage, Zuko kept aiming at Zhao's legs.

Slowly Zhao lost the complete momentum he had in this duel, Zuko kept preventing him from stabilizing his stance, getting closer and closer.

When the Commander finally took the wrong step, Zuko ignited two massive blasts of fire, one from each fist, aiming for the flanks of the middle-aged man.

Zhao was forced to land in an awkward position to defend himself, spreading his arms to his sides to protect his flanks, but his eyes went wide when he saw a third and even bigger blast of fire coming out of the Prince's foot, in a straight line towards his body.

There was no time to react, no way to dodge, he was still in that awkward position that didn't enable him to deflect.

The wave of fire hit him head-on, he could feel his skin burning, and he could feel the pain that reminded him of certain events in the past that he did his all to overcome and forget.

When Zhao finally landed on the ground, breathing heavily, weakened, and with smoke surrounding his body, he stared at Zuko with wrath. "Do it… " he said challengingly.

Zuko, who stood in front of the defeated commander simply burned the ground right beside Zhao's face, there was no doubt in his actions.

"YOU COWARD!" Shouted Zhao "No wonder your father cast you out!"

Zuko simply stared at him like he was worth nothing and like he was nothing, which pissed Zhao off even more. Turning around slowly, Zuko said his parting words. "Your life is not mine to take, but don't worry… Your time will come."

As Zuko was walking toward his uncle, Zhao used all the strength he had left to lift himself and aim a blast of fire at Zuko's back.

Iroh was already on his way to intercept it, but Zuko was faster.

He lifted one of his feet behind his back, similar to how Aang would do to Ozai during their final confrontation, and made the fire spread up. One thing he learned from Madara was to never lower his guard even after achieving victory, that lesson was branded on his very soul!

Then with the same foot, he landed a heavy blow to Zhao's ribs and a loud crack could be heard as the Commander was tossed like a ragdoll through the arena.

"Disgraceful." It was not Iroh who said it, it was Zuko himself. "Even in exile, I have more honor than you ever did…" He couldn't help but grin when he finished his words. "Is this the standards of our Nation, commander?"

Iroh's eyes went wide, he trembled from head to toe. A small tear came from one of the old General's eyes and he couldn't help but smile widely.

"P-prince Zuko…" he said.

The teen turned to his uncle and gave him a gentle smile. "Let's go uncle, their tea was rather bland… I prefer the ones that you prepare yourself."

"Yes!"

As the duo left the vicinity, the curtain of night fell over the continent leading to a comfortable winter night.

...….

The next day came with bright sun early in the morning, and in a small village located on a southeastern island of the Earth Kingdom, a group of 3 foreign kids could be seen being forcefully escorted by painted girls wearing green kimonos and dark armors similar to samurais of old.

"WE ARE NOT SPIES!" A loud male voice echoed, who else other than Sokka?

"And that's exactly what a spy would say!" of course, someone from the mob in the background had to shout that.

Sokka couldn't bear it, that level of stupidity was so bad that he wanted to flay the skin off his own face! 'Come on, how can such dumb people exist in this world?!'

"You know… He is not wrong Sokka… That's indeed what a spy would say…" commented Aang cheerfully beside him.

"Aang… just… stop…" Sokka couldn't… really….

Katara could only smile wryly at that, but she was quick to think of a solution, turning to Aang she whispered. "You should reveal yourself as the Avatar, that way no one would doubt us!"

"I… I can try…" said Aang with a bit of reluctance in his voice.

"How can you guys behave like this?!" Demanded Sokka, who wasn't having any of it.

"Sokka…" Katara tried to interfere, but the boy couldn't take it.

The girl in the lead approached Sokka with a neutral expression. "This is how it is in our land. You were the ones that entered without permission…"

"We didn't know!" Katara tried to protest.

"Oh really? That's great! Everything is forgiven then," said the painted girl with a cheerful smile.

"Really!?" Shouted Sokka, with relief in his voice, but it was instantly demolished.

"No," she answered with a deadpan expression.

"WAIT!" Shouted Katara, interrupting whatever these girls were doing at the moment.

Everyone in the vicinity stared at her.

Katara, noticing that she got their attention, pointed to Aang. "He is the Avatar! We are not spies!"

"The Avatar you say?" Everyone stared at the bald boy with raised eyebrows. "The last avatar was said to be an Airbender that disappeared 100 years ago, there's no way that i would believe those words without proof…" said the painted girl in her green kimono and armor.

"And how do I do that?" Aang asked confusedly.

Sokka, being all tied up and not having his hand free to facepalm himself, simply hit his head on the wooden pole that he was tied to 'you got to be kidding me…'

Katara, trying to be helpful, whispered to him. "I think you should try to airbend, Aang. Only the Avatar would be able to airbend nowadays…"

"Oh yeah! Airbending!" Said Aang enthusiastically.

"Oh just… kill me…" Sokka kept hitting his head.

The situation passed without any issue, Aang managed to do the most underwhelming airbending ever, rotating a small coin between his hands. Everyone cheered, one tall ugly guy with missing teeth foamed through his mouth and passed out, and Suki, the current leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, couldn't be more disappointed at the Avatar's skills.

'Seriously? You are THE Avatar, and that's the best you could come up with?' Even though she didn't spend too much time with Madara, her face was getting dangerously close to a Saitama face.