74 Running Away from Home

A blob of mud flew from the shores of the artificial lake underneath the bridge that they just crossed and instantly hit the Avatar straight on the head, making the poor bald boy fall on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"Stop squealing!" Toph frowned her eyebrows "If joining you means that I will have to deal with a squealing little girl, you better not even try to convince me anymore!"

"Blergh" The poor Aang could only spit the mud that managed to enter his wide mouth while cleaning his face with his airbending. "There were worms in there!!"

"Yea? So what?" Toph raised an eyebrow "When I was out practicing my earthbending I would spend a long time in the Foggy Swamp… and you don't even want to know what I had to eat to satisfy my hunger." A smug grin appeared on her lips

Ignoring the blind girl, Aang bent a little bit of water from the artificial river, washing his mouth with it before spitting at the ground. 

"You really are a little girl, aren't you… Twinkle Toes?" 

"Can we please stop this talk about me and go back to the talk that you are Madara's SISTER!?" Exclaimed Aang in exasperation.

"What's wrong?" her grin grew even more sarcastic as she removed her hair adornment, letting her long black hair flow down like a river "Can't see the resemblance?"

Aang's mouth went wide, but he covered it with his hands, he didn't want Toph sending more worm filled mud balls into his mouth.

"N-Now that you look like that…." 

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Toph started laughing, she even fell on the floor "Oh, I wish I could see just this one time! The look on your face must be priceless for you to sound stupid like that!" after several seconds of laughing, the blind girl finally stopped "No, we are not blood related, but Madara is my big brother even if we don't share blood, he was the only one that ever accepted who I really am, always encouraged me, shared stories of his adventures across the world with me and never treated me like a helpless, powerless blind doll."

Toph's tone became rather melancholic as she kept talking about her relationship with Madara, as if flashbacks started coming to her mind.

"It saddens me that I don't even know what he looks like, all I've heard were details from former employees that left the family estate and joined him years ago. They always told me that we indeed looked alike, especially our hair... although Madara's is more…"

"Spiky? Wild? Like a long mane?" Said Aang, raising one finger.

"Yeah… Whatever that means…" The girl had a gentle smile on her lips.

"So… you don't know what I look like as well? And Katara? Sokka? Even The Boulder?" 

"Nah, I know… Well, as well as someone in my circumstances can, my senses can capture details, but… He was gone before I fully mastered it, and never came back. Not that I could blame him, I've heard talks about him around here back then."

Aang didn't know what to say, honestly, he didn't have a decent talk with Madara, they met after the Oasis attack, but the Avatar didn't really know how to bridge the gap between them so back then he decided to just sit and watch Sokka bombard him with questions about training and fighting techniques. At the end of the day, Madara and Aang had very limited interaction.

"Well…" Aang tried to break the silence "If you decide to come with us… We can go and meet up with him!" he concluded with a beaming smile.

Toph's lip trembled emotionally a bit, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

"I will think about it…" she said as she walked away, back towards her room.

The Avatar stood there with a thoughtful expression as he watched Toph walk back alone, after she was gone he took a deep breath and decided to follow her example and sleep for the night.

The next day came, and Aang finally understood what Toph said, about being treated like a waste.

Wherever the blind girl went, she was surrounded by at least ten people, seven guards and three maids. Also, for some reason, he and his group were not allowed to meet with her for the whole duration of the day, it was only during the parting banquet that they shared a room, but even so… Many more guards were around.

"So, I assume that after you leave, you will go back to searching for an earthbending teacher?" Asked Lao, with a tired expression, the nightly talk with his wife wasn't pleasant at all! 'Dammit Madara, even after years you still do this to me!'

Aang just stole glances at Toph for a moment, he couldn't see her struggling… but for some reason he could… feel it?... but, not wanting to ignore the patriarch, he answered.

"Yes, we have a long journey ahead."

Nodding Lao concluded their dinner "I wish you good luck Avatar Aang."

As both him and Poppy stood up, Toph also did so, but contrary to their elegant movements, she did so abruptly.

"Mom, Dad… I wish to talk to you..."

"Not now, Toph, it's already time for you to go to bed" Said Lao, basically ignoring the girl's pleas.

But as he was about to walk through the doorway, it was blocked by an earth wall, which shocked the couple and made them look back at an equally flabbergasted 'Master' Yu, then at Toph… finally noticing her hand raised, signaling that it was her who did it.

"I'm tired of this, I am not a frail porcelain doll like you think I am… "

Master Yu immediately went to bend the earth back down, but for some reason the wall slightly trembled but didn't budge, making Toph smirk a little bit.

"I am strong, not even that pompous prick over there can outmatch my earthbending!" She narrowed her eyes "I wish to teach the Avatar earthbending."

"Preposterous Toph!" Shouted Lao "You are a weak, frail, blind girl, and MY daughter! I won't allow you to travel around with these people, or ANYONE for that matter!"

"You don't understand who I am! I love fighting, I love earthbending! I am really… really good at it! And I want to go out adventuring like Madara!" She spoke, undoing her earth wall now that she got her parent's attention

"DON'T MENTION THAT NAME!" Shouted Poppy in anger. "He almost destroyed our family! You have no idea how bad of an influence that boy was on you! I regret it.. I REGRET THAT I ALLOWED YOUR FATHER TO KEEP HIM HERE!"

'Allowed me?' Lao's eyebrows twitched furiously "Toph…" His voice lowered "It seems we gave you far too much freedom, from now on you will be guarded and cared for 24 hours a day!"

"We are doing that for your own good, sweetie." Added Poppy, with a soft tone.

Toph could only sigh and lower her head as her father kicked the Avatar and his team out.

"Sorry… Goodbye, Aang…" a single tear fell down her face as she too was escorted to her room.

Entering her room, she could only sit down by her bed and hug her knees while tears kept flowing.

For several minutes she sat there, with her head lowered, but eventually she raised her red puffy eyes that narrowed dangerously as she suddenly stood up. "I'm tired of this!"

Stomping the ground, she opened a secret hole in her room's floor that had a few sacks of coins, her Championship belt and her Blind Bandit clothes.

Team Avatar could only follow the guards, honestly even if Aang wanted to help, this was a family issue, not an international calamity, he had no power here and he knew it.

As Sokka was fixing Appa's saddle, he turned to Aang;

"Don't worry Aang! We can always ask for the Boulder to teach you!" He said in excitement.

The poor Avatar could only give an extremely forced smile "… Yeah… We can search a bit further…"

"Don't worry, we will find you a teacher. There are plenty of amazing earthbenders out there." Said Katara while putting a hand on the bald boy's shoulder.

"Not like her." Said Aang with a saddened expression.

As the group was ready to leave, they heard a voice in the distance;

"Wait!" Shouted Toph, running towards the group, donning her Blind Bandit clothes and carrying a satchel.

"Toph! What are you doing here?"

"My dad changed his mind… He said I am free to travel the world!" Said the girl with a light smile on her face;

Sokka and Katara exchanged knowing glances, before the elder brother turned to the blind girl and smirked at her;

"Well, we better get out of here before he 'changes his mind' again…"

"Good idea!" Said Toph

"You're gonna be a great teacher, Toph!" Said Aang with a happy smile.

"You can bet that I will! I learned from the best!" She grinned and for some reason Aang felt a nasty shiver run down his spine "Speaking of which…" She then turned her face towards her family estate and took a deep breath before removing her hair adornment and tossing it on the ground, letting her hair flow freely.

…

Inside a minimalistic Japanese styled room, with clean tatami floors and open shoji doors that led to a stone platform connected to a private koi pond, the sound of the bamboo-scare and rustle of leaves is the only thing that could be heard.

On top of the tatami floor laid Madara, facing down, with his torso exposed. And laying besides him was a fair-skinned woman with dark brown hair tied in a bun and bangs covering one half of her beautiful face, she had bright blue eyes and wore a black yukata with blue and purplish-blue roses artistically embroidered into it, with a blue sash around her thin waist.

The woman was carrying a thin bamboo stick, and beside her she had a small box with many flasks of what looked to be different colors of ink and many other sticks just like the one that she was holding.

"We are almost done with our weekly session, Mr. Uchiha." Said her soft calm voice, as she kept slowly piercing Madara's back with the bamboo needle. A painting of one blue and one red dragon coiling around a big Uchiha Fan in a sea of flames could be seen being painted in Yakuza style, although not finished yet.

"Thank you, Hanya." He said as a soft towel was pressed to his back for several seconds before he sat up and adjusted his own black yukata.

Shaking her head with a smile "Don't mention it, at least you are not loud like Mr. Lei, he used to scream a lot back then…"

"I remember," Madara chuckled. "Even though his was way simpler, with only green…"

The woman could only chuckle, "More colors does not equal more pain, Mr. Uchiha."

 "Then it seems that he is still just as wimpy as he was back then" Madara shrugged. "And just managed to mask it better."

 They both stood up and Hanya escorted him to the exit of her shop, and once they arrived, she bowed "Thank you once more for giving me this opportunity Mr. Uchiha."

"Stop that woman, every week you thank me for it and honestly, it's not needed. You have talent for this kind of stuff and I would be glad to always keep you around here even if that was your one talent."

"Then let me thank you for not forcing me to be a healer just because I am a waterbender…" She said with an emotional face.

"Being born with the gift of bending does not force one to go down that route, it opens a door yes, but we all should be able to decide our path." Madara said offhandedly as he waved his hand and walked back towards his not-so-humble abode.

As he was walking, enjoying the sight of his 'upgraded' resort, Nari appeared out of nowhere, right beside him;

"Mr. Uchiha,"

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT WOMAN!" Shouted Madara as he got a jump-scare "You need to seriously stop doing that!"

"Hmm?" Nari tilted her head to the side with an innocent expression.

Staring at his innocent looking mother figure Madara's eyebrow could only twitch a little bit before he calmed down by taking a deep breath.

"How can I help you today, Nari?"

"We received what appears to be the first batch of Northern Water Tribesmen that wish to live here…"

Yeah, ever since the siege fiasco, many Water Tribesmen wanted to move here. Not everyone in the North had a good life. It's a tough environment and the sources of food are also very scarce. They survive, yes, but some of them want more than to simply survive to live another day.

"That's interesting… But did that really deserve the scare?"

"Well… You will be interested to know that we have a special guest now…"

"Who?" Madara raised an eyebrow, not very interested but simply playing the part.

"…. Princess Yue…"

"… Shit…"