The Plan Begins

"Is that Avatar weak? The person who will help up maintain the balance of the world. A bridge between the world and spirits."

"Ah... n-no..." answered Pakku with a bit of confusion.

He looked at Genji with a questioning look, wondering what this question was for.

He saw no relevance in what he was saying and the question he was asked. What did it have to do with the plan that is being decided for the Northern Water Tribe, the place that is currently under his watch, a Grand Lotus'!

"What about the Fire Nation? Is it weak? Have they collapsed and lost hundreds of battles?"

Pakku began to feel weird, but he couldn't deny the fact that the Fire Nation is strong, really strong. They've lost battles, but not a staggering amount. Especially considering that this war has been ongoing for almost a hundred years.

"No! But what is the use of asking these questions?" asked Pakku with a frown on his face.

Genji didn't answer and instead said, "The Order of the White Lotus has finally touched upon the truth that has come about the birth of bending in the past.

Bending was never stronger in the hands of a young person compared to an elder person. Neither has it ever been more common to people of different beliefs or social status!"

Pakku nodded and continued to agree with everything Genji was saying. There wasn't a single thing he could deny, it was all the truth and Pakku was feeling like he was slowly beginning to realize something.

"Bending is a spiritual art that had been bestowed upon humans by the Ancient Lion Turtles. We had disgraced them by having them killed in the past to prevent them from taking this gift bestowed upon us from them out of fear.

Bending has become such an integral part to our lives, that we still haven't uncovered all of its secrets. However, it's the very truth, that bending is impartial to whoever wields it.

The strength of female benders is no different to that of male benders. To separate ourselves and prevent one from learning something is like stopping some truths from coming to light. To bury and hide talent away is a scary thing... to destroy knowledge and truths that could be is like destroying the bright futures we can hold!"

!!!

It was then that Pakku stood up from his chair with wide eyes as he discovered the truth within Genji's words.

'How could we be such fools!'

Pakku, a devout follower of truths within the Order of the White Lotus, widened his eyes and felt like he had been enlightened. He felt like he had committed a great mistake for following such a tradition that had been set since even before the Age of Avatar.

Before the Avatar was 'born', the water 'tribes' of the past lived on the backs of Lion Turtles. In this scenario, men and women were separated because of physical strength and their abilities.

After the Avatar, the water tribes had maintained this idea into their culture. Especially after they had discovered that waterbending had the ability to heal.

With the idea of healing being something of support and unmanly, women were made to take on this job to help out the men who would head out to hunt.

With this set idea and custom, this remained ingrained in the culture of the water tribes.

However, it had been an outdated idea ever since bending had been introduced. To remain unchanged, this idea had made the water tribes stagnant.

"This is why the Order of the White Lotus had decided to help the Northern Water Tribe to discover this truth," said Genji as he smirked inwardly and looked at Pakku's face who was fully convinced.

'I... I will support Genji and help him lead the Northern Water Tribe to the truth. To strengthen the people and their very lives. He's a waterbender... I'm sure I can trust him...'

Pakku headed for the door and was just about to leave before turning to look at Genji.

"I will support Genji."

With that out of the way, Pakku walked out and left Genji behind in the shop.

Once Pakku was gone, Genji turned to look over to an empty area before walking over and moving a small block of ice.

With the formation disrupted, the figure of a sleeping old man tied up was revealed.

Genji noticed that this man hadn't moved and decided to quickly make a move to use this to his advantage. Using his Hyper Sense and Physician skill, Genji knew that the man hasn't woken up ever since he was knocked out.

Using his acupuncture skill, Genji made sure to make the old man go into a deep sleep before picking him up and taking him to his bed.

After that, Genji went to the entrance and cleaned up everything to make it look like nothing had been moved or touched.

Just like that, Genji left the house and locked the door with waterbending before disappearing into the night.

...

Moments later in his house, Genji used the Enlightenment effect of his skill and it failed! And it really did put him into a meditative state for 30 whole minutes. And that wasn't even entering into the enlightenment state.

***

[+1 Spirit]

Opening his eyes the next morning, Genji wasn't surprised to find Pakku standing at his door with a smile.

"To think you were a Grand Lotus," said Pakku. "Why didn't you tell me you were a Grand Lotus before?"

Genji smiled and shook his head, "I needed to see just how wise my senior is."

"Hoho..." Pakku rubbed his chin in pride, thinking that he displayed a good side to Genji.

Rolling his eyes under the blindfold, Genji walked forward in a confident stride.

"What's your plan?" asked Pakku, wondering how Genji will go about changing the culture of the Northern Water Tribe.

Genji smirked and turned to face Pakku, "For now, just preoccupy yourself with trying to train at least five women. The Northern Water Tribe won't say much about you training five women for at least two days. Using your status as a master waterbender, you can possibly extend by a week. But what you need, is to show the elders and the entire Northern Water Tribe, that women are also strong fighters.

Challenge them to a fight in two weeks time. Make them think that they have the advantage so that they won't go against it and then when they're their proudest, use the female waterbenders to one-sidedly defeat them."

Pakku raised his eyebrows and was surprised by Genji's plan. He stroked his beard and nodded, 'This plan might work...'

"It's fine if you only get two women to train. The parents will be wary of letting their daughters learn waterbending in fear of the Northern Water Tribe council."

"Right. But group challenges usually involve a 3v3 scenario. Where will we get a third if I only get two?"

"Let's just hope you can get those two women first before you start worrying about a third waterbender."

"One more thing. I don't think a two week training will be enough for the female waterbenders to one sidedly defeat the students of other masters."

Genji smirked and said, "I will help you take care of that. For now, just look for the waterbenders."

Pakku sighed and walked away.

On the other hand, Genji was feeling much better. He no longer had to follow Pakku around, now he can just order him around and have him do everything.

'Fuck... my Heightened Senses and Hyper Sense are at level 38 too. I soon won't need this damn blindfold any more,' thought Genji as he shifted the blindfold a bit because it felt weird.

His Cold Resistance skill was also developing quite nicely. It was now at level 17 and reaching the point where he hardly felt the cold.

Walking around with the walking stick in hand, Genji hardly needed it anymore since he could now feel his surroundings very acutely.

Heading to Ko's healing hut, Genji saw her preparing the doll to show the young children how to heal properly and what areas to focus for proper healing. Genji nodded at her and walked to the back of the classroom.

His Physician skill was at level 37 and he wanted to receive a bit more experience points for it before he stops gaining any from Ko. There's hardly any books here at the Northern Water Tribe, so Genji didn't have any medical books to look at. His best bet would be checking the Palace and seeing if there's a library in the palace.

...

The teaching lesson ended and Genji waited for the children to leave before approaching Ko.

'Whilst Pakku teaches some children in the open, I will train some in the dark and have them stay hidden until the right opportunity arises,' thought Genji as he smiled.

"Ko, I want to ask you something," said Genji.

"Yes, Genji? What is it?"

"If you had the chance to waterbend when you were a young woman, would you have taken it?"

Ko went quiet and closed her eyes as she pondered over it. After a while, she finally opened her eyes and looked at Genji.

"I would have," she said, nodding a bit.

Genji smiled and asked, "Do you wish for young women to be able to waterbend?"

Ko nodded and said, "Every female waterbender wishes to be able to waterbend. We only conform ourselves with healing because it's the next best thing."

"What if I told you that we can help the young women be able to learn how to waterbend?" asked Genji with a wide smile on his face.

Ko tilted her head and looked at him curiously. She did not expect him to say anything like that.

"How?" she asked.

"What we have to do first, is to stick together no matter what. Then, once we gather all the young women in the village, I'll teach them how to waterbend."

"Are you sure about this? Are you willing to risk your life for these girls?"

"Of course! I have to do this so that they can think to themselves that they can also waterbend. The right to bending isn't something that can be taken away. To deprive someone of something that they can do naturally and especially blocking their futures, the Northern Water Tribe is losing a lot of talent.

Any one of these young women could be a Master Waterbender.

The Northern Water Tribe hasn't uncovered it's potential. The Fire Nation now has a large army because it is composed of both men and women. We've been lucky so far that the Fire Nation hasn't set its eyes on the Northern Water Tribe yet."

Ko nodded and understood what Genji was saying.

"I'm not saying that we will make the women learn waterbending for the sake of military might. I'm saying that we need to teach them how to waterbend so that they can protect themselves and their very culture. Women will be able to protect their children! They will be able to help out their partners in fights or battles!

Participate and aid in times of hunts!"

Ko nodded again and thought to herself, 'Genji is right. If we don't try this then we will surely lose our future generations to the Fire Nation. Even if we don't get attacked, the future of young women and the survivability of the entire Northern Water Tribe depend on this idea!'

She nodded again and said, "Alright, we will have to talk to my Master Yagoda. She will definitely help us. To provide a safe future and the advancement of our tribe, we must help the tribe change by starting with the children and their parents."

"We will train both young children and their older women together. We have to strike while the iron's hot. Teach as much waterbending to the women to the point where even the elders of the tribe won't know what to do.

For this, we will have to use a large open area to help various women and children how to waterbend. Try to include some men who wish to learn how to heal. This way, we won't just have women fighting for the right to waterbend, but also men who wish to learn how to heal."