The Shadow Bender

Summary: A new breed of Bending has been discovered, by a young girl of the Water Tribe, and Katara is more than a little Jealous. After traveling with the Avatar, her brother and that annoying, childish, Toph, she felt that she deserved something, and this girl hadn't done anything to earn this bending gift! She strikes a deal with the Fire Nation Princess and the girl is taken from her tribe, given to none other than the Fire Prince Zuko.

Anime/Manga: InuYasha/Avatar

Genre: Romance/Angst

Couple: Kagome/Zuko

Rated: M

Little Shadow Weaver

It's that path that she treads...walking a path unknown to her, but a path none the less. She wasn't where she had been, she wasn't where she was going, but she was on her way...The flash of a firefly guides her way for a single moment, the breath of a billow-snow-buffalo draws her attention from the direction she'd moments ago traveled, the shadow of a penguin-seal captured her eyes and drew her footfalls towards it's way, following the sunset's colorful lightshow or reds, blues and purple that blended with the black of the night sky and the burning amber of the descending sun.

Her sea blue eyes, deep and warm with emotion, followed the moving shadows that raced across the snow covered grounds. Her feet, hidden by the pure blanket of fallen, frozen rain, moved forward as she let her body move with her footfall, her hands pulling back as the shadows of surrounding trees moved with her movements, the trees bending with their shadows, not given a choice in the matter. Her eyes followed ever so carefully, watching with unease and anticipation as the shadows curved and the trees began snapping, forced to bend to her will, as if they were the cause of her hurt, her turmoil.

"Brother..." Her voice weak yet unyielding, "I will kill her!"

~SNAP~CRASH~

"I'm sorry...I couldn't save you..." Her eyes fell to the trees that lay broken and useless on the tarnished snow covered ground. The shadows surrounded her as she sunk to her knees before the mess and cried. The secret of her bending had been kept secret from the water tribe's people who had protected, cared for and raised her and her brothers. She'd grown up with Katara and Souka; had watched the two leave on their journey with the Avatar, and had watched their ongoing turmoil fall upon the village she'd called home. Then she had watched as the men had been called into battle and the women paid their time healing the weakened, hurt and pained. She had been learning, but her skills left much to be desired. She was no healer, nor was she a water bender.

"Kagome?"

The girl, Kagome, turned at her name, the shadows receding back to the trees in which they came; her eyes caught Katara's grayish blue ones and she watched the slightly older girl walk up to her.

Katara stared at the trees, than her eyes moved back to Kagome, and again to the trees before she gave a loose smile. "Kagome...Gran-Gran wants a wants a word with you; it's about Souta..." Her eyes continuously darted back and forth between Kagome and the trees before her curiosity got the better of her. "Are...are you an Earth bender?"

"...no." Kagome stood and left back to the village with Katara following after her.

"Then what─"

"Nothing, I was doing nothing important. The trees were there when I got there, I just happened to take refuge there. So...where is Aang?" She easily changed the course of her questioning to a subject the girl enjoyed most. Now three years into the war, Katara was seventeen, same as Kagome who was only a few months younger, and Aang was fifteen, as was Toph, a close friend of Kagome's since she'd met her. Souka was eighteen, and his girlfriend, Suki, who Kagome had only met once, was the same age as him. They had, on multiple occasions, mentioned another person, Zuko, whom she hadn't yet met, but could hear the animosity in their tone as they spoke of him.

"Aang is training some with Haru and Toph; he's getting to be a master at earth bending himself now!" Her eyes sparkle a cold breeze lifted their hair around them. "Toph said that after three years of training, all he needs to do is keep sparing and practicing; he knows what she knows, and then some, being that he's the Avatar and all."

Kagome frowned; Katara had picked up a remarkable trait on her journey with the Avatar. It was called bragging. She had become kind of vain and arrogant, which rubbed Kagome the wrong way half the time and caused her to say something stupid, "He's still just a kid, Katara. Being the Avatar makes him our hopeful savior, not some prince." Like that.

"Shut up!" She snapped, "What would you know about prince's! They aren't so great! Their cold, heartless and ruthless! They don't care about others, only their own gain and increase in power, only their own selfish pride and honor! You know nothing!"

Kagome's eyes widened; yeah, this was what she had to deal with, because Kagome couldn't control her tongue which moved faster than her brain, and Katara couldn't control her temper which moved faster than her heart.

"...Aang is a hundred times better than any Prince!" Her hands moved and water followed as it snapped painfully across Kagome's side.

"AAH~!"Her cry was heard by some passing village children who ran to get an adult or two to stop Katara's temper, which was usually how it happened. However, Kagome had just lost her older brother, her temper matched that of a fire nation general, and she had lost control of it as she lashed out at her long term friend. The shadows seize her movements as Kagome moved her hands and changed the placement of her feet. Katara's eyes widened as the shadows restricted her movements, feet, hands, head...shoot her fingers were even stiff.

"Kagome~! Release her!"

Kagome dropped her, as Gran-Gran instructed. She looked behind her and saw Toph standing with Aang and Haru next to her and Gran-Gran. The four looked curiously at her, though, Toph was already aware of her abilities, she was curious as to why the fight had started, no doubt. "I am so sorry─"

"Save it," Gran-Gran interrupted, "Your younger brother must be discussed."

Kagome bowed her head and followed the woman, well aware of the lingering eyes of Katara. Toph followed quickly after Kagome, not liking the fact that she was going on half-baked guesses, as to where they were going, since she couldn't see all that well on ice. It paid that a small portion of land was connected to the floating iceberg that substituted as a bed for her and Haru who refused to leave her alone there. She took Kagome's hand and they walked silently behind the elder woman before stopping at an igloo. "How is he?"

"Getting worse. The cold will kill him before the end of the month."

"...I lost Bankotsu to this...Azula fire princess...I can't lose Souta to...a cold!"

"...That's why he's being shipped to a safer, warmer, location with our next fleet of Water tribe soldiers."

"WHAT! NO!" Kagome cried out, "If you do that...I...I may never see him again..." Her voice grew soft and tears, for the second time that day, fell mercilessly to the cold fluff of ice surrounding her.

"You will be going too."

This caught her attention and she perked up, wiping her tears away with her free hand. "I will?"

"Yes, as well as Katara and Toph. Now, you leave tonight, with the cover of darkness."

"I...I understand," Kagome bowed, "Thank you for helping, both him and myself."

The elder woman nodded, though her eyes held a look of distrust in them from her earlier actions against Katara. Toph must have felt it too as she gave her hand a light squeeze of reassurance before pulling Kagome into the tent where her brother lay bundled up and shivering with beads of sweat on his forehead. Toph let her hand go as Kagome moved to her baby brother's side. His chest heaved as he struggled to breath.

"Toph, where is this fleet going?"

"An island, from what I know. It's centered somewhere between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation...but I'm not completely sure where it is exactly."

"Lovely..."

-x-x-x-

As night was soon covering the iced island, Souta was being carried off towards the ship that they would be leaving on, it was a small boat next to a slightly larger one. She, her brother, and Katara would be taking that one, while Toph led the other with the fleet.

They started sailing once packed and readied, and Kagome could only stare sadly at her brother. She didn't even care to apologize to Katara who faced away from her.

'It's okay...Souta...soon, soon everything will be okay.'

Katara glanced coldly behind her before once more facing the front.

"Katara, you may hate me after what happened, and that's fine...just promise me something..."

"What!"

"...if something happens to me...make sure my baby brother will be alright...I...I couldn't take losing anyone else...he's all I have left..." Tears streamed onto the warm blankets that covered her baby brother.

"Fine...I'll make sure that he gets the help he needs...and gets better...if anything happens to you."

-x-x-x-

The waves had become hungry in the hours and Kagome could only hold onto the ropes used to hold her brother to the boat. She could see land before them, but hours had past since they'd lost sight of the other ship. She was worried for Toph..."Katara!" She yelled out, catching the girls attention, "We need to get to land! It's too dangerous out here!"

"...your right!" She stood up and using her bending, she maneuvered the ocean around the boat and pushed them safety in the direction of the land.

Kagome smiled only for her smile to turn into a frown at the sight of armored men waiting for them. 'We should be okay...but...it looks like fire nation armor...'

The boat knocked hard against a rock and Kagome fell forward with the jerk of the boat and hit her head on the edge of the boat. Her eyes became heavy despite the rush of water falling on her and she watched as fire lit lanterns made their way towards them before darkness took her.

-x-x-x-

"Mmm,"

"Good, you're awake,"

Her sea blue orbs opened and she was met with golden eyes that looked as if they were burning with excitement. "Who are you...?" She asked, though, her voice was dry; she wasn't sure how long she'd been out cold. She tried to move her hands but found herself chained to a wall, her hand chained together at the wrists.

"Don't speak, the salt water has dried you out, you need something to drink. As for your question, you stand...sorry...you are chained before the Princess of the Fire Nation. You may call me Princess Azula."

"..." Kagome stared in horror at the girl before her. She looked to be about seventeen, eighteen, with black hair in a bun and her bangs framing her face far past her chin. 'This girl...she's the one...the one who took Bankotsu from me...my brother...she killed him...' Her eyes filled with tears at the thought and she fought to get free of the chains that held her captive.

"Don't try and fight the chains, make this easy on both of us and come willingly...I was kind, after all...I let your brother and the water bender go..."

"...Y-you let...Souta go?"

"Yes, I did. In fact, I was merely there to pick you up. You didn't think this was all an accident...did you? You ending up here, in the Fire Nation...of course not. The girl...oh, what was her name...Ka...Katara? Yes, Katara, she set up the meeting..."

'Katara!' She thought back, back to the waves, the ever slight movements that Katara would make, though, she hadn't thought anything of it, thinking that she was keeping the boat on course...'This...is how she's chosen to deal with me...' She sighed, "That girl has gone insane in the extreme..."

Azula laughed, "Yes, she has. Do you know what she said as we were leaving with you?"

"...what?"

"It's the younger sister of that wretch boy you fought with only a while back, make her suffer, knowing that you enjoyed killing her brother." Azula looked at the girl, "On the contrary though, your brother had saved my life...his foolish heart had kept him from killing me...when he knew I was from the Fire Nation. I did kill him...but be aware...it was the first time that I had ever hesitated..." She stepped up and placed her hand on Kagome's cheek, "He told me...that, if I ever came across his younger sister...to take care of you, for him."

"..."

"He was unwise to trust me...it led to his death, and even when he knew I would kill him...he asked a favor of me...why would he trust me to care for you..."

"His heart was his weakness..." Kagome struggled, tears streaming her cheeks, her throat hurt, "I wouldn't be surprised...if he'd fallen in love with you..."

Azula pulled her hand away as if she'd been burnt, but then laughed. "Try not to talk while you're here. You'll be killed just like him." She walked to a guard and order for the girl to be let down. "You will be taken to my brother, and he will care for you. You are to tend to whatever he may need, emotionally, physically or mentally...I don't care..." She turned to leave but paused as the guard left to retrieve something else she'd requested for the girl. "I don't do this often..." Her voice was soft, a whisper, "But...I do owe your brother my life...and since I took his...I can at least...save yours. My commitment to your brother...my debt...has been cleared...sleep well tonight...Little Kagome..."

-x-x-x-

Me: So sue me...I know you must all be tired of my constant updating of new stories, but I'm just getting them posted and off my standby list. Hee~ Please tell me what you think in a review~ Sankyu~ ^_^''