If there was one person in her village who was a complete mystery to Katara, it was Uzumaki Naru.

Unlike everyone in the village, Naru wasn't born in their tiny village. She came to this village over a year ago with nothing but the clothes on her back and a backpack filled with scrolls and food, which couldn't be found in anyplace in the world. Everyone in the village didn't know where she come from. Her appearance was not of the Fire Nation, who all had dark hair, nor was it of the Earth Kingdom, who had dark or green eyes. Naru was definitely not a member of a water tribe, her eyes may be blue but her skin and hair didn't match them. She might be an air normad but all the air normads died over a hundred years ago.

The one thing everyone could be certain about the blond-haired girl who appeared in their village was Naru was too young to be living by herself. Naru was the same age as Sokka though the girl acted even less mature then her brother at times, always making some kind of prank to the villager. Still the girl came here by herself and no one knew why. Katara once asked the girl why she came here, only to have the girl give her a small smile and tell her one day when she was ready, she would tell her why.

Katara didn't miss the pain and sadness in her eyes when Naru answered her question. It only made her wonder what happened to her home for the girl to make her look so sad and pained. Maybe, the fire nation did something to her home for her to feel sad.

Shaking her head, Katara glanced at the slouching blond-haired girl. It didn't matter where the girl came from or what happened to her home, she decided as Naru smiled, the girl was a part of their village now. Naru spent a year with them, helping her with the cleaning and sewing as well as making it possible for them to get enough food for the winter.

"So how long will it be before you capture a fish, Sokka?" Naru asked, cocking her head to avoid the sun glare. "We've been here since morning and you still haven't caught a fish."

"I'm going to get a fish!" He snapped, licking his lips when the fish was in his line of sight. "Now watch and learn Naru, Katara. This is how you catch a fish."

"I ain't learning a lesson from the guy who didn't catch a single fish in the past six hours," Sokka twisted his head and glared at the yawning girl. Crossing her arms against her chest, Naru scowled. "You want me to lie? It's been six hours and you still haven't caught a damn single fish, not even a small one."

"Do you want to try it?"

"No, thank you," Naru answered, rolling her eyes. "I don't want to hear you make some stupid ass comment about how I got lucky when we both know it was pure skill. Besides, I want a day off from hunting and chores."

"Then why did you ask to come with us?"

Shrugging her shoulder, Naru answered. "Cuz I didn't feel like doing any training or chores, especially chores to do with your clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Sokka demanded. Naru wrinkled her nose but made no attempts in explaining to her brother about how bad his clothes were, which was a surprise if you asked Katara. The blond-haired girl always made it a point to be honest about her feelings on certain matters, one of them being Sokka having to learn how to clean his stuff. Katara wished her grandmother and the other woman in the tribe agreed with Naru about making the boy clean his clothes. If her brother knew the pain they went through of cleaning his clothes, his brother might appreciate them more.

Katara tuned her brother off when he started giving Naru a rant about how females should do all the cleaning. She glanced down at the water, noticing a fish swimming towards the canoe, and then looked at her ranting brother and the relaxed blonde. Maybe if she got the fish out of the water then they all could go home, where her grandmother could cook food for the three of them.

Well the three of them if Naru decided she wanted to eat with them.

Nodding her head, Katara took out her gloves and made swirling motions with her hands. Her heart raced as the water with the fish started to come out of the water, hanging up in the air ready for her to put it in the basket Naru placed in the canoe. She glanced at the blond-haired girl, who stared at the globe of water with wide eyes. Katara felt her heart swelled in pride at seeing the girl's surprise. Even after all the times Naru came with them, the girl always looked so taken back whenever she did water-bending.

"Sokka! Look!"

"Katara, be like Naru and keep quiet," Katara narrowed her eyes at her brother while Naru gritted her teeth. "You're gonna scare it away."

"Yeah Sokka, look at your sister!" Naru whistled and shook her head at her brother. "Y'know you should leave the hunting to Katara when it comes to fish, water is her element after all."

"Just because she can water bend, doesn't mean she can capture fish like I can."

"No, it means she can do it better than you," The blonde pointed out, rolling her eyes at him. Katara grinned at the girl but her smile faded when she realized the water surrounding the fish was wobbling. She twisted her hands and felt dread set in as the fish started getting closer and closer to Sokka's spear. If her brother lifted his spear then everything she did would be for nothing.

When her brother tilted his arm back, the blunt end of the spear made contact with the globe of water and burst it open, sending the fish flying towards the sea. Giving her a smile, Naru ruffled her hair before laughing boisterously at the sight of her drenching wet brother.

Sokka glared at the laughing blonde. "This isn't funny."

"From my spot in the boat, it is funny," Naru argued, failing to rein in her laughter. "This so makes up for all the sexist comments you made so far in these past six hours."

"So you think me making comments, which are true, is the reason why everytime my sister plays with magic water I get soaked?"

"No, I think it's because you don't listen and pay attention to your sister," The blue-eyed girl pointed out, stretching her arms. "Y'know your sister isn't like me, she wouldn't soak you in water on purpose. I, on the other hand, would pay you back for everything you said if I had her water-bending. You getting wet wasn't her fault, it's your own damn fault for not paying attention to her."

"I wouldn't have gotten wet if my sister kept her weirdness to herself."

Katara grew annoyed at her brother's words. She was weird? Compare to a lot of people in their village, Katara considered herself normal especially if she compared herself to Naru. The blond-haired girl could capture sixty fish in one hour alone without anyone helping her and sometimes said the weirdest things like telling her brother to look underneath the underneath when he asked her, how she could get so much food in a single hour.

"Y'know compare to a lot of people I know, your sister is normal," Naru tilted her head up to the sky. "Besides, everyone is weird in their own special way, Sokka. At least your sister doesn't check herself out whenever she sees her reflection, unlike a certain someone I know."

"I don't check myself out!"

"I never said it was you did I? But thanks for telling me how much love you have for yourself."

Sokka scowled and put his arms down, earning a smirk from the blond-haired girl. Laughing, Katara shook her head at the antics of her brother and friend. Even after knowing the girl for a year, her brother always raise to Naru's baits.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the canoe shook, causing her along with Naru and Sokka to fall on the canoe's flooring. Blinking her eyes, Katara pushed herself up and saw they entered an ice-packed area. Without a second thought, the three of them placed the paddle on either side of the boat and pushed against the ice-berg, hoping the force from the paddles would be enough to move the canoe.

The canoe did move but the situation went from bad to worse: the boat was now heading towards the other ice berg with the help of the sea current.

"Go left! Sokka, Naru! Go left!" Katara yelled to them as they struggled to row the canoe properly.

"What do we think we're doing, Katara? It ain't easy as it looks," Naru pointed out to her as she tried to regain control of the boat. "And can't you use water-bending to get us out of this mess? Cuz I think it's time for you to do it."

"Yeah Katara!"

"I'm not good enough to do this!"

"You don't know until you try! Now try it!" Naru yelled at her. Katara nodded her head and moved her hands, hoping the water would follow her movement and not cause them to crash into anything. She paled when she saw they were heading towards three ice-bergs. No way would she have enough time to gain the control of the current before they reached them.

Bump

Katara blinked her eyes as she realized Naru hauled her and Sokka off the canoe before the canoe collided with the iceberg. She looked up at the blonde and smiled shakily at the older girl, who gave her a thumbs up before scruntching her face. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she saw the worried look on the blonde's face. Licking her dried lips, Katara glanced at her brother and sighed in relief at the lack of injuries on her brother's body.

"How the hell are we going to get back now?" Naru finally asked as her brother pushed himself off the icy ground. The blonde rubbed the back of neck, looking at the floating ice around them with worry. "How do we get back to the village without a canoe?"

"We'll just have to wait for someone to come and get us," Sokka answered.

"We're going to freeze to death," Naru muttered, slipping her hands into her pockets. "Of all the ways I would die, it would be from the cold."

"Don't be so dramatic Naru!" Katara said, patting the girl on the back. "We're going to make it out of here before you know it."

"Y'know none of this would have happened if you knew how to control your waterbending!" Sokka said, drawing the two girl's attention to him.

"So it's my fault!"

"I knew I shouldn't have let the two of you come," Sokka snapped. "Leave it to a girl to screw it up."

Katara growled at her brother's words while Naru scowled and clenched her hands into a tight fist.

"You're the most sexist, immature, nut-brained," she yelled at her brother, clenching her hands into a fist and swinging them around as she tried to find the words to describe the anger she was currently feeling. Why did she have him for a brother? Naru always told her to be grateful she had a brother but it was times like this, Katara wished she was an only child or at least had a brother, who was mature. Honestly, it was Naru and her fault they were in this mess?

"Katara, I think it might be a good idea for you to calm down," Naru said, flickering her eyes to the cracking ice-berg behind Katara.

"You want me to calm down!" She yelled at the blonde, who gulped. "I thought you of all people won't take his side! He blame us for the mess we are in! This sexist idiot is saying girls always screw it up."

"I'm not taking his side! If I didn't know your grandmother would have my head, I would throw the baka into the water," Naru retorted, glaring at the boy. "I can't believe I'm saying this but we need to talk this one out instead of yelling at each other. Getting angry won't help anyone."

"You don't get it Naru!" The blonde rubbed her forehead. "When Mom died, I did all the work around the camp while that sexist brother of mine went off to play soldier."

"You think there's something wrong with being a soldier?" Naru asked, narrowing her eyes at the girl. "Do y'know what soldiers scarifice? Do y'know the things that could happen to them if they don't do their jobs properly?"

"Uh...Naru...Katara," Sokka said, trying to gain the girl's attention.

"I know what they scarifice but my brother isn't a soldier, he just a boy trying to be one," Katara yelled, moving her arms around. "He doesn't try to help me at all! He doesn't even clean his dirty laundry, you know as well as I do how bad his socks smell!"

"Then tell your grandmother to give him some more responsibilities or don't do it at all and let him do it himself," Naru yelled right back. "If you do the damn work for him, how the hell do you expect him to know how bad his socks smell? And don't do the cooking, make the idiot do it! For goodness sake, try to take some control over your damn life. It's his stuff, not yours."

"Don't tell her that!" Sokka yelled.

Naru narrowed her eyes at him. "I've every right to tell her these things. Seriously, you blame us for the mess we're in? It's not our damn fault the current started to pick up. We wouldn't even be in this mess if you had caught the damn fish on time."

"Then why the hell didn't you fish!"

"Because you're a sexist idiot who would tell me I was just lucky to catch a damn fish," She snapped. "And even if I did fish, you would have tried to make it a damn competition, which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't know it would take hours before we get back to the village."

"You shouldn't have come with us if that's what you felt, you pratically did nothing while I hunted."

"Why you little…"

Katara slammed her feet on the ground, raised her fist in the air and yelled, "Shut up you two!"

The two of them immediately shut up but there was something different about their expression. Naru looked shocked while her brother looked terrified about something. She frowned, twisted her body around and screamed as she realized the iceberg split open enitrely, disintergrating into smaller pieces. Katara held onto the edge of the ice, gasping her brother's hand as she waited for shock waves to stop. Twisting her head around, the brown-haired girl noticed the blonde wasn't holding onto anything as the ice berg shook.

When the iceberg stopped shaking, the blonde cocked her head and gestured for them to come towards her, yelling at them it was safe to come over now. If she wasn't shocked about what just happened, Katara would have rolled her eyes at the obvious statement the girl made.

"Y'know I think that was the coolest water bending trick you ever did," Naru commented, gesturing towards the smaller ice bergs. Katara blinked her eyes at the girl, uncertain whether her friend was being serious or if she was being sarcastic again. "Also, the most dangerous when I think about it."

"It made you even more freakish," Sokka commented. Naru narrowed her eyes at the boy and slapped the backside of the boy's head, earning a cry from her brother. "What's that for?"

"For insulting her like that...and for insulting my gender earlier," Naru answered firmly.

Katara gave a weak smile to the blond before gazing at the damage she had done. There were so many smaller icebergs now and more floating ice thanks to her loss of temper. She glanced at her friend, noticing there was a gazed look on her face. Naru rarely made those expressions but from what Katara knew from the times Naru had done, it meant the girl was daydreaming about something.

"Did I actually do all this?"

"Well I couldn't do a damage like this without getting near the ice," Naru pointed out to her, running her hand through her hair. "I mean I've a powerful punch but I doubt I could make a shockwave come from my fist...actually, maybe I can. I should try that one day."

"You're not that strong."

"I beat you in five seconds so your opinion doesn't count," Naru pointed out, grinning as her brother scowled at the reminder of how the girl defeated him after she asked him for a sparr. "Y'know you shouldn't feel bad for being defeated by a girl, I had a teacher who nearly got killed by one."

"Why was he nearly killed by a girl?" Sokka asked wearily.

"Cuz he was being an idiot."

Just as soon as she finished saying those words, the water below them started to glow an incandescant blue. Without any delay, Naru grabbed Sokka and Katara by their arms and jumped across to a different ice berg, throwing them down to the ground as a lighter coloured iceberg broke through the surface. Katara wanted to yell at the blond not to go near it but just like her friend, she was curious to know about the iceberg. She knew it might be dangerous after all what type of ice berg appear the way that one did?

Following Naru's footsteps, Katara walked towards the edge of the iceberg to get a better look of the iceberg. Her eyes widened when she saw a figure of a boy mediating. She gasped when she saw the boy's eyes and arrows glow. Katara glanced at Naru, only to find the girl had a strange and thoughtful look on her face as if she was debating about something.

"He's alive," Katara said loudly. "We've to help him."

Giving her a smile, Naru nodded her head in agreement and curled her hand into a fist before slamming it against the ice berg. Katara blinked her eyes as she watched the ice cracked from the sheer force of Naru's punch. The blonde grinned and looked at her brother, giving him a smug look. Sokka just scowled at Naru.

Katara grinded her teeth together as she felt the cold wind swept over her from the half-opened iceberg. Her eyes widened when she saw a shaft of white light shooting up in the air. What was that light? And where was it going? God, she wished she could ask someone about it but Naru wouldn't know anything and the same would go for her brother.

She looked away from the light and kept her eyes fixed on Naru, who kept her eyes fixed on the light. When the light died down, Katara looked away from her friend and stared at the top of the iceberg. She gasped when she saw the glowing boy appear, flickering her eyes towards her brother and friend. Her brother stared suspiciously at the boy while Naru just gazed at the marking on the boy's hands with curiosity and wonder.

"Stop!" Her brother yelled, raising his spear at the boy.

The boy stood up as the glow and residual energy faded and Katara felt her heart stopped when the boy passed out, sliding down the side of the ruined iceberg. Without a second thought, she launched herself forward and captured the boy, placing the boy on her knees. Her brother narrowed his eye and poked the boy with the blunt end of his weapon. Naru rolled her eyes and grabbed the weapon away from her brother.

"Give that back!"

"Nah, I'm keeping it until we get back to the village."

"But it's mine."

"And I took it from you because you don't know how to use it."

Katara shook her head at her brother and friend's antics before looking down at the unconscious boy. She barely glanced at Naru, who knelt beside her. Katara felt her shoulders relaxed as the boy slowly opened his eyes, revealing grey eyes that seemed to be big for his face. The boy was alive and that was the most important bit, if you asked her.

The boy took a deep breath and whispered in a weak voice, "I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"Please...come closer," The boy whispered.

"Y'know if you're pretending to be sick you better do way better than that," Naru said, drawing the boy's attention to her. "If you want something, you tell us straight away...as long as we can do it."

He laughed. "You got me! I just wanted to ask if you would go penguin sledding with me!"

Katara furrowed her eyebrows, glanced at her brother and friend, who just shrugged their shoulders at her, and answered, "Sure...I guess."

He smiled widely at her.

"Oi, kid what's your name?" Naru asked him before he could ask any questions.

"Aang."

Katara didn't know it but the moment she met Aang, was the day where everything changed. She didn't know in a span of one day, she would leave her home and be seperated from Naru, who would soon journey with her enemies. She would never know the reason for Naru's actions until the girl was forced to admit them but most of all, she never realized there was a greater danger then the Fire Nation until it was too late.

A/N: Please review