Edit: 30/04/2013. When I first started this story I had planned for it to go rather differently. As a result, some of the earlier chapters have been rewritten.

Hachi loved her father. She knew that he wasn't like most fathers, he didn't buy her dolls or braid her hair. Instead, her father bought her knives and did her war paint. She also loved her mother, despite having never met her. Hachi not knowing her mother was the reason her childhood was so different.

She was born in a small, unnamed village near the peninsula opposite where Kyoshi and Chin were situated. Her parents were Sentou and Karei; neither were benders, but both worked hard to protect their neighbours and friends from the invading Fire Nataion. Sentou acted as a lookout, using his bird calls to alert the village when soldiers came. Karei, meanwhile, would easvedrop on the men, passing along any useful information etched into the bottoms of her honey pots. She was best suited for the task, who would suspect a young, beautiful woman with a baby?

Hachi would later be told by her father that he had gone to the next town to trade honey, taking her with him so the toddler could enjoy the short trip. By the time he had returned his wife and Hachi's mother had been beaten badly, soldiers caught her writing on the bottoms of her pots and left her to die.

She lived for three days before finally passing, leaving a package for Sentou to give Hachi when she turned thirteen.

Sentou and Hachi left soon after Karei was returned to the earth, unable to live in the village any longer.

Her mother's death was the cause of her very unusual childhood.

"Daddy? How do the bees find the right flowers?" Hachi asked, sitting and watching bees flit in and out of the hives her father had built. They lived on the outskirts of a small town, miles away from the village she was born in. Her father kept bees and sold the honey to the townspeople.

"I don't know Sweetheart, smell for them I suppose," the man answered, looking up from the knife he was sharpening.

"So they're smeller bees," she said with a small laugh. She picked up an old plank of wood, and carefully carved the words 'Smeller Bee Hive' into it with her own knife, careful not to cut herself. She leaned it against a rock just off the worn path that lead to their door and admired it for a moment. It fit their small home perfectly; hives were always busy and full of life and so were she and her father.

"Come on Hachi, break time's over." Sentou gave her a small smile as she plopped back down on the ground next to him. She watched the clouds float by across the sky for a moment before heaving an exaggerated sigh.

She rolled over and poised herself, ready to do push ups. "How many do I gotta do?"

"How about fifty?"

"Thirty."

Sentou let out a great laugh at his six year old daughter and her stubborn negotiations. "Forty and two laps around the yard." Hachi nodded and did as she was told; counting each aloud so her father wouldn't think she was cheating.

Hachi braced herself, hating the firing drill. The padded brown tunic was hot and heavy. She shifted her weight, silently waiting.

"Hachi, don't figit," Sentou told her firmly, but gently as he stood up straight and took careful aim. "There's nothing to be scared of."

"I'm not scared," she retorted, reciting what she had been drilled into her. Whether she wanted it to or not, the arrow was going to come; fearing it would only make it hurt worse. It was better to accept that there would be pain and deal with it than fear it. Only cowards ran from their fears.

"That's my girl, you know why we do the drill. It'll knock the wind out of you and you need to be able to recover."

"Yeah, I know" she muttered darkly, hearing the familiar sound of an arrow being released. It hit her right in the centre of her chest where her rib cage joined and knocked her back a couple feet. As quickly as she could she yanked out the arrow and pulled the knife from her boot.

"Good girl," Sentou praised. "You're getting faster." Her father strode over to her and patted her shoulder.

"I could beat some one easy," she boasted with pride.

"Oh yeah?" he asked slyly. "What if someone got you right... here!" Hachi shrieked with laughter as her father's fingers wormed their way under the tunic and found her ticklish spots. Though she was struggling to breathe from fits of laughter, Hachi managed to tip her father's balance. A foot placed quickly behind he ankle and he was on his ass in the dirt and the tickle assault was over.

"Pull one over on your old man eh?" he chuckled getting himself up and dusting the dirt off his backside. "For that, I think you get one more." He strode back to her formed place and notched another arrow while she stared after him in disbelief.

"Again?" she groaned, to which her father nodded. "Only if we can go into town for lunch, I wanna go to that pastry shop across the road from the blacksmith's."

"Alright," he told her taking aim again. "No wincing and we got a deal." Hachi smiled and spread her arms taking the blow again; this one hit a little lower, just below her rib cage. She managed to be just a little bit faster than the last time.

"Ow," she muttered to herself as she stood, that last one winded her a little.

"That's my girl," Sentou praised, taking the chipped arrow and handing his daughter his bow and quiver. "Go put the gear away; I'll meet you at the path. Shall I put this with the others?" Hachi nodded and she made her way to their shed. Years ago Hachi had started a collection along their mantel of arrows she had gotten hit with. Both to keep track of what she'd gone up against as well as a souvenir.

Their shed was made of iron, three quarters of it was buried underground to protect it from fire and the entrance was hidden by bushes. She opened up the shed and carefully placed the items away, unstringing the bow and putting the cord in a small pouch nailed by the door. She took off the heavy brown tunic and hung her plated leather armour up as well.

Without the arrow holes, the knives and the throwing stars she kept on her she looked almost like any other girl her age. She took after her father more than her mother, her facial features were flatter and a little rougher. She hadn't started to develop any curves yet. If it wasn't for the dark blue dress, that once had belonged to her mother, and her long hair she would've been easily mistaken for a boy.

She had long grown out of the adorable little girl stage and was stuck in the middle of what the townswomen referred to as the 'ugly turtle-duckling stage'. They were constantly trying to tell her that she'd someday become a beautiful tigerswan; but, as Hachi ran to catch up with her father she didn't yet care about boys or their opinions of her. Those feelings were many years away.

"So any ideas on what you want for your birthday?" Sentou asked as they sat down with their hot meat pastires and tea. Hachi thought for a moment, taking a bite of her pastry.

"Can I get a new dress? Like the ones I hear they wear in the capitol." She looked up hopefully at her father who nearly choked on his food with surprise.

"A dress like the noble women wear?" he asked for clarification.

"Yeah, Auntie says they're really pretty. Oh, and some hair ornaments; pinks ones, with flowers." Hachi held a straight face for a few more seconds before she burst out laughing from the look on her father's face."I'm just teasing Daddy," she slugged him in the shoulder playfully and continued. "I'd love to get a new katana; the one I got is kinda small for me now."

"Oh spirits," he cursed. "You really had me going for a second. Tell you what, you finish up eating and we'll go pick you out a new sword from the shop on the way home."

Hachi hid in the trees above the soldiers; watching, waiting for them to let their guard down. Her father was doing the same on the other side of the clearing. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there.

Finally the moment they'd been waiting for arrived. There was no signal, they didn't need one. In perfect unison they jumped down from their trees on opposite sides of the camp and attacked. While her father preferred a very direct approach to fighting, Hachi chose to duck and weave. She used her small stature and better speed and reaction time to her advantage. Having caught the soldiers by surprise they were able to take out five or six of them before the others got their weapons or started firebending.

The Fire Nations was remorseless and so were they. Hachi got so caught up in fights she didn't often think much past 'duck, oh shit, punch in the chest, break nose, cut hamstring'. They killed each and every one of the soldiers in the camp, it was difficult to tell who killed who; they fought so seamlessly. Sentou smiled at his daughter and ruffled her hair.

"That's my girl. Let's take what things of theirs we can use and destroy the rest, alright?"

"Sure," she replied, going through the pockets and bags of the men for money or valuables they could sell. "Did you see the way that guy with the beard bled when I ran him through?" she asked with a laugh, tossing coins and an odd weapon into her bag.

"Went everywhere," her father laughed as he examined a dagger he had taken off the leader. "You learned the weak spots in their armour well. Come and help your old man build a bonfire." Hachi got up and tossed the bag she had filled off to the side. This was the part she hated, clean up.

It was past sunset by the time the two of them had piled everything together and her father lit the fire. He used a little of their blasting jelly to get the fire started, Hachi wrinkled her nose at the smell of burning flesh but stayed with her father and watched it burn. She sometimes wondered why villagers passed by, but then again few walked in the woods alone with Fire Nation patrols about.

A couple days later Hachi went into town to sell off the valuables they had taken from the soldiers. She felt no guilt, most of what they had had been stolen from her people to begin with. No shopkeepers never asked questions, especially since often she came back with goods that had been stole from their friends or neighbours.

On her way back, a full purse jingling in her hand, she could see black smoke rising from the direction of her home.

"No," she whispered, dropping her bag and darting to the forest, towards home.

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