Avatar; The Royal Firebender.

The Blind Bandit

Zuko hands a shopkeeper a few coins paying for the sharpening of his swords as well as some tools so that he can take better care of them in general. A few stores over, Katara, Sokka, Aang and Yue mull over Sokka buying a new bag for some odd reason. His uncle is in a nearby tea shop blowing the money Zuko had given him for the shopping trip. "Do you know where I can sell some of these crystals?" Zuko asks as he produces a small bag from his side before opening it revealing the glowing gems that he found in the labyrinthine cave of two lovers. "You might be better off selling them to the Bei-Fong Family, no one around here has enough money to buy even one of those, much less how many you have." The blacksmith says causing Zuko to tie the bag back to his waist. "Know anywhere that teaches earthbending?" he asks, causing the blacksmith to nod before handing him a flier. "Master Yu's bending academy. Just up the road a ways. But you look a bit old to be learning earthbending."

"I know." Zuko responds before giving a look to Aang who had walked over to him to see what he was up to. "But I need to learn it, it's the last one I need to master." Zuko says before taking 5 gold coins and having them spin around in his hands with airbending.

"Oh! You're Avatar Lee! We've heard a lot about you! I'm sure Master Yu would love to help train you." The blacksmith says before handing Zuko's swords back. "Have a good day, Avatar Lee."

"Looks like we found you a bending master," Aang says as he stands on the tips of his toes to get a look a the flier. "Think he'll be a good teacher?"

"I doubt it." Zuko says as he reads through the flier. "The guys just in it for money, so I doubt he'd be willing to train me unless I hand over a fortune. Just read this. "If you pay for the full year I'll start you off at yellow belt!" Who has a slogan like that?"

"You can at least give it a try." Aang suggests as the two begin walking back to where the others are gathered.

"You're not wrong." Zuko says before looking at the bag that Sokka had bought. "What the hell is that?" Zuko asks with a blank face looking at the ugly green bag that Sokka had purchased.

"What? I needed a new bag, my old one got thrown off Appa when we got sucked into that tornado." Sokka says but Zuko doesn't bother responding, instead turning his attention back to the flier in his hands.

"You guys go stay at an inn for a few days. I'm gonna go check out this bending academy to see what I can learn." Zuko says before turning to see his uncle with his arms full of ceramic jars of tea leaves. "I don't even want to know how much you spent on that."

"It'll taste good at least." Iroh says in his own defense. Zuko turns to Yue with a sigh and hands her the bag of gems and a bag of gold.

"You're in charge of money till I get back. Don't let those three buy anything." Zuko says before pointing at Aang, Sokka and Iroh. "We need dried fruits, nuts, meat, salt, rope, and camp supplies as well as a new cook pot and we need rice." He says causing Yue to write this down on a small piece of paper. By the time she looked up, Zuko was already gone and had headed towards the bending academy.

Zuko arrives at the large dojo that's been advertised on all the fliers around town and needless to say he's not really that impressed with the place. "Looks like he cares more about money rather than teaching." Zuko thinks to himself as he passes through the circular entrance to the dojo. The master of the dojo is a sleazy looking man with an aged face wispy separated mustache and chin beard that sits on the point of his chin. His hair is done up in a top knot and gold and green hair piece to surround it. His robes aren't that of a traditional instructor, but rather that of a noble. Underneath the well tailored vest, are white silk robes that flow past his hands. Silently he watches Master Yu speak with the students, going through a lecture over some basic earthbending styles, watching as the students launch rocks between each other, shatter boulders and go through numerous other exercises. He sits on the back wall with his conical rice hat over his face, observing the lesson that Master Yu is explaining. He watches through the end of the first class and as it ends the next group of students begin to enter the dojo. As Master Yu begins the next lesson he finally notices Zuko in the back of the room watching them.