A/N: This is a rewritten version of the Dying Embers but I hope that the characters seem to be more in character.


Naruto Uzumaki was barely thirteen years old when she found herself in a place that was opposite to the culture she knew.

It just took one big fight with Sasuke for her to find herself in another part of the world, where everything seemed different from the world she knew. This fight caused her to go into a whole different path to the one she planned for herself. If Naruto could look into the future, if she knew the consequence of using the rasengean on Sasuke, then she would have never done it. She just wanted to bring him back home but not to the point she would risk herself going to the forbidden part of the world. She just wanted to have her best friend back. She wanted her brother's figure back.

It was all Sasuke's fault she was in this mess. It was her damn fault for being an idiot and taking his bait. She should have tried harder to convince him to come back home to their team. It was her fault for not trying harder to bring him harder; she should have ignored his hurtful words. She should have reminded Sasuke of the days when they had been happy.

Sasuke.

Where was he? Where was his yelling? There was no way he would be calm if he was here with her. The bastard was a lot of things, an asshole, strong and a pain in the neck but he was not calm when it came to his goals. If he was here then was she going to go through another round of yelling? Would he blame her for the mess they were in? It was his life as he would tell her time and time again. It was not her business to interfere with his dreams even though she knew damn well that the path was going to hurt him. Was it wrong for her to care for him? She really did not know what to think.

How was she going to get herself out of this mess? It was not like she could just smile and make some sassy comment to get herself out of this mess. It was not like she could just give the puppy dog look that she knew all too well that neither the Hokage nor Iruka-sensei could never say no to.

Slumping her shoulders, she stole her gaze away from the ceiling and stared down at the silky blankets wrapped around her. She closed her eyes and touched the blankets, marveling at how soft it felt around her fingers. It felt so soft underneath her fingers but there was a warmth in the blanket, a warmth she often tried to capture in the winters in her village. The winters before the Hokage had found her in the streets shivering and starving.

She shook her head and scanned the room, trying to find any clues on where she could be. She was not at home in her uncomfortable bed with her windows shut or the hospital where the nurses gave her those hateful eyes. Her blood turned cold when she noticed the mental walls around her. There weren't any windows in the room, nothing except a strange photo or carpet-thing that had the image of the flame.

Where the hell was she? Could she still be in Hi no Kuni? The flames indicated that there was an association with the flames. Maybe the people of the main city worshipped the flames. Why else would they put a flame? You know it isn't true, a small voice in her mind whispered as she stared at her surroundings, we share the same religion and nothing about our religion is about fire. This isn't your country.

Her musings were interrupted when she heard the door creaked open, revealing an old man dressed in an armour that looked nothing like the armours that the Hokage owned. He looked like a kind man with his smiling face and his eyes were so kind, Naruto thought to herself, staring at the man's amber eyes. She could tell by looking into his eyes and his aura that this man was filled with much sadness.

'What's your name?" Naruto blinked her eyes, tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows at him. Now she knew she wasn't the smarting person in the world but she did know without a doubt he was speaking a whole different language to her. It sounded similar to her language but the words sounded different. It sounded so much like her language but were there any similar words to her? Only time could tell. "You can't understand me, can you?"

She blinked her eyes at him and then gazed at the fire, where the redness seemed to remind her of the fox in her dreams. Curling her lips, Naruto gazed at the kind man. "Where the hell am I? Why is your language is different from mine?" she felt herself becoming more and more confused when the man stared at her with recognition. She had some luck. Maybe all those times she tried to help those ghosts had paid off. "Are you near Konoha or Hi no Kuni? Tell me where the hell am I, old man!"

"It seems like we speak two different languages, child. What is your name? I can't call you, child forever. My name is Iroh" She could not understand what the old man was saying except for the word child. If she was honest, there was nothing about this man which indicated he was going to harm her. The kindness radiated from his eyes reminded her of the kind Hokage, except she could see hints of humour in his eyes. "Iroh," the man repeated slowly and clearly to her.

Iroh? That sounds like a name, she thought to herself. "Iroh," his name felt foreign in her tongue but it was not hard for her to pronounce. It sounded similar to some of the names she knew in her language. She chewed on her bottom lip. If his name sounded familiar, if the words sounded similar to her language then maybe there was a chance that their words were similar? Was it possible he could help her if she wrote to him? It could work.

"Uzumaki Naruto," she said slowly and clearly to him. She wrapped herself tighter around the blankets on the bed. She felt her lips twitched as the old man's tongue stumbled at her last name. Her smile faded when she noticed the lack of headband on the man's forehead. Had she been found by a civilian? But his clothes did not look like it could belong to a civilian. It looked something a soldier would wear but there was no way an old man could be a soldier.

"Where am I?" She flickered her eyes around the room, hoping and praying to find a piece of paper for her to write. She grimaced when she saw the lack of paper. She gestured around the room before gesturing towards him and then to her in a way that she hoped would convey her question. "How did you find me? And did you see a boy with a hairstyle that looks like a duck ass?"

The man frowned and the sadness in his eyes told her that she was not going to like his answer. "You fell on top of my nephew and we immediately put you in the medical ward. I can't understand the rest of your words."

She nodded her head. The words were somewhat different from the language she knew but Naruto had been able to get a gist of what the man had said. His nephew must have found her and put her in this room or she fell on something and his nephew found her. Either way, she understood the man had a nephew and they had a connection. She curled her hands into a fist and closed her eyes as she tried to figure out the number of ways she was going to kill Sasuke. It was the bastard's fault she was in this mess. If he had just listened to her then none of this would happen.

And why didn't the old man talk about Sasuke?

Tearing her gaze away from the old man, Naruto started to look around the room for her best friend. It was wrong for her to think there was a chance Sasuke was here. The bastard would be kicking a fuss if he was here with her. He would be yelling at her for ruining his plans to get rid of his brother, of getting power.

"Why didn't you tell me that she woke up, Uncle!" Naruto blinked her eyes, twisted her head around and blinked at the sight of a older boy standing in front of the door. He looked like he could be older than her by a good year or two. He would have been considered cute in the eyes of Ino and Sakura if it wasn't for the burn mark on his eyes. She kept her eyes fixed on the teenager, whose amber eyes lingered on her blond hair and then to her eyes. "How did she wake up so fast? And what happened to her wounds? She was bleeding just two days ago!"

"I didn't tell you Prince Zuko because the girl just fully woke up," Iroh replied, his eyes lingered on her blond hair. "And I have no answer to your question about her healing speed. I am just grateful that the girl is alive. The doctor said that it would be a miracle if the girl woke up from the impact she made to the boat and from the wounds she sustained, but it seems like she is healthier than we can expect."

"Since she is fine now then we can put her in the next port! We wasted resources just to take care of her!" Naruto blinked her eyes when she heard the hostility in the boy's voice. There was an urge for her to yell at him, because even though she did not understand him, she did know when someone was talking about her. She should yell but she could feel the overwhelming anger and sadness in the boy.

It felt like it was going to cripple her.

"We can't abandon the girl, Prince Zuko," The old man said firmly, flickering his eyes at her long golden hair and her bright blue eyes. She blinked her eyes and touched her hair. Was there something weird about her hair colour? In Konoha, her hair colour did not really stood out since there were a lot of people with blond hair. She snorted. Her hair might not stand out in her village but for some reason the villagers could always spot her. "She doesn't know how to speak our language."

"How can she not understand our language, Uncle? Even the people of the North Pole can understand us!" He snarled.

Blinking her eyes, Naruto tilted her head at the two males. "Why is scar-face so angry? And what language are you guys speaking? And where the hell am I? And where is Sasuke?" she tried to contain the bubbles of hysteria that was ready to explode. It would do her no good if she showed them she was panicking about her whereabouts. "Where am I? Am I the only person that you found? Are we anywhere near Konoha? Please tell me!"

"What is she saying? Her language sounds similar to ours but I can't understand a word that she is saying!" The teen stared at her golden hair with confusion and suspicion. "And where does she come from, Uncle? She doesn't look like she could belong to the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes and she is definitely not from the Fire Nation. Do you think there is a country out there that we haven't conquered? A country that could possibly house the Avatar."

The old man shook his head. "I don't understand a word she is saying but the word 'Sasuke' is a name. I think she is worried for her friend but the word 'Konoha' does not ring any bell to me. As for where she comes from, we need the girl to learn our language and then we can know what she knows. Perhaps her home stores the Avatar but there is a greater likelihood that her home doesn't have the Avatar."

Crossing her arms, Naruto narrowed her eyes when she noticed the teen stared at her like she might be a clue for all his life's answers. The old man just stared at her with pity and at the teen boy with so much sadness that the blonde almost felt pity for the old man. It really irritated her that she didn't understand a damn thing they were saying. "What the hell are you people talking about? I'm right here! I want answers!"

"I have a feeling that Naruto is a little spitfire," Iroh rubbed his chin. "Naruto Uzumaki," she looked up at him with crossed arms as she waited for him to try to explain to her about what the hell they were talking about, only for him to turn to the teenage boy. "She has such a masculine name but her appearance is nothing like a boy. I wonder what type of parents she must have had for them to give her such a name."

"Who cares about her name! If she comes from a different country then this means that there is another country we hadn't search! We need to find her country and see if the Avatar is there."

"I don't know what the hell you guys are talking about but I want answers!" she cried out, tugging her pigtails at them. It felt like she was talking to the Third again with the only difference being, the old man ignored her when he used to do those paperworks of his. "Please," she felt her throat tightened as the tears started to come out of her eyes. "Iroh-san, where am I?" she pointed to the world around them. "Where am I? Are we anywhere near Konoha? Did you see Sasuke?"

The two males stared at her with furrowed eyebrows but it was the old man who quickly figured out what she had been trying to ask. "We are on Prince Zuko's ship," she scrunched her eyebrows at the old man, who pointed to the teen and then to the floor, which seemed to be rocking. "We are on a ship."

She felt her head become light weighted at the realization of what the old man was trying to tell her. She wasn't smart like Sasuke or a genius like Shikamaru but she could tell from his voice and the rocking of the ground that she was nowhere near home. She didn't need to repeat her question to realize they were travelling. She didn't even need to look at a map to come to the conclusion she was nowhere near home. All she needed was the look of pity from Iroh to know she was nowhere near home.

It really wasn't a surprise that she fainted when she realized just how much trouble she was in.

This was all Sasuke's fault.


A/N: Please review.