The Spirit of Fire
Summary: In the Fire an unexpected event has happened. The Royal Family has taken in the most unlikely of people, an orphan and his fox companion. With this act they have set in motion their destinies and that of the world. This boy will rise up and join the avatar to reshape the world for the better. Together they will win this war.
A/N: This is my first fic ever and its a crossover as well so please be gentle and enjoy the story.
It was a quiet night and most were already asleep with the exception of guards and a few citizens, and one small boy. He moved as quietly he could so as to not alert the guards. The boy was somewhere around four or five years old, with bright blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes and six strange birthmarks on his cheeks, three on each one. He was wearing a pair of old sandals, black shorts and a plain white shirt that was at least two sizes too big. All of which were in poor shape like they had been scrounged out of a dumpster. This was Naruto Namikaze, an orphan living off the streets of the Fire Nation capitol. That's the way it's been for as long as he could remember in his short life. Following closely behind him was a small red fox with nine swishing tails.
"Careful Naruto, a guard patrol is coming," the fox said just above a whisper. Acting quickly they both dived into a nearby bush, "Thanks Kyuu," Naruto whispered to the crimson fox. Ordinarily this would freak a good number of people out, a talking fox with multiple tails but to Naruto it was perfectly normal. Kyuubi, or "Kyuu" as Naruto called him, has been with Naruto since the beginning; watching over him and helping each other survive. "Remind me again, exactly how the hell did you convince me this was a good idea?" Naruto asked for the fifth time while they made their way through a corridor and ducking into an empty room to avoid more guards. "Because, the people here have a lot of valuables we can take, not to mention that the food is way better than what we usually get," Kyuubi sighed.
See right now the duo were in the Royal Palace of the Fire Nation, home to the Fire Lord, his family and other important figures. They were trying to find the palace kitchen with a map they took off one of the servants. "I told you before we are not stealing, we're here for food only….and maybe some medical supplies if we find any: that's all." Kyuubi whined a little "Aw c'mon Naruto if we steal some gold or jewels we could buy, actually BUY, some FRESH food for a change," he argued, trying to get the boy to listen. He was really tired of scavenging for food out of the garbage or begging for it.
"We'll get fresh food in the kitchen and I told you; people will notice missing jewelry a lot more than missing food. Now come on, we need to go down this hallway," Naruto informed him looking at the map again. "Yeah yeah…" Kyuubi mumbled under his breath as they started moving again after getting their bearings. Within five minutes they found the kitchen, it was empty and it was MASSIVE. "Holy shit…!" they both silently shouted at the same time. They hurriedly gathered as much supplies as they could into a bag they had brought and soon they were ready to leave. "This is the only one time we are ever doing this Kyuu, next time we just raid an advisor's mansion or something,. This was way too risky and we're lucky we haven't gotten caught yet." Naruto told the fox as they made their way out of the kitchen and heading for the same court yard wall the climbed over. "Fine, I guess you're right, this was slightly insane, but definitely fun," the fox said with a grin. Naruto couldn't help but match it with his own foxy grin, "I guess it was," they both shared a silent laugh.
They were halfway out of the palace when they were finally spotted by a guard. "Hey you! STOP!" he yelled out and Naruto and Kyuubi froze for a fraction of a second before breaking out in a full sprint. The guard gave chase while yelling "Thieves! Sound the alarm! Thieves in the palace!" soon there were four more guards chasing the blonde child and crimson fox. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit! Move Naruto, we gotta book it!" Kyuubi yelled while running for dear life. "I am! I am!" Naruto yelled back as he made several sharp turns through the hallways but no matter how hard he ran the guards just kept popping up and were starting to gain on him. "Dang it I gotta lose the bag or they're gonna catch us!" Naruto yelled in frustration and a small amount of fear. "AAAGH! DAMMIT! FINE TRY LIGHTENING IT! THROW IT AT THE GUARDS!" Kyuubi shouted and Naruto did just that, he whipped the bag open and started tossing things that might slow the guards down. They caught a lucky break when Naruto managed to pull out a melon of all things. "….how did we get this to fit in here?" Naruto said aloud with a cocked eye-brow and a sweat-drop, "No idea" Kyuubi deadpanned. Naruto just shrugged his shoulders and tossed it backwards scoring a bulls-eye and the lead pursuer. This triggered a chain reaction; the first guard was thrown backwards from the force of the melon while said melon broke apart. The spear the lead guard was carrying went flying out of his hands towards the guard on the right, the shaft of the spear hitting him right in the face and sending him to the floor. Guard number 1, on account of being knocked off his feet, went sprawling into guards number 3 and 4. Guard 5 managed to dodge his comrades and resume chase…but he neglected to watch his footing and slipped and the juice from the melon, sliding right into a wall.
Naruto looked back and was slightly shocked by the turn of events "I can't believe that worked!" he shouted in joy, "Now let's get outta here!" the two continued running for their lives. Dodging even more guards the duo came upon a surprising encounter with three people, a woman somewhere in her mid-twenties (her age was never specified) with long raven black hair. On either side of her were two children, one was a boy no older than Naruto and the other was a girl a year or two younger than both of them. Even worse was that they had a group of six guards surrounding them. Naruto saw them and blinked, 'Crap! Now what?' Naruto thought in despair, at least until he saw something, Huh, that could work "Kyuu! Follow my lead!" and with saying that Naruto picked up even more speed. "Lady Ursa, Princess Azula, Prince Zuko! Look out!" one of the guards shouted seeing Naruto sprint towards them. 'SHIT! That's the royal family!' Kyuubi thought in horror, Please Naruto, don't do anything too stupid! He begged mentally.
As Naruto got closer to the small family he jumped left and landed on a table, using this as a spring board he jumped off towards the opposite wall and kicked off the moment his feet touched the surface of the wall. Soaring through the air Naruto reached out with his free hand and grabbed the chandelier up above and swung over and to the left of the stunned guards and family. Naruto let go and let his momentum propel him forward, he landed in a roll and started running again once he was back on his feet. And all through this no one noticed Kyuubi simply run right by them. Once he caught up he decided to say something to his friend, "Naruto, that. Was. Bad-ass!" he said with a laugh. "It was, wasn't it?" Naruto laughed out.
The laughter quickly ended when a fireball flew over their heads. "HOLY CRAP! I THOUGHT THEY WOULDN'T FIRREBEND WHILE INSIDE THE PALACE!" Naruto shouted in panic. "KEEP MOVING, WE'RE ALMOST OUT!" Kyuubi shouted back and as they made another turn they found themselves in the courtyard they had first entered in. "There!" Naruto shouted pointing to the rope and tree they used to scale the wall. Naruto reached the tree and started to climb it with Kyuubi on his shoulder so they could reach the rope. "We're gonna make it," Kyuu said as they got within a few feet of the rope. Naruto let a smile cross his lips as his fingers dusted the rope, but then he felt tremendous pain explode from his right shoulder. He looked back and noticed an arrow had hit him. "….Ow," Naruto said in below a whisper before he fell and hit the ground hard eliciting a scream of pain from him.
"NARUTO!" Kyuubi jumped down from the tree and was at his side in seconds, fur up on end, fangs bared and snarling, with all nine of his tails swishing violently behind him. Even with his small size he still made a terrifying image, especially with his blood red eyes. Despite their training the guards were wary of getting to close to the boy and fox. "What in the name of the spirits is going on here?" said an elderly voice. Everyone looked back and saw the last person the suspected to come here for there stood Fire Lord Azulon. He wasn't the only one there though, both of his sons, Iroh and Ozai, were right behind him with their families. Ursa, Azula and Zuko were by Ozai while Iroh's son, Lu Ten, was standing by his side. "My Lord; we caught this boy stealing from the kitchen. We gave chase through the palace and we ended up here; it appears this was his way of entry and escape." The captain of the guard reported. The Fire Lord raised an eye-brow with a slightly shocked expression, 'The kitchens are half-way across the palace and yet this boy managed to evade capture until now…'
"Why did it take so long to catch him?" Azulon asked. "I'm sorry my Lord I can't say for certain why we didn't apprehend him sooner. Please forgive us; we shall deal with him immediately," The captain said with a bow. Unfortunately when he said "take care of him" Kyuubi had heard him and that caused him to growl even more. "What do you plan to do exactly?" Azulon asked already knowing the answer however. The captain gained a confused look before answering, "We will execute him my Lord." When Kyuubi heard that it sent him into a rage, "LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" He bellowed at that top of his lungs. That gained the attention of everyone. One guard leaned over to another and said in a small voice "You see? I told you that fox was talking," the other guard just nodded dumbly. "Father," Iroh spoke gaining everyone's attention, "I'm not sure that is such a good idea. This is obviously no ordinary fox or boy. As far as I know; no fox can speak nor do they have nine tails. This is obviously a spirit and it appears to be protecting the boy." "What do you suggest then, my son?" Azulon asked, genuinely curious. "We treat him and take him inside. From the looks of that bag of stolen items there is nothing but food in it, so when he is healed I say we feed him and find out why he chose here to steal from." This shocked everyone, no one expected it. Kyuubi even forgot to keep growling.
While Lady Ursa seemed to like this idea Ozai was not so keen on it, believing his brother being weak and soft again. However another thought came to him, this boy, a mere child managed to outwit and out-maneuver highly trained soldiers. With a smile Ozai said: "I completely agree brother." That instantly raised Iroh's suspicion; his brother never did anything kind like this and always had a plan for the things he did. 'What are you plotting now brother?' Iroh thought. It was at this time that Naruto decided to remind everyone with a pain filled grown, "Naruto!" Kyuubi shouted at his side. Naruto groaned again but this time his arm was reaching towards the arrow lodged in his shoulder. "Hold still Naruto, I'll pull it out. Can you sit up?" Naruto groaned again but tried to comply and sit up.
While he did that Kyuubi clamped his jaws on the arrow and gave it a tug. This got yelp of pain from Naruto. When she heard this Lady Ursa rushed forward despite the warnings of the guards, "You shouldn't do that," She said urgently, "You may make it worse; we have healers inside who can treat it properly. Don't worry; we'll take care of him." Now Kyuubi wasn't one to easily trust others but this woman, she was different. When he looked into her eyes he saw nothing but compassion and the truth. "Fine," He eventually relented. Ursa nodded her head and asked the guards to quickly take Naruto to the infirmary with Kyuu right by his side. Ozai watched all this with a small smile while a plan was forming in his mind. 'With proper training this boy will become the greatest of all soldiers.' With that all those in the courtyard left to carry out their duties, guards going back to their posts and the Royal Family heading to the infirmary with their new guest. With this act they have unknowingly set in motion the events of their destinies.