PROLOGUE
Fourteen year old Azula is on top of the battlements. Again. It had been a year since his brother, Prince Zuko had been exiled by the Fire Lord and yet her mind refuse to believe the reality of it. From her spot, she have a clear view of the docks, as well as the main palce gate. It's the same spot she had been when the boat carrying her brother, as well as their Great Uncle Iroh, sailed out into the world, never to return unless he have the legenday Avatar in his grasps, an impossible task considering their grandfather, the former Fire Lord, have made sure to wipe out the all and every Air Nomads on the planet, the tribe in which the Avatar is said to reincarnate next into.
'What am I doing here?' she asks herself. After all, it was Zuko's own fault for disrespecting the Fire Lord in front of everyone, demanding why no action was done to search for their mother, the Fire Lord's wife, who disappeared the same night the former Fire Lord died.
'It's what he deserved.' She told herself once more, forcing herself to believe said accusation. Her thoughts telling her that it was no big loss. Who cares for the reason why their mother ran away? The woman not only abandon them but the empire as well. There are no place for cowards like her in the Fire Nation.
She look out into the horizon not knowing why. It's not like she was expecting her brother's boat appearing there all of he sudden, Zuzu standing tall on deck, his proud uncle beside him and the bound Avatar lying on his feet.
She shook her head at the impossibility of such thoughts. Her brother is never coming back and that's that. Involuntarily, her hands clenched into fists, almost turning them white with pressure.
Her musing is suddenly interupted as she saw the main gate opening and a prosesion of Fire Nation soldiers march through. There's five of them, ten less than the standard numbers, the leader of the patrol holding a sword of strange design leading the prosesion, a close caravan being pulled by two other soldiers coming up behind them. Also, they're surrounding a young man grab in a strangest clothes she had ever seen. Who in their right mind would use a boe tie like that for a belt?
Then she noticed something strange. The soldiers surrounding the young man was standing quite stiff, as if they'e afraid to come any closer to the man in the middle, their duty the only thing keeping them from running away.
The princess narrowed her eyes for a better look. The young man, bound by metal cuffs on the wrists, seems to be her age if a bit older. He have raven black hair spiking to the back of his head, pale skin, and wearing an open white hakama, gray kendo shots, and wooden sandals. But most of all, he seems bored, despite the fact that several other Fire Nation soldiers surrounding him.
Curiosity getting the best of her, Azula, heiress to the throne of the Fire Lord, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, run down th battlement towards the courtyard to get a better look at the strange young man.
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Uchiha Sasuke didn't care anymore. He had done what he was meant to do in life and thus have no more purpose. He had killed his brother, thus avenging his clan. He had killed the Konoha Elders, namely Homura, Koharu, and Danzo, thus avenging his brother. He had empregnate the ony woman who had believe in him despite his traitorous ways, who accepted her role without an ounce of regret, the only woman who, he admits, he loved as well. And he had fought the man who had caused the end of his clan and the suffering of his brother, Madara, fighting side by side with his bestfriend that never stopped believing in him.
'Naruto.' His mind thought fondly. It took everything they had and more. Madara was a monster far worse and much deadlier than the late Orochimaru, or Akatsuki, ever was. He wasn't even sure if they actually beat him, losing consciousness right after using the last of his chakra to give Naruto the opening needed to finish Madara off with his do-or-die technique.
He thought it was all over but then he woke up in a strange place in the verge of death, the only thing in his possesion is the Kusanagi blade in his hand and the clothes on his back. He wanted death but the Gods denied him his eternal rest since the next time he woke up, he was being tended by an old woman up in the mountains. For months the old woman tended his comatose body, despite his plea to let him die. She taught him of the language of this world when she found out he couldn't understand a word she was saying. When he was finally able to move again, he found the old woman had already died of natural cause, she was just too old. She must have known she was near death since she had left him a note thanking him for giving her purpose before leaving this world, and asking him to promise her that if he really wish to die, then honor her by having the deed done by another's hand, preferably in the heat of battle.
Merely a month ago he would have just scoff at such a request but the memory of all the months the old woman had cared for him forced him to abide by it. So he spend the next few weeks exploring the lands, looking for battles that would finally allow him his eternal rest. But all he found is disappointments.
Then, just this morning, fifteen soldiers tried to apprehend him. They seems powerful and could control fire as their weapons. They said he was charged with the murder of several Fire Nation citizens, despite the fact that in all his battles since he left the old woman, he had only killed one man, who tried to kill him when his back was turned. The leader of the soldiers taunted him saying he is a stranger so he was suspected as a criminal. When he said that it was him that they were looking for, the leader taunted him more and said it would be easier to bring back a corpse since he's been itching for something to kill for weeks now.
He merely scoff at them and said, "Come." in a flat, emotionless voice. It had been a short battle. Seven of them had already fallen before three of them decided to flee. He killed those three before they got too far. When he was about to end the other five, they were terrified but stood their grounds. Using the sharingan to enter their hearts, he saw that they were indeed told that he had killed so many innocent people.
"Are you really foolish enough to face me despite the fact you face certain death?" He had asked them.
"Then I shall die knowing I tried to stop a monster from killing innocent people! Our orders are to capture you and turn you over to the Fire Lord's prosecutor for trial." A young female soldier, barely older than him by three years, stuttered in defiance, her spear shaking terribly in her hands, the four others behind her standing with her despite their fears.
"Yeah! Believe it!" The youngest of them, who he later find out who's name is Lao, shouted in defiance.
Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks and snap his head to the side. For a moment, he thought he saw the young soldier to the leader's right was the dobe with a Ramen fetish. He never thought he would hear anyone utter such stupid phrases like that on anybody else. The boy seems to be only a year older than him but clearly not the dobe he was hoping for.
He shook his head and glanced at the five soldiers who all took an involuntary step back from him. He poured out a small amount of killing intent yet they stood their ground despite their instincts shouting at them to run away as fast as they can.
Sasuke smirked, impressed. He had cancelled the killing intent and sheated his sword before throwing it at the female leader, who involuntarily dropped her spear to catch the sheated blade in her hands, almost dropping it when she felt a powerful force emminating from said sword. She wanted to throw away the strange sword but something tells her she would die instantly if she allowed herself to let go.
Sasuke smirked at their bewildered faces, particularly on the face on the woman holding the sentient Kusanagi Blade and offered them his fists in a submissive posture. "Then come claim your prize, soldiers of the Fire Nation."
It took the five soldiers several minutes before finally deciding to step forward the deadly teen. The defacto female leader, who's name he later learned as Zhun-se, ordered one soldier to get a caravan on a nearby village so they could carry their dead back to headquarters while she personally put the metal cuffs on him. Half an hour later, the caravan arrived with two additional soldiers who was stationed at the village to help pull the small caravan. They marched back to the city escorting the prisoner, the original five soldiers keeping a respectable distance from the prisoner and on high alert, considering the young man could move almost faster than the eye could see if he wanted to.
Three hours later, they arrived at the city and headed straight to headquarters near the palace.
Zhun-se stiffened upon seeing a few senior officers heading for their direction as soon as she and whats left of her platoon enterd the gates. She have no doubt that the prisoner aint any less deadly despite having his hands cuffed.
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"Soldier, report! And where is your squad captain?" Azula heard the Captain of the Guards deamnded as she arrived at the courtyard.
Azula placed herself several feet away from the prisoner with some of the other soldiers observing the said prisoner. The first thing she noticed was that the teen was quite handsome than she first thought. Shaking her head to get such thoughts out of her mind, she looked closer. He seems bored. His entire posture shouts confidence. He was surrounded on all sides by soldiers and yet he doesn't seem to care. Whoever he is, he's either very stupid, or very very strong. One thing's for sure, the young man is dangerous.
"Sir, private Zhun-se of the Fifth Boarder Patrol Squad, sir." The female soldier holding the strange sword said stiffly as she kneeled in front of Captain. "Captain Ghon told us we were ordered to appehend a criminal near the western mountains and was told that the said criminal had been killing innocent civilians for the past few days. We caught up to the criminal and my captain taunted him before attacking. The suspect surrendered after easily killing ten of the senior members of my squad, including Captain Ghon." She pointed at the caravan behind them, which was filled with bodies of ten soldiers.
"WHAT! I'll kill that bastard!" Zhun-se and the rest of her men cringed in fear when a familiar muscle bound officer stepped forward heading straight for their prisoner with intent to kill. It was Ghin, captain of the Second Boarder Patrol Squad and Captain Ghon's older brother.
Zhun-se tried to intervene but Ghin pushed her roughly out of the way and grabbed the bored looking prisoner by the front of his shirt. Instead of cowering in fear, the prisoner merely gave the furious Ghin a half-lidded stare and said nothing.
Enraged, Ghin used his free hand to take out the dagger strapped to his belt and was about to stab the prisoner when said prisoner head butted Ghin in the face. Breaking bones was heard audibly due to the sudden silence.
For several seconds, both Ghin and the prisoner remain in that exact position. Then, slowly, Ghin fell backward and dropped to the floor, dead, his face broken, inverted inwards.
Azula, as well as the rest of the soldiers, was stunned. Ghin was a very strong man, able to go toe to toe with five soldies at once. But this man, this teenager, had killed him with one simple hit.
There's a roar of outrage from the other soldiers and almost all of them prepared themselves to attack the still bored looking teen. The five survivors surrounded the prisoner and tried to warn the rest of the soldiers that it would be suicide to attack him in rage but the other soldiers weren't to be deterred.
Something was wrong. Azula, who had been keeping her eyes on th prisoner gulp when instead of fear in the face of certain death, the teen made a sinister smile. She knew he was dangerous but that smile told her it was much much worse.
"STOP!" Shouted the princess as loud as she can."BY ORDER OF THE PRINCESS OF THE FIRE NATION, THERE WOULD BE NO MORE DEATHS TODAY!"
Soldiers stopped dead in their tracks. As soon as they realize that the daughter of the Fire Lord was within their mist, they dropped to their knees.
Azula almost took an involuntary step back when the prisoner directed his onyx eyes on her. Schooling her features, she's the princess afterall, she wak towards the ten and demanded, "Tell me your name."
The teen merely scoff and remained silent, earning a glare from most of the soldiers. One leuitenant, thinking of gaining favor from the Fire Princess, charged th stoic teen with his drawn sword while shouting, "Bastard! You will show respect to the princess!"
Before Azula, or anyone else, could do anything, the teen's eyes suddenly turned red before seeming to disappear from his spot, only to reappear a split second later with his left leg extended towards the foolish leiutenant's chest, stopping the charge cold. Suddenly, the back of the leiutenant's body exploded in gore, blood, lungs, heart, and bones making a mess of the courtyard, before the reat of the dead soldier's body toppled down on the ground.
The entire courtyard was stunned to silence. The prisoner had just killed two men almost twice his size with such ease with his arms bound the entire time.
Then, the teen turned towards the princess, his smirk never leaving his face. Azula gulped upon having those blood red eyes directed solely at her. She never thought she would feel it again after so long. Fear. Pure, unadultarated fear. Her back stiffened, her breath hitch on her troat, her legs felt like jello, her body shaking like a leaf. It's like staring at the Grim Reaper right in the face. You don't want to look but at the same time you can't look away. A blazing inferno but at the same time the cold brush of death. Such deadliness. Such raw power.
Such . . . beauty.
Yes, beauty. She never thought she would see such raw power except from her father, the Fire Lord. She's afraid of her father's power but at the same time she never wants to be away from him when he uses such power. And this young man possess the same, albeit different, power. She wants, no, she needs to see the pinacle of his strength, the limit of his existence, the entirity of his power.
Right there and then, she made her decision. And her entire world changed.
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Sasuke could feel there are several powerful people scattered around him. He could feel their weird chakra just itching to be unleashed againts him. He smiled at the thought of such battle. He have no dellusions of being the victor againts this many enemies. He had used considerable amounts of chakra to kill those two weaklings while making it look like he hadn't use any chakra at all. He had hoped it would force these soldiers to retaliate en mass, thus providing him with the battle that would allow him his eternal rest, but it seems their duty to their leader, this princess, kept them at bay.
He then turned to the shivering princess, thinking that if he scares her enough, she would order his execution right there and then. Her entire posture looks eerily familiar to him, with her entire body shivering, her hands clenching into fists, her eyes downward. The entire courtyard was dead silent as everyone was waiting what is to come with breaths held.
Suddenly, the princess raised her head and stared straight into those deadly red eyes with the spinning pin wheels, a large grin on her face and eyes almost blazing with fire. "I am Azula, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai, Granddaughter of former Fire Lord Sozin, sister of the exiled Pince Zuko, Princess and heir to the throne of the Fire Nation. What is your name, warrior?"
No wonder her posture was so familiar. He had the same reaction before battling Haku on that bridge in Wave Country all those years ago. Zabuza had asked then why he was shivering in fear and he had answered, 'I am shivering, in excitement.'
He hold out his still bound hands at Zhun-se, making her squeak when the Kusanagi suddenly turned into a white snake and slittered so fast towards the prisoner. The snake slittered up his leg, then his body, until it coiled itself on his hands, turning back to a sheated sword as soon as his hand gripped the snake's body.
He threw the sword towards the princess who caught it reflexsively before giving her a smirk and saying, "My name is Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke."
Azula repeated the name in her mind many times, despite knowing perfectly well that the name would never be forgotten. She gave the sword a once over before turning back to stare at Sasuke, a bit disappointed that his eyes had returned to their previos onyx colors. She gave him the smallest of nod before turning to the captain of the guards. "Captain, have the survivors of the Fifth Boarder Patrol escort the pisoner to the holding cells. Make sure to have Private Zhun-se be in charge of him. I wish to be present for their debriefing later today."
"Yes, your highness." The captain said with a salute.
Azula then turned back to Sasuke and said, "I do hope no more deaths would be happening today, Uchiha Sasuke?"
The teen merely gave her a coy smirk before nodding at Zhun-se's direction, making her gulp as she and her remaining men surround him once again. He gave one last smirk at the strange princess, giving her a once over that actually made the said princess sport a blush, before following the clearly fearful Zhun-se towards the holding cells under the headquarters, followed by at least a dozen more soldiers that kept a respectful distance from the prisoner and his guards.
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"Hello! Earth to Katara! You're daydreaming again! WAKE UP!"
"Huh?" The afformentioned girl said, looking up from to his older brother with a questioning look. "Sorry, Sokka. Did you say something?"
"Nooooooooo. Of coarse not. It's not like I need any help pulling today's catch into our boat so the village would have some fish for dinner tonight." Her brother gave her a half-lidded glare, sarcasm rolling out his voice, as he struggle to pull one end of the fishing net towards the boat while her sister was merely holding the other end of the net.
Katara immediately started pulling as well, half a dozen medium size fishes struggling to wiggle out of the fishing net. Once the entire net is inside the boat, they started the meticulous process of untangling each fish out of the said net and putting them in the catch basket, which already have several fishes caught earlier that day.
"Sorry about that." She apologized softly as she started untangling the caught fish from the net.
Sokka merely scoff as he started untangling their catch from the net as well. "You should really stop daydreaming, especially while fishing. We're in the middle of the frozen arctic almost a quater of a day's travel away from the village so rescue parties aint something to depend on if we ever get stranded here when you fall off the boat because you kept thinking about that blond whiskered dude we found floating in the ocean three months ago."
"I'm not thinking abut him at all." She whined. When her brother gave her a raised eyebrow, she relented and said, "Okay, maybe I am thinking a little bit about him."
"Make that thinking about him a lot. I mean, all you do almost half the time is sit there looking at his face. And let me tell you, he aint that cute."
Katara blushed at the accusation and threw a newly untangled fish at his brother's head. "That's not it at all!"
"Ouch! Hey, that would be coming off of your share at tonight's dinner, missy." He whined, rubbing his reddening forehead where the fish had hit. "Besides, he is a foreigner. He could be a Fire Nation spy for all we know."
"We don't know that." She argued. "Besides, whoever heard of anyone from Fire Nation with a natural blond hair?"
"You should know. You had a good look when Gran Gran asked your help to take care of him."
"Shut up!" Katara sported a full body blush at that. She did saw but that was an accident. How could she have known Gran Gran had been giving the comatose blond teen a sponge bath when came into the tent? It's not like the rest of the village women hadn't tried getting a glimps of his naughty bits after she accidentally blurted out how developed he was.
"Anyway, we better head back. We caught enough fish for today." Sokka said as he put the last of the fish inside the basket before picking up his oar. Katara did the same and they started rowing the boat back to the village.
The two sibling immediately knew something was wong the moment they arrived. The whole village seems to be converging in front of their grandmother's hut.
"What's going on?" Sokka asked immediately to one of the old men.
"Oh, young Sokka, Katara, exciting news. Our young guest woke up this morning." The old man said in an excited voice.
"WHAT?"
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Naruto sighed for the umpteenth time that day for being lingual imparred. At least now he was making some progress with the help of the old woman who he met when he woke up a few hours ago. "Arigato, um, Tenkeru yu, Kana-obaa-san" He said as he accepts another bowl of dried fish.
"So 'arigato' means thank you in your native language. And that's 'thank you, grandmother Kana', Nar-Uto." Gran Gran said, smiling at the young man.
"Thank you, Kana-obaa-san." He pronounced pointing at himself, rightly this time. "Me Na-ru-to."
"Ah, Naruto. Right, And you're welcome. Please eat. You will need your strength back." When the blond teen gave her a questioining look, she pointed at his food and made a hand gesture of putting something in her mouth. He nodded showing he understood the gesture and went back to eating, trying not to take notice of the audience they have by the entrance of the tent.
The old woman smiled at him. After three whole months in a coma, the young man had suddenly came out of her tent wearing a fur blanket around his waist this morning, earning quite a few whistles and cat calls from the women and children of the village. He was talking in a language no one in the village could understand. It took an hour before they made any leadways agints the language barrier using hand gestures. The young man was quite a fast study, and he wasn't afraid to teach her of his own language. It was like playing charades, only more fun. And learning a new exotic language is quite a good bonus. She wonders what her grandkids reaction would be when they meet him?
"WHAT?" came a dual voice outside.
Well, no time like the present to find out, she thought with a smile. Soon enough, her grand kids squished through the crowds and entered the tent, both with a surprised expression on their faces. "Ah, Naruto, thse are my grandchildren, Sokka." She pointed at the boy before pointing at the girl. "And that is Katara."
NAruto gave the two a once over, his eyes staying on Katara a bit longer than necessary, earning a glare from the boy and a blush from the girl. Then, he gave both a big smile and said slowly, "Konnichiwa. Ore wa Naruto desu. Uzumaki Naruto."
"Huh?" Both kids asked in stereo, clearly not understanding.
Nani giggled and said to them, "That means 'Good Morning. My name is Naruto. Uzumaki NAruto.' literally."
"Look here, bub! Tell us where you came from and what's your purpose . . . are those my dried tuna sticks? No fair! I've been saving those for a special occassion!" He whined, seeing the bowls of his favorite tuna sticks now empty. "You're going to pay for that you, you, tuna stick bandit!"
NAruto merely gave him a questioning look before giving hi a smile and saying, "Sokka-kun!"
"What? What the heck does that mean? Who the heck are you insulting, buddy?" The said boy demanded.
Nani and the rest of the villagers laugh at his haggard questioning expression. Some of the first language they learned from Naruto are the use of honorifics.
"Katara-chan." Naruto said, smiling gently at the girl.
Katara didn't understand what chan means but the way he said it seems so fondly that she couldn't help but blush. The giggles and cat calls from some of the villagers that knew what it meant didn't help to lower he blood flow to her face any.
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NAruto groaned as he lay down the warm sleeping bag that, according to Nani-obaa-san, he had been sleeping on for the last three months. Katara had been much worse than the old woman when it comes to curiosity. Sokka, on the other hand, keeps giving him an aggressive expression, which is quite understandable since he's an unknown.
He can't believe he'd been in a coma for three months. It would take a while before he regain his old strength back, even with Kyuubi's healing factor. Madara really did a number of him before the old bastard croaked.
Madara. He snarled at the thought of that man. At least he's dead now. Well, he hope Madara is. He hadn't really saw him actually die. The bastard had used a last minute technique that had blasted him and Sasuke into somekind of vortex before the Ultimate Sage-chakra charged Rasenshuriken had hit him.
Putting thoughts of human monsters out of his mind, he let himself drift into dreamless slumber.
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