Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Korra or Naruto.
Summary: Spirits are as in tune with nature as the strongest of sages, and said spirits sense the chaos that Madara Uchiha could bring about; So they remove him from the equation. Naturally, seventeen-year-old Madara doesn't have a say in this. Set S01E01.
Chapter One:
Standing at 5'8, the figure before them would have been less conspicuous were it not for his trailing black hair, musculature and the dark eyes unlike many other water, fire or earth benders he'd seen before.
Tenzin turned to his mother, confusion vaguely visible on his face. "You say that Tonraq found him among the tundra?"
Smiling passively, Katara watched her son try to hide his all-too-obvious chagrin. "Yes, among the frozen tundra. Despite that the young man seems to have recovered quite well. Though he's said very little since his arrival."
"Mother, I can't just take an orphan from the village. His parents..."
"I have no parents." Cool and concise, gray-black eyes regarded him, searching him for something, though the air-bender wasn't sure exactly what. "My mother passed away during child-birth, my father is gone." Something dark littered his tone as he spoke of his family.
Tenzin's face softened at the words, regarding the young man (Little more than a child) with renewed interest. "What about Kya? Surely she would not be adverse to taking him there?"
"And then what?" The elderly woman queried, raising an eyebrow. "Tenzin, this young man has nothing. Surely you would not strand him in the city with nothing to his name? I know I raised you better than that."
Despite his age and stature Tenzin still felt like a child before that look, like he'd just thrown Bumi into a snowman after he'd ruined one of his scrolls. (Sadly, this actually hadn't occurred too long ago.)
"Yes, mother." He acquiesced. "And what is your name, young man?" He asked the teenager, taking in his dark look with a small frown.
"Madara." The youth responded curtly, relaxing slightly.
"Well, Madara, are you a bender?" He questioned primly.
"Define 'bender'." Madara requested with a small smirk. "I have a feeling that we have different opinions on what a 'bender' is."
Tenzin's brow twitched at the slight mischief that coated the words, well aware as to what he was referring. "You know full well what I mean young man, now, can you fire bend?" The youth's hot-headed, strong attitude and red armour (out of date, but nonetheless a fixture among many fire-benders to the west.) indicated the element was probably his, and for some reason that Tenzin couldn't quite place he was unable to write the youth off as a non-bender.
"Fire bend..." He mulled, lips twitching at the older man's ire. "Yes, I can fire bend."
"Would you be so kind as to demonstrate?" Tenzin asked politely.
"...Alright." There was something almost-hostile in that gaze now, but nonetheless the boy stepped away, turning his head and raising his hands to flip through handsigns? "Fire style: Annihilation!(1)" He called out, finishing a six-seal maneuver and breathing fire.
While the amount of fire wasn't massively impressive, the fact that it contained itself to a wall, five feet across and five feet high, most assuredly was; Not making mention of the fact that he'd breathed it as though it were air.
"Very impressive." He murmured, eyes widening slightly as he took in the young man before him with a different gaze. The armour, the way he shifted as though to ensure that his hair was not only away from his face, but separate from his entire body, his muscles as they tensed, prepared to leap away mid-technique. This wasn't a child. This was a warrior.
As the flames ceased, and the youth turned back to him, he found himself pausing at the look in his eyes, reflecting mistrust and almost fear in their gaze.
"Where did you learn that?" He finally asked once he'd recovered from his shock.
"My father." He bit out, and all of a sudden Tenzin realized that the boy before him was still, despite all evidence to the contrary, a boy.
His mother's grim face reflected that she had reached the same conclusion he had. The only way you learned how to bend like that was either extreme training, or...
Combat.
Maybe his judgement was clouded by the boys age, or biased by his own heritage, but... "How would you like to come to Republic city?"
One week later
Madara regarded the poster with a raised eyebrow. "Amon..." The word was murmured carelessly.
"Together we can stop this oppression of non-benders!" The fool on stage yelled, gesturing wildly and earning cheers from the few people in the park taking notice.
Mulling over the man's words, he rolled his eyes at the obvious manipulation at play. Whenever someone gained power, someone else always wanted that exact same power, a simple dichotomy of principles; Jealously was one of the cornerstones of humanity, as was fear.
"Fools." He chuckled, watching them clutter about making noise. His smirk tightened slightly when he thought about the individuals being threatened, however. Even he, cold as he was, had a soft spot for children, and he doubted that they would feel the same way when confronted with a child bender; He hoped they didn't feel the same way.
For their sake.
Another cheer pulled him from his musings, and the raven-haired youth casually adjusted his yukata, ignoring the way the action drew attention to his strange (by their standards) regalia clothing.
"What are you talking about? Bending's the coolest thing in the world!" A voice called incredulously, strong yet distinctly female, and he turned to look at the owner just as he knew everyone else would.
Brown hair in a distinct style, a tank-top drawing attention to her figure but otherwise dressed in classic water tribe kit. He'd seen her once before.
Bright blue eyes blinked at him as he stepped into the tent, his vision blurring at the edges from the sheer cold but otherwise unimpeded. Then he turned the corner and they were gone.
Tonraq's daughter. Korra.
"Oh yeah? Let me guess; you're a bender." Despite the immaturity of the action he still couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped. The insult had been his brother's favourite after his athletics master, a normally rather serious clanswoman, had laughed after Izuna had proudly proclaimed that as clan leader their father was, without a doubt, 'The biggest bender in the clan!'
"Yeah, I am!" She announced, nodding smugly. Deciding the young woman wasn't worth much more attention, he turned his attention to her summon or animal, a strange white beast with large ears and a witless smile.
"And I bet you'd just looove to knock me off this platform with some water bending, huh?" He crooned, smiling patronizingly.
"I'm seriously thinking about it." Korra glared, crossing her arms haughtily. Madara blinked. 'Did she seriously just...?'
In an obvious reaction to her words, the clown on stage turned to address the crown gathered around him. "This is what's wrong with the city! Benders like this girl," Here he pointed at her accusingly. "Only use their power to oppress us!" He yelled.
As one the crowd collectively turned to glare up at her angrily. "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!"
He stared at the clueless people blankly, then turned back to the obviously none too intelligent girl as she continued to dig her own grave. "What, I-I'm not oppressing anyone! You're-" She grit her teeth, flinching as she thought. "You're oppressing yourself!"
With that final insightful comment the girl turned on her dog(?) and they walked away.
Sure enough, within minutes the girl found another conflict with one of the local factions, the 'Triple threat Triad', apparently.
While her comeback wasn't particularly witty, he admitted that he was impressed with her sheer control of the elements. (Water, earth and fire?) Even he'd barely managed to become adept in all five elements, and he was a rare case even among the Uchiha clan.
He'd learnt in his time here that most generally mastered a single element, two if lucky, and even then it was mostly bloodline elements such as ice or metal, save the fire and lightning users.
Come to think of it, while most Uchiha were fire specialists, a fair few actually sub-specialized in lightning themselves. A connection?
Regardless of the connection he'd possibly found, the girl ('Korra') was being arrested.
His eyes widened as she caught the metal users rope with her bare hand. If that man were a lightning user she'd be extra-fried right about now.
Following the ensuing chase, he couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips. Maybe it was just homesickness talking, but the girl's attitude was reminding him less of Izuna now, and more of someone else he'd always been fond of.
Part of him wondered when he'd started comparing Hashirama to a brother, but that part was quickly squashed beneath Uchiha detachment, and he took off after the brunette.
He grimaced when he caught sight of the several near captures, but when she was shadowed by the air ship and dragged into the air he knew that it was finally the end of the road for her.
With a small grin he casually slipped a kunai from his sleeve, flinging it with force nigh-unrivaled.
Most knew of Hashirama's dual-element skill, and the wood release that seemed to result, but few knew that his rival had his own elemental advantage. A reason for his supreme flames of war beyond even other Uchiha. As with most Uchiha, his main element was fire.
Unlike other Uchiha, his sub-element was air.
With a screech that grated his senses and left the strange dog and girl howling and clutching their ears respectively, the metal ropes split, sending them falling back towards the earth.
Korra spun her arm in an arc as she fell, landing in the water and sinking below the surface, where she didn't rise.
He blinked in surprise, but upon focusing finally made out a dark silhouette at the bottom of the river, steadily and stealthily making its way up said river; By the commotion the other men chasing her didn't, and his grin widened as he realized that despite her lack of skill in wordplay, she obviously had more skills up her sleeve than he'd reckoned.
Gesticulating wildly, the brunette pointed at him, wildly proclaiming; "That was you!"
Madara stared down at Korra, raising an eyebrow. "Yes, that was me. Perhaps you should be a little more thankful." He scolded.
Beside him Tenzin cut across anything she may have said. "Regardless, thank you for keeping Korra out of trouble but she'll be going home soon." The glare he leveled at the girl caused her to shrink into herself, pouting. Abruptly he found himself comparing her to Hashirama.
"But, Tenzin...!"
"No means no, Korra." He said firmly, staring down at the girl.
"Is that your decision to make?" Madara cut across firmly, unable to stop the words as they escaped.
Tenzin turned to him, blinking. "I beg your pardon?"
Frowning, the Uchiha clan leader inhaled sharply and then rose to his full height. "Korra here is old enough to decide for herself. Unless you practice slavery I'd advise you excise your freedom of choice to yourself and your family alone."
While the question hadn't been overly legitimate, the look on the bald monk's face spoke for itself what he thought of the insinuation. "How dare you...!"
"Tenzin, the city needs me!" Korra cut in desperately.
"I... Wouldn't go that far." He spoke dryly, and as Tenzin looks between the two of them, the dark-skinned water tribe girl looked away, flushing. "Nonetheless, the choice to stay or go should be hers, whether you like it or not. Or are you planning on ordering others around? Mayhaps your wife or Kya?"
While his wince showed just how Tenzin thought that would go, he nonetheless persevered. "That's besides the point! The order of the white Lotus-"
"Is responsible for her protection. If you do your job right then that won't be a problem. In the meantime, I'd say the thing that this girl needs most is discipline. Or do you intend to welch on your end, Tenzin?"
The airbender looked at the two teens, frowning in thought. "I see your point." He reluctantly conceded, and the girl looked up quickly, eyes wide. "Alright, you can stay." He finally sighed.
Beaming, the girl swept forwards to grab them both in a hug. "Thank you!"
Feet off the ground, Madara turned to the older man. "I changed my mind. Take her home, please."
Tenzin's eye twitched.
(1) - Fire style: Annihilation:- Translates into Katon: Mekkyaku. The next level of this technique is "Great annihilation", which is viewable as the technique Madara uses first against the Shinobi alliance after Temari's wind technique.