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"I'm glad that you decided to visit me here in the Fire Nation. I hope it wasn't too far out of your way, Miss Sato."

Asami Sato, the owner of Future Industries, shook her head with a smile on her face as she walked alongside none other than Zuko's grandson, General Iroh. She flew over from Republic City in a new biplane model that Iroh was interested in investing in and had spent the better part of the day speaking with him about a whole slew of topics aside from her work.

"Not at all, General. I couldn't pass up on this opportunity you've given me to produce a new line of faster, more lightweight biplanes for the military. I'm very grateful that you invited me here to your home so that we could better discuss our contract together."

Iroh nodded and said, "I thought it would be a good idea for us to speak in person. I realize that many business transactions are held over the phone, but that just seemed too impersonal for me. I appreciate you humoring my old-fashioned way of working."

Asami giggled. "A little old-fashioned isn't a bad thing. Thank you for lunch, also, by the way. It was spectacular."

"Ah, when you said that you only eat fish I knew I had to have you try our Bluefin Eel-Tuna sushi. We have some of the best fishermen in the world here on the mainland and access to the freshest fish since most of the world's import originates from here."

Asami nodded. She knew about the Fire Nation's lucrative commodity. Even the Southern and the Northern Water Tribes purchased imported goods from the Fire Nation due to the fact that there simply weren't enough Bluefin Eel's in either tribe's freezing waters, though that was just one of the many expensive and sought-after fish that came from the cozy waters that surrounded the islands.

"Admittedly," Asami said apprehensively, "though I enjoyed the meal and it definitely was one of the most exquisite sushi I've had, I have heard that overfishing has drastically affected the Bluefin Eel's population. Aren't there any safeguards in place to preserve the species from being fished out completely?"

Iroh blinked and shook his head. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure. Where did you hear that, anyways? I have heard that they were making a comeback."

Asami arched a brow and shrugged, saying "Maybe it was an outdated article, but I subscribe to a newsprint scientific journal. It's organized by a scientist who is living here right now, but the journal originated in the Earth Kingdom and was started by a man named Orochimaru. Apparently, one of his writers named Kabuto Yakushi is here in the Fire Nation investigating the problem of overfishing in the Fire Nation's waters."

Iroh scoffed. "I'm sure the Fire Nation is hardly the only place that has a problem with population preservation. And besides, they're just fish. There's always going to be more."

Asami frowned, but nodded and just continued walking.

Iroh noticed the look on her face and decided to move along the conversation to avoid the topic. "Anyways, I was hoping that you'd be able to stay a while longer. Are you sure you have to leave tomorrow?"

She nodded, putting a smile on her face as she said, "Yeah, I can't help it. If I want to make it back right away then my best bet is to take the ship that's leaving tomorrow. I think you said it was called the Flames of Youth?"

Iroh nodded. "That's right. It was finished only a few weeks ago and they've been running tests and checking to make sure everything is in order before shipping off to Republic City. You're lucky, actually, because it's the only ship that's going to leave for another three weeks. Unfortunately, my next stop is taking me to the Northern Water Tribe in two weeks and then I have to make the long trip all of the way to the Southern Water Tribe immediately after, so I wouldn't be able to take you then either."

"Right. And if you need to keep the biplane to pitch it to the people in your military then my only other option is to hire a fishing boat to take me to the mainland, but that's a ten day trip by boat."

"Then I suppose you have no other choice."

She shook her head.

"Well," he said with a smile, "Perhaps after my trip to the two poles I can take some time to visit you in Republic City? I was hoping we'd get to know each other more… aside from work."

Asami smiled. "I have a busy schedule, but I'm sure I can make some time for a friend."

Iroh nodded, "Excellent! Now, how about we go over those new biplane features once more before you head back to your hotel?" When she nodded, the two of them made their way back to the hangar after their little discussion. There was a bit of teasing and some mild flirting between the two of them, but Asami stayed focused to the task at hand of explaining to him once again the many features of the new biplane fighter model.

When they were done, she left with a goodbye and made her way over to the hotel. She spent the night there and woke up early the next morning to take her first-class trip on the Flames of Youth, which would be leaving sometime before noon.

Meanwhile, Naruto was busy walking around the deck of the ship, admiring the craftsmanship, love, pain, sweat and blood that went into creating this massive vessel. He was proud to say that he had a hand in making it, but it's not like he could just run up and tell everyone that he built the damn thing. About anywhere from eight-hundred to one thousand five hundred people were working on the ship, off and on, for the past ten months. It took a little longer than usual because some of the innovative kinks that made this ship special took longer to work out. Naruto himself worked on many things, including some of the more basic parts like buffing and cleaning. His least favorite job was hammering out the outline of each of the pieces of the hull with a mallet and a steel spike because of how his arms felt after hours of chiseling away a guideline for the steel-cutters to follow later. He preferred working with the heated metal even though it could be dangerous if the people he worked with didn't do it the way they were supposed to, and also it was a race against time to bend the iron and steel into the proper shapes as they quickly cooled down. Messing up was not an option, and he always felt tense and full of adrenalin afterwards, especially when they barely managed to make the right adjustments in time when the steel suddenly cooled past the point of being able to make any further adjustments.

He heard that reheating the girders to make adjustments after the initial heating process could compromise the integrity of the ship, so once he got the hang of it he always made sure to work as fast and as accurate as possible when it came to that job.

Another job he had was installation of many of the pipes that were used for the running water onboard. He didn't spend much time doing that, but one of his least fondest memories was climbing up down inside of the hull to make an adjustment to a pipe that had not been fastened correctly early on, with no catwalk to help him get there because the one they had used was a mobile one that was being used elsewhere at the time. He didn't like being so high up when there was nothing but hard iron floors twenty feet below him.

What he learned from Kakashi was more focused around maintaining the integrity of the hull and ensuring that all of the inner-workings of the ship were in order. He spent several weeks under Kakashi's tutelage just learning about how the ship stays afloat in water. He was one of the many engineers in the shipyard and he spent a lot of time explaining various methods of making sure that the ship stays afloat in water such as displacement and choosing lightweight, sturdy materials. Kakashi's job, overall, was to make sure that there were no weak-spots anywhere in the ship's hull, and so he taught Naruto what to look out for and who to check up on when talking about integrity of the ship.

Naruto learned that everything, down to where supplies were kept and which types of bolts and nails used to build the ship, affected whether or not the ship stayed afloat. Too heavy, and the ship sank. Too lightweight, and the ship would be unstable and could sink. If any of the boat's ribs were angled at the wrong degree, the ship was more susceptible to leakage and the hull could collapse due to its own weight.

The main principle he learned was that the upward "buoyant force" that is exerted on a body immersed in some type of fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces, meaning that a lump of metal might sink to the bottom of the ocean if it's just a crushed into a big ball, but if it's flattened and stretched out enough so that most of its weight is balanced by that upward force of buoyancy in the water, then it should stay afloat.

Of course, he was still learning. He had a long ways to go before he was certifiable expert on shipbuilding, but he hoped that he'd be able to pick up where he left off with Kakashi once he arrived in Republic City.

Naruto also had an interest in navigating, something which was fostered by his father's friend and business partner, Jiraiya, on their many trips to different spots around the islands as they fished for some of the cheaper, but more abundant variations of eel tuna rather than focusing on what all of the big-time companies were scouring the islands for.

The son of a fisherman, he knew all-too-well the problems that were caused by overfishing by commercial ships and even the local fishermen, but he wasn't sure it was something that he could do something about. It was scary to think that the demand of a single fish, coupled with people's ambitions to make money would cause an animal to go extinct, but it was a real possibility.

He was busy thinking over this subject when he bumped rather harshly into someone. Turning to say he was sorry, Naruto froze in place to look over the young woman who stood before him.

Her hair was black like the coal he used to shovel into the furnaces that were used to heat the steel girders which they carved the ship's bones out of. The pupils in her yellow-green eyes dilated as she stared at him with a look of disbelief written all over her face. She batted long eyelashes as she stared at him in an almost reluctant manner, her legs taking her a few steps back and away from him as they faced one another after nearly knocking each other over. When she knelt down and started picking up papers he hadn't noticed she dropped, Naruto immediately snapped out of his spell and moved to help her.

"I'm sorry, miss. I should have been paying more attention." He seemed to remember a clipboard flying out of her hands and bouncing off a few feet away, so he looked around until he found it, and then went to retrieve it for her after picking up several of the sheets that were tumbling around on deck. He brought them back to her and handed them over as she spoke.

"Forget it," she muttered, obviously annoyed with him for having run into her like that. She gasped when she saw one particular sheet fly off further up the deck. "Don't let any of these get away! They're part of an important contract that I have with the general!"

Naruto nodded and moved as quickly as he could to scoop up the few pieces of paper that were tumbling about ahead of him. As he ran, he ducked under two people carrying a large chest as they turned out of one of the upper level storage rooms as the paper flew past them, then hopped over the railing of the elevated area he was standing on to follow the piece of paper as it flew down towards the bow of the ship. When he arrived, he thought the paper had flown overboard, but luckily it had caught on the railing at the end of the bow. Shocked beyond belief, Naruto reached for it and grasped for the sheet of paper. Once he held it in his hand, he turned around and was surprised by another sheet that slapped him right in the face before flying over the edge of the ship, swirling about in the wind.

He missed one? Naruto frowned in annoyance and stared at the piece of paper as it flew further and further away. Reaching out, Naruto clenched his fist around it as it began to fade away into the distance and shook his head as he turned away to walk back in shame to meet up with the pretty girl he inconvenienced. As he turned, however, a gust of wind brushed past him and a moment later he was smacked in the back of the head by the paper that seemed to float off into oblivion just a second ago. Reaching desperately behind his head, Naruto jumped for joy when he held both sheets in his hands…

… only to accidentally rip them in his over excited state.

"Shoot," he said, holding the two pieces of paper that were torn in half in his hands.

When he looked up at the upper deck, Naruto saw the annoyed look on her face as she looked over the railing. Busted. He frowned and looked back at the pieces of paper as she turned to walk down the steps toward the bow to retrieve her papers.

"Sorry, I…"

"Are you always this clumsy?" she asked, slightly red in the face as she snatched the papers away from him to interrupt him. "You know how important these documents are? How hard I had to work to draft them and now I'm going to have to reorganize every single one of these papers to make sure that the contract is in the right order so that I can work on them again, not to mention replace the two sheets that you so carelessly ripped to shreds? No, of course you don't… you're just a… just a…"

"Shipbuilder…" Naruto offered.

"Shipbuilder… wait, shipbuilder?" asked the beautiful young woman. She really was something else; even when she was angry and upset with him, she was quite pretty.

He nodded. "I worked on this ship, actually. Ten months." He smiled and showed her his hands.

She looked at him, confused at first until she saw his rough, slightly scarred and calloused hands. Her eyes widened slightly because she thought he was nothing more than a kid who was visiting the Fire Nation or leaving to visit Republic City, possibly a student. He had the childish-looking face that did not entirely match up with the strong-looking arms, callous hands and slim, compact body of his.

His large grin didn't hide the embarrassment he seemed to feel over his clumsy act just a second ago. Although, she had to admit that the way he moved was not clumsy at all. She recalled watching him sprint and quickly slide under those two men who were transporting some sort of chest or case out of a storage closet on the upper deck and even remembered gasping when she saw him bound over the railing without hesitation.

Perhaps she was a little too hard on him at first. It wasn't until now that Asami noticed that his eyes were the color of the sea and his hair was bright yellow like the sun. He was tan, but not bronzed. It was definitely a fisherman's glow.

"Your hands are so… ugly…" she whispered ugly like his hands were going to hear her. To her surprise, his smile seemed to get a bit bigger as he spoke.

"I'm proud of my hands. They're the reason why I'm so good at what I do. They're the reason why I'm going to Republic City: to finish learning my trade that originated there."

Asami arched a brow, "I'm pretty sure the Fire Nation has been building ships long before the United Republic of Nations was even a thing. If anything, your trade probably started somewhere here in the Fire Nation… it makes sense since this is an island and they'd have to learn how to make ships to leave the island to search for new land and trading opportunities."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Huh! I never thought about it like that. So Mr. Kakashi learned something in Republic City that was learned from here, huh? That's pretty amazing, Miss!"

Asami shook her head, "It's common sense."

"Oh, OK. I'll definitely try and remember that once I get to the city… ah, sorry about your papers again, Miss. I didn't mean to mess things up for you. I had no idea those were so important." He frowned, looking quite down with himself for going overboard and tearing up the paperwork that was so important to her.

Asami sighed. "It's fine… It shouldn't be too hard to replace these papers and this is my copy anyways. I'll just tape them back together for now… thank you for trying so hard to get them for me, uh… ahem… let me introduce myself: my name is Asami Sato and I build and design many things, including biplanes, which is what this contract is about. And you are?" She couldn't help but blush at how she was stumbling with her words a bit. Why was she so nervous?

Naruto's eyes visibly widened and he reached out to offer to shake her hand. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm a shipbuilder and a fisherman. I've lived in the Fire Nation for all of my life and I am going to Republic City to learn new things and also I'd like to see the Avatar one day."

Asami's eyelids opened up just a bit as she thought about her friend, Korra. She wasn't about to blurt out that she was good friends with the Avatar, just in case this guy was a creep or something, but she offered a smile and reached out to shake his hand after ensuring that all of her papers were held firmly in place by her clipboard. "It's uh… nice to meet you… wow, your hands really are rough."

Naruto grinned and shrugged. "Comes with the territory, I'm sure. It's amazing that you make biplanes and yet yours are still so soft. It must be a whole different kind of work to make planes than it is to make ships."

Asami thought about that for a second. Perhaps it was… and perhaps it wasn't. She wasn't sure. "I'm not so sure," she said, shrugging, "But I love what I do… say, I really would like to apologize for being so flippant earlier. Maybe we could uh… talk more over a drink? I have some drinks in my cabin." Her face was red. She just knew it.

"Ah… uh… I don't want to inconvenience you anymore than I already have…" he started, looking around to try and avoid her gaze as he felt his cheeks warm up.

"Nonsense. I think it would be interesting for us to talk together for a bit… I've always believed that things happen for a reason anyways. Maybe it was fate that had us meet here today on this ship." She smiled and started walking back up the steps away from the bow. When she noticed he was just standing there, she asked, "Are you coming?"

Naruto looked up and saw her beautiful green eyes gazing down into his as her charcoal hair was swept up into the wind as she stood there on the steps. He nodded in affirmative and quickly moved to follow beside her.

"So what kind of drinks do you have? Like… apple juice or something?"

Asami chuckled. "You're too funny."

Naruto wasn't sure why he was funny, but he shrugged and just kept on going, following the pretty young girl to his doom, if need be.

Author: I've decided to keep this story short and sweet by updating with much shorter chapters than I usually write. I think that'll keep me on track with it and make it easier for me to post more scenes for you guys to read.

First off, before you ask, there probably will not be a lemon. I may write one later, but if I do, I will not include it here on FFnet and you'll have to go to my tumblr page to read it once I write it. The reason being is I'd rather keep this story rated T, here.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed. I received one review that just made me roll my eyes. They used the dna-o-gram to call me a bitch or something or other (on a guest account, because they have no huevos), which was pretty funny for a few seconds and a good idea for a review, but just used in such a boring way. I swear, I thought that level of immaturity was only possible on xbox live, but surprise, surprise.

Also, the "code" at the top is very easy. No website you have to go to. Just have to figure it out. Try moving around the letters.

As the chapters continue, I'll make the codes more and more difficult with less and less hints :) Anyways, it's just a line of text I thought up that sort of goes with this story. If you are having trouble figuring it out, don't worry, I'll have the answer to that code on the next chapter.

Last chapter's code said (if you didn't bother looking it up or couldn't figure it out or something): Awaken that which lies dormant in the soul. Rise and grant the young boy the power to influence the world.