I OWN NOTHING
Since my gorgeous ass is still right where I left it last chapter with Naruto and the Fire Nation's best ladies with some shady and psychotic people after Azula's head for reasons stated before, let's give this a crack.
XXXXXX
Not quite friendly
"What is your nose saying now, right or left?" Azula asked in her green robes and her bun now in an Earth Kingdom hair pin.
Behind her were Ty Lee and Mai, both also in green robes with the acrobat pulling her hair in a jade ring for her braided ponytail and the weapon mistress having her pigtails now in white bun holders for her ox-horn hairstyle. They followed the now sniffing blond while the flexible brunette wondered if his spiky hair would pierce the straw hat on his head or make it fall, or if Naruto's hair would be tamed. Mai remained her bored stoic self though she readied a sigh for whatever question the chi blocker could have. Azula for her part felt a strange mixture between the pleasure of command and the awkwardness of looking at Naruto's ass as the blond was on all fours, sniffing the ground for whatever food the Avatar could have.
Naruto stopped his shaking his bum to the girls who had been giggling, groaning or letting it slip for effectiveness, hummed as he took a long final sniff, "Hmm… It seems they changed some food here… Their trail's not cold, but it's mixed with others. It may take me a while but if you want it to be faster, I need a more direct sample of the meat they have to pick up the scent of their pets from the bacon some fisherman has."
Ty Lee raised a brow, "How do you know one's a fisherman?"
Naruto grinned and took a squatting position with his hands on the ground, like a dog ready to point where to go, "Dude loves meat almost as much as I love noodles. He smells like he's spent a good chunk of his life eating fish or searching for fish to make good meals, and there's that salty smell of sea salt that goes great to dry food or use it on-"
Azula sighed for Mai, "We're not here for culinary recipes, Naruto. Do you have a lead or not?"
Naruto stood up and faced his boss, "Did you have people feed you grapes for breakfast before meeting me?" he asked before turning to his right and aiming a finger, "I think I figured out an aroma that they didn't have before coming to this city, highly expensive food the kind nobles eat." He licked his lips, "So they went around here, met someone from high places and had enough contact to get their scent… and trust me, that's the kind of stuff I used to take in Fire Nation ships before slapping my bum at the captains there."
Ty Lee giggled at the mental image, Mai sighed, and Azula chuckled, "Well, let's see how good that speed of yours is. Find the Avatar and report to me immediately. We'll be at the market street trying to find something to eat, find us before we're done eating and with news of the Avatar, and you're free to eat to your heart's content."
The fiery princess needn't look to see her current employee running off so fast that he left a cloud of dust shaped like himself. Curious as ever, Ty Lee tried to reach it, only to see Mai leave two holes where the eyes should have been. An elder woman selling bread blinked as she found two flies nailed to a nearby wall with needles that had to be from the sewing and cloth shop behind the stoic girl with hair buns. The flies had conveniently passed before the dust figurine's eyes.
"Psst, Azula." Ty Lee whispered as she leaned towards her friend, "I think Mai doesn't like Naruto much."
Azula felt the need to use a sarcastic, snarky remark but decided to amuse her acrobat friend, "Who knows? Mai does have a thing for the kind of guy who does unexpected things, and so far Naruto's a surprise."
The stoic girl sighed again, "I don't think my tastes would be as low as to go with a guy who'd put food before me." She said, half-jokingly and half to make her point she didn't like the conversation.
Ty Lee beamed, "Well, I think he's cute, he has those whiskers on his face like he's some sort of cute animal to pet. Oh, remember the turtleducks at your garden, Zula? I miss to feed them."
The princess chuckled, the brunette was always full of energy to cheer her up or add something new to the table while Mai was capable of bringing reason and order if necessary, and all had the same sense of fun in facing strong people and humiliating them. To have Naruto admitting defeat to them with a well laid out plan was one of those little joys in life Azula loved to exploit as long as she could, and the reward of having someone who was a thief with infamy as a master infiltrator in her army's food storages and a speedster faster than any ride made that victory all the sweeter. The added bonus of having him as a tracker was even better… now, if only he showed some respect and proper manners when talking to her, that'd be the complete package.
She was in a good mood, "I believe I saw a stand serving seafood inside balls of dough, all those dough Avatar pieces Naruto ate made me want to eat actually fried dough with something more inside."
"Do you think it's wise to walk around commoners considering who we are?" Mai asked, her knives at the ready at all times ever since she entered the town.
Azula grinned, "It could be thrilling, wouldn't it? And we could get the added bonus of seeing what the life of peasants is like. Who knows? You may even enjoy it."
Mai sighed, but was interrupted mid sigh by Ty Lee who grabbed both her friends for a hug, "All right, seafood here we go!" she said and moved the other two girls forward.
Meanwhile, Azula enjoyed the glances she got, the people around her looked at the three girls as more of their own, normal girls. It was new, that was for certain, and not only that but she got some looks from stupid idiots who at least recognized beauties, giving her ego a good boost. She was confident and perfect in everything she did, and she prided herself in her appearance too, so to get some idiots staring at her even in the ridiculous green dress robes Naruto stole for her was good in her book for it proved she not only could be normal, but she could make normal idiots act like bigger idiots because of her good looks. Okay, she was acting like one of those bitches she heard so much about who did anything to get attention at the academies thinking they were on her father's level because of their status and wealth, but none of the three girls walking together had had any kind of experience in those environments since birth, Ozai didn't allow his kids to be average, but Azula had to admit it felt good to be at an average level and be good at it.
However, they hadn't noticed the eyes staring at them while a massive fgure moved in the shadows. The bounty hunter chuckled a bit, "Their bodies seem good enough for my sword to split apart. But who should be first? Master Fujimoto wants the princess…" The swordswoman known as Dog felt her hands shaking as they reached for her sword, making her chuckle, "The brunette or the bun-haired one? Hahahaha… I always liked tender meat…" he cackled as the girls moved to the takoyaki stand Azula had been interested in.
XXXXXX
Once arriving at Gaoling's biggest house, and by saying it was big would be to sell the place short, Naruto finally grinned. He came to a halt before the large walls and jumped up, landing softly on the border between the world of the peasants and the stinking rich. But the stench of money was no comparison to the smell of good cooking, mostly that delicious scent of good stew with his name on it.
"Well, I've run three miles to find this guy, he's not here, so there's only one thing I can do." Rubbing his hands together, and knowing his skills, Naruto guessed the time he had to meet Azula with the good news was more than enough to take some bites of whatever caused that heavenly aroma.
The disguised blond leaped to the majestic and massive gardens that could have a small army there, and changed midair. Just before his feet hit the ground, the blond thief was back to his old outfit while he threw the bag with his disguise on top of a tree, in order to get it later once he had done his little… information gathering. Yeah, that didn't sound as mean-spirited as food robbery. Back to his skin tight pitch black muscle shirt, reddish orange hakama pants, and on his red steel gauntlet and pauldron on his left arm he was set with his bamboo sword resting on his right bare shoulder. He swiftly took off the straw hat and threw it at the tree where it landed on top of the bag carrying his clothes, and thus letting out his spiky hair be seen.
And that just blew his cover, "Who's there?"
Naruto tensed his body stiff in an instant as he turned around to try to see who found him… And then he relaxed at the sight. It was a little girl in an expensive royal white dress typical of the Earth Kingdom, with her hair done in a large bun thanks to a green hairband, and she was blind. The speedy thief felt pity as he noticed her creamy dull eyes tainted slightly by green, meaning she could be an earth bender. He decided to play it safe and use his swift feet and stealth to get out without her hearing him so she could pass it up as just an animal passing by.
That was until he gave the first step to try to get to the stew – He always thought with his stomach, sadly – and that caused the girl to grin, "Oh, there you are." And what Naruto saw next shocked him. The girl just stomped on the ground with her heel, and soon a spike shot from the ground, nearly slamming him on the chest. The blond flipped backwards, landed on his hands, and pushed himself off the ground to land away from the girl with his feet skidding to a halt.
Shinai drawn, left hand on the ground to further stop his movement, and his eyes set on the little grinning girl whose face spelled cocky said the battle was on, "I don't suppose we could talk over some scones."
The girl smugly smiled and aimed a finger at him, "Hah, in about five seconds you'll be eating a mud pie, pal. You messed with the wrong kickass princess."
Naruto tried to joke and see if he could distract her enough to get his disguise and get back to Azula before things got worse, "Kickass princess? Come on, not even a decent rock pun? Here's one: let's rock."
The girl's grin turned cockier, "Oh, you sound kind of cute… in the weak dork kind of way."
Naruto chuckled, "I'm just a lowly thief by the name of Naruto. Stealing food is the only thing I'm good at, and I need to eat, so please either tell me where you have some of the good food around here, or let's take this easy."
She said with a confident smirk, "What is it, trying to steal a kiss from poor little innocent me?" Naruto winced when she threw forward a fist, and the earth spike he avoided before was split in two, the top half flying at him. The blond thief swung his shinai at an incredible speed that the blind girl barely heard until he smashed the rock to pieces. Needless to say his speed surprised her considering it had a lot of weight behind to use a lot of force, and yet, she could feel the movement of his feet on the ground. She grinned as she moved one foot forward.
Too slow to feel the ground softening, Naruto found a fistful of mud splashing his face and blinding him. He wiped off the wet dirt with one hand and watched as the girl threw both palms forward, and then slamming them. He heard the movement and jumped up, his feet landing on top of the earth walls the girl tried to use to catch him. Judging by how they stopped instead of crashing against each other, he noted she wanted to capture him, not kill him. That was good… somewhat. The small relief he felt was nothing when the girl frowned and moved her hands to her side, separating the earth walls and splitting Naruto's legs until they were parallel to the ground.
She grinned, she had forced a man to spread his legs as if to teach him what women went like when giving birth… But she was shocked when hearing not grunts of pain, but a chuckle, "This would've worked were I not someone who relies on his legs." The blond said as he slid off the walls and landed before the small blind earth bender with a grin.
She groaned, "I know you're smiling, and I'm going to wipe that expression of your face with tons of mud… and dirty underwear too!" she was a kid, after all.
He wouldn't lose his grin, "Ok, time for me to make the stupid obvious question, but how does a blind girl like you become such a cool earth bender? Seriously, I slipped past the guards at the gate of this town after running over the wall, and you're the one to give me a challenge?"
That stopped the girl's frowning, "You gave them the slip?"
Naruto noted her change in posture; she was more relaxed, so he decided to brag, "Of course, they were too slow. I got to say, you're real young, but by the good spirits, you're freaking amazing."
The girl grinned widely, "Of course I am, who do you think I am? I am the one who-"
"Toph!"
The two opponents' eyes went wide, and Naruto instantly jumped to the tree he had hid his disguise on, trying to remain out of view and get his clothes in silence while the girl got confronted by several men in outfits similar to the guards at the gates, and a man and woman in such expensive robes that they had to be the girl's parents. Just before they arrived, she had easily stomped her foot on the ground to make the remains of her fight sink into the ground and out of anyone's sight.
"Toph, did something happen? We heard noises here but didn't hear you calling for help." The father said, rather sternly as if expecting his daughter to come to him no matter what.
The girl put a finger to her lips, "Oh, nothing bad happened, it's just… There was this strange band playing weird music. They said they were earth benders and were using their bending to make the music."
Naruto inwardly groaned as the parents seemed to buy their little innocent – add a lot of sarcasm there – girl, "Oh, that sounds… Well, they do need to practice away from here." The mother said.
"I told them that." Toph said with a grin, "And they politely left."
The father nodded, "Good, Toph, but next time that happens, have the guards do it for you, that's why we pay them, so you don't have to talk to strangers."
"I'll remember it." She said, and they soon left. Once they were gone, she finally turned to the tree where Naruto had been hiding in at all times, "You can come out now."
Naruto did just that, his shinai hefted on his shoulder, "You know, you could've told them I was here."
The girl, Toph as identified by her parents, chuckled, "I actually had fun fighting you, so I decided to give you a break. You're the first…" she sighed, and punched him in the elbow, making Naruto yelp for she packed quite a punch, "You treated me like an earth-bender for a change. Even if you're some smelly thief, I think I'll let this slide." She then aimed a finger, "The kitchen's over there, it's five steps of a little girl to get to where they keep the cookies on the top shelf."
"You're actually helping me?" Naruto asked with a raised brow as he leaned closer to the girl, seeing she couldn't be faking her blindness, "I did mention I am a thief, you said so. So, why give me the special treatment?"
She punched his arm again, only to yelp since this time she punched the armored one, "Ow! Are you really a thief? You seem to be armed like a soldier, even if you don't have any swords on you."
"I think I asked a question. But fine, I'll answer." Naruto said with a shrug, "I used to steal from Fire Nation soldiers. They get some good food. I even got captured a few times, but considering I am faster than them, well, a few tricks helped me escape. I got this bamboo sword and armor from them from one of my escapes."
The girl grinned, "Cool, so, did you really slip past the guards at the gate? I heard some of them were even as good as the guys at Ba Sing Se."
"Well, I don't mean to brag… but screw it, I'll do it for you, Toph!" he had a good idea now of why she let him go free of punishment, she was real bored, and thus hearing a few stories of adventures seemed like a good way to solve that. That, and she seemed to have really enjoyed their little fight before. "Where do I start? Umm… Well, my name's Naruto. I was born at the Fire Nation, and due to not having much money I had to steal food and run as fast as I could. Ok, sure, it's not as easy as it sounds, but from taking food from small shops at the Fire Nation I started to target the greedy soldiers. I mean, why put the effort into working in one of those stuffy uniforms when I could just take their food and run off with enough distance to pull down my pants and show them my behind?"
"Then how didn't you get burned to a crisp?" she asked, though failing to hide her excitement.
Naruto grinned, "By being faster than them. The guys rely too much on their fire bending, so I just have to jump out of the way and strike. But the best method is to be silent and hide in their shadows. I learned, through a lot of trial and error, how to avoid being seen. I'll admit the first times were a mess. There was this one time I tried to take a pouch of gold from a captain, and I don't know how but I ended in a hot spring with six soldiers armed with bow and arrows ready to shoot at will. I was lucky the steam was there to hide in and that I could listen to the strings of the bow before they fired. I didn't get the money, but took the guy's pants, leaving him to walk back to his camp in his underpants."
Toph laughed at that, "Sounds like today you also had trouble." She grinned, "So, you were saying about me being freaking amazing?"
"Well, you're the first person I know that can keep up with my speed." Naruto admitted, "You take a very defensive but aggressive style, though, that's so cool it's even scary."
She blushed but her grin widened, "I thank the wonders of being born awesome, Naru." She said, before turning her head to the side, something seemed off with her expression, "Oh… I… I need to go. It seems I have visits." She then turned at him, "Hey, Naru, even if you're a thief, you seem fun to hang around. So next time we meet, I'll get you some scones."
"I have to move around town and do some stuff." Naruto said, making two mental notes. One, Toph had a damn good sixth sense to detect anything coming her way. And two, the Avatar had arrived to greet her. He ended giving her a bittersweet smile, "If we meet again, I may have to give you the rematch."
Toph felt something off, but before she could ask, Naruto leapt to the tree, grabbed his stuff, and with another jump he was off to find Azula.
XXXXXX
"Hmm… This isn't so bad, being treated like normal girls." Azula said as she sat at the small stand she wanted to go to and read the menu to try to decide her order.
Ty Lee hummed, "What's so special? We still have to find the Avatar."
The princess smirked, "Yes, but for now we can have fun. Maybe Mai will brood less." She said jokingly to her stoic friend.
Said bun haired girl put down her menu and wondered out loud, "How can we even get food here?"
The other two girls were at a bit of a loss, shrugging uselessly. Having servants getting royalty food, loyal fans to worship one endlessly, and having parents that gave everything away to the point was boring at best, it was easy to see why they were unused to the whole deal of getting food at a restaurant. To their good luck, a waiter walked by, smiling far too much as he looked at the innocent, cheerful girl of the bunch with the braid.
"Would you ladies like to order now? I'd recommend the ones with onion and soy sauce."
"Oh, that sounds great." Ty Lee said.
Azula smiled, "I'll have your best drink then."
"What they said." Mai said boringly as she set down her menu, but the waiter ignored her and Azula as he put his attention on the acrobat.
"Well, another good option for you would be something as lovely as yourself, milady." He said to the brunette while the two raven haired girls rolled their eyes at the man's pitiful attempts to get a date.
Ty Lee just grinned, "Oh, then what would that be?" she asked, already used to men doing things for her.
"How's twenty packs of takoyaki sound for a start?" Naruto, back in his disguise of an Earth Kingdom peasant, asked as he took a seat with the girls by pulling a chair, twirling it so the back faced the table, and sitting on it with his arms on top of the head as he lazily looked the menu. "Just do me a favor and bring me the classic stuff."
Ty Lee, seeing the man's shocked look as the blond sat with three beautiful girls, raised her arms and hugged the blond thief's arm, "Hey, you took your sweet time getting over here?" she then moved back and enjoyed the defeated look of distress in the waiter's face that said he wouldn't annoy her more.
Azula groaned, "Still breaking hearts." She mumbled under her breath. Though, in her mind, she did praise Ty Lee for being so cruel and cold in telling a third rate Casanova he had no chance of scoring, but the way she hugged Naruto, their employee, in such a carefree way did tick her off. Ty Lee acted as a child most of the time, but what ticked her off was how Naruto seemed too happy about it. He was supposed to find the Avatar and report to them, after all. Naruto had to be obedient and follow orders, not fool around. Only Ty Lee could fool around and it was because she was loyal to Azula.
Once the waiter was off, Azula gave Naruto a expecting look, so he replied, "Yeah, I found him, so I think I earned my food." He said with a smirk, "Problem is that if you want him, well, he's at a very heavily guarded place… I think it's the Beifong Mansion since Mai did mention they're the richest guys here, and it does show."
Azula hummed, "Even all of us against the Avatar wouldn't be easy considering the guards and reinforcements Gaoling has, and add to that-"
"Wait, now I think it's time I asked something." Naruto said as he leaned forward on his chair, "What do you expect to do to the Avatar once you find him?"
She grinned and nonchalantly replied, "Kill him."
Naruto blinked, "I beg your pardon?"
"I'll kill him, that's it, there's no bigger picture besides me gaining great honor." Azula replied as casually as if she were talking of the weather. But her smile said she enjoyed the idea.
Before the blond could even reply, Azula and he heard something said through the air. Before the blond could even reply, Azula and he heard something said through the air. In a split second, all parties kicked up the table and rolled away. The next second, they noticed a woman with the next traits: buffer than normal men and less feminine than a man, yellow kimono with red cherry flowers printed on it, dark green hair in a bob, purple slacks, metal boots with five curved blades over the toes to act as claws, an eye-patch on her right eye, and a massive sword. It was a tsurugi, or glaive, a sword meant to be held in two hands by strong swordsmen, and yet the woman carried it singlehandedly with no strain on her arm.
Ty Lee cartwheeled away as the strike sunk the sword into the solid ground she had been standing on along the others while the airborne table had been split in half. Mai herself grabbed a few hands out of her sleeves and got ready for battle, but was unsure on whether to strike or not. This would call for attention and they didn't need the guards of Gaoling after them or telling the entire Earth Kingdom of their presence. And Azula knew this, otherwise she'd have grabbed the chain whips and let the man get fried by her lightning bending.
Naruto, however, wasn't that much of a thinker. He grabbed his green gi, and in a swift motion threw it aside, somehow getting instantly changed into the outfit Azula and the others found him with when they first met him, complete with armor. Dog growled at the kid's attitude to get changed into comfortable clothing when before an adversary, but the kid's stance said he was good, mostly with the mastered grip on his shinai. She hefted her glaive on her shoulder, pulling it effortlessly from the ground it had been stabbed on with just one hand.
The woman had her eyes set on an angered scowl, so one would have to be careful with his words, "Why's it always the crazy ones after me? I mean, I know I'm cute and all." Naruto quipped.
Ty Lee blinked, "Wait, that's a woman?!" she asked in shock, only to yelp as Dog ignored Naruto and swung her glaive at her. The acrobat flipped herself in the air and landed on top of a table on all fours in a crouched position. She would've gotten into her stance, but knew they would call for attention.
Dog bared her teeth at the girl, "I hate hussies like you…" she said as she approached the acrobat, "Always so feminine, too busy with make-up, fooling around with idiotic boys when real women go out and fight."
"Oh, those are fighting words." Azula growled as she readied herself to fight this woman, only for Naruto to stop her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Considering I'm getting paid with good food, here's a deal." He said as he picked up a cup and threw it at the massive muscular woman, who swung her glaive around and split the cup in two, "I'll take care of this gorilla for you, you will buy me those twenty packs of takoyaki and answer some of my questions." He got into a stance with his shinai forward and both hands holding it, a typical samurai stance, "Truth be told, I don't mind women with the extra beef, but only if they have a cute side to greet me."
Dog grinned with bloodlust in her teeth, "I'll show you cute when you're down to just bones."
Naruto grinned and turned to Azula, "See? That's a genuine smile there, you could learn to be more truthful like that."
Azula face-palmed, though a smile came to her face, "It seems I'll always find the best in the craziest."
XXXXXX
And that's my rap!
Hope you can forgive the cliffhanger and that enjoyed the chapter, I will try to move this forward but, as said before, this will have some original arcs focusing on Azula and Naruto traveling after Aang and his gang. Writing original storylines is not easy, yet still very satisfying at the same time. So, next chapter will be a large showdown between Azula's team and Fujimoto's bounty hunters.
By the way, if you have an OC bounty hunter to put after Azula, make sure to make them the meanest guys around, though a tragic backstory to hate the Fire Nation wouldn't hurt either. Share them with me in your reviews and after this little arc, they may pop up to face Azula and her loyal minions- err… friends.
Now, a little Omake with what would've happened had I made Naruto go after other girls. Oh, and this fic will be only Naruto with Azula, sorry if you wanted a harem.
-OMAKE-
What if Naruto had flirted more?
"Hah, in about five seconds you'll be eating a mud pie, pal. You messed with the wrong kickass princess."
Naruto saw his chance to strike when Toph said that, "Then a kiss from you should be all the sweeter."
Toph blushed until her ears were red, and threw her hands forward, "Sh-Shut up!"
Naruto grinned as he avoided the rocks flying his way, "Whoa, that's a good look on you." He leapt forward and chuckled as he stood before Toph, but before she could attack, Naruto used her shock, grabbed her hand, and put his lips on her knuckles, "And today's been a lovely evening." And just like that, he left, leaving the girl holding her glowing red cheeks as steam came out of her ears.
XXXXXX
In the rooftop, after trying to run away from fire bender and the other two girls, Naruto stood before the broody girl who had pulled out several kunai to skewer him with, "Are you even going to try?"
Naruto grinned, "Ok, be negative just like that, you'll just be my type." He said with a massively cocky grin.
He had to lean back and roll backwards to avoid the knives barely missing his face while Mai charged forward, pulling out more blades to throw, "Please tell me that wasn't your best joke." She said as she threw the daggers and Naruto swatted them aside with his shinai as he let her get closer.
"Actually…" Naruto started as he dashed forward to be met with the girl's face and hold her hand, pull her closer and, to her shock, plant a kiss on her cheek, "This is the best I can think of when around you."
And the next second, a powerful shock of electricity threw his unconscious heap of a scorched body to the ground while Mai held her face in her hands, not wanting to see Azula's grin as the fire princess spoke, "So… you certainly work fast, Mai." Said girl died a bit inside when Ty lee started to giggle.
XXXXXX
As Naruto traded swings against the jabs of the chi locker girl in the rooftop he had been forced on, he had to speak, "You know, this is the first time I have this much fun in a fight."
Ty Lee grinned as she threw her leg forward, only to have it connect with Naruto's when he kicked too in order to get some distance, "That's an impressive flow you have." She said as she got into her stance.
Naruto grinned wider, "Hey, I got a compliment and a smile from you all in one today, that's my first victory."
Ty Lee giggled and, despite her barely noticeable pink hue on her cheeks, kept trading blows with the blond.
XXXXXX
"Tell me, what if I could give you an actual purpose?" Azula asked with a wide smirk.
Naruto put his hand on his chin and spoke up, "Unless that purpose is to steal a kiss from you, you are far behind me."
Azula blinked in shock, "What?!"
And, in a split second, the speedster raced at her and managed to weave around her defenses to be face to face with the cold fire princess… and kissed her fully on the lips. The moment he pulled back, he had the biggest winning smile, "Well, I can die happy now without regrets."
Azula didn't have time for shock, she went right to the anger, "Oh, you will!"
Ty Lee covered her eyes as the red-faced Azula fried the poor blond while Mai watched at the side, eating candies.
XXXXXX
Swordslinger out!
