And we are back with an update for Son of the Dragon finally. It's been far too long and I'm sorry. Really I am. Maybe not that sorry I guess. Eh, I'm a busy dude as I'm sure most of you are too. Anyway let's dive into some quick housekeeping then on to the story.
I'm loving the turnout in favor of this fic. We have another sort of building chapter. By that I only mean he won't be returning to the front lines this chapter.
Anyway for those that want to talk with me or other fanfic writers that you might see around come join us on discord. You'll also be able to contact me there if you were interested in getting a commissioned piece. Links to both the Triumvirate server hosted by myself, TheCamp123, and Kiege and the Goat server hosted by AizenTheGoat can be found here→ /auc4PQjVtz and here→ /7x4YFstKcz respectively.
On to the chapter!
The Leave that the final handful of soldiers that made up the Thirteenth had enjoyed was entirely too short. Naruto himself felt the typical exhausted feeling he had come to accept as normal return full force as he and the last fifteen of his subordinates reunited in what would be their barracks over the next few months of training.
The young Captain felt a mix of pride and heartache looking at his surviving soldiers. They were so few in number but he was confident in each one of them being some of the hardiest and most loyal men and women in the army.
He just wished more of his unit had survived.
"Captain. The unit is assembled." The now Lieutenant Mulan sounded off with a smart salute.
"Thank you Lieutenant. At ease everyone. We'll need all the proper stuff later but right now it's just us." Naruto said and smiled faintly as he watched the force before him relax.
"I just recently came from a meeting with the Fire Lord himself. He…applauds our units heroics and…" Naruto hesitated just enough so the men knew the truth.
"Uh, he mourns our losses. However, the Fire Lord in his grand wisdom has decided to disband the Thirteenth Jaguar Company." Naruto dropped the bomb on his troops causing their eyes to widen in shock and handful quite literally gasp.
"Thankfully, I was given the option to choose my officers and non-commissioned officers for the new unit I will be building here at Kazkan Base. You aren't getting rid of me that easily." He said with a chuckle getting relieved looks and a few grins in return.
"I won't beat around the bush. This unit we will be building will be special. Most of you are aware of the ideal our great nation strives for. A new balance for our world. One that strengthens not only our people but the entirety of our species and brings it into a new golden age. We fight to end oppressive regimes and ideologies that have held sway over the majority of the world since the dawn of time, and this unit will be the first big step in showing that progress." Naruto passionately explained dragging his listeners along with him as he spoke.
"Over the course of this century long conflict, our own Nation has committed deeds consider vile and terrible, but we have also done things to help the people of the world more than any other nation before us. This is what we have all been fighting for, I promise you. It also means that soon this war will end and a new age will be ushered in with us at the forefront." Naruto continued, still the soldiers were confused. What exactly was the plan here?
"We have been instructed directly from the Fire Lord himself to construct the first mixed unit in the Fire Nation military. Over the years, defectors or conquered citizens have been assimilated into our great nation. Turning their backs on their former backward societies. Starting today we will constitute the leadership of the new First Mixed Company of the Fire Nation Army. We will be joined by not only fire benders but also water benders and earth benders that have called the fire nation home and sworn themselves to their father land's success and prosperity."
The troops shifted slightly, but at their Captain's words they nodded along and accepted that despite using the bending of their enemies these new soldiers would be comrades.
"The next year will be difficult for us. Training and organizing this unit will be an incredible challenge. There is simply too much bad blood between the nations for it not to spill over into issues within this force. However, I have faith in all of you to do your duty and guide or soldiers into the future that we have all been fighting for for so long." Naruto concluded his little briefing speech before handing things over to Mulan.
The young woman quickly gave a more detailed run down on what to expect in the coming days. They were going to be getting an entirely green force of recruits, some from the Boiling River Province, a region of the homeland set aside for defected water tribe members, mostly descended from those once captured by the raids on the Southern Water Tribe.
The few earth benders joining them all came from the colonies and had been far less forcefully integrated into the fire nation than the water tribe members. Some even came from mixed Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation families, a growing trend among the colonial cities and provinces.
Naruto watched as his officers got serious and worked diligently to familiarize themselves with the training program and organization this new experimental unit would possess. They memorized the more notable recruits and prepared themselves mentally for the challenge of training soldiers for the war they had experienced so far.
Naruto hoped that it would be enough. He also prayed that he would be capable of training and leading this force back into the hellish reality of the Hundred Year War.
From the raised platform overlooking the drill yard of Kazkan Base, Naruto and Mulan watched as their subordinate officers barked out at the new recruits before them. Nearly two hundred fresh faces. All of them older than himself but far younger than most of his officers.
"They are really green." He murmured to Mulan quietly so only she could hear.
"We have a whole year to whip them into shape." She replied simply.
"Agni guide me. I hope that it's enough." Naruto groaned as he saw several of the recruits have to be physically put into place by their unit leaders.
"Was I ever that undisciplined?" Naruto wondered aloud.
"I would label you a lot of things but discipline isn't all that high up on the list." Mulan said with a smirk. Her words were baseless, and just a joke. Naruto held himself to a rigid standard, though in this case she meant more his respect for the normal methodology a soldier and officer followed.
"Looks like they are finishing up. Best to get things on the road." Mulan said to him as Naruto stepped forward to the podium.
The audience of troopers slowly silenced themselves as their commander made it clear he intended to speak to them. Naruto had led soldiers already, he was a natural at it, but there was something that unnerved him about so many fresh recruits staring up at him in rapt attention.
The blond cleared his throat for a moment before speaking to his assembled soldiers.
"Some of you have received only the most basic of training prior to being reassigned here. All of you have been in the army for less than a year. Every single one of you has been specifically chosen due to your testing scores and backgrounds for this unit. None of that matters right now. Right now you are my soldiers. I don't care what you bend or even if you bend at all. As of this moment you are mine." Naruto said evenly, taking time to slowly scan his eyes over the faces of his recruits.
"Together we will shape the future of this world on the battlefield. First however myself and my officers will shape you into the instruments that our country needs to mold that future. Today will be the last time you segregate yourselves based upon your ability to bend and by what element you bend. You will select one among your number, one fire bender, one earth bender, one water bender, and one non bender. These four will be promoted to specialist by me to help unify our force. Any further promotions will only come through hard work and talent. You won't get any special treatment from me!" Naruto spoke clearly before nodding to Mulan who, like with his officers a few days prior, took over the ironing out of details with his troops.
Naruto himself took a few steps back and watched as the unit was quickly given the opportunity to decide who would, at least temporarily, represent them as specialists. Essentially on par with a corporal in the Fire Nation army without having any true responsibility over a unit. Thankfully the groups already knew one another. The Water benders had been trained together briefly and mostly in bending in their home province, while the Earth Benders had around two months of pre training at one of the colonial bases together before being shipped to Kazkan. The fire benders had come from Glowing sands just as Naruto once had, though they had received an expedited program that axed everything considered 'non-essential' for them. Essentially anything not combat related. Lastly the regular army troops had all come from Shai'Jak training base on the western side of the Fire Nation central island.
Before long the recruits had selected their leaders from their ranks. The selection was a bit odd. For the non benders they chose the expected member of their force. Their recruit team leader in basic training, Samok. He was a bit older than most of the others and from a military family so was more familiar with the way things worked than some of the others. He was a good pick and Naruto expected him to earn advancement to at least corporal by the time he was ready to take the unit to the front.
The fire bender chosen was a bit disappointing but not surprising. Izonu Ra was the third son of a high ranking Fire Nation noble and commander, but he had been selected for his place as the best among the firebenders. He was a bit arrogant but his reports also said he was frequently found helping his fellow recruits to accomplish their tasks or better learn their bending arts. With some stress to beat the arrogance out of him, Naruto hoped he would pan out as a good member of the unit and someone his troops could go to for help when they needed it.
The Earth Benders was where things became strange for Naruto. Or a bit awkward was more accurate. Bihar was easily the oldest among the recruits. In fact he was older than anyone in the unit and actually older than more than half of the fresh earthbenders combined. The old man was evidently unparalleled in his ability with earth bending though, and he had a proven track record of not only keeping up with but sometimes outpacing his much younger colleagues. Naruto just hoped that the fact Naruto was not even seventeen yet wouldn't cause Bihar to try and test his authority. Insubordination and punishment for it would make what he wanted to achieve so much harder.
Finally, the water bender among the group. The strangest of the choices. At least at first glance. A young girl, only a year older than Naruto, Kida. Well they all called her Kida, the water tribe of the Boiling River Province tended to have incredibly long names. Kida was evidently selected because she was the daughter of the man appointed chief of the Fire Nation's loyal water tribe. She was a capable bender but there were others stronger. Her strengths lay more in healing and hand to hand combat which surprised Naruto somewhat as the Water Tribe he had learned of were usually described as either being benders or warriors, rarely both, and even more rarely as women.
Then again this was the Boiling Water Tribe. They were as aggressive in combat as fire nation citizens should be.
Following the election of their representatives, Naruto's officers made good on his word. The unit was blended with every platoon being composed of a mix of benders and non benders as well as elements. The first platoon which would be led by Naruto and Mulan directly was also where the specialists found themselves. Naruto hoped to move most of his more experienced veterans into the other platoons by the end of the training cycle so that he could promote some of the new recruits in his own.
Soon training began. Naruto found himself rather disappointed by the forces he had been given to command. Overall the men and women of his new company were given just the basics of instruction on marching and parade formations. How to clean their uniform and armor and maintain their quarters. The most basic of basics.
At least the benders had all received some form of advanced training with their elements. He couldn't imagine the pain in the ass it would have been to try and educate them in their elements when all he knew was fire bending. Even then fire bending came more as an instinct to him, he struggled to properly teach other fire benders their element too.
Well, not all of them. Azula was like he was. She almost instinctively took to fire bending. He could teach her rather easily. It was a pity that she wasn't here too.
The company fell into a routine. Days were harsh under Naruto's command and the men and women spent nearly as much training their bodies in grueling marches and runs as they did in familiarizing themselves with the formations and commands they would need to have memorized and be able to respond to instinctively in combat.
The runs were especially hard on the recruits as Naruto insisted they endure overly long distances with all of their gear on. They couldn't complain even when forced to keep the insane pace though. Naruto and his officers were right there beside them, participating in the exact same physically demanding tasks that they demanded the soldiers complete.
Naruto was careful to keep the health of his troopers in line though. While running he noticed several of the soldiers were struggling to keep pace. Even those that he could tell were physically more capable than their comrades. He called for a break and let them rest for a bit before slowly making his way through the ranks to talk to as many of his soldiers as he could one on one.
He soon found three issues that were the root cause. The first being rather easy to fix with some help from Specialist Kida and a handful of other water benders in the unit. Most of the soldiers had not been taught the proper way to treat themselves for things like blisters or other smaller injuries that if left to continue worsening over time could end their career as soldiers entirely. Thankfully Kida and her fellow water benders were able to heal those affected and Naruto himself explained better ways of maintaining the hygiene and care for their feet.
Part of the issue remained though. Some of the soldiers found that a handful of the staff operating Kazkan Base's supply depot were less inclined to do their duty than they should have been. Some had tried to coerce the recruits into even paying for things that were to be supplied by the army or in a couple of cases that had been reported to Naruto, only now after investigating it, a few of the female soldiers were being pressured to exchange favors of the sexual kind for basic supplies they needed.
Needless to say, Naruto and his officers were furious and stormed the supply unit's barracks with minds filled full of righteous vengeance. Naruto restrained himself from permanently damaging the supply officers but they were roughed up terribly. That wasn't enough for Naruto though.
They wanted to keep his subordinates under supplied and force them to buy it from them, Naruto was happy to return the favor. The supply officers were effectively robbed, every item in their barracks taken…even the bedding and in a couple cases the beds themselves. The items were then sold back to them at exorbitant fees. Unless they couldn't pay, then the item was simply given to members of Naruto's own force.
The supply officers initially made to complain until Naruto threatened to report their attempts at forcing themselves on his soldiers. Something he was certain that their commander, a General Yolin, a woman who was notorious for cracking down on such acts with her subordinates especially harshly. They quieted down and took their situation on with that. They had no real choice after all.
The third issue, was the most difficult in remedying though. It wasn't due to poor training in something, or easily healed with bending. It wasn't because they were being mistreated or extorted in some way. No the final major issue plaguing his unit's effectiveness was their mindset.
Most considered their force to be little more than a throw away unit. They believed the words of plenty of the bigots that claimed the mixed unit was doomed to failure and that it was a waste on a massive scale. It was worsened as many of those voices claimed support for the idea of water benders and earth benders being placed into the military but didn't want them mingling with the 'true' fire nation soldiers.
To solve it, Naruto decided some more bonding was required and so ordered a long mess period one night. It was normal for him and the officers to join their troopers in the mess for mealtime. Naruto believed that distancing themselves from their soldiers even for a meal would be poor for morale. Especially when he was trying to advance the meritocratic traits of his nation more and more through this unit.
Tonight was a bit special though. After sitting and eating, and even chatting with his soldiers Naruto finished his food and let the majority of the hall finish as well before he stood and cleared his throat. The room slowly quieted and turned to see their commander standing before them.
"Let me start out by saying these last three months training with you all has truly opened my eyes to the potential for our nation. You all represent the best of our people, no matter your background you really are the best. You wouldn't be here otherwise. After all, I selected you." Naruto said getting a few to sit up a bit straighter as he spoke.
"That being said, I see the potential but I also see the obstacles in our path. The mindsets that keep us from reaching that peak that I know, in my very soul, that we rightfully deserve to reach. The words of generations of our predecessors weigh all of you down. The beliefs that everything must be a certain way continue to keep you from putting your everything into it because all of you think in the end it's not worth it." Naruto continued getting his soldiers to avert their eyes slightly in secretive shame at him, hitting the nail on the head.
"It makes sense right. All your lives you've been told that things I keep telling you are impossible. Why should my words mean anything? I'm just one man. A bastard. Someone who shouldn't be here commanding you now even." Naruto let that sink in while a few shifted even more uncomfortably. Naruto had their respect, the fact that by their society's standards he should have been relegated to a hidden blemish on his family name did not sit very well with them.
"Here I am though. And here you are, despite being told that you water benders are lesser than a fire bender, or you earth benders are simple minded, or that you non benders are hardly even people, and even you among the fire benders being told that you were placed into this unit because your career and your life is worthless. You all pretend you don't hear it, but the way you act, I can see it weighing all of you down. So I have to ask you all, why?" Naruto asked, lifting his arms up for emphasis. The confused stares he got back from his audience pushed him to continue.
"Why would you listen to them? Why would you let their words mean anything to you? Why would you let their words be considered more honest than my own, or my officers? You take the words of arrogant and bitter people set in their ways who sit here in the homeland or behind the walls of colonial cities and complain. They complain and they judge and they truly have no real experience outside of hearing the generation before them do the same thing. You take their words to heart, though." Naruto said, getting the listeners before him to nod slowly.
"Why listen to them? Why not listen to me and your commanders? You are here to be prepared for battle and war. We have seen that war. We have fought those battles. We have faced certain death and fought on and you think the words of some stuck up nobodies will cause us to bend to their will? Not a chance." Naruto grinned at his soldiers and small smirks reflected on many of their faces.
"The only hang up here is you. I can't decide this for you. You have to decide for yourselves. Do you want to be here? Do you want to prove all of them wrong for doubting you? It's all I've ever wanted. No, more than that I need it. I am going to prove to everyone who looked down on me and judged me as a blemish on the royal family that I am so much more than they could ever hope to be. Are you going to do it too? Do you have the guts to even try?" Naruto asked, raising his voice, almost taunting his men. The murmured response was one he expected but not one he wanted.
"It doesn't sound like it to me!" Naruto barked and a few of the recruits began to more loudly claim they would.
"Are you just going to let words dictate your lives? Words that mean nothing?" He demanded and a few recruits were standing now, shouting back at him that they wouldn't, the room as a whole was in agreement.
"Only you can decide this course for yourself. Tonight there will be no training. Take the extra three hours this gives you to think about what I've said and make your decision. Come tomorrow morning, I hope to see you made the brave choice. The right one." Naruto said a bit more peacefully before turning and leaving, closely followed by Mulan as they returned to the commander's quarters.
"You are just full of speeches lately." Mulan joked.
"Yeah, well they really need a kick in the ass. We won't get anywhere with this unit if they don't believe in themselves." Naruto said as they stepped into the building.
"After that, I don't think it will be a problem." She said simply before they both went their separate ways in the building to separate rooms. Mulan hesitated only briefly at her door as she glanced at her commander and smiled faintly.
She knew he would achieve his goal here at Kazkan Base. She'd make sure of it.
In the weeks following his speech made in the mess hall, the soldiers of the First Mixed Company had clearly done as he had asked. They pushed themselves harder, retained more of what they were taught, and generally speaking had a more positive mentality about their placement with the company.
Soon leaders among the recruits began to truly show their heads. As expected those made specialists on the onset quickly rose to prominence and respect among their peers and not just among those that were their own original batches of trainees. The sight of specialist Kida taking the initiative to check on not only her own platoon members conditions but the rest of the company and almost naturally taking a position of leadership among the company healers had a grin on Naruto's face. He expected to make her sergeant by the time they shipped out for the front.
The other specialists looked to be at least worthy of being corporal by the time they finished training here at Kazkan. Surprisingly, Izonu, the formerly arrogant fire bender had shaped up properly ever since he had seen the way Naruto and his officers handled the supply situation. While he had little to offer so far as tips for the other benders, his experience surrounding the life and struggle of those in the army made it easy for him to take a leadership role among not just his fellow firebenders but the rest of his platoon as well.
Today things were accelerating though. They were moving beyond what Naruto considered as the basics for his unit and into the combat training. More specifically, Naruto and his officers had erected a modular obstacle course that mimicked a village or a battlefield and could be easily altered for practicing different layouts.
Each squad was being separated from the rest of the unit and run through the course individually to give them an idea of what to expect. The first two times really bolstered their confidence, they easily eliminated the wooden cutout targets and seized their objectives. By the third round though, Naruto decided to shake things up.
As First squad moved toward the 'village' Naruto suddenly descended upon them and threw the sergeant of their squad to the floor roughly while glaring daggers at the second in command.
"Your leader was just killed in battle. What do you do?" Naruto demanded.
The young man stammered for a moment too long and Naruto threw him to the ground as well.
"You!" He snapped, jabbing a finger at the next closest member of the team. "They're both dead now what do you do?"
"Uh, find cover!" The recruit bellowed.
"Then find it, don't just stand there!" Naruto roared and the team members scattered into covered positions to avoid pebbles that Naruto began flicking randomly to mimic earth bender attacks.
"What about your downed comrades?" He roared in question toward the frazzled recruits.
"But they're dead sir!" One of them replied.
"Are they? I said they were but did you even check to see if they were? Sergeant, how dead are you?" Naruto asked, turning to face the first man he had pushed over.
"Not very sir." The sergeant replied sending a scathing look to the troops under his command.
"So you're not dead. But you were hit, Sergeant. What does that make you?" Naruto asked.
"I guess wounded sir." He replied.
"Wounded…and my men left you on the field of battle alone?" Naruto asked pretending to be shocked and outraged.
"Looks that way sir." The sergeant replied.
"Well, shit, sergeant if that happened to me I think I would have to punish them." Naruto said getting the recruits to pale.
"I agree sir, perhaps you have a suggestion?" The sergeant asked with a gleam in his eye.
"I have always loved a good sprint to help me correct my actions. The longer and the faster the better." Naruto said as he scratched at his chin.
"Good idea sir, I'll have to make sure they know the weight of their actions and make them perform runs in full gear." The sergeant said as he climbed to his feet.
"Good on you sergeant." Naruto cackled before turning his attention to the Second squad which gulped at the attention they were suddenly receiving.
He then turned to look at the full company beside him and spoke loud and clear for all of them to hear.
"We are going into battle. Your enemy will not stand there like wooden cutouts and let you kill them. They will fight back, and some of you will die. However, if I ever find out you left your comrades behind to save your own skin then I will deal with you personally before I let them have a go at you too." He let that sink in for a moment before signaling Mulan to send the second squad into the course while he disappeared within to wreak havoc on them.
For a year Azula found herself being shadowed as well as tutored by the Sun Warrior Chel. The young woman was annoyingly competent and capable. Azula was used to outgrowing any form of teacher she was placed under in record time. Chel seemed to always be advancing just out of her own reach, which was infuriating.
The Totec woman simply taunted her about it before pushing her into another training cycle that left her exhausted but oddly content. Such a strange feeling. That of being content. Not happy really, she wanted other things. More time spent with Mai and Ty Lee, a chance to visit Naruto again. But she was content.
For now. She had her ambitions of course, she just knew it was not yet time to pursue them openly. Oddly enough, Chel knew this as well and seemed completely supportive of her. It was strange to have such a female role model in her life to help her and iron out what Chel referred to as less than useful personality traits.
Azula was never going to be some warm and bubbly girl like Ty Lee was, but in part from her closeness to her friends and support with Naruto, Chel was able to round Azula out as she finished her training for her role as the new crown princess of the Fire Nation.
That didn't mean Azula was especially pleased to have Chel around all the time. She was thankful, perhaps, of her presence, but the bond she had with the mockingly curvaceous woman was unique and often a bit raw. Chel was one of a handful of people in the world that could be brutally honest and even negative with her. The only one she hadn't known since her childhood either.
No, the two bickered and made snide remarks toward one another more than anything else but for some reason they also preferred to keep the other nearby. Azula wondered why often enough but usually came to the conclusion that she was probably a bit mad all things considered. After all, Chel had even managed to make her confront the reality that her father saw her as nothing but a useful piece in the machine of his ambition, and she still loved him.
"Azula, snap out of whatever day dream you're having and get back to work. You wanted me to make sure you were studying the more civil side of rule, well I'm not going to waste my time if you are just going to stare off into space." Chel said after flicking the princess' ear.
Azula clicked her teeth but did as Chel said and got back to reviewing the paperwork before her. A large collection of copied military reports for her father. Mostly regarding new recruit numbers and unit deployments into the colonies. One stood out though.
The copy in her hand had an envelope pinned to it, confusing her. That is until she read which unit the report was for. It was Naruto's company. The letter was addressed to her as well.
"Finally he writes!" Azula said happily before quickly schooling her features when she noticed the smirk on Chel's face.
"I suppose you can take a break for a while. Just don't take too long, we aren't working on that new alteration to your form until after we finish this." Chel said as she left to go to wherever it was that Chel went when she wasn't tutoring or minding Azula.
The princess rolled her eyes as she blew a lock of her hair out of her face. Still, once the door had clicked closed she scrambled to open the letter as quickly as possible. Naruto had been writing less lately, ostensibly because he said there wasn't anything interesting going on with training his company. It annoyed Azula and she planned to have words regarding that with him once she saw him again.
Only one more year and she would be out there by his side after all. Sixteen. The age they had agreed upon for her to attend the field. Sometimes she was rather angry with herself for allowing him to talk her into agreeing to that. She just couldn't argue with him when he got all passionate and preachy though.
When those eyes of his seemed to glow with power and he looked past you at some potential future only he could see. Like he was looking into- no. No, no, no. She didn't want to think about that right now. Chel always seemed to know when she did and the woman was incredibly annoying when she was taunting her about her supposed crush.
Azula was the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, she didn't do crushes.
"Let's see what you have to say, Naruto." The princess said, pushing her previous thoughts from her mind with a small, content smile. Something that was becoming a greater occurrence lately.
Azula trailed her eyes across the paper as she read. Her cousin explained to her the final training exercises he had put his unit through. Mock battles pitting platoons against one another and grueling obstacle courses in the steaming bog on the far side of the island from Kazkan Base. She giggled freely at his description of Mulan having to pull a pair of recruits out of the muck and getting pulled in herself. The additional note in Mulan's handwriting saying that Naruto had pushed her in and not to let him convince her otherwise brought an even broader smile to her face.
The smile slowly faded as she felt the desire to join with them return to her chest. She missed him, Naruto. Chel, Ty Lee, and Mai were fine, they kept her happy and she did consider them friends. Even Chel, though Ty Lee was recently more than just a friend. It wasn't the same.
She missed those days when she was little, spent running around the palace with him. Just enjoying their time together and being little terrors for all the nobles that came to court. Before her mother let slip what she thought of Azula and then disappeared. Before her grandfather died and her father became even more of whatever he truly was. Back before Iroh chose Zuko as a replacement son and she watched part of Naruto break.
The thought of Iroh and Zuko was the final straw that shattered her good mood. Thinking of them as they sailed around the world, free to do whatever they wished. Naruto had been right when he called them barely better than deserters. After all, Zuko's banishment was only from the homeland. He was welcome in the colonies and was still recognized as a prince of the Fire Nation.
He should have been out there fighting the war alongside their countrymen. It was what Azula would have done. It was what she longed to do.
With a sigh she glanced one last time at the last few lines of her letter from Naruto. His company was finished with their training and as of him sending the letter would be shipping out the next day for the small colony of Koyosi, where Naruto would march his troops up to rejoin his old commanding officer near the front lines.
Which was good. Over the last year many of the gains the Fire Nation had made, thanks to the rout of the Earth Kingdom forces at the battle of the Crossroads had been rendered effectively null and void. Their population was far too large and they just overwhelmed the more vulnerable positions held along the front, pushing it back to within a hundred miles of the front that Naruto had been fighting on a year prior.
He didn't say it in the letter, but Azula could tell by the way he talked about where they were going that he was frustrated with the upper levels of command that he felt had failed to properly hold the gains his soldiers had died for. She smiled at that. Her Naruto was almost fatherly in his care for his soldiers, despite being younger than all of them.
With a final sigh she set the letter aside and got back to work. She wanted to be able to match him whenever she joined him next year so she needed as much practice with Chel on perfecting her forms as she could get. She needed to fight through this damned paperwork review first though.
And that is the chapter everyone. Short I know, and no real action but obviously our boy is going back to battle next chapter with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and his soldiers all have something to prove.
Anyway we are a year away in this story from Aang being awoken as well. Yes everyone is aged up by two years. So even Aang and his crew will be a bit older. Simply because my mind is somehow more accepting of a teenager fighting a war than a preteen. Not supportive of the concept, but definitely more accepting.
Anyway, Till Next Time
