Looking for a beta! Read the details at the end of the chapter if you're interested.

An 9 year old Naruto sat across the table from Ko, a look of frustration upon his face as he slowly and carefully consumed bowl of steamed rice, being especially careful not to waste a grain. It was just becoming evening, the sky a magnificent gradient from gold to a deep rust pink.

Naruto's face was littered with small bruises and cuts, with his right cheek covered by a large bandage. He wore no shirt, and his abdomen was almost entirely wrapped in bandages from just below his pectorals to just above his belly button. His left arm was bandaged from his elbow to his wrist, and his pants were a bit tattered.

Ko sat across from him, dressed in a short sleeved red gi-like shirt with black trim, tied at his waste by a black sash, over his normal black pants.

He held in his hand a cup of tea, that he took the occasional sip of as Naruto wolfed down his after training meal. He allowed his eyes to wander to the boy. It had been a particularly grueling session, hence all the bandages, yet despite the occasional grunt or mumbled curse, the boy never complained. He just soldiered through.

'So much potential.'

Ko would easily admit that he was surprised by the boys ability. Prodigious fire bending talent was not the extent of the boy's worth. No, what made the boy such a one in a million find was his work ethic. The boy would drive himself into the ground until Ko told him to stop or he had trained himself into unconsciousness. Wounds would pile up, exhaustion would be apparent on the boys face, and yet like a weed he refused to be staunched. It was intriguing to watch, he would throw himself at every task like a starving dog at a prime chunk of meat, with unmatched ferocity and unwavering determination.

Yet what drew Ko's gaze to the boy was the pensive look he held on his face as he ate. "Boy, what troubles you?"

Naruto shrugged, swallowing the food in his mouth,"Got my ass kicked in training today."

Ko resisted the urge to snort."If it was easy, it wouldn't be training, it would be a waste of time."

Naruto sighed,"I know, I just… I should be better than that by now. I've been training for 3 fucking years and I still can't touch you."

Ko chuckled, taking a sip of his tea,"Patience is key boy. You've been training for 3 years, I've been tested by the flames of battle and forged under the yolk of leadership. As it stands now you are what any other green trainee would be to me: nothing."

Naruto refused to flinch at the harshness of the words. Instead of getting discouraged, the embers of his wrath quickly sparked into a rage. "You're gonna eat those words one day old man."

Ko let a small smile grace his lips, hidden behind his tea cup."Perhaps."

Naruto awoke with a light grunt, allowing the covers from his room upon Azula's ship to fall away as he stretched, exposing his nude form to the little sunlight that was allowed to drift in through his window. Shaking his head to clear the haze of sleepiness that threatened to settle on his mind, Naruto quickly went through his morning routine, walking out of his room while still pulling his armor/shirt over his torso, obviously uncaring of exposing his stomach to anyone who might be in the hall as he made his way to the ship's cafeteria.

It was a simple somewhat dreary room used to feed all the less important folk of the ship. If you weren't the captain or one of the three girls, you ate at 3 set times during the day (unless of course you were a night guard), and pretty much only then unless there was enough excess from a prior meal.

Naruto himself was actually afforded the same privilege of being able to take a meal in his room should he desire it, but eating in the mess hall with the other soldiers just felt right.

At breakfast time the tables were always a bit more clear, as there were quite a few soldiers who were very willing to skip a meal if it meant an extra hour or so of sleep. Naruto grabbed a tray of food, which consisted of a bowl of oatmeal, a piece of fruit, and a boiled egg. Naruto ate quick, downing a glass of water before making his way through the ship and onto the ship deck.

Naruto took the extra time he had to bask in the warmth of the sun as he stood on the deck, eyes clothed, allowing his senses to wander beyond himself. He heard the sounds of sea birds flying over head, felt the wind against his skin, smelt the salt of the ocean. It was beautiful.

Yet like all good things, it had to come to an end.

Naruto could easily say he felt Azula's presence before he saw her or even heard her. While Naruto wasn't a psychic or some sort of empath, he had always been able to tell when someone was there even before he should be able to when he focused hard enough,almost as though he could feel the shift in the wind.

He felt her eyes on him as she moved to stand behind him. Turning his back to the rising sun, Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked at the princess of the Fire Nation. He allowed the small smile that was sitting on his face to remain as he greeted her.

"Good morning princess."

Azula studied him for a moment, her sharp eyes moving in motions not unlike that of a hummingbird as they analyzed his face, almost searching for something.

Finally, either having found what she wanted or being unsatisfied, she turned her back on the boy, hands still behind her back,"In 4 hours we will dock. There have been sightings of the Avatar's bison in the area. Be ready."

Naruto nodded, serious in the face of new orders,"Yes ma'am."

Appa had been having an extremely rough batch of days. First, he had been kidnapped and muzzled by a bunch of sand benders. Then he found himself traded into a fire colony circus for exotic animals, which he escaped. After trying to find shelter for days, he found a nice cave, only to be attacked by an almost sarcastically large boar, which Appa proceeded to fight and then toss like a stone.

After all that, Appa had finally secured his rest. He sat in the cave for days, too exhausted and in pain to move.

Luckily for the sky bison, he was found by the Kyoshi warriors, lead by Suki, who fed him fresh fruit, cleaned his fur, and removed the numerous giant splinters that pierced his flesh. In addition to all this, they managed to break the shackles off of his limbs.

Appa was basking in the affection currently being shown to him by the Kyoshi warriors, only for his ear to flick as he heard a noise. He ducked down, allowing a blue stream of fire to crash into a tree behind him, knocking it over and cutting off any running escape route.

Appa growled, looking in the direction the fire came from as the Kyoshi warriors got into a defensive formation in front of him. Over a small crest came Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Naruto all mounted on their mongoose lizards, clearly ready for a fight.

"You are surprisingly easy to find,"remarked Azula, holding a clump of Appa's fir that had likely fallen away in the wind,"It's truly amazing my brother hasn't captured you yet."

The Kyoshi warriors each flared one of their fans behind them while the second became a shield.

"What do you want with us?" Suki asked, but it was very clear what the girls were after.

Azula looked down at them,"What are you the Avatar's fan girls?"

Ty Lee let out a light laugh despite the severity of the situation,"Good one Azula."

"You're out of luck, the Avatar isn't here."

Mai sighed,"I knew this was a waste of time."

Azula let her lips form a cruel smirk as she shrugged her shoulders,"That's okay, any friend of the Avatar is an enemy of mine."

With her piece, she hopped from the back of her steed, extending her leg and releasing a gout of azure flame that the Kyoshi warriors formed a shield wall to stop. As Azula pressed forward, Mai, Ty Lee, and Naruto also quickly dismounted.

Mai using her amazing accuracy, pinned one warrior to a tree using her knives, and launched a barrage of small darts at another warrior, who blocked them with her sword. The woman charged forward with the intent of engaging Mai close range.

Simultaneously, Ty Lee weaved around a warrior who attacked with a sword and quickly blocked her chi. Standing over the downed woman, she fumed,"You are not prettier than we are."

Suki found herself deflecting fireballs thrown by Azula with her shield, one of which reflected onto the log behind Appa and set it on fire, causing him to become startled.

"Afraid of fire? Good, you should be,"Azula quipped.

Suki drew her sword in a reverse grip, quickly changing her hold so that she could charge the girl before her,"Go Appa, get out of here!"

Suki then stepped forward, lunging out with her sword in a stabbing motion. Azula, seeing the stab incoming, jumped and spun, smacking the blade from Suki's hand and into a near by tree trunk, before kicking the girl away.

A Kyoshi Warrior that had been previously dispatched stood, preparing to throw her fans at Azula, only to scream in pain as she took a golden fireball to the face. Azula turned, seeing Naruto standing over the woman with a small serene fire on his face.

This momentarily distraction on the princess' part allowed Suki to drive Appa, who was going to land and attempt to help the downed warriors, off with a torch made from a burning tree limb.

Suki turned from watching the bison fly off just in time to block fire bent at her by Azula with her shield, and draw her remaining fan.

"Don't you know,"Azula asked,"that fans just make flames stronger?"

With that the two young powerful women charged each other, but the outcome was already decided.

Naruto had never been one for speeches. Sure he enjoyed a good pre battle inspirational preamble but besides that, he generally hated long winded conversations. So as he stood to the side of the 3 person thrown that currently held Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee (with Azula being in the main seat in the middle of course) while the commander of the massive Fire Nation drill was droning on and on, Naruto found himself zoning out.

It really was impressive, the giant metal segmented drill which was currently slowly plodding its way towards the great "impenetrable" walls of Ba Sing Se. With no obvious exploitable weaknesses and being surrounded by a decently sized invasion force, this could possibly be the day that Ba Sing Se would fall. That was exciting, except for the fact that the War Minister had assured them that they wouldn't see conflict.

"... and nothing can stop us." War Minister Qin finished his spiel.

"Hmm, what about those muscly guys down there?"Ty Lee asked, having looked through a telescope and seen multiple earth benders getting into trenches to prepare to defend their city.

"Preposterous, no earth bending attack can stop this drill."

"Even so, better be safe than sorry. Naruto, go eliminate the earth benders. I want no threats to this drill's progress."

Naruto smirked, walking towards the exit to the control room,"Want a show, princess?"

Azula smiled a small smile, amused,"By all means."

Naruto quickly exited the room.

"You think it was a good idea to send him alone Azula? There are like 3 squads of guys out there."Ty Lee inquired.

"This is his test Ty Lee, let's see if his skills live up to my expectations." Azula pulled the telescope in front of her eyes, eager to get her first true taste of Naruto's power.

Naruto found himself standing across from 3 squads of 6 elite earth benders, each in stance and ready to fight.

The head of the first squad called out,"Give up kid. Just surrender quietly and no one has to get hurt."

Naruto snorted out a laugh, getting into stance himself."That's funny, I was about to say the same thing."

Naruto then surged forwards, hands out behind him, before jumping up as high as he could and using a quick burst of flame from his feet to himself maximum lift. With his extra speed and high angle, he easily buried both feet in the chest of the first man, causing his back to hit the floor and blood to rush from his mouth as his chest cavity collapsed. Using the shock of the soldiers to his advantage, Naruto jumped off of the man, punching another man in the face with enough force to send him to a knee. Rolling across the mans back, Naruto caught the punch of his platoon mate, using the opening to launch a lightning quick gold fire covered fist into the mans throat, easily crushing his wind pipe and making him drop like a rock. Naruto kicked the man away, leaning back to avoid a large stone that had been sent at his head, only to fall to his back as the earth below his pivot leg was bent away.

Quickly kipping up to his feet, Naruto bent a fire ball to his right, catching the man who had tried to take his head off moments ago off guard and sending him to the ground screaming as his face was burned beyond recognition. Dropping low and doing a sweeping kick, Naruto gained some space around him as his 14 remaining opponents were forced to step back. Naruto chose his next victim and lunged forward, spinning around a pillar that rose in front of him to quickly take the mans back. Wrapping one arm around the mans neck, Naruto quickly turned his head around on his shoulders and shoved him towards two other men, who, not processing that their comrade had been dead for about 3 seconds, made moves to catch him, only for all 3 of them to be caught up in Naruto's breath of fire.

Azula almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. The way he dispatched soldier after soldier was unreal. The grace, the savagery, the carnage. It was hard to comprehend. Ty Lee had long since given up on watching through the telescope and had joined war Master Qin in looking through one of the windows with some of the more zealous crew members.

Little did they know that they weren't the only ones watching as Naruto dispatched the Terra Team.

"Dear Spirits above…,"shock and fear became etched into General Sung's face as he watched his troops get massacred by a blond boy wielding gold flames,"what kind of demon is he…?"

"Let me see,"Sokka quickly pushed the general out of the way too look through the telescope, his face becoming grim as Naruto stood tall over the bodies of the Terra Team,"how?"

Team Avatar found themselves in shock as they each took turns looking through the telescope. Aang, however, quickly gained a look of anger and determination. "I'm going down there."

Katara was incensed,"Aang, you can't, you'll be killed!"

"Katarra's right Aang, besides if we don't figure out how to stop that drill their sacrifice will be totally in vain." Sokka pointed out.

"Yeah Twinkle Toes, think about it. If he kills you, then we don't have the Avatar and that blond guy and the Fire Lord win."

Aang gripped his staff tightly, looking like he very much wanted to go into the Avatar State and throw down. But finally, he relented, though he still looked enraged and determined.

He turned to his friends,"How are we stopping that drill?"

LB

Naruto returned to the watch room to shocked looks and silence. He smirked as soldiers who had been giving him dirty looks or snarks couldn't meet his gaze.

Azula stood up, clapping,"Bravo bravo. Quite the performance." Mai and Ty Lee remained seated, Mai looking bored and Ty Lee looking very uneasy being so close to a man who just committed just under 20 murders.

Naruto smiled,"I aim to please princess."

"Hey Azula, look at that dust cloud!" Ty Lee called out, looking through the telescope. "It's so, poofy!"

Azula looked out the main glass window. The dust cloud Ty lee had mentioned was indeed large and appeared to be "poofy". The strange thing about it was that it only covered the right side of the drill.

Seeing her eyes narrow, the good War Minister attempted to reassure her,"I'm sure it's nothing, princess."

Azula wasn't convinced.

LB

Elsewhere, after a brief moment of collective confusion on how they would destroy the drill from the inside, Aang proposed an idea based on his earth bending lessons with Toph. Instead of cutting through each individual pillar one by one all the way through, all they had to do was cut through each pillar a little, and then deliver a massive blow to the top of the drill, which would cause the drill to collapse.

And so Aang and Katara (with Sokka watching off to the side) began sawing about halfway through each pillar. It took a while, with a few close calls of being spotted by crew members, until they finally cut the last metal beam.

"Good luck Team Avatar," Sokka started with a confident smile on his face,"now Aang just needs to- DUCK!" He dropped to the ground below him just in time to avoid getting his head roasted by a blue fireball.

Team Avatar turned and looked upward as Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and much to their concern, Naruto stood on a beam above them adjacently.

Ty Lee smiled at their discovery,"Looks like you were right, Azula, it is the Avatar,"she sent a sultry look at Sokka,"and friends."

Sokka waved back, eyes wide and a dopey grin on his face,"Hey."

While this humorous exchange was happening, Aang found himself glaring up into the sharp red eyes of Naruto. Naruto looked stared back, more curious than anything. It still amazed him that the bane of the Fire Nation was a 12 year old kid.

Katara quickly grabbed her older brother, dragging him away. "Aang, we need to go!"

Ty Lee tried to jump across, only to be blown back by Aang with a gust of wind sent at her by the Avatar, which threw her right into Naruto's waiting arms. Ty Lee sent a flirtatious look at the blonde soldier,"Well thanks, handsome."

Naruto, having been present about a minute earlier when Ty Lee attempted to flirt with Sokka, scrunched his face and unceremoniously dropped the girl (to Azula's hidden amusement).

The contingent from the Fire Nation quickly gave chase. It was decided that Naruto, Ty Lee, and Mai were to chase after the duo from the water tribe.

"The Avatar is mine." Azula declared resolutely. Her three fellow Fire Nation teens nodded, though Naruto had a minor nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something wasn't quite right with the plan, and sprinted in the direction Sokka and Katara had gone in.

To say Naruto was currently pissed would be to say the sun lightly irritated your eyes when you stared into it. That is to say, it was a vast understatement.

Covered in slurry and with a giant bruise on one side of his face from where he was carried into a stone pillar at high speeds by a river of the aforementioned slurry, Naruto was literally steaming, slightly freaking out Ty Lee as a slurry covered Azula (followed by a spotless Mai), walked into the room. They had returned to the ship to plot their next move.

"Well that failed spectacularly,"Mai piped up in her typical monotone.

"Yeah, that kinda sucked. You were right Mai, this slurry is kinda gross."Ty Lee held up her arms and looked down in a bit of disgust.

"Quiet, it's time we plan out our next move, which is planning how we are going to get into Ba Sing Se."

Naruto raised his head from his position glaring at the ground, raising a singular golden eyebrow. Ty Lee gasped, and even Mai looked surprised.

"But Azula,"Ty Lee looked to her oldest friend with confusion,"Ba Sing Se is impenetrable! How are we gonna get in?"

"In the past, the Fire Nation has always tried to take Ba Sing Se by force. The only person to succeed has been my uncle,"distaste leaked into the young princess' voice,"but what if we didn't try to enter by force?"

Mai narrowed her eyes in confusion,"Azula, you're the Fire Nation princess, and me and Ty Lee are children of high ranking officials. Not to mention the fact Naruto killed a bunch of people. There's no way we can just waltz into the Earth Kingdom capital."

"That's correct Mai, we cannot get into Ba Sing Se the way we are. If we were to disguise ourselves as, let's say, the Kyoshi Warriors however…"Azula let it trail off.

"That's genius Azula!"Ty Lee smiled at her friend, adoration plastered on her face.

"What about Naruto though, how will he get in to Ba Sing Se?" Mai asked.

"I can get in."

The three girls turned to Naruto, who had been silent up to that point.

The boy shrugged, closing his eyes, scratching his cheek with his right hand,"The Fire Nation's increased military presence in the region has most likely increased the number of refugees entering the city. A little hair dye and a haircut, and I'm in by the end of the week."

"Then it's settled. We're going to infiltrate Ba Sing se, and the Avatar will be mine."

Alrighty, sorry for takin 40 years for this chapter but I had to figure out how to fill a couple of upcoming plotholes (like how Naruto was going to get into Ba sing Se, what he'd do inside, all that good shii). I originally had like a 2 page Naruto versus Toph fight in this chapter but it didn't work out story line wise. Now I know I'm gonna get some comments about Naruto being overpowered, but keep in mind that the majority of the main characters of the show could theoretically (or have) won fights in extremely lopsided situations.

Now, onto the important things, I'm in need of a beta for this story, mainly for editing and someone to bounce storyline ideas off of. If you're interested just shoot me a PM, I'd prefer someone who has themselves written a couple of stories just so I know you know your stuff in terms of storyline developing. I really write fanfic to make my own writing better so it'd be cool to have someone to help with that.

Additionally, I'll be starting a discord server in one of the coming updates so that we can get a real community going, so I'll be looking for mods.

Finally, if you go over to my old account (10Tailedkishinasura) you'll notice I have like 5 stories up. All of them are likely going to be redone on this account, so if you have any input on what you want to see once this story is in it's final stages, lemme know.

Kishi the goat, peace.

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