"It's been nearly two thousand years, Naruto," Tui said.
Naruto was leaning out the porthole Azula's window, staring into the dark of the night.
"Two thousand years…," he muttered, trying to take it all in. He'd expected a long time, maybe a couple of centuries. But he'd seen with his own eyes that the world he knew wasn't even a distant memory by this time.
He looked around Azula's room and found some comfort when he saw the insignia of the Land of Fire adorning its walls. At least something of his home survived.
As Azula wasn't back yet, Naruto proceeded to lay down about the large bed in the center of the room instead of the small cot that had been lain out for him. He was sure she wouldn't be happy, but he was too out of it to care. For the first time in ages - literally - he fell asleep, undisturbed by dreams.
What felt like moments later, Naruto was prodded awake. He could see the sunshine despite his closed eyes, so he knew it was morning. When his eyes opened, he was unnerved to see an underdressed Azula laying next to him. She was propped up, leaning on her palm, looking at him with a smirk at how close they were in the bed.
She ran a finger down his shirtless chest. "Hm, I don't recall ordering breakfast in bed, but you'll do nicely."
"Bwah!" Naruto said, falling out of the bed and hitting his head on the metal wall. Straightening himself up and wishing he wasn't blushing so strongly, he sputtered, "I didn't- I wasn't-"
Giggling, Azula interrupted, "Calm yourself. I was only having fun at your expense. I went to bed after you, remember?" When he finally accepted her words, she continued, "I would like to begin learning these ancient arts of yours, if that is possible."
"I kinda wanted to eat breakfast first, but sure," he said, sighing a little.
"Breakfast on command is a perk of being a princess." Naruto found himself sharing in her smile.
Azula lead Naruto to the deck of the large ship. A contingent of her personal guard made to follow them out on deck. "Leave us," she commanded. Though they clearly did not wish to leave her with an unknown figure, especially one who they did not believe was a Firebender, none questioned her order. Good on them, Azula figured swimming in armor was dreadfully difficult.
Azula had nearly given Naruto a spare shirt to wear since he only wore a red cloak of sorts with a fire decoration at the hem. But she rather enjoyed looking at his well toned, firm body. She removed her normal formal overwear, revealing her sports bra and low cut shorts. He managed to control his reaction, but the pink tinge in his cheeks did make her smile.
"What first?" Azula asked, ready to be serious.
The blonde shook his head briefly before scratching his chin in thought. "I guess we'll start the normal route. Given you're already doing nature transformations, it should be a cinch once you've learned to use the chakra properly."
"And how do I accomplish the control of my energy?"
Naruto explained to Azula how one controlled their chakra. Like bending, intention was the case fundamental key. But unlike Bending, where body movements were used, his arts utilized various hand signs to assist in manipulating and altering one's chakra. Physical exercise increased one's physical energy, while meditation, education and experience increased one's spiritual energy. Balancing these energies was the key to molding more chakra and increasing one's amount of it.
Having memorized the various hand positions after Naruto showed them to her, Azula began practicing the basic Transformation Technique.
"Remember," he said. "Visualize the object or person you want to look like. Don't forget the little details, otherwise it will look too simplistic to pass as a good copy. Don't change the nature of the chakra like you're Bending. You want to channel it over your entire body like… like a second skin. Then use the Rat hand sign and you can create flawless look alike."
Azula did as he instructed. As she brought her hands together to form the appropriate hand sign, she took a deep breath and drew out her energy as Naruto instructed. She felt the addition surrounding her body as Naruto had described and willed it to look the way she desired, down to the most minute detail. She looked at her arm, seeing the now brown skin and more lithe torso, clothed in the blue dress of the annoying Waterbender. Overall, the technique felt very much like being draped over by curtains or perhaps a bedsheet.
She looked at Naruto's pursed lips and smiled a bit, assured she had succeeded against his expectations.
"Figures you'd get it on the first try," he mumbled, though she heard him. "You're one of those 'I'm good at everything' types, aren't you?"
"And if I am?"
"Then this is going to be a lot less funny than I wanted," he admitted. "I sucked at that jutsu as a kid. Anyway, keep working on holding the transformation for longer periods. It's harder for longer durations and if you get hit too hard it will be dispelled, so be careful."
He made as if to walk away, so Azula laid her hand on his shoulder and leaned against his back. "Where do you think you're going, mister?" she whispered into his ear. "I'm not satisfied you've given me everything you've got yet."
He jumped away from her, clearly nervous at her provocative innuendo. She had to blink in surprise, however, when he landed on a wall of the ship and was standing perpendicular to the ground in defiance of gravity. "W-what do you want to know?" he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow.
She pointed at him and said, "I want to learn that."
"Wall walking? Well, I guess. It might be better to get some of the standard ninja fundamentals first to build up our chakra control."
"Be careful Naruto. After all, your predecessor ruined his own dream by handing out power willy nilly," a new voice said.
Azula smiled as she watched Naruto look near the stern of the ship and do a double-take when he saw who was there. It was Yue, the Moon Spirit, clothed in a light blue bikini, laying upon a reclined chair as if tanning in the daylight. If a spirit body could tan, that is. Azula had to admit, the mortal incorporated into the spirit was quite good looking all around. Her unblemished white hair was striking and hard to look away from.
"Tui, what are you still doing here?" he asked. "Don't you live in the Moon or something?"
"I told you to call me Yue now," she said testily. "Anyway, I decided I wanted to keep an eye on you. And with the things you're going to see, a less… biased set of eyes would prove useful to you.
Not letting Naruto respond, Azula replied, "As I told you last night, it's mistaken to think I'm some sycophant of my father, Spirit."
"Then I suppose I was imagining you attempting to catch the Avatar on his order a mere few weeks ago? Or perhaps you are secretly working for good yet it's invisible to everyone else?" The sarcasm in her voice was evident.
"He is a threat to my plans as well," Azula replied. "The Avatar and my father will be out of play eventually, that I promise you. I'm not blind to what I've seen in the Earth Kingdom"
"Am I the gonna be left in the dark here?" Naruto asked.
It took some time for Azula to smooth things over. The damned Moon Spirit was intent on shining her and her country in the worst possible light. As if not one member of the Fire Nation was anything more than an arrogant, murderous thug! Though the supposed god seemed angered by it, Azula's oath the dethrone her father and right the wrongs of her people won Naruto over in the end.
"I need to establish a power base first," Azula continued to explain. "Royalty or not, simply usurping my father will change little if his administration and the people still support the current war policy. But if the other side can also be made to be amenable to a peace treaty, we might have a shot."
Naruto looked to be giving her plans serious consideration. He said, "We keep the killing to a minimum if you want my help. We keep the main game plan in the shadows."
Azula nodded eagerly at his conditions, they were easily met. "You act as if I'm a brute who doesn't understand the need for subtlety," she scoffed.
Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I'm really just telling you telling you to keep an eye on me."
"Why?"
"Because long term planning isn't a skill I have."
"Tch! You're lucky you're his Spark, princess," Yue said, glaring at the firebender with eyes alight with the power of a spirit. "If you betray him or your word, I won't hesitate to break you on the spot. He's had enough of that in his life."
Azula didn't scare easily, but one didn't cross a spirit and expect a long life. To emphasize the point, the boat was suddenly rocked by an unnaturally large wave.
Naruto separated the two and said, "Okay, let's cool it. Not that I have a problem with being fought over, but let's try to-" he began before he stumbled. Azula was confused what happened initially until she took a closer look at the Moon Spirit. She had started to fade, causing Naruto to slip through her now insubstantial form.
"Yue, what's happening," he asked concernedly.
Sighing, the white-haired spirit said, "This form is fading. I can't maintain it here any longer."
"But you didn't have a problem when we traveled together. It was weeks and you never did this," he pointed out.
"You don't understand. Soon after you left, the Spirit World attempted to take this physical plane with its power base destroyed," she began. Her eyes were cast downward, as she continued, "Those of us who saw reason banded together with the Lion Turtles to fight them back. Those Ancient Ones granted the virtuous among the humans with the knowledge of Bending, but not the truth of Chakra."
"They thought the Sage was wrong to give humans chakra," Naruto guessed.
Yue nodded. "They thought a small amount of power would keep things from spiralling out of control again without leaving the humans helpless. That's when it was decided to use a number of spirits would be used to keep the Spirit World from interacting too much with the physical one. But for we who were chosen we had to give up our immortality to remain in this plane. I cannot stay so long from my material body."
"That chaotic time you mentioned... that's when the Avatar came to be, isn't it?" Azula asked, to which Yue nodded.
"I still don't know what that is," Naruto interjected.
"The Avatar was a spirit chosen to merge with a human. They reincarnate into a new human after each lifetime, keeping the balance in the human world, mastering the Bending arts and handling problems that managed to slip into this world from the Spirits." Yue paused for a moment before remarking, "The Avatar was to be a replacement for you, in a sense."
"...Gee, thanks. I feel loved," Naruto deadpanned. "So why don't we just bring your body here?"
The translucent Yue seemed to blush a little, though it was difficult to tell due to her faded appearance.
"...Please tell me it's not a fish or something," Naruto said. The spirit's lack of a response led to him saying, "Of course. Look, just bring me to your body and I can fix this."
Yue looked at curiously before placing a hand on his shoulder. Before they left, Naruto looked at Azula and said, "Be back soon, keep practicing," and they vanished from sight.
Azula had barely started doing that when she heard their voices again just ten minutes later. She turned and saw Naruto holding a flailing white fish in his hands.
Yue looked distraught and shouted, "Hurry up and do something before you kill me you idiot!"
Naruto seemed to ignore her, suspending the fish between his hand by some unknown means. Then, two flames of unusual colors appeared in his hands. One was composed of black flames which swayed slowly and ethereally like a curtain in the wind, while the other was a bright white fire that flickered erratically as if it were alive. Azula thought he was going to pull a Zhao on her when she saw him engulf the spiritual medium - the white fish - in the otherworldly flames. But once he had, the fish began to glow and became consumed within an orb of some sort, half white and half black in color.
"Merge with this, Yue," Naruto said. Whatever he was doing was straining, as he was sweating profusely. The Moon spirit quickly complied and faded into the strange construct Naruto had made. A blinding flash of light caused Azula to look away momentarily, though the sound of a body hitting the deck was unmistakable.
"Naruto… you really are his successor," she heard Yue say in awe. Azula opened her eyes and saw Yue was back. Only she looked… denser, like a real person. Where before she did not even breathe, Azula could see her chest moving in and out.
Not daring to guess what happened, Azula asked, "What did you do?"
Through his gasps, Naruto said, "I… altered her medium… She has a human body again… Damn, that took up a ton of chakra. No wonder Hagoromo died from it."
"Creation of All Things… that's how you did this," Yue said.
"Yeah, once He gave me Six Paths Sage Mode, I could understand everything about chakr-mmf!"
Azula was scandalized as Yue kissed Naruto full on the lips, interrupting his explanation. To his credit, the young man quickly moved Yue off of him though she couldn't completely suppress the jealousy that flared at the sight of how affected he was at the kiss.
"No need for that," Naruto said nervously, not looking directly at Yue. "Just returning the favor."
Yue laid her hands on Naruto's chest and said, "I'll stay my hands for now. I just never thought I'd have to chance to be human again, much less without messing up some spiritual business. But it seems you've worked a miracle. Truly, thank you."
Having seen enough, Azula walked up and pulled Naruto to her and glared at spirit-human hybrid. "I require your attention, Naruto." Azula was glad to see that Naruto looked relieved that she had done so. She quickly quashed that feeling though. He may be good looking, but she had to focus on her mission in the Earth Kingdom… for now. She could do it. Definitely.
As Azula walked Naruto back inside the ship, she heard Yue call out, "Don't be so possessive, Princess. A god is a bit too much for even me to handle alone, I don't mind sharing with you~"
That horny bitch. "I'll show her possessive," she thought as she pulled Naruto into her quarters.
"Hey, what did you need me fo-" he started before Azula planted a kiss of her own.
Knowing he'd remove her for some reason or other, she pulled back and said, "I wish to court you now. No wench, spirit or otherwise, is to touch you without my say so."
Looking like he didn't understand a thing in the world, the blonde responded, "And I thought Sasuke had some aggressive women after him..."
Aang had obviously been feeling irritable all day, no matter how much he tried to hide it from Katara. The others hadn't been as fortunate; he'd been a little short with Sokka but had snapped at Toph twice already during their Earthbending training. The dark circles beneath his eyes made it clear he hadn't slept well.
"Aang, please just let us know what's wrong," Katara pleaded. "We're your friends, we're worried about you."
The bald airbender seemed conflicted. "I can't explain it, but I feel like something really bad is happening. I had… well, I thought it was a dream but I'm scared it was a vision of sorts."
Concerned, she asked, "What did you see? Was it the Fire Lord?"
"That's just it, I don't know what it was. It was like, a demonic spirit was angry with me. It was like a giant dog or fox. It's freaking me out a little, they've never immediately directed their anger at me, especially not in dreams."
"An angry spirit… Don't know, maybe Roku would know what to do?" Katara suggested.
"Good point. I'll try to contact him but who knows if it'll work," he said. "My past lives seem to show up randomly instead of when I want. Note to spiritual self, be more helpful with the next Avatar."
Katara laughed a bit and was glad to see Aang join in, seeming a little less stressed. She and Aang could hear Sokka returning to their camp from the nearby village with food. He had a habit of whistling on his way back.
"I-I need to apologize to the others," Aang said with regret lacing his tone. "If you see Toph, could you let her know I want to say sorry?"
"Of course."
After Aang ran to get to Sokka, Katara felt the earth beside her shift to form a circle, from which Toph jumped out. That was weird, even for Toph.
"There you are, Aang wanted to-"
"I heard the spiel," Toph said. "I ain't easily offended Katara, especially not from a softie like Twinkle Toes."
Mollified, Katara asked, "What d'you think?"
"Oh it's definitely some spirit mumbo-jumbo. I'm beginning to think Sokka was right."
"About what?"
"Something always happens with you guys. Best to assume the worst and weirdest," she stated firmly.
Katara could not deny that, and it worried her.
"Look, I didn't say no," Naruto said annoyedly.
Not meeting his eyes, Azula said, "Sure felt like it." She wasn't used to to being denied in anything else. She certainly never expected someone she felt legitimately attracted to being the first to do so.
Naruto sighed deeply and was lost in thought briefly. "Azula, I may have been in hibernation for a couple of millennia, but from my perspective it's barely been a day since everything I lov-cared about died in front of me."
Azula wanted to lash out, but for him she could avoid being so heartless. "I'm not used to being denied, I'll have you know," she grumbled.
"Ah, the privileges of royalty," Naruto quipped. "I just need to sort some things out. Just give me some time, okay?"
"Fine. But that spirit bitch better keep her mits off you. I'm only putting up with her scandalous behavior because you like her for whatever reason."
"She's a pretty good listener," Naruto admitted. "Give her a chance. Old people are annoying but they have good insight sometimes."
"Enough chit chat, aren't you supposed to be teaching me?" Azula asked suspiciously.
Laughing nervously, Naruto said, "I was hoping you forgot about that for today. Why don't we just focus on sparring for a bit to build up your physical energy?"
Azula immediately began fighting him fiercely, hoping to get back at him a little. She was annoyed at how easily he was handling her, unnaturally fast and strong as he was.
Little did the two occupants of Azula's room realize that there was a pair of girls snooping on them from outside her door, though the conversation was partly muffled by the metal separating them. But the pounding sound was pretty clear.
"Oh. My. God." Ty Lee said. "I told you Mai. I. Told. You."
Mai looked skeptical at Ty Lee's words. "I think you're jumping the gun a bit."
"Girl, she's staking her claim so that spirit lady backs off. You saw how she's been looking at him." The pounding sound resumed with added grunts from what sounded like Azula, so she continued, "She and Naruto are going at it hard in there. Our little tyrant is growing up."
"And that's my cue to leave," Mai said. "I thought it was bad enough with my parents."
(A/N): Another chapter, yay. To that guest reviewer, no Naruto is not going to be Azula's pet. But he's not exactly a stranger to dealing with aggressive women so I figure he tries to take the path of least resistance when it makes sense, haha. Things will start picking up next chapter, I'm sure many have felt this has been a little slow. Thanks for your patience!
Review and Favorite please!