I'm back again! Don't expect me to update this fast guys. The only reason that this one is coming out so fast is because it had already been written when the first chapter was posted. I just edited it a bit more. I'm trying to get 2000 words per chapter if not more. I really need a beta. Just to give me some more bulk in this story. If anyone wants to beta, drop me a line. Seriously. Anywho~ On with the show.
~Protege: Abandoned~
The next morning Azula, like most firebenders, rose at dawn. As she went to get out of her bed, she flipped her hammock over and fell with a mighty thump onto the floor. All of the shinobi resting in their respective Hammocks jumped and readied their weapons to fight off the intruder. When they discovered it was only a child they simply went back to sleep and dismissed the girl as an idiot who can't get out of a hammock.
Azula took it upon herself to go onto the main deck of the ship and run through all of her basic firebending katas. This took and hour of focus and she completed them perfectly, as Azula was always perfect. She finished her last kata and paused for just a moment.
"That's impressive." A voice behind her said. It was Sho. "How did you do that?"
"I'm a firebender." Azula answered him. "I learned."
Sho nodded, "Would you teach me?"
Azula stared at him for a moment, "If you teach me shinobi tricks." If she was going to a place with she might as well get the basics down so she could make it faster.
Sho found this acceptable and agreed. How hard could it be to teach a little girl?
"Well the most basic thing there is, is the Fire Punch." Azula moved into her stance. Her feet were shoulder width appart and her body was turned to the left. She brought her fists up to her chest level and made her left hand flat. Her right was still a fist. "This is the stance for a fire punch. Now you can do a normal punch this way too but if you want the fire you have to feel the fire." The six year old explained. "You have to feel your inner fire inside you and then when you punch you have to push it out of every part of your hand."
Azula demonstrated the punch. Sho nodded, it didn't look hard but it was very hard for the shinobi. He was very tense and that just never works.
"You need to relax." Azula said to him.
"How else can you make the fire come?" Sho asked her in a frustrated voice.
"Eh, it just doesn't seem like you can do it." This made Sho mad. He was a Fire user and a Wind user, he should be able to. Stupid inner fire. THe kid probably has no idea what she was talking about anyway.
He growled and tried once more. He threw his anger and frustration into his punch and to his surprise, it lit! His hand had created a red orange fire. The jonin of Konoha smiled.
"Fire is controlled by emotions. Use your emotions well and you can wield fire better. I find that anger works very well. Most Masters let their anger fuel their fire. If you have no passion, you have no bending. That inner fire must be there. Sometimes I think of fighting for someone to help me." Azula told him. Sho was impressed that a six year old could be so knowledgeable. She had pretty much tricked him into creating the flames so this kid had to be a genius.
"Do you have anyone to fight for?" Sho asked her.
"My father." Azula answered, "I want to please father. I fight for him and..." She drifted off but quickly decided that she would say to much, "I fight for him. What about you?"
"My wife and unborn child. He will he born any day now." Sho replied with a large smile. He was excited to be a father.
"You must be happy."
"I am." Sho replied. Both stood in silence for a moment before Azula decided to break it.
"Well now that you know HOW to do a Fire Punch, you must perfect it."
Sho looked confused, "Perfect it? I just did it didn't I?"
"You did but it was very sloppy. You must do it again and again until you master it!" Azula declared. "But before you practice, teach me how to do a shinobi move!"
Sho nodded, it was only fair. He racked his brain for a move while the tiny Yuuhi looked at the jonin with wide eyes.
"I have it! The Clone Jutsu! It's basic Genjutsu, something Yuuhi's are quite good at." Sho put his fingers into the correct handsign (Which he showed Azula how to do it) and said, "Clone jutsu!" That was when two other Sho's popped into existence.
Azula smiled. "Okay so how do I do it?"
"Well, inside or bodies, we have this thing called Chakra. It is our inner powers inside of our bodies. There are different types of chakra and as Ninja we have to have all of those chakras in sync and working with each other in perfect harmony. That's how we perform jutsus. But what you need to to is focus your chakra into creating an exact copy of yourself." Sho explained to her.
Azula absorbed this information like a sponge before attempting. She visualized her body, every part of it before channelling her chakra.
"Clone Jutsu!" She shouted. Then right next to her, was a milky white version of herself. She had the basic shape and there was some definition but it was very pasty.
"Good first try. Not many kids can get that on their first try." Sho said to the girl.
He was still practicing his punches. They were gradually getting better but his hands needed to have fire before he even punched, they only got fire halfway through.
Both continued to practice for the rest of the day until Azula almost collapsed. She could make two clones and her third always looked a little ghostlike.
Sho had almost mastered the fire punch, it was pretty easy like Azula had said. Now that he knew an attack move, Azula made him try to make fire in his hands without attacking. It proved to be more difficult but he was determined to master it... Eventually.
After being on the ship for three days, Azula learned the Clone jutsu and the Body Flicker Jutsu. Sho learned his Fire Punch and he could create fire in his hands. Azula had also done a test to see how many fore punches he could make consecutively. He could make three. Azula had made ten before she stopped. The two sparred everyday, Sho ended up winning most of them because he could easily pin her down but the child could fight. She had some experience, that was all he knew. The two shared some interesting bonding time, meaning he taught Azuka how to use a shower (it proved to be a very amusing thing) and they ate crappy travel food. Then night before they were to arrive at Konoha, Azula was restless so Sho told her stories about his village and the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
"And after the war, my brother-" He looked over to see that Azula had drifted into unconsciousness. "Became the Hokage but died after the Kyuubi attacked... Minato's son still lives but I am never allowed any contact with the boy, under the Hokage's orders..." Sho sighed sadly before going to his bunk and crashing.
'Maybe Hime will be his friend...' He thought before falling asleep himself.
They spotted the port off of the Land of Fire the next day when Azula was focusing on learning the Substitution Jutsu and Sho was trying out his Fire Kick. When land was spotted, Sho stopped practicing when he heard that and helped get the ship ready to dock. He sent Azula up to the Crow's Nest where she would watch everything and keep out of the way.
They pulled in smoothly and everything was unloaded within moments. Sho brought Azula off the ship with her stuff in her hands. He looked around the port, there was no shinobi with the exception of the few on the ship.
"Sho-Sama!" A man yelled As he ran up the port to get to Sho.
"Yes Moku-San?" Moku handed Sho a letter.
"From Hokage-Sama? What does it say?" He paused to read it. "Well Hime-chan, I guess I'm taking you to Konoha. Your guardian is on a mission and is a little late."
Azula nodded and used the Body Flicker Jutsu to appear ten feet away from him.
"Let's get going then. How long will it take us?"
Sho walked over to Azula, picked her up and put her on his shoulders. "Only a day if you hold on tight!" Azula smiled and Sho ran down the path that would take them to Konoha.
Azula liked being on Sho's shoulders. She liked the feeling of the wind through her hair. It gave her a feeling like she was flying. Soon Sho jumped into the trees and started hopping on the branches. This made Azula scream at first and cover the man's eyes but she grew comfortable and uncovered them in a few seconds. He never dropped her once.
After five hours of tree hopping, Sho took a break. Night was coming and they were only halfway there.
"Okay, Night is coming and it's not the best thing to travel at night so we will take a break for today." Azula nodded, "Then we will get to Konoha tomorrow. Why don't you work on the Substitution Jutsu?"
Azula nodded again and practiced replacing herself with a log. The jutsus, like Sho had told her, were rather easy and Azula had it down at the end of the night. The girl was very proud of herself and she had every right to be.
"Nice job but it's time for dinner." Sho said after Azula demonstrated all three jutsus that she had learned.
The girl walked over and was handed a bowl of noodles and chopsticks.
"This is Ramen. I love ramen. It's delicious."
The princess shrugged and started eating the strange noodles. After a few bites, her eyes lit up and she started devouring the whole bowl of food.
"It's amazing!" She put her bowl out for more and Sho was happy to give her some.
The two enjoyed a nice conversation about their countries. Sho told Azula about Honorifics that are at the end of peoples names and he gave her the common ones like San, Chan, Kun, Sama and Sensei. He explained exactly what they meant and when to use them. Azula told him about the Fire Nation and the war.
After dinner, Azula asked him to teach her how to tree hop. Sho shrugged and thought that the idea was a noble one.
"Well first. We need to concentrate our chakra into our feet to climb the tree." Sho started walking up the nearest tree using only his feet. "Using too much Chakra will cause you to bounce off and too little won't let you stick. It's trial and error."
Azula nodded and started to channel chakra into her feet so that she would stick.
"Now get a running start. It always helps." Sho had jumped down by the that time and was behind her.
Azula looked at her tree and ran at it. She managed to get five steps up it before she fell. Sho marked the spot with a kunai.
"Now try to get higher and mark that spot on the tree." Azula gave a curt nod before running at the tree again. She got a little higher but not much before she lost it and marked the spot.
"Remember, stick to the tree." The kid ran again for the third time and got seven steps up the tree. Two more than before.
"Better. Always focus. Never lose your focus."
Azula practiced late into the night, well late for a six year old. Now she had gotten twenty steps up the tree and the girl was tiring. She kept pushing herself though. She wanted to get to a branch before the night was over so that Sho would teach her how to tree hop. After being carried for five hours, her butt fell asleep and her legs did too. Definitely and uncomfortable experience that she did not want to repeat.
It was dark now, probably around ten PM Sho estimated. He decided to call the girl over and made her get in the tent that he had packed. Azula didn't fuss at all and crawled in. She was out the second her head hit the pillow. Sho made a clone that would keep watch for danger while he slept, sure he would only feel half rested but that was fine for him.
The next morning, Azula didn't get up at dawn like she usually did. Sho noticed this and shrugged it off. He decided that the best thing to do now was pack silently without her knowing. If he was lucky, she would still he asleep when he started back on the journey home to Konoha.
The shinobi packed his sleeping bag into his pack by sealing it and then quietly opened the tent. His clone from earlier had been dispelled and Sho was face to face, well face to bark with the tree that Azula was practicing on. There were marks halfway up the tree. Azula had snuck up on his clone and dispelled it by slicing through it with a flaming sword.
'She practiced after we went to sleep?' Sho thought. He then looked back at the girl in the tent and smiled. She progressed a lot and was probably suffering from the lack of chakra.
The jonin took her out of the tent carefully, packed everything up, including Azula's things and carried the young kid off toward Konoha.
Please review guys. I got a few favs and some alerts so I think you are just being lazy. C'mon! Up the reviews! Please!