Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Avatar the Last Airbender.
Chapter 1: Life in the Fire Nation.
A young blonde boy can be seen running away from an overweight man, who is wearing a fancy crimson robe, in the streets of a small village in the Fire Nation. "Get back here you little thief!" the fat man screams, his face red from running.
The boy looked and snickered, "No I don't think so, I will try losing some weight and maybe you can catch me." The blonde took off a shocking speed in front of the crimson red man and ducked around the corner of a building.
The overweight man took the corner, but when he got there, the blonde was gone. "God damn it, the little bastard got away again," the man cursed and stalked away.
A little distance away from the village, you could see the blonde boy walking and swinging a bag of gold in his hand as he made his way home. A short while later, he was standing in front of a rundown hut. He went inside to find his small bed and the things he had stolen from the village (knives, food, tables, etc.). "Welcome home, Naruto," he said to himself with a sad smile.
Naruto then sat down to eat and began to recall how he ended up in this predicament. He recalled dying while battling the Otsutsuki King with his sons Kawaki and Boruto, only to find himself awakening in the arms of a dying woman who had just given birth to him. She kissed his forehead and simply urged him to live a happy life. As he grew up, there was an elderly woman who cared for him as if he were her own grandson; however, she passed away when he was five years old. Following her death, Naruto learned to fend for himself and has been doing so for the past six years. Occasionally, he would steal from wealthy Fire Nation nobles who abused their power over the poor. He would give some of the money to those in need within the village and keep the rest for himself.
Naruto then shook his head to get the thoughts of the past out of his mind. He had long come to terms with his past life since his life as Naruto Uzumaki had ended. He was now simply known as Naruto, a commoner without parents born in a small Fire Nation village.
The blond then started to meditate and tried to see if he could draw on his chakra, but found that he didn't have any chakra like he used to in the past. However, he was able to feel another type of energy and, with some practice, he was able to flow it through his body. He heard noises coming from outside and lost focus, causing the energy to disappear.
The blonde man ran out of his hut and saw smoke rising from the village. Quickly grabbing a knife from his hut, the blonde man ran towards the village. As he got closer, he could hear the screams of the villagers begging for help or mercy. Upon reaching the village, he found burnt buildings and some people buried beneath large rocks. He stealthily looked around and found some men in Earth Nation Army uniforms making their way to a ship they had used to enter the village. He remained hidden until he was certain they were gone.
When he came out, he looked for the villagers but couldn't find them. He kept on searching until he found a man who was trapped under a boulder, barely alive, with half of his body crushed. "Hey mister," the blonde said, "Are you alright?" But he knew the man didn't have much time left to live.
"Cough, cough," the man replied in pain. "No, I'm not doing so well."
"Sorry for asking you this, but where is everyone? I haven't been able to find anyone." Naruto asked the man, knowing he was in pain, but you had to know in order to help the other villagers.
The man started to tear up, but not from the pain of being crushed; rather, it was something else. "Those monsters took my wife, daughter, and all the villagers," he said. "When I tried to stop one of them, they attacked me and threw this boulder at me." He continued, "Then I heard them gathering up everyone in the village, forcing them into a hole they made with their earth bending and burying all the villagers alive—men, women, and children, even though they were begging for their lives." The man screamed in rage and hate.
Naruto turned to see a plate of freshly dug earth and realized what had happened. He looked at the dying man and said, "I cannot save you, but I can end your suffering." The blonde showed him the knife. The man nodded, and Naruto brought the knife down, blood splashing all over him.
The blonde then looks at the place where the villagers were buried with empty eyes, "It is always the innocent people that suffer the most in war." The blonde looks up into the night sky and knows that this is just the way of war.