Chapter Thirteen: The Lava Settles

It has been a few days since the fall of Lava Lord Ozai. The seven generals that were Ozai followers were contained, questioned, then publicly executed. They surprisingly let Azula stay the princess and will be inducted as the queen. There will however be restriction on what she can and can't do. She however has something plan for the so called Hero of Lava. Oh, yes Naruto was in for a surprise.

Speaking of Naruto, he was currently in the hospital. After he barely conversed with the rebels after they broke through, he slipped into unconscious. Soon after he went into a chakra induced coma. This caused for worry between the country. They consider him the Hero of Lava. His title is Naruto Uzumaki, Yougan no Yuusha (Naruto Uzumaki the Hero of the Land of Lava). He is just lying in the hospital bed. He was actually in his mindscape.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mindscape XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was on a river. He was riding on his back seeing different memories playing through. He was not able to move as a result he had to watch. As he watched he saw a few things that he missed. He saw that kids were playing. Playing is normal. They played tag, hide and seek and other things.

He saw that is what it means to be a normal child. Yet at the same time he saw some of his battles. He saw his fights and looked at some of his critical mistakes that could have gotten him killed. He watched countless times he would have been dust in the wind. Before he could answer, he saw Faukes flying through his memories.

Naruto saw Faukes looked at him with some disappointment. As Faukes kept looking around seeing his suspicion is correct. After he reached a certain point all the memories ceased. The river disappeared and Naruto fell to the ground with a thud. Faukes flapped his wings and landed on Naruto.

He said, "Naruto-kun, I am Faukes the phoenix. I came into your mind to see how I can accommodate you, your fighting styles, and your everyday life. I see that you train in almost everything except genjutsu. It seems like that the reason is mostly because of your incredibly huge chakras. I mean it is not easy to do genjutsu with small reserves. It is just with your incredible reserves it will take a whole lot of control.

For you to really become a great ninja, samurai, or anything you got to be relaxed. You are so worked up with training or studying or undercover that you worked your body and mind too much. When you kept fighting and putting so much strain on your mind you started to let people to get into your head. You need to relax. We will start training in two weeks during that time I want you to have fun with your friends and the people you consider your family.

Naruto could barely move his head. So he just had to accept it. He actually liked the idea of two weeks off. He will tell the guys this. Fenikkusu said that Faukes was shy. He is really starting to disagree. Before he could finish his talk to himself, Faukes started to speak

"Naruto, I'm going to be in your mind during that time. I am going to create a link between us. So don't worry about anything. For now take about eight hours to get some rest."

With that Naruto's trip through memory lane stopped and he went to the land of dreams. Faukes however found something he was looking for. He smirked slightly as he saw the big cage. He said, "Bingo"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX A few Hours later XXXXXXXXX

Naruto woke up from his long slumber. He noticed hundreds of get well cards all over the place. It made him feel good knowing someone actually cared about him enough to worry about him. He saw three blank scrolls, sealing ink, and a pen. on the desk next to him. It is custom to have scrolls in the hospital desk for the person could write something or their will. He took the pen and dipped it in the ink.

He started to write some seals on the blank scroll. He put some chakra onto the scroll and opened a portal. Naruto put all the cards into the portal then closed it. He noticed that he was kind of restricted by and IV. He pulled it out and winced. He was still kind of sore. He then heard a voice over the intercom, "We have a runner in Room 9!"

Naruto saw that on his room door there was a 'Kyu' on it in Kanji. He groaned loudly as he realized that they were talking about him. He heard the doctors and nurses coming towards him. He looked to his left and his right to see where he could get away. He cursed as he knew they were close. So he did what he had to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Doctor XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The doctors rushed towards the room. They noticed that the door was closed. They kicked the door in only to see the patient was sleep. The cover was put over his head. As they checked to see what was wrong, they found out it was the body dummy. They turned around to see the door was closed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Naruto XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was walking down the halls. He put chakra back onto the seal on his back to change his appearance. He finally found an exit and broke the chakra connection to the seal. As soon as he did, he saw a certain someone with their fingers right in front of him. Naruto blinked and loudly cursed.

With that Naruto was shot with a burst of electricity. Naruto was sent back into a wall and fell to the ground. Actually he slid to ground extremely slowly and was hunched over. Smoke was coming off of him as if he was a piece of meat. Azula smirked and said to no one in particular, "That's what happens when you tie me up and didn't give me a chance to even speak."

He struggled to get up. His legs became wobbly so that he can barely hold on. He held onto the wall and tried to stabilize himself. When he looked up he saw that the whole gang there. His eyes narrowed as he saw Zuko holding a cloth with what he suspected is chloroform. He also saw that Mai had rope in her hands.

The morphine the doctors gave Naruto from the IV was starting to kick in. This caused his senses to dull. He saw Zuko coming to him a little too late. Zuko practically smushed the chloroform into Naruto's face. Naruto murmured as he was passing out, "Fuck".

Naruto dropped to the ground passed out on the floor. He fell into the arms of Ty Lee and Azula. They smirked as they had their prey in their hands. They discreetly tied Naruto up and took him to the underground.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Naruto XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto woke up about an hour later. He was disoriented. He tried to move only to find that he was tied to a chair. He saw that his mouth was taped also. He then saw electric wires and electricity moving around. He knew he was in for it. The lights came on and saw that there was four chairs in each of the four directions.

The seats were being filled. He saw Zuko was on the chair to the west. Mai was on the chair to the east. Ty Lee was on the chair south. Azula was right in front of him. She got up and pulled the tape off of Naruto's mouth. Naruto hissed as she dangled the tape over him.

She taunted him by saying, "Well Naruto-kun the Hero of Lava it is an honor and a privilege to have you here in the secret underground. We were going to invite you here after my birthday but we know how that went. By the way how are you?"

Naruto had a deadpan look. He said, "I'm just peachy. I would feel soooooo much better if you let me go and we could all be on our merry little way."

Azula dangled the tape over Naruto's head. She taunted, "Oh, Naruto-sama, why are you being such a meanie. We just wanted to have a chat with you."

Naruto relented, "Sure we could talk. How is the weather? Did the Yankees win? Did the Celtics win? Can you let me go?"

She chuckled at poor Naruto. She wagged her finger from side to side. "No, Naruto-sama I can't let it be that simple. After all you haven't had too many chances to talk like this."

Naruto mumbled under his breath, "We never had a conversation like this."

"Be that as it may you have a lot of explaining to do. We know that you won't willingly give us the answer we truly desire. As a result we had to devise a plan to get you to speak. You see Naruto you are hooked to a lie detector test. If you answer the question correctly nothing happens. If you lie however you will get a pretty nasty shock. If you don't answer at all well you will get an even nastier shock. So ready or not here we go. I'll go first. Naruto, what is your real name?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the question, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki" Nothing happened causing Azula to choose her baby brother. He said, "What was your purpose of coming here?"

Naruto once again rolled his eyes. He sighed as he said, "The reason I came to Yougan no Kuni is so I can train and then be on my merry way to Kiri." Nothing happened again. They were surprised that Naruto was answering these questions with such calmness and relatively easily. This of course is with the addition of the correct answers.

Mai went next. She said, "If that is the case, then how and when did you get involve with the rebels?"

Naruto was quiet for a moment and took a breather. He said, "It started when I first got off the boat. I saw some women crying and begging the guards not to take their children who were able to 'fire bend'. I wanted to know what happened to the kids and the husbands. A few months later I saw a kid who had an abundant amount of chakra. The kid's name was Axel. I followed him around in secret.

I heard his mother tell him to stop using the chakra or he would wind up like his father. I was initially confused as to why the people could not use chakra but the guards could. I thought they were killing them so they could oppress the people and that none of them could rise up against the government.

I was wrong. It was worse; much worse.

They captured Axel and took him away. I followed to see where they were taking him. They took him to this prison. The prison's job is to drain the prisoners' chakra. As time goes on the chakra our sustaining life force kept regenerating and made them older and older until they died.

I saw it happen first hand. It was so vile and disgusting. It kills them slowly and horribly. It was torture. I hated it. I broke the people out and started to help with the formation of the rebels. Anything else?"

All eight eyes that were looking at him were wide. They couldn't fathom it. They just couldn't believe those poor people were sacrificed for a mythical creature. The just didn't understand. Ty Lee stuttered, "N-Naruto, who was the leader of this?"

Naruto said, "The operation was called Operation Vulcan Drain. It was lead by General Kosai (made up name not really important) or should I say Mai's father." When the machine didn't come on Mai's stoic face cracked. A single tear started to fall down her pale doll white face.

Naruto felt sympathy for her but it was either tell the truth of get a terribly nasty shock. Azula calmed herself to ask another question, "How strong are you really?"

He replied, "I'm strong enough to beat the four of you. I've been trained in so many things it is not even funny."

Zuko followed up, "How many different styles do you have?"

Naruto rolled his eyes for a third time and said, "I honestly don't have any idea. Because of the fact that most styles are a combination of other styles that came from a simple punch and kick, there is no telling."

They truly did not like that answer as it did not give them the info they desired. Naruto smirked inwardly as he was able to dodge the question. Mai went next, "What are your intentions now?"

Naruto being his rapid self said, "That is extremely easy. My intent is to answer these questions so I can get out of these chair and become free and a live what people call a normal life." Naruto caught on to how to answer those questions quickly.

They were racking their brains looking for a question. Zuko said in a very dull voice, "Have you ever killed someone?"

Naruto closed his eyes shut. He sighed and uttered one word, "Yes" This caused the eight eyes looking at Naruto to have wide eyes. They couldn't believe there ears. They looked at his face to see a tell indicating it was a joke. Unfortunately there was none. Mai asked, "When?"

Naruto's closed eyes and contorted face told it all. It showed that Naruto was having conflicted emotions varying from sadness, anger, apathy, and sickness. He sighed as he put up a brave front. He said in a dark voice, "It was my sixth birthday and some one sent ninjas after me. The killed one of my very first friends I have ever had. She died protecting me. I stabbed the guy and he died. That was my first kill."

They couldn't believe it. The little boy they grew up with has killed before. Ty Lee asked, "What does killing feel like?"

Naruto said, "Killing is so hard to explain. The best way to explain it is a part of your soul is taking away. It is a nightmare that keeps playing through your head again and again. What's worse is that you never get over it. People try to cope with it with various things like sewing or cook or something. I cope by training. But when the activity is over the people's faces come back.

What is worse than that is when you look at the person's family. When you see their mother, father, husband, wife or whatever they are to that person, your heart hurts more than anything. You feel dirty, so dirty that you scrub yourself with the hottest water but water is never hot enough.

Often you start to question your humanity. You ask yourself what is better dying oblivious or living knowing that you took a life. Then you chuckle with so much mirth at the mere connotation. The reason being is you are already dead."

Naruto just blew their minds away right there. They were put into deep shock. Their minds are in a conflict as to who Naruto is. Was this the new Naruto? Or is this the old Naruto. Who is the carefree Naruto. Did the carefree Naruto a facade? Did that Naruto ever exist?

So many questions are going through their heads that they didn't even notice Naruto was untied. He said, "Well ladies and gentlemen it is time for the great Uzumaki to disappear." By the time, they realized what Naruto said, Naruto was gone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Naruto XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto disappeared by using the kunai he had in sleeve and cut the ropes. He was outside on top of an inactive volcano. He sat on the ring of the volcano looking at the Yougan no Sato. He saw the country was rebuilding itself. He saw it as an opportunity to train to keep the ghosts away. He got up and started to run around the volcano. Before he couldn't even get started his body stopped dead into his tracks. His head then saw kids his age playing on the swings and tag. His body on its own started to go down the volcano and towards them.

He finally reached the kids. As he was walking the girls his age and a little bit older were giggling at him and blushing. Of course, Naruto was still an oblivious fool. He started to speak to them. He said, "Hi ladies, how are you doing?" The girls turned redder as the Hero of Lava was talking to them. One decided to pass out on the ground.

Naruto who was trained in medical ninjutsu rushed to her to check on what's wrong with her. He touched her head to see if she was having a fever. She was extremely hot. Before he could do anything Jinpachi came to the scene. He saw that the girls were circling around Naruto as he checked the woman. Jinpachi knew this feeling all before. Before he lost his eye and deep into the Seven Swordsman, he was the heartthrob medical doctor. Naruto must have said something.

He walked over there casually. He said, "Naruto it's ok. She passed out from shock. I'll take her to her parents house." Naruto let her go. Their eyes were looking at Naruto dreamingly. Naruto was still oblivious the girls' crush on him. Then again you never really know. As Naruto looked up he saw a note swinging in the air lazily. He grabbed the note. It said, "Meet me on the volcano of ashes at three. Ty Lee."

Naruto saw the sundial point towards Eleven. He smiled slightly as he was able to play for about five hours before he had to deal with another situation. He wondered should he even go. He gave them the ability to ask him questions as he was able to leave from the very beginning. He shook the thoughts out of his head as he started to play tag with kids and final got something he hasn't really had. He was finally accepted by people his own age.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Ameyuri XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ameyuri had a special package to order. He walked over to the blacksmith's place. He had some things in his hands. He put the stuff on the table as the guy looked at him. He said, "Why hello Ame. It has been a long time since the Seven Swordsman of the Mist has done any work with me. So what do you need of me, Ame? Is there any weapon that needs repairs or what?"

Ameyuri gave him all the supplies. He then pulled out a scroll and said, "Kenpachi, this weapon is extremely important. In here holds a sample of an extremely powerful chakra. Here are different seals to add. Here is the design. There is element affinities and finally the strongest metal. We need it to be able to change forms with the person's different styles. It must be absolutely perfect."

Kenpachi said, "My, My Ame with this is the most perfect metal. I can create the weapon by the end of the day. The metal is so easy to melt. Then it molds so quickly then hardens within thirty minutes. The sword then becomes unable to be broken or melted. With this so called 'powerful' chakra can change the sword with that chakra or that chakra is around. This is going to cost a lot of money about Three hundred billion ryo ($225 billion) to be exact.

Ameyuri shrugged his shoulders. To him that money wasn't nothing. The money they collected over time and the people they have killed was easily more than this. He said one word, "Perfect"

Author's Note: Done. I know this was supposed to be a light chapter but this need to be done. We all see Naruto as this hero who has this ability to kill and have this facade of being ok. Naruto needed to show that killing someone takes a toll on people unless you are a sociopath or evil. So with that it also shows you guys that Naruto isn't super strong. He is strong for his age but not super strong that he could be Jonin with a single punch.

As you see the weapon is being created. Next chapter is the final chapter of this arc. Review the chapters and tell me what you think. If you have questions with anything just ask. Oh and the next chapter Konoha will be feature. Ja for now

JK10.