Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.
Bodyguard of Azula
Chapter 37: Practicing and Wondering
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Bijū/spirit talking"
"Bijū/spirit thinking"
(Location: Konoha)
Azula walked down into the lobby of the hotel. "Thank Agni for similar looking foods," she thought. The food for breakfast still looked a little odd to her but she managed to make her way through it without causing emergency runs to the bathroom.
"Azula, over here!" called out Toph from where she was standing with Aang and the others.
"Good morning, everyone," she greeted as she walked over.
"Morning, Azula!" Aang chirped. He was chipper than ever.
She looked at the rest of the group. "Do we have any idea of what to do today?" When she talked to them, it was a little easier to ignore the Avatar's happy attitude.
"Not really," Katara answered. "We'll have to find a way to past the time for a month."
"And we can't go see the guys in that entire time," Toph noted. "So, we're on our own."
"Has Fǎn Yìng been fed?" Azula asked.
"The cooks took care of him and Appa," Suki told her. "I kept an eye on them. It was almost funny to watch. They were more afraid of getting close to the dragon then the sky bison."
"The dragon does look more intimidating."
"Yeah, but they know what a dragon looks like. They have no idea what a sky bison looks like or what it eats," the Kyoshi Warrior said with a smirk.
"I think the fact that they had to give hay to Appa tipped them off," she replied in complete deadpan.
"You know what I think we should do?" Toph said aloud, getting everyone's attention.
"What?" Katara asked.
"I think we should train Twinkle Toes while we're here."
"What?" You mean right now?"
"Well, we would have to find a more suitable spot."
"She does have a point," Azula agreed. "Just because we're here for a month, does not mean we should slack off."
"Okay, so where should we train?" Aang asked.
"We'd have to find a place, Aang," Suki pointed out. They couldn't do it in the middle of the village. She had a feeling the shinobi wouldn't like it.
"We can go looking once Appa's done eating."
"No," Azula declared, seeing what he was trying to do. "We don't need Appa, we'll walk."
His expression was funny, especially with the way his eyes widened. "What? Why?" He didn't see anything wrong with using Appa.
"Aang, we're in a village," Katara pointed out. "We really don't need to fly around. We didn't do that when we first got here."
"Oh, right." His grin was sheepish. "I forgot."
"One would think that you were raised by a sky bison the way you keep using Appa," Azula remarked. He said nothing as they left the hotel.
"You…are…a…fucking…sadist!" Naruto accused Jiraiya as he, Sokka, and Zuko lay on the ground, wheezing for their existence. Akela was doing the same, just with a little more dignity.
"That's because your attempts were disgraceful!" he all but bellowed at them.
"You expect…us to climb a waterfall…with a load of rocks on our backs…while dodging kunai and shuriken?!" Sokka demanded. He had felt he was going to fall off at any moment (and had a few times).
"Yes, I do. And if the three of you do not get up right now, I will double your loads."
They stood up slowly, their legs shaking to hold their support. "Can I ask why exactly I'm carrying five times the load they are!?" Naruto demanded, pointing at said load.
"You're a former shinobi, you can deal with it. Now get moving." He pulled out a kunai. "If you're not moving before I count to three, I am not pulling you out of the water. One…" They got the point and ran for the waterfall that showered water into the shallow, rocky creek. "This is for your own good! If you want to get through the final Exam, then you have to do everything I tell you."
"WE STILL HATE YOU!" they shouted at him.
"What a big surprise," he remarked sarcastically. "NOW GET CLIMBING!"
They wondered through the village, having left Momo with Appa and Fǎn Yìng. People glanced at them but didn't really say anything. Unlike the incident a couple of days earlier where the villagers stared daggers because of Naruto's presence, they minded their own business once the smaller group continued their way.
"You know, I'm kinda glad we're here," Aang remarked as they walked. "People don't see me as the Avatar here. They just think I'm a normal kid."
"A normal kid would have hair on the top of his hair and no arrow tattoo on it either," Toph remarked, making the others laugh.
"It's a part of my culture!"
"In case you haven't notice, this is not a place of your culture," Suki told him. They weren't anywhere near an Air Temple.
Azula was more concerned bout what they were supposed to being doing. "Aren't we supposed to be looking for a place to practice?"
"How about we use the space over there?" Toph suggested, pointing to her left.
Their gazes followed her finger. "Uh…Toph?" said Katara. "That's a fence."
"I mean what's beyond the fence, Katara. There's a big field there and it's completely empty. So long as we don't get over destructive and hit the building, we'll be fine." She walked over to the fence and leapt over it.
Suki looked at the others. "Can we think of anything else?"
"Probably not," Azula admitted. "We might as well go with it." She followed Toph's example. Katara, Suki, and Aang followed.
"Well, it certainly has the room," Aang remarked as he looked around. "It does look like a training area." It was big, flat, and had nothing that could be an obstacle in the way.
"So, how do we want to do this?" Katara asked.
"We test his ability with each element," Toph stated. "Since we don't have another Airbender, Suki can take care of that."
"Not a problem," Suki agreed.
"We go in the cycle Aang learned," Azula decided. "Once the next person feels like it, they'll step in and take over the fight. Anyone have a problem with that?"
"No," Aang answered. "So,who's going to start?" He was all set to go.
"Me," Suki answered, just before charging him. Although it caught him by surprise, he recovered. She threw a set of punches at him. He twisted and turned, staying out of their path. Seeing an opportunity, he got around her and placed his hand on her back. The idea was that no matter how she turned, he turned with her.
However, she had trained with him before, so she knew how to get out of the predicament. She dropped low and tried to sweep his legs out from under him. He leapt back to avoid falling to the ground. She followed him by turning around and rolling forward. As she came out of the roll, she snapped a kick at his knees.
Once he took a step back to avoid it, she followed through with the kick by standing up. "C'mon, Aang," she told him. "You're supposed to be Airbending at me, not dodging."
"Sorry, it's a part of the Airbending training," he apologized. "I'm not trying to hurt you."
"Don't worry about hurting me. Just use your Airbending." That was the whole point of the spar.
"Right."
She came at him again, this time using kicks as well as punches. Aang started off slow. He used his Airbending to make her punches or kicks miss slightly. Then he began to indirectly attack her. He pressed forward, but always kept moving around. This allowed him to distract her while also sending blasts of air at her. It forced her to give ground so she wouldn't be hit by the air blasts. He took that advantage and began to use air swipes via his staff.
"If he ever gets the attitude to able to kill, those air swipes of his will be deadly," she thought as she was forced to bend backwards to avoid a swipe. She tried to turn the fight back to her advantage by getting in close.
He responded by bending the air to lift her up off the ground and pushing her back. She quickly recovered and charged back at him. The charge was cut off when she had to start dodging air blasts and swipes again. She was forced to hop from one side to the other, slowing her down.
"How are you doing?" Aang asked her as he kept bending.
"Why are you asking me that?" she asked back. "We're in the middle of training."
"I don't know, just because?"
"Please don't. Tell me this isn't a habit of yours." She rolled out of the air he was bending. But he followed and she was forced to keep hopping.
"Well, no. But you're my friend, not my enemy. Why shouldn't I talk to you?"
"Because you should be focusing on your opponent," Katara told him. "And not talking to your friends." She bent the water out of her pouch and threw it at him. As he caught it and threw it back, Suki stepped back out of the fight.
Katara caught the water, split it in half and threw both at him. He redirected one back at her but kept one for his own use. He then bent the water he kept into a water whip and swung it at her.
She blocked it with her own water whip. She pressed forward, swinging the water whip at his feet. He fell back, dodging the whip. Seeing an advantage, she threw the whip at him and froze it, turning it into a spear of ice. He managed to catch the spear in his own water and sent it back in a deluge. She didn't move fast enough and was sent flying into a tree. She did, however, managed to melt the ice spear in the water before it pierced her. She was dazed from the hit, but the advantage was with her. Aang had thrown all his water at her and left himself with none.
Realizing his mistake, he tried to bend some of the water back to himself. But Katara had managed to shake herself out of her daze. She bent most of the water back to her, but he managed to grab some of it. However, if you were to compare the amount of water either of them had, she had the bigger amount.
"This almost feels like when I fought Master Pakku," she thought. "Only I'm not the student." It was true. If she gave it her all, she could easily beat Aang in Waterbending. But the last time she tried to give it her all was when she was hunting Yon Rha, so she wasn't really going to give it her all.
She bent the water into a wall in front of her. She plunged her hands into the wall and then withdrew them. She froze the water on her fingers into claws of ice. She swung a hand and fired the claws. Anng rolled to the side, avoiding them. She followed through with the other set.
As he came out of the roll, he leapt straight up into the air to avoid the second set. The small amount of water, which he had carried through the roll, was now circling his waist. As he landed, he bent the water into a whip and used it to block furthers sets of ice claws thrown at him.
This exchange went on for quite a bit. Katara would throw ice claws and the occasional ice spear at him. He would use the water whip to either knock the ice aside or deflect it back at Katara, who either dodged or caught it effortlessly. As it went on, Katara began to lose the water she had. The deflected ice was scattered all around them. Some hit trees, others hit the ground, and a small number had hit the nearby building. Thankfully, none of it had pierced the windows, otherwise the training session would have ended shortly afterwards.
Finally, she couldn't keep throwing ice at him due to the low amount of water she had left. He had tried to outpace her and succeeded. The amount of water they had changed, he now had the bigger amount. But before he could do anything, he had to duck to avoid a rock aimed at his head.
"My turn," Toph declared. Katara acted swiftly and snagged Aang's water away from him as she stepped back. Aang quickly assumed an Earthbending stance. He struck first by off balancing Toph, bending the earth beneath her upwards into a column. Then he struck, destroying the column.
Toph fell back to the ground. She recovered and then bent a rock line at him. As the line reached him, she bent a column to jut out at him. He threw a spinning kick at them, breaking them apart. The rubble surrounded him, and he took advantage of that. He sent a barrage of rocks at her. She defended herself by knocking the rocks to the ground. After she had reduced the last rock to dust with a punch, she bent two rocks of her own and threw them at him.
He bent up a wall from the ground to protect himself from the rocks. Once they had smashed into it, he sent pieces of the wall at her, almost like what she did at the Earth Rumble. She sidestepped one piece, leapt over the second and swatted the third away, smashing it to pieces.
He bent a column out of the ground, but it wasn't for protection. Starting from the bottom, he bent disks of rock at her. She tried to stop them by bending a wall up, but the first disk smashed through the wall and the others followed. Toph was forced to keep moving, if she tried to block one of the disks, the weight would probably send her flying.
After he was done with the column, he bent the remains into an gauntlet on his right hand. He charged forward at her, drawing back the gauntlet into a punch. That was what she was waiting for. As the punch flew at her, she grabbed hold and bent it down to the ground, taking him with it. He hit the ground and the gauntlet shattered, spraying bits of rock everywhere. She tried to send him flying by jutting a column underneath him. But even though he had hit the ground and was a little dazed, he managed to recover and roll out of the way.
Seeing him roll away, she bent a rock from nearby and threw it hard at him. He covered himself in a sphere of rocks, protecting himself from the rock. Once it had smashed against the sphere, he broke it apart and sent it at her in a deluge of rock and dirt. As it was about to hit her, she plunged her hands into it and split it apart. The two parts of the deluge were bent around her and slammed into the ground behind her.
They stared at each other, a little worn but still good to go. They waited for the other to make the first move. "That's weird," he thought. "Toph's not really the one to wait in a fight."
He noticed that she was smiling slightly. It was that smile that warned him. He leapt back to avoid the fireball that flew through the space where his head previously was. "I guess you're up now?" he asked Azula.
She didn't answer him, preferring to bend another fireball. He blocked it with his own. As Toph stepped away, they circled each other. Azula moved first by dropping low and swiping her leg, sending a low wave of fire at him. He blocked by bending his own fire to disrupt it. He turned in a circle and bent a blast of fire at her head. She spun to the side, bending out a fire whip and swinging it at him. He swatted it aside with his own fire whip.
After exchanging a few blows with the whips, Aang took his and threw it in a fire blast at her. She deflected it, sending it upwards and quickly sent her own fire blast at him. He bent his fire into the form of a shield to block the blast. He was successful, but he skidded backwards as well.
She pressed forward and bent her fire into daggers. She got in close to him and started to swing. He tried to attack back, but her strikes kept him from doing so. He was forced to duck and weave while she used her fire daggers. He finally got the chance when she left herself open after a particular strike. He moved around and bent a fire blast at her back. Seeing what he was doing, she lifted her foot up and knocked his hands aside, sending the blast away. She then spun around on one foot and bent a fire arc at him.
He jumped back in a flip to avoid the arc. As he was airborne, he thrust his feet out into a kick, bending fire at her. Not only did it stop her from attacking, it gave him some extra push to land further away. When she saw the fire coming at her, she split it into two and slammed them into the ground on either side of her.
Just as Aang's feet touched the ground, she sent another low fire wave at him. He threw himself into a backflip to avoid it and then bent a fire arc at her with his leg. She disrupted the fire with a kick; splitting it in half and making it dissipate in the air.
They stared at each other for a brief minute. Then they did the exact same thing, bending a stream of fire at each other. The streams collided and the struggle to push the other one back began. It was something to see. Blue fire fought with orange. One would look like it was devouring the other for a brief moment before pushed back. At one point, Azula would have the upper hand. The next, Aang would have it.
Eventually, the streams died down and they were left panting lightly. "Okay, I think we're good," Aang said.
"Not yet, Twinkle Toes," Toph said. "There's one more thing we have to do."
"What's that?" he asked, turning to face her.
She just grinned. "Four-on-one!" She, Katara, Azula and Suki all charged him. The idea was to see how he would do against multiple Benders and a non-Bender at the same time.
However, before they could even start attacking, they heard someone say "Ahem." They saw a man with tan skin, brown hair he wore in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar across his nose. He wore the Konoha shinobi uniform, which was blue pants and a blue shirt, along with the green flak jacket and the headband around his forehead.
"Hello, my name is Iruka Umino. I'm an instructor at the Konoha Academy," he greeted them. "May I ask what exactly you are doing the Academy's backyard?" he asked while fiddling with a kunai. The threat was all but screaming in the silence.
They looked around and saw that despite their efforts not to go overboard, they had torn up the place rather impressively. The yard was a complete and utter mess. They then looked up and saw that at every window, kids were looking out and watching them. "Um…oops?" offered a sheepish Aang.
Jiraiya stared at the bodies lying around. "You all should just give up right now and save yourselves the trouble of losing in the final Exam," he told them with disappointment. "Now get up."
"Can we please have a moment to lie here in pain?" Sokka pleaded. Akela (who was lying on his side) whined in agreement.
"…Moment's over, up!" They struggled to get back up. Although their bodies protested, they managed to get into a sitting position. "Now tell me, where did you all go wrong just now?"
"I don't know. Why don't you enlighten us?" Naruto asked sarcastically. Jiraiya's response was to smack him in the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for!?"
"I asked you all a serious question and you decided to be a smartass about it."
"You told us to attack you and we did, only to get thoroughly beaten to a pulp," Zuko answered.
"Wrong!" he shouted at them. If they had the energy, they would've leapt back. "I told you to attack me as a group! Instead, you all attacked me as individuals."
"We did come at you as a group!" Naruto told him. "We attacked you at the same time."
"And that's all you did!" he roared. "When one person tried to attack me, the others would back off so they wouldn't interfere. I can't believe you went with it." He glared at Naruto. The blonde should've known better than that.
"Hey, if this was a battlefield, I'd been doing something different than staying back," the Fire Paragon retorted.
"This is a battlefield. If you want to survive the final Exam, every one of you must be able to fight in tandem with each other."
"But I thought that the final Exam was fought one-on-one," Sokka said.
"You can never be too sure. Now, try attacking me again." With no warning, he lunged at them.
They rolled back away from him, grabbing their blades off the ground. "What? No warning?" Naruto asked as they stood up.
"I thought you knew that you didn't get any warnings in the real world." He looked at them as they moved into their stances (Akela bared his teeth). "I hope swords aren't the only things in your arsenal." They looked at each other and nodded once. Sokka pulled out his boomerang. Zuko heated the edges of his Dao swords with his Firebending. Naruto created three more clones and they all moved into a different Bending form. "Better, but I'm still not impressed."
"Then let us impress you," Zuko said as they all charged at him.
After apologizing several times, Aang and the others tried to repair the backyard. "Toph, that's the last time we let you pick the place to train," Katara told her as she bent the water and ice scattered around back into her pouch, melting the ice as she went.
"I know, I know," Toph replied as she and Aang mended the earth, putting rocks back in the ground and putting the remnants of the walls and columns back down into the ground. "Pardon me if I thought it was just a random building and not where they teach the kids."
"Some of those kids are the same age as you and Aang," Azula remarked drily as she put the small fires that had fallen to the ground. "You really can't call them kids."
"Have they gone through the same things we have?"
"No."
"Then I can call them kids as much as I like," She declared defiantly.
"She's got you there," Suki commented to Azula.
"Shut up."
"In any case, we're all done here," Aang stated. The backyard was more-or-less back to the way it was. "Let's go find that instructor and tell him."
They walked back into the Academy, climbing the stairs to the second floor. They were going to find him in his classroom, however, they ran into him in the hallway, him and his class. "Hey, we're done out there." Toph told him, pointing her thumb behind her. She was about to say something else when the class swarmed them.
"That fight was so cool!" one girl squealed.
"You guys were so awesome!" another told them.
"Hey, can you show me how to use fire like that?" one boy asked Azula.
"Please teach me how to move rocks like you did!" another begged Toph.
"Show us your moves," aomeone told Suki.
Iruka whistled loudly, getting everyone's attention. "That's enough, class," he told them. "Now give them some room." The kids did so reluctantly. He turned his attention back to the newcomers. "Thank you for doing that."
"It was our mess," Azula replied. "Therefore, we had to clean it up."
"Well, at least you admit it. That's something I can honestly say some of my students won't do." He looked back at the class, making some of them take a keen interest in the wall. "So, how do you like Konoha so far?"
"It's very nice," Katara answered honestly. "We've looked around since we've come here. There are so many things to see."
"The air feels so clean and fresh around here," Aang commented. "I haven't felt that in a while."
"That's good to know," Iruka replied. "Was there anything you wanted to know about our village?"
"Well, we have been wondering about the faces up on the mountain," Suki told him. "But we haven't really bothered to ask anyone about them."
"Then you're in luck," he declared with a smile. "We were about to go talk about the pervious Hokages. Would you like to come with us?"
"We would be honored," Azula answered. "Lead the way."
They left the Academy and walked over to the Hokage building. They made their way through the building before finally climbing up to the roof. Iruka had the students sit down while Aang and the others stood at the back. "Is everyone here?" he asked. Everyone answered in the affirmative. "Good. Now, as most of you know, behind me is the Hokage Mountain. On it are the faces of the Hokages. From left to right, they are the Shodaime Hokage, Nidaime Hokage, Sandaime Hokage, Yondaime Hokage and finally, the Godaime Hokage."
One student raised her head. "Who is the Rokudaime Hokage, Iruka-sensei?" she asked.
Before he could answer the student, someone else did. "What? Do I have to retire already?" They all turned around to see Tsunade standing at the stairs. In her arms was a small pig wearing a red jacket and collar of pearls. "I've only been the Hokage for about three years, have I really been doing that bad of a job?"
"La-lady Hokage!" squeaked the girl. "No, no! You've been doing a great job!"
"Now you're just buttering me up before talking about some bad habits I have."
"No, I wasn't! I swear!" This only made her laugh.
"Lady Tsunade, could you please not tease my students?" Iruka asked her.
"Just having a little fun, Iruka," she told him, the grin on her face making her look like she was a mischievous young girl. The pig looked up at her and oinked. "Alright, Tonton, I'll stop." She looked back at Iruka. "So, giving a history lesson?"
"Yes, Lady Tsunade. What brings you out here?" he asked her.
"I'm taking a small break from the paperwork, so I figured I come up here and get some fresh air."
"You've come at a good time. Would you like to join us?"
"Eh, why not?" She walked forward and stood next to him.
"As you know, Lady Tsunade is the Godaime Hokage," he told his students and visitors. "She is a part of the Sannin and renowned for her strength and her medical skills. She is also the holder of the Slug Summoning Contract and because of this, is known as the Slug Princess of Konoha."
As the students looked at her with wonder and amazement, Azula looked with curiosity. "How is she qualified to be Hokage?" she asked aloud, getting everyone's attention.
"Did you not listen to what Iruka just said?" Toph asked her.
"Yes, I'm aware of what she can do, Toph. But there are many people here who are probably just as skilled as her or possibly better. So how did she get the position as the village leader over the others?"
"Mainly because the other candidate refused when he was told and then offered to go get me," Tsunade told her drily. "But you do have a point, what qualifies me to be the Hokage?" She looked over at Iruka.
He got the point and explained. "While Lady Tsunade is a renowned shinobi and medic, those are not the only things that contributed to her being Hokage. Another important factor is her linage."
"Her…lineage?" repeated Aang, a little confused. Who your parents were wasn't really a big thing among the Air Nomads.
"Yes. Lady Tsunade is the granddaughter of the First Hokage, the grandniece of the Second Hokage and the student of the Third Hokage," he explained. "Basically, she has the best claim."
"And that's all there is to it." She walked pass the students and back to the stairs, only to stop at the top and look back. "Azula, was it?" she asked.
"Yes," she answered.
"Follow me, please. I want to talk to you."
Zuko, Sokka and Naruto were engaged in a free-for-all, using only their swords. They did this while also dodging kunai and shuriken thrown at them by Jiraiya. "Agni!" Zuko swore as a kunai pierced his thigh.
"You're too slow, Zuko!" Jiraiya told him.
"I'm fighting at my top speed here!"
"Then you need to be faster! Any slower and a Genin fresh out of the Academy could beat you."
"I don't see you doing this," Sokka shouted at him as he simultaneously parried one of Zuko's Dao swords and dodging a shuriken. However, he got another shuriken in the arm because of his dodging.
"You need to be more aware of your surroundings, Sokka!" the old shinobi shouted at him.
"I'm trying!"
"Trying isn't good enough! People who try are the ones who fail. How many times have you tired, only to fail?"
"Who asked you?!" he snarled. The snarl turns to a scream of pain as a kunai embedded itself in his leg.
"You must focus! If you hadn't lost control of your emotions, you could've avoided that."
"I hate you with every inch of my being."
"Heard it before, now focus!" The Tribesman turned his attention back to the fight. It continued for a good amount of time. It kept moving around the training ground, because a swordfight never stays in one spot and Jiraiya kept making them be aware of their surroundings.
Finally, Jiraiya stopped throwing things at them. "Alright, that's enough," he told them. They collapsed to the ground when they heard that, sighs of relief escaping their mouths. Akela padded over to Sokka's side and sat down. "So, can you tell me what exactly the three of you doing wrong was?"
"We were talking to you while we were fighting?" Naruto asked with tried sarcasm.
"Yes, that is a part of it, but that is not all. Naruto, your ability to fight with a jian is somewhat sloppy. You're not a master of it, are you?"
"Of course not, it was just something in my arsenal," The blonde replied. "The jian master here is Sokka," He was more inclined to have the thing lost or destroyed. Maybe he should just stop trying.
"That's another thing." The Toad Sage turned his attention to Sokka. "Sokka, while you are able to use your jian and your boomerang effectively when they're separate, you are horrible at using them together."
"Hey, I have never seen the reason to use them at the same time. It's usually been one or the other," the Water Paragon said in explanation.
"You have to learn how to use them together. There'll come a time when you will have to and if you don't learn how, you'll end up dead." He turned to Zuko. "Zuko, why weren't you using your Firebending in the fight? It would have given you an advantage."
"You told me not to," he protested
"I told you not to use it when it wasn't needed. You took that as not being allowed to use it."
"This was a swordfight."
"And your point is? Just because it was a swordfight doesn't mean you have to stick with swords. A swordfight is a fight, and you can use anything that gives you the advantage in a fight."
"Now what are we going to do?" Naruto asked. "Climb the waterfall again with stones on our backs?"
"Making us run the entire place forty times in under ten minutes?" Sokka asked.
"Or is it going to be repeating the same set of movements while standing still for five hours?" Zuko asked.
"It's none of those," Jiraiya answered, surprising them. "You've been doing a little better than pathetic, but I can't blame you. This is only the first day of your training." He turned away from them. "I'm going to get food. You all take a breather." He walked away into the bush.
They turned to look at each other. "Did I hear him right?" Sokka asked.
"I heard our personal torturer say that we could take a breather and relax a bit," Naruto replied. "Did I hear wrong?"
"No, I heard it too," Zuko told him.
"So, we can actually relax for a little?" Sokka asked for clarification.
"Not yet," Naruto said. "We have to do one more thing."
They all raised their arms and looked at what was imbedded there. "Pull these out," they said together. It was a painful process, one they did with gritted teeth.
Azula stood in the Hokage's office, facing her across her desk. "Well, you wanted to talk to me," she said. "What do you want to talk about?"
Tsunade looked her straight in the eye. "What exactly is your relationship with Naruto?" she asked.
"I assumed that since Jiraiya was spying on us, he sent you reports."
"He did."
"Then why do you want to know about what went on with us?"
"It's always better to hear from the person then read it off a piece of paper," the Hokage said in reply.
"…I can agree with that."
"So, what is your relationship with Naruto?"
"He is my bodyguard," the former princess of the Fire Nation answered.
"So, he protects you?"
"That is what a bodyguard does," she replied sarcastically.
"I suppose you chose him and you two didn't get along well at first?"
"Wrong. He beat me in an Agni Kai and won the right to be my bodyguard."
"But you still didn't get along at first, right?"
"…It took some time to get use to him being around all the time," she admitted. "That and he acted exactly like I remembered him."
"And what was that?" Tsunade asked, sounding curious.
"Why should I be telling you this?"
"I want to know."
She sighed in annoyance but with some nostalgia. "He was insufferable, acted smug every time he was proven right, and kept pulling pranks on me just for a laugh. There were days where I wanted to kill him."
"And yet, he's still alive," the older woman remarked. "I guess you began to see something else in him?"
She nodded. "I began to see his good points. He was kind and caring. He never refused to give some of the money he earned to those who desperately needed it. He was friendly to all and only showed his anger to those who deserved it. He kept pulling pranks to make me laugh. When he led men into a fight, he always made sure to get every soldier under his command out alive. He never bragged about his feats or his strengths. He was someone you could count on."
"And then you fell in love with him."
"It would've been hard not to. He changed me. He all but dragged me out of the comfortable place I knew as my life and showed me what was really going on. He made me think about old things in different ways. He forced me to train myself with new things. He had me see things from another's perspective. He changed me and I fell in love with him." She placed her fingers on the necklace around her neck. "He even gave me this."
That got Tsunade's attention. "Let me see that," she ordered when she saw the necklace.
"Why should I?"
"That is supposed to be with Naruto. I gave it to him. He's supposed to keep it on at all times."
"What in the name of the Spirits are you talking about?" Azula demanded.
"That necklace belonged to my grandfather. I inherited it and then gave it to Naruto." The Slug Sage reached out her hand. "Now give it to me."
"No." She closed her hand around it, as if to protect it from her.
She stood up from her chair, clearly angry. "That belongs to Naruto!"
"And Naruto gave it to me as a birthday present!" she replied, just as angry. "Why would he do something like that if he needed to keep it?"
Tsunade looked at her, then at the necklace, and then sat back down in the chair. "That baka," she muttered to her quietly. "Does he not realize what the necklace is for? Why would he give it to her?"
"Excuse me?" Azula asked, having only heard parts of what she was muttering.
"Never mind, it doesn't concern you."
"You sound just like him," she said with annoyance.
"What do you mean?"
"Until we came here, I didn't know much about Naruto's past. He never told us where he came from or why he left, he just kept telling us that it doesn't concern us. We only began to find out about him when your teams started to protect the Avatar and even then, it was just tidbits of information."
"I see," the Hokage said. "That's good. Neither her or the others know about what he holds," she thought to herself. "So, you love Naruto, but you don't much about him."
"Yes, I do. What about it?"
She said nothing. She flashed her hands through a quick number of handseals and then placed her hand on her desk. Azula saw a kanji briefly flash on the desk before fading away. Even though nothing in the room, she felt like her ears had been plugged up a little. "What was that?"
Tsunade took her hand away from the desk and leaned back in her chair. "What would you say if I told you that after the Chūnin Exams, I would let Naruto to go back to the Bending Countries?"
"I would say that there would have to be a catch."
She nodded in agreement. The girl caught on quick. "What would you say if I told you that I would have the members of the Konoha Eleven here go with you to help?"
"I would say that their help would be unneeded and that they would only hinder us."
"Are you sure about that?" the Hokage asked her with a raised eyebrow.
She didn't raise to the challenge. "I would also say that is not the catch."
"What would you say if I told you that I would send the Konoha Eleven in order to keep an eye on Naruto and had orders to make sure he came back to Konoha willingly."
"I would say that it would never happen."
There was a moment of silence. "…What would you say if I told that if he refused, they would have orders to subdue him, to bring him back by force and once he was back, the past three years would be wiped from his memory?"
She turned furious and covered her hands in blue fire. "I would kill them before that happens!" she shouted. "And if you gave that order, I would burn you to ashes!"
After staring her straight in the eyes, Tsunade did something Azula wasn't expecting. She laughed. "Kami, I was right about you."
"What?"
She stood from the chair. "Put the fire out, Azula. Remember, I used the words 'what' and 'if'."
The fire disappeared, but the anger and suspicion in her eyes did not. "Explain," she ordered.
"While there are orders for Naruto to have his memory wiped if he refuses to come back willingly, those orders are never going to happen. The reason I am telling you this is because I believe that out of the five of your group here in the village, you and Suki are the most level-headed. However, you know Naruto better than Suki, so I told you."
"Told me what?" This wasn't making any sense. And she would like it to make sense.
"I want you to listen closely." She walked around the desk so the two of them stood face to face. "The Konoha Eleven members here have been told of these orders. But they think that the orders will be carried out when they are done in the Bending Countries."
"So, I'll have to kill them before they try it," she growled.
"That might be true, if they were going."
She was beginning to get really annoyed by it all. "You're not making sense."
"I know I am not. I'm doing that on purpose," the Hokage remarked.
"What is this all about?"
"I'm telling you this because I want you to keep the rest of your team calm. There is a good chance that they will hear the Konoha Eleven talking about these orders. I need you to make sure they don't think anything of it and make sure they don't plan anything."
"Why?"
"If they did, they could ruin the plan. I cannot let that happen."
"What plan?"
"I can't tell you. I'm sorry."
"…This is Shinobi politics, isn't it?" she asked, remembering what Naruto told her and the others.
Tsunade gave a small smile and nodded quietly. "It's often dangerous and deadly. But if you play it right, the rewards are very satisfying. Now, you're going to keep quiet about this conversation, right?"
"Of course, I will." She had been in politics long enough to realize when she had to be quiet. "But you do realize that Katara, Aang, and the others are probably trying to listen in through the door?"
The smile turned into a smirk. "After I touched my desk, you felt your ears plugged up slightly, right?"
"Yes."
"That was the Silence Seal taking effect. This conversation we just had was one that only the two of us heard," she explained to the Firebender.
"You're sure about that?" It seemed a little far-fetched to Azula.
"Of course, I'm sure. It's my office."
"What will we do now?"
"I am going to deactivate the seal and you will leave. For all intents and purposes, we just talk about Naruto. I wanted to know how he was during the past three years. Sound good?"
"Yes, it does."
She walked back to her chair, placed her hand on the seal spot and muttered, "Kai." Azula's ears lost the plugged up feeling as the Silence Seal faded away. "Thank you for telling me about him, Princess Azula," Tsunade said, acting like nothing had happened.
"I'm not a princess," she told her. "But you're welcome, Lady Hokage." She turned around and walked to the door. She opened it and swung it open. She saw Aang and Katara standing against the wall with oh-so-innocent smiles on their faces. "Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to eavesdrop?" she asked. Toph and Suki were off to the side, just waitinig.
"What? We weren't eavesdropping," Aang protested.
"Of course, you weren't, and I'm the incarnation of Agni."
It was clear she wasn't going to believe any excuse they might have. "Sorry, Azula," Katara apologized. "We couldn't hear anything, so we got curious."
"So, you were listening in before that," she said, catching them with their own words.
"Well, no kidding. The boss lady of the village wants to talk to you and you alone, leaving us out here? Of course, they're going to try and listen in." Toph said, cutting them off before they could protest.
They walked away from the office. "Lady Tsunade thought the same thing. That's why she gave us some privacy."
"What did she want to talk to you about?" Suki asked, genuinely curious.
"…She wanted to know about Naruto."
"That's it?" Aang asked in disbelief.
"He was a shinobi of this village once," she pointed out as they reached the stairs. "She wanted to know how he's been for the past three years, that's all."
"Why didn't she ask one of us?" Katara asked.
She looked her straight in the eyes. "Okay, please remember who has known him the best for the better part of three years."
"She's got you there, Sugar Queen," Toph said with a laugh.
Katara's face flushed for asking something that was completely obvious. "We-well, now what are we going to do?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
Suki looked out a nearby window. "Why don't we get something to eat?" she suggested. "It's about noon."
"Yeah, let's go to Ichiraku's!" Aang declared.
"Fine," Azula said, shrugging her shoulders. That was all Aang needed to hear. He ran down the corridor so fast he left a dust trail.
"I didn't think Twinkle Toes like that place," Toph said. "Don't they have a lot of meats in the food?"
"They have a veggie ramen which he's beginning to love to death," Katara explained.
"Wait a moment, I thought Aang wasn't carrying the money we were given," Suki said, remembering the money bag the Konoha Eleven had given them.
"He's not," Azula told her, pulling the money bag out. "We might as well go after him, before he orders anything." They all nodded in agreement and chased after him.
The sun was setting in the distance. Naruto, Sokka and Zuko were sitting around and were the midst of pulling out the kunai and shuriken and wrapping the wounds up. "Ah, Agni, that stings!" Zuko swore as he wrapped up his arm.
"I hear that," Sokka agreed as he wrapped a bandage around his thigh.
Naruto was feeling the same pain they were feeling due to the fact Jiraiya had him stop the Kyūbi from healing him. "Oh, how I hate that pervert right now," he thought viciously as he wrapped up his hand.
"Hey, he said you weren't going to miss out on any part of the training," the Kyūbi told him. "I guess that means the pain part as well."
"I still hate the pervert."
"He's a Super Pervert, remember?"
"Shut up."
"Well, I think we can all agree on one thing," Sokka said aloud for everyone to hear.
"That our teacher for a month is a sadistic bastard?" the blonde asked him.
"Yes. But there's something else too."
"And what's that?"
"He's not kidding around. I think that after the month is up, we won't be the same as we were before." They fell quiet as they thought about what he said. It made sense. Jiraiya was trying to kill them, but they were getting stronger.
"…He's still a sadistic bastard," Zuko said. Akela barked in agreement.
"I'm glad you all hold me in so high esteem," Jiraiya said from behind them.
Surprised, they turned around and saw he was carrying a big boar on his back. "Is…is that for us?" Sokka asked, almost drooling at the boar.
"No. This is my dinner. You have to get your own."
"WHAT?" they all shouted at him. They were too tired to try and hunt for their own food.
His serious face sprouted a huge grin as he threw back his head in laughter. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! There's enough to go around and even though you guys didn't do well today, you deserve this." He dropped the boar to the ground. "Now, while I start the fire, you three take care of the boar."
He left to gather the sticks for the fire and they got to work skinning the boar. Sokka took the lead due to the fact he had done skinning before. Naruto and Zuko followed his orders carefully. By the time Jiraiya had come back, the boar was almost skinned. He set up the fire and then watched as they finished skinning the boar. He took the carcass, put it on a spit and hung it over the fire. He slowly turned the spit, making sure the boar was thoroughly roasted.
When he was done, he carved out pieces of the meat and handed them to the team, who fell on the food with the grace and dignity of a pack of wolves (which is ironic, considering Akela was there). "This is delicious!" Sokka declared with tears in his eyes. "I have never tasted something so good!"
"So glad you approve," Jiraiya told him. They finished the rest of the meat in silence. "So,tell me, did you enjoy today's training?"
"We hated you every minute of the day," Naruto answered.
"Good to know, because this is only the first day. We have the rest of the month, and I will use that month to make you all better and stronger, even if I have to break you down and build you back up." He declared.
They shared a look for a long minute and then looked back at him. "We might hate it and we definitely hate you for it," Zuko said, speaking for the group. "But bring it."
The Toad Sage just gave them a vicious grin that promised a lot of work and loads of pain.
End
Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you have sent me.
Did you think I was just going to go straight to the final Exam? That's no fun. There's no build up if I do that.
If you were expecting Jiraiya's training to be something like Guy's, too bad. Guy is excessive in his training; Jiraiya is a sadist and a perfectionist. There is a difference there. Also for those of you who are going to say that Naruto doesn't need to be trained by Jiraiya, think of it this way. Kyuubi made him into the person he is now and also trained him. Jiraiya is just refining him and making him better.
I did the entire thing with the Hokage Mountain to give them a bit of background on Konoha. They really don't know anything about the place. Plus, how else was I supposed to get Azula into the office?
For those of you who are wondering why I had Tsunade tell Azula about the supposed "orders", when have I ever something like that simple? You guys keep coming up with expectations about what I'm going to do and I'd like to think I've usually managed to catch the majority of you by surprise every time. This is no different.
But if you think I'm going to tell why the orders are never going to happen or what the plan is, guess again. But I will tell you one thing: just because Tsunade might be acting like a selfish bitch, doesn't mean she is one. It's a little thing called deception. It comes with being a shinobi.
So, for all you who want me to have her killed, I just have one thing to say: It's not going to happen. If you don't like it, you can shut up.
I'll see you all next chapter!