A/N; I am entirely reader-supported. Here are my special thanks to those of you who enjoy my writing enough to support me with your hard earned money on my pa-atreon page. Not just them though, special thanks to everyone who even just reads this story, reviews it, favourites or follows it. You're the reason I keep going. Thank you. Welcome to this new story, feel free to check out my other work if this is your first.

XXXX- SUMMER, 88 AG

"In."

"Out."

"In."

"Out."

I followed along with Grandfather's whispered instructions as we practiced breathing in tandem. The goal was to improve my ability to take in air from the surroundings, use it to stoke my inner flames, and then increase my firebending power.

Firebending was actually a whole process, more complicated and complex than what I could have ever anticipated. It all started at the nose (or mouth for all y'all mouth-breathing fellows). Air comes in, travels to the lungs, expanding the lungs and going down to the stomach. The stomach was where the inner flame resided. It was where the real fire came from.

Stoked by the inflow of air, it traveled down to the limbs and followed the firebender's desire. Grandfather was yet to teach me the breath of fire as it was apparently a more complex move than watching him use it made it seem. But apart from that, we'd covered all forms of firebending moves. He trained me to breathe in at the right times for each movement and to exhale in the most economical way. The major goal of the first month of our training was just that: breathing. In and out. Bringing an act that often happened unconsciously to my conscious awareness to give me any hope of controlling and improving it.

He also taught me about what lack of the right kind of air could do to firebenders. We were notoriously weaker in colder weathers and higher altitudes, but it wasn't the cold magically reducing our power like Kryptonite or something. It was cold air. Cold air quelled our internal flames the way warm air stoked it.

An unprepared or unskilled firebender in the North Pole would scarcely be able to make more than a fire blast or two before tiring himself out. A skilled one could do more. Much more, but it took a master to bend in cold climates without experiencing any drop-off. The secret to that? The breath of fire. It was the same skill Zuko had shown off in the North Pole and the Cooler in the boiling rock. It was also a skill that Grandfather had warned me to avoid spreading willy-nilly.

Even in the middle of a war against the waterbenders and their icy domains, the Fire Nation was wary of spreading the method of defeating one of the few methods they had of keeping firebenders in line. Beyond breathing, Grandfather and I also had theoretical lessons, and as he told me to exhale for the last time, that was clearly what was about to begin.

"When is a firebender at his strongest?"

"Midday. Noon, when the sun is at its highest," I replied immediately, confident in my answer and approach.

"Yes. And when are we at our weakest?"

"At night."

"Indeed. We rise and set with the sun. That is the greatest weakness of being a firebender, and it is one you must familiarize yourself with. Your powers will be diminished at night, but you will never be as strong as you will be under the midday sun. Except for Sozin's comet, of course, but that blessing only comes once in a lifetime." He said the last bit with a sigh, like it was an especially sad occurrence.

"But even at night, we are not truly at our weakest. No. Today, I will tell you a secret the Fire Nation has hidden for centuries. It is about the darkest day in Fire Nation history. The Sages predict we will see it again within the next 12 years, at the turn of the century. A scarce few months before Sozin's comet's return. Come closer, my boy."

XXXXXXX- 90AG

"You know why you are all here. Either by virtue of pedigree, talent, or some mixture of both"... "Usually more the former than the latter if you ask me," some wiseass whispered by my side.

"...you have been found worthy to continue your education here, in the Fire Nation Royal Military Academy, prized for producing the most commissioned officers of any academy..." "Also happens to be the only military academy in the entire Fire Nation," said wiseass commented again, and this time I was forced to turn my eyes in his direction. Was he trying to get expelled or something? But like the last three times he'd opened his mouth, the instructor apparently didn't hear a word he said.

"We are proud of that history, and each and every one of you must match and measure up to that rich history. We expect the best from you. Benders and non-benders alike..." "Doesn't that just tickle his fancy," Wiseass commented again at the last phrase, and I could get the joke, even if I didn't find it to be a particularly good one.

The supreme military commander had released an edict two years ago, requiring all academies that fed officers into the military to accept an equal amount of non-benders as they did benders. Even as sheltered as I was, I noticed the uproar that had caused within the nobilities. Grandfather's drinking buddies had had more than a few choice words for the military commander and his edicts.

It was the first time I was confronted with what was essentially racism in this seemingly idyllic world I'd been born into. Sure, Master Kuonyo had never had positive statements about residents of the other nations, but it was easy to blame that on war and propaganda. This, however? I knew we praised and honored firebending, but the way some of Grandfather's friends had casually referred to non-benders like they were second-class citizens was something I struggled to swallow.

I didn't confront Grandfather. Sure, I could give a thousand and one excuses, and some of them might even hold some weight or make sense, but the truth is, I didn't confront Grandfather on his racist views for one simple reason. I was scared. He was family. The one family I truly had in this world, and I didn't want to be forced to change my opinion of him. If that made me a terrible person, then I would accept that weight.

"Those of you who fail to meet these expectations shall find yourselves sent back home in short order"... "Of course, we will," Wiseass spoke again, and this time, the instructor, a severe man with sharp sideburns and short spiky black hair, was less interested in ignoring the boy.

"Zenin. Is there something you have to share with us?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing, Sir." The man's eyebrows began to twitch. The Zenin boy's tone had been so obviously sarcastic that there wasn't even a vague attempt at pretending to hold anything resembling respect for the man in front of us.

"I see. Get out of the line and give me 40 laps around the grounds." The instructor said, his tone dripping with sadistic satisfaction.

"Sir, Yes, Sir." The boy spoke and took off near instantly at high speeds. I wanted to shake my head at the idiot. The grounds were large. The school itself was large enough to host over a thousand students, and the grounds had room for at least five times that number. 40 laps were probably beyond what most non-Olympian athletes from my first world would have been able to manage. The punishment was preposterous, and the boy seemed to be taking it in stride.

From there, the Instructor had been quick to have us all shuffled off to our quarters. Older students had come out from the woodwork and taken charge of us first years. There were about three hundred of us from all over the Fire Nation, so we were quickly being separated and herded to various wings of the hostel. Girls separated from boys first, and then the boys took our spaces in different areas of the hostel. It took me a bit to find my room. It was on one of the higher floors. Once I did, I went in to tool around.

Thankfully, this school was an expensive private school that didn't want for funds, so the facilities were well-maintained and suitable. There also weren't that many students, so I was only going to have to share my room with one other person. One 'Toji Zennin.' Considering the person hadn't shown up yet, I was willing to bet it was the idiot currently committing suicide via exercise outside. All the boy had needed to do was apologize and back down, but the last name made that virtually impossible. I wasn't the most well-read on Fire Nation nobility as Grandfather considered it a waste of time to learn about century-old grudges and whatnot, but the Zenin family had come up more than once in my studies.

They were old. Not as old as my family, but still old. Old enough that several of my ancestors had written in their memoirs about encounters with the family. They were also unquestionably wealthy. They owned steel, and because they owned most of the steel manufacturing, they were probably indispensable to the war effort. Made me wonder what one of them was doing here though.

"Oh. So you're my roommate." A voice said from the doorway in a tone that was neither here nor there.

I turned back and was met with the face of Toji Zenin. I walked forwards and gave him a bow that he quickly returned. The boy's appearance was noteworthy in that he looked much like he had before he was punished. Apart from a few streaks of sweat, his uniform was still put together, and there were no stains on the red shirt and pants combo with the academy's crest on the left chest. He was probably released from the punishment. Now, the only question on my mind was whether he begged to get out of it or his name did the begging for him. The Zenin clan was serious business.

"Welcome. I am Natsu," I said after a few seconds of contemplation. "Yeah, I can read," he said, pointing back at the door, and I buried the flush that threatened to overtake my face. Of course, he knew who I was. It was inscribed boldly on the wall next to the door, after all. "Besides, even if I didn't, few people could fail at noticing the Wu's family firebending prodigy." His words were delivered with casual sarcasm, but there was a glint in his eyes I didn't feel entirely comfortable with.

"My father told me you'd be here. Even told me you'd be the strongest of us all. Started bending at two when most of us were still pooping ourselves. Trained by the best of the best, with the Wu family's virtually infinite pockets of wealth," he said, stepping closer to me, moving forwards until we were face to face. More face to chin really. The boy was tall. I'd never felt conscious about my height until today. I was taller than most people my age, but the Zenin boy dwarfed me with ease.

"And?" I asked, not backing down from him as he kept moving forwards until his chin was practically touching my forehead. I had no idea what was supposed to be happening here, but Grandfather had been clear enough. I was never to back down. As a single heir of a single heir of a single heir, my family was less numerous than any other of the great ones, so I had much less room for error. I bore the entirety of a thousand years of history and centuries of greatness on my shoulders. The Wu family could not afford to show any weakness. I could not afford to show any weakness.

"Oh, nothing. Just that I'm going to beat you, fancy boy. You, the strongest bender, will fall to me, the strongest non-bender." If there was any sentence that could send me reeling, it was that one. Non-bender? He was a non-bender? The Zenin family had made their wealth from steel, but the only way they'd found the secrets to steel itself was from their powerful firebending. When it came to firebending power and pedigree, they were only behind two others. My family and the royal family. Most of the encounters my ancestors had had with Zenins had involved combat of some sort, so them sending a non-bending child of theirs here was something else.

"You will try," I responded to the challenge, lest he think me some sort of pushover or something. It was only in the Fire Nation that what were more or less children were stressed with things like image and reputation. Here, it mattered. The homeland could be more cruel than any battlefield, Grandfather had once commented idly.

He laughed. An honest-to-god full belly laugh that moved his whole body with it before he turned away from me and walked towards his bed. The room was quite large. Nothing compared to my accommodations back home, but back home was a literal mansion. Our beds were on opposite ends of the room. Not particularly large beds, but serviceable for ten-year-olds and the adults we'd be when we finally graduated from the academy. This was to be our room for the entire period, after all. The bathrooms were also good. En-suite and clean. From my experience in boarding school in my first life, those two attributes were enough to make it more than serviceable.

There were also two separate shower heads like we'd ever actually take showers in the bathroom at the same time. Talk about creepy. I settled in and took out my luggage that had been moved to the room. It was a series of boxes. Made of wood and lined with leather, while displaying my family crest in a stylistic representation. Luxury. I could see why Toji had referred to the family's wealth as infinite. It wasn't, but I could understand where the idea came from. The centuries had been kind to us previously, but once the war started, our wealth had grown to unprecedented levels. Even as a retired General of the Fire Nation, Grandfather still earned a pension much larger than what some noble families had in their whole treasuries. And he received that stipend every year.

I'd hate to get a look at the accounts from the Royal Family's perspective as they bore the brunt of the costs, but from my family's, shit was good. Pensions and salaries at the levels of both my elders meant that we had a steady, solid inflow that far exceeded our outflows. We literally couldn't spend the money as quickly as we made it. Unless Grandfather suddenly started introducing gambling in his Pai Sho and drinking games, we'd be fine for the centuries to come. If we survived the war, that is. 'The Air Nation, the Southern Water Tribe, The Earth Kingdom' I mentally recited the reminder of my family's atrocities to myself. The Fire Nation had to win. I had no choice. Team Avatar would see Grandfather spend years in prison for the actions of my family, or Zuko would see my family's wealth seized as punishment for our actions in the war. I breathed in and out as I heard the horn go off to tell us to report for dinner.

During the orientation, apart from the grandstanding speech, we'd gotten a basic breakdown of what the timetable was like in the academy and what we'd be spending our time doing. "Are you coming?" Toji Zenin asked me as he stood in front of the door, acting like we didn't just finish having a standoff a few minutes ago. I nodded, playing along with the mentally unstable boy as we left our room together and reported to the mess hall for dinner.

"Wrong direction," I told Toji again as he took a wrong turn as we made our way to the Hall. I saw why he waited for me now. The idiot hadn't been there when we'd gotten the directions and received our maps. Since I memorized mine in the time from getting them to finding my room, I didn't have it out with me. I wouldn't be giving it to the Zenin boy, though. It might be petty, but something about watching him flounder as he moved was profoundly amusing to me. Grandfather said the academy could be a dull place, so I'd take what amusement I could find. And when this stopped being funny, I'd crack open my chest and read one of the couple dozen books I'd claimed from the family library as I was packing up to begin my semester.

The mess hall was just that. A mess. For a military academy, there seemed to be no one keen on enforcing discipline as children moved from table to table, freely mixing and interacting. It was more common with the upperclassmen. We freshers had little reason to talk to each other beyond the more outgoing ones. Speaking of outgoing ones, one of them was heading right for us now. Toji and I had claimed seats at the end of a particularly long table that was sparsely occupied. I did it because I didn't want to be disturbed. Toji followed my lead because… I couldn't actually tell why. For some reason, though, he had his reasons. He had to. He couldn't be as insane as he seemed. Had to be an act of some sort, for some reason.

The boy finally reached us, moving right into a bow. "Hello. I am Lee Zhua, from the colony of Yu Dao." He introduced himself, and I had to stand up to return his bow before offering my own name. "Natsu, from the Wu family," I said, and Toji just whispered his own name from his seat without standing up or even otherwise acknowledging our guest. "Lovely to meet you, Natsu, Toji. May the dragon light our paths," he said with another bow. "Yeah, yeah. Now if you wouldn't mind," Toji said, hinting his request for Lee to get the hell out of here. Of course, before anyone could say anything about the taller boy's rudeness, another person jumped into our conversation.

"If it isn't the failure of the Zenin clan," a clearly older boy commented as he came towards our table. Toji's fists clenched instantly. They knew each other. "Get out, Naoya," my roommate was quick to reply, and I was proven right almost instantly. "Testy, Testy, Toji. You seem to have grown wings in only a day of being here. I always said your kind should never be allowed in here, but who am I to stop this place from going to the dogs?" The boy said again. His voice was loud and grating. He was older than us by at least four years, so I couldn't figure out why he was wasting his time with a group of ten-year-olds.

"Is there anything you want from us?" I asked, standing up and stepping between Toji and his 'friend'. The boy had been walking closer and closer to Toji throughout his speech and was now leaning over my roommate's shoulder. Toji's clenched fists had begun shaking, and that was the only thing that made me intervene. A fight here would not end particularly well for anyone.

"Who do you think you are to intervene in Zenin clan business?" The boy asked in a voice barely below a shout. Fuck. Was I meeting a stereotypical 'honored son' from a Chinese cultivation manga? It was giving similar vibes at this point.

"Natsu from the Wu family," Lee helpfully supplied, making the older boy step back involuntarily. Good. My family name could shake him. That meant I had some chance of ending this all peacefully. "I think we can all just call it a day from this point. It was a pleasure to meet you, Naoya Zenin," I said with a bow, silently praying for him to take the out. Let this end here. Let it end. And Agni himself seemed to be listening as the Zenin boy actually stepped backward to return my bow. "Same here, Natsu from the Wu family," he said before straightening and turning around to go back to his table, and that was when shit hit the fan.

"Good. Run away, you coward," Toji said with scorn dripping in his tone like venom from a snake. The words hit Naoya in a way no one could explain without an understanding of more internal dynamics than I cared about. He swirled around and jumped right for Toji, and since I was between them, he was coincidentally jumping right at me with flames building in his fist. Of course, I couldn't get a peaceful night. I was cursed with the luck befitting a person born in the fourth month. I ducked underneath Naoya's fist and retaliated. If I couldn't get a peaceful night, I'd get an interesting one at the very least.

A/N; Yup. Done with the chapter. And yes, I'm shamelessly stealing names from the JJK universe. Sue me. How's it looking though? We've got the next five chapters of this story, along with the next five chapters of another fic that I uploaded at the exact same time as this one (an insert is into a version of Kal El, who gets tossed into the MCU) all available on pa-atreon, and you can read all of that right now just by heading to the link on my profile or searching for my username up there. Feel free to have a look.