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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.
The Fire Nation Royal Military Academy was the premier school of the land. No other school had ever produced a Supreme Military Commander in the history of the fire nation, and not just that highest position. Every War Minister for the last four hundred years had attended the academy. The academy produced more generals than any other.
Why was I telling you this? To drive home just how prestigious the academy was and its place in the fire nation culture. My decision to graduate early had not been made on a whim, and yet everyone seemed determined to assume that it was.
"I'm all for sticking it to authority and all that, but are you sure you've thought this through?" Toji asked with a look that could almost be mistaken for concern on his face.
"Yeah, Natsu. I heard the exams are really difficult and isn't there a rule that you can only take them once" Lee asked, back earnest eyes squinted at me and hesitant smile on his face as he tried to advise caution without making it look like he doubted me.
"The idiots are right. You're supposed to be smarter than this. Don't blow your shot now in some misguided quest to regain your family's honour or whatever it is that's going through that head of yours" Maki's bandages creased on her forehead in the telltale sign that she was suppressing a frown taking over her face. For some reason, for all the control she had over the lower end of her face, none of it went to her bandaged top of her head. The dichotomy was something that could only make sense in a world like this one, as if she'd trained to control one half of her face while totally ignoring the other. An insane idea.
"Well, he definitely isn't listening to us" Zhufu, the latest addition to our eclectic bunch. "I don't see why anyone would want to fight in the war any sooner than they'd have to, but we all know how stubborn Natsu can be when he thinks he's got his mind made up" She said, looking at me with narrowed eyes and a placid expression on her pale face. Just like Toji and I, Zhufu was from noble blood. Unlike the both of us though, her family had little in the way of remaining wealth.
They'd invested heavily into the fire nation's consumer economy over a hundred years ago. When everything was nationalised and turned towards the war effort, they found themselves left to pasture. They did a good job of simulating wealth. Zhufu's clothing was of the highest quality, silk sewn by the finest and most skilled of hands. It was a convincing illusion until one realised that the clothes were of the style that was common over fifty years ago. The cut was older, and much more modest than what any of the other girls wore now. Zhufu wore it well. She had a timeless appeal to her, ever the classic fire nation beauty.
"Wouldn't you do what I was doing if it meant achieving that thing we both know you want to?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes right at her to drive home my meaning. Her eyes met mine as she refused to back down. Golden orbs met blue ones as I saw myself reflected in her eyes. The determined set to my brows, the bags under my eyes that told of my tiredness, and the fierce look on my face that Toji was always willing to mock.
It took the better part of a minute, but she eventually backed down and turned her eyes away from mine. "We all have goals. We have goals we'd give anything for. Why can't you guys accept that this is the best way for me to achieve what I seek?" I asked them.
"Because its fucking stupid" Toji cut in, drawing my glare before he raised his hands in surrender.
"Ignoring the foul language, the brute is right. You're blowing your only chance at graduation for a pipe dream. The exam is famously hard. You know this. Half those who write it fail, and that's even with years of training specially designed to help pass the exams. You want to take it as a third year, when seventh years break under the difficulty." Maki said, not being charitable at all.
"I know the firebending portions will be passable for you" She admitted, but that in and of itself was an understatement. Maki was the second best bender in our class, and it wasn't even close between us. Even Noaya Zenin, widely recognised as the best of the seventh years, barely ever gave me a good fight. And with the thought of Hiroshi's dead bodies in their minds, none of the teachers were keen to let me practise with them.
"But that is only 30% of the final grades. There's strategy, theory, and all sorts of things you still have to pass. And even if you pass, only the top 10 get the right to choose their branch of the military so what if you end up in the navy or the Capital Guard or something like that where you get no chance of seeing combat and getting the chance to restore your family's honour?" Maki was always the most sensible of us all, but right now I didn't need her talking sense into me.
"I guess I just have to finish Top 10 then" I said, smiling at all of them.
"Always knew you were crazy, Natsu, but not like this" a voice spoke out from behind me. I leaned back in my seat and was met with the face of the boy I'd mopped the floor with all those years ago in this same hall.
"Naoya Zenin. Just the last face I wanted to see." I said with a yawn in my voice, affecting a persona of disinterest to get on his nerves.
"I heard the rumour that you put in the application for early graduation and didn't believe a word of it. I told myself, 'surely not even Natsu Wu would be so arrogantly stupid', but I guess that was my mistake. Underestimating the depths of your arrogance and stupidity." Toji made to rise at his words but both Zhufu and Lee were quick enough to drag him back to his seat.
Beyond a look at my roommate I didn't pay any attention to him, in favour of his older cousin. "Sorry, I couldn't quite hear you" I said, placing my index finger in my ear and wiggling it around, making a whole show of it.
Noaya's face flushed. An ugly shade of red as he made to speak before one of his numerous hangers-on grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled on it. The boy took the signal and turned right around, but not before leaving some parting words.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you fail, Natsu" He said, and then twirled around on himself in what I'm sure he thought was an impressive exit and walked away.
After Naoya's visit, the mood across the table was soured and we switched topics from my decision to lighter things like the time Lee tried to ride a platypus bear.
Of course, it wasn't all to be as our revelry and fun is brought to a quick end as one of the numerous servants in the school ran towards me with a note in his hand. "For you, Master Natsu" The older boy said with a whisper and stretched out the scroll he held in his hands towards me.
"Ohhh. Probably from the school about your application to graduate early" Lee said, and before I could take the letter from the servant, Toji had jumped in between us and snatched it right out of the boy's hands before jumping away when I tried to get it from him. I marched after him, but it was too late as he'd already ripped open the scroll and began to read.
"Dear, Natsu Wu. oohhh so official" He whispered as an aside after reading the first sentence of the letter. By now, I wasn't fool enough to believe there was any chance of me getting that scroll off of Toji without doing some form of damage to the missive. I just relaxed back into my seat at the alcove we'd wandered into as a result of our conversation.
"We write this letter regarding your application to take the Graduation Exam of the Royal Fire Nation Academy" Toji was having fun with this, I could see. He'd already begun doing his very best impersonation of a stuffy official voice. That actually did sound oddly similar to the voice of the Headmaster's secretary who I was pretty sure was the one who'd have written a letter like this one. So maybe that was who he was going for.
"We are proud that like so many alumni of this prestigious academy, you have chosen to go the route of early graduation." Toji's tone shifted when he read the phrase 'prestigious academy' to become more sarcastic which was always something I failed to understand. If he hated this place so much, then why come here in the first place. I found it difficult to imagine that the proud, wealthy, and powerful Zenin clan could not find something else to do with him.
"However, as you are well aware, for any student to graduate early they must gain the approval of every member of the academic staff. You have failed to meet this requirement"- "What?"- "and as a result we have no choice but to reject your application" The words Toji spoke failed to reach me as I could hear my heart beating in my chest. I could feel the blood pounding in my head as it flowed. What?
That wasn't a real requirement. It was a formality at the very best. No one ever says no. And who'd have the balls to piss off my family like that in the first place. Sure, we were disgraced but we still had gold and power aplenty. The fire lord's displeasure with us hadn't robbed us of that. Could it have been him, though? The Fire Lord himself? No. No way. It makes no sense. First of all, if it ever gets out, he'd have a rebellion on his hands. And besides, there wasn't enough time. I'd made my application a day ago. It would take even the fastest messenger hawks at least three days to reach the Royal Palace with a message. That doesn't even account for the time it would have taken the hawk for the return trip. No way. It had to be someone here. Someone who already hated me. Someone with no horse in the race wouldn't dare take a risk like this with no immediate and visible payoff. No, it had to be him. He was the only one who made sense.
I came to the conclusion at the same time as Toji. I could see it on his face as he realised, and then it appeared on Maki's face too. Zhufu was just beginning to realise when I turned around to run towards his office. I wasn't surprised when Maki appeared right in my face, gesturing for me to stop or to calm down. Too reasonable by half, she always was. I jumped right over her and built flames at my feet to shoot forwards. A sound of stone creaking and Zhufu was by my side as we shot forwards. "This is a bad idea" She said, and I would have given her the opportunity to calm me down if Toji didn't jump in from behind and plant his foot on her head and drive her right into the floor with one attack. Ooof. That one was going to leave a mark. I nodded at the boy who most considered my best friend before shooting right for Shin again.
I drowned out the shouting behind me, as I sped for his office in the firebending practice room. When I arrived, it was to find him with the new set of First Years. Without the anger clouding my judgement, perhaps this was where I would have stopped. But no. Not now. I jumped into the room and as he turned to me, it was to hit a blast of fire to the face.
He blocked it, of course. Wouldn't be a firebender worth his salt if he didn't. "What the fuck, Shin? Are you truly so petty that you would deny me my opportunity to leave? To regain my family's honour" I asked him as I rushed at him. Asked was probably a bit of an understatement. In truth, I screamed accusations at him as I demanded answers for what he'd done.
"I truly have no idea what you're talking about." He said, still not standing up from his meditating position at the front of the hall. The first years had already begun to move backwards, sensing that this was not going to end peacefully.
"Let me remind you, then" I said, getting into my stance.
"Watch and learn, children. This is the difference between a master and a novice" I scoffed at his words and blasted a kick filled with flames right at his head from the opposite end of the hall. Finally, he stood up, and had enough time just to block my attack. I rushed at him in the intervening time and made my way right for his position.
The first thing I noted that separated fighting a true master like Shin and one like Hiroshi was just how quickly Shin adapted. It was a matter of seconds for multiple concentric rings of fire to swarm the room and ward me off my approach. Cutting through his fire was one of the hardest things I'd ever done when it came to firebending. It felt like he had a hold on every single ember that he sent out. But once you could overwhelm that control, you couldn't even do much. He seemed more keen to snuff the flames than let them fall under my influence. An interesting fighting style if I'd ever fought one.
While I wasted time struggling with his fire and puzzling out his technique, I just barely managed to bend my body out of the way of a massive lance of flames. I watched it sail right above me as I bent backwards to dodge it, and only watching it allowed me to see the colour change for a brief instant before it exploded, making my head ring as the concussive force sent me flying along the hopeless dive I entered into to avoid the explosion in the first place.
I tucked and rolled with no care as to grace or bearing as I barely managed to remain ahead of his attacks. When I made it to my feet, it was to find him still standing where he'd previously been meditating. I'd barely even gotten him to move, and my head was ringing. I had light burns along my sides and I'd lost a good chunk of my previously silky smooth mane.
In just seconds, it was clear to me that I'd bitten way more off than I could chew. "I've gone a bit too far, I see." Shin said, looking behind me. I turned along with him and saw the students cowering in a corner as they watched us with wide eyes. That sight was what truly brought me back to reason. The visions that swarmed my mind of my one-handed father scuffling about and living life in a drunken daze while Grandfather watched all that he'd worked towards burn down around him as a result of the royal family's insanity were washed away by the sight of the frightened children. Just ten year olds.
"And that, class, is how you deal with an aggressor when it comes to firebending." Shin said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"Please thank your upperclassman, Natsu, for volunteering for this demonstration. I hope we did not go too far with our play acting" He said, speaking with so much seeming sincerity that I found it difficult to tell he was lying even if I knew every word he dropped was as false as could be.
"Now, please excuse me for a bit while I thank him personally" He said after the class had chorused their thanks to me as one and returned to some semblance of liveliness as he defused the tense situation so smoothly. As he practically dragged me from the hall and shut the door, I could just barely make them out as they exploded into hushed whispers, discussing the fight in enthusiastic tones.
"Your father. What he did to me, it was wrong. But what was done to him was even more vile" He said first, taking me for a spin as I began to wonder if my concussion actually sent me into a hallucination. This had to be a dream, because no way was Shin actually apologising.
"Don't get me wrong, your father is no good man. Hiroshi knew that better than most, and I too felt his actions. But he didn't deserve that, not for what he did at least. That is the only reason I will tolerate what just happened. Instead of pushing for your expulsion and banishment as is my right after you just endangered a class of children of premier nobility, I will instead cover it all up as a teaching exercise" He said, giving me a significant look, clearly waiting for me to ask for what was under the other cup.
"And in exchange?"
"My grudge with your father is over. I no longer have any desire to fight a crippled man" At those words, only the ringing in my head prevented me from diving right at him. I doubted the fight would go any better this time, and I was already on thin ice. I'd be no use to Grandfather as an honourless exile. That would probably be enough to make him give up the ghost completely.
"Instead, I'll accept reparations. Your grandfather will have my weight sent in gold to my estate. He will do the same for Hiroshi's family." He said, and I nodded instantly. It was a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but I had more than the requested amount in my personal holdings in the family trust so I could probably get it done without even mentioning this whole incident to Grandfather.
"And my exam?" I asked, holding out hope that this new charitable Shin would be willing to unfuck me.
"Don't be stupid, boy. If anyone would want you out of this school as quickly as possible, it would be me. I approved you sitting the exam. I wasn't the clog." He said, before turning around and leaving me standing in the hallway, tired and confused, with a ringing in my head.
A/N; Finally done. So sorry I disappeared for the past two weeks. Had to complete my graduate school applications. Thankfully, that mess is mostly behind me so we're back and ready to go. We've got the next three chapters of this story, along with the first Ten 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.