Chapter 48: Just another day.
[A/N:My greatest apologies to you all. The reason for not posting is due to my PC experiencing some technical issues, so I handed it in to get checked out, as a Draughtsman who specializes in Computer Aided Draughting this caused quite an issue. Till then I'll try write on my phone when I can. Once again I apologize.]
Moments after they left I came out. The Aftermath was truly quite the sight. The ship was buried in ice and one poor sap was turned into an ice sculpture and was currently being defrosted by the crew.
"Good news for the fire lord. The greatest threat to the fire Nation, is a small boy." Said Iroh.
"That boy did this." replied Zuko, indicating towards the heavily damaged ship.
The Avatar would be heading to The Air Temple. As such I wouldn't have much to do in the near future, so I got comfortable and continued my sealing Jutsu studies.
(MC Clone POV)
Within the dessert thousands of clones could be seen. In one direction, powerful gusts of winds where raging. With every movement of the many clones, the winds would follow, sometimes calm and tranquil, at others sharp and heavy.
Within another direction atop a lake figures were moving, and the water danced along side them forming giant pillars of water. These pillars would sometimes change forms, at times ice and at others would turn into a thick mist.
In another direction, it was a sea of flames. The color of the produced flames would fluctuate. This was caused by the change of temperature.
Within the last direction all the clones were still trying to lift a rock.
I was stuck in a dilema of what to use as fuel for my bending, I did not wish to use something simple like love, anger, hatred or even joy. I wanted something that would make my bending unique.
After hours of contemplation I remembered Shun Shun Rikka(Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield), More specifically its source of power. Taking inspiration from it I had decided on what I would use as the fuel for my bending. The power of 'Intention'.
It took me sometime but I was able to implement it. The Aftermath of this is that the power of my bending is all over the place. So long as my intent to kill or harm you is strong enough, my bending would become stronger and stronger to heights that may never be reached by another. An example would be my fire bending, the flames would continue to increase in temperature size and ferocity. On the other side of the spectrum, if my resolve to kill you is not enough, than the flames were normal. If I have no intention to kill you, my flames would become harmless, causing only a feeling of warmth.
The other elements would be like this as well. The past few days, I also discovered that my affinity with fire, wind and water was stronger that that of earth, Although I have affinity with everything, including elements I don't even know the existence of, these three were as simple as breathing to me, second nature. I later learned from Keiser that this was due to my bloodlines. They were progressing at an insane rate. If I were to master them in less then a month I wouldn't be too surprised. The tricky one was earth. It would take a little longer, although that may be the case for others it's speed might still be monstrous.
I had also visited my tailed beasts. The only one of them who was kind and got along well with me was Matatabi, I didn't put too much thought into it, Matatabi was the kindest amongst the Bijuu. The others however, kept to themselves, usually like I don't exist.
So I had gone to collect rent. It wasn't to problematic as no matter how antagonistic the Bijuu were towards me, they weren't humans, and would never go back on their words. This process would be repeated once per day. All that chakra was hoarded, keeping it within me and when my reserves were on overload, I began filling my titan form. It took all the tailed beast less than an hour to regain all their reserves of Chakra, hence me milking them for chakra daily wasn't really a problem.
I had notes and records of the greatest ancient earth benders at my disposal to learn from, so I knew earth bending wouldn't take too long to master, however, experience is the greatest teacher, so I sent a clone out to learn from the local sandbenders.
(MC POV)
Few days later we arrived at a port. Disembarking with zuko and Iroh, zuko spoke.
"Uncle I want repairs made as quickly as possible, I don't wanna stay too long and risk losing his trail."
"You mean the Avatar-" said Iroh but he was cut of by zuko.
"Don't mention his name on these docks. Once word gets out that he's alive, every firebender will be out looking for him and I don't want anyone getting in the way."
"Getting in the way of what, Prince Zuko?" Said a man, approching us.
"Captain Zhao" Said Zuko.
"It's Comander now, and General Iroh, great hero of our nation." Said Zhao giving a slight bow towards Iroh.
"Retired General" Iroh responded.
"The fire lords brother and son are welcomed guests anytime." Completely ignoring me, it seems I was seen as a The prince's lackey.
Later we all went inside where Zhao began explaining the Fire Nation's planned victory over tea in his tent. Amidst the conversation, Zhao inquired Zuko about his search for the long-lost Avatar. Knowing that disclosing the Avatar's discovery would attract bounty hunters, Zuko lied, stating that his search had been rather unsuccessful. Zhao had suspicions about the battle Zuko described, because he had seen the destroyed parts of the ship, which Zuko had explained earlier as damages from an encounter with an Earth Kingdom navy ship.
One of Zhao's soldiers walked in and reported that he had interrogated Zuko's crew, finding out that Zuko had the Avatar but let him escape. Zuko had no choice but to tell Zhao the truth. Zhao replied that he would be taking over the hunt for the Avatar. This led to an outburst on zuko's part, Zhao's men moved to detain us, however the ones who tried to grab me suddenly stopped a moment later their hands fell off and like a fountain blood gushed out. The Kunai in my hand vanished before anyone noticed, all but one old man, the only who seems to have realized I had moved was Iroh who briefly glanced towards me, however from his confusion it seems he also did not see my movement just the Kunai, however his face changed to one of calm Instantly. I once again had to commend the old man's instincts.
Zhao became very Vigilant after seeing this. He looked towards Iroh, seemingly pinning the blame on him. Seeing that Iroh was sitting, unaffected by the events solidafied his misunderstanding. However, he calmed down seeing that 'Iroh' didn't act once again.
Zhao and zuko continued to get into a verbal spat. Zhao subsequently insulted Zuko by telling him that his father would let him come home without the Avatar if he really loved him. Enraged, Zuko challenged Zhao to an Agni Kai at sunset. In the duel, It was a shaky start for Zuko as Zhao seemed to be overpowering him, but eventually with the cheering and advice of his Uncle, Zuko won a strategic victory by using the basics Iroh instructed him to use − moves which caused Zhao to lose balance. After the fight, Zhao, upset by the outcome of the duel, tried to attack Zuko from behind, but was stopped by Iroh.
Iroh tossed Zhao aside and stated, "So this is how the great Commander Zhao acts in defeat? Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you."
After thanking him for the tea we departed, as we were leaving Iroh stared intensely at my back. Acting like I didn't notice a thing I kept moving, heading for the ship.