Chapter 8

Eyelids opened up to reveal sharp black eyes. Taking a moment to gather their bearings, the owner of said eyes perused his immediate surroundings.

'Where am I?'

The individual found himself laid on a bed with his upper body stripped bare. He got up from the bed to take stock of his situation. He remembered his 'trip' to the spirit world. What he didn't remember was how he got here, wherever 'here' is.

The room is somewhat bland. With an exception of the bed and a small desk to the corner there was nothing else in the room.

'I'm positive that I passed out close to the streets...' he paused his thinking for a moment.

"I know you're there." He said while staring pointedly at the door. The shadow of a being standing behind the door could be seen at the foot of the door.

The person seem to hesitate for a second, probably contemplating what to do. After about five seconds, the door opened. A slightly muscular man of average height walked into the room. His skin was slightly tanned and his hair was in a neat buzz cut.

Sasuke raised a brow at the man with a raised eyebrow. Black eyes stared into brown ones as recognition flashed through them.

"You were the captain of the ship. Why are you here?" Sasuke demanded before he had a chance to talk. He nodded, looking a bit awkward.

"T-this is my house. You were passed out on the street so I brought you here." He started with a stutter which vanished as quickly as it came.

"Why?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

"Why what?" The man said looking confused

"Let me clarify it for you Why did you take me off the streets? Why are you helping me?" Sasuke asked with narrow eyes.

A smile graced the captain's face. "I told you earlier, didn't I? You're just a kid. The sins of the fire nation have nothing to do with you? And...it was the right thing to do."

Sasuke wasn't a fool and neither was he naive.

'Nothing comes free of charge. There's always a catch. What exactly is your goal?' He thought as he eyed the smiling man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasuke stood in the middle of the room, now fully clothed in plain black pants and a long sleeved dark green shirt.

To anyone who watched him, he would look like he was just having a normal day but not everything is as it seems.

'He's already classified me as a fire bender. It would be difficult to explain how I can use more than a single element or even any element other than fire. Tch. So I'm stuck with fire. '

He was going through an internal debate within himself and it seems he had found the best path forward.

He was lead by Shen, which he just discovered was the captain's name, out of the room and into what would traditionally be the main in the house.

He was left to his own devices for the time being as Shen went into the connecting kitchen. Upon sitting on one of the short stools he noticed something.

"It seems you don't live alone." He said as he inspected the room, specifically the small framed picture hanging high on the wall opposite him.

The picture showed the image of a young man who bared a strong resemblance to Shen. Beside him was a beautiful lady in his embrace displaying a small smile.

"Oh, that's my wife. She's out at the moment but she should be back any moment." Shen said with a fond smile noticing Sasuke's stare.

A few minutes later bowl of dumplings was set in front of Sasuke. He had noticed it while waiting for the meal to be prepared. He stared at his hand for a bit before clenching his palm testily.

'My chakra...it increased. And it wasn't a small increment. Although...' He thought.

His eyes hardened as he thought of a certain parasitic spirit of order.

'Raava! The only thing keeping me from aiming to kill you is that you'd simply reform. The death of an avatar isn't your death. It simply separates you from your host and frees you until the next reincarnate is born.'

He'd learnt a lot from Koh, things that no human knows nor will they ever get to know. After all, not everyone can threaten an ancient spirit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasuke could now be seen scribbling with a paintbrush on small square bits of paper. He would scribble for a bit before placing it on the pile beside him and then picking up another one, repeating the process multiple times.

There was now a decent sized stack of paper that had been scribbled on. To a normal person, it would simply be a piece of paper with a random kanji on it but to Sasuke, it was a dangerous weapon. He was refilling his stack of explosive tags which were used up to destroy the ship earlier.

He couldn't practice the high level Justus that he possessed due to their destructive and loud nature and also due to nearness of the general population. For the time being he was stuck to basic things like physical development and fuinjutsu.

"What are you doing?" Shen said, leaning over his shoulder to observe what he was doing.

"That is none of your concern." Sasuke said indifferently, making no effort to hide what he was doing. After all, there's no point trying to hide what he doesn't understand.

"You've been scribbling on those tiny bits of paper for the last hour and I still can't understand what you're writing. I understand that kids your age normally play with toys but this is...just weird" Shen said with a very confused and awkward look on his face.

"Just let him be, Shen. If he's enjoying himself then there's no need to stop him." A short slightly pale skinned woman said as she came out from the inner part of the house. She had the typical earth kingdom look down.

From behind her, a young boy of around twelve years old followed. He wore a green earth kingdom shirt and white pants with his left wrist tied by a strip of black cloth.

"He's a kid. You can't exactly expect to act mature and all. Let him play with his papers." He said, staring mockingly at Sasuke.

"If you really think they're toys, you're welcome to play with them." Sasuke said, still not staring at them but with a bit of an edge in his tone.

The young boy, seeing that he wasn't even spared a glance, began to stalk over to the sitting Uchiha in anger. When he got close and stretched out to grab the neatly arranged stack of papers, his hand was gripped by his father, Shen.

"That's enough, Luo. Leave him be." Shen said, pulling him away from Sasuke. He was guided away from the Uchiha and towards the kitchen to assist his mother. What none of them noticed was the fact that the Uchiha's left hand, which was hidden, formed a familiar hand sign.

He had been living with them for almost a month now and he still found it difficult to repress the urge to simply take them out. Shen's wife was at first skeptical about harboring a fire nation child in her home but eventually allowed it. She still isn't fully on board with the idea but she's trying to open up to it.

Shen's son, Luo, was a very ignorant and proud child. This stemmed from the fact that he was the only one in their family of three that possessed the gift of earthbending. He had tried to lord over Sasuke but had ended up ignored. He had no idea how many times he had been so close to death in the last month.

Sasuke released a sigh as he released his fingers from the literal explosion trigger and continued scribbling. His fuse was even shorter than usual due to fact that a weakling believed he could order him around.

'Finally, It's done.' He had just finished scribbling on one of the squares of paper which had taken a considerably longer time than the rest. He loosened his robe and then placed it on his chest. He felt his body quickly become heavier as the tag took effect.

'A weight seal. This will speed up the process. With this I'll be one step closer to my original strength.' He thought as his eyes hardened.

'Whatever your goal is, if anyone stands in my way...I'll cut you down!' he thought, glaring in the direction of the kitchen where he knew Shen was.