Chapter 6: Chapter 6

It was the first day of the journey and night had fallen. The crew and passengers had gone to sleep with the exception of the captain and his partner.

While the passengers of the ship had gone to sleep in the cabin, a small glow of moonlight met Sasuke sitting in a corner on the deck. He didn't feel comfortable sleeping with so many strangers. Added to the fact that if for some reason a fight broke out, the cabin would be too congested for him to fight effectively.

Despite being a fire bender, he felt more at peace with the moon. He had only one thought on his mind, namely; what would he do when he got to the earth kingdom.

So far, he had been making up his journey plans on the spot. His first goal was to escape from the fire nation and now that he had done that, the question on his next goal kept him awake.

'My next priority is building up my strength. Azula, Mai and I are seven years old, that means I have until I turn fifteen to gather my strength. Eight years...'

He wanted to be as strong as Shippuden Sasuke by the time canon starts. It's not going to be an easy task but it's doable.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the captain of the ship stood beside him, watching the sea while leaning on the side rails of the ship. Sasuke stiffened a bit at the man's choice to approach him.

"So, kid...why're you going to the earth kingdom, on your own for that matter?" He asked somberly without looking at him.

"That has nothing to do with you." Sasuke answered with his fingers dancing on his unsheathed blade.

They stayed in a tense silence for a few moments. "You're from the fire nation, aren't you?"

It was more of a statement than a question. Out of the pilots sight, Sasuke unsheathed his blade slightly. He contemplated his next move would be, depending on the next words that he utters.

After not receiving an answer a denial from the young boy, he deduced that he was right.

"Relax, I'm not going to throw you overboard." He said.

That didn't cause Sasuke any amount of relief. Seeing that his words didn't calm the young boy, he continued.

"You're just a kid. You aren't involved in the bad things the fire nation has done. I mean, you're even here running away from them. That's enough proof."

"You shouldn't trust too easily." Sasuke finally said, slowly sheathing his sword.

"I shouldn't, but I do. I know it's lame. I just don't think that all people born in the fire nation are the same." He said with a small smile before going back to the front of the ship.

An image of a whiskered blond with blue eyes overlaps his back. Sasuke's eyes widen a bit before calming down.

"Idiot." He said with an almost invisible smile.

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

A few days passed since his talk with the captain and true to his words, he hadn't tried to cause any trouble for him. That didn't mean that he could relax.

If the captain could figure it out, then there is a chance that the rest of them could also do the same. That's why he hadn't practice anything related to chakra since boarding the ship.

A fight can happen at any time and he didn't want to be exhausted when that happens. With the halting of his chakra related training, he focused on building his body.

Of course he was powerful but his body needed to be able to keep up. It's one of the reasons he avoided outright close combat fights. While his speed is nothing to scoff at, his body's strength was not as high as he wished.

His fighting style is focused on speed and efficiency but doesn't neglect power. All aspects are important in battle. Benders in this world tend to neglect physical training. The only slight exception to that are earth benders.

On another note, I've noticed something strange. The man who I thought to be the captain's assistant has been quite nervous for some time and it's not the kind of nervous when you're afraid of something.

'He's expecting something, but what is it?'

It all started the night after the talk with the captain. Everyone on the ship sleeps in the cabin except the captain who has his own quarters. There are shifts taken so we're not stopping the ship at any time.

His 'assistant' is takes the reins at midnight and at that time he's supposed to be the only one on deck, the rest should be sleeping. He didn't account for Sasuke's cautious mind.

That night he received a message from a messenger hawk, also giving a note to the hawk before it flew away. It had happened for three days before the exchange of letters stopped.

Since then, he had been not so subtly glancing at Sasuke the day after it stopped. Whether or not he realized that he had been caught didn't matter to Sasuke. What mattered was finding out what he was expecting.

'Can't I go long without something bad happening?' Sasuke thought rhetorically as he prepared to rest for the night. It was midnight and the surroundings were unnaturally misty.

'Sharingan'

His red eyes widen a fraction before they narrowed.

'So that's it.'

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

In the dead of the night, when nobody could possibly be awake, the mist drew closer to their ship. The man steering the ship only looked slightly worried and somewhat relieved.

Out of the blinding mist emerged a fire navy ship, headed straight for the travel ship. They stopped beside the ship before preparing to board. They were allowed entry as the steerer of the travel ship allowed them in.

A brown bearded man wearing the fire nation uniform stepped onto the ship as a single guard stood behind him. As they boarded, they failed to notice the blood red eyes watching them from the corner.

"Welcome sir. I-" the ship captain's assistant began but was cut off.

"Save the pleasantries, Zheng. You sent a report that you have another batch of 'workers'. Where are they?" The bearded soldier asked gruffly.

"Th-they're all asleep in the c-cabin. That's why I requested you come at night." The man now identified as Zheng timidly spoke.

The bearded soldier then turned to the one behind him. "Get the men and round them up. And send word to the mines. We have a new batch of slaves for them." He said the last part with a sick smile.

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

On the fire navy ship, a soldier could be seen walking through the hallways. He passed a few other soldiers who didn't react with more than a glance at him.

He made his way through the layout of the ship. He seemed to be lost for a moment, as he turned back to return to his previous location. Before he could go, a burly man wearing an engineers outfit and mask passed by.

He looked around seemingly searching for something before he put his attention of the apparent engineer. He stalked up behind him before putting a hand over his mouth, muffling his screams as he stabbed a knife through his neck.

"Mmmphh...!"

His body went limp and fell into the soldier's hold. The soldier then proceeded to search the dead man's body before fishing out a folded piece of paper.

He unfurled it and scanned the parchment before nodding his head in satisfaction. He cleaned up the drops of blood on the floor with a dirty rag he found on the corpse. He then poked the corpse which then disappeared without a trace.

He scanned the parchment one more time before furling it and stuffing it in his pocket. In a small puff of smoke, the 'soldier' was now replaced with a figure that was an exact lookalike of the engineer.

He then made his way to his destination, no longer looking lost. A few minutes and he now stood in front of a door than had a label written 'Engine room'.

Opening the door, he was met with two other burly men dressed in similar engineering gear.

'This might be tricky.' He thought as he planned out his next move. He first surveyed the surroundings, taking note of the placement of the alarm switch. He silently locked the door behind him as he made his way to the one closest to him.

Suddenly, a sword was in his grasp as he sliced cleanly through the neck, effectively beheading the first engineer. There was no time to scream nor was there any forewarning.

The sound of metal through flesh rang through the room, alerting the other engineer.

"What the hell!" He screamed as he rushed towards the alarm switch. Unfortunately before his hand could get to it, his arm was chopped off by the unbelievably sharp sword. He opened his mouth to scream but it was for naught as the blade went through his mouth, separating him from the jaw upwards.

The man ignored the dead bodies as he swiped his sword downward, the blood from its victims flying right off. The blade disappeared from his hand as he set off to work. Within minutes the entire engine room was filled with small paper tags stuck to the walls, floor, pipes and even the ceiling.

A soldier now walked out of the engine room before touring round the ship, laying a few paper tags on the surroundings as he toured. It didn't take him much time to have almost all of the ship tagged. With his work done, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

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

On the small ship, the red eyed figure watching the exchange in the shadows suddenly twitched.

'It's finally done. I thought it'd take less time but I guess you can't have everything.' He thought. The man behind the bearded soldier had been gone for a few minutes now gathering soldiers to round up the travelled side as slaves.

Little did he know that he would never see the light of day again as he was already killed by the infiltrator.

"What is taking him so long?" The bearded soldier asked impatiently. They had been waiting for almost ten minutes.

"Maybe he ran into some...complications?" said Zheng, looking unsure at his own response.

The soldier scoffed before turning his back and headed back to his ship to deal with the delay in orders. As soon as he was out of sight and inside his ship, the hidden figure stepped out, revealing himself to be Sasuke.

"So..." he started, startling Zheng out of his skin.

"You brought us out here to sell us out as slaves to the fire nation. You disgust me." He finished.

"Hmph. No one cares what you think. You'll be on a ship sailing to the fire nation by morning and I'll be a few pieces of gold richer." All of his earlier timidity gone from his demeanor.

Sasuke was silent for a moment before he spoke.

"And who decided that. None of you are making it to morning alive." His face impassive as he spoke.

Zheng now held an arrogant smirk. "You have a big mouth for a brat. But it doesn't matter becaus-"

*BOOOOOMMMMM!*

Anything he wanted to say died in his throat as the fire nation ship exploded in flames. The explosion shook the water as they were pushed away by the shockwave.

"No, it doesn't." Sasuke voiced out when they were distances from the burning ship with a cold smirk.

Zheng could only fall to his knees as he watched the ship burn, taking in the sight with horror evident on his face.

"H-h-how?....h-how did this happen..." he mumbled to himself as he couldn't tear his eyes away.

"That's not what you should be worried about." The cold voice behind him said. All bravado he previously showed disappeared as he turned back.

"Wait! Pleas-!" He was interrupted by a sword cutting through his head.

All was silent for a while. Only the sound of waves and of course the sound of burning could be heard. Sighing, he 'discarded' the corpse.

With a minor wind jutsu, the ship was sailing in the right direction at a quick pace.

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

"*Yawwnn! I guess I overslept a bit." The sleepy captain said as rays of sunlight graced his face. He shook himself awake before focusing on steering the ship.

'Thank God I remembered to put them in a genjutsu enhanced sleep. It would be difficult to explain the burning ship and the missing Zheng.'

Fortunately nobody seemed to notice his disappearance except the captain who was too sleepy to actually go look for him.

'Hopefully the rest of this journey is uneventful.' He thought as he allowed himself to fall asleep.