'Finally.' Sasuke thought as he walked down the ramp of the ship. It had taken about three weeks to get to the earth kingdom but they finally made it. Nobody was as happy as him to leave the ship.
He had been on sea for too long, added to the fact that he had now put a big distance between him and the fire nation. That didn't mean that he was out of danger yet.
'If I remember correctly, there were a very small number of fire nation soldiers seen in the earth kingdom from time to time. Here's hoping I don't run into them.'
He breathed in as he took a random direction and walked. He noticed that he attracted attention as he walked. He wasn't surprised by that. From what he theorizes, the should be around the time Iroh withdrew from the walls of Ba Sing Se due to the death of his son.
He himself would be worried if they weren't cautious of new faces, especially since he had the telltale pale skin of a fire nation citizen. People tend to think that he's a non bender due to the black color of his eyes.
That works perfect for him because it allows him to catch opponents off guard and it also makes him seem harmless. His sword and stack of kunai are currently in his inventory, ready to be summoned to his hands at any moment.
'First thing to do would be to gather information. Although I'm sure that I'm right, things may tend to deviate a bit. My existence is one of such deviations.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took him some time to get used to the local layout of the town. From what he gathered from the whispering and eavesdropped conversations he was in a small town independent of the earth kingdom.
There are few Earth benders in the town and the population of fire nation soldiers is nonexistent. He would be staying here for a while before moving on so details like this were important. He had also discovered a handful of flaws in this town.
The main flaw being that should an external force attack, they had no form of defense seeing as how their minuscule number of benders weren't even decently strong...from what he heard. He had no intention of defending them should such a scenario occur.
'Next stop, find a place to stay for the night.' He'd spent the whole day surveying and it was already nighttime. He took a step before abruptly halting in motion.
'I don't have any form of currency on me, so it would be a waste of time finding an inn.' He bit his thumb tentatively as he thought that. He hadn't had any chance to swipe some Earth kingdom currency so the only thing he could do was rough it for the night.
He sighed internally at his misfortune. He noticed that he stood in front of a decently sized house. He was about to continue moving when pain suddenly erupted in his head.
He doubled over in pain as he gritted his teeth, keeping himself from screaming out.
'Now!? It's even worse than before!'
He struggled to stay conscious as his vision faded in and out. Pushing himself up, he managed to drag himself into the shadowed alley just beside the house.
Hiding behind a empty dusty box, he passed out from the pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He opened his eyes in confusion. Barely a second ago he was experiencing excruciating pain and now said pain was absent.
One thing he noticed as clarity reached him was that he was no longer in the earth kingdom. There was an abundance of both strange and normal plants around him. What stood out the most was that everything had a blue and slightly green hue to them.
'This is...'
He took a look at his immediate environment and took to exploring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a few minutes of walking, all he had found were more strange plants. He had not once sighted any other sign of life other than that.
To his frustration, it felt like he was walking in circles. He stopped at a tree that he had seemingly passed previously.
This time he took a different path other than the one he took prior. This time, after walking a decent distance, he saw a pool up ahead. Approaching the pool, he noticed that it had an ethereal look to it.
Now directly in front of the pool, he noticed something that he should have when he awakened. He was no longer eight years old.
His current appearance was that of a sixteen year old Uchiha Sasuke before the fourth great ninja war, grey zipped shirt and all. Even his kusanagi sword was present...and more importantly, his eternal mangekyo sharingan glaring back at him.
Those weren't the only things that he noticed.
"Come out. Who are you?" He asked without looking back. It was silent for a while before the loud sound of a large insect's crawling made itself known. It was accompanied by a large insect-like figure hidden by the shadow of a tree behind him.
"My my, what a surprise. A human in the spirit world but yet not bond by its rules. Interesting." An echoing male voice said.
"So I was right. You've been stalking me for quite some time now. What do you want?" Sasuke asked, turning back to glare at the figure.
"I'm simply curious on how a being such as yourself exists. Although you don't seem to be at your full power, you're still an enigma." The figure responded.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed and his chakra fluctuated a bit.
"What do you mean?" He demanded as his gaze grew colder. There was a split second of hesitation from the figure before it answered.
"And what makes you think I'll just tell you what you want? After all, you need me to find the answers so harming me would not be in your best interest." The figure said in a smug tone.
Pin drop silence had come upon them. The tension in the air was palpable. The air seemed to grow heavier.
"Is that really what you think?" He said in a cold and dangerous tone.
In less than a second, he had covered the distance between them and was now behind the figure with his kusanagi out. The point of the sword lightly digging into the figure's back.
"I don't take well to threats, regardless of how insignificant they are." He said as the figure shivered a bit at the turn of events.
"Now, you'll tell me everything I want to know, won't you, Koh?" Sasuke finished.
Light finally showered on the hidden figure, which revealed itself to be a giant centipede-like creature with the face of an old man. Kusanagi dug deeper in the now named Koh's back, basically ignoring the shell covering its innards.
"You think I'm afraid? I-" It tried to start but was cut off by Sasuke.
"Don't bother bluffing. I can see you shaking in your shell. These eyes see everything." Sasuke said coolly.
Sweat broke out on his elderly face. The Uchiha had unconsciously released a fraction of his chakra mixed with bloodlust striking fear into the spirit.
"A few years ago, there a great surge of energy in the spirit world. It's power was greater than any that I have ever seen. However, when such a power appears, those who lust for it will do anything to gain even a fraction of it." Koh started after gaining enough courage.
"The spirit Raava was one of such beings. You humans know her as the 'avatar'. Presumptuous if you ask me." It said trying to lighten the atmosphere but was only met with a glare.
"Anyway, Raava tried to absorb as much energy as she could but...things don't go as planned. She was too arrogant and messed with things she shouldn't have. She caused the energy to go wild, opening a temporary gateway through which a few spirits escaped into the normal world."
"I thought Raava couldn't separate herself from the avatar." Sasuke asked, now genuinely confused.
"She shouldn't. My guess is that the sudden surge allowed her to temporarily split apart from her host for a short period of time. But that's all speculation on my part." Koh said, now regaining a bit of confidence which was quickly squashed by the Uchiha coating the still embedded blade with lightning chakra, sending shocks into Koh.
"Don't get smart with me. We both know that you're too weak to escape my grasp, let alone attempt to steal my face." He stated with a matter of fact tone.
"Now, keep talking..."