Prince Naruto - VI (Patreon)

Chapter VI - Consequences.

The rumors quickly spread among the ranks of the army of the Earth Kingdom, Naruto had fought for two nights and two days straight. In the History books, those days would be remembered as the ‘Burning Battlefields’ for that was what had happened during those forty-eight hours. Reports say that a demon came down from the sky and massacred the EK army without mercy, burning the bodies to ash despite the soldiers’ pleas for mercy. And it was close enough to the truth. Naruto had unleashed his devastating firebending like he had never done before, gone was his restraint, only pragmatism had dictated his actions. The Prince of the Fire Nation pacified nearly all of the western battlefields and caused the rout of five Earth Kingdom’ armies battalions. The territory was now entirely under the control of the Fire army, and thanks to the supply units and reinforcement regiments that had arrived while Naruto was burning away the enemy, the situation improved quickly. With his work done, the Crown Prince had let the officers do their job and secure the perimeter while he went inside the large tent that had been pitched for him and crashed on his bed, ignoring Kurama’s comments on his ‘weak human condition.’

He slept for sixteen hours straight, and woke up famished. He took a bath in a nearby river while a feast was being prepared in his honor thanks to the supply sent from Yu Dao. Robed himself and joined the soldiers who immediately threw themselves on their knees once they had spotted him. The nearest Commander spoke:

"Prince Naruto, words alone could not express our gratitude and the honor you have bestowed upon us. You saved us, you honored our fallen comrade and restored their honor by finishing what they had started. You gave us the privilege to fight by your side, and witness your incredible power, you gave us hope and shared your sacred inner fire to give us courage. I speak for everyone here when I say that we will never forget, and will forever be in your debt, my Prince."

The stoic expression Naruto had worn since he had cleared up his first battlefield cracked to show a small smile, it felt good to be acknowledged despite all the people he had killed in the past three days.

To the astonishment of everyone present, he went down on one knee and held out his hand for the Commander to grab it.

"None of you owe me anything," he declared, his serene voice was like a breath of fresh air for the men and women who revered him as he was Agni herself, "It was I who owed you so much for your patience. I can only imagine how much you have suffered and how much faith you have put in me since you have heard of my unique bending. I only regret that it took me so long to be ready to join us, and for this, I apologize. Get back on your feet, soldiers, and stand by my side where you belong."

Naruto could tell that the Commander had to call upon all of his willpower to prevent tears from appearing in his eyes, he grabbed his hand and stood proud, struggling to control himself before his Prince’s shining aura. Said Prince put a hand on his shoulder.

"Now, I believe we’ve all earned the right to celebrate our victory. This is a glorious day for the Fire Nation, the one day of respite we will have before securing our colonies and moving on to Omashu where we will make one step further to the end of this War. So cheers, soldiers!"

And cheered the soldiers did once their Prince had spoken. The feast paled compared to the ones Naruto had had in Court, yet, the food tasted better for a reason the blond had a hard time fathoming. Perhaps the fact that he’d actually earned his meal gave his tongue a new taste perspective? He really could not say.

After his hunger had been satiated, he retreated back in his tent to write a report for his father. Informing him of his crushing victory, and requesting more men and supply to prepare and advance deeper in Earth Kingdom territory. He advised against sieging Omashu for now, and recommended taking all the territories and villages that surrounded the city in order to destroy the EK’s outposts to prevent a retaliation attack and effectively surround Omashu to make it fall quickly with minimum casualty. With his recent crushing victories, Naruto knew his father would listen to him and trust his power to do his bidding. Ozai never cared about the manner, all he ever cared about was the result. And if Naruto promised him Omashu, the Fire Lord would give him what he needed to accomplish his will. All Naruto had to do was to stay reasonable in his demands and keep producing results. His father would not interfere with his plans unless he’d require his presence for a more important matter, but since nothing was more important in his father’s eyes than the war, he doubted his request would fall on deaf ears. He considered writing a letter to Azula but chose against it, he only had one messenger hawk, and knew that his father would read his letter before even considering giving it to his sister. And Naruto was too much of a private person too let that happen, he would find another messenger hawk another day.

Once his report had been sent, the Crown Prince was about to indulge himself with a cup of tea, when he heard a commotion. He sighed and exited his tent.

"Please!" He heard a woman screech. "My child will die without food! Please! Have mercy!"

"Stay back!" A non-bending soldier commanded with his spear pointed at a young woman with black hair.

She was holding a boy who looked like he hadn’t even reached his third birthday, the boy was pale and his breathing was weak judging by the short risings of his chest. Naruto’s eyes widened in a second, he hurried toward the woman.

"What is going on?" He asked-demanded once he was standing next to the guard. The latter was startled, and the other soldiers behind them were shocked.

"My Prince! Stay back! She could be carrying some disease!"

Naruto was about to scold the guard for his lack of perception when he met the woman’s horrified gaze. She took a step back, tripped over her own feet and would have fallen backwards had Naruto not grabbed her by the shoulders. She started to struggle as hard as she could while covering her child with her arms to protect him.

"Let me go, you monster!" She screamed horrified. "Let me go! Spare my child! You murderer! You demon! You killed them all!"

"Quiet, whore!" A lieutenant barked while other soldiers let out cries of indignation. "You are talking to the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation!"

She did not seem to hear him as Naruto strengthen his grip to prevent her from dropping her child.

"You killed my father!" She accused him as tears were flowing down her cheeks. "My brothers! And my husband! Curse you! May the Spirits punish you and sentence you to centuries of torment!"

"Enough!" Naruto boomed before his soldiers loose their cool.

The woman stopped ranting, she looked at him with murder and grief.

"I am sorry for your loss." He said as he released her shoulders. "I cannot undo what I did nor would I, for it was my duty to protect my men and end the battles in this land. But I can help your son, if you would allow me."

The woman seemed at a loss, she looked like she wanted to scream and insult him and rip his eyes of his skull. In the end, she only lowered her head in shame and kept crying tears of rage and sadness.

"Why? Why did you come here? Why did you take so many of our loved ones? Why?!"

"Because the fightings needed to end,» Naruto replied, firm as a rock, "and as the Crown Prince of my nation, it was my duty to ensure victory and secure those new colonies. Now, no one else needs to die or get hurt. I do not ask for your forgiveness, if I must, I will carry your hatred and the hatred of each Earth Kingdom’s citizens for the rest of my days. Please, I do not wish to help your son to make amends, I wish to help him, simply because he does not have to suffer anymore."

It took the woman a whole minute to finally accept the blond’s help, her son was taken from her by a fire nation medic who proceeded to hydrate him before giving him a bowl of very nutritious -yet tasteless- soup.

While the boy was being cared, Naruto had the woman interrogated by a commander to figure out why she had needed to come to a Fire nation encampment to ask for food. The reasons had infuriated the Crown Prince; the Earth Kingdom army had voluntarily set fire to farms and fields in order to prevent the FN army from getting supplies once the territory had been lost. But since the supply units had arrived, only the Earth Kingdom citizens would suffer from the famine the army had planned for their enemies.

Naruto cursed General Fong and vowed that he would incinerate him himself should they cross paths again, but for now, he needed to solve this disastrous situation.

He currently had five large villages that were suffering from the lack of food, the Fire army could not share their own food with them, for they still had a long campaign to run. Moreover, these villages needed income and to be able to feed themselves, they could not always rely on the army even if the army was capable of affording them. No successful colony would rise from these burnt lands.

Naruto spent hours looking at his map and thinking about his next decision. Those villages were too scattered and had suffered to many losses to grow effectively and become proud colonies of the Fire Nation. Their citizens needed to come together on unburnt grounds to create a new city in order to survive next winter and strengthen the army’s grip on the region.

But they needed seeds, crops, and water for this project to bloom, and more importantly, they needed actual food immediately. Buildings could be created with Earthbending and Naruto had a few ideas regarding this new city, but that was a problem for another time, first he needed to find a way to feed those people.

The River next to his camp would do, so water was not a problem. As for the food… that is where things were getting trickier.

Yu Dao or any other colony were either too far away to even hope having the required quantity delivered, or did not have the required quantity in their storage.

He dared not ask for his father’s help, the old man would incinerate his letter and demand him to come back to the capital to be taught a lesson while the innocent die. Terrible idea.
That left him with the option of buying food to a nearby city, but he was deep in Earth Kingdom territory and they were at war, given what Fong had done to the locals’ crops and storages, Naruto doubted anyone would be willing to sell him food no matter how much gold he had to offer. Unless…

Unless he were to buy the food from a neutral land, one that wasn’t plagued by war and would be open to commerce with the Fire Nation. Or at the very least, open to sell food to people in need. The problem was that this place was pretty far, and not exactly renowned for its hospitality towards Fire Nation vessels. Naruto needed to act quickly.

He requested a new messenger hawk been delivered to him as quickly as possible, in order for the fastest ship of the fleet to sail south. Naruto himself put on his backpack and took off to the place he had located, thinking while flying of what he would have to say to convince its people to sell him food and seeds, indirectly aiding the Fire Nation in their war.

Soon, he would arrive at Kyoshi Island.

'God & Demon' and 'the Nothern Dragon' will be updated next.