An: let me just say I hate typing on my phone I've accidentally deleted and had to remake way too many segments of this story zzz.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

'Thoughts'

"Speaking"

Flashbacks

Bijuu and Spirits

Azula had worried and worked, stressed herself and hidden away to avoid drawing attention, all for a shining light that laid at the end of the tunnel. Azula knew not of what lay there at the end, and she dared not dream, not think of the what ifs.(easier said than done, and that way lay madness, but it was so tempting nonetheless)

She had been staying in this village for almost five months now, keeping in contact with Cheng to gather supplies, (to change her looks although anyone who looked closely would still recognise her) using him to market a book of advanced fire bending techniques, that focused on efficiency instead of pure power.

They were selling well and allowed her to live her life without working much, even if it was mostly sendentary.

The story she had spread around town, was that Jing (Azula), and her companion, were part of the guard forces from Guo Jing. Jing, being a women of extreme skill, and a fierce patriotic, had been promoted, placed as the captain of the sentry forces(which as far as she knew had been wiped out), the blonde, a non bender only joining to keep her safe, having tried to win her affections for many years.

Jing had come to love him as well, after being initially annoyed by his persistence, and they had promised to marry after the war had ended.

Then it had all changed on the day of the black sun. Fire benders, useless, and earth benders broke through their defense, killing most of the scouting party, and the blonde taking a sharpnel into the chest for her. After getting a boulder pinned against his right arm when he had pushed her away, losing both conciousness and his arm.

She came to this town than, after this defeat, to mourn the loss of her comrades and her fiancee.

A tragic tale, explaining the amount of time and effort she has invested.

It was nowhere close to foolproof, but the genuine sorrow she felt as each day passed, as well as a few well placed half truths had the people eating out of her palm.

To them, she was Jing, a polite and charming young woman, but cold and unapproachable.

And so time passed, the days a cycle of reptition, spent in near isolation, wallowing in anxiety and sorrow, disguised as grief and regret. The stress lines accumulated, further aging her appearance.

And she spent her time waiting.

and waiting

and waiting

Azula is lying beside him, curling into him on the bed, the moonlight streaming into the room through the window. Placing her head on his chest, Azula listens to the beating of his heart as it lulls her to sleep after another session of chi transfer.

It is all she does nowadays, outside her basic necessities, caring for him, sustaining him with chi.

Fire is life after all, new life reborn. Firebending chi of the purest form could be used to breath life into others, to fuel others through the transfer of energy from one medium to another. It came with drawbacks though, and used a part of the users lifeforce with each transfer.

No one was willing to die for another so easily. Not even Iroh had considered using it when he saw the Avatar get shot down.

And it was not a complete guarentee anyway. Excess energy could cause the receiver's organs to explode.

But Azula, despite her disfuncts, was still a perfectionist, was still able to correctly discern exactly how much she needed to transfer with each use to keep him alive, even if he would not be in the best shape when he awoke.

She looks older now, the makeup, stress lines and the technique itself all making her appear older, more frail.

'Will today be the day?' She looks up, sweat dribbling down her chin, up towards the blonde-haired man's face, the roundish chin, the three pairs of whisker marks.

The taut face, stiff, unmoving except for the up and down of his chest. She moves back down, unwilling to continue staring at this scene. It's painful, how he is so lifeless and she cannot do more to help.

'Persevere Azula, when he wakes, when he wakes...' She does not dare assume that reality would meet her ideals, that he would even listen to her after he regains consciousness (he might never recover a traitourous part whispers, she squashes the thought before she can think further).

But she has hope, belief and she would cling to it with all she has. Would cling to this chance, this hope, this lifeline with all her strength.

The slow beats of his heart serve as a steady metronome to keep her nightmares, the silent ghostly images at bay.

The flashes she sees out of the corner of her eye as soon as she leaves the room.

The visages of her parents, her brother, her uncle, her friends, her soldiers, her nation. All condemning her for failing to meet their expectations. The suffocation and panic attacks that follow are all routine now, they consume her, engulf her very being, paralyse her and prevent her from taking any further action.

She does not feel safe, secure anywhere else, the shadows mock her, as though they would wake and jump on her.

Ironically it is only here, when she is with this man, who can hardly help her, cannot even defend himself, that she feels safe.

Her safe space, her home, her sanity and light all at once.

'Wake up soon.' She lets the darkness creep in, another uneventful day, another day spent just existing, another night of dreamless sleep.

All while waiting for a man to awaken.

That is when she feels it, hears it. The flow of blood quickening, the sound of heart beats accelerating, of deepening breaths.

Heavier, faster, stronger.

She leapts up, backpeddling as she watches the colour return to his pale face, watches as his chest slowly deepens with each breath, sinking and rising just a little higher with each inhale and exhale.

She holds her breath in, fearing she would cause the situation to die if she did, her heart pounds in anticipation, for a possibility of what could come.

She glances at his hands noticing that they were twitching slightly, further inspection lets her know that he had at some point straightened his back and legs.

All too suddenly, his eyes snap open, and Azula is drawn to them, staring straight into two cerulean pools. She watches as he shakes off his disorientation, watches as they recover from their glazed look.

Watches as they focus right back at her.

And she is left breathless, those two orbs so intent, it sends shivers down her spine, yet she is reluctant to look away. She could stare into them forever.

Movement causes her to look away, watch as the man swallows saliva, to wet his throat, most likely to try to speak. She makes a mad dash for the water, filling the cup with trembling hands, she hands it over, hands still wobbly, even if he does not notice.

He finishes, and she hurries to move the cup away. Her eyes never leaving his as he tries to form his first words in months.

He stands up, towering over her slightly and looks down at her from his new vantage point opening and closing his mouth to form words.

Than he speaks.

"Err, hi! My name's Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki!" His smile sets both her face and heart ablaze and she turns away from him, unable to face him past her embarrassment.

As the personality that she was so used to, that was the identity that she had cultivated, Azula, the efficient tool, she would never have acted in this manner.

But exposure to all these foreign emotions in the past months, as Jing and the personality she attached as her, she could not help it, even with all her past experience in controlling her emotions.

"And you, err who are you?" She straightens her back, tilts her head slightly and tries to face him to give her reply, she is," Wait, wait... I know. You're Azula. Princess Azula, crown princess of the fire nation, now an ex I guess?" Oh Agni, he knows, knows who he was, would know of her pass, her deeds, her mistakes. But that was still fine, maybe he would not mind, would still accept her for who she was. She agonizingly watches as he glances past her, out the window, unwilling to meet her gaze.

Despair, why, why would he refuse, if not for the fact he was disgusted, repulsed by what she had done. Unwilling to meet her eyes even after she had saved him, literally losing months to a year of her life to sustain his. Terror soon followed, primal fear and an unwillingness to accept what had happened.

Then rage, burning hot, just like the flames that she alone wielded, threatening to erupt, to burn and consume all for their lies, their scams. Why, why was she so wrong so easily fooled by some make believe tale. She would have killed Ursa for lying to her for giving her such false hope, if not for the fact that she was already dead, unseen for the past ten years.

If she was so cursed, destined to lose all hope and drown in the abyss, then she would gladly suffocate, would throw herself into despair and drag and claw all that obstructed her path down with her.

Starting with him.

A calloused hand grabs her shoulder, startling her, preventing her from releasing the fires that flowed just under her skin, bursting for release. Inwardly, she hides back under the mask of Azula, closing off her emotions, muting them, shutting them out so she could properly finish him off without hesitation.

She could mourn later but she had to finish what she started, had shouldered for just over five months.

His face hardens in determination, in a finality, and Azula hardens her heart, pushing aside the final visages of longing she felt for this man, Naruto Uzumaki. She readies her hand, he does not suspect, cannot suspect. An aim to the throat, a small incision with a knife of flames, would be more than enough to end him.

He opens his mouth to speak and Azula waits for the perfect moment to strike, to end his life.

Now-

"Thank you, you saved my life." The wind is knocked out of her sails, and Azula flinches slightly drawing back, hiding her movement. Thanks? He is thanking her? She watches him, his face seeming to illuminate, as he breaks out into a smile.

Acceptance, such a simple word, but just staring up at him, into his eyes, devoid of trickery, Azula feels her worries melt away.

And she falls just a little deeper down the rabbit hole, becomes just a little more infatuated.

"I'll try my best to help you with one thing you want." She already knows what it is, her deepest desire, her one desperate wish, she should have never doubted him, he was perfect after all, for her. "I may not look it but I'm quite a warrior ya know?"

As the personality that she had been, as Azula, she would have tried to bind him to her, either in such a subtle way that he may not have even noticed or straightforward beyond the point of misunderstanding. Would try to control his every step and action, made it so that he bent to her will.

But as Jing, the personality that she has been cultivating, the ideal that she wanted to change herself to, she could not bring herself to force him like that. He was her salvation, and she could not bring herself to hurt him.

Even if he hurt her so.

She could only try her best to make him feel the same way.

And so she came to a compromise, a request that would appeal to both sides of her.

"I got a few rules though, I don't kill and-"

"Never betray me." Azula watches as him, watches as his face twists in disbelief, as though he had given her the world and she had rejected it.

He does not understand that for the past few months all the way up until even now, that he is her world.

Nonetheless, Azula surges forward, even as Jing gets slightly hesitant.

"Never leave me, never betray me, never hurt me, forever." Azula recognises his hesitation. A binding such as this, she would have trouble accepting too, even if she wanted it. Jing steps forward, to ease his worries, and her own.

"As long as it is within your limits of course."

Her brain protests, he could leave through the door right this instant and he would still have technically fulfilled his promise.

But her heart believes that he would not, believes that he would not so readily cast her aside on such a whim, that if he was willing to give his all for her, to her, for even just one task, that he would be willing to go along with her request until she was satisfied.

If she was ever satisfied.

And if he ever left, (unlikely as it was) she could still follow him, even stop it by expressing her interests of following him.

At least, a few years after now, when the memory of the Ex-princess Azula was more distant.

"Ah I was willing to agree to the first one ya know? It's just forever's a long time ya know?" Ah, he was willing to stay with her for as long as she wanted, was already willing to stay with her until the end and was only hesitant by forever (because he could not fulfill it). She felt the heat rise up within her, the new and unfamilar blush threatening to creep across her face.

Forever, with such an understanding person. Forever, such a simple word yet the implications were so huge. Together, no lies, tricks, manipulations.

She longed for it, had wanted it with every part of her soul for awhile now.

And now she was being given this. This golden chance, of eternal companionship freely.

"As long as it is withing your limits of course." She is willing to give him this now, the doubt in her heart, having been put to rest.

How can someone who is willing to stay with her forever leave her so readily after all. There was nothing to fear.

"Ah sure, easily done. Uzumaki Naruto never breaks a promise after all!" He gives her a grin, all teeth and she exhales.

She cannot believe what she wants to do next. She had just promised that he would be free to go whenever, but irrationally, compulsively, as though driven forward, she cannot, will not let go of such a person.

Azula will give him her all in hopes that he will reciprocate it.

That he would not smother the embers of her bussoming feelings, even if they fail or succeed.

She gets on both knees, bowing her head, her dimunitive figure fully eclisped by his under the moonlight.

She can feel his shock, even as she faces away from him, faced towards the floor. She tilts up meeting his eyes, the warm smile still present.

And she opens her heart to him, her desires.

"Then your wishes shall be mine, as (hopefully) shall mine be yours. As witnessed by the light granted upon us by the great Agni, I swear to follow you for the rest of our days together."

"I promise to love you and only you. Naruto Uzumaki, would you accept me as your wife?" She understands that he may not accept her right now, (might never accept her for the rest of her life) but she still has to try, for the small chance of that miracle.

"Huh? That's a little sudden don't ya think I just woke up ya know, dumping this on me."

Azula wants to scream, to cry out, why, why would he reject her here, now, right after she had poured her heart out to him.

But she understands, she wishes she does not, wishes so hard that she could just brush her rationality aside and lash out at him.

'I guess, I had hoped for too much after all, unknowingly overstepping my boundaries.' Heartbreak, it really is the worse feeling, like a stake through the heart, worse than Ozai's betrayal and all the others combined. And yet Azula could not pin any fault on the cause of it, had no focus to release it like all the rest.

For a moment, she considers suicide, death at least would spare her from further torment, further hurt.

But the way he looks at her, the raw concern she can discern in his gaze gives her pause. It felt bittersweet, oh so bittersweet, like being given just the tiniest bit of heaven and than it being taken from her.

She still has not given him a reply, how embarrassing.

"I... I understand." because she truly does understand, can understand why he rejects her. He knows next to nothing about her except her name and her deeds. Does not know who Azula actually is. She consoles herself that he had not said no, only why now. She could still try, could still attempt to win his affections.

He was too good for her anyway. Too pure for a soul as corrupted as hers, to even meet him like this was a blessing.

"But I guess, if we'll just get together I don't mind? Lets just try out a working relationship first okay?" She hears his words but does not immediately process them.

He accepts her, accepts her just like that? It may not be what she had been aiming for but it was not much less then what she wanted. The euphoria she is assaulted with, this sudden high is too much, this intense feeling of joy, of warmth, she could not handle. Her legs feel weak, and she felt like collapsing.

She surges forward, burying herself in his chest and his muscled arm, his only remaining one, wraps around her supporting her as her legs give out under her.

The warmth and heartbeat, were familiar sounds. But the intensity, oh the strength that they burned with now was so much more than before.

She clings just a little toghter losing herself in the rhythm of his heartbeat. Staring up at his eyes, she exposes her vulnerability to him.

'You mean so much to me... so, so, so much. If you had fully rejected me than.' She does not want to think too much about it. She had him now, and just staring at him like this caused her to feel embarrassed, oh so embarrassed.

She reburies her head into his chest, she cannot face him now.

"One day at a time." Truly? She cannot hope for more, just the two of them, one day at a time, she chokes slightly, holding back tears.

"Yes... One day at a time, my fiancee." She feels him sigh, through the contact of her face against his chest, and realizes her inconsideration, making him support her like this even if he seems so strong.

"Please, lay and rest."

"Err, it's okay ya know? I'll just take the spare, would be kinda inconsiderate of me to take the bed-" She stops him before he can continue, weighing her body against his frame, onto the bed behind him.

"You might not know this, but I only own one bed. And even if you were unconscious, we have been doing this for months before you awoke." She closes her eyes, feeling embarrassed, why had she admitted so, but pushes on.

Reopening them, she looks straight up at him.

"Naruto, it is late, and even though you may not feel it, you may still be weak." She does not break eye contact, watching as he cycles through indecision.

She only wants whats best for him, and she cannot help him in his current state as she is.

He has to rest, even if he seemed fine now, she has to rest too, she had been going to before his abrupt awakening, her previous tired state along with her current weak mental state after the conversation left her drained.

And selfishly, she wanted him to rest now with her, so she could spend time with him properly tomorrow.

She feels him relax beneath her and she calms down too as though in sync, her head lowering itself onto his chest.

"Good night, Naruto." She closes her eyes, being lulled into a deep peaceful sleep fortified partly by mental exhaustion and his heartbeats, nearly missing his parting words.

"Ah, good night I guess, Azula-hime."

It is the most restful sleep she has had for the past few months.

She wraps up a parchment in her hands, containing her deepest feelings, the sound of soft snores travel behind her, the object of her affections still fast asleep.

The paper contains what she wants to tell him, what she wants to so desperately share with him, but for some reason cannot.

She considers burning it, burying her words in cinders, never to be exposed. And yet something within her stops her, causes her to pause.

She ends up keeping it within the fold of her cloths.

Standing up and stretching, Azula ponders on what to do next now that her savior was awake.

Now that Naruto was awake.

The sound of growling snaps her out of her daze, brings her back to reality as Naruto flips on the bed, slightly grabbing his stomach.

Right, she would go ahead and prepare some breakfast before he woke up, something light, probably porridge, he had not eaten anything in months after all.

And so Azula set out, to try and prepare a meal for her future husband.

An: Welp I finally managed to squeeze out enough time to finish this update, the conversation may seem a bit different from the previous chapter and that's because it is. I've gone back to look at it abit and changed it abit to fit what I envisioned more. Chapter 5 should have changed as well.

The next few updates I'll be going back to earlier chapters to imprpve the grammer and flow instead of going forward abit, re-reading your own story lets me find out parts where it seemed to fit before hand just turn up different from what I imagined so yeah, I am gonna correct it.

Now for Naruto's Pov

Omake: Naruto

"Please, lay and rest."

'What I mean I just came over from the spirit world I wanna stretch my legs abit ya know?' Looking back into golden eyes, Naruto can only see concern for his well-being in them, which only serves to makes him feel guilty as though he was doing something wrong by wanting to run around in the first place.

"Err, it's okay ya know? I'll just take the spare, would be kinda inconsiderate of me to take the bed-"She presses against him, pushing him against the bed, looking at him with those pair of golden eyes.

'Aye! She's too forward I can't stay here.'

"You might not know this, but I only own one bed. And even if you were unconscious, we have been doing this for months before you awoke." Ah shit, if she puts it that way it would mean there wasn't anywhere else to crash.

'Well I could always sleep on a tree outside or something ya know?' Azula closes her eyes, before reopening them, staring back at him.

"Naruto, it is late, and even though you may not feel it, you may still be weak."

'Huh? Me, weak! I'll show you weak!' He struggles slightly harder, trying to get her off without hurting her, quite hard despite her small frame.

"Don't leave me..." but then he hears it, the soft whisper under her breath, probably uttered while Azula was somewhere between asleep and delusion, and he loses the will, the fighting spirit to continue.

'Argh whatever, I'll just kawarimi out when she falls asleep.' He stops struggling, and he can feel her relief as she literally collapses on top of him, her right hand gripping onto his left.

"Good night, Naruto."

"Ah, good night I guess, Azula-hime." He waits literal seconds, before noticing signs that she has fallen asleep, the slower lighter breaths, the slower pulse felt through contact against her hands.

And Naruto prepares for his greatest escape yet.

Escape from the bosom!

And then realizes he is lacking certain tools for it.

More specifically, his right arm.

For all his skill with the rasengan, let it be said that Naruto was never good at handseals, or his foresight, Naruto being a more impulsive person never really thought much past plan A, preferring to create plan B to whatever on the spot.

And he had forgotten that he could only perform the kawarimi with two arms, and that currently he only had one.

'Oh come on! How can critical information like this, ABOUT MYSELF EVEN, slip my mind twice today!'

And so Naruto spent the next few hours stuck near motionless in bed, Minor movement causing Azula to react, each action putting them in more intimate positions.

The process to sleep was pure torture for one who just wanted to go out and see the world, worse still, it constrained a hyperactive one like him in fear of comprimising Azula even more.