Welcome to Rising! If anyone was curious why I ended Abandoned like that, its because Azula was no longer abandoned. She was taken in by someone who would treat her right and love her etc. All that Jazz. Now Rising is about Azula rising through the ranks, duh. Rising will definitely be a lot longer than Abandoned with a few different sagas (I think that's the word). This first saga is Azula as a Genin. It will be a few chapters long and then I'll start the next saga. I'm experimenting a bit with this if you couldn't tell.

Anyways, warnings for the Protege series: Yuri/Yaoi! (If nobody could tell, I like yuri/yaoi, deal with it... Yuri more than yaoi) Sakura bashing! (Yay!) Bashing in general! (More yay!) God!Azula (Because it's fun) Swearing by a child! And other stuff that I can't think of!

~Rising~

It was a busy morning in the grand village of Konoha. The market was full of people buying food for their dinner, lunches and breakfast. Shops were opening and people were getting their daily shopping in. Kids were running around and enjoying themselves, playing with friends and their parents. Other kids were in the Academy studying up on being a ninja. Speaking of ninja, many of them could be seen just laying around the village and enjoying life. There seemed like they had no care in the world.

The village seemed peaceful and everyone was enjoying themselves except for a certain team of genin ninja. They certainaly cared about something at this point in time. One could tell by their faces that they were focused. They were running through the woods and on the tree branches in pursuit of something for a mission. They were all chasing something toward a certian spot in the woods.

"Izu left, Kote right. Cut it off." The girl in the center of the trio ordered. She had been leading the trio up till now when they took their seperate directions. Both shinobi took to the trees and when they were out of sight the girl added something. "Lead it to the trap." She said through the headsets they all had.

"Got it Hime." They both responded, they were way in front of her right now. The girl, Hime, was running on the ground. She was a young child, only eight years old at this time and on her 30th shinobi mission. The 30th boring mission. This girl had jet black hair pulled back in to the traditional hairstyle of her people, the topknot. She had pale perfect skin with the exception of six scars on her cheeks that resembles whisker marks. Her eyes were golden and she had perfectly pink lips. She had two swords strapped to her back which made her look a little intimidating.

"Hime, Target in position." The girl nodded and rushed the target into the trap the three genin made. Said target rain straight forward and fell right into the trap they set up.

"Reow!" The target was a cat. An angry orange cat. It was trapped in a net that the tree had set up using wires. The cat was trying to claw his way out but no avail.

The two boys who had cornered the cat earlier stepped out to meet their teammate. They were both eleven years old and quite lazy for ninja. Neither wanted to be team leaders, they left that to the youngest member, who was more intelligent than either of the two. One was a spiky haired brunette with white markings on his cheeks. The other has straight brown hair and he wore his headband like a bandana. Their names were Kotetsu and Izumo.

"Target Aquired Sensei." Kotetsu spoke into his mike.

A cough came from the other end, "Good job you three, nice plan Azula."

"Thanks Sensei." The youngest member, Azula responded. "You Izumo, you carry the cat."

"Why me?" Izumo complained as he walked over toward the cat. "Make Kotetsu do it!"

"Kotetsu used his clones to get the cat over here, he did more than you, so you carry the damn cat. Besides, he did it last time and I did it the time before that." Azula responded harshly, "Now you can deal with the scratches."

Kotetsu snickered at that. He had been attacked very badly by the cat. More than Azula, but she had also burned it so that made it stop. It was no secret to Team 8 that Azula could Firebend. Neither Kotetsu or Izumo were firbenders. Since they were both water users, they also bended water.

Izumo grabbed the cat and put it in a bag that he had thought of bringing. It was a pretty brilliant idea and now he wouldn't be scratched. "After we go turn this thing in, we are going to practice beinding right?" He asked the other two and his sensei (via mike).

Azula nodded, "I know I am. I dunno about you... not that I care."

Both boys on the team rolled their eyes and the trio started out of the forest. When they made it out, Their sensei, Hayate, was waiting for them. Hayate was a sickly looking man but he was also very dangerous. He had made his own sword style and was currently teaching all three of them to work with blades since they were all natruals. That was why they were put on the same team. The team quickly reported to the Hokage to turn in their mission.

"I forgot how crazy this lady is." Kotetsu muttered to Azula and Izumo. Both just nodded. The lady who owned the demon cat was crazy over it. She squeezed it as tight as she could and babied the stupid cat. They almost felt bad for it... Almost. Considering how many scratches and all the trouble they went through, three seperate times, the members of Team 8 Didn't feel sorry in the least.

After another five minutes of watching the poor pathetic cat getting squeezed to death, Team 8 was finally dismissed. There were many thank you's to the team who were known by name to the crazy cat lady. The second the team left the building, they turned to their sensei and awaited orders.

Cough. "Later." Was all he said before he shinshun'd outta there. The three genin stood there shocked. Hayate always gave them orders. They never had any sort of 'day off' or 'half day.' This was something new to them and also very strange.

"What" Azula started

"The" Kotetsu followed

"Fuck?" Izumo finished. Both kids looked at him. "What? We're adults, we can swear!"

Kotetsu thought about that for a minutes. "Dang... I mean damn! He's right. Wait, that means we can drink too!" The genin bounced around excitedly at that statement. Izumo started bouncing around at that too. They were made for each other, which probably explains why they were best friends.

"Are you two seriously going to blow the cat chasing money on some fucking alcohol?" Azula asked calmly. Both boys stared at her in shock. They knew that she was the leader and all but she was still only eight years old. What eight year old drops the F-bomb so casually (Sure Izumo did just a moment ago but he was also eleven, three years older)? Azula did, that's who.

"Hell yeah!" Without another word, the two boys sped off to the nearest bar to waste their money on the liquor... or at least they would try too. Azula highy doubted that the money they had made today would equate to one drink from where they seemed to be headed to.

"Next theyre going to walk into the bad part of town." The princess mutteres as she walked to training ground number eight. It was still too early for the Academy to be let out so Naruto wasn't around... Unless he needed her help for a prank.

It didn't take long for Azula and Naruto to become best of friends and 'Siblings.' Like the Hokage said after Azula's second day in Konoha, those two hit it off well. The two went everywhere together, with a few exceptions like the bathrooms and classrooms in the Academy. Some went as far to call Naruto her Demon Prince. Everyone in Konoha knew she was a Princess. Ever since the Kusajin incident*, everyone found out of her royal stature. News traveled quickly here, or that's what Kurenai told her.

Azula had dropped the obasan part off of Kurenai's name. Now she was just Kurenai. The two females had a strange relationship. Sometimes Kurenai was mom, babying her like Ursa did to Zuko, making sure she had everything she needed and was showering the gril in hugs. And sometimes she was just... Kurenai, her friend Kurenai. Someone she could talk to and would reply honestly. Someone who wouldn't hide things without a good reason to. Kurenai always let her go stay at Naruto's house when she asked (mainly because of her arranged marriage but the girl didn't know that. Nor did she know that Grass Country was furious when the Marriage proposal for Kusijin Jun and her was rejected all in a few hours. News travels fast.) and she even let Naruto sleep over there. It was like the times when she would have her Fire Nation friends stay in the Palace.

'Who were they?' Azula asked herself as she ventured to the training ground. She had started to forget a lot about her homeland after living in Konoha for a while. Mainly it was because she didn't care. She didn't remember many people from there now a days. She remembered Zuzu, Father, Uncle, Ursa, a girl with a long braid in her hair and a girl with black hair that Zuzu liked. 'Ty lee and Mai! That's right!' She smiled, 'they were my friends. Like Naruto is my friend. Naruto is more like Ty Lee though. Ty Lee did everything for me. Anything I wanted. Naruto kinda does that.' She continued to compare Naruto to her Fire Nation friend. She was brought out of her musings when she head a familiar scream.

"TEME!" The voice yelled. Then mass chaos broke lose.

Azula had been walking by the Academy at the exact time that Naruto and his calss were outside practicing. With Azula's help, Naruto had mastered the Body Flicker jutsu and Substitution but he couldn't make a clone of himself very well. All of them were transparent and sickly looking. He could make the three required but they all sucked. Naruto didn't care though, he figured that he would get it with practice. Did he practice? No. He'd rather practice bending.

He could firebend they learned, but only when he was very emotional and ticked off to the max. He actually was an Airbender too, something Azula never had seen before (But who has seen a person who can bend two elements?). Mainly the boy practiced Airbending and trying to be like the monks... trying. He failed miserably at being peaceful and monk like. The bending was all he cared about anyway. Naruto was a decent bender. His movements were a bit choppy, but that was excpected with learning from a scroll. Azula had to help him smooth out the movements more and told him that he had to be peaceful and detach himself from problems, something that could be hard for him to do, especially around a certian black haired Uchiha. Like now.

Now, Naruto was attacking The Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was throwing punches that the black haired was having a bit of difficulty dodging. Naruto was getting quicker in his movements and more graceful. Azula could see this now that she wasn't fighting him. He still needed to control his anger and be at peace or else he wouldn't be a good airbender.

Soon jutsu's were being thrown into the fight. Naruto had landed a punch on Sasuke but he didged using the substitution jutsu. The Uchiha had even gone as far as to use his grand fireball technique. Well, he tried to. By this time, Azula was over the fence seperating her from the students. When Sasuke let the fireball loose, Azula was already between him and Naruto. She stopped the fireball using her own firebending skills.

A moment later, smoke cleared to show the two combatants and Azula between them. Sasuke was shocked that his fireball was stopped by a kid. He saw the headband but was still shocked. Naruto was grinning like and idiot when his 'sister' intervened.

"Naruto!" Came a shout from the oh so familiar voice of Mizuki, Azula's former sensei. "Sasuke!" He ran over to both kids and started scolding them for their fighting and how they shouldn't be doing that.

"Then why didn't you stop it, Mizuki-sensei." Azula asked cooly.

Mizuki looked at her. It seemed like he had forgotten that she was there. "I was watching the other students."

"So was Iruka-sensei." Azula replied, "you could have stopped them. Instead I had to. If I didn't, the precious Uchiha would have been dead." Now everyone was shocked. Azula had a lot of confidence in Naruto's abilities... of course she had been secretly training the boy in the art of bending... They didn't need to know that. "Not really. Naruto wouldn't kill anyone yet." Naruto wouldn't really kill anyone. Like the Airbenders (Shockingly), he valued life.

Mizuki cracked a grin and patted the girl on the back. "Great joke Hime-san. But we need to get back to class." The white haired sensei gestured for the two kids to join the group again. Azula stopped Naruto before he went over to them.

"Your attacks are getting better. Much smoother. You need to be more peaceful and don't let your anger get to you. It's alright to be angry but don't let it over power you. You know?" Naruto nodded, "I'll see you later. I'm gonna run to Ten Ten's family's shop today for sword care things before training." Naruto nodded, hugged his sister and left.

Azula hopped the fence and started back on her journey to the training grounds. It didn't really take long, mainly because she was thinking about her brother. When she first met him, he was an idiot and dead last. With her help now, he had jumped up a class (With Uchiha and Pinkie to his misfortune). She had no doubt that Naruto would be a Genin at eleven like her teammates.

When Azula got to the grounds, she was the only one there. Obviously. Her teammates were probably getting drunk or something and Hayate-sensei was probably trying to find something for that cold. She didn't mind, it meant that she could go all out in practice today. She had already gotten down half of the advanced katas and she was starting to notice her fire getting a lighter orange. Soon, if the legends were true, her fire would change color.

After some intense training for two hours (Bending, jutsus etc.), Naruto had come to her training grounds. "Weren't you going to go to the store?" He asked his sister who was laying on the ground after exhausting herself.

"Forgot." She said honestly from the ground.

"You should go. You looked like you were practicing without getting the proper care things that Ten Ten's dad told you to have." Naruto replied. Azula just flicked him off. She didn't feel like moving.

Naruto looked at his 'sister.' She had her soft red colored swords in her hands, one in each, her head was turned to the right and her breathing was ragged. Naruto knew that she over worked herself today. Again. This was actually normal for her. It was the only reason Azula had advanced so far on her own. Naruto wasn't as dedicated to his bending as Azula was, but he used a different style as well. He had almost gotten down all of the basics of airbending, something he was quite proud of. It had taken him six months to actually get the first form down, but after that, everything was a breeze, literally. He wasn't perfect, his emotions still controlled him but he could do it, that's all he cared about.

"Lets forget training and just go get some ramen." Azula considered this and stood up. She brushed the dirt off her clothes and nodded. Ramen sounded very good right now.

"Ramen sounds good." She decided. The two left the training grounds to walk to their favorite ramen shop.

"The Chunin exams are coming up. You entering?" Naruto asked on the way there.

"Nah. Sensei doesn't want us entering until we master our sword styles and we complete some C ranks... And Kurenai won't let me until she becomes jonin... which wont be long. I think the promotion will come very soon."

Naruto just nodded. "You'll tell me when you take a C rank away from the village right?"

"Always."

Naruto accepted this answer and decided to let the topic of missions drop. He wanted to enjoy the day with his 'sister'. And he would do that.

* So I totally realized the morning when I reread the last chapter for Abandoned that the incident took place at least 12 hour before the arranged marriage. Oops. I'm not going to fix it because I'm lazy and it will let me have fun with it later. BWAHAHAHAAAA! Like making the boy's family angry for the proposal being rejected so that there will be some sort of drama later. Eh, whatever. News travels fast.

Enjoy!