Training

- Hello, dad. Hello, mom. How are you doing guys?

- We're fine. We're just happy that you made it out alive. Do you want rice with beans or with fish?

- I will take fish, mom, - I said and after a brief pause my dad started talking:

- Son, I know you for a long time. Is there something you want to tell us?

- Haha, you can read me like a book, dad. Yes, I wanted to say something. It appears that right after I came out of water, I felt like there was something different in my body – a feeling like there is a lot of heat that is ready to jump out of me.

- Heat?

- Yes, I also remember dreaming of becoming firebender before I learned that I was a non-bender. Now, check this out, - I said and then showed them the biggest Scorch Release ball that I was able to create with my chakra between my thumb and index fingers.

- There is no way…

- Son, this means that…

- Older brother, congratulations! Your dream came true, now you can firebend! Yay!

- Hehe, thanks for the support, Araya. I really appreciate it, - I said as I ruffled her hair a bit with my empty hand.

- So, since now I became a bender, I wanted to ask if you guys will help me find a firebending teacher or academy. I know that it will probably cost some money, but I will work some jobs here and there, and once they see my talent, I bet they would pay me. I will help you guys out as soon as possible. I just need some help at this stage.

- Hmmmm…. It is a big commitment, son. I always thought you would take over my job as a fisherman… - said my dad while rubbing his chin with his fingers, - but now that there is a chance that you can become a firebender, I will try my best to support you. I just want you to promise to help Araya if something was to happen to us.

The moment my dad said those words, I just took walked in to hug him and said:

- Dad, you don't have to worry about Araya. I will do my best to support my cute little sister. And as for you two, I don't think anything will happen to you either. I will show everyone in the Fire Nation how strong of a firebender I would be. Then my mom started speaking:

- Haha, Obi. I know that you will become great man. I don't think there any firebending academies in our town, but an old man Nozo owes me one. He is a retired firebender soldier and I even think he had some pretty good rank like Lieutenant or second Lieutenant. I know that once he will see you, he will teach you everything he knows.

- Thanks, mom. I hope I will not disappoint him. I promise that you will be proud of me one day.

- Ohhhh, honey. We are proud of you already. We are your parents after all, - yeah, I guess moms always say something like that.

- Well, with that settled let's finish this amazing food and then you and her can go to old man Nozo to see if he will take you as a student.

With that we all just ate our food like we always did before and talked about all different topics – from dads' fisherman adventures and mom's work stories. Funny thing was that my sister tried to remove all the bones from the fish this time, but it took her a whopping 10 minutes to do so, hehe.

***

- Hey shrimp, you said you unlocked firebending, but I think this is something different, - ohhh here we go…

- I've never seen a fire like this. Besides, you seem to be only able to work with it as some sort of a ball instead of pure fire stream

- Is that a bad thing?

- Hehe, that is actually a good thing. From what I can tell your fire is extremely hot. Even hotter than any fire I have seen before. When you threw that ball in the tree, it actually made a whole tree lose all of its water immediately. I believe you have unique firebending style that only you can use.

- Can I still become a firebender if I use it?

- Of course! I know that you will need some different training with this style, but I can come up with all types of training. Besides, you will still need your physical conditioning that will be the same.

- Thanks, Uncle Nozi. I really appreciate that you are willing to help me, - I said as bowed to the retired old man.

- Hahahha, don't be so formal kid. If the Agni sent a unique student like yourself to me, then it only means I must train you to the best of my abilities. I actually trained quite a lot of people in the Fire Nation Army so you can rest assured that you will become a good firebender.

- Thanks, Uncle Nozi. When do we start?

- Come to me tomorrow morning. The fact that you never went to the academy while a bad thing for some members of the nobility, would be an advantage for a commoner like you since you will train 10 hours a day with me, hehe.

- 10 hours a day? Fine, whatever that will make me stronger, I will do. I will come here tomorrow morning. Have a nice day!

- You too, my student.

***

With that my training started. Initially it was extremely grueling and hard, but I knew that nothing would be able to stop me. I needed power, and only way to get it was to learn how to use scorch release. In future, I will probably even call this "scorchbending" so that it will be more famous bending style unique to me.

One of the most important things that I wanted in the beginning, was to increase my chakra reserves and chakra control. Leaf exercise seemed to be somewhat useful, but when I tried to push chakra out of my legs to stick to the surfaces, but to no success. It seems like the laws of this world, won't allow me to stick my whole body to objects with chakra…

Hmm, at least I know that the hand seals still work. From what I remember from anime, the seal that Pakura used for Scorch Release: Great Steaming Explosive Blast above her head was simply - Tiger.

My first attempt at this failed miserably, with nothing happening as I tried repeating the sequence of Tiger hand seal with then moving hands up in the air. It was then, when it clicked that Pakura first had to create few orbs of Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder to combine them into this attack, so I decided that it would be better first to become extremely good in manipulating those orbs.

Ever since that realization hit me, I tried to practice chakra control with my Scorch Release orbs day in and day out.

In my first month, I was able to make 2 orbs that were the size of tiny apples.

After 3 months of training, I was able to get those orbs to the size of my knuckles and increase the number of to the maximum of 4.

All this time, my physical training also increased heavily and now I was well above my peers in terms of both endurance and speed. My teacher was dumbfounded when he saw how much I was able to run without dropping dead, which was all thanks to the chakra in my body. Just by having massive stamina and Scorch Release I would be one of the most deadly "firebenders" around.

After 5 months passed, I was already fighting on the level that would make me stomp an average firebender. This was because I was finally able to master the secret of how to make my scorch orbs big without them disappearing – though it made them less white, and added somewhat pink-ish glow. Now I was safely summoning 5 orbs just with one hand and all those orbs would float around me as if I was some mage from fantasy game.

In the end of 7 month, I was finally able to not only master the Scorch Release: Great Steaming Explosive Blast, but also created a variation of this jutsu that I called Scorch Release: Karakum Desert.

Scorch Release: Karakum Desert allowed me instead of just evaporating all liquids inside the area to make a flat disc from the huge combined Scorch Release orb and expand it so that the whole area around me would stay at some huge temperature similar to the hottest deserts in the world. The best thing was that not only did I not feel the heat myself, but the jutsu didn't need to be constantly maintained and worked around 5-10 minutes depending on the amount of chakra that I would put in the jutsu.

To be honest, I developed this pretty useless jutsu more for the showoff reasons when I will attending the Fire Nation's Young Firebender tournament in 2 months. Yes, I was able to impress the teacher enough that he gave a recommendation to participate even though everyone there is usually 16-19 years old, and I won't disappoint him. He really became someone important to me in the last 7 months of my training, even though he was just my firebending teacher. I guess from now on, I will be learning on my own, so he may as well be the only one who I will be learning from in an official student-teacher scenario. Yeah, time sure goes by fast.

Ohh, and I sure didn't forget to grow some muscles in this time. I was pretty lean kid even when I started, but when I added some weight training, my muscles became somewhat visible and now I can walk around without a t-shirt, to impress young ladies. I don't look like Arnold yet, more like a beginner swimmer body but it is good enough for now.

Haha, I still can't believe things turned out this way. In just 2 months I will be leaving for the capital to participate in the tournament. I know for sure from what the teacher said that a lot of noble folks will be attending and Fire Lord Azulon himself would be attending the finals. This is my perfect chance to show everyone my true power. However, I still have to develop some more flashy jutsus. I hope teacher can help me to brainstorm something…