Chapter 04

I came out of my hiding spot as I whispered, still with a stunned face,

"How could you be here?"

"Who is he?" Aoki asked with a confused tone, snapping my thought. I take my time to regain my mind and replied,

"He is Iroh, one of the best fire benders in history. The problem is he should not be in this world.." Aoki widened his eyes at my answer, clearly getting my hint that Iroh is not someone that originated from this world.

"Don't worry, young man. I mean no harm." Iroh raised his hand as he noticed Aoki's sudden tensed body. "As for I should not be here, I can say the same to both of you, soul wanderers." Aoki and I were alarmed and suddenly jumped back from our spot, took a distance, and prepare to fight.

"As I said before, you don't have to worry about me. As for how I know about your secret, I can feel that your soul does not belong to this world. But somehow you two are here, so I decided to check on you."

"Are you going to kill us?" Aoki asked still with a kunai in his hand. Iroh frowned at Aoki's question as he replied immediately,

"Of course, no! If your friend knows about my name and reputation, he should know that I despise killing with all my heart. I stopped killing after the accident that happened to my son." His voice turned somber as he mentioned his son.

Then I remember about his son, Lu Ten, and his unfortunate fate at the siege of Ba Sing Se. I remember crying while I watched Iroh singing Leaves from the Vines alone in front of his son's grave. That was when I dropped my guard and decided to give him a chance.

"Akira!" Aoki whispered at me, confused as to why I dropped my stance. I looked at his eyes, giving him a hint to do legilimency on me. He widened his eyes, unsure about what to do.

I know why he hesitated because the victim of legilimency will have a headache after the memories are read. But right now, I cannot think the other way to share the information about Iroh with Aoki without him dropping his guard around Iroh.

He saw the determination in my eyes, and after a minute of silence, he sighed defeatedly.

'Don't blame me after this.' He muttered, and suddenly, I was trapped inside my mind, watching the avatar show from my memories. Fortunately, Aoki gives me control over what part should I show to him, so I can cut the memories and focus on Iroh's past life only.

It seems several hours have passed. However, the truth that we found about legilimency is, the time inside our mind is running slower than the real-time, just like Tsukuyomi from the Uchiha clan. The bad side is right after we finished the legilimency, I will have a huge headache. That is why legilimency is not something we use for our friends or allies.

As Aoki finished watching the memories of Iroh from the series Avatar, he eased his tensed body and dropped his guard, resulting in Iroh's smile.

"So, can we talk in a civil manner now?" Aoki and I looked at each other and nodded.

"Good! Do you want to have tea?" Iroh takes a kettle full of tea out of nowhere. I smile for a bit, remembering the love of the tea that Iroh has in the avatar series.

"We don't mind. It would ease the headache my friend has." Aoki replied quickly.

"Great! take a seat here. Do you want to ask questions?" Iroh hummed while he brewed the tea. Hearing his offer, I asked something that bugged my mind from the beginning.

"So, how could you be here? And how did you know about us not belong to here?" Iroh takes his time, thinking about how to answer.

"Well.." We straightened our sit, focusing on Iroh as he started his explanation. "Since you dropped your guard around me, I can make a guess that your friend here," He pointed at me, "has already shared his memories about me with one of your techniques, is that right?" Aoki nodded hesitantly.

"If you are just like other soul wanderers, then you should know almost all of my life. What you didn't know is, after I found my son, Lu Ten, in the soul world, I spend my life learning a lot of things about the world from every soul I met in that world. Honestly, I kind of forget how long it has been since I was alive."

"Wait, you are dead?" I cut his explanation with an utter disbelieving tone. Iroh just smiles, amused at me.

"I have lived in the soul world, dear. Only the Avatar can visit the soul world without being dead first. So you can say that I am dead, and now it is just my soul that has been lived." I nodded, accepting his explanation.

"Back to my explanation, my thirst for knowledge and wisdom lead me to learn from every soul I met, about how they lived and how they died. I craved knowledge in every corner of the soul world, and around 300 years ago, I met a very strong soul that now a day you called it Shinigami." He raised his hand, stopping my and Aoki's attempt to interrupt.

"You can ask more after my explanation end, but please bear with me for a moment." He looked satisfied at our nod.

"So as I said before, I met this Shinigami, and he also noticed the strong soul that I had at that time. I can say that our meeting was by far the most interesting I have had since I entered the soul world. He explained to me his task as the guard between the soul and the living world in other dimensions, and it shocked me to my core.

He didn't explain to me how he stumbled across the soul world of other dimensions, but he asked me for help. He said at that time that he was looking for a strong soul to help him keep the balance between the soul world and the living world in his dimension, this dimension. He told me that humans started developing a new way to modify their souls with their ability to manipulate Ninshuu. That was the progenitor of Ninjutsu that you used this time.

Well, I accept his request, and the rest is history." He finished his explanation, sipping his tea calmly. But the same calm could not be said to us. We let out the breath that we held unconsciously during the explanation.

"So you are really from the other dimension? And what do you mean by other soul wanderers? Was there other like us?" Aoki asked slowly, sipping his tea to calm himself.

"Yes, I am indeed from the other dimension. The Shinigami granted me the ability to cross between this dimension and mine so that I could visit my son or just go back to my original soul world. It was very nice of him." We choked a bit as he said that Shinigami is being nice, but he ignores it and replied to the other questions.

"As for your second question, I have met two soul wanderers since I came here and taught them too. Unfortunately, they didn't live long. The first one was so obsessed with women that he started his harem, but died from the poison from one of his wives that was his opponent's spy. And the last one died in wrong experiments to gain immortality. Let's just say Shinigami was not amused by his attempt to absorb the other's soul." We shuddered at the mention of unhappy Shinigami.

"So, what do you want, now?" I asked, ignoring the shiver I got a few seconds ago. Iroh smiles at us and replied,

"Well, two times I have met soul wanderers, and I still could not help but feel interested in your future in this world. So, I will offer you the same I offered the other soul wanderers. Do you want to be my disciple?"

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Author note:

You can also read:

- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 38

- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 09

You can read all of it at my Patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (Without '_') Thank you for your support! :)