Chapter 21: New Journey
Standing in an open space surrounded by low green grass on a warm spring day, Madara kept his eyes closed while breathing in through his nose and breathing out through his mouth.
Slowly opening his eyes, he spread his legs a little bit and his hands morphed, closing most of his fingers except for the index and middle ones in each hand.
Slowly moving his right arm first, in a circular pattern, a few sparks of lightning could be seen igniting on his fingertips, then doing the same with the other hand but in the opposite direction, the sparks looked more intense and stable. Suddenly he united the fingers of both hands in front of his chest and the sparks intensified, he kept his fingers united for two seconds as the lightning increased in intensity.
Noticing something wrong, Madara pointed one of his hands forwards and an intense cone of lightning erupted from his fingers, reaching and incinerating all the grass and other plants in its area of effect.
"Phew," he took a deep breath. "This isn't working…. I can make lightning but… I can't focus it on a single point, it always spreads… Great for attacking several people in front of me, horrible for a killer move like it was supposed to be."
It's been an entire month since Madara saw the airship, following Lao's request he decided to stay for a bit more as he had many things to get done and although he planned to leave the estate as soon as possible before, after seeing the lengths that Lao went to keep his friendship, he couldn't just deny it.
First, he went for the best blacksmiths possible to forge 100 kunai and 100 shurikens, he wouldn't be able to carry all of them but having spare weapons was a good plan for the future. He also requested a few extra weapons to be forged, one being a wakizashi for himself since an actual katana was still too big for him and he wouldn't be able to wield it to its full potential, and extra wires that followed the same design as before, just more professionally made, which made them extra malleable and resistant.
He also requested a set of very special, and absurdly expensive, silver-plated wires. Why? Simple, silver is a highly conductive metal and he had planned on using this wire to get more creative with his lightning bending.
He also spent some of his money to get Kaliya some new decent clothes, she was now part of his team and he didn't want her looking bad, although he doubted anything could make her body look bad, that woman was thicc on the right places while also being slim where it matters.
After that he planned out his next steps for his journey, first is going to the Si Wong Desert to explore a certain library, a lot of long-lost knowledge could be found there. Extra clues for him to learn energy bending, more details about the chakras and chi paths, and even good master-level waterbending techniques for Kaliya. And if he was lucky… perhaps some chi breathing technique as well, he wasn't going to share his with ANYONE that isn't family, that one would become the Uchiha Clan secret.
He still had a few days left before his departure, so he decided to use them wisely. Practicing chi breathing and learning the lightning, both of which caused him headaches, but for different reasons.
Chi breathing did indeed increase his chi pool…. By a very tiny amount… And only after reaching 5 hours of practice, he couldn't do more than that because the chi pool needed to adapt itself to the new growth, so he could only do it once every other day.
'No wonder all-powerful masters are old people… the sheer patience…' sigh
As for lightning, well, he couldn't find a way to figure out the proper amount of chi, he could properly separate the yin and yang energies and actually generate lightning, but he couldn't control it beyond that point, which frustrated him.
"…" grumbling noises.
Walking back to his guest house he was stopped by Nari, the Head Maid and also Jackie's wife.
"Hello there ma'am, how can I help you today?"
"Good afternoon Mr. Uchiha, could you follow me?"
Not waiting for him to reply she turned around and walked hurriedly towards a gazebo. Raising an eyebrow, Madara followed behind wondering what was going on.
Reaching the place, she bowed to him and instantly left, leaving him alone with the person inside.
"I can't believe you spent over four months without talking to me!"
Turning around towards the source of the childish voice he spots Toph, huffing and puffing her cheeks.
"I'm sorry Toph, I couldn't see you… You know…"
"Of course, I know!" She looked very angry. "And since when do you call me directly by my name and talk like that to me? Where is the Madara that I know? I want my big brother back!"
Madara stood there in silence for a second, she wasn't wrong… After being pushed away by the Beifong's he didn't and couldn't visit Toph anymore, the distance grew, and eventually, he thought that it would be better this way. He felt guilt for what had happened.
"You are a big idiot! Stop blaming yourself for what happened, I would've run away with or without you being here!"
Sigh. "Yeah, but without me, you wouldn't have to deal with the Fire Nation… That almost got you killed Top-"
"SHUT UP!" she yelled and stomped one of her feet hard on the ground, which cracked the stone floor due to her earthbending. "Don't call me by my name, I want my snarky idiot of a brother back!"
At this point, Madara could only chuckle wryly and scratch the back of his head "I just…" Sigh "Alright…" He walked closed and patted her head, which made her nod with a victorious expression.
"Now, when you go out and start traveling the world you better keep in mind, one day… I will find you... and I will kick your ass!"
Listening to her words Madara couldn't help but remember a certain meme from his previous life and started chuckling, the chuckle increased and became a full laugher when he imagined such a meme with Toph's cute face on it, his reaction made Toph actually confused, and pissed!
'Is this idiot making fun of me?! Just wait!' her eyes narrowed.
Madara finally managed to stop laughing, and while wiping the tears from his eyes he looked at her with a fond expression "I will be waiting for it little midget, don't keep me waiting for long, ok?"
"Humph," she snorted and looked sideways while crossing her arms, trying to hide a gentle blush on her cheeks.
"I will be leaving in two days, Kaliya should be coming back with the weapons I bought by the end of the day, that will leave one more day for her to rest and then we will set sail."
"Set sail? Will you go by boat?" she raised an eyebrow
"Something like that." He chuckled, he promised Lao to keep the Airship a secret, he didn't want others, especially the Earth Kingdom's government, to know that he got his hands on such a piece, it would cause him a lot of trouble. Hell, even to bring that thing inside, Lao spent a lot of effort and planning, it was moved under the cover of the night on a stormy day to muffle the engine sound and hide its presence. Even the earthbenders that modified the mountain didn't know why they were doing it, they just did as they were ordered to.
They kept talking for over an hour until Nari came back and told Toph that she had to get back now, otherwise she would be suspected of escaping again. This time their secret meeting was truly secret.
At midnight two days later, Madara was dressing up in his good fancy red and black robes he wore a lot during the last year and he proceeded to fully equip his hidden weapons inside the pockets in his robes before walking out of the guest house for the final time.
Walking towards the gate he spotted Kaliya already waiting for him, her clothes changed a lot, and after spending quite some time in the spa with Nari, her skin became more beautiful. Her new clothes were a mixture of black and blue with silver details, she kept her 'Pirate' style, wearing a blue tube crop top; but her new pants were black Hakama (Shinigami's pants from bleach) that got tight around her shins. She actually asked for shoes similar to Madara´s, with the shin guards and all, and he was very happy about it… But then he found out WHY… This bitch wanted to keep her newly painted aqua blue toenails on display. 'You kidding me, bitch?'
She also wore a long black sleeveless coat that reached her knees and was tied up on her waist like a Kimono with a blue sash. (Imagine a full black sleeveless captain jacked Soifon style.) And the final detail was her new eyepatch that hid her blind eye. It was fully black with 3 silver tomoe painted in the middle, this one was Madara's idea and she just shrugged not giving a damn.
'Well fuck you too!'
They walked to the 'hangar' only to find Jackie already waiting for them. He was wearing a long full black male changshan with a golden sash tied around his waist and common Kung Fu shoes.
Madara shook his head "Not this time Jackie, you have Nari to take care of. I can't be responsible for separating you from your wife."
Jackie just smirked smugly "You don't have to Mr.Uchiha, I'm here under Master Beifong's orders."
"Oh? And what does Lao Beifong want this time?"
Lei chuckled "He ordered me to tag along to guarantee that you don't go against the 'Beifong Family's interests,' as you know a lot about his estate and family after all." He said smugly. "So... you don't have to worry about anything."
Madara was shocked. "What about your wife, Jackie? You can't abandon her."
He shrugged. "I'm not abandoning anyone. Nari will be busy teaching Young Miss Beifong as she is already old enough to start learning history and many other important subjects for a rich young lady, so she wouldn't have time for me even if I stayed here."
"We will be gone for a while…"
"If you can at least come back from time to time and stay as a guest for a week or two, I would appreciate it a lot, but that's up to you… I'm here just doing my job… And you will also need someone to drive that thing, luckily for you, it so happens that I've been learning it for the past 2 months."
Madara smiled wryly. 'Jackie you lovable bastard!' He sighed. "Alright alright."
They were interrupted by a loud, and quite sexy, yawn.
"Are we taking Jackie with us? Where will he be sleeping?" Said a lazy Kaliya.
That made a vein pop on Jackie's forehead. "Can you not talk about me like I'm some sort of pet?"
She shrugged. "Ye are like a loyal dog Jackie, when I look at ye all I see are big puppy eyes."
"I'm going to kick your ass, you annoying bitch!" He lost it.
She did a fake rich lady laugh, hiding her lips with her fingers. "Hohoho, are ye still mad at me for discovering what happened inside that hole that ye fell befo-"
Lei shouted, interrupting Kaliya right away. "MR. UCHIHA, DON'T LISTEN TO THIS UNEDUCATED WOMAN!"
Madara at this point was looking like Saitama once again. 'What the fuck have I signed up for….'
But then he chuckled and smiled. "Alright alright, let's get inside. We have to leave before dawn."
"By the way Boss, what is that red cloud symbol?" asked Kaliya.
"I was curious about that as well," said Jackie.
"It's the symbol of our group." Replied Madara.
"On and what's the group name then?"
"Hmmm. Name…" Madara thought for a second. 'Calling ourselves Akatsuki would be cool but… That means nothing, it'd just be a weird word that no one would understand since it's not part of this world's language…' Raising his head "Why don't we call it just that then?"
"What?"
"Red Cloud."
Lei was unconvinced. "Red Cloud? Isn't that too simple of a name?"
Madara shrugged. "Well, people like simple names such as White Lotus."
Kaliya snorted "Yeah, right... White Lotus… What a terrible name, would never work."
Smirking Madara asked, "You think so?"
This time was Lei who responded. "I agree with this brute woman, White Lotus sounds more like the name of a group of scholars instead of a powerful group of benders."
Madara just laughed out loud.
Kaliya Laughed too.
"Why are you two laughing?"
"Ye aren't a bender, Jackie…" said Kaliya wiping her tears.
Jackie held back his tears. 'This fucking bitch!'
Madara who was laughing for another reason waved his hands "Alright, let's set sail… Our destination… Si Wong Desert"
The boiler was turned on, the engine roared and the airship lifted, once it reached the clouds it turned towards its first destination, Wan Shi Tong's Library.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan This chapter is slow but theres a reason for it, it would be a stupid idea to move to another arc without properly closing the current arc in a satisfying way, yes last chapter we had Lao Beifong's conclusion but he isn't the reason why we like the Beifong family is he?
On top of that i also wanted to fresh out how the new crew will interact with one another, not just with Madara but among themselves too, it's a very needed thing to make believable and 'living' characters, well at least that's what i think.
On today's side note i will make a different thing, i will give you 2 fun facts.
Fun Fact 1: Jackie was supposed to be a 1 time gag, he wasn't supposed to stick around and join the crew, and this is exactly the reason why i don't plan romance ahead of time, sometimes the characters evolve themselves and become something that the author didn't plan, getting there naturally.
And i believe it would be a shame to prevent it from happening.
Fun Fact 2: My wife kept nagging me every 30 minutes, to the point of spying on me while i was on the PC to see if i was writing the next chapter because she REALLY wanted to know what happened next >_> it was a.. complicated... day.
I hope yall enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the delay today i actually spent hours researching the Avatar world and its locations to have a good roadmap for future adventures.
Have a great day you amazing sausages!
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