Chapter 16: Going Back Home
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Before the chapter i want to post the artwork made by myself of the MC and his clothes, although i made it how he would look on his late teens, around Canon time.
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Kaliya raised one eyebrow "Work for ye? Are ye serious?! Ye just took all me gold and destroyed me ship, why would I accept?"
"Precisely because of that, you have no gold and you have no ship… your crew of misfits are also gone… even if let you go you would have to scrap the bottom of the barrel and start all over again, how many years would it take?"
She closed her eyes "And, if hypothetically I accept it, what would be me obligations? What do you want from me?"
"Well, if hypothetically you accepted, I would sponsor your voyage, give you enough money for a new ship and hire some actually trustworthy crew instead of a bunch of criminals."
Her eyes opened a bit and she stared at him "And what exactly would ye order me to do?"
"Explore the seas, record the latest news and interesting rumors for me, and anything else I want you to do" he shrugs.
"Anything else? That's rather vague, what if ye order me to sail to the biggest Fire Nation volcano and eat lava then? Will ye hunt me down if I deny?"
Madara chuckled "Well that's rather extreme, isn't it? I won't request anything like that"
"Said the man that burned me ship and me crew to cinders…"
Shrugging he replied "Guilty as charged, but you came to raid my ship… you can only blame yourself for that outcome."
Her gaze turned serious "And why would ye trust me? Ye said yeself that i came to raid ye… I'm a pirate, only a complete moron would trust a pirate"
Madara laughed out loud, extended one of his hands and grabbed one of the iron bars of the little jail "I won't trust you, I don't need to trust you… I know your face, I know your name and I have all the money in the world to hunt you down" smoke started to escape from under his grip "And you will learn, Ms. Kaliya, that double crossing me and eating lava have one thing in common, anyone can do it… once…"
Kaliya stared wide eyed as Madara turned and left, shifting her gaze to the red-hot bent metal bar with finger marks, like it was squeezed, and gulped. 'Damn is that even considered firebending at this point?'
Madara climbed up the stairs removing his ruined black glove while clicking his tongue, he stared at the burned skin of his palm "Sure is intimidating, but it hurts like hell… won't be doing that again."
The rest of the trip was fine, Madara kept meditating most of the time, people still avoided him in fear, that brough some peace to his trip but he knew that he needed to solve that issue, fear is good for deterrence but awful for building trust, people might start seeing him as a threat instead of an ally and that would complicate things.
Sigh "If only they knew…" Madara said while staring at the ceiling, his fire wave sure was impressive, was on the level of Ozai's firebending after being enhanced by Sozin's comet, the problem was it emptied his chi pool, he could still firebend after doing that but not for long, if he had to guess he would say it was below 1/3 after his 'Great Fire Annihilation'.
Grabbing his Gunbai went without a hitch, he left the ship alone, ran up the mountain while forcing himself to forget the debacle of the last time he ran on this mountain, before coming down again he had one final tour around the temple, this was his first home in this world, although awfully uncomfortable he had to admit, this place brough him peace like no other, perhaps that's why the monks built it here… there's just something special about this place.
Staring at the pile of old bones that represented the Air nomads last stand he felt conflicted, in one hand he truly didn't care, it has been a very long time since this happened and he never met any of these people, on the other hand these people were responsible for this amazing place that brough him peace.
With a sigh he let go of his Gunbai and started digging graves all around the gardens and filled them with the old bones of dead monks, the final one being monk Gyatso, Madara went an extra mile for this one and made a makeshift tombstone using some debris from destroyed walls, attaching his necklace on it so Aang could see it, the Avatar needed his wake-up call and this necklace meant nothing for Madara anyway, leaving it here for Aang would be a better choice.
It took a whole day to finish the graves, he ran down the mountain with the gunbai attached to his back like a true shinobi, the weapon was still way too big for the current him but at least he could run around while carrying it now that he was 11, even if he had to carry it sideways.
Lei was the responsible for the crew while Madara was gone, he, like everyone else, was rather conflicted inside after the fire wave incident. He didn't know how to behave near Madara, but before he could be dragged even more into these negative feelings, he slapped both cheeks hard and stood up.
"Wake up boys, Mr. Uchiha will be back at any minute now and we will prepare a good feast for him!" he said out loud
"…" Silence reigned supreme.
"Mr. Lei, aren't you afraid of Mr.Uchiha? that power-" before he could continue Lei slapped him on the face.
"Wake up! Mr.Uchiha was always strong like that, he is the same person that he always was, he trained you me and other 10 men in this ship, he gave his all to teach us, he never missed a day, Mr.Uchiha made us all better soldiers, and now you are afraid of your mentor? Don't you have any shame?!" he yelled the last part in anger.
"But… "
"NO BUTS! He will be arriving any minute now, imagine how he is feeling right now with all of us ignoring him, afraid of him, you all forget that he is only 11 years old, do you really want mistreat someone who went above and beyond to teach you the best he could?!"
"…"
"Mr. Lei is right! Mr. Uchiha did his best for us, and now is our turn to do our best for him!"
"Aye!"
"Aye!"
""AYE!""
Lei nodded in satisfaction with a grin on his face 'My dad once told me that people that reach the top usually become lonely because others don't understand them and thus fear them, as long as I am Mr.Uchiha's assistant I will do my best to support him!'
The loud noise of people running around, making food and preparing barrels of different beverages echoed through the ship, it was so loud that Kaliya who was resting with her eyes closed heard it all, she couldn't help but smile.
"A man that inspire that level of confidence despite being so young, perhaps I should accept his offer… if his people respect him so much that even fear didn't shake them for long… it might not be a bad thing for me" sigh "perhaps is time to retire from me pirate life and aim for bigger and better things." She grinned "I was getting tired of those ugly bastards anyway."
When Madara finally arrived back at the boat what welcomed him was a joyous and cheerful party, many fancy food and drinks all around, people singing and doing many different contests, from arm-wrestling to drinking contest, some even were doing a throwing dart contest imitating his poses when he uses his kunai.
"What the…"
"Come on Mr. Uchiha!" said Lei and he received him with a plate full of delicious food, handing it to him.
"What's the meaning of all of this?" he was actually confused.
"Well, we are celebrating your victory over those evil pirates of course! Come we have many different drinks to enjoy Mr. Uchiha!"
Madara grabbed his plate and followed Lei absentmindedly. 'What the actual fuck?'
He arrived at the main deck and hear a loud female voice roaring in laugher
"WAHAHAHAHAHA YE RICH FUCKS CAN'T EVEN DRINK!"
Madara looked towards the voice and saw Kaliya drinking cup after cup of booze surrounded by 3 passed out soldiers.
"What the hell is going on Jackie? Why is the pirate free?"
Lei, who had a chicken leg in his mouth simply replied while eating "Once we were almost completing the preparations for the party, she called me down there and said she would take your deal, so we opened the brig" he shrugged while pieces of chicken flew out of his mouth while he talked.
'Fucking gross…' he shook his head "And you believed her? Are you a moron by any chance to believe a pirate's word?"
Lei gulped his food "Of course not, but we are in a secluded island which's only way out is through our boat or taking a VERY long swim, she could obviously try to take us down… but after one year training under you Mr.Uchiha… all I can do is wish her luck, hehehehe" a sinister chuckled escaped his mouth.
Madara's face suddenly morphed into a deadpan Saitama after hearing that 'Why everyone around me is so fucking weird?'
Taking a deep breath and just letting it go he went towards one of the tables and ate his food, which was really delicious by the way… praise the money!
"Hey there boss, nice to see ye around here."
Madara looked back over his shoulder and saw Kaliya approach him with unsteady steps 'she is dead drunk….' His eyebrow twitched.
Finishing another cup of soju she sat on the floor by his table.
"Ye Rich bastards can't drink, but damn ye people can afford good stuff!" she said cheerfully while slurring.
"Care to explain… like… everything?"
She shrugged without a care for the world "I decided to take ye deal, so from now on ye me boss, Boss." She grinned "So i decided that since ye me boss, nothing fairer than me joining this merry occasion!"
"Aren't you being a bit too happy after losing everything, near being burned to death and being locked for a week eating leftover food?"
Hiccup "Well… ye might be right but, I survived, I got a good job now, I don't have to worry about being backstabbed in me sleep by me first mate and ye people's leftovers are more delicious than anything I could ever afford… so… all in all, It's a win" she grinned.
"I still don't trust you."
"And that's wise of ye, if ye did I would be disappointed… but in time I will earn ye trust just like that funny looking fella" she said as she pointed to Lei "I don't really know why but there's something about his face and voice that makes me laugh."
Madara started laughing out loud, so loud that everyone heard it and cheered raising their cups and chugging it down.
"He is Jackie, and I totally get what you mean, trust me." He said with a smile on his face.
"Jackie? He said his name is Lei."
Madara frowned "From now on you will be calling him Jackie, that's my first order!"
This time was Kaliya's turn to burst out laughing "Aye Captain!"
The festivities lasted the whole night and they had to wait one extra day to go back to the sea, everyone was wasted, even Madara enjoyed soju that night and he didn't leave his cabin for a whole day, god damn child body cant even take alcohol! FUCK!
The next day everyone woke up early in the morning, cleaned the mess and prepared to sail once again, Jackie was overseeing all of it like a hawk, not letting anyone slack. He knew Madara gave his word to the Beifongs that he would be back in two weeks and he would make it happen even if he had to slave these men to death!
"HURRY UP MEN!" he shouted.
"Ugh" he hears a childish voice behind him and turning around he saw Madara with a hand on his forehead, he grinned and approached "Mr. Uchiha, everything is ready, we set sail on your command!"
Madara could only wryly smile and shake his head "You didn't have to do all of that Jackie…. But … thank you" he said as he walked past Lei and walked towards the crew.
Lei stared wide eyed at the 11-year-old and a satisfied grin appeared on his face "No worries Mr. Uchiha, I'm your assistant after all!"
Smiling Madara turned to the crew and shouted.
"Alright Boys, it's time to sail back home! Kaliya, take the wheel!"
""AYE CAPTAIN!""
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan Thank you for your support, this is a very lighthearted chapter because i simply felt like it was needed, i like character development way more than i like action, i will keep the action up of course, but i like these moments where people just sit down interact with one another, we get to know a lot about the characters like that.
The annoying demands from those pests that dont go past the 3rd chapter bcuz Madara isn't Madara still continue but i dont give a fuck anymore, i will build my own fancy koi pond of their tears <3
Have a lovely week you beautiful sausages and i hope this chapter brings a smile to your faces just as it brought to mine.
Chapter 17: Disappearance
They took five days for them to reach the Earth Kingdom again, all thanks to Lei the slaver, the poor crew hugged the ground once they stepped on land, many with tears falling down the dark circles under their eyes due to sleep deprivation.
Many people started to think that Lei was spending a bit too much time under Madara's tutelage and was starting to absorb some of his traits, the worse traits! We couldn't even sleep properly you fucker!
The crew kept moving inland towards Gao Ling at a comfortable pace.
Once they reached the great city was already sunset and Madara went to his training cave with Kaliya and Lei, the rest of the crew ran to their houses to get some sleep, some left after spreading some sailor's speech out loud through the clean city streets.
"You will stay here for a while Kaliya, this place is my training grounds and there's a bedroom and a bathroom inside, you can use the main area to practice your waterbending if you need or want and Jackie here will be responsible for bringing you meals." Madara said
Kaliya whistled "This is a damn fancy place to train, money be praised!"
The corners of Madara's mouth raised into an understanding grin "Finally! Someone gets it!"
"So, how long will I be staying in this fancy place?" She asked
"I will check how's the situation inside the estate and will come back later tonight to discuss future plans, for now go in take a bath and rest" he turned to Lei "Jackie bring her food and clean clothes later, I know Lao Beifong won't give her anything so give her one of my old black robes that I brough with me, the ones that are too big for me, it might not be perfect for her height but it's better than nothing."
"Leave it to me Mr. Uchiha" Lei bowed his head.
The duo left Kaliya to her things and walked back to the estate, it wasn't far, roughly 10 minutes away, but when they entered the estate, the mood was … heavy… something isn't right...
Hastening his steps Madara went straight to the main residence with Lei on his tail, reaching there he informed the maid that he was back and asked to inform Mr. Beifong that he was back.
Less then a minute later she requested him to enter his office, and when he entered, he heard a loud female voice exclaiming anxiously.
"….YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING, IT'S ALL HIS FAULT AND YOU KNOW IT!"
Madara was faced with the sight of a grim Lao Beifong listening to the shouts of a panicked Poppy Beifong, once they turned and saw him Poppy rushed towards him while pointing fingers.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, WE SHOULDN'T HAVE EVER ALLOWED YOU INSIDE OUR HOME!" she yelled like a crazy person.
Lao kept his cool but his face was serious and grim "Poppy, leave us" he said.
"NO, I WILL NOT ALLOW HIM TO SWINDLE YOU AGAIN! THIS BOY IS A DISASTER, EVERYTHING IS HIS FAULT, EVEN YOU STOPPED LISTENING TO ME LIKE YOU USED TO BEFORE THIS PEST ARRIVED AND RUINED OUR LIVES!"
Lao lost it and raised his voice "POPPY, LEAVE US NOW!"
The poor woman could only let out a "yelp" and run away in tears, it was the first time her husband ever yelled at her, he was always so calm and gentle.
"What-" Madara tried to talk but was interrupted.
"Toph disappeared, one of the maid's saw her earthbending through the wall." Said the man with a serious tone staring at Madara's eyes.
Madara was relieved, since Toph ran away she will finally learn from the badgermoles and develop her skills just like in canon, but he had to keep a straight serious face.
"How long has it been?" Asked Madara
"Three days…" Said Lao.
"I will go look for her"
"Yes, you will" he said narrowing his eyes, regardless of being friends with Madara at this point he knew Madara and Toph were quite close, and he also knew that Madara's personality could very well rub off on Toph, especially at such young age, kids absorbed things like sponges, he had no doubt that Madara had an indirect fault for what happened.
Madara nodded and turned around to leave when he heard Lao's final words.
"We believe that she is on the foggy swamp Madara, do you know what that means?"
Madara stopped on his tracks and his eyes widened, hurriedly he turned to Lao with a panicked expression "You can't be serious…"
Lao just nodded and said nothing.
"But… it has been a year…"
"Yes, but they never caught you, do you think they gave up? No, they are angrier than ever, they will not stop until they find you… or someone to take the blame for your actions."
Madara's heart raced at this point, if the Fire Nation finds Toph before he does… regardless of being a blind little girl, they wouldn't care… yes, the 12-year-old Toph Beifong could play with Fire Nation bastards like they were children, but the 5-year-old Toph with no Earthbending mastery whatsoever? A cold sweat ran down the back of his neck at that thought.
"Say no more." Said Madara as he dashed out of the office full speed towards his house.
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((Music time! Play Naruto OST Chain Explosion (FULL) ))
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Once inside he threw his fancy robes on the bed and started wearing his full black old ones, putting all weapons he had inside his sleeves, wrapping the metal wire perfectly inside his robes.
'If it's the Greedy Ghost that they are looking for… the Greedy Ghost is exactly who they will find' His blood red sharingan activated immediately. As he ran out of his house he stopped a maid on his way.
"Tell Lei that he should let my guest know that we might need to speed up our plans." He said on dark somber tone.
The poor maid was terrified of those red eyes, these are not human eyes! She nodded while shaking in fear and he just ignored her reaction, he had bigger problems right now.
He ran towards the nearest wall of the estate and climbed it, jumping on the tree nearby disappearing with the setting sun.
It was a dark night, the sky was cloudy and the moonlight was completely hidden behind the stormy clouds, it would rain at any moment as thunder echoed from above.
Between the trees a small girl covered in mud could be seen running while being guided by big badgermoles.
Toph had escaped her home three days ago and found herself lost in the Foggy Swamp, after half a day she was discovered by big brown badgermoles that resided in that specific region, initially scared she tried to escape but being blind prevented her from doing anything, eventually she discovered that the badgermoles were rather pacific creatures, not only that she made friends with them and by following them for two days she already discovered a few things about earthbending.
A few hours ago, she was asking the badgermoles to help her to find her way home, her parent's must be really worried by now and she was afraid of implicating her big brother Madara in this mess.
Just like Appa and the dragons, badgermoles could roughly understand human speech and led her out of the cave, cleaning the road through the swamp for her.
Halfway through her trip though, she was spotted by a Fire Nation scout and that scout shouted out loud and called for all the nearby soldiers, soldiers that called even more soldiers, and right now she was running covered in dirt and bruises through the swamp from a wave of soldiers that followed behind while shooting fire.
Thanks to the badgermole's earthbending they managed to create some distance but the creature was too big thus easy to spot, Toph was too slow, and the Soldiers were too many.
She was already exhausted when she fell on the ground after tripping on a tree root, before getting up she heard a raspy voice.
"We finally got you" a thunder echoed on the sky and illuminated the Fire Nation soldier behind her, she couldn't see but she knew she had no hope at this point, the Badgermole fought a couple other soldiers that were trying to catch up.
The man raised his fist and a flame was ignited.
But before he could finish the attack his body stopped moving, the fire was extinguished and his arm dropped, all that Toph heard after that was a light 'thud' sound followed by a a louder 'thud' sound, there was no scream.
"Are you alright little midget?"
Toph eyes widened as heard a very familiar voice.
"M…Madara?"
She felt a hand patting her head "Its good to see you safe" she could feel the warmth of his touch even though he wore gloves.
Looking around Madara stared at the massive wave of soldiers approaching and threw two kunais towards the soldiers fighting the badgermole, they both yelled in pain and dropped on the ground.
The badgermole turned towards him cautiously but when he saw how Madara and Toph seemed to know one another, it approached them and nodded in appreciation.
"Toph, can you feel the ground already?" he said with a serious tone.
"H-how did you…" she was shocked, she roughly learned that yesterday, how could he possibly know?
"We have no time for that, use your skills and run away from here" he turned to the badgermole "Please lead her to safety" the beast nodded and poked toph with its nose, telling her to follow him.
"But-"
"No buts, leave NOW!" he shouted.
She gulped and nodded.
"And don't worry, your badass brother won't be bested by these pesky cannon fodder" he said on a snarky tone.
She said nothing, got up and with the help of the badgermole she started to move away.
Not long after the whole battalion of Fire Benders arrived at the place, led by none other than Commander Zhao, Zhang's son, that took the mission to destroy the Greedy Ghost for the sake of revenge, he had a higher rank than his father due to his own connections and ruthlessness, a thing that his father lacked.
"So, you're the Greedy Ghost, I presume? we finally meet. I thought you would keep hiding inside your hole, too scared to come and face the consequences for your actions"
Madara laughed. "Nah, I heard that a bunch of losers were starting a party in my swamp without my permission, so I came here to kick you out."
Zhao snorted "Pretentious commoner, today you will understand what happens when someone defies the Fire Nation!"
"Oh yeah?" Madara smirked sinisterly and assumed his fighting stance while pulling a bunch of kunais, holding them between his fingers, and stepping on the decapitated head of the soldier that tried to hurt Toph "Then let's dance!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Hello ladies and gentlemen, i'm here to post another lovely chapter that i hope you all are having a lovely day.
there's not much to talk this time ironically, just the same old.
But i did enjoy my day off, and i do appreciate your thoughts on my health even though i'm not having any sort of health issues right now lol but thank you lovely sausages and i hope you enjoyed this chapter!.
On a side note Ser_Gamma >_> slow down on the fixing a bit >_> i didn't have time to fix the previous chapter's grammar mistakes yet.
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