Chapter 30: Guests
Everyone went back to their homes, Kaliya got herself a decently sized house near Madara's manor.
This was a sleepless night for Madara, honestly, he never thought about these complicated human bonds before, he didn't really have friends in his previous life because of his circumstances.
Hell, he couldn't even trust people, it was just that lonely and hard for him, so now that he is finally free from all the calamities and finally opens himself up to accept others in his life… he has to face the reality of humanity… mortality… everything has it's time, just like the world and even the avatar cycle itself… humanity follows the cycle of the four elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water… Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, and even he wasn't different; it's just that the seasons of his life lasted longer.
'I wonder if everyone has multiple lifetimes... or is that exclusively an Avatar perk…'
He spent his night meditating and trying to get rid of his worries and anxiety, not that it helped much but at least one can try.
The next morning all the employees of the Resort, the maids, the workers, the guards, and the other specialized employees such as gardeners, herbalists, and such gathered together in front of the main Resort building, on a huge square that managed to accommodate everyone.
Lei walked in front of everyone on top of a small wooden platform, that was placed there earlier for today's purpose and turned to the crowd.
"Good morning, everyone, today is an important day for all of us, for the past three years you all have been working under the new owner of this place, but because of circumstances none of you could see or interact with him before, so I gathered you all here today to make proper introductions."
Everyone just nodded, it wasn't any exciting event or anything like that, so they were just very calm and chill about it.
Madara took his time to walk up to the platform and turned to the crowd, who at this point was rather shocked… is this kid our new employer? How the hell did he buy this place?!
"My name is Madara Uchiha, and I'm the new owner of this place… I know that many of you might see me as a kid and to be honest, you are not that wrong, I'm barely 16 years old."
Many murmurs could be heard.
Madara smirked "But I like to think of myself as a genius when it comes to investments, I managed to buy this place when I was only 13, that means something," he chuckled and some people in the crowd followed, "But my goal is not to just keep running this place like always, I have plans to increase our wealth, to increase the value of this place… and to make every single nation want to come here just for the sake of giving us their money!" A cunning grin appeared on his face.
"For the next six months I will be investing in this place, new buildings will be built, new things will be taught, and many new products will be created… if everything goes as I plan...." he stared at everyone that stared back at him "This day next year you all will receive a 50% increase in your wages."
At first, everyone was shocked, then suspicious… but looking at the confident expression on Madara's face and considering that he managed to earn enough money to buy this place at the age of 13… they started shouting and yelling.
"WE WILL DO OUR BEST SIR!"
After the gathering, everyone spread to do their job with renewed energy and focus, and Madara joined Nari, Lei and Kaliya.
"Mr. Uchiha, what kind of plans do you have?" asked Nari, she was a very smart person, enough to even be considered a genius, but she couldn't figure out Madara's plans.
Madara just chuckled and gave her a mysterious grin "Bring me all the herbalists we have around, also go fetch some good architects to build fancy new buildings, we will also need some experts that work with wood, I'm not talking about regular woodworkers, I'm talking about people who can finely carve wooden instruments…. We will talk in the evening."
Madara was about to leave but he stopped "Kaliya come with me, I shall impart to you some things."
She already had a clue about what it was and followed him while the couple stared at one another with conflicted smiles and went to do their own things.
For the rest of the day Madara taught Kaliya the method of opening her chakras, he also recommended she find a very calm and serene place to open them, a place that made her comfortable, to make it easier to meditate.
When evening arrived Lei and Nari brought a group of workers to the Uchiha Manor and they were granted entrance instantly, once they reached the living room Madara was already waiting for them while reviewing a small pile of papers.
"Sit," he said softly, everyone nodded and followed.
He passed the papers to Nari first, not that he didn't trust Lei, no sir! He trusted Lei with his life at this point, but Nari had more talent for business while Lei had more talent for administration.
"These are…?" she saw certain drawings and after she finished reading everything her eyes almost went out of her eye sockets.
"Do you want to turn… this resort… into a Gambling Den?!" She was shocked.
Everyone was shocked too by her words.
Madara chuckled "No, this won't be a gambling den, dens are for low lives, the bottom of society, and the everyday worker; this place will target the rich! I will turn this place into a Gambling Resort."
One of the workers wasn't happy "You plan on bringing chicken fights and arena battles to our fine establishment?!"
Madara just laughed "Of course not, High Society patrons deserve a High Society level of gambling games."
He spent the next four hours explaining the basic games that he 'created' and would be bringing to this place, everyone was shocked and excited about the ideas, the possibilities of such an endeavor would be endless! THE PROFIT WOULD BE UNHEARD OF!
While everyone was discussing ideas with one another excitedly Madara smirked 'Heh.. I will turn this spa resort into fucking Las Vegas!'
"Mr. Uchiha," Nari was very impressed and actually excited about it, but then she looked at the last couple sheets of paper and those were completely unrelated to gambling or new buildings. "What about these?"
Madara looked at the paper she was holding and nodded "These will be the first of our new unique products and the reason I wanted you to bring the herbalists here," he turned to the three old men dressed into long fancy robes "I want you to research herbs used for meditation or others with similar properties, I want your whole focus on this for the next three months."
When they saw the paper, they raised their eyebrows "You want to create a herbal concoction that will be used for inhaling?"
Madara then proceeded to explain the concept of trying to create something similar to tobacco to these old men, who were actually surprised by such a groundbreaking idea… such a product, if done well, could find its way into any rich man's house, not only that... it was a consumable, so they would constantly have a flow of customers for the foreseeable future, it's completely different from making massage oils and resort related products that were only used for limited activities!
"But, what about this pipe, Mr. Uchiha?" asked one of them.
"It doesn't only matter how good our customers will feel after smoking our new product… High Society people want more than just feeling good, they want to display status, they want to display wealth… and to do so… our product will need something fancy that will give them exactly that, this little pipe is what I call… Kiseru… and I want it to be crafted from simple materials to expensive fancy ones!"
For the next three months, the builders, herbalists, and other workers did their new jobs with full focus, these new ideas were revolutionary to them, gambling dens were very common but this level and scale of gambling were never done before, they knew how much the rich and powerful liked to spend, to display wealth and power, so it was obvious that this idea would be more than successful, it would start a whole new era of business.
A new building could be seen from the distance on top of a platform in the middle of the river, a bit further from the resort but still connected by a fancy bridge, fancier than any other bridge in this place.
It was a fancy pagoda-like tower with red roofs and delicate carvings, it had seven floors and many different rooms built, some private rooms for private games, it was name Koei Tower (Lonely Tower). Madara would bring smoking and gambling to this world, but not prostitution, not only would the backlash be too annoying for him… he couldn't bring himself to do it, he was no white knight to prevent others from doing it, in fact, he didn't even care if others did it because he was sure others already did, but he didn't want that weighing on his conscience.
Everything was going according to plan and he was very satisfied, all the gambling games and tools that would be used inside the casino would be made out of fancy carved wood, platinum metal wasn't invented yet and Toph will come up with metal bending in a couple of years and spread the knowledge, so he won't be using regular metals, wood was the one thing that he never heard of anyone being able to bend in canon.
As Madara was in his study writing another book that had some things he learned from the Library, he was trying to build his own library to pass to his descendants, he heard a knock on his door.
"Mr. Uchiha?"
"Oh, Jackie? Come on in!" he said with a smile.
Lei entered his study to see piles of books spread through every corner, he raised an eyebrow but ignore the sarcastic comment he was about to say and went straight to the point.
"We spotted a lonely Fire Nation ship coming towards our docks, Mr. Uchiha, they must've already docked it by now…. And as you asked I'm here to let you know if such an event ever came to pass… to be honest, it's scary how you can see the future like this."
Madara raised an eyebrow but then grinned "It's not really hard to predict certain events, Jackie, it's not like I can see the future or anything, but I can calculate certain possibilities based on the knowledge I already have." he said while closing his half-written book and standing up. "Let's go, I want to meet our guests"
They walked all the way to the inn area of the resort, when they arrived by the door, they heard an angry youthful male voice shouting.
"We have no time to spend in this place, Uncle! We still have most of the Earth Kingdom to scout!"
"Ahhh, don't be like that, can't you let this old man enjoy some comfort in his retirement once in a while?" answered an old male voice with a bit of mischievousness.
BAM, the sound of a fist colliding against a table echoed.
'If you broke my furniture, I will rip one of your arms off and shove it up your ass, royalty or not… don't you dare break my stuff! These things are hella expensive you brat!'
Madara thought as he accelerated his steps and opened the door, entering the inn's main room, and spotting an old man with a relaxed expression drinking tea like he had no worries in this world, and an angsty teen standing up with his fist collided against a fancy wooden table.
Madara's eyebrow twitched "You better not have broken that… or you will have to learn how to live without an arm."
The teen had a half-burned face and a bald head, except for a high ponytail, and he wore typical Fire Nation robes, he wasn't wearing any armor right now.
The old man on the other hand had a very known face and armor.
Hearing the person that just arrived the duo looked towards the door to spot Madara in his fancy black palace robes.
"And who are you? Do you have any idea who you are talking to?" Asked the teen while igniting a small fire in his hand.
Madara just snorted and replied "A dead prince if he keeps talking and behaving like that in my establishment." He snapped his finger and the flame was extinguished, making both the teen and the old man shocked.
Madara then turned to the old man and gave him a welcoming smile "It's an honor to finally meet you, Iroh, also known as the finest tea expert in all four nations and also a very good Pai Sho player."
The old man that was sitting down enjoying his tea chuckled at Madara's antics and replied "You are the first one to not call me General or Dragon of the West."
Madara just chuckled in return "Oh yeah… you are also known by those titles… i completely forgot."
Iroh stared at Madara for a few seconds before starting to laugh, Madara followed and laughed too.
At this point, both Zuko and Lei were just staring at the two laughing people with a weirded out expression 'What the fuck?'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan Okay Okay, you can lower your torches and pitchforks now you beautiful sausages!
The chapter is here u_u you can forgive me now, and no it was not a writer's block or anything, i just slept too much today >_> heh....
So i hope yall are having an amazing day, i don't have anything to say today really *shrugs* i just hope yall enjoyed the chapter, it takes a bit longer now because as you all know.. my wife likes to review them for grammar and such... yall can thank Ser_Gamma for 'challenging' her to do it, now the chapters takes a bit longer to be posted when compared to the old ones that i just posted after writing them XD
Chapter 31: Request
The laughter slowly died as Madara slowly walked towards Iroh and sat across from him. He then served himself some tea and took his time enjoying the taste.
"Jasmine tea, good choice.." said Madara softly.
"Jasmine tea, when well-made, achieves balance by bringing together different expressions of jasmine, fragrant flowers infused in rolled tea leaves." Said Iroh back.
Madara nodded. "But like everything else in life… balance is not easily achieved."
Iroh nodded and gently smiled. "If one can achieve balance while preparing tea, it is already a splendid start when searching for balance anywhere else."
Both of them smiled at one another and enjoyed their tea in silence after that small exchange.
The teen, Zuko, wasn't amused, though. He walked towards the duo sitting by the table and exclaimed, "Explain what is going on here!" while staring at Madara.
Madara just chuckled at Zuko's behavior "You should forget trying to act like that, intimidation may be your sister's talent, but you suck at it… stop trying to behave like her."
Iroh instantly raised his eyebrow, slightly amused, while Zuko got even angrier and was about to punch the table once again, harder this time, but was stopped when Lei caught his wrist.
"Please behave Prince Zuko, honestly… you don't want to ruin Mr. Uchiha's day… the last person who broke furniture here disappeared mysteriously… if you know what I mean…" said Lei with a serious tone.
Zuko was shocked, he by no means was a weak fighter, inferior to his sister yes, she was a monster and didn't count, but when compared to regular soldiers? He was always above them in skill, yet this random guy just caught his wrist like he was a child.
Shaking his wrist free, Zuko stopped his tantrum when he realized that these people are by no means ordinary, but he was still suspicious of them.
Iroh spoke to break the tension "You know Mr. Uchiha, I never heard of you. To see such a well-developed young man managing this resort… honestly, I wasn't expecting this, the last time I came here the owner was Mr. Feng."
Madara chuckled "Well, Liu Feng sold this resort to me three years ago, it seems you have been away for quite a while."
Zuko was shocked by the revelation "Three years ago? But you look so young.. you look like you are.."
Madara interrupted "I'm 16, you are not wrong, I bought this place when I was younger than you are now Prince Zuko." He said smiling and enjoying his tea.
Zuko was actually flabbergasted "How could the Fire Nation sell this place to a 13-year-old?!"
Iroh chuckled this time "haha Zuko, this place is not a military outpost, this place is private property... it pays taxes to the Fire Nation, yes, but the rights can be transferred willingly, Mr. Uchiha here is the true owner of this place since he bought it, and no one can legally take it from him."
Madara laughed "In the world of business, money talks louder than anything else, Prince Zuko."
Iroh nodded with a smile, and Zuko felt weird, as this guy came out of nowhere and is now all friendly with his uncle, and is treating him like a child, when they are just 2 years apart from one another.
Zuko shook his head and decided to change the subject "You are a firebender as well, what are you doing here? The Fire Nation is commanding all the firebenders to register in the army!"
Madara and Lei started laughing out loud at that comment, it was so loud that even Iroh stopped drinking his tea and raised an eyebrow.
Wiping the tears from his eyes Madara stopped laughing and turned to Zuko "Well.. here's the thing Prince Zuko… the Fire Nation has no authority over me, in fact… no nation does." He said that with a sunny smile on his face.
This shocked the duo of uncle and nephew, what the hell?! This guy is speaking pure words of treason out loud and he is doing it while laughing to tears?!
"You are committing treason!" Shouted Zuko.
"No, not really… you see I'm not a native from there, and even if I was, I would only obey someone stronger than me. And the last time I suggested an Agni Kai with the Fire Lord I was sadly dismissed… " Madara gave a regretful sigh before turning to Iroh "How is little Zhao nowadays by the way? Did he recover from the beating I gave him?"
Zuko's brain froze.
Iroh's tea fell to the floor, or almost did if Madara wasn't ready for that reaction and grabbed it.
"Be careful, such fine tea shouldn't be wasted like that." He said with a smile.
Iroh frowned "So it is you… to think we would meet after so long… you disappeared after that event and no one could catch your shadow, you gave this old man a lot of headaches back then, how do you plan on compensating me for years of headache?"
Zuko turned to Iroh in confusion, his uncle seemed to know who this guy was "Uncle, who is he? You talk like you know him…"
Iroh chuckled "Well you know him too, in fact, most of the Fire Nation knows him… just not by his real name… " he then turned to Madara "So which one do you prefer? Greedy Ghost? Red-Eyed Ghost or just Red Ghost?"
Madara shook his head amused "Does it matter? It's not like one can control their nicknames once they spread like that…" he laughed, and Iroh actually laughed too, he understood it very well since his own nickname 'Dragon of the West' wasn't something that he actually liked, not anymore at least.
Zuko on the other hand was having a hard time. "T-this guy is the Greedy Ghost?! THE Greedy Ghost?!"
Madara just nodded, and Iroh just shrugged.
"W-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be … I don't know… haunting the Fire Nation soldiers in the name of vengeance?" asked Zuko.
Madara coughed and spilled his tea, he was completely baffled "What vengeance? What the fuck are you talking about?"
Iroh chuckled and helped Lei clean the table "Many stories about you began to spread, many believe that you are not human but a vengeful spirit who's targeting the Fire Nation because they destroyed your homeland."
"What the actual fuck…" was the only thing Madara could say while staring at Iroh suspiciously.
Iroh just shrugged "You should blame the Fire Nation and not this old man, I had nothing to do with those stories… I even tried to denounce them… but who would believe me?" he displayed a mischievous smile.
Massaging his forehead "Jackie, bring me some Soju… I gotta have a few cups after hearing that…"
Lei chuckled amused and nodded "I understand Mr. Uchiha, I will be back shortly." He then turned around and left the main hall of the inn.
Zuko then sat beside his uncle and asked Madara "So, was your homeland truly destroyed by us? Or did the army kill your beloved family?"
Madara's eyes twitched "Okay, this is hurting my soul now… I just robbed the army because I needed some money to start my life… to think that people would spread such idiotic stories about me…"
Zuko's and Iroh's eyes went wide at that statement.
"Y-you attacked all those soldiers because you needed MONEY?!" Shouted Zuko.
Madara just shrugged and nodded.
The exiled prince then deflated in defeat, like he just finished reading the most exciting book ever but the ending was so bad that it ruined his whole experience "So many theories.. so many different rumors… and it was all just for money… " he kept mumbling while staring at the void.
Iroh chuckled in amusement, the chuckle escalated into full laughter "To think… that the one considered the most dangerous man alive… was just a thief… hahahaha!" He laughed so hard that his belly jiggled.
Zuko came back to his body and stood up "But.. the Greedy Ghost was active 5 to 6 years ago…"
Madara nodded "Yeah, I was just a 10-year-old when I started and 11 when I kicked little Zhao's ass out of that swamp."
"This…" Zuko was not only shocked, but he was also terrified now, an 11-year-old that could beat an elite imperial firebender! Those were the elites of the Fire Nation!!! Not even his sister, the so-called firebending prodigy, could achieve that at such a young age, and that's ignoring beating an imperial firebender who is leading over 100 firebenders in direct battle, Zuko doubted that even Azula could achieve such feat.
Iroh refilled his tea cup and looked at Madara again "And now you are just telling us your identity out loud like that…"
Shrugging Madara replied "Well… I have three reasons for that, one is that I doubt that you are likely to spread the word, and two is that I wanted to start an actual friendship with you Iroh."
"What about the third?" Asked Zuko.
"Well.. truth be told… the Fire Nation can't do anything to me anymore… And I like to believe that they are smart enough to understand that, I was 10 when I killed Captain Zhang's team, I was 11 when I defeated a battalion of firebenders led by Zhao… and now I am 16…"
Iroh's face turned serious, Madara said the truth… if 5 years ago he could single-handedly destroy a whole battalion of firebenders, now that he is 16 his skills should've evolved drastically, in fact, the Fire Nation also knew that and canceled the 'Ghost Hunt' a year ago.
Madara looked at Iroh and smiled "And I believe that they are smart enough to understand my silent message."
Zuko was confused and looked towards Iroh for clarification, who in turn coughed, fixed his beard, and spoke.
"The Greedy Ghost stopped his attacks on the fire nation after the swamp battle, and after years of silence the council took that as a silent message from him that he would stop hunting our soldiers and ruining our plans and decided to call off all the hunting parties, in short... they didn't want to antagonize him, in fear that he would join the enemy army to go against us."
Madara then continued "So I believe that even if they know who I am, and even if they know that I own this place... the odds of them hunting me here are extremely low, I bet they would actually be happy that I own this place, it ties me to them and gives them a reason to believe that I might join their ranks eventually, so unless I actively move against them again… they will keep the status quo."
'Until the war ends at least... well... until the war ends the way they are expecting it to end' Madara smirked.
Lei came back with the Soju bottle and Madara drank it alone since Iroh refused, he preferred tea, and although Zuko was actually interested in trying he was stopped by Iroh who said he was too young for that kind of stuff, Zuko tried to throw a tantrum but Iroh was surprisingly firm and serious when it came to alcohol.
They talked a bit more until the sun was setting on the horizon, Madara then stood up and said his goodbyes and walked out after giving another warning to Zuko about his anger issues, if he broke anything it would cost Zuko an arm, and at this point, Zuko believed him.
Once the duo of uncle and nephew saw Madara's figure disappearing, Zuko turned to Iroh.
"What should we do about the things that we just discovered?"
Iroh just stood up and stretched a bit "What do you mean? We should take a bath and sleep, of course, tomorrow he promised to show me his new Pai Sho tables that he ordered to be built and I'm rather excited!"
Zuko shook his head "I'm talking about him being the Ghost.. a man like him…"
Iroh interrupted his nephew "I've been observing him since he walked in here, the way he walks, talks and behaves… I can't quite judge the level of his skill, that much is very telling, isn't it? I can judge how strong your sister, and even your father, is but I can't do the same about him..."
Zuko's eyes went wide and he stood there in silence for several minutes after Iroh went towards the new Hot Springs that he heard so much about.
The next morning Madara was reading the report of the recent buildings and orders, 'For fuck sake Jackie, I'm literally paying you to do this for me… where the fuck are you?!'
A knocking sound came from his door and a maid's voice echoed "Mr. Uchiha, Prince Zuko is here to see you."
Madara raised his eyebrows "What the… let him in."
The door opened and Zuko walked inside, and before any words could be said he made a martial arts greeting, bowed, and asked "Please, teach me firebending!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Good evening wonderful sausages! i hope you all had a great day!
I want to let everyone know that i posted 2 actually finished artworks made by me of Madara and Kaliya on the chapter 0, so check it out :D i plan on making Jackie by tomorrow >_> it takes a while....
Other than that i wanted to address the people complaining about spread smoking and gambling in the avatar world saying that is wrong because the world is too pure for that.. all i have to say is ... are you freaking high?! Avatar world have slavery, brain washing, genocide... and smoking + gambling is where you draw a line?!?!?!?!?!
To everyone else, i hope you liked the chapter :3 and i hope i didn't just foreshadowed the ending of my own novel in this chapter >_> would be ironic and very sad >_> ugh....
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