Chapter 22: Oasis
A black-colored airship navigated above a vast desert with sand as far as the eye could see, and the only notable landmark was a huge flat mountain on the horizon.
It was already sunset and the temperature was already dropping.
The big airship navigated through the desert until nightfall, finally landing at safe distance from the rock. No one would ever go close to that place, not unless they had suicidal tendencies.
Kaliya exited the airship while stretching her limbs, then did a small warm-up before starting to run. It was a common exercise for her at this point, every night when they landed the pirate girl would go out to do her workout routine.
Lei went to their stock room and grabbed supplies to prepare their dinner, he had the habit of humming songs while cooking or doing anything related to it.
Madara on the other hand was sitting in his cabin with a huge frown on his face, he huffed and stood up, walking out and closing the door with a bang.
Lei just gave him space, not commenting on it.
'What the hell am I doing wrong?' thought Madara as he sat on the stairs of the airship's exit point, staring at the starry sky.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to meditate again, wasting a few hours on it until a female voice broke his meditation.
"Still having issues, Boss?"
Sigh. "I don't know what I am doing wrong, Kaliya." He massaged his forehead with a troubled expression.
She shrugged. "Ye been stuck inside that cabin for three days now, why don't ye tell me what ye are trying to achieve? Perhaps I can help."
Closing his eyes and considering for a minute he just nodded. "Have you ever heard of the chakras?"
Kaliya made a thoughtful expression. "Aye, not much but I know I heard the old healer from me tribe talking about it once."
Opening his eyes and staring at the dunes, Madara explained. "I'm trying to open my chakras, I discovered the method but… I can't do it"
She chuckled. "That's understandable, I am rather relieved that you are having trouble with it."
Madara stared at her with a confused gaze, she noticed and explained. "Ye are a little monster Boss, ye managed to generate lightning in half a month without a proper teacher, ye learned the most impressive firebending technique that I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot, on top of that…" She pointed to him "Ye are what... 11? 12?"
Madara just chuckled
She continued "That's not normal, even prodigies aren't like that… " Kaliya sighed and sat beside him. "People want to be geniuses, who doesn't? Talent dictates a lot, it means a good future, it means potential… but…. what people forget is that excess of anything is also an issue, it makes you look less like one of us… regular folk."
She turned to him and asked "Is that what ye want to become, Boss? Someone so above everyone else that no one will be able to understand you, no one will be able to befriend you? It's like they say, when two people have similar talents and one is better than the other, it generates envy. When two people have vastly different talents and one is better than the other, it generates acceptance… but... when you have two people that have vastly different talents and one is absurdly above the other… it generates rejection, apathy, and depending on the circumstances… fear."
Madara raised one of his eyebrows "I'm pretty sure that's not exactly how it works, I met many people that didn't fit that pattern at all."
Kaliya spat on the floor "Stop that nitpicking will ya? There's no 100% in the world, every rule has exceptions, obviously what I'm talking about would have it too, I'm not talking about the top 1% that would never give up and always try to improve, I'm talking about the masses. The other 99% that don't have faces and are just considered numbers."
Chuckling again Madara gestured for her to continue.
"Everyone has dreams Boss, and people tend to empathize and surround themselves with people that have similar dreams and goals. When I look at Jackie I can clearly see his goal in life, he wants to help ye, he respects ye, but above all… he is a family man, he wants the best for his wife and his goal in life is family."
"Then what's your dream, Kaliya?"
She grinned "Freedom."
He chuckled "A very pirate-like answer, ironic that you accepted working for me though."
She snorted "As I said, there's no 100%, obviously, it's impossible to be 100% free and only an idiot wouldn't be able to see that. We are all bound to something. But I like to believe that I'm free, I got to choose following ye, make no mistake Boss… I'm here with ye because I want to be, exploring the world sounds exciting even though I have no clue about our future, in fact, it makes it a bit more exciting, every day is a new surprise."
"That's why you left the Northern Water Tribe?"
She closed her lips and stared at him for a second "One day we will talk about why I left me home, make sure to bring me a lot of booze. But that day ain't today."
He nodded in silence.
"But I have me dreams and me goals, what about ye Boss? What is the grand goal of Madara Uchiha, the legendary Greedy Ghost?"
He chuckled "They changed to Red-eye Ghost now, with some just calling me Red Ghost. The survivors of that day surely couldn't keep their mouths shut."
"Answer the damn question, Boss."
He sighed "I'm… doing a job…" he didn't go into details, obviously.
"A Job? What job?"
"Tracking someone"
"Like rescuing or bounty hunting?"
"… Yes…"
She closed her eyes "I see, but that's just a short-term thing, that's not what ye want in life, that's just a job, which means it's something that was imposed on ye… that ain't yours, so tell me... what is YOUR dream or goal, Boss."
He couldn't answer that, he didn't know how… the closest thing would be 'To enjoy life' but that would be EVERYONE's final goal, the question is… 'what do I want to do so I can enjoy life?' because just living one day at a time without goals and dreams is not living, it's surviving.
"I don't quite know …"
She nodded "That's good then!"
"What?"
She shrugged "Acceptance is the first step to fixing an issue, ye lost… and now that ye know that, ye can work on finding yeself."
Madara started chuckling "You are very wise for a pirate, aren't you?"
She nodded with a prideful expression "Of course I am! I'm wisdom incarnate, people just can't see that." she chuckled too.
He laughed at that.
"So… my goals and dreams are related to my chakras…"
"Aye, ye need to know yeself first before working on it, but have no hurry and take ye time, live a life worthy of being lived, and when ye finally find out… hopefully, we won't be old bones by then…" she laughed while standing up "I will be going to eat something now, don't stay out here too long or Jackie will come to nag ya, I swear that man behaves like a housewife… it's obvious who wears the pants in his marriage" she laughed loudly as she walked inside the airship.
Madara chuckled and stared at the horizon "Live a life worth being lived, eh?" he grinned "Now that's a nice dream, the question is… how to achieve that?"
Feeling like he took a huge boulder off his shoulders, he stood up and walked back inside the airship before Lei came to annoy him ... 'that man does behave like a fucking housewife, doesn't he? God dammit…'
Two days later they landed inside a hidden canyon northwest of the Misty Palm Oasis, a town located on the southwestern edge of the desert, the buildings had a unique square design with bulb-shaped roofs, it was built around an oasis that was considered to have spiritual properties.
"Alright Kaliya you will stay here to protect our things," said Madara
"Mr. Uchiha, with no offense but… Kaliya can't pilot the ship, I believe I am a better choice for the job."
Both Madara and Kaliya stared at Lei with deadpan expressions.
"What?!"
Kaliya answered, "Ye aren't a bender Jackie, ye are a good fighter I admit it, but if sandbenders discover this place ye won't be able to hold long, ye won't even have time to turn on the engine and fly away considering how stealthy they can be in the desert."
Madara nodded "She is right, the town is only 30 minutes by foot from here, if any situation occurs, she might be able to hang in there until we get back, I don't plan on staying for long."
Sigh "Alright Mr. Uchiha I will do as commanded," he said while trying to hide some mixed emotions that he felt.
"OH!" Kailya exclaimed while catching the attention of both men. "I get it now! That's right ye hate sand, Nari told me that one time-"
"ALRIGHT, MR. UCHIHA, LET'S GO!" said Lei cutting Kaliya off, before turning to her and staring at her eyes with a flame of hatred "We don't have time to listen to your nonsense stories, you brute."
Madara just shrugged and walked away.
Lei was about to do the same but before leaving he turned to Kaliya and made the 'I have my eyes on you' sign, to which she displayed her smug grin 'heh'.
They walked out of the canyon, Madara used his firebending to jump between rocks and reach the top before throwing a rope down so Lei could climb.
They walked for a half-hour before crossing the Misty Palm Oasis' walls and what they saw was a rather… depressing… sight, the town looked very dilapidated, not quite falling apart but it could be seen that it has been years since anyone did proper maintenance around here.
People were sitting under cloth awnings to enjoy the shade with empty gazes. Very few cheerful people were around, even the bazaar was quite devoid of life, only a handful of vendors had anything slightly interesting for sale, and the others just sold scavenged items they found around the desert hoping for some profit.
'Oh great, I just entered Mos Espa…'
Walking around only two places caught his attention, one is obviously the "Pristine Natural Ice Spring" which was supposed to be a huge block of ice around which the whole town was built around, but calling it disappointing would be an understatement, the block of ice had nearly disappeared after centuries.
The second one was a calligraphy school, a rather small building that had only one person inside, a man in his late 20s or early 30s with a buzz cut, clean shaved face, and long beige and green scholar robes. When they passed by it Madara saw the man holding a long stick and writing on a small square white-colored sand garden, and when the man saw Madara he gave him a gentle smile with a nod, which Madara returned in kind.
Tired of looking around, the duo decided to go towards the cantina, they wanted something to drink and today was a rather hot day.
Reaching the place they were met with a crowd.
After walking through the crowd, they saw a man crouched on the floor, the markings on the sand in front of the cantina's entrance told Madara everything he wanted to know 'This man was tossed out' he was not that interested, to be fair.
"You fucking rat!" yelled the man crouching, he had long loose black hair, parted in the middle, with a strong build and youthful face, probably around 16 years old. He wore a green sleeveless shirt and knee-length black pants, with straw sandals to complete his look.
"Get out of here Shen, master Huang Fu already told you that you aren't welcome in this place after what you did!" said a slightly fat man with a long Chinese mustache, receding hairline tied in a high ponytail, and a VERY punchable face.
"Jiang, you bastard! It was you who ratted me!" said the man named Shen while getting up. "I hate rats!" he glared at the man and stomped his foot on the ground, a large rock floated up, and after he did a spin in the air and a kick motion the rock flew towards the fat man who simply smiled as two bodyguards moved their hands and a rock wall protected him.
The conflict escalated and eventually, Shen was taken out by some guards and carried to the jail.
The murmurs echoed through the crowd and Madara kept a thoughtful expression as he heard.
"I heard that Shen used the money to buy food for some children instead of paying the full value to Huang Fu, it seems the fatty there ratted him out."
"Yeah, I heard Shen is actually a good man…"
"... I heard…"
Ignoring the gossip, Madara and Lei walked inside the cantina, and they were received like nobles. Just looking at their fancy robes, the owner of the place treated them. With a lowered head, he served them himself, kicking the poor waiter towards some other customer.
After sitting down and ordering the famous Frost Mango beverages that this particular cantina was known for, Lei looked towards Madara who still had a thoughtful expression, and talked.
"You are thinking about that Earthbender? He seemed powerful and with a right heart… and considering what we heard, if we help him, he would have no issues in joining the team."
"Since when are we looking for an Earthbender?" Madara grinned.
"Since you decided to name a group of people to follow you around during your adventures, Air Nomads are out so we would only need a powerful Earthbender."
Madara nodded "That's true, you are smart Jackie.. "
Jackie puffed his chest with pride and continued "I will talk to that Shen guy, leave it to me, Mr. Uchiha!"
Madara raised an eyebrow "Shen who? Oh, that kid? Nah I don't give a fuck about him."
Jackie instantly deflated "W-what….t-then what?"
"That calligraphy master… when I looked at what he was doing, I noticed something…"
"You noticed what?"
"That I want him in our team at all costs!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan You guys probably noticed that i slowed down a bit, it may lead some of you to believe that im losing my steam and starting to give up the fanfiction, i want you guys to know that it's not true.
The reason why i slowed down is the sheer amount of information that i have to research about different locations to make this story better, seriously i researched everything i could about Si Wong Desert >_> and that led me to research about the Earth Kingdom in general and damn that's a lot of information XD
2 Trivias of today.
1 - Did you know that Kaliya was inspired by Yoruichi and Esmeralda? those two characters were the primary inspirations i had when i created the character.
2 - She was supposed to die, but i found it distasteful to spend two chapters of the story just to display the power of his Great Fire Annihilation and move on without adding anything to the narrative, that is the very definition of filler! so i changed that and worked on her personality to make her a more compeling character.
Now i hope you enjoyed the chapter you wonderful sausages, have a great day and see you in the comment section!
Chapter 23: Lessons
Leaving the cantina after enjoying their drinks and meals, the duo walked towards the Calligraphy School, which didn't take long to reach since the town wasn't that big to begin with.
Walking inside the door, Lei coughed to catch the attention of the long-robed master that was busy writing things on a white-colored sand garden.
Cough "Excuse me, sir?" said Lei.
"Will be with you in a minute," said the master while he kept writing on the sand and wiping it with another tool after he was done.
Looking at what was being written, Madara could see that he was writing the kanji for Spirit and/or Soul, depending on the context.
The duo waited for 10 minutes and Madara was already losing his patience, he felt that it was rather rude of the Calligraphy Master to leave him hanging here for so long. They had announced themselves, after all.
"Alright," said the master while wiping the sand one last time and turning to the duo. Looking from this close, Madara could see a very serene expression on his face, and also, he felt that this man's eyes were always closed, either that or his eyelids were so heavy that he would need to turn on his sharingan to see his eyes.
The man walked to his table, sat on the tatami in front of it in a seiza position, and looked at the duo.
"How can I help both of you?"
Lei looked at Madara who nodded.
"Sir, I'm Lei and this is Mr. Madara Uchiha and we would like to have a talk with you," said Lei.
The man nodded. "My name is Shinzu, it's a pleasure to meet you both." He bowed his head slightly.
At this point, Madara took the lead "Mr. Shinzu, I won't beat around the bush, I wish to hire you."
Shinzu smiled "I'm always for hire, I'm a teacher after all, feel free to join my class."
Madara shook his head "No, you don't get it. I want to hire you to travel with us, we won't be staying in this place for long, I will pay you well and with your earnings, you can even move your school from here to a district in Ba Sing Se in the future."
The man chuckled "Oh? Aren't you generous? I appreciate your offer Mr. Uchiha but I will have to decline."
Madara raised his eyebrow "Are you sure? It's not like this place can give you enough profit, not to be rude but… Your services won't work well in this town, this place is too desolate and the people living here can't even pay for their food, they won't spare money for your lessons."
The man chuckled again "That's true, very depressing, isn't it? But I never charged for my lessons, Mr. Uchiha."
Marada found this man very weird now, is he one of those eccentric hidden masters or something? "Then are you working here, and spending your days, just to teach whoever wants to show up?" Looking around at the empty place he sighed. "It seems that not even with your generous business tactics things are going well."
The man laughed "Hahahaha, you are right, they aren't really working well, are they?" he kept chuckling.
"Then why not come with us?" Asked Lei.
"That's a very good question, Mr. Lei, and the answer is very simple. Because I don't want to." Said the man with a smile.
Madara was quite weirded out by this man's reactions "We are no robbers or kidnappers, Mr. Shinzu, we are currently exploring the world."
Shinzu smiled "I believe you, just by looking at your clothes is easy to see, and yeah that sounds like a good thing to do in life, explore the world."
"So, are you coming?"
"No, still don't want to."
Madara felt that this man was very weird, he felt that nothing would convince this man to join them, literally NOTHING, no money, no help, no support, not even threat, or even worse, not even acting upon a threat… hell he bet that if this place was demolished tomorrow, this man would just clean a small area and start writing on the sandy floor without a care in the world.
"Care to explain why?" asked Madara.
"Simply don't want to, what else is there to explain?" said the man while smiling.
Madara nodded and decided to walk out of the school, with Lei following behind. Once they were on the street, Madara turned to Lei.
"Go back to the airship, tell Kaliya that I will be staying here for a while."
Lei was confused "Mr. Uchiha, why are you staying? There's nothing to be done here… and this weird man won't change his mind we both know that."
Madara nodded "I know, but I just feel it… this man… " shaking his head he continued, "I will take up his classes, I will stay here for a week and see how it goes, a week is nothing for us anyway, and we have supplies inside the ship to last. Take some fresh food for Kaliya too, she will demand to taste the local alcohol as well.."
Lei nodded with a confused expression "You sure?"
Madara nodded and walked back inside the school.
"Ah, Mr. Uchiha, welcome back… I'm sorry but my answer is still no." said the man while brewing his tea.
"I didn't come back for that, I want to join your school." Said Madara with a serious expression.
"Splendid!" said the man slowly taking his first sip "Come back tomorrow morning, we will start the class."
Madara raised his eyebrow "It's still right past noon, we can start now."
The man just looked at Madara and smiled "Tomorrow Mr. Uchiha, don't be late" he said before dismissing Madara.
Walking out of the school with a weirded-out expression, Madara went to find some inn to stay for the night.
The next morning, he woke up at dawn, dressed up, ate something, and walked towards the school. Reaching the school, he noticed that it was open and Shinzu was already inside writing on his sand garden just like the day prior.
"Good morning, Mr. Shinzu, or should I call you teacher?"
"Whichever you prefer Mr. Uchiha, come sit and I will start the class in a bit." Said the man as he continued to write on the sand.
Madara sat down in seiza position on the floor, in front of him was an empty low table with a big piece of paper, some ink, and a brush.
The problem was, the "in a bit" took two fucking hours! 'Is this guy fucking with me?' thought Madara.
Turning towards Madara, Shinzu nodded "Alright, let's start our class."
Madara swallowed his anger and nodded "Very well then, what kanji will you be teaching me today, Mr. Shinzu?"
"You can pick one, whichever you want."
Madara looked towards the wall where there was a huge grid with many Kanjis, looking around he had many options, but went for a very basic one, Peace.
"Ah, Peace, a very fine choice, come to the sand board Mr. Uchiha we will be writing Peace today."
Madara nodded, stood up, and after walking to the sand board, he wrote Peace flawlessly.
"Good, now do it again."
Madara wiped and repeated with the same flawless technique.
"Again."
And it kept going for three hours, Madara kept writing and Shinzu kept asking him to do it again.
"It's time to end our lesson for the day, Mr. Uchiha, see you tomorrow if you decide to show up."
The next day came, but this time Madara didn't arrive at the same time as the day before, he waited 2 extra hours at the inn before arriving, he didn't want to be left waiting while doing nothing again.
"Ah Mr. Uchiha, welcome, take a seat we will start in a bit."
'Oh, I have a bad feeling about this'….
The second day was exactly like the first, he had to wait over two hours and then he repeated the Kanji that he selected over and over again, and after three hours he was dismissed.
The same happened on the fourth day.
And on the fifth day.
On the sixth day, Madara just sighed "Mr. Shinzu this will probably be my last lesson, I will have to leave by tomorrow."
"That's rather unfortunate, I haven't had a student to teach in such a long time." Replied the man with the same neutral expression as ever, always serene.
"Care to tell me why you kept telling me to write again and again? I mean, I'm fairly confident in my writing skills, I don't think I've ever screwed up once."
Chuckling, Shinzu replied "Oh no, Mr. Uchiha, your technique was flawless, actually I was very impressed by it. But that's not the reason why I asked you to redo it again and again."
"Care to explain?"
Sigh "Mr. Uchiha, although your technique was flawless and your calligraphy skills are top-notch… you didn't write it well."
Madara was actually confused "That makes no sense, how can something be flawless and bad at the same time?"
Shinzo smiled "Because you didn't write while enjoying the process, you were writing to finish an assignment."
Raising his eyebrows "What difference does it make? In the end, the result is good, isn't it? And honestly, this was an assignment…"
Shaking his head, Shinzu replied, "It makes the whole world of difference Mr. Uchiha, you rushed for the end product, just like you are rushing through your life."
Madara's eyes widened "What? What do you know about me? Who are you?"
"I'm Shinzu, and no, I never met you before if you are wondering that, no, but I observed you from the first day you passed through my school, you run through life like you have a timer, an expiration date."
Madara chuckled "Everyone's life has an expiration date, Mr. Shinzu."
Shinzu laughed "Very true, but not everyone rushes through it… to be honest Mr. Uchiha the impression I have of you is not exactly that you are rushing through your life, it's more like… you are rushing to finally be able to start living."
Madara didn't know what to reply to that, it felt… spot on…
"It feels that you are rushing through your life to finish an assignment, just like you did with your calligraphy, ignoring the joys of actually living."
Madara lowered his head "I… kind of agree with you... but… " sigh "It's complicated."
The man chuckled "It's always complicated, Mr. Uchiha, that's what life is all about, but don't force yourself to rush through life and forget to actually enjoy the process of living."
Silence remained until the man spoke again.
"Tell me, Mr. Uchiha, what do you want in life?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Hello there! see how easy it is to write a chapter when i don't have to spend hours researching details, locations, dates and everything else? it feels waaaay better for me, i feel i have more freedom when writing.
There will be no more trivia today, i'm saving it for another day, but i do want to address some power hungry folk that read my fanfiction.
Avatar is not all about power, theres way more than that, and ANY character who's only goal is to reach the apex of power is a BADDLY WRITTEN CHARACTER, there i said it... idk who i will be offending with my claim but hey... gotta break some eggs right?
Power for the sake of power is just as bad as being evil for the sake of being evil, a goody2shoes, or Mary Sue, all of those are on my "Never gonna write this shit" list, i like complex characters that undergo development and self-discovery, asking questions and having conflicts, and no, "protect family and friends" or "I don't want to have my life dictated by others" are not reasons, those are excuses, very convenient excuses to write power trip fantasy novels where the protagonist keep lvling up until he doesn't, and then it ends just like that.
I hope yall are enjoying my ... unorthodox... fanfiction, i know it's not what most want to read on this website, but hey it's what i want to write, and if you are with me to see where this tale will lead us.. then you my friend is an awesome fucking sausage!
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