Chapter 50: Through the Skies
A group of three could be seen walking towards a hidden hollow mountain, surrounded by cherry blossom trees. Two of them were women, one with tan skin, crystal blue eyes, and an eyepatch over her left eye with scars spread across her body. The other had fair skin, long dark brown hair, and striking yellow eyes; she wore long black and gold palace robes in a style that resembled the geisha of old.
In the middle there was a tall fair-skinned man with long, wild spiky hair that resembled a mane and sharp black eyes; he wore long fancy black and red robes and carried a huge fan on his back.
As they approached the hollow mountain, the man turned to the fair-skinned woman and skeptically asked;
"Are you sure you can pilot this thing, Nari?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
The woman, Nari, didn't take his question the wrong way and giggled while hiding her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono.
"Of course I can do so, Mr. Uchiha! Do you think that my husband would be able to learn how to pilot it on his own back at the Beifong Estate?"
After listening to those words, the tanned woman couldn't help but let out a loud laugh.
"Wahahahaha, I knew it! Jackie would never have the brains to learn this on his own! I told ye Boss, and ye didn't believe me!" she said while pointing to the man in the middle.
Sighing, Madara scratched the back of his head. "Well… I wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt…" he coughed and avoided their gaze. "By the way Nari… talking about Jackie…"
"You don't have to worry about him, Mr.Uchiha, he is healthy, just…. Busy….." she let out eerie chuckles masked as a polite lady's giggle.
"" … Yeah…sure…"" both Madara and Kaliya replied at the same time.
Looking up towards the night skies of the northern region of the Earth Kingdom, Madara couldn't help but think out loud.
"I hope nothing bad happens when I am gone… I am sure that those spies around this place are just waiting for the moment that I am away…"
"You worry too much, Mr.Uchiha." said Nari with a motherly smile "You need to understand that those people are terrified of you right now, and they won't.. by any chance… try to strike this place and earn your rage. But… I do admit that it's not good to underestimate people's cunningness… Our trip will be short, we shall be back by next week."
"If you say so," he sighed, still worried. The people living in the Uchiha Resort trusted him with their lives for protection, he would never accept failing their trust.
"Relax, Boss!" shouted Kaliya while side-hugging him, with her arm over his shoulders. "It's not like ye appear for the masses every damn day, a week of seclusion is nothing new for them… Hell, I remember when ye didn't leave the house for almost a month!"
Nari chuckled. "It's incredible how both of you have this weird relationship going, you behave like you always did years ago, but at the same time, you have this ambiguous air… I will never understand how you two do it."
Shrugging, Madara replied "Not even I can explain it… All I can say is… it just works..." he chuckled as he concluded his answer.
"Says the man that locked me inside for a whole week after I came back from the last mission ye sent me on!" replied Kaliya playfully.
"Oh please… you are a pirate; you would've climbed through the chimney if you wanted to leave… no one would be able to lock you up that easily…" Madara rolled his eyes.
As their banter continued, they arrived at their old airship, it's been over a year since both Kaliya and Madara used this thing, and they both couldn't help but remember their times flying through Si Wong Desert back then.
"It's kind of nostalgic, isn't it?" Asked Madara as he entered the airship, looking to the sides and seeing everything just the same as it was before, he never touched or removed anything from within other than clothes and his weapon.
"Aye…" Was all that Kaliya could say as she touched the left side of her head, which wasn't burned like before, thanks to the spirit water Madara brought from the Northern Water Tribe for her. "It does bring back fond memories."
"Please, stop speaking like it has been ages..." said Nari with a chuckle as she moved to the control room. "You both talk like it has been twenty years since you last traveled, now… Kaliya, let us do as planned…"
Kaliya responded with a firm nod and walked to the balcony of the airship. They had a plan already prepared if they ever decided to fly openly and it wasn't stormy, they had to conceal the existence of the airship, and even being dark outside, the lights of the Resort would make the departure of such a huge ship very easy to spot.
As she walked outside, she opened a canteen of water and used her bending to pull a bit out, launching it towards her feet and freezing it to prevent herself from falling.
Afterward, she took a long breath, concentrated with her eyes closed, and started moving her hands slowly in circular patterns.
From outside, if one paid enough attention, they could see that in the span of thirty minutes, a huge pillar of clouds could be seen covering the top of the hollow mountain. As the airship took flight, the mass of clouds slowly covered the whole vessel, slowly retreating back to the skies where both the cloud and the airship moved southwest.
….
In a small settlement located within the scorched forest, in the westmost corner of the Earth Kingdom, a young tattoed bald boy was slowly sneaking outside. He reached his trusty flying bison and yanked on his reins trying to guide him to stand up, but the bison continually refused to do so.
With a strained voice, the boy spoke. "Let's go, Appa! Come on, boy!"
Appa roared in protest and sat down, while Aang kept trying to take command and failing.
"Look, I'm sorry, but Katara and Sokka aren't coming to the Fire Nation with us… if they got hurt… I … I'd never forgive myself!" he concluded sternly, emphasizing his command by straightening himself. "So... Get your big butt off the ground and let's GO!"
"I think his big butt is trying to tell ya something..."
A voice came from nearby, and startled, Aang jumps back a bit and looks back just to see Sokka coming from behind a tree along with Katara.
"We are not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang." Said Katara.
"She is right," said Sokka sternly, but then he grinned. "At least, not without your friends… We got your back!"
Momo appeared out of nowhere, flying towards the trio and gently perching atop Aang's shoulder at the exact moment that Appa gave Sokka a big lick across the face.
"EWWWWWW!"
As they soar through the skies, night eventually turns into day, and unfortunately for them… It happened to do so right before they could cross the massive blockade of ships that covered the whole east side of the Fire Nation waters, not only that… a single lonely ship could be seen following them from behind.
Looking back at the lonely ship, Katara shouted "Aang, we've got trouble!"
Sokka, panicking as always "Yeah! And it's gaining on us... fast!"
Out of nowhere, a massive flaming boulder is hurled towards them, only barely missing them.
"Damn!" shouted Sokka.
Katara who was paying more attention to the ship than to the projectile that almost reached them shouts "ANOTHER!"
"I'm on it!" shouted Aang while jumping up from Appa, and while in midair, using his airbending to destroy the flaming boulder and using the explosion to propel himself back to his friends.
"Can't you make Appa go any faster?" asked Sokka.
"Yeah… but there's just one liiiittle problem…" he said while pointing forward toward the blockade that finally became visible to them.
"A blockade…" from below, Zuko's eyes widen as he closes his fist in anger.
"Technically we are still in Earth Kingdom waters. Turn back now and they cannot arrest you." Said Iroh, who approached his nephew from behind.
"Yes but…." Zuko clenches his jaw as his eyes narrow towards the sky "He is not turning around!"
"Prince Zuko, there are times that a retreat is the best option! Don't let yourself be lost in your pursuit, remember that if they capture you… there's nothing that I can do! Do not follow the Avatar."
"Uncle.. I…" Zuko's eyes tremble, he finally got a trail of the Avatar after he left them on Kyoshi Island. It's taken him days to catch up, and if it wasn't for the incident of the Earthbender prisoners that the Avatar decided to free... he doubted that he would have been able to. He also doubted that he'd be able to get their trail again if he abandoned it now.
As he was suffering from this internal dilemma, Commander Zhao couldn't help but grin.
'Both the Avatar and the traitor come to me so easily…' While staring at the flying bison he turned toward the ship's captain and calls for his attention.
"Commander Zhao. What are your orders?" the Captain asked.
"Shoot the bison down, Captain."
The man was surprised "But there's a Fire Navy ship out there, Sir! One of our own! What if it's hit?"
"So be it," Zhao answered coolly "It belongs to a traitor, shoot it now!"
As fire started raining from below, Aang kept doing his best with his airbending to fend off the fireballs that were sure hits otherwise, while Sokka kept controlling Appa trying to dodge as much as he could.
"Aang!..." Shouted Katara in panic.
"I'm fine Katara" Said the bald monk while taking a breather, right before reading himself for another jump. "Don't worry."
Katara was about to shout again, she would never forgive herself if she allowed Aang to become all bruised like that day they escaped the Southern Water Tribe, but she saw something odd in the skies not that far away from them.
"Is that a .. cloud?.." She asked with a weirded-out expression.
Sokka shouted while pulling Appa's reins, dodging another fireball "We are in the skies.. there are clouds EVERYWHERE!"
"No Sokka," said Aang, finally paying attention "That cloud is going against the wind…"
"Yea SO?" Sokka Shouted again, forcing Appa to raise the altitude a little to dodge another fireball.
Suddenly they could hear a distant, faint but real laugh coming from the cloud.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
"What the..." Sokka passed the reins to Aang, the Avatar knew how to control Appa better than him, and took a spyglass and stared at the cloud just to see a man with wild spiky black hair, standing 'on top' of the cloud, dressed in black and red and with his arms crossed in front of his chest while laughing.
"Unbelievable…" he said as Katara took the spyglass from him while he was spending his time being dumbfounded.
The girl gasped as she saw what her brother saw "There's a man riding that cloud!"
"WHAT?!" Shouted Aang both weirded out and excited. "That sounds so fun!"
….
On the top of the cloud, Madara was laughing his ass off. 'I can't believe we came west at this precise moment … to think that I would have such a first encounter with Team Avatar, look… there's little Firecracker down below!' he kept laughing like there was no tomorrow.
After finally calming himself and cleaning the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes he crouched down on the top of the balloon part of his airship, which was covered in a cloud, and spread his arms "Let's give them a sight to behold shall we?"
As the seconds passed, tiny whisps of fire kept escaping his fingertips, slowly merging with the cloud.
….
Down below, the old General looked up and noticed the odd cloud following a similar path to the Avatar's flying bison and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and tell his nephew.
"Prince Zuko, look at that.." he said while pointing upwards.
The prince who was still trying to decide what to do, looked up and suddenly his eyes went wide.
The cloud slowly became more and more red, until the color was fully a tone of orange-ish red.
"A red cloud.." said the prince as he held the railing of his ship. A smile slowly appeared on his face. "I get it Teacher… " he mumbled to himself "Men, let's head back to the earth kingdom, the Avatar will have to come way in one way or another… we shall be waiting for him!"
""YES SIR!""
On the other side, the old General couldn't help but bow toward the red cloud flying through the skies, a small genuine smile appeared on his face. 'Thank you.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KojiSan
KojiSan Hello there my fellow readers! it is i! once again! with a new chapter! HURRAAAAAY!
Now, this chapter was suposed to be published HOURS ago, but things happens and my trusty grammar checker ... aka... wife... was way too busy to do it, not that i blame her she has her job D:, so it took a while
As for why i didnt upload anything yesterday? ehhhhh wasnt feeling it... idk... can't really say, yesterday i just wanted to sleep and be done with it lol...
Thank you all who are still following my work after the 2 long hiatus that i took, it was really shitty of my, i know, but life happens and we are all here and happy again! ^_^
As for the new readers, thank you for giving my FF a shot, i hope yall are enjoying it... and i hope most of you didn't give up because of the negativity pool that resides on the first 10 chapters of the novel >_> luckly those people stopped reading and commenting after the first 10ish first chapters...
I wont go back and delete those because... well... im too lazy to do so, i don't even delete bad reviews out of lazyness.. no joke.. i still have the 1 Star review from that CuckLordZ somewhere out there, just bcuz i was "Meh... let the dude be happy at least once" XD
Have a nice day! see you next chapter, and tell me your thoughts on the comments.
Stay Awesome as always! <3
Chapter 51: Red Clouds can be Dangerous
Less than a minute has passed, and through the Sharingan, Madara could spot Zuko's ship already preparing to turn back towards the Earth Kingdom.
Looking towards another spot, he can clearly see Sokka's gobsmacked face.
'Gosh he has almost as much of a punchable face as Jackie… '
Then scanning fast, he can spot a worried Katara, 'Typical', and a hyperactive Avatar, staring in his direction with excited eyes and a huge smile. 'Even more typical….' He couldn't help but chuckle at their reaction.
Immediately he dismisses the flames on the red cloud, forcing the heat to spread toward the sea of clouds surrounding the vicinity, completely hiding his position once more.
It may look like he was showing off, but that's not quite it. He knew how the events transpired, Zuko would follow Aang alone, Zhao would follow Zuko and everything would end up well due to plot armor.
The point is… Zuko now isn't the same Zuko, he is more careful and stronger, yes, but he is also more confident in his skills, especially after the Agni Kai. Madara obviously knew about it, he is second in wealth only to the Beifongs at this point, and as his old pal Lao used to say… "Having money gives you the power to disregard many things."
One of them is the barrier of information, which Madara has been investing heavily for a year now, he might not have that much control over the Earth Kingdom, but the Western most area of the Earth Kingdom is already "his land", the King can enjoy his life in Ba Sing Se, Madara had no desire for it, but this region is already in his pocket.
'And with it… Comes the ownership of at least half of the future Republic City lands!'
He couldn't help but grin at that thought, until his gaze turned downwards, towards the Fire Navy blockade, toward one man in specific...
"Zhao…" his serene and somewhat playful expression disappeared instantly as he walked toward the edge of the platform, staring down as the heated clouds started to darken due to the change in temperature.
Extending his right hand and all his fingers, as if he was holding a ball, a circle of lightning cracked, connecting all his five fingers, rotating at a blinding speed.
"… And just like that… you would die… no one would even know how… not even yourself…"
His tomoe spun slowly, impacted by his anger.
A sound of thunder echoed through the skies, rain slowly fell on this region of the blockade as lightning kept circling, connecting his fingertips, almost as if he was charging a ki blast from Dragonball.
"… No…"
The lightning in his hand dispersed as he lowered his hand, staring down at Zhao's ship as his Sharingan worked as a scope, zooming in on Zhao's confused face 'the fucker doesn't even know what's happening or who is above his head with a sharpened blade right now…' Madara sneered.
"That's not how I want you to die… I want to see you with despair and hopelessness… I want to crush all of your efforts and plans… and after, to see everything that you worked for evaporate in front of your eyes until you finally see how worthless your existence is… only then… you have my permission to die…"
Madara's voice was low and stern, he didn't want to kill off Zhao like this, with an instant airstrike that wouldn't even be felt. 'He will have to suffer for almost killing my little sister and tarnishing the best battle I had by fleeing cowardly…'
According to his intel, Zhao would target Zuko way more harshly than before, he was humiliated in front of his soldiers. During canon he also lost, yes, but it was Iroh stopped him, it was Iroh who gave him the final words, not Zuko… but this time…
"I bet you want to kill Zuko way more than you would've wanted during canon, eh?"
Not only that, by killing Zhao right now it would create an issue… the one to replace him during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe would probably be Azula.
'Crazy bitch…'
Azula might be many things, but an idiot she is not. Madara has no doubt that she might even be able to pull a win over the Northern Water Tribe. That girl captured Ba Sing Se while bringing only her two teenage friends from the Fire Nation as aid, subduing Dai Li and conquering the unconquered capital of the Earth Kingdom without any apparent effort.
"Neither Aang nor Zuko is prepared to face her yet, at least during Book 2 when she appeared… Aang was already proficient with both Water and Airbending, and Katara stopped being a useless waste of oxygen after being taught by Pa-…. That fucking bastard…" His eyes narrowed as a natural lightning went down, hitting absolutely nothing but it gave Madara a plan anyway.
'But I can't let you go without suffering a loss here… Little Zhao…' he grinned as he pointed two fingers towards Zhao's ship and took a deep breath, using his Sharingan to have a near perfect aim.
"Enjoy your time swimming…" As his grin grew more and more evil, a heavy electric discharge escaped his fingertips, crossing the sky while aiming toward a specific ship.
…
Below the stormy clouds, the Fire Nation Navy was clearly confused about how the rain started in the first place and it was even worse for Zhao who saw the Avatar using the darkened clouds to hide their position from his sight.
'Of all times! Why did it have to rain just now?!' He couldn't understand, although cloudy, there was no hint of rain for the next few hours, not according to the specialist that they kept in their ranks to always monitor the climate changes, as they had to always be prepared after all.
"Sir! We can't locate the Avatar and it seems that the ship coming towards us also retreated back towards the Earth Kingdom!" said the Captain, waiting for orders.
Zhao didn't reply, he simply kept staring at the skies trying to figure out the location of the Avatar, but he couldn't, the rain ruined their plan to strike him down with fire.
Because of the location of Madara in the skies, almost no soldier spotted the quick appearance of the red cloud. He was already over them, while both Aang and Zuko were still coming from the east. Obviously, all the soldiers were paying attention to the East because of that.
Only Zuko who had the advantage of position and line of sight could see them from below. Aang could as well, but he was also in the skies, almost at the same height as Madara's airship.
As natural lightning ran through the clouds, Zhao gave up on trying to spot the Avatar and moved on with his next plan.
"Prepare To-"
But before he could complete his command, a powerful lightning bolt descended and crashed right into their engine room, not only causing massive damage to the overall structure of the ship, but it also created a chain reaction by igniting all of the flammable materials that were on board.
The ship trembled until an explosion occurred from within.
"ABANDON THE SHIP!" shouted Zhao in panic as he jumped into the sea.
Not even ten seconds after Zhao reached the water the ship exploded, sending debris all over and not only killing a significant number of soldiers but also injuring many more.
Zhao, after waiting for the explosion to subside, finally emerged from the water with a pained face 'Why?!' he was furious, this simple explosion was enough to buy the Avatar enough time to escape, and considering how long it would take to regroup with the other ships, five to ten minutes, his target would be long gone and the trail would be lost.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" He shouted in fury, staring at the sky as if he was cursing the deity or spirit that cursed and ruined his plan, in one moment he had both the Avatar and the exiled Prince in his reach, in the other… he didn't even have a ship, how cruel fate is!
…
"How unlucky…" Sneered Zuko as he stared at the remains of the ship, almost commanding his men to turn back towards the Fire Nation waters once more to take advantage of the breach, but he managed to control himself.
Iroh on the other hand was staring at the billowing smoke of the destroyed ship while caressing his grey beard with one hand and with the other folded behind his back, an odd glint could be seen in his eyes if one paid enough attention to it, but he remained silent.
"Let's go, men!" shouted Zuko, "In half a day all the high ranks of the Fire Nation will be alerted to the Avatar's intrusion, he will be coming back and we will be ready to catch his trail!"
The old General turned towards Zuko with a smile on his face. 'You are learning to use your head, Zuko.'
…
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YE DOING?!" Shouted Kaliya, sweating bullets while trying her damn best to keep the cloud around their ship from dispersing, which became even harder after Madara's little red cloud stunt.
Scratching the back of his head with an apologetic smile, Madara approached her "…. Er…. My apologies… It seems I overdid it…"
"OVERDID IT MY ASS!" She shouted in anger "I'VE BEEN HOLDING THIS CLOUD FOR OVER AN HOUR NOW, AND YE HAD TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR ME!"
She had a point, not only did the temperature increase make her control waiver, but it also caused her major discomfort which made it even harder to keep the required control to keep that kind of bending.
Avoiding the Northern Tribe girl's furious gaze, Madara placed his hands in his imaginary pockets "…I won't do it again…"
"I HARDLY DOUBT THAT!"
"Okay okay... I won't do it again in these circumstances, come on! We made a literal Red Cloud! We should be proud!"
"…."
Noticing that it would be better to wait until they reached an abandoned island before having that kind of talk, Madara tactically decided to walk inside in silence, avoiding any confrontation with his employee/lover.
As he walked inside and sat on a lavish and comfortable sofa chair in the control room, Nari eyed him up and down and asked.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You don't have to play dumb with me Mr. Uchiha, we've known each other for almost a decade now, and I know that although you are a showoff.. You wouldn't place such burdens on Kaliya just for the sake of it…"
Madara stared at Nari for a few seconds and sighed. "You know… Sometimes I miss the dumb old Jackie that didn't catch things that fast…"
Nari simply chuckled at that comment.
"Well... if you want to know… there was someone I wanted to kill, someone I wanted to protect, and someone that I wanted to mark with a striking first impression…."
"Oh?" Her eyebrows raised.
After spending a few minutes explaining who Zhao was and why he was on Madara's hit list, how Zuko would be in danger if he decided to venture inside the Fire Nation like a hotheaded idiot, and how important it would be for their future to have a unique first impression on the Avatar, Nari only had one question.
"Why didn't you kill him?"
"Not satisfying enough…"
"Mr. Uchiha, I am not my husband…"
"Sigh…" staring at the ceiling of the room he couldn't help but feel helpless when it came to the wits of this woman.
"Two reasons, one is that although I can control lightning like no one else due to my eyes… it's still hard to have a perfect aim on such a small target at long distances, lightning is a bit… wild… to aim properly… I don't think I could do so while being so far away…"
"And the second?"
".. Him dying now would make most of my plans useless and it would throw a variable in the equation, a very dangerous one at that…"
He didn't have to explain why he didn't just jump down and attack the Navy, it was obvious, this was a covert mission, the Fire Nation higher-ups were the last people on this planet that he wanted knowing that he left the Resort.
There's no doubt that they already figured out his identity and are bidding their time, the moment he leaves his metaphorical gold mine unprotected, they would launch an attack to take over it, they only haven't done so yet because the last ten times they tried last year ended up in disaster for them, with not a single agent coming back alive to tell the tale.
Noticing that Madara wouldn't explain any further, Nari didn't press him, simply returning to piloting the airship with a gentle smile on her lips.
"And where are we going from here?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"To a northern island of the Fire Nation."
"Oh? And what would such a remote place have that made you take such a risk in coming here?" she asked, legit intrigued.
"There's a group of interesting warriors that live there… and they worship a couple of even more interesting beings…" A smile appeared on Madara's face. "Beings that I am looking forward to forming a good friendship with… at least one of them."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
KojiSan
KojiSan
Hello there!
I am here to deliver a quite long chapter for today ^_^, i hope yall enjoyed it and... well... i don't have much to talk here today x-x
I spent my weekend with my family.. you know... mother's day and all that, so i couldn't upload anything, honestly i didn't even have anything written, im writing as i go... i don't have any more stock piled chapters no more >_>
I have a problem with those, everytime i write something i feel the urge to publish asap... x-x and its quite ... triggering... for me to keep piled up chapters waiting to be published >_>
i will try to write more so i can stock pile them and upload them daily, but i can't promisse anything XD
Have a great day you wonderful sausages, i hope yall enjoyed your weekend and here is the first chapter of the week :D
Cheers!
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