A group of pirates that usually raided specific routes between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom decided to relocate their usual route due to the recent Fire Navy moving east, they couldn't keep their operation for a while so they had to go south.
The captain was a scarred woman with a long black jacket, she had tanned skin and dark brown hair to complement her one blind eye, which had a long scar, and part of her partially burned scalp on the right side of her head, which makes her have a rather viking-ish hairstyle.
She had a vicious air around her, wearing a crop top under her long coat that exposed her scarred yet well defined abs, long puffy beige pants and dark brown long boots. She was tall for a woman but anyone could see that she would've been a beauty if it wasn't for her damaged body considering how beautiful her cyan blue eye was.
"Captain, we spotted a ship starboard side!" said one of her henchmen offering her the spyglasses.
Taking the item, she turned towards the location "Aren't those sails from those rich fuckers from the Earth Kingdom?" she said as she looked at the sails of the ship.
"Aye captain, they are filthy rich! After plundering their ship we can retire for months!" Said her first mate, a short stout man with a long dirty beard and a braided skullet hairstyle.
"Are you fucking retarded?! They will chase us down if we attack!" Said one of the crew members that worked on the sails.
"Shut up scrub, no one asked you" Said the first mate.
The woman kept staring at the ship, attack or not attack? She had a bad feeling about this, both sides one had one ship and Beifongs had the money to hire strong protection…
'And they probably already spotted us… that can ruin our plans to plunder the south in secret until those Fire Nation bastards clear our waters…' she snorted "Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, eh?"
Everyone was silently waiting for the captain's decision.
She smirked sadistically and shouted "Bottom's up ye seadogs, we are takin her home!"
""YEEEEEEEEEEEEAH"" everyone shouted and ran to their places
"All hands on deck, batten down the hatches!" Shouted the first mate.
The ship slowly turned towards their target and started moving full speed.
The captain walked towards the bow of the ship and stared at their prey with expectant eyes, a Beifong ship was a motherload to any pirate, she may be afraid of consequences but the sea is their realm, they could always erase all witnesses and no one would ever know.
She kept staring at the other ship until she saw someone stepping on the top of the bow's railings, she focused her spy glass and saw a young boy with long black hair and black and red robes that looked a bit too fancy for some common servant to wear, but it was when she focused on his eyes that her heart skipped a beat.
Those blood red eyes staring directly at her from so far away, she could see him perfectly due to the spyglass, but why is she feeling like he can see perfectly as well without even needing one?
Seeing him making some strange hand sign she was confused, is that the rich way to sign for peace or something?
One second later the world turned red, she couldn't even describe it because the term "massive" didn't sound accurate enough
A gigantic wave of fire was launched on their direction, devouring sea water like a hungry beast and leaving a huge cloud of vapor behind, it approached them at high speed, roaring like an angry stampede wanting to trample everything in its way.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR.
She felt insignificant in front of such display of power, quickly turning around she dashed towards the cabin while shouting in panic as she ran. "BRACE YE SELVES!"
The sails burned before the wave even got there, it was so hot that people were sweating from both dread and heat way before the wave reached them, even the captain's skin started boiling while running as that disaster came closer and closer.
All the greed and lust for gold disappeared in a sea of fire.
On the opposite ship the situation wasn't so different, every crew member stared wide eyed at the massive wave of fire that roared towards the pirates, this absurd level of power wasn't something they ever saw or even hear about it!
Some kept staring at the fire absentminded, some stared at the young boy in black and red wondering if he is an ancient dragon in disguise, Jackie on the other hand looked up, wondering if Sozin's comet had returned.
After the wave devoured the ship, it slowly faded away, leaving behind a thick cloud of vapor everywhere, the pirate captain was on her knees inside the captain cabin, with smoke coming out of her entire body, her jacket was half burned to cinders her pants were devoured and now they could barely cover up to her thighs, her boots and top were still intact but that was because of the boot's materials and because the jacket took most of the damage head on.
She breathed heavily and tried her best to not lose consciousness here, she used every amount of chi she had to pull the water out of the ocean and create a barrier around her, it wasn't a perfect barrier she didn't have enough time to make one of those, she had to compensate the sloppiness with chi and that costed her dearly, she was barely awake.
"Cough, Cough" she heard her first mate's coughing outside
"Kur…A…Are Ye Still With me?" she spoke as loud as she could, taking deep breaths between words since she was beyond exhausted right now, her voice turned raspy due to the feeling of dehydration.
"Ca….ca..captain…" a weak voice reached her ears and she mustered her whole strength to walk outside the cabin, what she saw brought her despair, fear and sadness.
Corpses with boiled skin everywhere, the ship charred like charcoal, falling apart, a slightly bigger wave would break the hull.
"…Cap…captain…" the voice again! She hurried and looked around and spotted her first mate completely burned, massive lumps of ruined flesh all over his body, there's no way to save him, it's just a matter of time now.
".. We.. s..shoud..ve… left…" were his last words.
He nodded and lowed her head "Aye…we should've..." Although sad she was a pirate, there was no romance between crewmates here, those who fell behind stayed behind. What made her like this was another thing, her first mate, just like her, was a waterbender, and she didn't have any doubt that he used his skills to protect himself with water, but even doing that he ended up like this… 'if I didn't reach the cabin in time… ' she could only gulp at that thought.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a childish male voice.
"Oh, so there are survivors after all…"
Turning her head towards the source of the voice, her one good eye captured the sight of the same young man from the spyglass, standing there on top of the charred deck with an indifferent gaze, his red eyes glowing through the fog.
"How should I call you?" he asked.
"K…Kaliya" She answered, she wasn't stuttering or anything like that, she was just that tired.
"Very well Kaliya, from now on your residence will be inside our brig, I have some questions for you if you don't mind."
"Aye..." was all she could say before her world turned black and she passed out.
The rest of the crew jumped onto the charred ship and started looking around, paper and other fragile items were long gone, but gold and precious metals obviously endured the flames, they looted everything they found under Madara's orders, good paycheck or not, no one would throw away some extra income that just falls on your lap like that.
Kaliya was first sent to a cabin to be treated, Madara needed her alive to get some information, he hasn't travelled across the four nations yet so any information would be welcomed, it took a whole day to complete Kaliya's treatment, once she woke up, she was escorted to the brig, she didn't complain or anything, just followed instructions.
During those 24 hours the crew was silent, especially around Madara.
Most of them, excluding the few handling the ship and medics aboard, were trained under Madara's torture and they knew Madara was no joke when it came to martial arts, his firebending was also an open secret at this point, although one talked about it everyone knew, but no one ever saw him using it before, today was the first time… and no one would be able to forget it.
Kaliya was resting, sitting on the ground and leaning her back against the metal bars, waiting for whatever it was to come, having captured many prisoners before she knew of her possible outcomes, but having a possibility of life was still better than having certainty of death.
She heard light footsteps walking down the stairs, coming towards her. She slowly turned her head and her eye captured the same boy again, this time his eyes were pitch black though, that made her rather curious, she never heard of such a skill.
"So, Kaliya, are you enjoying your stay?" asked the boy.
"Ye rich folk brigs are better than me ol' cabin" she chuckled in response.
Madara chuckled in response "I can't deny that, these people are rather … excessive…"
"These people? Aren't ye one of them? Judging by ye clothes…."
Madara shrugged "They pay me, they house me, they outfit me and they feed me… what can I say?"
She laughed "Ye live the life of a king"
He laughed as well "I can't deny that either."
After that a brief moment of silence she spoke first.
"So.. what ye wanna to know?"
"Oh?"
"Don't play dumb with me, I know ye left me alive for a purpose, me gold and me ship are gone, so the only reason I am treated and alive is because ye need something i might know."
"You are rather smart for a pirate."
"And how do ye think I became a captain in the first place? by riding on a sea of cocks?" she snorted and spat on the floor "If those whores use their bodies, I use me brains."
"Commendable" Madara chuckled "With a look like yours I thought you would do exactly that to be honest."
She snorted again and ignored his remark.
"You are from the Northern Water Tribe aren't you?"
"W-what?" she was shocked by his spot-on question.
"Yes, yes you are" he grinned.
"What difference does it makes? And ye haven't told me what ye wanted."
"Alright let's start with that then, my name is Madara Uchiha."
"Ye already know me name, Kaliya."
"I initially wanted to interrogate you while giving you false hope of life and eventually get rid of you" he said with an expressionless face.
"And what changed?" she wasn't surprised, she did the same many times over.
"Your brains, that's what changed… tell me Kaliya of the Northern Water Tribe, would you be willing to work for me?" Madara grinned.
I hope you are having a good day you handsome sausages, i am posting this chapter today because i might take a break on sunday, i appreciate the ones that worry about my health but i am actually a very avid writer, in my head i already have certain scenes from the final arc of ATLA canon just waiting to be put on paper, honestly writing this fanfiction is being a blast to me i am enjoying it for real, specially after receiving so many praises.
Stay awesome and have a lovely weekend, Cheers!
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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!""
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.