37 Challenge

After jumping through the roofs of the capital, Madara sneaked inside his room through the window without being spotted, but when he turned around, he noticed that someone was sitting on his bed, seemingly waiting for him.

Staring at Madara with a worried gaze, the person asked.

"Did ye like ye nightly tour, Boss?"

Madara sighed and replied "Yes, it was very… Introspective… To say the least."

Kaliya nodded her head worriedly, but when she saw Madara's eyes, her own eyes went wide.

"B-boss… You d-didn't harm me uncle under the cover of the night, did ye?!" she was already having a panic attack, she knew that the sharingan was activated the whole trip for a reason, Madara couldn't really control his rage, so seeing his eyes back to normal made her hiccup, he either completed his goal or miraculously calmed down, she was leaning more towards the former.

He sighed "You don't have to worry about that, yes, I hate Pakku and I don't see myself becoming friends with him… ever…" he narrowed his eyes, which made Kaliya flinch "But…" He looked at her with a warm gaze and a gentle smile "That's your revenge, your own fight… I shouldn't interfere… I do hate him to the core but… If the price of vengeance is losing you, I'd rather let go of said vengeance."

He knew that even if he took initiative and attacked Pakku, crippling him, Kaliya would still stand by him like she always did, but their relationship and trust would be permanently stained, cracked, for possibly the rest of their lives since such things would never be forgotten. So, he would rather keep Kaliya happy than satisfy his selfish need for revenge and retribution, just like Princess Yue said.

The girl trembled, she looked at Madara's eyes absentmindedly, standing up she walked towards him and hugged him fiercely. "T-Thank ye B-boss."

Madara was surprised but hugged her back and patted her back "It's fine, we are family… Your happiness is more important than some petty vengeance."

They stood there hugging each other for a couple of minutes before Kaliya came back to her old self and let go of him "I will be going back to me room, tomorrow we will meet him and I want to be in me best shape to face him, ye right Boss, it is me battle to fight, thank ye for understanding me." She walked away before Madara could reply and closed the door gently after leaving the room.

Madara stood there for a few seconds with a confused but happy expression, his fingers touched the shoulder on which Kaliya rested her head and noticed some subtle wet spots.

'She…. Was crying….' He looked at the door shocked and lowered his head "To think I made her so worried about my vengeance that she cried of relief when I gave up on it…"

He decided to go to bed. 'It seems… Sometimes… Vengeance demands a steep price to be achieved… Only sometimes.' He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

The next morning, a big crowd was assembled in a huge hall, the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe, Arnook, was here surrounded by his trusted aids and six Waterbending Masters, this time Pakku was included.

Pakku was a rather anti-social person, he used to be more open but after the incident with his niece he closed himself off and he started to become a bit too dedicated to the tribe's rules, he had become a broken man who used the rules as support to keep living.

But last night he heard that his niece is back, and he could barely sleep, he felt like the ghosts of his past came back to haunt him, he didn't know what to say, should he keep his stern persona? Should he try to break the ice? Should he welcome her back or ignore her existence?

He didn't know, he couldn't find an answer, so he decided to wait and see how things went, but he demanded to be in this meeting, especially after knowing that his niece has been hanging around with a 'firebender brat'.

The trio arrived at the meeting room and found their seats.

"Good morning, dear guests, did you have a good rest last night?" asked Arnook just for the sake of social protocol, honestly, he didn't care much about them.

Madara grinned and nodded "Aye, your city is beautiful at night, Chief Arnook."

Arnook raised his eyebrows 'What does he mean by that? Did he manage to evade all the scouts that I left all around the palace?!' he thought, but kept his poker face and nodded.

Pakku stared at the young man 'This one is not a simple one… The way he walked, his movements…' He narrowed his eyes 'What a dangerous young fellow…'

The silence was rather awkward so the Chief coughed and decided to skip formalities and go straight to the point.

"Kaliya, what you said yesterday led me to believe that you have a reason to be here." Said Arnook.

Kaliya nodded with a serene expression, that shocked Arnook considering the worry that he felt in her yesterday was completely gone now and was replaced by… Confidence?

"Aye Chief, I requested me friends here to bring me to the tribe to complete me journey."

That raised many eyebrows from the tribesmen in the room.

"Care to explain?"

She grinned "I'm on something ye may consider a.. 'spiritual journey'.. but because of many things in me past… Regrets, fears and unfinished businesses, I had to come back here. It's the final step for me, I need some closure."

Arnook was quite surprised, the Kaliya that he knew was never that spiritual, she was considered average, but to think that such a person who disregarded her spirituality so many times in her childhood decided to do something so… out of character… raised many questions in his mind.

But he shook his head "You betrayed the tribe and almost started a civil war, we have no intentions of helping you now that you need us."

He expected her to get angry like in the past but she just shrugged and smirked "I'm not asking for ye help, of all me chains… not a single one is related to ye tribe, I regret nothing that I did here, I would do it all over again even if it cost me 2 eyes instead of one," she glanced at Pakku subtly after saying that. "Me issues here is merely a family issue, nothing that would require ye to come down from ye fancy palace."

Arnook instantly frowned, what she said pissed him off a lot since she completely disregarded his position and authority, a thing that no other Northern Tribesmen ever did due to their culture, his words were always the law and that's how he expects them to be.

But before he could speak anything, Master Pakku, surprisingly, was the one that talked.

"So, your business is with me, isn't that right Kaliya?" his voice was cold, internally he was conflicted but… He has been like this for years and he still didn't know how to behave in front of her.

She nodded "Aye, I have many questions for ye… but that can wait… first…. I challenge ye to a battle, Master Pakku." She said with conviction.

Everyone was shocked now, Pakku was the strongest known waterbending master, and as far as they knew Kaliya was never properly trained in combat, she was a woman after all.

"You are challenging me?" he snorted "You.. Who never learned how to fight with your waterbending?"

She laughed out loud "Ye would be surprised, I've been surviving as a pirate for years, I've fought more people in the last 10 years than many of ye ever faced, and yes, I'm even considering the battle against the Fire Nation…"

She stared at Pakku "I didn't learn how to battle me foes like a Northern Tribesman, I learned how to crush me enemies like an Uchiha!" she said with pride.

This made Lei smile, and Madara felt proud, he stared at her with a happy smile on his face, a smile that didn't escape Pakku's perception.

"What in the name of the Spirits is an Uchiha?" he asked with contempt, followed by the contempt of everyone else inside the room.

Madara replied "Something that can destroy this tribe before you can even cry like a little girl…" contempt against his proud family name?! NEVER!!

His eyes turned crimson and the temperature skyrocketed, even the ice walls started to melt at a fast speed, the Northern Tribesmen started sweating inside their thick fur clothes, it didn't even take long for a hole on the roof to appear due to the heat.

"Now pay attention old man, your niece went above and beyond to keep your head attached to your neck… But if you make fun of my name or my family name ever again… not even Tui and La will be able to protect you from me."

As he said that Pakku saw a massive wave of fire expanding in all directions, everything that fire touched melted instantly, ice, clothes, flesh, bone.. It wasn't long before he saw his whole tribe under a sea of flames, and the spirits were nowhere to be seen.

He started to yell in panic, pain, and agony and when he was about to succumb to madness he suddenly came back to himself and noticed that he was still inside the room, nothing changed… even the walls and the ceiling were still intact, it was like he just woke up from a nightmare, but when he looked at Madara and saw those blazing red eyes staring deep into his soul, he felt fear.

"Display contempt towards me and my family one more time… and what I showed you will become reality."

There were 10 people from the Northern Water Tribe inside that room, and all of them were sweating like pigs at the moment, looking around Pakku realized that he was not the only one who saw that vision… everyone here saw it too, and it terrified them.

'This person… ' Pakku thought that he finally understood what 'crushing my enemies like an Uchiha' meant.

Kaliya and Lei were gobsmacked by what happened, in one second Pakku and all the others on the other side of the room were showing contempt with proud and arrogant faces, but the moment Madara's eyes turned red every single one of them started to sweat like they were thrown into a caldera, not only that all of them looked terrified!

Kaliya gulped and looked at Madara to see his stern expression while glaring at Pakku with resentment, she coughed and decided to end this meeting.

"Tomorrow at noon, we will fight!" she stood up, followed by Madara and Lei, and left the room with her friends.

As the double doors closed, only silence remained in the room, subtle sounds like gulps echoed like drums in their ears.

"C-chief.. D-did you see that too?"

Arnook nodded while cleaning the sweat that covered his forehead "Yes, I did… that person is not normal… Kaliya told me before he was the biggest threat to the Fire Nation in our generation, only below the Avatar, but those powers of his… that dream… he controlled it, it wasn't just hypnosis… and he did it in an instant, to all of us… just by staring at us…" he gulped hard.

"He might be as dangerous as the Avatar or even above…. Because I doubt any Avatar would ever consider destroying a whole capital just because he was provoked… not even Avatar Kyoshi…"

Pakku stared at the door in silence, he was very conflicted at this moment, but a small smile, that no one else noticed, appeared on his face.

'She became strong… and she has strong people to watch her back… I'm glad little Kali, that you found a place where you belong…' but then his expression morphed into a serious one 'But I won't take it easy on you tomorrow… let's see whose ideals grew stronger over the years, prove me wrong if you can!'

He clenched his fist, after years he was finally feeling the excitement of a battle, it made him feel younger, it made him feel… whole…