29 Offer

The airship landed on a specifically built open platform. Once the group left the airship, Madara looked around to see, for the first time, his new acquisition, a place that appeared briefly during the series. The Village Resort.

The place was like a huge classic fancy mix of Chinese and Japanese architecture, with red-colored roofs and clean paved roads, surrounded by a small cherry blossom tree forest, well not really a forest as it wasn't big enough to be considered one.

The whole place was roughly around 1/5th the size of Misty Palm Oasis, and it cost him almost double to buy, yes it was just that expensive.

The main resort was in the middle of the river, connected to both shores by two state-of-the-art bridges.

The houses for the personnel were built on the shores of each side. This place was basically a paradise, a paradise that was overlooked by many for being a mere resort, surrounded by a few Fire Nation colonies.

Looking around, Madara spotted a specific building on top of a slightly taller hill that overlooked the whole thing, it looked like a classic Japanese manor, a complex of 4 buildings connected by wooden platforms slightly elevated above ground level, all with red roofs that matched the theme of the whole place perfectly.

"That's my house, I presume?" asked Madara

"Yes Mr. Uchiha, it was built following the ideas that you gave me, I thought it would be difficult but it seems that there are many other buildings all over the village and the Fire Nation that follow the same architecture, yours is just a tiny bit more unique, but nothing that we couldn't handle."

"And what about the 4 buildings?"

"Well one is the main manor, it has 3 floors and 5 rooms that you can use as you prefer, a kitchen, a dining area, a living room and the restrooms that you required, that was honestly the tricky part since it was a fairly... unique… way of building them." Lei chuckled "Then there is what you called a dojo, or a practice area, it's big, but I don't recommend that you practice your firebending in there…" a small sweat drop ran down Lei's forehead, "Honestly, I don't recommend you practicing your firebending anywhere in this town…"

Madara chuckled "Noted, and relax I wasn't planning on it… This place cost me too much to just burn it down like that, haha."

Phew "Then there are the two smaller rooms, one is a.. what did you call it again? Hot Springs? It was tough since we have no actual hot water source like a volcano nearby, but we called some earthbenders that managed to dig deep enough to bring some hot water from below, I don't know how they did it but we had a specialist watch over the whole process. The last one is your study, as you requested. We made it slightly bigger so that it can store enough books and scrolls for you, as you can see, the whole place is walled up."

Madara nodded satisfied, he had written some details attached to a very basic drawing of the place he wanted a year ago and he was actually surprised that they managed to pull it off, considering how rough his drawing was. The whole place was built in a U shape around a big Cherry Blossom Tree that he demanded to be planted there, of course, they didn't plant a seed or sapling, but replanted the biggest tree they could find, and the entrance was adorned by a massive red Tori gate.

Looking around, Madara asked, "How do they call it? These Cherry Blossom Trees?"

Lei gave him a weird look, "What do you mean, Mr. Uchiha? They are called just that… Cherry Blossom Trees."

Sigh "I want to name them Sakura, is that possible?"

Lei's weird look turned even weirder, "Yes, I guess we could spread the word and make it become part of common knowledge in half a decade to a decade.. But why?"

Madara grinned "These trees only grow in my land according to my knowledge, they are a unique kind of tree and I believe that they deserve a name that mirrors their existence."

Lei kept staring at Madara, "I understand but I don't get why…"

Sigh "It's just a name that reminds me of my … family… so I want to keep it that way, just to have a piece of home here with me." It wasn't really that, he just wanted to spread some things from his old world here, even after so many years here… Madara still felt a bit alien to this world, he wanted to at least try to bring some familiarity to his new life.

Kaliya kept staring at him, 'Boss never talked about his family, he does have a family name so it means that they were big at one point… he behaves like he is the last survivor of them… sigh… Boss must be feeling quite alone sometimes.'

Lei thought of something similar and agreed right away, "Of course, Mr. Uchiha, if there are any other cultural changes you want to bring here, we can do our best! We can't do all of them but we can at least try to do some, right?"

Madara chuckled "Let's start with the trees first… One step at a time, okay?"

Walking around the village, and the resort, the guards gave Lei and Kaliya a bow, but were curious about the young man beside them, they all knew that their new boss was someone called Madara Uchiha, but they have never seen him. Only these 2. So, who is this young man? 'Is he the boss' son or something?'

"Ahem, attention please…" said Lei, attracting the attention of all the guards nearby "Spread the word that tomorrow morning the new owner will talk to all employees, so they should come to the main square in front of the resort."

Everyone nodded 'It seems that he is related to the new boss, probably his son.'

Lei and Kaliya showed the whole place to Madara, telling him some details here and there, trying their best not to overwhelm him, he just left a 3-year-long seclusion where he was buried under piles of books, after all.

When they arrived at the Uchiha Manor it was already sunset. The place was fully furnished and had 4 maids that did the daily cleaning, at the moment though, they had already gone home and the place was quite empty since no one lived there yet.

Walking inside his new residence, Madara had a smile on his face. This is a place where wealth meets simplicity, not overwhelmingly luxurious and pompous like a Beifong house, but luxurious yet homey, wealthy yet simple, a perfect balance and exactly what Madara desired for his permanent residence.

They went to the living room and sat on comfortable mats that were perfectly spread on the tatami.

"Jackie, I assume that your wife has been living here with you since you both left the Beifong Estate, am I right?" Asked Madara with a serious tone.

Lei nodded and was a bit scared about the seriousness in Madara's voice right now. "Yes, we are living nearby, a few houses were emptied due to the previous owner taking a few of his old employees with him, is there a problem Mr. Uchiha? Did we overstep our bounds?"

Madara chuckled "No, not really, it's just that… I have a question.. No.. It's more like an offer, to both of you, and considering that she is your wife, she is entitled to be a part of this offer. Can you call her here? We will wait."

Lei was very curious and a bit suspicious, but he nodded and stood up, "I will go find her right away, Mr. Uchiha."

"Take your time Jackie, no one here is in a hurry." He chuckled as he watched Lei dashing out of the room.

"So Boss, what is this offer? Does it count for me as well?" asked Kaliya.

Madara smiled and nodded. "Yes, in fact… I'm almost 100% sure that you will take it… But Jackie on the other hand, I'm slightly afraid that he won't… Not that it would change anything, it's just… Well … Complicated. Please wait for them to arrive."

Kaliya could only swallow the curiosity that was killing her right now… "Is it money? More money? I bet it's some money!"

Madara only chuckled, "It's even better…"

Kaliya just stared wide-eyed, she knew how greedy her boss was, for him to consider something better than money, it must be groundbreaking, something legendary!

In roughly 40 minutes the couple arrived, Nari still had on her long robes, but no longer wore the green and yellow Earth Kingdom colors, now they were replaced by red, white, and gold, typical of a native of the Fire Nation.

"Hello there Nari, it's been a while," said Madara as he watched the couple sitting down on the mats.

She nodded with a gentle smile, "Hello there, Mr. Uchiha, yes it has been, hasn't it?"

They talked for a bit, catching up on the events inside the Beifong Estate since his departure, she went into extra details; she worked there as the head maid after all and she knew a lot of gossip about it, and he learned of quite a few tricks that his little sister has been using for the past couple years.

"Alright, now let's talk about the main subject… To the three of you," he said with a serious tone, and they all tensed up.

"Honestly… I was planning on taking this knowledge with me to the grave since I had no one that I considered important enough to share it with, but you have all become like a second family to me, so I will share it with you, all I can do is hope that you accept."

The three of them nodded with serious expressions.

Madara took a long breath and said it.

"What if I told you… That I could help you all live… Longer…"

The eyes of the three people went wide, what kind of question is this?!

"W-what do you mean by living longer … B-boss?" asked Kaliya still shocked.

"Significantly longer, to the point that you would still look young 2 Sozin's Comets from now," said Madara while he closed his eyes.

Silence remained, an oppressive silence for Madara, who kept his eyes closed to avoid looking at their reactions, in truth he wasn't confident in them accepting and he was quite scared of losing his friends to time.

"T-that's… over a century… and still look young?" asked Nari, to which Madara nodded.

"It's over a couple of centuries really, I can't even tell you how long it is because honestly… I don't know…"

"B-but… h-how?!" Exclaimed Lei.

Madara had an excuse ready. "It's an old secret that i learned from my family's records."

"A-and … What will that cost us?" Nari asked, she was a very knowledgeable woman, nothing comes free in this world, and for a long youthful life, which is already too good to be true, it's even more impossible to be the case.

Madara just gave her a reluctant smile "Honestly? Dedication to making it happen… it's not just some juice that you drink and it happens, it's something that you need to earn through effort and meditation."

"W-what exactly do we have to do to receive such a boon?" Asked Lei, afraid of this answer, stuff like that was too obscure, it might involve some evil means to be achieved, and he wouldn't accept that at all!

Sighing Madara proceeded to explain to them about the Chakras and how it works, he didn't go into details about the process of unlocking them, but he explained enough to give them a rough understanding of what they could get from it.

"S-so ye are saying that … we basically… enhance ourselves with chi… and get some minor resistance towards many things… one of them in which is… aging?!" asked Kaliya.

Madara again just nodded.

"I'M IN!" shouted Kaliya right away, are you fucking kidding me? Remaining young for centuries to come?! WHO WOULD STILL REJECT SUCH AN OFFER?!

The couple on the other hand had conflicted feelings towards it, yes on one side they will remain young for a long time, they will be able to enjoy life and do what they want… but at the same time…

Sigh "Mr. Uchiha, for us it is complicated… we… were planning on starting a family, we were only waiting for your answer, if you would give us jobs or not, to set it in motion."

Nari nodded "I always wanted a little girl… but… I don't want to live young while my child ages and dies before me… That would destroy me"

"Us…" said Lei while holding her hand gently, "It would destroy us." He gave her a gentle smile, to which she replied in kind. "And we can't ask our future daughter to just follow our steps and give up her future children either…."

Madara could only give them a sad smile and nod, "I understand, I apologize if I said anything wrong, ignore the offer."

But both of them shook their heads. "Don't misunderstand Mr. Uchiha, we are not directly rejecting, we just want to… think… about it… Can you give us time?"

Madara nodded "Take all the time you need, I'm not going anywhere"

They chuckled, "Of course you aren't, you will remain living for who knows how long… Time is something you have to spare."

The trio laughed and Madara just kept his sad smile. 'Living for who knows how long… but alone? … sigh… at least Kaliya will be there to cheer me up if they reject.'