31 Request

The laughter slowly died as Madara slowly walked towards Iroh and sat across from him. He then served himself some tea and took his time enjoying the taste.

"Jasmine tea, good choice.." said Madara softly.

"Jasmine tea, when well-made, achieves balance by bringing together different expressions of jasmine, fragrant flowers infused in rolled tea leaves." Said Iroh back.

Madara nodded. "But like everything else in life… balance is not easily achieved."

Iroh nodded and gently smiled. "If one can achieve balance while preparing tea, it is already a splendid start when searching for balance anywhere else."

Both of them smiled at one another and enjoyed their tea in silence after that small exchange.

The teen, Zuko, wasn't amused, though. He walked towards the duo sitting by the table and exclaimed, "Explain what is going on here!" while staring at Madara.

Madara just chuckled at Zuko's behavior "You should forget trying to act like that, intimidation may be your sister's talent, but you suck at it… stop trying to behave like her."

Iroh instantly raised his eyebrow, slightly amused, while Zuko got even angrier and was about to punch the table once again, harder this time, but was stopped when Lei caught his wrist.

"Please behave Prince Zuko, honestly… you don't want to ruin Mr. Uchiha's day… the last person who broke furniture here disappeared mysteriously… if you know what I mean…" said Lei with a serious tone.

Zuko was shocked, he by no means was a weak fighter, inferior to his sister yes, she was a monster and didn't count, but when compared to regular soldiers? He was always above them in skill, yet this random guy just caught his wrist like he was a child.

Shaking his wrist free, Zuko stopped his tantrum when he realized that these people are by no means ordinary, but he was still suspicious of them.

Iroh spoke to break the tension "You know Mr. Uchiha, I never heard of you. To see such a well-developed young man managing this resort… honestly, I wasn't expecting this, the last time I came here the owner was Mr. Feng."

Madara chuckled "Well, Liu Feng sold this resort to me three years ago, it seems you have been away for quite a while."

Zuko was shocked by the revelation "Three years ago? But you look so young.. you look like you are.."

Madara interrupted "I'm 16, you are not wrong, I bought this place when I was younger than you are now Prince Zuko." He said smiling and enjoying his tea.

Zuko was actually flabbergasted "How could the Fire Nation sell this place to a 13-year-old?!"

Iroh chuckled this time "haha Zuko, this place is not a military outpost, this place is private property... it pays taxes to the Fire Nation, yes, but the rights can be transferred willingly, Mr. Uchiha here is the true owner of this place since he bought it, and no one can legally take it from him."

Madara laughed "In the world of business, money talks louder than anything else, Prince Zuko."

Iroh nodded with a smile, and Zuko felt weird, as this guy came out of nowhere and is now all friendly with his uncle, and is treating him like a child, when they are just 2 years apart from one another.

Zuko shook his head and decided to change the subject "You are a firebender as well, what are you doing here? The Fire Nation is commanding all the firebenders to register in the army!"

Madara and Lei started laughing out loud at that comment, it was so loud that even Iroh stopped drinking his tea and raised an eyebrow.

Wiping the tears from his eyes Madara stopped laughing and turned to Zuko "Well.. here's the thing Prince Zuko… the Fire Nation has no authority over me, in fact… no nation does." He said that with a sunny smile on his face.

This shocked the duo of uncle and nephew, what the hell?! This guy is speaking pure words of treason out loud and he is doing it while laughing to tears?!

"You are committing treason!" Shouted Zuko.

"No, not really… you see I'm not a native from there, and even if I was, I would only obey someone stronger than me. And the last time I suggested an Agni Kai with the Fire Lord I was sadly dismissed… " Madara gave a regretful sigh before turning to Iroh "How is little Zhao nowadays by the way? Did he recover from the beating I gave him?"

Zuko's brain froze.

Iroh's tea fell to the floor, or almost did if Madara wasn't ready for that reaction and grabbed it.

"Be careful, such fine tea shouldn't be wasted like that." He said with a smile.

Iroh frowned "So it is you… to think we would meet after so long… you disappeared after that event and no one could catch your shadow, you gave this old man a lot of headaches back then, how do you plan on compensating me for years of headache?"

Zuko turned to Iroh in confusion, his uncle seemed to know who this guy was "Uncle, who is he? You talk like you know him…"

Iroh chuckled "Well you know him too, in fact, most of the Fire Nation knows him… just not by his real name… " he then turned to Madara "So which one do you prefer? Greedy Ghost? Red-Eyed Ghost or just Red Ghost?"

Madara shook his head amused "Does it matter? It's not like one can control their nicknames once they spread like that…" he laughed, and Iroh actually laughed too, he understood it very well since his own nickname 'Dragon of the West' wasn't something that he actually liked, not anymore at least.

Zuko on the other hand was having a hard time. "T-this guy is the Greedy Ghost?! THE Greedy Ghost?!"

Madara just nodded, and Iroh just shrugged.

"W-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be … I don't know… haunting the Fire Nation soldiers in the name of vengeance?" asked Zuko.

Madara coughed and spilled his tea, he was completely baffled "What vengeance? What the fuck are you talking about?"

Iroh chuckled and helped Lei clean the table "Many stories about you began to spread, many believe that you are not human but a vengeful spirit who's targeting the Fire Nation because they destroyed your homeland."

"What the actual fuck…" was the only thing Madara could say while staring at Iroh suspiciously.

Iroh just shrugged "You should blame the Fire Nation and not this old man, I had nothing to do with those stories… I even tried to denounce them… but who would believe me?" he displayed a mischievous smile.

Massaging his forehead "Jackie, bring me some Soju… I gotta have a few cups after hearing that…"

Lei chuckled amused and nodded "I understand Mr. Uchiha, I will be back shortly." He then turned around and left the main hall of the inn.

Zuko then sat beside his uncle and asked Madara "So, was your homeland truly destroyed by us? Or did the army kill your beloved family?"

Madara's eyes twitched "Okay, this is hurting my soul now… I just robbed the army because I needed some money to start my life… to think that people would spread such idiotic stories about me…"

Zuko's and Iroh's eyes went wide at that statement.

"Y-you attacked all those soldiers because you needed MONEY?!" Shouted Zuko.

Madara just shrugged and nodded.

The exiled prince then deflated in defeat, like he just finished reading the most exciting book ever but the ending was so bad that it ruined his whole experience "So many theories.. so many different rumors… and it was all just for money… " he kept mumbling while staring at the void.

Iroh chuckled in amusement, the chuckle escalated into full laughter "To think… that the one considered the most dangerous man alive… was just a thief… hahahaha!" He laughed so hard that his belly jiggled.

Zuko came back to his body and stood up "But.. the Greedy Ghost was active 5 to 6 years ago…"

Madara nodded "Yeah, I was just a 10-year-old when I started and 11 when I kicked little Zhao's ass out of that swamp."

"This…" Zuko was not only shocked, but he was also terrified now, an 11-year-old that could beat an elite imperial firebender! Those were the elites of the Fire Nation!!! Not even his sister, the so-called firebending prodigy, could achieve that at such a young age, and that's ignoring beating an imperial firebender who is leading over 100 firebenders in direct battle, Zuko doubted that even Azula could achieve such feat.

Iroh refilled his tea cup and looked at Madara again "And now you are just telling us your identity out loud like that…"

Shrugging Madara replied "Well… I have three reasons for that, one is that I doubt that you are likely to spread the word, and two is that I wanted to start an actual friendship with you Iroh."

"What about the third?" Asked Zuko.

"Well.. truth be told… the Fire Nation can't do anything to me anymore… And I like to believe that they are smart enough to understand that, I was 10 when I killed Captain Zhang's team, I was 11 when I defeated a battalion of firebenders led by Zhao… and now I am 16…"

Iroh's face turned serious, Madara said the truth… if 5 years ago he could single-handedly destroy a whole battalion of firebenders, now that he is 16 his skills should've evolved drastically, in fact, the Fire Nation also knew that and canceled the 'Ghost Hunt' a year ago.

Madara looked at Iroh and smiled "And I believe that they are smart enough to understand my silent message."

Zuko was confused and looked towards Iroh for clarification, who in turn coughed, fixed his beard, and spoke.

"The Greedy Ghost stopped his attacks on the fire nation after the swamp battle, and after years of silence the council took that as a silent message from him that he would stop hunting our soldiers and ruining our plans and decided to call off all the hunting parties, in short... they didn't want to antagonize him, in fear that he would join the enemy army to go against us."

Madara then continued "So I believe that even if they know who I am, and even if they know that I own this place... the odds of them hunting me here are extremely low, I bet they would actually be happy that I own this place, it ties me to them and gives them a reason to believe that I might join their ranks eventually, so unless I actively move against them again… they will keep the status quo."

'Until the war ends at least... well... until the war ends the way they are expecting it to end' Madara smirked.

Lei came back with the Soju bottle and Madara drank it alone since Iroh refused, he preferred tea, and although Zuko was actually interested in trying he was stopped by Iroh who said he was too young for that kind of stuff, Zuko tried to throw a tantrum but Iroh was surprisingly firm and serious when it came to alcohol.

They talked a bit more until the sun was setting on the horizon, Madara then stood up and said his goodbyes and walked out after giving another warning to Zuko about his anger issues, if he broke anything it would cost Zuko an arm, and at this point, Zuko believed him.

Once the duo of uncle and nephew saw Madara's figure disappearing, Zuko turned to Iroh.

"What should we do about the things that we just discovered?"

Iroh just stood up and stretched a bit "What do you mean? We should take a bath and sleep, of course, tomorrow he promised to show me his new Pai Sho tables that he ordered to be built and I'm rather excited!"

Zuko shook his head "I'm talking about him being the Ghost.. a man like him…"

Iroh interrupted his nephew "I've been observing him since he walked in here, the way he walks, talks and behaves… I can't quite judge the level of his skill, that much is very telling, isn't it? I can judge how strong your sister, and even your father, is but I can't do the same about him..."

Zuko's eyes went wide and he stood there in silence for several minutes after Iroh went towards the new Hot Springs that he heard so much about.

The next morning Madara was reading the report of the recent buildings and orders, 'For fuck sake Jackie, I'm literally paying you to do this for me… where the fuck are you?!'

A knocking sound came from his door and a maid's voice echoed "Mr. Uchiha, Prince Zuko is here to see you."

Madara raised his eyebrows "What the… let him in."

The door opened and Zuko walked inside, and before any words could be said he made a martial arts greeting, bowed, and asked "Please, teach me firebending!"