Going Back Home

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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!""