63 Decisions Made
"... What… How?... Why?" Madara didn't even know where to start his questions, which made the girls chuckle in response.
"Well… Long story short, we went to fight in Ba Sing Se years ago, we lost some sisters but ended up victorious… but …" Kira's eyes became a bit sad "In the end, we all judged that we did our part, and decided to leave it to the next generation of Kyoshi Warriors, Suki has been doing great from what I've heard…" the mature woman chuckled at the memory of that little bratty girl becoming a fierce Kyoshi Leader like herself in the past.
"We decided to retire in Ba Sing Se… and we did for awhile…" she sighed "But Ba Sing Se… it's not the place we expected it to be…" her eyes narrowed and a shadow was cast over her face "We would have just accepted it and lived with it… but then we received a generous offer from Lao Beifong a month ago…"
"Now imagine my surprise in knowing that the little brat Madara Uchiha became one the most feared men in the world…"
"The most feared man" Madara couldn't help but to correct her with a smirk.
"Oh? But what about the Avatar?" She asked with a smirk of her own.
"Avatar Who?" Madara just shrugged.
The Kyoshi Warriors and former Beifong Guards couldn't help but laugh, Madara was right. If what they heard was right, the current Avatar is still a kid who is more worried about having fun than fighting for balance, Madara on the other hand…
"Who needs the Avatar anyway?" Said one of the guards jokingly, making the others chuckle and agree.
Even Madara chuckled, relieving a bit of his grief and sadness.
"I wish I could offer you a warm welcome, with a festival and feast… but as you can see... things over here aren't in a festive mood, it's complicated… I'm sure Lao informed you all considering what he wrote to me."
"Yes, he did" Gan replied "He was aware of the attack and sent us as a support unit for you, but it seems we arrived late…" Gan's shoulders dropped with a bit of melancholy, they could feel and see the atmosphere of this place… Death...
If they arrived a day earlier…. Many of the guards and even the Kyoshi Warriors narrowed their
eyes at that thought, how many could've been saved?
"I can't believe that Lao would send you all to help me… specially after the whole thing with Toph…" Madara was still surprised about it.
"He considers you a friend… he gave you that sirship, how hard is it to offer a regular ship and some foot soldiers like ourselves?"
"You know about the airship?" Madara eyes went wide.
"Well… It was hidden for years, but eventually came to light."
"Won't that bring trouble to Lao?"
Shrugging the soldier just replied "He is wealthy enough to not have to worry about that kind of
stuff, the person who sold it to him is toasted though… "
"I am talking about his wife…"
"Oh… Yeah she tore him a new hole…"
"Oof… Well he kinda deserve it…"
The soldiers all laughed, doing the math Lei approached Madara saying "Mr. Uchiha, it seems that Lao sent us around a hundred soldiers and five Kyoshi Warriors…"
"LEI, IS THAT YOU!?" Shouted Gan while hugging the local Jackie Chan.
"H-hey Gan…. Glad to see you alive and kickin…"
"You fucker, you haven't aged a day!" Gan stared at this man that was clearly older than him, but looked now that they were the same age.
Lei chuckled.
As the day went by, the new soldiers helped with the work needed to repair the affected zone, they didn't even ask for instructions from Madara, and went directly to the workers and builders responsible for the repairs.
Madara trained them to be independent and a 'self-sufficient group', which means they grew accustomed to have the initiative to act as they saw fit instead of waiting for orders that may come with a pricy delay.
He couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of it all, he trained the Kyoshi just to get some start up help in this world, and trained the Beifong soldiers just because he was paid to do so, nothing was done for selflessness, every act had a purpose… but…"
"They said that no good deed goes unpunished but… " Madara couldn't help but stare at the large number of men working together, while enjoying his kiseru from his balcony, a smile appeared on his lips as he watched his proud little 'kingdom'.
The resort won't sleep tonight, everyone is working, and the next day… not a single soul complained about it.
The next day started with a very complicated morning.
He talked with all the people that wished to leave his lands and simply approved, and even gave them some supplies for their journey south towards Hotari, a Fire Nation town that the Avatar and his group just left a few days prior after enjoying the Fire Day Festival.
It was the closest safe colony for them, and the road wasn't dangerous, it was just a long walk… a few days long walk...
One would ask why would Madara help people wanting to leave his lands, and the reason is pretty simple.
First, Madara … kinda… owned Hotari and many other Colonies, not directly but at this point, his influence on the colonies were so strong that most governors reported to him and were under his wallet.
Second, he used this as an opportunity to send a few loyal men disguised as former workers to go towards other colonies and keep an eye on their rulers, he can't afford to have turncoats at this point.
After seeing them off, Madara went straight to the funeral rites, he ditched completely the speech about the Fire Lord and his family, and all their glory and bullshit like that, he avoided anything related to the Fire Nation rulers and military as a whole, but kept certain Fire Nation customs since all his people are technically from the Fire Nation.
The bodies were cremated, but instead of being covered in a fire nation flag while the fire engulfed them from below, it was a simple silky red cloth, no banner, no sigil, no brand. It respected their origin but didn't put them under their rule, and everyone understood the silent message.
Madara wasn't happy, and Lei, Kaliya, Nari and the employees weren't happy either. They were not dumb, no matter how much a mercenary band was bold, they would never attack a Colony, even if it was under the request of the Earth King himself.
To be so bold and directly attack the colony they were either under a suicide attack, which is very unlikely because there would be no point, or they received the green light to act, kill, pillage and destroy from someone that gave them insurances.
After that, Madara gathered the Kyoshi Warriors and his new group of elite soldiers.
"We have to leave again," Madara said with a somber tone, he had made his decision. Being a fence-sitter was never his thing, and he would rather try and fail than never try at all, his previous life was already filled with doubts and insecurities, in this life he wanted to change that.
"Do you think it's wise, Madara?" Asked Nari while sitting on her zabuton cushion "The employees won't like it, they will consider you abandoning them in their mourning period, it goes against the conduct of a governor and you will be disrespecting their customs."
The former Beifong guards and Kyoshi Warriors didn't care much, it wasn't their customs, and honestly neither did his own team, but they knew how important it was for a leader to lead by example, especially in trying times.
For a few seconds they could see reluctance in Madara's eyes, but it went away fairly quickly as he asserted himself. "If my intelligence is correct… a Fire Nation fleet should be heading towards the Northern Watertribe as we speak."
As he finished, Nari's, Lei's and even his own eyes went towards Kaliya, who displayed a shocked and worried expression.
"B-boss… are ye sure about that?" The pirate girl asked.
"Yes, and they have the numbers and…" He narrowed his eyes and stared at Kaliya "They have knowledge of the two friends your people keep behind the palace…"
As if struck by lightning, Kaliya instantly stood up "Don't tell me they are planning-"
"To get rid of them? I would love to say that no one is that stupid, but I know of one Admiral that actually is…" Madara interrupted her with a somber tone.
"And how will you deal with the aftermath?" Asked Kira, the former Kyoshi leader. "If you do that, you will be dropping all pretenses with the Fire Nation, and from what I've seen and heard today… that's the only reason why they went through the cumbersome task to gather mercenaries instead of attacking directly."
She wasn't knowledgeable of this place or the circumstances in details, but she was smart and cunning, one doesn't go to war, fight, kill and survive to tell the tale without learning a few things, and if there's one thing she knows it's how ruthless the Fire Nation was to their enemies.
"She is right," Nari agreed "If you do this, there will be no turning back, they will send their fleet here without second thoughts, and even if you kill most of them and keep killing… they won't stop until you are out of the game… you can't risk everything like this."
Madara couldn't help but chuckling "You are right…"
Everyone was quite relieved after hearing that, unfortunately…
"But…"
There it is, there's always a 'but' with Madara…
As they looked at him, they saw his eyes turning red and glowing crimson, with three comma shaped marks around his pupils. For the Kyoshi Warriors and the Elite Guards it was a shock, they never heard of that kind of ability ever!
"… how would they find out… if there's no witnesses left?"
"That…"
"Are you planning on…"
"Exterminating every single soldier that wears the fire nation armor?" Madara asked with a grin. "Why not? They wanted to exterminate my people… I shall erase theirs from existence."
The room was silent for a few seconds, stares being shared and thoughts being formulated inside their heads.
"How will ye do it?" Kaliya was the one to ask, she was from the Northern Watertribe, no way in hell would she live to see it fall, regardless of what happened in the past.
"Wrong question," Madara stood up and looked at his people "How will WE do it?... and to answer that…" He looked up, drawing everyone's attention to the stormy skies, covered in dark clouds that threatened to drown the land under heavy rain, ironically it wasn't even noon yet.
"The Moon is on our side tonight… don't you think, Kaliya?"
It was decided then and there, Madara would take only twenty people with him. His whole team, Nari, Lei, Kaliya, the five Kyoshi warriors under the leadership of Nari, and Gan would lead a 10-men team on their assault.
Xi was new to this place, so Madara never considered her as an aid in this battle, nor did he share with her anything related to what happened, the girl only knew that mercenaries were exterminated for being too greedy and attacked the 'Dragon Lord's land'.
"The plans are set, we leave in one hour under the cover of the storm… and Jackie…" Concluded Madara while standing up together with everyone else
"Yes, Mr. Uchiha?"
"Bring me my armor."
