46 Gathering Information
It was dawn, and the gentle breeze of the early winter brought a sense of comfort to everyone in the Uchiha Resort's (formerly known as Village Resort) vicinity.
The whole place was twice as big as before Madara acquired it. The Koei Tower was a beacon of wealth, luxury, and depression. The workers were happy, well-paid, well-dressed, and extremely loyal.
The classic Japanese style architecture with ostentatious Chinese style adornments in every building, surrounded by its own private cherry blossom tree forest, makes this place a jewel that shines brightly.
Of course, like everything that shines too bright, it brings a lot of trouble. Or at least it did in the previous year, as many bounty hunters, mercenaries, private soldiers, spies, and even assassins from both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation tried to take this place down and conquer it.
Of course, none of their plans ever worked. Nowadays, Madara doesn't fear a single human, not even the Avatar… well, not the season 1 Avatar, at least. Kyoshi would be a pain in the ass to deal with if she was the current Avatar.
At this moment, in an underground chamber, Madara could be seen checking a few of his preparations for the possibilities of the future. He didn't want to put all of his hopes and dreams on the Avatar's success, especially as there's still a reincarnator somewhere, and that wildcard could change the scales of battle and completely modify the outcome of the story.
'The problem is… What if the reincarnator is not "combat-oriented"? What if this little bastard is a backstabbing, cunning, cowardly schemer? That would increase the difficulty of my work by a hundred-fold.'
"Mr.Uchiha," The same melodious female voice as before echoed behind him.
"Nari?" Madara raised his eyebrow at the newcomers. "Where's Jackie? He was supposed to be here for the quick meeting I arranged…."
"Fufufu~" she covered her mouth with her soft hand, "You don't have to worry about my husband, Mr. Uchiha. He is just…. Busy… We had a long talk after last night, and now he is repenting for his misdeeds. Obviously, he had an important job, so I took it upon myself to replace him, but you don't have to worry. I shall do my best on his behalf."
Madara was initially confused, but then he remembered the bridge talk with Nari the other day, and his eyes trembled slightly. "A-alright… well, bring our guest. We can't have our employee waiting for long, can we?"
"Right away" She bowed gracefully and allowed another woman to enter the underground room.
The woman was tall, strong looking, yet gorgeous. She had long black hair that covered one of her sharp black eyes. She wore rather extravagant make-up, dark eyeshadows that made her fair skin look even paler, and dark red lipstick on her thick full lips.
'This is the most Uchiha-style woman in the whole Avatar World' Madara raised an eyebrow as he stared at the newcomer, who looked around curiously but not for a second did she let her guard down.
"So, after a whole year working for the 'mysterious' owner of this place… we finally meet," she said with a rather smug grin on her pretty face.
Madara shrugged in return. "What can I say? I am a busy man."
She snickered. "Busy indeed, to be so wealthy so young… tell me 'Boss-man,' couldn't you even spare a minute of your time to meet such a gorgeous woman such as myself?" she said as she hugged herself and displayed her curves in a rather.. dangerously seductive way…
But Madara didn't get affected by it. Instead, he smirked. "Well… "sitting down on a chair and placing his feet on top of the table beside it, "…If I was to give one minute of my time for every gold digger that comes to me… I would be screwed in life…."
She instantly showed a hurt expression, staring at Madara with big sad eyes "…H-how mean… How can you say that?..."
"It's a family trait," he shrugged again.
…
The few seconds of silence were interrupted by a loud female laugh.
"Hahahaha, this is great!" She had to hold her stomach as she was laughing. "I can't deny that I like your style, Boss-man."
Nodding in understanding, he just said, "Well, that's understandable. I am a pretty likable guy."
A loud snort echoed through the room.
"Now, with that out of the way," he continued, "we should introduce ourselves… ladies first."
"Isn't it proper etiquette to introduce yourself first before requesting names?" She raised an eyebrow with a sarcastic smirk on her lips.
"My house, My money, My rules," he simply said as he rested his cheek on his palm.
She could only shake her head. "Well, the name is June, I've been working as a freelancer for you for almost a year now… although I have to say that the payment isn't that great, you could increase it a bit so we... the worker class… stop hating you behind your back."
"I shall consider it," Madara replied lazily. Are you kidding? No chance this golddigger would work for him if he wasn't the highest bidder. What a fucking scammer.
"I've been recently tasked to uncover certain details about the Fire Nation's Military movements within the Earth Kingdom," she completed, with a serious tone this time.
His eyes narrowed. "And?"
"I discovered something... interesting…" she said as she sat down opposite of Madara. "Years ago, after the failure of the Siege of Ba Sing Se… the Fire Nation Military started outsourcing something… now…which thing I do not know… but they are heavily investing into it, to the point where they cut down many other projects, even I was affected by it since I've worked for months for one of their bounties and they just… pulled it off…. Although I only discovered the whole outsourcing thing rather recently."
"It must be something big…" he muttered to himself, thinking about the possibilities.
"That's what she said..."
Instantly Madara choked and stared at June with a gobsmacked expression. Even his mouth was wide open. "W-what did you just say?"
June stared at him weirdly, then pointed towards Nari, that was near them and listening to the whole conversation, and said, "That's what she said… you know… when I told her about it beforehand?"
"Oh…."
…
…
"Ahem," he coughed to remove the awkwardness, failing miserably. "By the way, what bounty were you doing when they decided to cut you off back then?" he placed his kiseru in his mouth for a bit to enjoy his smoking. It didn't affect him negatively whatsoever. He was pretty much immune to poison nowadays.
She shrugged it off, not understanding anything and judging it as one of her Boss' 'quirks.' "Well, it's not like it should be a secret, but me… like many others... were after this heavy target from the Fire Nation. People call him Ghost."
COUGH.
COUGH COUGH COUGH.
Madara was dying, thanks to the smoke of his kiseru, nothing related to the information he had just received at all!
Even Nari had to bite her lip to not smirk at the situation. She was doing her best to stay in the background like a dependable employee, although the trembling of her shoulders could be seen if someone paid attention enough.
"How old are you again?" He raised his eyebrow; she didn't look old.
"Eighteen, why?" She raised her eyebrow in response.
But he just shrugged. "The last time I heard about the Ghost was several years ago, so you started on the business rather young, eh?"
She shrugged back. "What can I say?... It's a family trait."
Madara snorted.
The meeting continued for over an hour, and eventually, June left to enjoy a five-day holiday before going back to her other tasks, some unrelated to Madara. She was a freelancer, after all.
"She is rather interesting," Commented Nari while watching June leaving while mounted on her Shirshu, Nyla.
"She is something alright…." Madara sarcastically commented, "Although I rather not let her and Kaliya meet, they will either give me a headache or brawl it out like savages…."
She raised an eyebrow. "And somehow you find the second option unacceptable? YOU?"
Madara just stared at her with a deadpan expression. "If they fight, they will break my things… my expensive things… and even beating the shit out of them after the deed is done… won't bring my broken stuff back, nor will it return the money that I spent on it…."
Nari chuckled cutely, "Mr. Uchiha, you are a rather cheap man for someone so rich, your riches are almost reaching the Beifong level, and I don't doubt that in a few years, you will reach and may even overwhelm them in wealth."
"I am rich precisely because I am cheap. Money in the hands of an idiot will simply disappear," he snorted back. "By the way… about what we were talking earlier…"
"Yes?" she blinked cutely.
"Will… he be alright…?" he gulped
"Oh…"
…
…
…
She bowed respectfully and turned around to do her chores, but not before leaving her final words behind "Don't worry… he will live…. I think…"
..
"Oh… poor… poor Jackie…"
