23 Lessons

Leaving the cantina after enjoying their drinks and meals, the duo walked towards the Calligraphy School, which didn't take long to reach since the town wasn't that big to begin with.

Walking inside the door, Lei coughed to catch the attention of the long-robed master that was busy writing things on a white-colored sand garden.

Cough "Excuse me, sir?" said Lei.

"Will be with you in a minute," said the master while he kept writing on the sand and wiping it with another tool after he was done.

Looking at what was being written, Madara could see that he was writing the kanji for Spirit and/or Soul, depending on the context.

The duo waited for 10 minutes and Madara was already losing his patience, he felt that it was rather rude of the Calligraphy Master to leave him hanging here for so long. They had announced themselves, after all.

"Alright," said the master while wiping the sand one last time and turning to the duo. Looking from this close, Madara could see a very serene expression on his face, and also, he felt that this man's eyes were always closed, either that or his eyelids were so heavy that he would need to turn on his sharingan to see his eyes.

The man walked to his table, sat on the tatami in front of it in a seiza position, and looked at the duo.

"How can I help both of you?"

Lei looked at Madara who nodded.

"Sir, I'm Lei and this is Mr. Madara Uchiha and we would like to have a talk with you," said Lei.

The man nodded. "My name is Shinzu, it's a pleasure to meet you both." He bowed his head slightly.

At this point, Madara took the lead "Mr. Shinzu, I won't beat around the bush, I wish to hire you."

Shinzu smiled "I'm always for hire, I'm a teacher after all, feel free to join my class."

Madara shook his head "No, you don't get it. I want to hire you to travel with us, we won't be staying in this place for long, I will pay you well and with your earnings, you can even move your school from here to a district in Ba Sing Se in the future."

The man chuckled "Oh? Aren't you generous? I appreciate your offer Mr. Uchiha but I will have to decline."

Madara raised his eyebrow "Are you sure? It's not like this place can give you enough profit, not to be rude but… Your services won't work well in this town, this place is too desolate and the people living here can't even pay for their food, they won't spare money for your lessons."

The man chuckled again "That's true, very depressing, isn't it? But I never charged for my lessons, Mr. Uchiha."

Marada found this man very weird now, is he one of those eccentric hidden masters or something? "Then are you working here, and spending your days, just to teach whoever wants to show up?" Looking around at the empty place he sighed. "It seems that not even with your generous business tactics things are going well."

The man laughed "Hahahaha, you are right, they aren't really working well, are they?" he kept chuckling.

"Then why not come with us?" Asked Lei.

"That's a very good question, Mr. Lei, and the answer is very simple. Because I don't want to." Said the man with a smile.

Madara was quite weirded out by this man's reactions "We are no robbers or kidnappers, Mr. Shinzu, we are currently exploring the world."

Shinzu smiled "I believe you, just by looking at your clothes is easy to see, and yeah that sounds like a good thing to do in life, explore the world."

"So, are you coming?"

"No, still don't want to."

Madara felt that this man was very weird, he felt that nothing would convince this man to join them, literally NOTHING, no money, no help, no support, not even threat, or even worse, not even acting upon a threat… hell he bet that if this place was demolished tomorrow, this man would just clean a small area and start writing on the sandy floor without a care in the world.

"Care to explain why?" asked Madara.

"Simply don't want to, what else is there to explain?" said the man while smiling.

Madara nodded and decided to walk out of the school, with Lei following behind. Once they were on the street, Madara turned to Lei.

"Go back to the airship, tell Kaliya that I will be staying here for a while."

Lei was confused "Mr. Uchiha, why are you staying? There's nothing to be done here… and this weird man won't change his mind we both know that."

Madara nodded "I know, but I just feel it… this man… " shaking his head he continued, "I will take up his classes, I will stay here for a week and see how it goes, a week is nothing for us anyway, and we have supplies inside the ship to last. Take some fresh food for Kaliya too, she will demand to taste the local alcohol as well.."

Lei nodded with a confused expression "You sure?"

Madara nodded and walked back inside the school.

"Ah, Mr. Uchiha, welcome back… I'm sorry but my answer is still no." said the man while brewing his tea.

"I didn't come back for that, I want to join your school." Said Madara with a serious expression.

"Splendid!" said the man slowly taking his first sip "Come back tomorrow morning, we will start the class."

Madara raised his eyebrow "It's still right past noon, we can start now."

The man just looked at Madara and smiled "Tomorrow Mr. Uchiha, don't be late" he said before dismissing Madara.

Walking out of the school with a weirded-out expression, Madara went to find some inn to stay for the night.

The next morning, he woke up at dawn, dressed up, ate something, and walked towards the school. Reaching the school, he noticed that it was open and Shinzu was already inside writing on his sand garden just like the day prior.

"Good morning, Mr. Shinzu, or should I call you teacher?"

"Whichever you prefer Mr. Uchiha, come sit and I will start the class in a bit." Said the man as he continued to write on the sand.

Madara sat down in seiza position on the floor, in front of him was an empty low table with a big piece of paper, some ink, and a brush.

The problem was, the "in a bit" took two fucking hours! 'Is this guy fucking with me?' thought Madara.

Turning towards Madara, Shinzu nodded "Alright, let's start our class."

Madara swallowed his anger and nodded "Very well then, what kanji will you be teaching me today, Mr. Shinzu?"

"You can pick one, whichever you want."

Madara looked towards the wall where there was a huge grid with many Kanjis, looking around he had many options, but went for a very basic one, Peace.

"Ah, Peace, a very fine choice, come to the sand board Mr. Uchiha we will be writing Peace today."

Madara nodded, stood up, and after walking to the sand board, he wrote Peace flawlessly.

"Good, now do it again."

Madara wiped and repeated with the same flawless technique.

"Again."

And it kept going for three hours, Madara kept writing and Shinzu kept asking him to do it again.

"It's time to end our lesson for the day, Mr. Uchiha, see you tomorrow if you decide to show up."

The next day came, but this time Madara didn't arrive at the same time as the day before, he waited 2 extra hours at the inn before arriving, he didn't want to be left waiting while doing nothing again.

"Ah Mr. Uchiha, welcome, take a seat we will start in a bit."

'Oh, I have a bad feeling about this'….

The second day was exactly like the first, he had to wait over two hours and then he repeated the Kanji that he selected over and over again, and after three hours he was dismissed.

The same happened on the fourth day.

And on the fifth day.

On the sixth day, Madara just sighed "Mr. Shinzu this will probably be my last lesson, I will have to leave by tomorrow."

"That's rather unfortunate, I haven't had a student to teach in such a long time." Replied the man with the same neutral expression as ever, always serene.

"Care to tell me why you kept telling me to write again and again? I mean, I'm fairly confident in my writing skills, I don't think I've ever screwed up once."

Chuckling, Shinzu replied "Oh no, Mr. Uchiha, your technique was flawless, actually I was very impressed by it. But that's not the reason why I asked you to redo it again and again."

"Care to explain?"

Sigh "Mr. Uchiha, although your technique was flawless and your calligraphy skills are top-notch… you didn't write it well."

Madara was actually confused "That makes no sense, how can something be flawless and bad at the same time?"

Shinzo smiled "Because you didn't write while enjoying the process, you were writing to finish an assignment."

Raising his eyebrows "What difference does it make? In the end, the result is good, isn't it? And honestly, this was an assignment…"

Shaking his head, Shinzu replied, "It makes the whole world of difference Mr. Uchiha, you rushed for the end product, just like you are rushing through your life."

Madara's eyes widened "What? What do you know about me? Who are you?"

"I'm Shinzu, and no, I never met you before if you are wondering that, no, but I observed you from the first day you passed through my school, you run through life like you have a timer, an expiration date."

Madara chuckled "Everyone's life has an expiration date, Mr. Shinzu."

Shinzu laughed "Very true, but not everyone rushes through it… to be honest Mr. Uchiha the impression I have of you is not exactly that you are rushing through your life, it's more like… you are rushing to finally be able to start living."

Madara didn't know what to reply to that, it felt… spot on…

"It feels that you are rushing through your life to finish an assignment, just like you did with your calligraphy, ignoring the joys of actually living."

Madara lowered his head "I… kind of agree with you... but… " sigh "It's complicated."

The man chuckled "It's always complicated, Mr. Uchiha, that's what life is all about, but don't force yourself to rush through life and forget to actually enjoy the process of living."

Silence remained until the man spoke again.

"Tell me, Mr. Uchiha, what do you want in life?"