77 Traveling

"Hurry up! Or we will leave you behind!" Shouted an annoyed Madara outside a small but luxurious house within the resort, recently built but following the exact same aesthetics of the whole place including the red curved Asian roofs with golden assets, a very traditional yet fancy Japanese inspired place.

"Just one more minute! These new robes are hard to put on!" Shouted a girl from within the place, also annoyed at being rushed.

"What's hard about it?! It's a robe, pants and a sash to tie around your waist!" Shouted Madara back "If we compare, it's WAY EASIER TO DRESS THAN YOUR NORTHERN WATER TRIBE STUFF!"

"NU UH!" exclaimed a white-haired girl, poking her head out of her window to show Madara her displeasure.

Turning around to his already gathered team, Madara could only sigh "Great.. Now we have to deal with a spoiled brat… things were way easier before…"

He was met with three Saitama faces from Nari, Lei and Kaliya, who stared at him.

"What?!"

"Ye always take forever as well, Boss…." Said Kaliya

"Yup… I agree with the brute…" Added Lei.

"Mr. Uchiha, I also think you put too much effort into your looks…" Completed Nari.

Madara stared at them awkwardly for a while;

"There's nothing wrong with having style!"

"Ye have at least a hundred different robes Boss… ye forget that I sleep there too, I've seen ye "thinking out loud" about which one would look better on ye for the day..." Kaliya replied doing the quotation motion with her fingers.

"I am allowed to have my comfort!" Pouted Madara while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Yes, of course you are." Said Nari with a motherly tone that would be sweet if it wasn't for Lei giving a smug, annoying grin alongside it.

"Stop treating me like I'm a kid, dammit… and Jackie, you better wipe that smugness off of your face or I will do it for you… You know what… Come here, you little bastard, I've been without a good punching bag for a while!" Exclaimed Madara with an annoyed face, cracking his knuckles as he approached his administrator.

"M-Mr. Uchiha, I don't think we have time for that… look…" said an already sweating Lei, while pointing towards the house door.

Looking back, Madara could see Yue dressed in a black and blue yukata, with a white sash around her waist, and tabi socks and sandals. She also had a blue haori on her shoulders with the white sigil of the Water Tribe on her back.

"Finally!" Said Madara, allowing Lei to breathe in relief… not that it escaped Kaliya's sight, which annoyed the man like crazy, even after years he couldn't endure the girl's smug grin.

"So… How do I look?!" Asked Yue to everyone around, while twirling around with an excited expression.

"Ye look alright…" Said Kaliya, not very interested

"You look marvelous Princess Yue, those robes really match your beauty" Said Nari with a smile.

Jackie simply nodded and Madara only said "You look ready… Now come, let's go.." with a deadpan face.

As they moved towards the airship platform, the group encountered Xi as well. She would be going with them since she was a bit bored of staying there with nothing to do, though she had her own job working as security in the casino.

Why did she work? Because she liked things that cost money of course, Madara wouldn't be sustaining her, screw that! If she wants nice stuff, she's gotta work for it, that's like… rule number 1 of life!

"Hello there Lord!" said Xi while bowing her head. She was wearing her black yukata, with a red sash and red haori, but on her back there was a yellow sun sigil.

"Sorry for the delay, Xi, some of us took their time…" Said Madara while casting a glance over his shoulder towards the runaway Princess.

""Yeah…. Some of us"" said Nari, Kaliya and Lei while staring at Madara's back

Coughing to dispel the awkwardness, Xi decided to move on with the conversation "It's not a big deal, I've been excited to see new places, I still can't believe we will be going to Ba Sing Se, I've been curious about it since you described it to me that day!" 

The Sun Warrior girl was very happy about seeing new places, as it was her dream since a young age to explore, and now after staying at the resort for quite a while (which she didn't complain about, considering how amazing this place was to her) she could finally go somewhere else.

As their group moved forward, Xi decided to strike a conversation with Yue, they didn't talk much considering how busy the Princess was with her training schedule while she herself was also quite busy with her job.

"Princess Yue! Nice to see you again, I didn't know you would be coming with us! I'm glad you are, I hate being the third wheel with these four…." She said while pointing to the two couples walking alongside them.

Yue chuckled and shook her head "Not even I knew I would be forced to join, Xi… Honestly I wish I was as excited as you to go to the Earth Kingdom's capital…"

"Like hell I would increase the level of my political headache by leaving you behind unsupervised" Said Madara with an annoyed tone.

"I'm not a kid!" Yue argued back.

"Sure… If you say so…" Madara replied with a sarcastic tone.

Yue stomped her foot and pouted, which prompted the others to laugh.

"Don't laugh!" She said as red started to appear on her cheeks.

After they entered the airship and everyone took their seat on one of the many comfortable couches, Xi couldn't help but ask;

"How long will it take for us to reach the Capital, Lord?"

"Hmm… Considering the new engine that our people managed to smuggle out of the refinery… I would say… Ten hours? Maybe more, maybe less…" Said Madara while thinking for a bit, already opening a bottle of sake for him and Kaliya;

"That's fast!" Said Yue in awe, "It took me a week on the ship to reach your resort!"

Nari chuckled and explained. "Well, the airship was already fast when it was just a prototype ship, but it seems that they had a breakthrough not long ago and are now producing new engines, but even with the old engine, it would take a day and a half at most to reach there through the sky."

Xi was surprised "That much improvement?! Damn and this thing doesn't even need bending! If things continue like that, non-benders will soon overtake us" She laughed as if it was a good joke, to which Kaliya and even Yue laughed and considered it a preposterous idea, not that they looked down on non-benders, but for thousands of years the world was centered around bending the elements, they would never consider the idea of bending taking a step back and even falling into the background due to the advancement of technology.

Nari and Madara on the other hand, stared at each other sneakily, they knew better. What the girls were assuming to be a joke, would prove to be true. Madara knew this due to his knowledge of Korra, and Nari due to her own intelligence.

As Lei piloted the airship through the skies eastward, the group enjoyed their time with food and drinks. Of course, Yue wouldn't be allowed to drink alcohol, and she would need to be happy with her fruit juice as there was no way in hell that Madara would want to deal with even more headache, Kaliya and Xi were already enough!

"So… Since we have quite a few hours to go, how about a round of Mahjong?" proposed Madara

"Sure"

"Yeah, why not"

"Never played, but it would be fun to learn!"

"Mr. Uchiha, Mahjong can only have four players" said Nari, staring at her boss/son

"…" Both Kaliya and Madara stared at her.

"Oh my, how rude of my own family casting me aside like that" Nari said while shedding fake tears 

"Screw ye catgator tears Nari, whenever ye play…. Ye always win!" Kaliya exclaimed.

"I agree with her… and don't give me that look Nari, it's not fun playing knowing we will lose, you know?" Said an exasperated Madara.

Nari could only sigh "Alright alright, I will go prepare some snacks for us while you play."

"Alright, Mahjong time!"

…

While Madara's entourage was enjoying their time on their airship by drinking, playing games, eating the best foods and wearing the comfiest clothes, things weren't so happy for another group of misfits.

In a rocky canyon, a duo of brother and sister were staring worriedly at a sleeping bald boy with a blue arrow tattoo. The reason why they were worried was the sheer amount of bruises all over the poor Avatar's body.

"He's not waking up…" Said a worried Katara

"He's just tired; believe me I know what it's like to be forced through a harsh training" replied a sweating Sokka, remembering his time with the Kyoshi Warriors.

"But it's been over ten hours…"

"He's breathing, don't worry" 

As they were discussing Aang, a yawning Toph entered the tent while munching on what looked like bread;

"Good morning team! Ready for day two?" Asked the excited blind girl.

"Toph… I think you went too hard on him… " Said Katara with a worried face, but for some reason… deep inside her heart… she felt.. catharsis… It was like all her negativity towards how easily Aang got used to waterbending was washed away, it felt… Good… Not that she would ever admit it!

"Nah, he will do just fine… check this out!" Toph said as she approached the sleeping Avatar and shouted;

"ROCKSLIDE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH" Shouted Aang, instantly waking up and doing a backflip while covering himself with earth armor mid-air. Once he landed, he protected his face and chest with both of his arms and prepared himself for impact.

"See? He is up and ready!" Said a smug Toph, much to Katara's dismay… and a bit of happiness… shush, Aang deserves it… A little bit…

"Uh?" Finally noticing what happened, Aang retreated from his defensive stance and stared at his team. "What's going on?"

"Time for day two, Twinkle Toes" Said Toph with a sinister smirk while she cracked her knuckles.

"Gulp" Aang started sweating "C-Can we do it after breakfast, at least?"

"Don't worry, I will feed you enough rocks to satisfy your hunger, now.. HORSE STANCE!" 

Toph shouted as she launched a fissure through the earth that suddenly turned into a pillar, hitting Aang's chest and sending him flying out of the tent;

"Sigh… This is already the second tent…" Said Sokka a bit tearfully.

"It's just a tent, Sokka…" said Toph.

"Yeah… But because we had to get this… I couldn't even get the bag that I was eyeing…"

"Don't worry, we will get your purse some other time" replied a smirking Katara

"IT'S NOT A PURSE, IT'S A TRAVELER'S ALL-PURPOSE BAG!" Shouted Sokka

"Alright, you ladies stay here talking, I have to teach the little girl over there how to earthbend properly!" Said Toph while launching herself after Aang

"Alright."

"I'M NOT A LADY!"

One can guess who said what…