33 Zuko

Zuko arrived at the Uchiha Manor's courtyard to see an already set up training area with wooden poles, water buckets, and spots covered in sand and charcoal. He instantly understood what some of these things were for, but some of them made him sweat.

"You are right on time, come," said Madara, wearing a red sleeveless kimono top, black pants, and his shinobi sandals with white shin protectors.

"T-teacher, what is all of this?" Zuko was already scared. If Lei's reaction wasn't enough… seeing what was waiting for him turned on his danger sense.

Madara grinned. "This will be your playground now… and I will teach you how to play."

Gulp.

Madara grabbed a bamboo stick roughly the size of a katana and walked towards Zuko.

"Now, let's have some fun, shall we?" There it was! That evil smirk again! FUCK!

First was push-ups. Easy, right? Well, regular push-ups would be, but Zuko had to use a specific method. There were four small wooden poles, roughly 30 inches tall, and each of those poles was for a limb. He barely had room to move his feet or hands, which was not even the worst part…. He was right on top of a bed of charcoal on the ground that was surrounded by sand.

"T-teacher, why are you using charcoal?" he gulped again.

Madara chuckled. "Well… The stick is to incentivize you to go down… and the charcoal…" he made a stance and punched flames on the charcoal, igniting a bed of flames "… Is to incentivize you to go back up…" he grinned even more sinisterly.

And thus, Zuko's hell started, for hours he kept training his body. No techniques were taught yet but Zuko already wanted to quit, not even his late grandfather demanded such a level of training, and that man was just cruel!

Iroh on the other hand was quite shocked at the brutality of the physical training, but at the same time he understood the reason, Zuko being a prince had the best techniques available to him but was never pushed beyond his limits.

"GRRRRRRRRR…" Zuko pushed himself to do sit-ups, which obviously weren't regular sit-ups either, he was tied upside down on a tall wooden pole, there were buckets full of water on the ground and one empty bucket behind his feet up high; he was given two small tea cups and his goal was to bring water to the empty bucket until it was full.

"You are slowing down!" a loud slap sound could be heard when Madara hit Zuko's abs with the bamboo stick.

"Argh!" Zuko instantly picked up his pace and continued, he kept his angry face while making growl sounds as he moved his body.

SLAP, another hit on his abs with the bamboo stick.

"If you have the energy to act angry then I will add some weight to your wrists! I will train you so hard that you will come to forget that anger!"

Iroh, who was sitting comfortably at a distance, enjoying his tea, couldn't help but hum happily. "Such a wonderful chilly day to enjoy some good Ginger Tea!" he slurped his tea slowly as Zuko kept suffering.

By the end of the first day, Zuko had to be carried back to his room by Iroh and some of his soldiers who were enjoying the Resort.

After being placed on the bed, Zuko slowly opened his eyes. "U-uncle… I think I regret my decision…"

Iroh chuckled "Don't be like that, it was a good first day of training! To think that such a fine young man would be a demon trainer… no wonder some of our soldiers called him Demon before.."

Zuko sighed, which just made him feel pain in his chest.

"Easy now Zuko, you will need a good bath and sleep to regain your strength for tomorrow's training!" Iroh made a muscle pose with one of his arms.

"I… regret… everything!"

Like that, the first day ended and the training continued. After a whole month of suffering Zuko finally could keep up with his training without feeling like dying, so Madara decided to increase the intensity and start teaching him some techniques, and oh boy, that man was aiming to destroy Zuko's body.

"FUCK THIS!" said Zuko standing on top of a 10 feet wooden pole, trying to maintain balance while holding one of his feet high in a crane kick position with heavy stones tied to his ankle, if he lowered his leg even by an inch, he would be whacked by that damned bamboo stick!

"Prince Zuko!" shouted Iroh, with a disappointed face "Don't curse! You are a prince, and should behave properly!" he concluded with a gentle smile and went back to his snacks and tea.

'Easy for you to say that while you are treated like a king and I'm treated worse than a slave!'

After another 3 months, Zuko could be seen jumping between tree branches, running shinobi style, and doing high-speed dodging when a kunai came from out of nowhere aiming for his heart or head. Madara told him that he would learn and improve or die trying, and you know what... he believed him now!

After full four months of training Zuko's agility and strength soared, he was more of a shinobi than anyone else that Madara taught since he didn't have any foundation that he was trying to maintain like the Kyoshi Warriors, and differently from Beifong Guards he was an actual apprentice of Madara, not just under a contract.

During this time, he talked and practiced more with Lei, he was shocked that even after such a torture training regime he still couldn't match the attendant; he also wanted to speak to Kaliya, but she seems to be in constant meditation like she was trying to achieve something.

Even Iroh was curious about Kaliya's goal here since just by looking at her he could pretty much tell that she wasn't someone that valued meditation and inner peace, but he never asked since it would be intruding too much.

The training ended 5 months after their arrival at the Resort. Zuko knew that he didn't learn all he could, hell that would take years, but he had his own goals and he needed to go back to sailing through the four nations chasing his target.

Before leaving, he saw Madara coming toward him with a simple wooden box and a small booklet on top of it.

"Here, you are my first true apprentice, Zuko. This is my parting gift." He handed him both.

Zuko first opened the little booklet and inside was written 'Saitama's Training Regime' he raised an eyebrow and read through it and saw that it was a daily exercise that his teacher was demanding from him… 'What a great gift….' His face went full deadpan.

Then he opened the box and saw a fancy long kimono (just the upper part) that was full black and had a red cloud with white borders on the back. He saw that symbol before, and once he asked Lei, he learned that the Red Cloud was the symbol of their team.

"You are my apprentice, and thus you are an honorary member of my team, if you ever need any help you can come to us," Madara said while patting his shoulder.

Zuko trembled, he had forgotten how it felt to have others who he could depend on. He lowered his head, bit his lip, and nodded in silence.

Iroh who saw this was even more pleased, Zuko never had any friends or anything and since his mother's disappearance he hid from the world, only Iroh knew Zuko's pain and loneliness.

'Would you look at that… to think that being exiled from the Fire Nation would be the best thing that could happen to little Zuko.' Thought the old man with a smile on his face.

Zuko choked a bit "T-teacher, I will come back to visit in the future to complete my training" he tried to keep a serious face but anyone could see he was very emotional.

Madara smiled gently, "You are always welcome in my place, firecracker." He chuckled.

Zuko's emotional face was instantly replaced by an embarrassed face. "Y-you said you would stop calling me that!" he shouted.

Madara shrugged "Oh yeah? Well… I remember my promise was to stop calling you that, only after your training is finished… you just admitted yourself… you haven't finished it yet!" That damn cunning smirk on his face!

Everyone laughed, well.. everyone but Zuko.. who was embarrassed and tried to hide it by huffing like a little tsundere, it just made Madara laugh even louder.

"Come Prince Zuko, we have to go back on the road… ah how this old man will miss this place…" Iroh just sighed with a depressed face.

"Of course, you will… they were treating you like royalty with free tea and snacks during my training." Zuko snorted and grinned.

"Oh, that's not true at all! I had to suffer from watching my beloved nephew suffer every day, it broke my heart each time!" said Iroh with an exaggerated expression.

Zuko snorted again,"How about joining your beloved nephew the next time?"

Iroh coughed "Of course I will, I will always be by your side... cheering you on with all my spirit!"

Zuko's eyebrow twitched 'You old man….' After giving a final snort he smirked and walked towards their ship.

Iroh just nodded and followed behind with a huge smile on his face, before going up the ramp of the ship he turned towards Madara and gave him a sincere smile, nod, and even a small bow.

Madara saw that and grinned, returning the bow and waving his hand to the royal duo. 'Life will be quite boring now without someone to tormen- I mean train… ' sigh.

"Now we have one and a half years to go, time to speed up some things around here so I can travel around the world when it's time… I can't be rooted here when things start happening.."

"Mr. Uchiha?" asked Lei, he heard his murmurs but didn't quite understand.

"I was talking about the Sozin's comet, Jackie, it will be coming back soon…" Madara achieved his legendary save while looking seriously at the sky.

"Yes, if it really comes once every 100 years then it will be soon… the world will change after a single day…" said Lei while looking at the sky.

Madara was very happy that things were going smoothly, canon was being pretty much preserved at this point, he avoided the South and North pole like the plague, he didn't want to have anything to do with those places before canon, especially the south one… who knows how things will change if he shows up.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft female voice "Mr. Uchiha, Miss Kaliya is asking for your assistance." Nari said.

After nodding Madara gave a final glance at the parting Fire Nation ship and turned back to his Resort walking towards the Ice Pond, that was what Kaliya decided to call it after claiming it as hers, till this day Madara still chuckles about how cutely she pouted when she said that back then.

Madara walked at a slow pace, enjoying how well his business was going, after 4 months this place finally completed all the needed buildings, and training areas finally opened to clients.

Let me tell you… those rich fucks were burning money faster than the Fire Nation burns oxygen.

In a single week after the Koei Tower was opened and announced, many rich nobles from both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom came here to check things out… and now he earned what took him a whole month, in seven days… hurray gambling! No no no.. hurray UNREGULATED gambling!

Madara gloated on his genius idea of creating a gambling place for the rich, well they are rich and they have a source of income so it's not like he is ruining their lives… much…

He walked through the small fancy village outside the main resort building and reached the Icy Pond where Kaliya was still sitting right in the middle.

As he walked close a small section of the pond froze, creating a small ice bridge that allowed Madara to reach her easily.

"Hi there Kaliya, you disappeared for a while…"

The hot girl gave him a smirk "Oh, did ye miss me? I get it I get it… "

Madara chuckled and sat beside her. "Well, I did miss you, what you gonna do about it?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Her mouth went wide open, she couldn't muster an answer "… To think that cold little boy that almost burned me to death would flirt with me like this… how times changed…"

Madara just shrugged in response.

She then turned serious "Anyway… I called ye here because I need ye help, I managed to unlock many of me chakras… but now I'm stuck… it seems meditating won't be enough…"

Leaning forward, Madara listened, "You can always count on me to help you, Kaliya… at this point, you are family, tell me what you need."

Kaliya resolved herself and stared at Madara's eyes "I need to go back to the Northern Water Tribe."

..

…

'.. Fuck my life…'