The New Ninja

by Scholastic

  Man, these noodles are sooooooo good!” Cole said with a loud slurp. “Guys, I think becoming a ghost has made me even hungrier.”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible,” Kai joked. “But it may have given you a bottomless stomach.”

  The ninja laughed while Cole shook his head. “Very funny. But seriously, Jay, are you going to finish your noodles? Or can I have them?”

  Jay didn’t answer. He tapped his chopsticks on the table, looking out the door.

  “Uh, Earth to Jay,” said Kai. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” said Zane. “Your appetite seems significantly decreased.”

  “Something on your mind?” asked Lloyd.

  Jay shook his head. “It’s just … Shouldn’t Nya have been here by now? Maybe we should have waited for her.”

  Kai frowned. “Now that you mention it, it is weird she hasn’t joined us. Do any of you know where she went while we were training Lloyd?”

  The others shook their heads.

  “Maybe we should check to make sure she’s okay,” Kai said.

  The guys buzzed Nya’s cell phone. But Misako answered it.

  “Hello, boys,” she said. “Are you and Nya enjoying your noodles?”

  “Actually, Nya isn’t here,” said Kai. “We were calling to see where she was.”

  “She accidentally left her cell phone on the Destiny’s Bounty,” Misako said. “She isn’t there yet? That’s … odd. She left nearly an hour ago.”

  Suddenly, a customer rushed into the noodle shop. “Turn on the television!” he exclaimed. “You’ve got to see what’s happening in Stiix!”

  A waiter flicked on the television at the front of the restaurant. Everyone watched wide-eyed as the news came on.

  “This just in,” announced Fred Finely. “Reporting to you live from Stiix, Nya the Water Ninja is taking on twenty — no, thirty! — ghosts single-handedly. You’re seeing it here first, folks. Nya is cornered on the tallest tower in Stiix, and she’s fighting off an army of ghosts! Can she hold them off?”

  Jay’s chopsticks fell to the floor with a clatter. Before anyone had time to cry Ninja-GO!, Cole, Jay, Kai, Lloyd, and Zane had dashed out of the noodle shop and summoned their elemental dragons.

  A moment later, the restaurant’s door bells jingled. It was the elderly couple Nya had spoken to earlier.

  “Can anyone tell us where the poodle shop is?” they asked. “We have an urgent message for the ninja.”

  Uhggh!” Nya grunted as she shot out three consecutive water blasts. They were powerful, but all way off target. Every time she tried to aim, ghosts would dive-bomb her. There wasn’t even enough time to focus and start a rainstorm. She had to keep dodging and rolling just to avoid being knocked off the tower.

  Suddenly, one of the ghosts lashed a possessed chain at her. Nya leaped away just in the nick of time.

  Clang! The chain hit a pipe on the roof, possessing it, too!

  Breathing hard, Nya ducked behind a utility wall. “I really wish the guys would get here,” she said. “They sure are taking their sweet time.”

  But deep down, Nya realized she was in big trouble. She’d jumped the gun again, running off without the other ninja. There was no way of knowing if that elderly couple had gotten her message to Cole, Jay, Kai, Lloyd, and Zane. They might not be on their way at all.

  Nya should have gone herself to get the guys. Then they could have arrived as a team. At their strongest.

  But she couldn’t worry about that now. The ghosts were getting closer, gearing up for another attack. She had to keep fighting them off until she figured out a plan.

  “Hi-ya!” Nya leaped from behind the wall and unleashed her fastest water barrage yet. One, two, three, four! Water flew in every direction. She clipped a lot of ghosts. But somehow, more just kept coming.

  Nya backed against the rail of the tower. The wind whipped past her as news helicopters filmed the action from a distance.

  Nya looked out to the news choppers. “Kai, Cole, Lloyd, Jay, Zane,” she shouted as loudly as she could to the cameras. “If you’re seeing this, I could really use backup right about now!”

  “Did someone say ‘backup’?”

  Nya couldn’t believe her ears. She wheeled around. The ninja were soaring toward the tower on their elemental dragons!

  “Boy, am I glad to see you guys!” she cried.

  The ghosts seethed. “It’s the ninja!” their leader cried. “Attack!”

  The ghosts howled and stormed the ninja. Zane swooped in first, shooting ice blasts to stall them.

  “Nya, catch!” he yelled.

  Zane dropped a rope down to Nya. She grabbed it just as three ghosts dove in to knock her off the tower. In a flash, she swung up to join Zane on his dragon.

  “Thanks, Zane!” Nya grinned. “I was on some thin ice there!”

  “Nya!” Jay called. “Are you okay?”

  “I am now!” Nya called back. “What do you say we show these ghosts what we can do as a team?”

  “You got it!” Jay cheered. “Ninja-GO!”

  With a few quick moves, the ninja and their dragons had their enemies surrounded. Since Cole was already a ghost and couldn’t be possessed, he grabbed one of the ghost’s chains and swung it around the entire group. With a blast of lightning, Jay electrified it, turning it into an electric fence!

  The ghosts squirmed. “You fools — this cannot hold us!”

  “Perhaps not, but this will,” said Zane. He built a cone of ice around the ghosts, trapping them inside.

  “What do you say, Sensei?” Kai called to Lloyd.

  Lloyd winked. “I’d say it’s teatime!”

  Kai turned to Nya. “You ready, sis?”

  Nya beamed. “You know it!”

  With a blast of fire power, Kai melted the ice chamber Zane had created. Nya closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt Kai’s, Cole’s, Zane’s, Lloyd’s, and Jay’s strength surrounding her. Together, the ninja were unstoppable.

  Tapping into her true potential, Nya commanded the water from the melting ice to swirl around the ghosts. A tornado of water surrounded them. A moment later, the ghosts vanished in an enormous green cloud of smoke.

  “We will return!” their leader cried as it disappeared.

  Clang. The chain dropped to the tower roof, no longer possessed.

  The ninja were left standing alone among the fading green mist.

  Nya smiled at her friends. “And we’ll be ready if they ever do.”

  That weekend, the ninja watched as the kids at Ninjago Children’s Hospital competed in the video game tournament to determine the ultimate Ninja for a Day.

  “I must say, these children are quite good at the games,” Zane noted amid the cheers, chatter, and general excitement.

  “Yeah, they’re killin’ it!” Jay said. “Especially little Timmy. He’s won every round of Delivery Trucks vs. Zombies. He’s a kid after my own heart.”

  Kai joined them. “What do you say we play a round against the kids, ninja versus ‘Ninja for a Day’?”

  “I’m in!” exclaimed Cole, chomping on a pizza slice. “Nothing like a tournament to work up an appetite!”

  As Cole, Jay, Kai, and Zane got started, Nya watched from a nearby refreshment table. Lloyd joined her.

  “How’s it going here, Nya?” he asked.

  “It’s going great!” Nya said. “This event really is cheering up the children.” Then she was quiet for a moment. “Lloyd, can I ask you something? As a sensei?”

  “Sure,” said Lloyd.

  “Was I wrong to go off on my own all those times?” Nya had told the ninja about all her misadventures. Although she’d been worried about what they’d say, the ninja hadn’t judged her or even been mad. They were mostly just glad she was okay.

  But Nya couldn’t help feeling a bit foolish for all the trouble she’d gotten herself into. “Maybe I’m not as strong as I think I am,” she confided to Lloyd.

  Lloyd shook his head. “I don’t think
that’s true. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re stronger than you think you are. Because you have us.”

  He paused thoughtfully. “When I was training to be the Green Ninja, I kept telling myself it was up to me to reach my full power. But then I realized I can never reach it, because as long as I have you guys, there’s always more to achieve. The team makes me stronger. And I think it’s the same for you.”

  Nya grinned. “Thanks, Lloyd. You really are becoming a sensei.”

  Lloyd shrugged. “What can I say? I have great teachers.”

  Nya lined up six ninja action figures side by side on the refreshment table. A mini Cole, Jay, Kai, Lloyd, and Zane, plus herself.

  “The best,” she said.

  I walked silently through the forest surrounding my father’s monastery, the imminent storm blocking all light from the sun. I didn’t care. It had only been a week since we defeated the Anacondrai. Everyone — and everything — was at peace. All except for me. I had lost my father that day. He was banished to the Cursed Realm so that Chen and his Anacondrai army could be stopped. It worked, but at the cost of his life. I never thought my life could be so empty without him. He isn’t down in the training hall when I get up. He isn’t there to encourage me to train. He isn’t there when I go to help Cyrus Borg in the afternoon, and he isn’t there when I return at night. He was more than my father, more than my sensei. He was my friend. My best friend. I stopped walking and blinked back tears. It wasn’t fair.

  Rolls of thunder echoed through the valley, and flashes of lightning filled the sky with white light. I began my walk back to the monastery when I heard footsteps behind me. My heart pounded as I spun around and scanned the area for spies.

  “Who’s there?” I called.

  The stranger stepped out of the shadows, his gray hair whipping in the fierce storm winds. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Or was it real? It can’t be … I thought fearfully.

  “Hello, Lloyd,” he said. His voice calmed the storm, and time itself froze. I gasped and took a step back.

  “Dad?” I asked.

  “Everything will be all right …” he said.

  “What is going on?” I questioned, taking a step toward him, but he only seemed farther away. “Okay, this is crazy!” I stopped dead in my tracks. “You’re banished, trapped in the Cursed Realm forever — how are you here? And what do you mean by ‘everything will be all right’?” All the anger I had within erupted like a volcano. “Did you even think how banishing yourself would affect us? Mom needs you! I need you, Dad! You were my best friend …” I felt my anger subside. It was replaced by sorrow. “You’re probably not even really here … It’s just my mind tricking me,” I said quietly, looking down at the grass. “If I could redo what happened that day, I would. I wouldn’t have yelled at you, then stormed off … I would have said I am sorry for never listening to you. And I would have told you how much you mean to me …”

  After what seemed like forever, he took a step forward and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Lloyd,” he said. “Look at me.”

  I lifted my head and met his eyes.

  “I forgive you. And I hope you will forgive me. It was a hard decision, but it needed to be done … but I promise you, you will see me again.” The smallest of smiles formed on his lips.

  “But how?” I asked.

  “You’ll just have to wait and see …” he said mysteriously. He removed his hand from my shoulder and stepped back. “It’s time …”

  “Time for what?” I asked.

  “Lloyd, wake up,” he said as he began to fade from my vision.

  “Wait, Dad!” I called, reaching for him as everything went dark.

  “Dad!” I cried out, sitting up. I looked around frantically, my heart pounding. I wasn’t in the Forest of Tranquility; I was in my bedroom in the monastery. It was all a dream.

  There was a soft knock on the door as my mother poked her head in.

  “Lloyd, are you all right? I heard a shout from your room …” she said.

  “I’m fine, Mom …” I said, smiling. “Everything will be all right.” She nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

  I looked at the family photo on my nightstand, focused on my dad, and smiled.

  “Thanks, Dad …” I said quietly. “I forgive you.”

  An ever-so-familiar feeling came over me, filling every inch of my body as I lay back down. It was a feeling I hadn’t felt in what seemed like ages. Peace. I was at peace. With my father. With what happened. With myself.

  I fell asleep that night knowing that one day, I would see my father again.

  The sheer normalcy of the morning was striking. There had been no calls for help, no attacks, and no danger to speak of.

  Everything was quiet — almost too quiet. Quiet, that is, except for the game room of the Destiny’s Bounty …

  “Hey! No fair!” Jay protested. “You can’t just gang up on people like that!” He mashed the buttons on his controller as his character lost health.

  “Yes, we can,” Kai said. “And because you’re the biggest gamer out of all of us — hey! Cole, we were supposed to be fighting Jay!”

  “No one said we had to.” Cole laughed, but his eyebrows shot up as Kai activated a special move, knocking his character off the screen. “Hey!”

  Oddly, the sensei had not appeared to protest, and they went on with their game until at last even video games ceased to be interesting, and the ninja found themselves sitting in boredom.

  A long, awkward silence followed. This had never happened before — usually they didn’t have much chance to play video games without something coming up. Now, in this uncanny absence of activity, they found themselves at an utter loss.

  “Well this is … odd,” Kai muttered at last. Like the others, he almost expected an alarm to ring even as he spoke, but none did.

  “Let’s go find the sensei,” Cole suggested after another pause. “This … this is too quiet. Something’s wrong.”

  They stood and hurried onto the deck, but the Bounty was deserted. Sensei Wu, Nya, and Misako were gone.

  “What?” Lloyd breathed. “Where … where are they?”

  “Someone must have taken them!” Zane exclaimed. “Yet how or where I do not know!”

  “We need to think,” Kai said. “Who could have done this? And how did they get on board while the Bounty was in the air?”

  “They could have gotten on the last time we landed,” Jay pointed out, “and slipped off again without being noticed.”

  “Set the coordinates back to our last stopping point,” Cole commanded. “Turn the Bounty around!”

  In minutes, the ship was retracing its route through the sky while Cole phoned the local police department.

  “No, sir, we haven’t seen them,” the officer answered. “But we’ll keep looking.”

  Cole nodded, and then hesitated. “Have you had a quiet day?” he asked, frowning thoughtfully.

  “Indeed, we have. No other calls.”

  “All right, thank you,” Cole said. ”Call us if you find anything.” He put down the phone and stood, returning to the others. “Something’s going on here,” he said. “I just talked to the police. Get this — they haven’t had a single call today!”

  “But that makes no sense. Even if we’re not called in, there’s always something for the police to address!” Jay protested.

  “I know,” Cole replied, rubbing his forehead. “It all feels so … unreal …”

  “Maybe it is unreal,” Kai said suddenly.

  The others stared at him.

  “Kai … what are you saying?” Zane asked, perplexed.

  “Think about it!” Kai replied quickly. “Everyone but us is missing, yet the Bounty has been in the air for hours. And am I the only one who recalls seeing them after we last took off?”

  The others hesitated. Now that Kai mentioned it, all of them did remember seeing the rest of the team after they’d taken flight.

  “But … that’s impossible!” Llo
yd replied. “This doesn’t make sense!”

  “Exactly,” Kai replied, “It’s not possible! None of this is real!”

  As soon as the words had left his mouth, the air around them shimmered, dissolving into mist. They found themselves lying on the deck of the Bounty, staring up at a hooded figure.

  “The Dreamweaver,” Cole breathed. “Of course! He used his powers to trap us in a dream so we couldn’t stop him!”

  The hooded man glared down at them. “How did you do that? No one escapes my dreams!”

  “A ninja must see what others do not,” Zane said, rising to his feet along with the others. “And your evil deeds have gone unchecked for far too long!”

  The Dreamweaver stepped back, eyes darting to each of the ninja in turn. The teammates exchanged glances.

  “I think it’s clear what we need to do,” Kai said, and the others nodded.

  Then, as one, they raised their voices —

  “Ninja-GO!”

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  First printing 2016

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-91360-7

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