My tail swayed as I followed behind Lloyd, his eyes filled with mischief, as we walked through the hall towards the gaming room where I heard the red ninja start up the TV. Kai turned to us and to Lloyd's whistling and I leaned against the door frame where Lloyd was standing.
"Hey, Kai!" Lloyd waved. "Saw that Cole beat your high score last night."
"You should've seen it!" I butted in. "It was pretty spectacular."
Kai scoffed. "Uh, you must be talking about Sitar Legend. This is Fist to Face 2. No one beats me on my game."
Lloyd just shrugged. "Huh, could be wrong. See ya!"
With a whistle, Lloyd and I left before I could break and start laughing in his face as we heard Katie shouting Cole's name in shock and in anger. The lack of sleep trying to beat this guy's high score was kinda helping keep my poker face. It took us a whole hour to teach me how to even play the thing, video games are terrible. Well, not if Lloyd has any say about it.
I stopped in the hallway and smelt Cole's chili and waved Lloyd to me and smirked. "Hey, Cole," I greeted, earning a smile from Cole as he took a sip of his soup. Before I could even say anything, his face scrunched up in disgust and I nodded at the soup. "Saw that Jay tried to spice things up earlier," I say. "I told him not to, but he said you're cooking could use it."
Lloyd smiled as he followed behind me saying by to Cole as he spit out his soup, yelling Jay's name.
Lloyd followed me to the upper deck outside where Jay was working on some cool training robot I wanted first dibs on. But of course, Lloyd and I had to mess with the blue ninja somehow...
Jay smirked as he adjusted his armor a final time before turning up the machine to level 2, however, it very quickly moved up to level 9 in a flash and he gasped.
Lloyd gave a sharp whistle, gaining the ninja's attention. "Hey Jay, saw Zane trying to repair the sparring bot earlier. Isn't that your expertise? Later, bro!"
With a final wave, we left as Jay gasped again in shock. "Wait, what?" he panicked. "No! NO!!! ZANE!"
However, his yelling was in vain as the robot beat him up as Lloyd and I moved quickly passed him to go find Zane who was currently doing laundry.
"Hello, Lizabeth," he greeted me. "What brings you here this fine morning?"
I swallowed down the guilt as I looked at his laundry basket and opened the lid just a hair. "Kai wanted me to pick up his ninja suit. He said he threw it in with your white," I said as I hunted in the basket for the dark red go among the whites and pulled it out. "Here it is! Thanks!"
I quickly leave as Zane franticly looked in his basket to find all his whites were no longer white and he groaned. "Kai!"
I ushered Lloyd away and started laughing as I made my way back down the hall.
"What now?" Lloyd asked.
"Now, we watch the drama unfold, my friend. Quick! I already hear them gathering up!"
"You couldn't just be happy with the top score," I hear Kai complaining from a few rooms down. "You had to rub it in my face!"
"Do you know how long it took me to make that?" Cole snapped. "Three days. Three. Days!"
"It's an unsaid law, okay? You don't touch a man's robot!" said Jay.
"How am I supposed to strike fear in this?" Zane yelled. "It's pink!"
Lloyd and I entered the room and stood next to Wu who was watching the scene unfold and I sighed as they continued arguing.
"Children, children," I said with my hands in the air, cutting them all off. "Please will you realize that it wasn't any of youmessing with each other's lives, but that it was Lloyd and I?"
The four ninjas gasped with a mix of anger and shock on their faces staring at me and my partner and crime. "You did this?" they all asked.
"Boys," Cole said, punching his fist. "I get first dibs on-"
"No 'dibs'," Wu interrupted. "I was the one to tell them to do this to show you the power of rumors. It was Liz's idea after I blamed her for steeling my lesson book."
Kai narrowed his eyes and stepped towards Lloyd with a sigh. "You mean this lesson book?" I gasped when Kai pulled it from behind Lloyd's back.
"You bitch! I KNEW it was you!" Lloyd started laughing and I heard Wu sigh.
"It doesn't matter who stole my lesson book, but the lesson we all learned today. Did you even try to find out if the accusations were true?"
"But this was such a lame lesson," Jay groaned. "Why couldn't we train with out weapons? Ooo! Or learn knew fighting techniques to beat the Serpentine?"
"Because not everything is about fighting!" Wu snapped.
I coughed loudly, hiding "Lloyd" within it, earning a punch from the boy and I laughed.
"Are you always this loud, or is today special?" Lloyd muttered in Lunarian.
I gasped at the insult. "Did you wake up this irritating, or is it a new talent?"
"Did they seriously make up a fake language in a week?" Jay observed.
"What did they say?" Cole asked.
"He told her common Moonblood insults in Lunarian, their old native language," Zane informed.
"Hey, watch what you're calling old!" I barked.
A beep of the intercom interrupted us and Nya's voice pierced through my ears and grabbing my attention.
"If you're done fooling around, I could use you guys on the bridge. We do still have a snake problem to attend to. Over and out!"
Kai sighed. "It's one thing to let the son of your nemesis live with you. But having my sister here? I mean, come on! I thought this was a ninja headquarters."
"You do know I can hear you. . ." Nya said, making me smile. "Over and out!"
I kicked Kai in the back of the leg as I started walking towards the bridge and laughed, earning me a scowl in response. "She's more of a Ninja than any of us." I told him.
"Us?" Cole asked, with a teasing grin on his face.
My ears fell in embarrassment. What was I doing? I wasn't apart of their group, heck, I didn't need anyone! So why did it hurt to think about leaving? "Sorry, I don't know why I said that."
Kai smirked and went to punch my shoulder, but I was quicker, grabbing his fist and going for the leg I kicked earlier and swiped him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
"Yup," he groaned. "You fit right in."
My heart stuttered as I turned to the others and to Wu. "Wait, you see me as part of the team?"
Wu nodded with a smile and so did the Ninja. "You were part of the team before you even walked through the door, Liz," Wu said, pulling out that white lily that fell into my hands the first day I arrived at the monastery.
I turned as Zane rested his hand on my shoulder. "I saw you in my dream, that white lily fell at your arrival, and you're an amazing fighter for your age."
"There's still much to learn," Wu added. "About you and fighting as well as your future powers."
I breathed slowly and steadily. "I... I don't belong here," I said, my ears falling. "I'm not an elemental master, let alone a Sun- a human. I'm a walking target just because I was born. It was probably a mistake coming here..."
I never had admitted those feelings and my cheeks warmed in embarrassment. Doesn't matter, once they realize I'm not as useful as they think, they'll send me home and I can forget this happened. That's if my mother will even take me back. Lloyd just stared at me lost in thought, he probably was feeling similar thoughts too.
Wu narrowed his eyes in thought. "Nya is waiting, boys, go see what she needs. Liz, I want you to walk with me."
My ears perked as the Ninja followed by Lloyd left the room to the bridge. Wu gave me a nod and walked down the hall. "Come."
I obeyed and followed the man and my tail swayed with my walk.
"Lizabeth," he said, using my full name. "You're more than what you realize."
"But-"
"If you're going to say how the Ninja Hunters are being hunted right now, I want you to know that those in Ninjago don't know what that is anymore."
"I don't think I even know what it is."
"No one really does," Wu admitted, opening the door to a room full of scrolls and pictures on the walls and desks. "When the Ninja Hunters went into hiding, they were forgotten thanks to time and some other sources. So we know very little on this side, but that doesn't mean we don't know nothing."
"What do you mean?"
Wu sighed. "Balance," Wu started, pulling out a specific scroll from off the desk. "It's what keeps everything together and what the universe needs to thrive and survive."
I watched as he opened the scroll showing me a picture of five circles with their each symbols circling a light of some sort, it almost looked like a figure.
"There's five main categories to having balance," he continued. "Energy, Essence, Nature, Time, and Unity."
"So how do the Ninja Hunters rope into all of this?" I questioned.
Wu set down the scroll and sighed. "We don't know very much. All we have is based off of previous brief encounters with Ninja Hunters in the past. But what we do know and what we've come to conclude is that the Ninja Hunters were created for the need of balance. However, such power can only be given to those who work for it and train for it, instead of it being your birth right for lack of better words compared to us Elemental Masters."
"So... I'm just here to help with the balance?" I concluded.
Wu nodded. "It's more impressive than it sounds. Your mother was a powerful Ninja Hunter and she saved thousands."
I shook my head, leaning my side against the very pretty wood table, careful not to ruffle the scrolls. "It's a little hard to believe she would be someone like that."
"She came out of hiding during the Ninja Hunter purge to save Ninjago with her power she was gifted. I'm quite curious if you'll inherit that power."
"What is it?" I asked, looking up at the Sensei.
"She is the Power Holder of Music."
I tried not to make a face. "Music?"
"After refusing to make herself more of a target, she never woke up her power until we asked her too in order to save Ninjago. She ended up receiving her power shortly after and was able to create the Sacred Flutes in order to trap the Serpentine and give us the upper hand."
I shuffled my feet and opened my mouth to speak, but Wu cut me off with his hand. "That's a story for another day. But Lizabeth, we will train you, make you a true part of the team, even before you get your powers, because we know you'll be a great asset and a great addition to our family."
I gasped at that word. Family. I haven't felt like I've had one in ages, and I wanted that back. I thought that maybe power was the answer to that because that's all that my pack seemed to understand. But I could be so much more here. And I still have so many questions.
I looked into Wu's eyes with determination. "Train me, Sensei Wu. I want to be worthy of this power and help you guys fix what Lloyd and I did."
Wu smiled and raised his chin. "I was hoping you'd say that. And if you're willing, we can work together to try and bring back the Ninja Hunters and their legacy."
"I am. I'll make my ancestors proud."