Chapter nine

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The small child sat with her chin ontop of her knees, watching as the Skulkin sparred with one another. Well, more like playfully fighting then sparring. "Funny." She said, giggling when one of the Skulkin's head fell off.

Her body froze when she felt someone sit beside her, but calmed down when she realized it was Kruncha. "Hello!" She gave him a small smile, happy to see her favorite samuria. "Didn't Samukai order you to go train?" She slightly growled at the mention of that name. "Not the boss of me." Nuckal randomly jumped into the conversation, side hugging the girl. "Well, Samukai is our boss, and he ordered us to order you and make sure you were doing your orders." Nuckal chirped, pimching her cheeks. "Orderly."

She gave a small whine of frustration, pushing the clingy Skulkin away. "Off! Away!" Nuckal only laughed at her attempt. "Humans are so weak and squishy." He plucked her up from the ground. "Or maybe you're just weak and squishy.

Nuckal carried her to their own private training course, the girl thrashing and yelling the whole way there. "Alright little kin, train your squishy body." Nuckal's efforts only ended in a negative result. She just sat there, with a cute angry expression plastered on her face.

"You won't even try for us?" Kruncha asked, trying to guilt trip her. "Samukai's orders." She hissed. "Actually, Lord Garmadon gave the order." The girl trembled in fear, slowly curling into a small ball. Both of the Samuria gave a pitiful look.

Kruncha lifted the girl to her feet, wiping away the small tears that escaped her eyes. "Don't look so down little kin, look on the brighter side." Nuckal stated, patting her back. "We're the ones that need to report back to Lord G about how the training went." Kruncha nodded, grabbing her hand to wrap bandages around them.

"We'll make sure to tell him how much progress you're making, okay?" She didn't say anything, only hugged the two, causing Nuckal to get giddy from the affection and Kruncha to annoyingly sigh. "Fight me, boneheads!" She roared, ready to train. "There's our little kin!" Nuckal cheered, throwing a wooden sword to her. "As always, don't hold back, girly."

~~~

With a final punch, the bag ripped, spilling all of the sand from it. (Y/n) let out a heavy puff of breath, hair sticking to her forehead from the sweat. Even if she ripped ten punching bags,  that burning embarrassment she felt didn't go away.

The ship came to a stop near a mountain, which confused her. She turned to see Wu and his pupils come onto the upper deck. They all exchanged a few words before Wu stepped off the ship.

"What is the meaning of his departure?" She asked, watching as the Sensei grows smaller and smaller as the bountry leaves.  "Wu is going on this self exploring adventure to face the obstacles in his heart." Jay summarized.

"Ah, well that explains nothing." She unwrapped the bandages from her hands, showing how much she bruised her knuckles. "Wow, talk about sore loser, still upset about failing to protect Lloyd?" Kai mocked. "More furious than upset."

"Stop flirting with (Y/n), we need to keep focus on our main goal-" "I WASN'T FLIRTING!" "-how are we going to find the fangblades?" The ninja began to brainstorm ideas, but couldn't think of anything.

"Man, why is this so hard?" Jay complained. "The ones who actually do the thinking are not with you at the moment." (Y/n) answered, putting on her hood. "But if you want to find something lost, how about putting up missing posters for the blade." She teased.

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"I..." (Y/n) looked dumbfounded by the ninja. "I did not think you would actually take my suggestion." The ninja went around, placing missing posters. "I agree, this is very silly." Zane mumbled. "Well, this is the best we can do for now." Cole answered, staring at the fangblade poster and wondering why it looks familiar.

"If you call this your best, then I would love to see your worst." They were either lazy or truly idiotic in her mind. She would give them the benefit of the doubt and just call them lazy. "Not very great of the so called green ninja candidates to not be able to think of a better way to find the blades." "Can you just shut up, you're getting on my last nerve." Kai hissed, before bumping into Zane.

"Ugh, Zane!" Missing poster paper littered the village, causing people to become annoyed. "Who's gonna clean this up, hey, I'm talking to you." Zane walked past the man, going into an alley.

(Y/n) walked behind Zane, the man going silent when she passed by. "Do you sense something?" She looked to where Zane eyes lead, seeing a falcon fly in a circle. "Woah, its that bird again, everytime we follow it, we get something cool!" Jay exclaimed.

They all began to run after the bird, (Y/n) following as well.

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"Treehorns... probably just some squirrels." Kai stated, looking at the warning sign. "They are more physically similar to ants rather than squirrels." (Y/n) explained, patting the trees. "They are relatively peaceful creatures, the use of a warning sign is unnecessary." She muttered to herself.

The bird drew their attention again, getting them to run. Only Zane and (Y/n) followed, while Kai took a break. "I thought you all were in peak physical condition, yet only one fourth of this team is still going." Zane didn't reply, he only kept running.

The two came to a stop when the falcon fell to the ground. Zane picked up the bird, letting out small sparks from its chest. "A robot?" "What did you expect, is it not your bird, you of all people should have known it was machine." (Y/n) stated, grabbing a hold of the mechanic falcon. "It overworked itself."

(Y/n) continued to follow Zane, holding onto his bird. "Do you know anything of this place, ninja?" Still, he gave no answer as he walked. "Intuder! Intruder! Prepare to be terminated!"

Zane dealt with the machine, while (Y/n) sat back and watched. When he disabled it, Zane stared at it for a long while. "Is there a symbol on the falcon?" He asked, (Y/n) turning it to see a symbol. "Yes."

The white ninja was lost in thought, walking over to a tree with the same symbol. With a small nudge, it opened up to a hidden workshop. Both teens went inside, having a wash of familiarity run through them. Zane couldn't put his finger on it but (Y/n) cringed when she realized where she was and why Zane looked familiar.

Zane took the falcon from her hands, finding the blueprints to fix it. When he finished, the falcon flew in circles, causing the white ninja to smile. Zane began to look over other blueprints befofe stopping to one.

"No... this can't be.. NO!" (Y/n) walked over to the broken down ninja. "What happened?" She asked. There was no answer, but the blueprint he was holding did catch her eye. "Speak ninja!" She yelled, still having no clue what happened.

Footsteps could be heard, as the three ninja came walking down. "Woah, Zane, what's wrong, buddy?" Cole asked, patting the white ninja on the back. "What did you do!" Kai accused, pointing his sword at the girl. She jumped back in shock, covering her face when the sword lit on fire.

"Geez calm down Kai, let Zane talk first." Jay said, rolling his eyes as Cole took Kai's sword from him. Zane slide the blueprints to his teammates before opening the panel of his chest. The three ninja screamed in shock. "Oh, you're a robot.." "All this time, and I never knew." Zane sadly sighed, closing the panel. "That explains so much."

"Well, that doesn't change anything, you're still our Zane but with more gears." "Oh my gosh, we have our very own nindroid!" Jay exclaimed, shaking Cole's arm. "Pythor is still out there searching for the fangblades, we need you, brother." Cole said, pushing Jay off him. "Go on without me, I will catch up."

Hesitantly, his team left, leaving only the machine and girl. She looked down at him with slight anger. "You being machine is not that shocking of news, you complaing on your knees about it is rather pathetic." Zane kept silent, not that he was agreeing to what she said.

Finding out that you are a machine and all those feelings you felt that were human, may not even be real. "Having amnesia may be what troubles you more than finding out you are all gears." Zane didn't question how she knew about his amnesia, and just remained silent. "Would you like me to unlock your memory, Zane?" He perked up at that sentence, eyes glowing. "You.." Was all he manages to say as (Y/n) grabs a blueprint.

"Though, it appears you have a memory switch, before I waste my time, flip the switch in your chest and see if anything happens." Zane didn't waste any time to get his memories back, and the moment he flipped that switch, his body froze.

(Y/n) went outside to see the ninja fighting treehorns. "Oh, I see you found your squirrels." She teased with a small smile. "Is now really the time to make fun of me!" He yelled at her. She only smiled at his misery then looked over at the busted robot. "You built in treehorn territory and had a robot slaughter them, how cowarly of you" She says with a hiss.

"Treehorns would not attack smaller creatures unless it felt threatened or it is already irritated?" (Y/n) pondered for a bit, creating different  scenarios as to why it would be attacking until she found one more likely then the others. Without a word, (Y/n) left.

Blocking out the noise of the action, she began muttering words. Her figure merged with the darkness of the shadow, opeing her eyes to find she was in a differnet area. "Sorcery is a very convenient thing to have." She stated with a smile, looking to the side to see a smaller treehorn.

"You are a lovely sight." She told the young treehorn. The smaller sapling only let out a small growl, assuming her to be a threat.

The sapling wasn't that big in comparison to the other treehorns, it was the same size as her, if not taller. (Y/n) giggled lightly at the attempt of being dominant. (Y/n) growled back, hoping to have a truces, and that's what happened. The small sapling licked the side of her face, causing the girl to roll her eyes with a small smile.

"Alright sapling, let us return you to your pack, helping with stopping your queen slaughtering the ninja would be useful too." The sapling tilted its head in confusion, but followed the girl anyway.

Making there way back, both the girl and sapling saw the queen frozen in place. The young treehorn jumped happily to see a familiar face. "Oh there you are, so glad you finally decided to join." Kai hissed sarcastically, pulling out his sword at the girl.

The treehorn growled at the red ninja, causing the tension to increase. "I found the solution to your problem." She said calmly, cautiously pushing the sword away by the blade. "The problem has already been solved, but we are grateful for your attempt." Zane bowed. "We may not have found any fangblades but atleast we got one nindroid who unlocked his true potential." Cole stated, patting zane on the back.

"Before you elaborate on the unlocking potentials part, I would like to inform you that treehorns are immune to any sort of weather." (Y/n) stated, as the young treehorn rubbed its head against her. "Meaning?" Kai asked, crossing his arms.

The ninja heard a creacking sound, turning around to see the queen set free from her icy prison. "Meaning your powers did nothing but anger her." The queen let out a roar, running at the group, only for the young treehorn to interfere and growl at her.

The growling went on for a bit before the young treehorn went beside (Y/n) again. "Greetings my queen." (Y/n) bowed, hitting Zane, who was beside her, to do the same. "Oh!" He quickly bowed, which resulted in both Cole and Jay doing so as well. Though Kai only rolled his eyes brefore being pushed down by Cole. "I found your missing sappling, I seek no reward other than being able to live."

The queen lowered her head, lightly sniffing (Y/n) before giving her a lick, covering her body with saliva. "Glad we came to an agreement." With that, the pack of treehorns left, not before getting a small nudge from the young treehorn. "Your welcome." She cooed, waving lightly as it left.

"Wow, how did you know all they wanted was a smaller squirrel?" (Y/n) didn't bother to correct Jay on what the creature was actually called, nor was she bothered to answer him in general.

"Unlocking your true potential, elaborate on the meaning" She ordered, looking at Zane. "Sensei Wu has informed us that we have greater power locked in all four of us, in order to unlock it, we must let our hearts guide us" (Y/n) paused for a bit, before letting out a loud laugh.

"What's so funny, don't think we got what it takes?" Jay asked, crossing his arms. "I woke up everyday in fear I may be dead by your hands." She said through laughs, looking at Kai. "But now that I know that you have yet to unlock your power---pfftttt!" Tears began rolling down her cheeks, whether it was from relief or from laughter, they couldn't tell.

Dead by your hands. That echoed in Kai's head. Did she really think he hated her to the point of murder? "Alright, you had your laugh, lets get to the bounty before we get hypothermia." Cole stated, getting the group to walk.

"(Y/n)?" Zane grabbed onto her shoulder, causing her to shake him off. "Back in my father's underground workshop, did you really mean what you said?" "About returning your memories, yes, why would I give false hope?" "You said you found me pathetic, but I'm sure anyone eould react the way I did." (Y/n) only shrugged, not looking at the white ninja. "I was frustrated with how idiotic you were acting, if you want an apology from me then you are wasting my time."

Zane had to change his speed in walking to keep up with her, his teammates lagging behind a bit. "Why did it cause frustration?" "I may be living with you for the time being, but I am still an enemy, to stay in a vulnerable state was stupid, what if I had attacked you?" She genuinely sounded angry.

The white ninja stopped in his tracks, everyone doing the same. "So then why did you not attack?" Zane asked, causing the girl to look at him. He waited patiently, trying to find an answer within her dull eyes. She opened her mouth, but quickly shut it.