Ghost Story ► Ninjago [REWRITING]

| VIII | Playing with Water

*No POV*

Red sat down on the ground, watching Nya stand on one leg on a rock in the soothing water. Her hands were out, eyes closed. He didn't make a sound.

"Your training to become the Master of Water begins now," Wu told her, sitting on a larger stone behind her. He drank his tea, then began his speech.

"To become water, you must find its qualities within yourself. While earth is strong and air is fluid, water can be both, strong and fluid. Over time, it's strong enough to carve this rock. Or if I use my cup to stop its flow.

"It can adapt. It's flexible. Shapeless. You put water in a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, Nya... on your hands!"

The samurai immediately opened her eyes, jumping up into a handstand position, facing the sensei upside-down.

"Very good. Your mother would be proud."

"I hate to break it to you, but sometimes elemental powers can skip a generation... maybe you're wrong about me." It was clear her confidence wasn't there yet.

"If the Ninja so desperately need my help, isn't it best if I'm Samurai X?"

"Samurai X cannot do spinjitzu," Wu said, forming his golden tornado and making it across the lake. "And Samurai X cannot unlock her own elemental dragon. Excuse me, Red."

"Oh." He moved out of the way, allowing the sensei to place his cup down on the rock, closing his eyes.

Golden power then left his hands, and he moved his arms around. Eventually, with a bit of mumbling, his dragon was formed.

Both Nya and Red stared in awe, her saying, "You never told us you could do that!"

"A sensei never tells." With one snap, the dragon disappeared. "Red is a special case. He may not be a ninja, but he can form his own dragon if he so pleased."

"I beg your pardon?"

"But that's another lesson for another day. Besides, water is one of the only weapons against a ghost, for though they can pass through solid objects, they cannot pass through what never stands still.

"What's flexible to us is rigid to them. And since the Ninja no longer have their elemental powers, it's all but imperative that you go with the flow. One hand!"

He threw the teacup at her, and she caught it, with a bit of a struggle in the beginning.

"To find your true potential, we must find what makes you weak, for in your weakness..."

"Lies strength?" Nya answered with a small smile. "Yeah, I got it. And I don't mean to boast, but I'm pretty good at most everything I pick up. Can you even count the times I've had to rescue the boys?"

Wu looked at Red, then went to pick up a bucket. "Yes, Nya, your merits don't go unnoticed. But by the end of the day, we will find your flaw. Before then... the bucket test."

He threw the bucket in her direction, and with swift movements, she placed the cup down on the lily pad and got back on the rock on her two feet, catching the bucket with her right hand.

She stared at it in confusion. "The... bucket test?"

"Simple. Fill it with water. When it is completely full, your training today is done."

To test it out, Nya dipped the bucket in water and noticed it draining—there was a hole in the bottom. She sighed.

"I said it was simple—not easy. Go with the flow."