Ninjago: Yin and Yang

The Student

Hot sun streamed in through the open cave. Ari moved her arm to cover her face, shielding it from the burning air. She was awake but refused to open her eyes. Her whole body ached from sleeping on a floor of rocks. She could hear Kai moving around, along with the crackle of a fire.

"Hey, Sparky. Wake up." Ari felt Kai gently kick at her side.

Ari groaned, too tired to yell at Kai. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, trying to adjust to the light. A small campfire was lit a couple of feet away from her, and a small, cracked, clay teapot was placed on the coals. Kai sat behind the fire, adding small scraps of a plant into the pot. Ari swiveled to face Kai, resting her head on her hands.

After some time had passed of Ari trying to keep her eyes open, Kai took the teapot off of the fire, pouring the contents into two cups. Ari took one, wary of the contents after last night's desert soup. Kai must have seen her expression.

"Don't worry about it, kid. It's lemongrass from the coast." Kai took a long sip. Ari let out a sigh of relief, drinking her own cup. The two finished their tea in silence as more sunlight found its way into the cave.

Now fully awake, Ari couldn't help the excitement that followed. This was the moment she had been waiting all of her 15 years of life for. She was finally getting trained. She stood up, stretching.

"So master, what will we learn today?" Ari asked excitedly, rocking on her heels. "How to defeat an enemy with one punch? Or- or blow up a mountain with my power?" Ari gasped. "Will I learn spinjitzu?"

Kai stood up, holding up his hand for Ari to be quiet. He steadied himself on his nin-jō. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No, not yet Sparky." He walked over to her, his free hand behind his back. "Today, I just want to test you. I can't train you properly if I don't know where you are."

"Oh." Ari couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

"But before we get started with that, we are going to meditate." Kai put out the fire and took a seat on a nearby rock.

"Meditate?" All excited Ari felt drained from her. This was not how she expected to be trained at all, but hey. Any kind of training was better than none, even if it was boring as anything.

She sat down across from Kai, mirroring his cross-legged position. She closed her eyes and rested her hands on her legs. She had meditated before, but never for long. It had always made her restless and twitchy.

"Meditation is the key to balance. You have to balance your mind before your body." Kai explained.

Ari made her breathing even as she tried to stay focused. Kai was probably right, and she should balance herself, but her mind kept wandering off. Minutes seemed to drag on forever as Ari felt the need to move. She kept opening her eyes to see what Kai was doing and tried to mirror him as best she could. Ari quickly grew impatient.

After what seemed like forever and a half, Kai finally stood up. Ari jumped up next to him, shaking off her need to move.

"Now are we going to train?" Ari asked. She had tried to hide the impatience in her voice, but the look Kai gave her proved otherwise.

"You need to stretch first," Kai instructed. "You're no use if you injure yourself."

After about half an hour of stretching and small exercise (and lots of grumbling from Ari), the duo moved outside. First, Kai tested her combat skills. Kai had fought Ari, and she felt like she did pretty well. Din had taken some martial arts class when he was younger and had taught Ari. Not to mention she was pretty strong from the gymnastics club she had won several gold medals for.