[ like a love song ] - ninja x reader

kai x nb!reader - past and future

disclaimer: everything i know about silat i've read online and as interesting as it is i don't know if my writing can do it justice sob

Never before did I think I would be teaching the ninja.

I'm a self-defence teacher, living in Shintaro City. I moved there from Jamanakai Village three years ago, and have built a life for myself teaching classes of different age groups how to defend themselves with the art of Silat, a South Asian fighting style that my father taught me years ago. Safe to say, I was experienced enough to share my knowledge, and now there was hardly a civilian in Shintaro City that didn't know how to protect themselves if the need arose.

But, yeah. Like I said, I didn't think I'd be teaching the ninja, Ninjago's saviours. Turns out they were embarking on a pretty dangerous mission (that was all that Lloyd was willing to tell me, though. Guess it was top secret) many miles away and weren't sure their Spinjitzu would do them justice. Heh. So the strongest people in Ninjago weren't so strong, after all.
The ninja filed into my dojo, their feet bare against the tatami flooring. I, myself, was wearing a long black robe with loose, billowing trouser legs to allow for movement. They were just in training clothes - a thermal white undershirt and trousers with their corresponding colours. Guess that would have to do for now.

Once they were all in, I nodded to Master Wu, who nodded back and slid the door of the dojo shut behind him as he left to go take care of whatever business he had in Shintaro City. I turned to the ninja with a vague smile on my face. This wasn't the first time we'd been in contact. In fact, Kai had saved my life multiple times, and the last time he had I'd been taken hostage by their villain who mistook our coincidental meetings as me being important to Kai. It's true, the last time he saved me I kissed him, but that had nothing to do with it.
"Earth, ice, fire, lightning," I began, pointing to them each in turn. I felt my face flush when I made eye contact with Kai, but decided to ignore it and finally rest my gaze on Lloyd, instead. Out of the corner of my eye, I could've sworn I saw Kai bristle.
"One alone is not enough, you need them all together," I began as I walked backwards to a wooden cabinet just across the room. The boys swapped looks with each other, and I caught confusion mixed with curiosity. Well, it wasn't the first time I'd seen expressions like that on the face of my students. "Winter, summer, moon and sun," I continued, suddenly whipping open the cabinet and individually throwing each ninja a staff with incredible speed. All of them caught their respective wooden staff, and I nodded in approval, almost forgetting these guys were already trained.
"Lesson number one."

"One? We didn't sign up for a whole bunch of your classes, Y/n," Kai started, an edge of irritation to his voice. I raised my eyebrows, pulling out a staff of my own. With the end of the staff, I directed him to come forward first.
"You will stay for as long as it takes to teach you."
With that, I struck out, my staff aimed directly for his neck, left hand further up the staff and right further down the staff, my left foot in front of my right. Kai raised his staff, but not quickly enough. "Like a rock, you must be hard, and like an oak, you must stand firm," I started, bringing the staff away to sweep Kai's legs out from underneath him.
"Hey! I'm pretty sure that's not...whatever you're teaching us!" Jay called from the other side of the room. I only smiled as Kai quickly got back to his feet, readying his staff.
"You should never rely on just one fighting style," I replied as Kai haphazardly attacked, as if he were wielding a sword. I blocked each of his attacks, noting his style. I whipped my weapon around horizontally, holding it as Kai struck down with his own, only for me to shove him back a few feet.
"Move quick, like your blade," I noted. Kai flushed a little. He was getting his ass kicked, and the rest of the team seemed to be enjoying it a little bit. "Think fast!" I called out, throwing my staff like a javelin. Successfully, Kai whipped his staff around in a 360 degree circle, blocking it. I smiled, clapping my hands together. I supposed it was contagious, because Kai started grinning uncontrollably too.

"One alone is not enough," I repeated, retrieving my staff and placing it to the side. "You have seen my demonstration. Some very simple moves, that I want you to replicate. In teams!" I ordered, and the ninja automatically split off. In one team was Kai, Jay and Nya, and in the other Lloyd, Cole, and Zane.
I watched as the ninja leapt into battle, kicking and jabbing their staffs. A frown crossed my face, and I called for them to stop. The only one of them that was even trying to resemble silat was Kai, though I blame that on the experience he just had with me. I gave him a small, reassuring smile, and he blushed again. Honestly, I knew the guy was the master of fire, but did that make his body temperature skyrocket too?
"You're doing it wrong," I ordered, pointing to Cole. "You need to be a lot softer, like a cloud. And you," I pointed at Zane. "Be a bit like bamboo, and imagine you're bending in the wind. You're stiff, unwilling to learn. Stop it." Finally, I turned to Lloyd. "And you need to be at peace. It's okay to be afraid."

Finally, I stepped back, and clapped once, signalling for them to begin again. This time it went much better. Each ninja began to incorporate their own unique fighting style into silat, becoming an almost perfect mixture of both. When I could find no faults in the other ninja, I simply sat and stared at Kai. Because why not.
Unfortunately, after he beat Zane back with a sweep of his staff, his dark green gaze caught mine, and I felt my breath hitch in my throat. Quickly, I diverted my gaze to the other ninja and began circling around the sides of the room, calling out advice. I could still feel Kai's burning gaze flit to me and back to his opponent every ten seconds or so.
Finally, I called for an end. It had been two hours, and although the ninja were special, I had another lesson in forty-five minutes and I wanted a break myself. The ninja, all sweaty and pleasantly fatigued from their exercise, were kind enough to put their staffs away (Kai even picked up mine) and saw themselves out, following my directions to the staff room where I said they could rest.
But Kai didn't follow the rest out. As the door swung shut behind his sister, Kai turned to me with a warm smile on his face. "I didn't know you...taught martial arts," he started, almost awkwardly. I could only feel my smile beginning to mirrior his own.

"Yep," I responded, and was going to leave it at that before I saw his warm expression start to fade. "Ahaha, I mean...I guess there's a lot you don't know about me." Kai's eyes widened, and he took a step towards me.
"No, that's true. But...what if I want to know a lot about you?"
AShfaklsfjksadlas what.
You're telling me the fire ninja, the guy who's all cocky and arrogant on his Tweeter page and incredibly full of himself in all the live videos the reporters get of him, is being sweet and genuinely quite interested in me? Holy shit, I'd never have imagined.
Feeling my own face slowly get darker in shade, I could hardly find it in myself to respond. "R-really?"
"Really. I think it's owed, especially after that last time we met."
Ah yes. The kiss I hadn't stopped thinking about for months and only finally managed to get out of my head last week. Thank you so much for bringing that up again, Kai.
"Maybe we should recreate that," I joked, unable to think about anything else. "You know, just to kick off this whole 'getting to know me' thing."

Guess what happened next? Naw, just kiddin'. You already know this boy leaned down and pressed an extremely quick, almost ghost of a kiss on my lips. His face was almost as red as his gi as he backed towards the door of the dojo, giving me an awkward finger gun.
"Uh...I'll get in touch."
"Y-yeah," I stammered as he left after his friends.

What. The. Heeeeeeellllllllllllllll-