In Another Reality: A Ninjago Parody

Chapter Six

"Fail"

Kai pushed himself off the ground, not wasting a second in making his way back to the start. This time for sure.

Planks.

Duck.

Dummy.

Jump Ba–

Kai yelped as the punching bag hit him. He'd been so focused on the dummy he hadn't seen it spinning towards him.

"Fail," Wu said again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kai grumbled, gritting his teeth as he got to his feet. He'd never been this sore in his life. Bruises had lined his arms and legs for weeks now. Four weeks, and he still could only get halfway through the course!

The old man was getting to his feet already. Time to retire for the day.

With a scowl, Kai moved over to where he'd dropped his wooden training sword. He left it at the start today, thinking it was inhibiting his movement too much. He'd hoped that would be the miracle cure to get him through the course in time.

His goal for nearly four months now had been to beat the course before the old man finished his cup of tea. It had seemed an easy enough task at first, but Kai soon learned he'd painfully underestimated the obstacles.

It was a feat of engineering mastery. The mostly wooden course completely covered the courtyard. It had everything from spinning axes to mobile training dummies. It had only taken Kai about two months to figure out a way through it. Wu had said he was a natural talent, but he'd also already built a good amount of strength from his work in the forge and agility from his time on the streets. He'd also taught himself to use the various weapons his shop held in his small amount of free time.

Still, none of these skills were even comparable to a veteran like Wu, and none of them even seemed to be enough to complete this first test.

The old man got to his feet, picking up the six cups of tea he'd made and downed today. Six attempts at the test, and still none of them a success.

"I think that's enough for today," Wu said.

Usually, Kai tried to try the course up to ten times a day, but, today, he just wasn't feeling it. He'd put together a plan, then come back tomorrow.

"Fine," he responded curtly.

By now, there was little need for formalities between them. Kai didn't even bother to say good night. They'd be seeing each other tomorrow. And the day after that, then the day after that, and every single day until Kai passed this stupid test.

As he walked through the various hallways of the monastery, headed for the kitchen, he mapped out the course in his mind. He'd tried three separate paths through it, each of them, to his dismay, was equal in time. He'd hoped today, without his training sword, he could shave up to fifteen seconds off his time without having to compensate for it through the course, but the first several obstacles were near impossible to get through without something to defend himself. Eventually, Kai got angry just thinking about the course, and tucked the thoughts away to deal with another time.

Despite his exhaustion, Kai found that he wasn't very hungry. As he was raiding the pantry (looking for a small snack) there was a faint pair of footsteps behind him. The first time the blonde ponytail girl (Lyra) had snuck up on him,he'd gotten pretty close to hitting her. It had been his first week so he'd still been pretty jumpy after the attack on his village. After Nya–

He'd barely managed to stop himself in time, but she didn't even flinch. From then on, whenever she walked into a room he was in, she'd made sure he could hear her enter.