A fire's shadow: Fading

A new friend

Kai no longer knew how much time had passed. All he knew was that it had been between seven to eight months since he last saw Shadow. Some of the elemental masters had given up after not more than one month, the only ones of them that were still searching was Skylor and Shade since they knew Shadow better than the others.

The ninjas were still searching of course but even they had started to lose hope now, except for Kai and Amy. They still had their hope up and were out on searching patrols every day. But so far, they had nothing.

Shaking his head, Kai pushed away the thought about never seeing Shadow ever again. He had to keep hoping, if he lost his hope then the chance of finding his brother would get much smaller.

Looking down at the thick forest below him, the brunette felt something telling him to land there. Sighing, he turned his dragon and flew towards the ground, making his dragon disappear while still in the air. He was sent tumbling towards the ground but he used Airjitzu to land safely on the grass.

He scanned his surroundings and clenched his fists when he couldn't see any trace of his missing twin. "Why did I feel like it was a good idea to land here! There's nothing here except trees and rocks!" Throwing his arms around, Kai shouted at no one in particular. "What the fuck made me think it was okay to distract me from searching for him! HUH!?" He kicked a small rock and it hit a tree, causing some birds to get scared and fly away.

Picking up a small rock, the red ninja threw it at a tree. He did it again, and again, and again. After throwing about ten rocks at the poor tree, Kai stood still, panting. Then without warning, he closed his eyes tightly, let out a war cry, and threw a fireball at the tree, luckily only making a burn mark and not starting a forest fire.

He felt tears trickle down his cheeks as the thought about never seeing his brother ever again came crawling back. "I'm sorry......." the words left his mouth as nothing more than a quiet whisper. "I let you down......I should have noticed how much blame you were putting on yourself......I should have done something......but I didn't......I'm a horrible brother....."

Then the silence was interrupted by a branch breaking. Kai spun around and lit his hands on fire while quickly getting into a fighting stance, "Who's there!?"

A head poked out from behind a tree and the red ninja relaxed. The head seemed to belong to a girl. The girl stepped out from behind the tree and Kai got a good look at her. She seemed to be about two years younger than himself, she had long caramel-colored hair that was tied into two pigtails, her brown eyes shimmered with curiosity and kindness. She was wearing a plain white tank top, light blue shorts, and black shoes.

The stranger took a few steps forward, a smile creeping onto her lips, "A-are you, Kai? The red ninja?" Even though her voice was low, the brunette didn't miss the hopeful tone in her voice.

Feeling a little unsure, the ninja hesitated before nodding and speaking, "Yeah, I am. And you are?"

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Lisa. I live in a village not too far from here." She answered with excitement filling her voice.

"Then what are you doing here in the forest?"

"I was out on a stroll when a heard shouting, so I decided to investigate. And when I saw that you seemed angry, I didn't want to risk you hitting me or something. After all, everyone knows not to mess with the red ninja when he's angry, same with Shadow."

As she mentioned his name, Kai felt the anger boiling back inside him. He clenched his fists, trying his best to control his temper. But he couldn't hold it and just snapped as he, without warning, landed a hard punch at a tree. Lisa jumped in surprise mixed with fear. She had never seen any of the ninjas in so much rage, it was new to her. To her, just like to most others, the understanding that the ninja were just normal humans with powers had faded away under their heroic deeds.