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~~~(Cole's Dream)~~~

Cole opened his eyes only to find he was on the deck of their flying headquarters. He looked around sharply till his eyes landed on none other than the Green ninja standing only a few feet away from him. He gasped lightly and stared at the ninja.

This was his chance to find out who the Green ninja will be. Although, if he was here than he couldn't be the Green ninja, right? Could he be in a dream? Pushing the thought out of his head he began to walk toward the fabled ninja. The foreign, yet familiar also stepped toward him. Soon he was face-to-face with the popular legend he was now familiar with. He was lost for words at first, then he spoke.

"Uh…" he paused, searching his brain for the correct word choice, then continued. "Who are you?"

The question was blunt and common. Not to mention indirect in a lot of ways. He knew the man was the green ninja obliviously. He wanted to know who the man behind the mask was. The one that holds the secret that bugs himself and his friends all day and all night. The ninja answered him.

"You know who I am Cole." He spoke, voice heavy and matured. When the ninja spoke his name it sent shivers up his spine.

It was true. He recognized the voice, yet not the owner of the voice. He knew the owner but could no point out the name. he continued to stare at the man who was slightly older than Cole himself. At least two to three years older than the Earth ninja. He shook his head lightly.

"Yes, I know you. You're the Green ninja. But that's not what I meant." He told the ninja. The elder simply nodded. After silence the ninja spoke again.

"Then I can show you who I am." With that, the ninja reached up to pull his mask off. Cole's eyes widen when Kai's face came into view. Cole could say he was sincerely surprised but at the same time he felt that he had the feeling Kai would become the Green ninja. He had thought this because Jay, Zane and himself had already reached their full potential and have yet to become the Green ninja.

Kai still has not reached his, he still had a more likely chance of becoming the Green ninja than the rest of them. Still Cole was shocked. Before either him or Kai could speak, he was being forcefully pulled downward into a blissful darkness.

~~~(End Dream)~~~

Cole awoke from his eventful rest with a loud gasp. He looked around and noticed he was on the table at the headquarters. The table, usually used for eating was covered in several large blankets. His friends or most the time teammates along with Sensei Wu, Lloyd and Nya were there sitting around the table, Sensei Wu examining him. Cole was surprised to find it had taken him this long to realize there was a Fang Blade sticking out of his mid section with Sensei Wu trying to remove it. He lifted his head to look at the other occupants of the room.

"Ahh… What happened?" He groaned out as he trying to recall the memory of getting stabbed. The last thing he remembered was finding out about Kai becoming the Green ninja. Then it was black and now there was pain. Sensei Wu calmed him lightly and restricted his movements with one hand. The others were unexpectedly silent. Jay, Zane and Kai looked severely guilty. Kai especially.

"You must not stress your wounds while I attempt to pull the dagger out. If you do not remember I will fill you in on what happened based on what the others told me." He spoke, was quiet for a second then continued. "You see, I sent you and the team out to retrieve a Fang Blade so that Pythor would not have all of them. When you arrived things took a turn for the worst."

~~~(Flashback)~~~

The ninja's arrived to stop Pythor from retrieving yet another Fang Blade. Zane rolled in first and planted his back firmly against the wall. He turned his head around the corner to scoop the place out.

"Okay, I think the coast is clear." He mumbled and turned the corner and ran down the hall with Jay on his trail. Practically glued to the other wall was Kai and Cole.

"This should be easy!" remarked Jay quite smugly. Cole sent him a glare.

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves. We have to stay sharp or someone could get hurt. Now follow my lead." He said as he disappeared into the shadows. Soon they were in Pythor's recent lair, all the snakes littered around the room cheering on Pythor. Scales also in the chant. Kai turned to Cole.

"Alright, how are we going to do this?" He asked. Cole sat in silence before explaining quietly to the others.

"Okay, we have to steal one of the Fang Blades. That's all we need is one. So, I need you Zane and Jay to distract the snakes. Kai, you keep Scales busy and I'll go after Pythor for the Fang Blade. Got it?" He told them. The others glanced around as if asking each other for permission to talk. Instead of replying they nodded. Halfway concerned if something went wrong what would happen. Then, they nodded off to each other before proceeding to the job assigned to them. While Cole began sneaking over to wear Pythor was.

Zane and Jay began yelling which caught the attention of the five snakes clans. Screaming out random words and letters distracted them long enough for Cole and Kai to sneak past the snakes against a wall. Once they were on the other side of the cave, the battle began. Zane and Jay proceeded to use their spinjitzu to hold the enemy back. Pure white and blue tornadoes spun around the cave floor. Kai decided a different approach on distracting Scales.

"Why do you let Pythor push you around like that?" he asked after overhearing Pythor yelling orders to Scales. Practically it was pathetic. "I think YOU should be the leader instead of Pythor. But of course that's my opinion and apparently my opinion doesn't matter to you." he continued smugly yet calmly toward the hypnotist snake. Scales put a hand on his slimly chin as he thought about the words the Fire ninja had told him. He then proceeded to shake his head.

"You can't trick me worthlessssss ninja. I know better than that." his hissed out and rushed toward Kai.

Meanwhile Pythor was watching the battle from above on a rocky ledge. He hissed at the slightest hint his army was losing. Sure enough it was distracting enough to were he did not notice the approaching Black ninja hidden deep within the shadows. Cole sprung out and attempted to wretch a Fang Blade out of Pythor's hand. He cursed himself as the slimly snake's body touched him.

Pythor hissed once again and reached to bite the attacker but Cole jumped back just in time. Pythor smiled devilishly.

"Well, well, well, if it issssssn't one of Sssssensei Wu'sssss little annoying ninja coming to foil my plans by ssssstealing a Fang Blade. Why can't you jussst find one fair and ssssquare? His hissed or better yet spat out toward him. Cole shrugged.

"I guess us ninja are just as slimly as snakes" He mumbled loud enough for Pythor to hear. Pythor smiled down at the Fang Blade currently in his hand and then back up at Cole.

"You know ninja. It'sssss rumored that if the blood of a massster of ssspinjitzu touchessss even the tip of the Fang Blade, then power will sssssurge through the blade and make it twice asssssss sssssstrong and effective." He then turned away from Cole and toward Kai and Scales who were still battling it out. He lifted the blade and charged toward Kai. It was then when Cole panicked. The world seemed to go in slow-mo as he made his decision to protect Kai. Normally he wouldn't help but he had come to really like Kai. The newest member of the team was just as much family as Jay and Zane. So, Cole acted and jumped in front of Kai right before Pythor could impale the Fire ninja with the Fang Blade. Kai's eyes widen sufficiently.

Once the blade had pierced his side right between two of his ribs, Cole had focused all of his Earth power to his ribcage. So when Pythor tried to pull the knife out of his side it would not budge. It had been like his chest had turned into solid rock. He had hardly heard Kai gasp behind him.

"What'sssssss thisssss?" Pythor cried as he tried to pull the knife out of Cole ribcage, but found it was stuck.

"You may hurt me - You may even kill me." Cole breathed out slowly as he was losing consciousness. He continued, "But, you. Will not. Hurt. My. Friends." he said as everything went to black.

~~~(End Flashback)~~~

Cole nodded as he remembered it all. He had blacked out for the fight between Kai and Pythor. Once Pythor had giving up on retrieving the knife from his chest, he and Scales along with the others had retreated. Leaving Jay and Zane to find out about his injury once they saw Kai holding his bloodied and unconscious body. He could say he was a little guilty but he couldn't let Kai get hurt like that. Of course he could've just knocked the blade out of Pythor's hand and avoid getting stabbed, but he had acted on instinct. Sensei Wu continued to work at the blade. There was rags and pieces of cloth around his chest to stop the bleeding, which had slowed a lot since the attack.

He groaned again. After several more failed attempts to remove the Fang Blade, Sensei Wu had now finally realized the situation on why the blade was lodged that bad.

"Cole," his old raspy voice spoke calmly to him, "I need you to release your grip on the blade. Your Earth abilities spiked when you were attacked. You may have forced your abilities to your chest and acted to immobilize the blade but your body acted as well. Since the Fang Blade threaten to pierce your lung, the power surged within you to halt the blade. Therefore you would not be as badly injured and lucky you were not." he explained while reaching for his staff he had motioned Lloyd to retrieve. Once the Bamboo staff was in his hands he grabbed one of Cole's hands and wrapped Cole's fingers around the bamboo.

"Now," he instructed, "I want you to focus all your abilities to your hand. Then from your hand to my staff. You must release all of the power out of your body if I am to help you and remove the blade."

Cole proceeded to do as told. He sucked in his breath and focused the energy into his hands. He squeezed his hands tightly shut and completely shattered the bamboo stick. Small shards of the staff flew everywhere around the room, hitting his friends, but they didn't really care. Cole decided he would clean it up later if no one does it. Now that all of his focused Earth power was gone. It took Sensei Wu no time at all to remove the Fang Blade. The sliver dagger made a slurping sound as it left his body, making him and everyone expect Sensei Wu to wince at the sound.

Sensei Wu wiped the blade off with a cloth and handed it to Nya, who took it and probably put it away somewhere safe. After Cole's chest was wrapped up with the help of Zane, Jay and Kai, he was moved into a single small room which had been transformed into a infirmary. He was laid down onto the much softer mattress then the one's back in their room. Once he was stationary on the bed, Zane, Jay and Kai stood there watching him. Mentally asking Cole if there was anything they could do for the injured ninja. Cole smiled weakly at them and then spoke.

"Guys, it's okay, I'm fine." He reassured them but his constant wincing was no at all convincing. Zane shook his head at Cole.

"I apologize if you do not believe me but I think you, being human and all, would normally not be able to survive such attacks. If it had not be for Kai stopping most of the bleeding on the spot, you might as well be dead right now." He explained and gestured to Kai who was exceptionally quiet at the moment. Cole smiled at him and decided to thank the Fire ninja later. He then stared seriously at his team.

"You guys do know now that I'm injured I can't be you leader for the time being. That means Zane will be your leader till I recover." he told them only to have Jay groan loudly and huff while crossing his arms.

"Why can't I be the leader? I mean I'm just as good of a ninja as he is." Jay grumbled childishly. Cole shook his head. "Because your to reckless and not all that smart like him and Kai acts on impulses to much." Cole glared at Jay while speaking. Jay raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, and you don't act on your impulses, Mr. I'm going let myself get stabbed?" Came Jay's smart mouthed remarked that cut deep to both Kai and Cole. If Kai had paid more attention he would have been able to dodge the attack and Cole would not have had to jump in front of him to protect him. Or maybe if Cole had thought it through he would have been able to avoid being stabbed. Cole was silent for several long seconds till he asked Jay, kindly of course, to leave. Zane followed a huffing and angry Jay out of the room. Kai stayed behind, still silent as ever. It was awkward at first, neither one of them speaking. Truly awkward. That was till Kai decided to break the long silence that hung within the room.

"I'm sorry Cole." Kai apologized sincerely to the injured Earth ninja, who was surprised to say the least.

"Why are you sorry? It's not your fault. I mean, your kind of new to this whole ninja thing so your bound to make mistakes. No harm done." he smiled even if there was harm. Even if he had been stabbed and almost killed, he acted as if it was nothing. Cole was strong, and if you said so, anyone would agree. Kai seemed to brighten up and nod, knowing mopping over it would only bring down Cole's mood as well as everyone else's.

"I guess your right." From then it didn't take long for Kai to return to his normal, talkative self. He was lighting up the room with joke's and stories in attempt to cheer Cole up. Which Cole was happy about.

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Yes, I know Lloyd is the real green ninja. I didn't like it that way though so I made Kai the green ninja.

Should this be more than one of those cliff-hanger one-shots? Should it be multi-chaptered and have a really amazing and complex plot? Your choice.