Way of the Ninja

Arc 1: Four Weapons

Axel just wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and be a blacksmith, running the Four Weapons shop with his sister Kairi. However, his plans are changed when a strange man from his father's past comes looking for "something special," and his sister is kidnapped by an army of skeletons.

Prologue: An Honest Man

~o~o~

The world had been created with both light and darkness. Both good and evil. Both chaos and peace.

As for now, however, the world was in a time of peace after a long period of war.

And if people think the world will stay that way forever, they're all fools… Terra thought to himself as he finished dressing.

He ran a hand through his hair, glancing at himself in a mirror that hung on the wall. A few strands had been turning gray as of late, but he knew it wasn't from old age. His eyes were red and bloodshot, though not from exhaustion. He glanced at his wrist, where two small, pale spots stood out against the tan skin- fang marks. He'd received them long ago, but he'd managed to resist the worst of the effects for so long. Now and again, however, he would feel the dull ache of the venom.

Now was one of those times. But it was different now. This time he couldn't fight back, and he knew it.

In the mirror's reflection, he could see his pregnant wife lying asleep in bed. I'm sorry, Aqua. There is something I have to do. If I don't return, take care of our child. With that last thought, he left the room quietly.

Aqua was later awoken in the early hours of dawn by the sounds of weapons clashing, thunder rolling more loudly than she'd ever heard it before, and her husband's screaming.

Terra… What's happened to you…?

~o~

Lea wiped the sweat from his brow as he finished hammering out his newest created weapon on the anvil. "Watch out, son," he said as he carried it over to the basin of water and dipped it in. Steam filled the room as the cold water made contact with the red-hot metal.

"Daaaad!" Axel's voice protested. "The room is all cloudy now!"

The older of the two chuckled as he pulled the sword from the basin, admiring his work. "Sorry, sport, but it's all a part of being a blacksmith. Besides, it's not the first time you've seen me work."

The little 7 year old frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's still annoying!"

"But, Axel, I thought you wanted to be a blacksmith just like me. Isn't that what you've always said?"

"W-Well yeah!" The younger nodded rapidly. "But that doesn't change that I don't like the steam!"

"Well, maybe you can teach your sister, and she can do that part for you instead, hm?" He smiled. "After all, Kairi's almost old enough to learn how to work the forge too."

"Nu-uh!" His son rapidly shook his head. "Girls can't be blacksmiths!"

"And why not?"

"Because…" The little boy furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think of a reason. "Because… They're girls!"

Lea laughed a bit. "Son, I'll have you know I've known many girls who grew up into women who could do their jobs better than any man could."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Warriors."

Axel scoffed. "Girls can't fight!"

"Oh really?" Lea wiggled his fingers in a mysterious way. "I knew one woman who could copy the powers of other people just by touching them!"

"Nu-uh! You're joking!"

"Your father is an honest man. He speaks the truth, young one," said a new voice from the doorway. Lea and his son looked up to see a tired man with shaggy blond hair. Lea knew that when the man had been younger, his hair had been rather spiky, but as he grew older it began to lay flat more and more.

"Axel, why don't you go check on your sister?" Lea suggested. "Daddy needs to talk to an old friend alone right now." Axel looked at his dad in confusion, but left just as he was told. Lea turned back to the blond man, smiling. "I haven't seen you for a very long time, Ventus."

"It hasn't been quite that long, you know," the man said with a chuckle. "You were at my brother's wedding."

"That was over a year ago," He said with a laugh. "How is Terra, anyway?" At that, Ventus fell silent, causing Lea's teasing mood to vanish. "You mean… Is he…?"

Ventus nodded. "It's taken all these years… but I'm afraid the venom in my brother's veins has finally run its course."

"I see…" Lea looked off into the distance, as though remembering something. "He must have only stuck around to end the war, huh?"

"He wanted to protect what was most important," said Ventus. "That alone kept him strong through the war. But now that they're safe, there's nothing left to give him that drive to hang on any longer. That, and the fact that he kept trying to fight it in the first place must have been like a dam holding back too much water."

"That makes sense… kinda," said Lea, frowning. "So, did you come all this way to bring me this news?"

Ventus shook his head. "I came here to bring you this." He held a scroll out to the redhead.

Frowning, Lea took the scroll and opened it, examining it, before his eyes widened. "No way…! Ventus, this is-"

"I know what it is," the blond said, smiling wryly. "I drew it up myself."

Lea rolled the scroll back up. "So it really came to this… Why did you bring it to me?"

"Because I want you to keep it somewhere safe."

"Me?!" Lea stared at his friend incredulously. "Why me?!"

Ventus smiled a real smile this time. "Because you're an honest man. I trust you."

Lea sighed, slipping the scroll into a pocket on his clothes beneath the blacksmith's apron he was wearing. "Well, I trust you too. I just…" He hesitated. "…Can I ask you something?"

Ventus nodded. "Yes, what is it?"

"If anything ever happens to me, will you look after my kids?" Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not nearly as young as I used to be, and since the war, you're the closest friend I've got. I don't plan on anything happening, but… just to be on the safe side."

Ventus looked at his friend in surprise, but nodded. "I promise, Lea."

~o~o~

Author's Note: It's been over a year since I did any real work on Fanfiction, let alone something for the Kingdom Hearts franchise. In truth, this is going to be heavily based on the TV series Ninjago, though I don't plan for it to be a word for word rewrite of the show with KH characters. I've got some plans of my own, though if I get invested enough in the writing and the characters develop minds of their own, my plans could be completely derailed. In which case, a slight deviation from the original show could become a completely different story.

To be honest, I'm really unsatisfied with the first part of this chapter… or prologue. However, I couldn't think of any other way to write that part. Maybe in the future I'll look back and figure out a way to write it better, but for now, I'm going to leave it like this.

This will probably be split into four to five separate arcs, or more if more seasons of Ninjago are released during the writing of this fic. This first arc is the Four Weapons arc, based on the pilot episodes which can be found on Netflix (plus a little of one of the specials), and will most likely be much shorter than the rest of the arcs.

Some people might wonder why I'm using Ninjago as the source material for a Kingdom Hearts fic. After all, isn't Ninjago some little kids' show that combines Legos and ninjas? Well… yes and no. Ninjago probably started off that way, but each season has been getting progressively darker, to the point where it actually has made me cry, and I don't cry very easily. True, it's obviously not as good as Avatar was, but it is still much better than most children's TV shows these days.