Two months passed after our team came together. Billy didn't really like any of us but only showed how much he disliked us when Adam wasn't around. Kendra had explained to us that the agency she worked with had sent her undercover to protect Jordan and Morgan because their father was a popular senator but also because they had special gifts that certain groups wanted to get their hands on. Jordan could shift into different animals and Morgan could manipulate and control other people's emotions.
In the time between our team coming together and the first time we met one of the generals in Namonia's army, we grew closer as a team and as friends. I didn't have many friends back home so I had trouble letting these people in but they were slowly breaking my walls down. Samantha, Kendra, and I were put on the school's lacrosse team, some sort of sport that was semi popular. There we made a few other friends with some of the other girls on the team. One of those girls happened to hear me singing to myself while I was trying to change out of my workout clothes and into normal clothes and she insisted that I work with the singing club that the school also has. Adam and Aisha insisted that Samantha and I join as many of these clubs as we are offered so that we could make more friends and be more social.
As for the general in Namonia's army, he called himself Drake. He was a skilled warrior, giving Kendra and I a challenge. But what surprised us even more was that he had control over the creatures that were attacking us all over town. Apparently they controlled demons called Zamas, which looked like they were humans with a pale gray skin and purple markings all over their bodies. Their faces only had eyes, no mouth, ears, or nose. Their skin was more like cloth than actual skin and it looked like a body suit. In response to meeting Drake, Adam insisted that we work on controlling our elements better.
Jordan was attempting to move a few rocks around without touching them. He was failing horribly. Not far from him, Morgan was trying to work with the water in the large pool in the back yard. Kendra had managed to gain basic control of the wind around her while Samantha and Adam were working on their thunder and lightning combo that they created once Samantha received her gem.
"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be" Jordan stated frustrated. I saw Kendra give a small smile while Morgan lost the concentration that he had sustained, dropping the water instantly. I sighed, realizing how much work we would have in order to get them battle ready.
"You just need to learn how to let it flow. Jordan you are concentrating too much. Morgan, you are losing concentration too easily. Kendra you are not concentrating enough" I told them as I walked up to the pool. I took a deep breath, leaned down, placed my hands on the ground and channeled my chakra into the dirt, creating a large pillar of earth. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I demonstrated my abilities. But instead of acknowledging their attention I continued on. I shifted my focus from the earth to the water in the pool, creating a twister of water which I then unleashed on the pillar of earth I had created, leveling the pillar to the ground once again. After that, I shifted my chakra to the wind breaking the twister of water with a strong tunnel of wind. As the water rained down over the river I turned to the rest of my new team. They were all looking at me awestruck which made me a bit nervous. I had never told them what type of abilities I had and I was sure none of them realized that I was able to use their elements well before I had come to this world.
"How did you do that?" Adam asked, his eyes wide in shock. Samantha stood next to him frozen with her arms up from when she was trying to channel the lightning.
"I've been practicing my entire life" I replied before turning my attention to the three teenagers near me.
"Morgan have you ever meditated?" Morgan stared at me confused before shaking his head no.
"Go in the house, sit down in a quiet place, and find something to focus on. The flame of a candle, beads of a necklace, a spot of the wall or even a repetitive sound will work. Set a timer for about five minutes, when the five minutes it up take a fifteen minute break, meditate for another five minutes and come back out here," I told him before turning my attention to Kendra.
"I know you have the concentration in you, I've seen it during lacrosse practice. You just need to apply it to the wind." I paused to build a pile of leaves with a few wood chips and rocks intermixed in them.
"I want you to work on separating the leaves from the wood chips and rock in as neat of a pile as possible. Once you're done with that let me know." From there I turned my attention to Jordan, who looked scared to see that my attention was on him.
"You are over thinking this. Calm down, let the feeling of the earth around you take control. Earth is one of the hardest elements to understand, but as soon as you can understand it the easier it is to control. Sit down" I told him as I sat on the ground a little bit away from the pool. He sat next to me looking confused.
"Now take deep breaths and count to fifty" I commanded as I started counting in my head. Once I was done, I waited for him to finish. When he opened his eyes I could see that he was more relaxed but still relatively tense. So instead of moving on to the next phase, I told him to do it again. He did so with no complaint and once he was done for the second time, I decided to move on to the next phase, whether he was ready or not.
"Place your hands on the ground in front of you, feel the dirt, let the energy coming off of it soak through your skin. Let the energy of the ground consume you" I told him, watching as he placed his hands on the ground. It took a few minutes but he finally relaxed enough for me to let him move on. I placed a few small rocks in a circle in front of Jordan while he was concentrating.
"Now try to move these rocks from their circle into a single pile. Remember to not overthink it" I told him quietly, not wanting him to lose the sense of peace he had. I watched as he attempted to move the rocks. While he concentrated on how to move them I moved over to check on Kendra. She had managed to move a few of the leave but not a lot of them. I looked over towards the house to see Morgan walking out quietly. I swiftly moved over to him and led him over to the pool.
"Let the movement of the water flow through you. Feel how the water moves in tune with the wind and let it be your guide to move the water to your will. Concentrate on moving the water in a spiral movement" I told him in the same soft and quiet voice I had talked to Jordan with. I watched him do as I said, making the water move ever so slightly. I smiled at him, told him to continue practicing, and moved over to Jordan. He had managed to move all of the rocks into a pile like I had told him. I smiled down at him before telling him to follow me. I lead him into the trees and towards a clearing that I had found during my first few months here.
"Now this is going to be harder. But don't forget what the earth's energy felt like. Find it again, let it enter every fiber of your being. Mix your own energy with the energy of the earth." I watched him as he did this, without even touching the ground. I smiled at him; he was a faster learner than either of us thought. It took me weeks to grasp the concept of the earth's chakra and to let it flow through me.
"Now use the earth to defend yourself" I stated as I threw some of my duller kunai at him. The first grazed his cheek while the second embedded itself in his arm. He cried out in pain as he felt the kunai hit him. The third and fourth missed him completely, but I hadn't intended for them to hit him.
"Always be on guard. You never know when an enemy will attack. Do not think about how you are going to defend just do it" I told him as I prepared four more kunai, these one sharper than the previous four. Jordan's face hardened as he prepared for my attack. I smirked at him as I threw these four before disappearing into the trees. He had managed to build up a wall of earth to protect that side but left his back wide open. I threw a couple of shuriken towards his back before moving to his side, throwing more weapons at him. After about five or so minutes he was getting the hang of using the earth to his will. I dropped down next to him, startling him a bit but when he saw that I was not going to attack him he relaxed a bit. I picked up the weapons that had dropped around him before leading him back to the house.
"Jordan you're bleeding are you okay?" Samantha asked concerned when she saw Jordan's arm and cheek.
"I'll be fine…right?" he directed the last part towards me only slightly concerned.
"You'll be fine. I wouldn't put you in danger like that if I didn't think you could handle it" I told him as I walked over to where Kendra was still trying to move the leaves and wood chips.
"Stop. Relax. Let the wind show you how. Feel it run through your hair let the feeling of the wind sweep through you. It's soft and strong. Feel the breeze it brings across your skin. Channel that breeze to the leaves." Kendra was able to get more of the leaves to move over to the others she had moved than she previously had moved at once. I smiled before telling her to finish with the leaves. I then moved back over to where Morgan was making the water in the pool shift but not in a spiral like he was trying to do.
"Take a break. Water is extremely difficult to control because it is fluid and difficult to shape. It is going to take a lot of practice and dedication to master it. But I will work with you every step of the way" I told him as he lost concentration again.
"Every day I want you to meditate, adding five minutes each day. It'll help with your concentration. Practice for at least an hour a day. The more you practice the easier it will be to control it" I told him as the other four rangers walked up to us.
"How many elements can you control?" Samantha asked as we made our way inside. I had Jordan sit down and pull his shirt sleeve up so that I could heal his wound.
"All of them, again I have been practicing for all of my life on controlling all of the elements possible. I also was the best at medical ninjutsu in my village" I told them as green chakra covered my hand and I placed it on Jordan's arm, with the other on his cheek. Within minutes his wounds were completely healed up.
"My father demanded perfection from all of his children. I went easy on all of you. I learned how to use earth to defend myself through being attacked by ten of my clansmen constantly attacking me. With blades sharper than what I used on you. I learned how to control water by having fire balls thrown at me. I learned to use wind by being pushed off of a cliff and into a raging river" I told them once I was done with Jordan's wounds.
"Isn't that dangerous? You could have been killed" Aisha, who had joined us as I was healing Jordan bringing food with her, asked concerned. I gave a small laugh; of course they would be worried about how clans trained their children.
"My clan believed that if you were too weak to defend yourself then you did not deserve to be alive. A real Shinobi would get out of any situation in any way possible and if they can't then they don't deserve to be a Shinobi. My father only agreed to train me because I saved my sister and myself from an enemy group that was trying to get to my father and grandfather. He refused to train my sister because she couldn't protect herself. Father went harder on me because he wanted me to fail. Normally Shinobi only know one or two elements. I have learned them all because I wanted to prove to my father that I was not a failure. His training worked against him in the end" I told them as I helped Aisha spread the food around the table as Kendra and Jordan were bringing it in from the kitchen.
"That's horrible, children shouldn't be treated like that. I'm sure he's proud of you though" Adam stated as he passed plates around the table. Morgan and Samantha was bringing cups full of various liquids and placed them by the plates.
"No he isn't; he was never proud of any of his children. In his eyes we were never good enough. But that doesn't matter to me, his opinion is irrelevant. There is only a handful of men who matter to me and I know that all of them are proud of me. That is what matters" I replied as we all sat down for dinner. We ate dinner while they asked me many questions about my family and my life in the village.
"So you're pretty high ranked then? That must be something to brag about with how young you are" Adam asked, I could hear pride in his voice as he spoke.
"Yeah, typically people my age would just be graduating the academy and becoming Genin. I became a Genin when I was seven years old, became a Chunin when I was eight and I guess I technically became a Jonin when I was nine. I took the test and grandfather offered to put me on special missions but I didn't want that. Instead they moved me into an ANBU unit. I was part of a special squad because I was so young."
"What do the ANBU do?" Jordan asked curiously. He was really interested in the Shinobi life.
"Many things. Typically ANBU deal with assassinations and high ranked missions. Each village has specialty groups within ANBU, such as the hunter-nins from Kirigakure which hunted missing-nins and disposed of them, or the interrogation unit in Konohagakure which is unmatched by any other village. Iwa had a specialized bombing unit that my brother was part of. My unit was separate from both the bombing unit and the regular ANBU units. We were a six man cell, sent out to locate missing-nins when they came too close to our borders as well as track our own traitors when we could locate them. Our unit consisted of the two teammates that I was placed with when I was a Genin, as well as an ANBU squad that had already existed. We worked together until I was eleven when I was sent on this mission."
As I spoke we ate the food that Aisha had prepared, however before we got to finish dinner, the alarms went off. We all jumped up to respond to the attack. We teleported to downtown where another one of Namonia's generals was terrorizing the town with a group of zamas. Drake was nowhere to be seen and we had bigger issues to deal with rather than worry about him. Immediately Morgan and Samantha started evacuating whatever civilians were still in the area. Jordan and Kendra started fighting the zamas off while Adam and I went after the general.
"Who are you?" Adam asked aggressively as he dodged a frontal attack with a sword from the general.
"You may call me Juro however you will not make it out of this fight" he said as he flicked his sword down before rushing Adam again. I pulled one of the blades my suit concealed and blocked his attack, getting as close to him as possible and disarming him as quickly as I could. I then bombarded him with as many attacks as I could think of so that I didn't give him time to recover. I did however stick with one element the entire time so that he did not know that I could do more than one. I backed off just slightly so that I could pull another blade out before going in for the kill. Juro dodged my blade just in time for it to barely nick his throat. He retreated as soon as he realized that he was outmatched at the moment. Kendra, Jordan, Morgan, and Samantha had finished off the zamas while I was fighting against Juro.
"That was impressive, I guess that's how a ninja fights" Adam stated as we regrouped. We left the scene, going back to the house.
"That's how some of my mentors fought at least. I have many fighting styles in my arsenal" I stated before I headed towards my room. For some reason the name Juro and the way he handled his sword was sticking out in my brain and I needed to I pulled every scroll I had with me out into the living room as I tried to figure out who he was.