I updated after a loooong time, but I hope it's at least a bit worth the wait. Unfortunately, I have some bad news: this will be my last chapter in this story. For a long time. I just want to give my full focus on A Tale of Destiny which I am farther into and I PROMISE I will get back to this story once it is done. That may not be for a while, considering there is still a lot left (probably only halfway), but this story will be back in some months (lol, long time). It's definitely going to get much better than right now once it really picks up, which, to be quite honest, could even be the next chapter, but that's why this is a good time to stop. Not much has happened yet, but the stuff to come will be good.

Hope you like this last chapter (for a while)!

Chapter 10: Five Ones

Kai and Lloyd had been training for months. Wu hadn't returned even once since he left to go to the Western Kingdom to find the third Chosen One, the blue ninja of lightning.

Kai came down to have breakfast. "Heya Lloyd," he greeted the green ninja the same way he had done for the past few months. "When d'ya think your uncle Wu will come back?"

Lloyd groaned. The red ninja had been asking the same questions forever, and Lloyd had been giving him the same answers. "My uncle is also your Sensei," he snapped for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Yea, while that is true, he's not around much. Or, at all, y'know?"

Lloyd sighed. Kai had been fun at first, a good break from all the seriousness of the castle, but it was getting annoying now. A lot of the times, he repeated himself…everyday, so one could imagine hearing the same thing everyday would get annoying. Kai would mention everyday that Wu wasn't around. He sighed again. "Let's just do some training…"

They headed to an empty room in the large building. They started off with exercises, like they had been since the beginning of their training. However, the kind of training they did then was much easier than it was now. They had become 'masters of training' as Kai had once put it, and the two had a good laugh, but Lloyd knew they would have lots more to train for.

After a few more stretches, they got into a fighting stance and would spar against each other. Both of the young ninja had gotten significantly faster thanks to their training, and all they did during this sparring time was try to push the other person while trying to defend yourself. Then it got more serious: they put on some protective equipment and fought each other with various swords. They have used every single sword at least once in the past month alone. Sometimes, they would pick up a sword when they were bored and practice alone, and sometimes with the dummies the house has.

After sparring with the equipment, they ran around outside the house for a stamina test. In this Kai usually beats Lloyd, while the green ninja was able to beat Kai in the fighting aspects of their training. Halfway in their run, they heard noise coming through the forest, and it sounded like people.

The ninja, being curious, crept up slowly and cautiously to the trees. It became very silent, until someone yelled a battle cry they had never heard. Two people, dressed in blue and white, jumped out from behind the trees and tackled Kai and Lloyd to the ground. A third in black was coming from a different direction.

"Punch them in the face!" the one in black shouted, and it seemed the blue and white ones were ready to oblige.

"BANDITS!" Lloyd shouted and pushed the white-clothed guy off of him. Kai followed and kicked off the blue one.

"Zane! You should've punched him!" the blue guy screamed at the white guy.

"I was trying to, Jay," the one known as Zane replied. "But I am not ready to fight yet."

The one now known as Jay did a facepalm. "Cole, attack them!"

The one in black, now known as Cole, ran into Kai and kept pushing until Kai was pushed into Lloyd. All three fell on the ground.

While everyone was grunting, Jay took the opportunity to run at Lloyd and strike him, but seeing this, the green ninja rolled out of the way, and Kai stuck out his hand from under Cole to trip Jay. Jay indeed tripped, and fell face first. Next, Kai pushed Cole while Lloyd tried yanking him off. Together, the two got him off of the red ninja. Zane came from behind to attack Lloyd on the shoulder.

"OW!" he yelped and rubbed his bruising left shoulder. He glowered at Zane. It was at that moment he realized who it was. "Zane! Prince Zane Julien! Why are you with these two bandits?!"

Zane didn't reply. Instead, Kai did a stealth attack from the side and knocked Zane down. Eventually, the three "bandits" got up and surrounded the duo. Zane charged at Lloyd, but Lloyd jumped up, wrapped his arms around his head, and tossed him backward. Meanwhile, Jay came for Kai, but the Chosen One of Fire stepped a bit to the side, swept him off his feet, picked him up, and threw him at the incoming Cole. The two fell down, and it seemed like Jay crushed Cole's face.

"Well done, nephew and pupil," a familiar voice said from behind the trees. When Lloyd looked around furiously, Wu stepped out and showed himself. "That was merely a test to see how strong you two have gotten over the months. Quite a while, no?"

Lloyd was getting even more furious, while Kai smiled at Wu. "You CHEAT!" Lloyd shouted at Wu. "You sent these guys after us?"

"It was a test," Wu repeated. "And for your information, they are the Chosen Ones of Lightning, Ice, and Earth."

Kai looked at the three, still on the ground like they liked it. "Ya mean these are the ninja guys we train with?"

"Are going to train with," Wu corrected. "I would've been back about a month ago with them, but we did training of our own."

"Well, good thing you didn't," Lloyd grumbled and stormed off inside. Wu sighed. Even after being gone so long, his nephew still didn't seem to care about him. Serves me right, the old man thought bitterly. After what I did, I deserve the hatred. Does Kai know? he wondered.

He decided to head in as well, and called the other ninja with him.

"Why do I sense that Prince Lloyd has some sort of resentment against you, Prince Wu?" Zane asked the old man.

"I am not Prince and neither is Lloyd," Wu told him. "Here, I go by Sensei, and he goes by Lloyd."

When Zane didn't respond, Wu cracked the tiniest smile. He successfully diverted the topic.

Inside, Lloyd yelled at Zane. "Why didn't you say anything if you knew it was me? You should've said something! It was almost like I didn't see you had the face of a good friend of mine!"

Zane stayed silent for a while. "I was told not to tell you by your uncle."

Then it was Lloyd's turn to be silenced.

"So, if you two friends are done 'meeting up' or whatever, how exactly do we train here?" Jay asked Lloyd and Kai.

Kai was about to speak, but the green ninja beat him to it. "Kai and I started off with stretches, then sparring, then sparring with equipment, and then running. That was our training everyday. Some days, we used the training course."

The blue ninja narrowed his eyebrows. "What training course? I don't see any."

"There's a button for it," Lloyd assured him. "I'll show it later."

"Advanced technology, I see," the white ninja mused.

Lloyd glared at him. "Says you! You're a robot!"

"Huh? What's a robot?" Cole asked.

"It's a…mechanical human?" After thinking of the answer, Lloyd realized he didn't really know what a robot was himself.

Cole licked his lips, and Zane was aware of that. "No, Lloyd! You shouldn't have told him!"

"Why not?"

"Now he wants to break me to check for wood!"

"Check for w-?" Before he could finish, Cole jumped at Zane, but being a robot, he knew it would happen, so he got up just in time and ran, while the black ninja chased him.

"This is two of our new members?" Kai asked glumly. The other two ninja nodded. "So, Jay, where ya from?"

"I'm from the castle at Freyport." When Kai gave him a blank stare, he added, "You know, the castle of King Robert?"

Kai slowly nodded when he mentioned King Robert's name. "Yea, I remember King Howard once sayin' something about King Robert."

Who is this guy? Jay wondered. "What'd King Howard say?" is what the blue ninja actually said aloud.

The red ninja shrugged. "I can't remember, it was a good while back."

"So, where you from?" Jay asked Kai.

"Town of Ignacia, Southern Kingdom," he replied proudly.

Jay nodded his head, although he had never heard of it. "Not a big town, is it?"

Kai shook his head for a no. "Yea, you're right. Not many people, but I get some pretty good business most days."

"So you're a businessman? At this age? Trader? Merchant?" Jay pestered with questions.

"Nope, none'a those. I'm a blacksmith. I run the Four Weapons Shop with my sister. My dad opened it up when he was…still here."

Jay could only guess that "still here" meant "still alive." Regardless, he was a bit disappointed that Kai was only a blacksmith.

"What do ya do at King Robert's castle anyway?" the red ninja asked him.

"Oh, I'm a…lower knight." He lowered his head, ashamed.

Lloyd slapped him. "What do you mean 'lower knight'? Knights are amazing, and they're not low!" Not like my uncle… he thought.

Jay laughed without humour while rubbing his cheek where he got slapped. "I am a low knight. I'm not good. I still train under some other oaf who makes me do more work that even a farmer doesn't have to do during a bad year. It's ridiculous!"

"Yea, but it's probably cool, bein' high-up and stuff right?" Kai asked. "Higher than a blacksmith like me, that's fo' sure."

"But it's not like being a Prince," Jay motioned to Lloyd and Zane, still escaping Cole.

Lloyd's face darkened. "You don't what it's like to be a Prince."

"What's it like?" Jay asked, curious to hear the answer.

"There's too much expectation. You may think we do nothing, Sir Jay, but that's not reality," Lloyd ranted. "We do more work than the King of Queen. Often times, we have to listen during open talk where people from all over come and complain about something. Then they look at me like I'm the answer to their problems. Well, I'm not! I'm the listener to their problems! I can't solve them! That's the King's job, or someone more experienced! Then they beg me to help and I do what I can, but for those I can't? What do I do? Send them back for another day or week or month to deal with the problem?!"

The house went silent after his rant. Cole had also stopped chasing Zane, or so it seemed for the moment. "So, tell me, is it good to be a Prince? I feel bad for those I couldn't help, and that's most of them. My father, King Garmadon, wouldn't even care half the time."

Jay was speechless. "I-I had no idea it was like that. You win."

Lloyd shook his head. "I'm not talking about winning. I'm talking about principle. I do what I can to help the people, but my father never cared enough to fully help them. He's the one who was capable and had the power. Ordering some doctor to give a cure for some disease: he can do that, not me. A town with little water. He can help them, not me. I didn't have the power to order around people, being young and all. This is why when I become King of Ninjago, I will listen to each and every one of them, like my grandfather, the First Spinjitzu Master did. Cyrus doesn't care about anything. My uncle told me that. He just wants power, and he's the most powerful man in Ninjago. He can order anyone anyway he pleases, and he has a massive army to enforce it and make sure it happens. Good thing Central Kingdom its own Kingdom and doesn't have the power to order other kings to step down…"

Kai stood up and clapped for Lloyd, leaving the older boy stunned. Jay joined in, and out of nowhere, Zane and Cole also started clapping for him.

"Good speech, Prince Lloyd," Kai told him with a smile.

"Indeed. You will make a fine King one day, Lloyd," Zane smiled at him.

"If you want to change Ninjago, ninja, then you must train first to deal with the obstacles that will come your way," an older voice said. It was Wu. "Training starts today. No exceptions."

And so, the five ninja trained together for the first time. While they trained, they found out each other's strengths. Lloyd was fast and strong. Kai had stamina and endurance. Zane was fast and smart. Jay had plenty of experience in fighting, with or without equipment. Cole was just hugely strong, but quite lacking in any speed, stealth, or brains.

Hm, maybe this team won't be so bad after all… Lloyd thought to himself.

Yes, Lloyd is older than the other ninja on purpose. His parents are old, after all. It makes sense because Garmadon doesn't just disappear and become evil like he does in the show.

I am soooooo sorry if you read and like this story, but I want to finish my other story first, which undoubtedly has a bigger audience at this point. Anyways, hope you liked it! "See" you soon (hopefully)!