I bet you're not reading this one Sunday. This is how little I trust myself to get this out on time. God damn it me. Get your act together.

Anyway, I suppose I should go find a joke and PUT IT SLIGHTLY TO THE RIGHT OR BELOW THIS WRITING DEPENDING ON WHERE IT GOES ON THE WEBSITE: How do you kill a Shen? Gank him when he's not paying attenShen.

Right, so, one thing to say before we get on with it. I have no clue how long this series is going to go on for at this point. Like, as some point I'll have to stop but I'm going to try to at least get to chapter 100 before that happens. Personally, I take it as a challenge to get in the top 20 longest stories on this site. Step one: find a list of the longest stories.

Holy shit some of this stuff is fucking long. These things have millions of words. Millions.

What. The. Bloody. Hell?

Where do people find the time for this? I can only write about 7000 words a week along with doing other stuff? Is writing all they do? How? What? Why? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. I'm on almost 300,000 after a year and a half!

Damn. I'm gonna have to limit my ambitions to top 100 longest or something.

WHAT THE SHIT SOMEONE JUST WROTE "COVERED IN CHOCOLATE" AND GOT TO 12.7 MILLION WORDS. WHO THE FUCKING FUCK HAS TIME TO COPY PASTA THE SAME PHRASE THAT MANY TIMES?

Also I'm calling bullshit on that. It's just cheating man. That story is disqualified in my books.

Even to get onto the damn list you need over 800,000 words. There's already 166 stories on there so we have a hell of a long way to go. Maybe I'll even manage to keep it interesting all the way there.

I'm around-about the 3rd largest League story though so I'm having some success.

Anyway, enough of my rabbling. On with the chapter!


Chapter 45: Ninjas VS Spies

The Spymaster could not take nearly as many punches as I had expected. It only took two hundred and twelve to knock him out cold. Then again, he was a rather wimpy-seeming man so maybe my expectations were higher than merited. Looking down at his unconscious body it was clear he was not built to take too much punishment. He was slightly skinnier than a normal person and stood at about six foot. His face and facial features were long and thin. He had very dark, brown eyes and black hair which was very badly slicked to the side and up at the front. Other than that he was very unassuming. A jet black trench coat with dulled iron buttons and trimmings covered most of his body down to the knees, with the exception of his lower arms as the sleeves had been rolled up. His gloves, trousers and boots matched the coat. He also had a facemask hanging from his belt which followed the same general design as Zed's; a metallic mask attached to a grey hood that would cover his entire head and neck. The metal was dulled just the same as everything else, bringing me to the realisation that he still did a fair bit of sneaking through the shadows.

"Shen, did you really have to do that?"

"Absolutely. He was freaking out."

"Imagine you were a normal person for a moment. How would you react if a ninja with glowing yellow eyes jumped on you as you were reading a book? When you ask what the hell is going on, he starts punching you and ignoring every word you say while yelling 'calm down'."

"He was saying things? Heh, I couldn't hear him over the punching." I chuckled before straightening my face as best I could.

"You just wanted to punch something, didn't you?"

"Akali! How dare you raise that question? We both know full well that I just wanted to punch something."

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected you to take this seriously."

"I am taking this seriously. In case you had not realised, the man I knocked out is not the man we are looking for, but his body double. Or, probably, one of many doubles."

"How do you know?"

"I've had missions focused on this Spymaster before. He was, at a time, a prodigy to Leblanc. Naturally this meant that he caused a great deal of imbalance in the world."

"So how do we catch this guy?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know. Of the three missions where I have focused on the man, he has gone to ground just before I could catch him every time. All I have been able to achieve is fix the damage he does."

"How does he go to ground and leave no trail at all?"

"As I said, Leblanc. He literally goes invisible."

"But surely you can see his imbalance?"

"Nope. I am balanced, he is a student of LB and, as such, is OP as shit so there's nothing I can do."

"Oh really now, we're all balanced perfectly fine-" Akali was cut off by a terribly-textured spear flying past us and hitting a bookcase. An explosion from the spear completely obliterated the entire wall. We were both knocked off our feet from the blast. When I opened my eyes I saw Nidalee in the room with us.

"Hi ninjas! I was just in the Shadow Isles!" She giggled before throwing another spear, turning into a cat and jumping away.

I turned to stare at Akali with an eyebrow raised.

"Alright, maybe some of us are OP pieces of shit that need to be nerfed until they're weaker than the Poros on the Howling Abyss but most of us are pretty decent."

"You're being a bit generous."

"Let's just move on. People will have heard that explosion and we need to make sure they don't realise we're involved."

Like that we were hiding on top of a nearby chandelier as Noxian soldiers burst into the room. They investigated the scene as I motioned for Akali to check the room above us as I searched the one next to us. It was going to take a while to search the entire manor for one specific guy among twenty-odd clones.

Akali's POV

I threw a shroud down around the banister as I clambered up it. A guard patrolled right by me as I pulled myself up one of the wooden pillars. The main room I found myself in was a sneaky person's nightmare. It was absolutely huge with a giant stained-glass window on the side of the room opposite the door. Below the window was an open staircase that led to the upper part of the room, which was little more than a wide walkway that went all around the room so that people could get to the doors. Everything but the tiled floor was made from oak. Guards were just about everywhere in the ornate-seeming interior and massive, intricate chandelier hung from the ceiling, about the size of a tennis court if the court was circular. The walls were covered in family portraits and weapon cases and the lowest few feet of the walls were made of stone. Above, the ceiling was triangular with windows on the sides that let huge beams of light in. Down below me, the lower floor was left mostly empty save for a few coffee tables and very expensive sofas but none of them appeared to have ever been used. My guess was they were for guests, but a Spymaster doesn't get many guests.

Nothing in that room sat right with me. It didn't have that homely feel that it should have. Everything was too clean and procedurally placed. This wasn't a place that had been lived in by a normal human being, if anyone at all.

I couldn't shake the feeling that one wrong move would get me caught in one of any number of traps that almost certainly littered the mansion. Luckily, I was a professional.

As I clambered around the ceiling and walls on my way to my first room to search I noticed that there was a spot of wood in front of me that was slightly lighter than the rest. The difference would have been impossible for the untrained eye to see but I recognised it for what it was. I jumped to a nearby portrait frame and managed to keep steady atop it for long enough to grab a candle-holder attached to the wall. At that point I was directly above the door and the only thing keeping me hidden was the shroud I placed earlier. It would only last a few more seconds before the vision-distorting gas faded away.

One of the guards provided my opening as he opened the door and exited my target room. I swung through above his head and did a handstand on the doorframe as it was slammed shut. It didn't take much for me to push myself up onto a cabinet a short distance away. Once there, I began crouch-walking along the line of cabinets towards the other end of the room while getting my bearings on the room. It was the type of kitchen you would expect from a popular restaurant. Chefs were at every station doing something or hurrying themselves around the room with almost-prepared food. My head was inches from the ceiling so I was choking on the thick layer of steam that drifted around just as much as the smell. It was like something had died, come back to life two months later, died again and was then set alight.

It didn't matter too much as I was almost at my target. This version of the Spymaster was taste-testing the food so I had to get close without being noticed by any of the chefs or guards. I hatched a plan that didn't seem to have any major problems.

I waited for the right moment then leaned over the edge of the cabinet and picked up a pan as all eyes were drawn in other directions. Some more waiting and it was just about loud enough and everyone was too focused on their own tasks to notice me smashing a guard with the pan and dragging him up onto the top of the cabinet. After hastily disguising myself using his uniform, I hopped down from the cabinet and tried to look like I knew what I was doing. Somehow, I had to get the Spymaster (if it was actually him) from the kitchen and to the rendezvous point. At that point my best plan was to injure him somehow then take him outside under the pretence of getting medical help; however I couldn't just smash him in the same way I had the guard. It had to appear like an accident.

My path was clear. The whole kitchen was a hive of seemingly random movement but, in fact, it was acting like clockwork. Every person there knew exactly where they needed to be and what they needed to be doing at any given moment. So, I turned a tap to be a lot hotter than it was supposed to be. When one chef filled a metal cup with the water it burned his hand. He dropped it instinctively, creating a puddle of water where people were walking. Another man slipped and fell. He made such a noise of it that one of the other chefs stopped looking at a pan he was flipping over a grill for just long enough for the fire to catch his sleeve. It took him a few seconds to recognise his predicament and when he did there was suddenly a knife in the arm of my target. He cried in pain so I rushed in to help. With a Noxian helmet on, he had no way of telling who I was as I took his arm over my shoulders and helped him out of the room. We had to shove past some chefs along the way but eventually I rushed him out the door.

I'd taken a note of where the infirmary was when we were scouting the place. As per my expectations, it was as threadbare as possible. The only thing for dealing with life-threatening injuries was a phone-line that linked directly to Zaun. I didn't even consider using that as I lay the man down on the only bed. Considering the lack of a nurse or doctor, I took it upon myself to yank the knife out and wrap a bandage around the wound. As I did my best to stop the bleeding he gave thanks:

"You have my gratitude soldier. I did not realise they included first aid in your training."

I waited until he was stable before pulling off my helmet and replying:

"They do in the Kinkou."

He barely had time to look confused before I smacked him in the face, knocking the man out cold.

Shen's POV

As I peered through the window I saw an opportunity forming that I could take advantage of in an interesting way. The Spymaster that I was tracking had taken up a seat directly in front of the window but he was facing away. Seeing as the window was wide open and he had, mere moments ago, ordered the guards out so that he could 'relieve' himself, I gave the rope I was hanging onto a tug then kicked myself away from the wall. The Spymaster was just opening a gentleman's magazine when I swung through the window, kicked him in the head and swung out again. On the next swing in I grabbed the man before lowering myself down the rope to the ground.

"Oi. Zed." I whispered before he appeared in front of me and took the body out of my hands. He was gone in an instant and I climbed back up the side of the house. Where he was putting all the bodies was beyond me but I highly doubted Zed of all people was lacking for options.

I got to the window next to the previous one and peeked through. The curtains were mostly drawn but I could see that the version of Derach inside was speaking to four people. Two humans, a Yordle and an android-Lizard man. Only one of them was in traditional Noxian attire. The rest dressed seemingly randomly. It confused me for a moment before I recognised one of them as a bounty hunter that I had put behind bars many years ago. In fact, I began to recognise all of them from wanted posters. They all carried with them a head-count of at least thirty. It took a moment for me to realise that they were not being addressed by the Spymaster, but were questioning him on something.

Last I was there, they were all safely locked up in a League-run prison in the mega-security ward. The only way they could possibly have left that building was by being let out.

Then it clicked. They were hunting for us. It was obvious we were in Noxus but they couldn't send an army of summoners against the Noxians. They would get massacred. Instead, the Head Summoner had presumably released these hunters on the condition that they kill or capture us.

Without hesitation I made my way over to the open window then jumped through it. In seconds I was crawling through a vent. It didn't take long for me to make my way to the other end of the vent which led to the room I had been peeking into.

The way I had to position myself to avoid all the traps was rather uncomfortable but it was ignorable for the sake of information gathering.

"-We don't care who Swain is backing. We don't even care who you're backing. Just tell us where they are!" One of the humans shouted while slamming his hands on the desk. Strangely enough, everything he was wearing was made of animal pelts.

"And I suppose I am meant to know where they are?"

"You're a Spymaster for fuck's sake. Don't try to convince us they strolled into this shithole of a city without you finding out."

"It seems I'm in a bit of a predicament. If I tell you I don't know where they are you won't believe me; where if I tell you I do you'll ask where and I will not be able to answer."

"Sounds like we're gonna have to go check all the rooms in the house… for your safety. You never know where criminals might be hiding… or who could be harbouring them." All the bounty hunters except the Yordle left. The only one still hanging around pretended to search the room but it was clear he was simply trying to intimidate the Spymaster by knocking over everything he could.

Even from the other side of an air-vent grate I could tell clear as day that it was having the opposite effect. The Spymaster almost appeared to find it cute.

However, it lost its entertainment value after a while.

"If only there was someone watching right now who could save me from this horrible situation. I would be truly grateful to not sit here with this sense of mortal terror in my gut any longer."

I took the hint and punched the grate open. When I dropped to the ground I was only a few metres from the Yordle. When he saw me a look of long-suppressed anger rose to his face. The adorable creature drew two bowie knives while glaring at me as if we were mortal enemies.

"Shen! I've finally caught up with you! My final revenge is within my grasp!"

"You make it sound like I have wronged you somehow."

"Do you not remember what you did to me!?"

"Not even slightly."

"Maybe a name will jog your memory. Farick."

"Are you sure you're thinking about the right person? I've got pretty average Ionian clothing so I could see how you would get confused."

"The image of you beating me to within an inch of my life using my own car is permanently burned into my mind!"

"I beat you with a car? Damn... I must have been drunk or something. Anyway, listen, I realise you're trying to be my nemesis and everything here but I've got Zed now if I ever need one. We even went to the Annual Nemesis Extravaganza together."

"I don't need to be your worst enemy. I just need you dead."

Without giving me time to retort the Yordle dived at me. I didn't want to bother putting effort in so I materialised a bubble shield and watched as he bounced off it. All he managed to do was put a small scratch in it.

Seeing as that method wasn't working too well for him, 'Farick' pulled out a grenade and threw it in my direction. I dived out of the way just fine but that didn't solve the problem entirely as it exploded to reveal an incendiary nature. Not even a second had gone by before the flames had consumed an entire wall.

"It takes a remarkable lack of foresight to do something like that." I remarked before throwing a chair at him. The Yordle managed to avoid it but he jumped closer to the fire in doing so. As I saw it the best of my options was to press the advantage as hard as I could, so I drew my weapons and ran forward to engage him. It became obvious soon after that I was a far better duellist than my opponent.

A few seconds of fighting later I had him disarmed and dead to rights. Even with the end of my sword to his neck, he attempted to reach for an antique dagger nearby. His head was parted from his body long before he could grab a weapon. The sight of his blood staining the floor seemed to irritate the Spymaster slightly.

"Was that entirely necessary? The floors are made from an extinct species of tree."

"I think the blood is the last thing your floor should be worried about right now."

"The fire is not a concern. This type of tree was known for its non-flammable nature."

"Yes but I am not so I'd rather exit the room soon."

"Fine. We shall let the guards deal with it if they ever notice the flames."

"Big 'if'." I sighed while searching the room for an exit that wasn't on fire. Almost immediately I came the conclusion that the only one was the window.

We carefully exited the building and clambered down the side. Upon reaching the bottom the Spymaster turned to me and clasped his hands together.

"Well, it has been lovely meeting you again. Now if you'll excuse me." He disappeared before I could grab him and I knew it was pointless searching. Only a few people in the world could see through stealth that strong.

Strangely enough, one of them appeared only a few metres from me, pouncing through the air towards something next to the wall. Rengar laughed maniacally as he crashed to the ground, pinning the suddenly-visible Derach under his feet. After his laugh petered out, Rengar picked up the Spymaster by his collar then dragged him over to me.

"Thank you kindly Rengar. I did not know you were in Noxus."

"I would never turn down a chance for a hunt." He sighed.

"I sense that is not the main reason. What troubles you?"

"Argh! Fine! It's just Yasuo and Lux! They're at each other's throats day in, day out! I can barely get a word in with their constant bickering!"

"They are still arguing after all this time? What even caused all of this?"

"I don't even remember! I'm losing sleep because they go on all night long! They even kept going on the few missions I brought them on! I've had to do most of them alone because all those pathetic humans do is scream at each other!"

"That bad huh? You know what, Zoh mentioned we needed something to fill time because the writer wanted to cross some storylines off the list so let's go resolve your problem."

"If you think you can do a better job than the professional therapist I hired then go ahead. What do you want to do with this guy?"

"I'm not… entirely sure. We had a plan to get him… but not one to get him to help."

"You could just ask." The Spymaster pointed out.

"Will you help?"

"No."

"Dick move." I grumbled before punching him across the face. That knocked the man out very well.

"I'm certain Zoh has a device for a situation like this. If it doesn't explode, we will be fine. Akali!"

She dropped down next to us in an instant.

"Take this man away but keep him separate from the others. Once you are done return here."

"I didn't hear a 'please' but whatever."

After waiting around for a few seconds with Rengar she returned.

"So, what are we doing now?"

"Remember how Yasuo and Lux hated each other…"

A bit of teleportation later (19:05):

I could not help but feel like we had made a bad choice when we chose our place to stay. Looking upon the huge treehouse Rengar had created to function as their base, our old mountain seemed like an even worse idea than it turned out to be. We were deep in the jungles of Kumungu with the ground well below us. The treehouse itself was better described as a series of platforms of various designs and sizes situated on multiple different trees and connected by rope-bridges. Some were closer to the ground while others sat at the very top of the trees, probably to see over the thick canopy. The dense jungle and quickly disappearing sun made the base almost invisible.

Yet somehow, even with all the noise of the jungle, I could still clearly hear the squabbling that had caused Rengar such frustration. I had only been there for a few seconds but I was already tiring of it.

"And how long has this particular argument been going on?" Akali questioned the visibly distressed Rengar.

"Two days. I'm waiting for exhaustion to kick in."

"What are they even shouting about?"

"Who makes better tea."

"…" Akali and I were speechless. I had not seen such a petty argument in years. Without another word having to be said Akali was stomping across one of the rope-bridges. I followed close behind while Rengar walked behind me with his hands over his ears and a snarl on his face. How he had kept his sanity with this constant noise confused me.

The volume increased as we approached the source of the noise. I could see them inside a hut on top of the platform going at each other. They didn't even seem to notice us entering until I shouted.

"Hey! Stop arguing for a few minutes!"

The two fell silent and stared at me.

"Listen, I am beyond the point of caring how this started. I don't care who said what about who and I don't care who can make the best tea. This has to stop. You cannot continue bickering like children over the most petty of issues. It is making Rengar's life difficult, it is compromising your ability to achieve anything significant and it is really starting to grind on my nerves and I've barely been here two minutes. So you can both shut it permanently or I will resort to drastic measures."

"But he-" Before Lux could finish I back-handed her to the ground.

"Yeah take that-" Yasuo joined her on the ground shortly after when he attempted to speak.

"Apparently neither of you plan on resolving this without pain so…"

A few teleports later I was standing them both up and putting boxing gloves on their hands.

"Beat the hell out of each other until you've vented your frustrations on each other's faces. Or you collapse. I don't mind either way."

I had barely got out of the way by the time punches were being thrown. I sat on the floor next to Akali as Rengar strolled in with an eight-pack of beer. He got on the floor next to me and leaned back against the wall behind us.

"And now, we wait."

A damn long time later (17th June 09:00):

Akali's POV

I was up in an instant when I felt something touch my foot. The critters in that forest were not the friendliest or the smallest in the world.

When I opened my eyes I was not sure if I was happy or sad. It wasn't a spider the size of a horse; but it was the fight I had gone to sleep to. Still going. Yasuo and Lux were both battered and bruised but it didn't seem to faze them at all. If anything, they were going harder than ever.

I sighed while checking myself over to make sure there was nothing too deadly on me. Shen was sleeping on me and Rengar was sleeping on him but other than that I was fine.

All it took was a shove to wake both of them up. Rengar was particularly drowsy and it started to make sense why when I noticed the multiple empty crates littering the floor around us. When I had gone to sleep they were not there. Shen also had his mask on last I saw.

"Shen." I yawned while pointing at my face.

"Oh, right." He sighed before sifting through a pile of cans and picking out his mask. While Shen got that on, Rengar pushed himself to his feet and stretched. I also got up and stared at the fight still going on next to us. There was no sign that anything had been achieved from it at all so I helped Shen up while asking him:

"Do you have another idea? This one isn't helping."

"My other idea is to find someone with a better idea."

"Go get Zoh and Ahri. I'm sure one of them will have an idea."

Shen teleported away and was gone for a few seconds so I assisted Rengar in cleaning up. When Shen did return he was not accompanied by anyone.

"Where's Ahri and Zoh?"

"They were in the middle of procreation. I attempted to convince them that it could wait but I took the punch to mean I should wait."

"Where did you get punched?"

"The privates."

"That sucks man. You could go get Garen instead."

"There's a chance he's still with Katarina and I am not willing to take another punch down there."

"Wimp."

"Shut up. Nothing is more painful than a man's privates being injured."

"I don't know about that. Childbirth hurts apparently."

"While I'm sure it does, you can't give birth to a child at any moment on the whim of anyone around you. A man is in a constant state of supreme danger."

"Is that why you're so jumpy?"

"No, that's because for ten whole years you would jump-scare me at least twice a day."

"Oh yeah. I've forgot why I ever stopped that."

"Apart from me falling down a flight of stairs and breaking seven bones in the process?"

"I suppose that's a decent reason."

"Yeah…"

"Yeah…"

Two hours later (11:10):

Shen appeared once again, finally accompanied by Zoh but not Ahri. He stared at the fight (that was still going strong) for a few seconds before scratching his head and turning to Shen.

"Did you tell them this was a good idea?"

"I gave them the idea and encouraged them. It has worked for everyone else I've given the idea to. Seems these two hate each other too much."

"Well, I can see how this could be fun to watch if I wasn't worried for their health. It's fine though, I've got an idea that might work. Possibly."

"So 'possibly' is the best you can do?"

"Yeah. I would put some thought into this and come up with a 'definitely' but I've got to get back to Ahri. We've got stuff to do still. By the way, how did it go with the Spymaster? I heard some… odd stories."

"We are going to have to talk about that at a later date. Let us deal with the problem at hand."

"Right, yes, lets." Zoh trailed off while stepping towards the fight. He grabbed Yasuo and Lux by their heads and pushed them both to the ground with ease.

"Alright kiddies, this has gone on for long enough so we're gonna try something else. Here is a piece of paper for you both. I want you to write down the thing you hate the most about the other person."

After handing out paper and pens Zoh took a step back as Yasuo and Lux both scribbled away. They finished and handed everything back to Zoh who read over what was on the paper.

"This isn't too terrible really. Lux, you say the thing you hate worst is how disrespectful Yasuo is-"

"Oh fuck off-" Yasuo began before Zoh kicked him on the knee.

"…and Yasuo you say that the worst thing about Lux is that she nags all the time."

Zoh must have been expecting to be cut off as he kicked Lux on the knee the moment she opened her mouth in protest.

"So, now we know the problems. I'm going to show you how bloody insignificant they are. Both of you get up and look away from the other person."

While they did as asked, Zoh crumpled up the paper they had written stuff on.

"This is a very easy and effective tactic called 'ignoring the problem'. Instead of dealing with the issue, you just pretend it isn't there." He explained before throwing one ball of crumpled paper at each of them.

"Notice how not-at-all-irritating those were when you ignored them? Those pieces of paper represent the person looking the opposite way to you. I could throw tons of those at your backs but it wouldn't make a damn difference because they'd all just bounce off. Basically, just do this all the time. You don't have to physically look away from each other, you just have to ignore the fact that they exist. If you need to coordinate then just ask Rengar or something. Okay?"

Yasuo and Lux mumbled and it looked like Zoh had succeeded for a few seconds until Yasuo said:

"She's still a bitch though."

"Oh my god you're such a stupid twat!"

They began arguing again, leaving Zoh to step away and sigh into his hands.

"I really, really cannot be bothered to come up with another idea so if someone could go and get Ahri I would really appreciate it."

Shen teleported away then reappeared with an angry-looking Ahri in nothing but panties and a bra. It took her about ten seconds to throw charms at Yasuo and Lux, grab Zoh by the arm, pull out a device from one of his pockets and teleport them both away. They disappeared as the two behind where they were fell to the ground in each other's arms.

"Nope, no, nu-uh I am not watching this!" I exclaimed while rushing out of the room. Shen and Rengar followed behind me at a similar pace as I got as far away as I could. I remembered exactly how loud they were when they were arguing so there was no chance I'd be sticking around to hear them doing the deed. Eventually we couldn't go any further without falling off the edge of the treehouse but I still didn't feel like we had gone far enough so I grabbed Shen and Rengar while asking:

"Get us out of here please."

"We are pretty far I feel like-"

"Shen if you had any idea how strong that charm magic is you would teleport us to the other end of the solar system and not feel like we've gone far enough."

"I shall take your word for it." Shen finally obliged my earlier request and began channelling his spell. Light enveloped us entirely as the distant sounds of pleasure filtered through the forest. I shuddered at the thought as we appeared in a damp, dark, stone room with no features except the door. The only light came from a hole in the centre of the door, creating a small beam of light that was as useful as a glass hammer. It took me a moment to recognise the room but it became very obvious where we were when Shen opened the door, flooding the room with way-too-bright light. Many copies of the same man were slumped against the wall. They were all fast asleep but the sudden light made a few move around slightly. We didn't have anything in particular to do in that room so we all left quickly.

As we stepped onto the grass outside, Shen appeared suddenly exhausted and had to sit down. Rengar explored the surrounding area as I knelt down next to my fellow ninja. He was breathing heavily but I couldn't see anything wrong with him physically.

"You do not need to wait for me. I just… need a minute."

"We're in no rush. What's the matter?"

"I'm tired."

"I can see that. What's made you like this?"

"It would be a lie to tell you I knew. However, my best guess scares me more than anything else."

"And what would that be?"

"We know that the balance of the world is never perfect. It leans slightly in one way or another no matter what you do. For our order, 'perfection of balance' has always been: enough to keep the world running and no less. However, I feel what the future holds. It is not darkness, as so many of our enemies are. No… this is something new altogether."

"Can we stop it? This future you've seen, is it the only path?"

"I fear so. The further from equilibrium the world becomes the less power we will wield to turn it back."

"Well then we've got to stop it as soon as possible. Where is the disturbance coming from?"

"We both know the answer to that question already."

"Then we had best get to work as soon as possible. We've got to make up on lost time."


I'm cutting off the chapter here because this is where I intended for it to end in the first place. It just so happens that this is about 6000 words in and not 7000. Oh well.

My excuse for this being late is driving lessons. You don't realise how much you hate other people until you start driving.

Anyway, I'm just going to announce now that the next chapter will have a change log or sorts at either the start or the end that will outline what I intend to do differently in each chapter so you lot know what's going to be different. You can safely ignore it if you don't care about the writing style as much as you care about the characters, world, story etc.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have had a good time. As always, I hope you have a great time in the time between this chapter and the next one.