Hey guys! Hope you like the new chapter ,but first things first!
Review Replies :
Guest: Thank you! Honestly Morro and Lloyd just need to be ready.
FallingToast: Lol you better share some of that popcorn now ;-). Also thank you! I'm really just trying to develop Morro and Lloyd's relationship smoothly without coming off as too forced. Also rereading my last chapter I can definitely see what you mean by flow issues. I realized I made a lot of grammar mistakes. I went back and fixed some and with this new chapter I tried to pay more attention to detail and really get the flow right. Feel free to let me know what you think.
Itsyogreengirl: Thank you! Honestly I'd like to believe that all my characters could be considered baby. Also yeah Greta need to be having her priorities in order and yeah I freaking love that meme and I feel very honored it was compared to Koso.
Phetiamwantip: Thank you so much for understanding. I will probably make a FF one shot request book in the future once I actually finish this story that way I can write on prompts that you guys give me that I couldn't write into the main plot line. Hope you like this new chapter.
Chapter 17
"You two wished for real training well get ready."
Being a ninja, Lloyd could safely say he had quite a bit of stamina. From his earliest days as Ninjago's savior in training the blonde was even then being woken up at dawn and being lovingly forced by his brothers to work out for at hours on end. However that being said, Lloyd still did not feel very prepared for the events that would soon follow the teal eyed man's sentence
Koso's version of training had turned out to be pretty simple. A sparring match that would be two on one. When he had informed Morro and Lloyd this the teenagers, though slightly hesitant at first, had realized that this might actually be an opportunity to maybe just maybe to defeat the crazy man. Not only did Koso not have his magic on hand, his sword had been tossed to the side when he removed his white robe.
However there arose two very problematic issues with their shared theory, very soon. The first became visible to them when before the sparring match could begin, Lloyd had tried flexing his powers only to find that no matter how hard he concentrated he couldn't even summon a spark and Koso observing the blonde's struggle casually told him that he forgot to mention earlier that the walls of this part of the cave were made out of thousand year old Vengestone. The small smirk present on Koso's face as he said this did not go unnoticed by either teenager.
After a beat of silence Koso had decided to announce to his captives that they were welcome to make the first move. Lloyd had immediately begun to work out a good strategy in his head, of course not without looking at Morro to see if the wind master was going to try anything impulsive. To his surprise though the former ghost had remained perfectly still, without so much as raising his head from its slumped over position.
'Looks like the doesn't give a sh** Morro is back.' Lloyd thought, momentarily forgetting his original objective and taking a minute to ponder the reason behind the former ghost's constant inconsistency.
The energy master really believed he had had the wind master pinned down, but the longer he was around the former the ghost the more he became less sure of that supposed fact. At first the blonde had expected that indifference melded with bits of past rage to be all there was left of the once proud boy with a green stripe in his hair, who wholeheartedly swore to prove himself to his sensei no matter the cost.
However that theory of his might as well have been thrown out the metaphorical window at that point. Those past two weeks hadn't given Lloyd much of a better understanding of Morro's true character, but they had still shown some (though rather small) evidence that there was more to the wind master than just apathy and bitterness.
"Ahem, not to be a bother ,but if one of you could make a move before you're older than me." Koso had spoken out, interrupting Lloyd from his thoughts.
Turning his attention back to the current matter, Lloyd quickly thought fast and had come up with the best battle strategy his startled mind could think of at that moment.
'Just run at him and try to land a really awesome punch.'
Though Lloyd had known this course of action was not thought through well and there was a pretty significant chance his small frame would not provide the power his hit needed in order to take Koso completely out of commission he theorized that if he could act quick enough and landed his strikes in rapid succession he would be able to gain enough momentum to push the fight in his favor.
'Just think Lloyd!' The green ninja had told himself as he suddenly broke into a sprint towards Koso. 'if you can catch him off guard and defeat him, you might be able to escape! Than you can go home!'
As the blonde ran at the man, he took notice that true to his word Koso remained perfectly still, clearly intent on letting Lloyd have this first hit. The green ninja had an after thought that maybe once he had taken the thirty something year old man down, he might still ask the teal eyed man about the departed realm just to be make absolutely sure Koso was just some crazy, amazingly powerful sorcerer. After all he said he was dead for sixty years, even if he was telling the truth about being related to the first spinjitzu master, how good could his combat skills be now?
It was around this time though, the aforementioned second issue had revealed itself.
After what felt like forever ,but was in reality only a few milliseconds Lloyd finally reached Koso and with as much strength as he could summon sent his fist crashing against Koso's shoulder in one hell of a right hook. As soon as it landed, Lloyd prepared to strike again with his left arm. Only, there was one small problem with that planned action, Koso was no longer in his field of vision.
Feeling a wave of shock wash over him as he stumbled shakily trying to regain his lost balance, Lloyd quickly turned back around to see Koso standing on the other side of the sparring arena. The teal eyed man let out a small sigh as he raised his left hand to rub his impacted shoulder.
"Fine I'll admit, you can throw a decent punch, at least when your opponent is standing perfectly still ,but now I think I'd like to see how well you can fight when the circumstances are a tad bit more realistic." Koso stated simply before darting towards Lloyd at lightening speed (the likes of which Lloyd had not realized until now, were the teal eyed man's actual natural ability and not the effect of some spell he cast upon his body). The green ninja's mind scrambled for a good second before his survival instincts suddenly kicked in and he quickly ducked out of the way, just in time to avoid the kick Koso had sent his way.
Lloyd barely had time to catch his breath though when the teal eyed man came at him once more and the two broke into close hand to hand combat for a while until Koso attempted to sweep the green ninja's legs out from under him, the blonde saw it coming though and broke into a jump roll effectively putting distance between the two of them.
Using this narrow opportunity, Lloyd tried desperately tried to get his frazzled mind back on track and come up with a new strategy. Unfortunately his time to think of an effective plan came to end almost instantly, when Koso used his inhuman speed to charge at him once more.
This time, the teal eyed man had apparently decided to change tactics for instead of trying to strike Lloyd down again once he reached him, Koso opted to alternatively just grab the blonde by his grey shirt and fling the boy all the way across the sparring arena.
Whether what happened next was Koso's intended purpose or not Lloyd could not decide, all he knew was that before he could properly register what was happening he was crashing straight into Morro, knocking them both onto the cold stone ground.
After a drawn out of moment of the two just lying on the cave floor awkwardly, the energy master eventually managed to pull himself up into a standing position. Morro, however remained sitting on the floor appearing to all the world like a lifeless rag doll.
Lloyd could not remember the reason why this had suddenly made him glower with anger or why he had done what he did next ,but what he could remember was a singular voice echoing inside his head repeatedly saying, 'Get the f**k up!'.
Then without giving his actions any forethought the green ninja proceeded to grab Morro by his shoulder length hair in a tightly clenched fist and harshly yanked the wind master to his feet.
Momentarily caught off guard it took the former ghost stumbled a little as he shakily tried to gain balance. Once the wind master had accomplished that goal, Lloyd gracefully released the wind master's captive hair and Koso had to privately admit to himself, that it looked quite comical considering Morro was slightly taller than the green ninja.
After a beat of silence Lloyd turned to see how the former ghost reacted to his rather rude awakening.
When the energy wielder's bright emerald eyes met the wind master's grey green orbs, Lloyd felt a chilled shudder make its way up and down his spine as he realized he had only seen the current look present on Morro's face a few times before, namely whenever the former ghost was really really f**king pissed.
Without any preamble Morro's hand shot out like an arrow and grabbed onto Lloyd's shirt collar.
"What. was. that. for?" The wind master spat as he stared intensely at the blonde.
Two weeks ago, Lloyd would have been both furious and frightened if he found himself in this exact situation. Now however, though he couldn't pin point the exact reason the green ninja felt no fear and no righteous anger flooding his system. Instead all the blonde felt was a slight twinge of annoyance that was overwhelmed by the strange sort of relief that washed over him like a tidal wave.
Clearing his throat Lloyd replied. "So, are you done moping around like a toddler."
The green ninja could hear Morro's teeth grind in agitation.
"What. did. you just fuc- say?"
"I think you heard me." Lloyd commented as he heard Morro's angered breathing beginning to rise in both volume and pace. " Now I'll ask again are you done acting like you're still dead?"
"What are you on?" The wind master asked sarcastically though there was still a hint of honest confusion present in his voice.
"I'm just tired of these constant mood swings of yours." Lloyd answered softly so tha Koso would hopefully not hear him. "This is a big chance to give our captor pay back for what he's put us through so far and yet you just want to stand around like some coward."
"..."
"What are you just afraid of fighting someone when you don't have your powers, if so that's really pathetic you kno-"
Morro's eyes narrowed into thin slits as he brought Lloyd in closer. " I. am. not. pathetic, and you better get through your f**king brain, idiot."
The green ninja returned the wind master's intense glare as he replied.
"Then prove it."
When those words left the blonde's lips Morro slowly let go of Lloyd's collar before turning to face Koso who stood boredly staring at the pair.
Seeing the wind master face him, Koso called out. " Oh pardon me, are you two done chit chatting like a bunch of school girls?"
Lloyd's eyes darted to Morro's clenched fists as he witnessed them tightened further into themselves. Then in the blink of an eye the wind master was sprinting into movement.
At first the blonde believed the former ghost was blindly charging at Koso like, he himself had done not just a few moments prior. Yet Lloyd was once again surprised by Morro, when suddenly the wind master turned sharply so that his direction was changed from Koso to the cave wall that stood behind the long dark haired man
Raising one of his eyebrows the teal eyed man found himself too invested in seeing what exactly the green striped haired brat was planning to move out of the way.
With two pairs of eyes intently focused on him, Morro felt his heart rate speed up as he came closer and closer to the rocky wall.
With an honest excitement coursing through him, that he truly believed was lost to him forever, the wind master let his experienced body take the reigns as he reached his destination. Then in an amazing display of agility, Morro ran up the vengestone wall before doing an impressive back flip off of it. Spiraling through the air like a circus performer the wind master positioned himself so that wherever he landed he would land on his feet and as the other two occupants of the cave room would soon realize that place turned out to be Koso, or more specifically just below the teal eyed man's broad shoulders.
At that moment everything seemed to happen in slow motion as both teenagers waited to see what would happen next. It was Morro's hope that he would be able to knock Koso to the ground and gain the upper hand.
However that hope was quickly dashed, when the teal eyed man remained standing, all bite bent backwards just a little in order to support Morro's weight without letting the teenager fall victim to gravity and come pathetically crashing to the ground.
Looking up casually, as if he wasn't balancing a teenager on top of him, Koso spoke.
"Well that was very good. A little showy, but still impressive if I didn't have such a strong constitution you might have taken me down."
Then the long dark haired man moved a little, clearing warning Morro he needed to get off so he wouldn't soon be kissing the cave floor. Taking the hint the wind master gracefully flipped off of the teal eyed man and landed on his feet.
Turning around to face Morro directly Koso said, "I have to admit that was some show you just put on, it was very entertaini-"
The teal eyed man paused to push some of his long hair away from his fac-wait hadn't he tied his hair up earlier. Koso quickly ran a hand through his long hair, when suddenly out of the corner of his teal eyes he saw Morro holding up his missing hair tying rope in the palm of his skinny hand.
Smirking as he watched Koso's teal eyes widen before narrowing once more, Morro pulled the his short hair back into a very small pony tail.
"I almost missed the landing when my hair got in my face, figured you wouldn't mind me borrowing this."
Scoffing in return, Koso quickly fished another rope from his pocket before once again tying his hair back. Straightening up the teal eyed man spoke.
"Very well, shall we continue?"
From there the sparring match went on for quite a while. The trio fought so long they completely forgot the concept of time, and put all their energy and focus into their next move. It went on like this for what was most likely hours upon hours before finally Koso saw that both teenagers were so exhausted they could hardly stand.
Seeing this as the moment to stop, the teal eyed man raised his hand and announced,
"Alright, alright you two have clearly had enough, I believe it's time we end this portion of training."
Before Lloyd or Morro might even consider protesting, they caught on very quickly to the wording Koso used, and were quick to make their confusion known.
"Wait,-"
"What do you mean this portion of training, there's f**king more?!" Morro's mind was so frazzled from his exertion he hadn't even bothered to try to and stop from cursing.
Koso eyed the green striped haired teenager for a moment, before replying. "Yes there's more, though don't fret this part is far less, draining. Also boy, it would truly do you well to curve that bad habit of yours, I am really trying to be kind."
Feeling reminded of Koso's brazened hand against his skin and short patience, Morro decided to obey and keep his mouth shut for now.
After seeing the two teenagers pant for air pathetically as flowed off them like rivers, Koso logically concluded they would not have a swell time trying to climb back up the stairs.
Koso sighed as he realized what he would have to do next, quickly running to each teenager, Koso grabbed them both before hurriedly making his way back up the stairs. Despite their tiredness Morro and Lloyd could not help ,but at least try to protest for sake of their pride.
"Hey c'mon we can walk."
"Yeah old man, what blondie said let us down."
Their remarks fell on deaf ears though for Koso simply ignored them both. Thankfully though, the teal eyed man did not take long to get them up the stairs and back into the water fall room.
Setting the two teenagers down, Koso suddenly realized he left his hat and cloak down stairs, letting out a quick sigh, the teal eyed man darted back down stairs to retrieve his items.
As he left, Lloyd and Morro laid eyes on the pure blue water gushing before them, then without any preamble trampled over each other in order to reach it.
Stumbling towards the edge of the cave pool's bank the wind and energy master both practically dunked their heads into the water, reveling in the cold refreshing taste of having it glide down their throats as they each took giant gulps. The two teenagers were so engrossed with getting hydrated they almost didn't notice Koso had returned and was speaking to them.
"Oh, perhaps I should have packed a couple of water skins before we left, my mistake, anyway once you two have had your fill I need you to complete the next part of today's training."
Offering no more than a shrug in reply both teenagers slurped up as much beautiful, magnificent water as their bellies could take, before standing up and turning around to face the teal eyed man.
Making sure he had each child's attention, Koso began to explain.
"Alright for the next part of your training we're all going to,..." For a reason neither teen could identify the straw hat wearing man seemed kind of hesitant to finish his sentence. "meditate."