Pre-Note from the Author:

Hello all! I'm finally back after 3 years with a new chapter of RSN! I know you are all excited to read but first I need to do a shout out some very important reviewers.

First of all, lee. Thank you for your continued support of RSN. I'm glad you and your brother are enjoying the revamp thus far! (:)

Secondly, Alex. Thank you so much for your incredibly kind review. I do in fact remember you. (Or rather there was a reviewer named Alex back then that I did a prank war for. Maybe this was you?) I'm so glad that you decided to come back to read my story. (:)

Finally, Froggy frogster. When I received your review 1 year ago I was having a rough time with classes. Reading what you wrote filled me with so much happiness. You are the type of reviewer that keeps us writers motivated to continue our journey. When I first began this series I was a middle schooler with too much time on her hands. Now almost 10 years later it makes me happy to know that someone still reads my originals. Thank you so much for everything you wrote. (:)

I don't know if any of you will ever see this callout but I wanted to let you all know how much I truly appreciate your continued support.

These are only three of my reviewers but every single one of you is special to me. Whether you are just joining me or if you've been reading since 2012 I can't even begin to express the amount of joy I have when reading your reviews. Thank you again for joining me on my journey.

Chapter 5: A New Beginning

Within the middle of the forest, a campground encompassed a small portion of the land. A pile of sleeping bags lay in disarray around a small fire pit which sat in the middle, patiently waiting for a chance to once again become useful. Trees obscured the view of the world around sheltering the clearings inhabitants from the dangers of reality. The only light that illuminated the clearing was the natural light that the trees deemed worthy enough to enter.

Within the walls of the campground were also Cathleen, Jayleen, and Zora. Jayleen sat on the ground, legs clenched to her chest and her back pressed against a tree. With a stick in hand, she drew pictures in the dirt. Periodically, she exhibited a sliver of curiosity and raised her vision to view Cathleen, but withdrew to her craftsmanship when their eyes met.

Zora, on the other hand, rested on a branch, one leg bent, the other hanging over the side. Her icy blue eyes captured and calculated a distorted reflection of the surrounding landscape, but filtered out images of the humans beneath her.

With her back against the base of a pine tree, Cathleen surveyed as the lack of events unfolded before her. A cool breeze blew through the pine trees, emitting the smell of sap through the air. Jayleen shivered while Zora was not even fazed. Cathleen looked at the sky, considering her possibilities. Then she moved away from the tree and purposely walked in Jayleen's direction.

….

From her vantage point in the branches, the trees rose high above Zora, blocking out the setting sun in the distance and casting shadows on the undergrowth below. A stream of endless thoughts swirled in her mind as she reminisced on the events prior to her current situation.

Her fixation wasn't on her home village. Although the recollection of Matt falling beneath the ice remained, Zora chose to believe that the mysterious stranger had gotten him back to the village before he had frozen to death. Instead, her thoughts were on Sensei Yin, the old woman that had brought her to this forsaken forest. Sensei Yin had given Zora the sense that she would be the only one training with her. But alas, the two potential pupils sitting on the ground beneath her suggested otherwise.

One girl had long flowing black hair while the other had auburn hair bound into twin braids. They were talking with each other, lost in a world of their own.

Not for the first time in her life, Zora felt an overwhelming sense of despair. These two girls were worlds apart from her in a plane that she couldn't even hope to reach. In all likeliness they had families that cherished them while she had nothing. She was certain she would make a fool of herself if she dared to go down there. It would be better for everyone if she stayed where she was.

Zora reached up, picked a leaf off of the tree, and twirled it between her fingers. Back in the village, her entire world had been painted an icy shade of white. But here there were so many new interesting things. For one thing, there were trees with actual leaves! All Zora wanted to do was explore. Instead, she was stuck in a tree lost in her own lonely world.

The wind picked up, snagging the leaf from her grasp. Zora unconsciously leapt forward, trying to grab it. To her surprise, the branch beneath her bent in response. Within seconds she was flying toward the ground. Her desperate attempts to grab hold of something to stop her descent were met with failure. As her body hit the ground she hissed out as a stinging jolt of pain ran through her body. She lay on forest floor gasping for breath, cursing herself for being so stupid.

"That was quite a spectacular fall. You okay?"

Zora looked up in a daze. The black-haired girl leaned over her, offering a hand. Zora instinctively sat up and jolted backwards, away from the girl's hand. In response, the girl crouched down, tucking a strand of her long black hair behind one ear. She gazed at Zora pensively. Zora bottled up her panic and pushed herself farther away. The girl didn't pursue her but instead plucked a leaf off ground and held it out to her.

"Here you go."

Zora paused, confused. Why was the girl offering her a leaf? Did people outside of her village offer leaves in consolation of a fall? Or maybe she was offering her friendship? Did people do that? As far as Zora could remember there hadn't been any customs like that in her books. But they hadn't covered everything about the world.

As she reached for the leaf, thinking it would be rude to not accept, she noticed a hint of a smirk in the girl's face.

"You know, there are thousands of leaves on these trees. And as far as I can tell there's nothing special about this particular leaf. Unless of course, you know something I don't." The girl said with slight amusement in her voice.

Zora's face flushed in embarrassment as she realized the girl was making fun of her. She quietly glared in protest, hoping that her silence would make the girl disappear.

Instead, to Zora's horror, the girl sat on the ground in front of her. She clearly had no plans to leave anytime soon. This girl was finding amusement in humiliating her and Zora hated her for it.

It wasn't like she had never been teased before. Fact was, even after she pushed the world away, she still heard things said behind her back. She had just kept a passive look and acted like she didn't care.

But back then Matt had always been by her side. Despite all the harsh things she told him, he remained a loyal companion. As much as she wanted to deny it a part of her genuinely missed the annoying idiot. Not that she would ever tell him that. She had never understood why he always went out of his way to talk to her.

"Whatcha talkin' about Cathleen?"

As if her living nightmare couldn't get any worse, the other girl popped up from behind the black-haired girl, Cathleen. She shyly looked over at Zora.

"Um… are you okay? That looked like it hurt."

"Don't bother Jayleen. She's determined to keep her mouth shut."

"But," Jayleen tugged on her braids, "What if Zora's hurt so much that she can't talk? What if the fall caused internal bleeding and she's dying and can't say anything because her vocal cords were paralyzed and now she can't breathe or talk and we don't know because…"

Zora clenched her teeth determined to not say anything. Jayleen's endless chatter was starting to get on her nerves. Where did she even get these ideas?

"See look! She's in pain! We have to…"

"I'm fine! Would you just shut up already?"

After the words left her mouth Zora instantly regretted them. Both Cathleen and Jayleen stared at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Zora stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "I can even stand. Are you satisfied now?"

Jayleen shyly grinned. Sighing, Zora spun around determined to go anywhere that would get her away from the two nuisances.

"Leaving so soon?"

"What do you want? I promise I don't have anything to offer you."

Cathleen cocked her head.

"How about friendship?"

"Friendship?" Zora rolled her eyes, "You're a complete stranger and you want me to offer you friendship? That's ludicrous."

When Cathleen didn't respond, Zora smirked, satisfied with herself. Time seemed to freeze as the two stared back at each other. All at once, the spell was broken as a soft spoken voice rang through the silence.

"So by your logic, an offer of friendship to a stranger is a ridiculous idea. But if a stranger were to offer you a chance to follow them you would take it?"

It seemed impossible that the question had come from Jayleen but as Zora sharply faced toward her, Jayleen stared expectedly back at her.

"What?"

Jayleen's eyes shifted away from Zora but she didn't retreat behind Cathleen. Instead, she hastily repeated the question. Annoyed, Zora responded with the obvious reply.

"Of course not. What's your point?"

"It's just," Jayleen bit her lip before meeting Zora's eyes, "if that's the case, why did you follow Sensei Yin?"

Zora blinked. She blinked again. Then, as she comprehended the magnitude of Jayleen's question, her mouth ran dry. Under normal circumstances, when someone asked her such a direct question, she could dodge it with an excuse or distraction. But here, in an unknown land, there was nowhere to run to avoid answering. She sputtered out the single response that came to mind.

"Why did you follow her?"

"Well," Jayleen hesitated, "Sensei Yin went out of her way to find us. Could have been anyone but she chose us. So I don't need a particular reason to follow her. I just feel like it would be wrong to turn her down."

At first Zora convinced herself Jayleen was lying to her. But the more she thought about it, the less the idea made sense to her. Jayleen's hesitation, eye contact, and overall persona reminded her of Matt who was honest to a flaw. People with his personality weren't able to tell a lie.

The resemblance was nice but Zora hadn't prepared for Jayleen to be so honest with her. Throwing the question back at her was supposed to stop her, not motivate her to keep talking. Now Zora was beginning to feel less and less in control. To make matters worse, Cathleen had been listening the entire time.

"Jayleen's right. You were willing to trust Sensei Yin but not us? Seems suspicious if you ask me."

"What is this, an interrogation?"

To Zora, her own words sounded no better than a child's distressed plea for repentance. She flinched, expecting Cathleen or Jayleen to call her out on it. But instead, Cathleen shook her head with a smile.

"Of course not. Each of us had a personal reason to follow Sensei Yin. It wouldn't be right to force each other to explain those reasons when we hardly know each other. Unless of course you were my friend. In that case, I might be more willing to share."

Jayleen tackled Cathleen. The taller, stronger girl wasn't even fazed as the younger one clung to her back.

"Cathleen! That's not fair! I shared my reason!" she whined. The older girl chuckled at the younger one's playful behavior.

Zora didn't like people. At least that was what she chose to believe. But as she watched Cathleen and Jayleen interact, she began to wonder why. What had started her total hatred of people? What had caused her to push away any chance of a friendly relationship? Perhaps if she hung out with these two, she could change her mind. Maybe it was finally time for a change of pace from her everyday loner routine.

"It's possible we could be friends."

The words popped out of her mouth before she even comprehend what she was saying. Zora clasped her mouth shut as Cathleen and Jayleen looked over at her. Zora avoided eye contact and hastily added, "Temporary friends. I mean, I'm not too happy Sensei Yin didn't tell me about you. But I suppose I might as well try to make the best of it. For a little bit at least. But don't think this means I trust either of you."

"Really?" Jayleen squealed. She jumped up and ran over to Zora. "Yay! Hey guess what? Earlier I was talking to Cathleen and she told me she's afraid of dragons!"

"Jayleen! That wasn't your secret to tell!"

"Isn't that funny? Dragons aren't even from this world. So how would she know she's afraid of them? I asked her but she wouldn't tell me. As for me, I guess I'm afraid of a lot of things, although I guess you probably already knew that. What are you afraid of Zora? I bet it's probably something less silly then…"

Zora glared daggers at Jayleen. She squeaked, skittered back over to Cathleen, and wrapped her arms around her in fear.

"Zora's scary," Jayleen murmured, "But I still think she's a good person."

Cathleen placed a protective hand on Jayleen's head before looking over at Zora.

"I know we're going to get on your nerves sometimes, but we're both happy to have you on our side, even if it's temporary."

Zora shrugged. All her life she had longed to see the world. So what if traveling with them was far different from what she had imagined? At least it would be an adventure.

"Hey!"

A yell echoed across the camp. Zora locked eyes with Cathleen and Jayleen. They looked just as confused as her. The three of them veered their eyes toward the source. On the other side of the campgrounds stood a gorgeous brunette pony-tailed girl. Hands formed into fists, eyes narrowed into a glare, she headed toward them like a tiger stalking its prey.

"This is our camp. Get out!"

Without giving the three a chance to react, the girl sprinted towards them. It was evident that she had no intention of listening to them. Jayleen screamed, ducked away from Cathleen, and ran into the woods. Zora froze, uncertain of the best course of action. Following Jayleen had its merits, but she didn't want to give Cathleen the impression she was a coward.

Before given a chance to react, the brunette was in front of her, swinging down her arm.

"Get back!"

Zora felt herself propelled sideways as Cathleen shoved her out of the range of the oncoming strike. A loud thwack resonated through the bark causing the lower branches to shake. Zora stared in disbelief. She didn't want to consider the consequences of Cathleen saving her a second later.

The brunette shook her hand, clenching her teeth. Suddenly, Cathleen was on her feet, punching the girl in the side. The girl stumbled back, livid. In response, she leapt toward Cathleen, shoving her to the ground. The two wrestled on the ground, sharing blows.

Eventually Cathleen overpowered her, pinning her to the ground. Enraged, the pony tailed girl flailed in her grasp.

"Let go of me!"

"Why would I? You'll just attack us again!"

"Serves you right!"

"Cathleen! Katie! That is enough!"

The two girls instantly froze.

…

Even with no one pointing it out, Sensei Yin had enough common sense to acknowledge that Cathleen and Katie's encounter was entirely her fault. She had known Katie would run ahead if she knew where camp was. She was also well aware that Katie would be none too pleased to find strangers waiting for her. Despite this knowledge, Sensei Yin had still told Katie how to find camp.

So frankly, she wasn't the slightest bit surprised when she found a fuming Katie pinned to the ground by an equally enraged Cathleen.

The aftermath was just as exciting. First Yin had to pull the two girls apart. Both had inflicted multiple abrasions upon the other and were covered in bruises, scrapes, and dirt. Fortunately, neither girl had received life-threatening injuries, so they required only a few bandages.

Following this, Cathleen had to find Jayleen and coax her to come back to camp. As soon as the petrified girl saw Katie again, she burst yet again into tears. It took over 10 minutes to convince her Katie would not attack her again.

All the while, Zora watched in silence from the sidelines. With her expressionless gaze, Sensei Yin couldn't even start to guess what was going through Zora's analytical brain.

By this point, it wasn't a lie to say Sensei Yin had serious reservations on her ability to judge a person's character. But she pushed the thought out of her head. Finding the weapons was simply too important to give up. Besides, it was just a minor set back. The girls could (hopefully) learn to like each other.

Once things calmed down Zora piped up.

"Sensei Yin, who exactly is this uncivilized creature?"

In an instant, Katie's murderous glare switched from Cathleen to Zora.

"Girls, this is Katie. She's…"

"A delinquent?"

"A wildcat shape-shifted into a human?"

"Secretly an assassin?"

Sensei Yin swiftly held back Katie to prevent any further damage.

"No girls. She's your teammate."

Silence emanated through the campground.

"Is something wrong?"

Finally, Cathleen spoke.

"In all due respect Sensei Yin, I think we were all under the impression we were special. You didn't tell us we weren't the only one."

Oh.

Yin hadn't thought about that. As the four girls stared at her, their undeviating eyes demanding an explanation, Yin remained quiet, hiding the panic she felt. She realized that the next move she made would decide this future teams fate. The question was, what could she say to ease their minds?

Note from the Author:

Yet another chapter of the Real Story of Ninjago revamp. When writing this chapter I decided to reflect some facts from the original Ninjago. See if you can name them all! At this point in the story I'm diverging into a different path than its predecessor. Since I decided to change some of the personalities, the characters interactions have changed as a result. I do intend to have the girls meet the boys at some point (probably after the scythe). In addition they have to learn Spinjitzu. This wasn't something I covered in the original since back then I didn't know how to express their training. Even now I'm honestly a little hesitant to write a section covering Spinjitzu but I feel it's necessary for the ninjas journey. Since the girls don't have a training course like the boys I imagine Sensei Yin will have to either set up something similar or teach them through a series of movements.

"Over the planks, dodge the swords, here comes the dummy"

Katie: Who are you calling a dummy?

(Yeah... I can't see that ending well...)

In addition I suggested in the prologue that Sensei Yin doesn't have a map yet for the weapons. This is partially true. I have figured out a solution for this which I will cover next chapter. But before that, the real question. What will Sensei Yin say to ease the girls minds? Did she make the correct choice by not telling them about each other? Will Katie ever learn to focus her anger on something other than people? Only time will tell.

Now that you've finished this new chapter you are probably wondering if I have plans to continue. The answer is yes. I have several ideas for the future chapters (which I mentioned above) and have already started writing a bit of chapter 6.

When will the next chapter come out? Honestly, I don't know. Although I've already started it I'm hesitant to promise anything when I know I may not be able to keep it.

As always, thank you for your support. As usual, if you've read this far, good job. Here's a cookie. (:)

Goodbye for now,

Animals Music and Ninjago (AM )

P.S. I recently finished up Season 13 of Ninjago. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it! If you are a Cole fan such as myself you will be happy to know that he is the center focus of the season.

P.S.S. If you would like to see a picture I drew of Cathleen, check out my profile picture! I've drawn all four of the girls so this picture may change in the future.

P.S.S.S. It has recently been brought to my attention that Kirby Morrow, the voice of Cole, has recently passed. In honor of such an amazing voice actor I am updating Chapter 1: Finding the Earth Ninja to reflect changes seen to Cole's character in Season 13. Kirby Morrow, you will be missed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago. I only own Cathleen, Jayleen, Zora, Katie, Sensei Yin, and Nate.