Another update, hooray! I got many positive remarks on last chapter, and I'd like to thank [magical-tear] and foxgloves for reviewing because I could not reply. I appreciate all of you who follow this story and give me a reason to continue it ^.^

Disclaimer: I do not own Bakugan.

Koying Around

One would only assume that after years of associating with Dan, I'd have learned how unreliable he was and how prone to bad luck I was whenever I happened to be in his company. One would also assume that, being a ninja, I would've seen this coming. Unfortunately, ignorance–or stupidity–was contagious, and hence, my current dilemma.

The numbing cream had actually taken six hours to wear off completely, which was more than the "few" Dan had promised. Nevertheless, I made it back home on my stiff legs with only one arm still slightly numb and a handful of weird looks. Instead of using the front door, however, I chose to enter through a my room's window. It's much trickier to maneuver a window open with only one arm, I realized, but it accomplished the original goal: getting in without seeing Grandpa.

The old man, as I was half-expecting, didn't leap out at me from the shadows, nor did he fall on me from the ceiling. I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to make my way over to the bed, relying on mental images of the room while my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I crawled into bed, awkwardly cradling my numb arm. I stared up at the ceiling, seeing more clearly, and felt movement beside me. I tensed, slowly inching my good arm out to feel for the intruder.

There was nothing in my bed, so I relaxed, allowing exhaustion to take over. I opened my eyes once more just to make sure I was alone–I had the nagging suspicion I was being watched–and screamed.

"Grandpa?"

The beady eyes stared from above, intent on any move I might make. He hadn't moved an inch since my outburst. I sat up, trying to distance myself from Grandpa's unkempt mustache, and my arm fell to my side limply. The hawk-like eyes surveyed my limb, and I sighed inwardly. Here we go again...

"Shun! You are injured! What warrior was able to inflict damage upon you when I have trained you so well?"

Dan, I hissed mentally, but opted to stay mum about the incident. "I don't want to talk about it. Will you explain to me what you're doing in my room at his hour?"

He straightened, clasping his hands behind his back. "I was waiting for your arrival because I wanted to ask if this wrinkle cream made me look younger."

"Really?" I deadpanned.

"Yes. The print on the bottle was quite small, so I wasn't sure if I was using it correctly, but–"

"Grandpa," I interrupted, exasperated. "If I say yes, will you leave?"

He nodded into the darkness.

"Yes, you look like you're eighty again."

He chuckled, satisfied. "Excellent. It's good to know I got my money's worth. Shun, if you are aging prematurely this concoction will do wonders on you. Are those crow's feet?"

"Get out!"

-X-

Early morning was quickly becoming my least favorite time of the day, and it wasn't just Grandpa's fault. The other culprit was the ever-present Dan the Menace.

"Good morning, sleep head!" Dan sang as he rudely woke me from a particularly interesting dream in which I'd been born into a normal family. I ducked back under the covers, but the intruder obstinately pulled them off.

"Shun, get up. Grandpa had something really important to tell you," he insisted, shaking my shoulder back and forth, back and forth.

I curled up into a ball and turned away from him. I opened my eyes just a crack to see the first streaks of sunlight entering the room. Dan's prodding grew more pressing. I scooted farther away, pulling both hands through my hair. It seemed as if they both worked perfectly, which was good for Dan's sake. At least I didn't have to kill him now, though he liked to test my self-control.

"Come on," he begged, grabbing one of my arms and attempting to haul me off the bed. Not surprisingly, it didn't work. Then he tried a new strategy. "Shun, if you're not up in two minutes, I'm telling everyone you sleep with a stuffed bird."

I eyed him, unimpressed. "So? You sleep with an entire fridge."

He groaned. "Stop ruining my threats!"'

"Fine, fine," I agreed, standing up and going through my morning routine. "This better not be about his wrinkles or something else equally unimportant."

I made my way to the kitchen, where I assumed Grandpa would be, Dan at my heels. I wondered idly what he was doing here so early, but then decided against asking him. You just never knew with that kid. There were so many things not right about him.

The halls were eerily trap-free and even the usual pitfalls lacked their traditional surprise. I found it slightly disturbing. Even Dan seemed unusually quiet since we left my room.

I turned sharply into the kitchen, finding the old man eating a hearty meal of various fruits and meats. I sat on the counter, Dan following my lead. Grandpa continued to eat, not noticing my presence until I cleared my throat loudly. He gave me a disapproving glare, ignoring me until his meal was finished.

I didn't find his behavior strange in the least. The old coot was considered eccentric by eccentric standards. Dan, however, fidgeted and sighed impatiently more than once in the span of five minutes. He kept opening his mouth to speak and closing it at the last minute before he said anything. Something was up.

I studied my nails, waiting patiently for Grandpa's very important news. Last time he'd had "big news" my computer mysteriously disappeared and didn't reappear until two months later at the bottom of the koi pond

"Shun, I believe, you should know what is going to happen shortly," the old man announced, cutting short any more thoughts about computers and koi.

"What?" I asked wearily.

"I'm going on a mission," he replied curtly, cleaning his dishes in the sink.

I turned to face him, dumbfounded. "A mission? As in a ninja mission?"

He nodded, adjusting his glasses. "Is there are a problem?"

I leapt off the counter, Dan mimicking my movements in silence. "Yes, there is! Grandpa, are you okay?" I placed a hand to his temple. "No fever, but maybe you should go back to bed. "

He slapped my hand away, glaring. "I'm perfectly fine."

I remained unconvinced. "Well, when are you going?"

"Grandson," he sighed. "It's a secret mission, therefore I cannot disclose any information to you at this moment."

"But you threw out your back not long ago. Are you sure you're up for this? If you get hurt I can't go help you because I won't know where you are. Who hired you anyway?"

"Why do you ask questions?" He frowned before heaving a sigh. "I'm trusting you to take care of the dojo and to protect our territory while I'm away."

I raised an eyebrow, warning him not to go into the responsibility speech he gave me every time he went out. Accepting that there was no other way around it and that I might not ever see my grandfather again, I asked, "How long will you be gone, approximately?"

"Three or four, maybe."

"Three or four what?" Dan interjected after his long silence. "Weeks? Months?"

"Maybe five."

I nodded slowly, processing the information. No Grandpa...indefinitely...

I could live with that.

He made a move to leave, and together we walked to the front door. I watched as he stepped into the brightening day and took off, a blur of bones and sagging skin. I breathed in deeply as soon as he was out of sight, the emotionless farewell already behind me. Dan stared for a while longer, though it surprised me that he had remained stoic during Grandpa's departure. I was confident that Dan cared more for him than I did.

I turned, ready to head inside when Dan stopped me.

"Okay, Shun, now that he's gone, we can get to work," he said, slapping me with a wad of blue paper. He planted himself on the cement, patting the spot next to him. Reluctantly, I sat.

"Where were you hiding that?"

Dan looked at me out of the corner of his eye as he stretched out the paper. "Nowhere." He motioned toward the corner of the paper that read YOU ARE HERE. "This is us, Shun. We're at the dojo's entrance. Now, I was thinking that we place the sparring area deeper into the woods to make the journey there a lesson in itself. I don't know about that koi pond, though, because it interferes with the plan I had in mind over here." He pointed at the poorly drawn pond on the paper. "What do you think?"

"I think that I have no clue what you're talking about. There's nothing wrong with the koi pond, and why do we need another sparring area?" I questioned, looking over the blueprint and snorting at the stick figures supposed to represent myself and Dan. They both looked the same except for the names scribbled above them.

"Because we're going to have a ninja camp," Dan replied, exasperated. "I figured that you should share your knowledge with the world. Sure, you taught me that failed technique of rolling away from a net, but I'm confident you can do better with everyone else."

"No, I told you not to roll when in a net because you'd get tangled, at which point you said 'Don't tell me what to do, Shun,' and now do it anyway," I argued, crossing my arms.

"Yeah, okay," Dan huffed, rolling up the plan. "Either way, you can't say no to the idea because I already made a commercial for it." He produced a small camcorder, flipping open the side screen and locating his commercial.

"And you kept that where...?"

"You don't have to know," he retorted, pressing the play button, eyes alight. "Just watch."

A strange song from the eighties began playing in the background as a masked and mustachioed Dan appeared on the screen, giving the audience two thumbs up. Then it was Dan running and pointing at the camera, another masked person running behind him. The scene cut to the other masked person–I recognized the eyes as Baron's–throwing shurikens, one embedding itself into a short masked boy. Dan ran to his side, cradling him and pointing at the camera sternly, the word AWESOME underneath. The scene changed again to Dan holding my two koi fish.

I paused it and Dan shot me a disgruntled look. "Are those Koiey and Koyetta?"

He shrugged. "Don't worry. They're okay...ish."

"Dan," I warned.

"Shh."

I looked back to the screen, reminding myself not to forget to check on my koi. Next Dan was meditating, his eyes closed and his black mask looking awfully warm in the bright sunlight. Then Dan was running toward the camera, saying, "Hey, get off that couch! That's right, get up and let's have a talk. So you wanna be a ninja, but how? Well, luckily, my name is Dan." Under him a caption read 'Dan–Ninja Camp Director.' The camera rotated around him while he flexed his nonexistent muscles. "And I have a Ninja Camp."

The scene cut to a shot of the walls of the dojo, a shoddy sign advertising the camp taped to the gates. "This is it!" he shouted animatedly.

Dan was suddenly standing next to Ace and Klaus, each holding their black masks in their hands and scowling. "I've been a professional ninja for years now." He turned swiftly. "So come learn from the best! You will learn...tricks!"

The small masked boy grappled onto a tree, his grapple coming loose while he was swung across and toppling to the ground.

"Tips!" Dan held a shuriken in his hand. "This is a shuriken!" The scene changed and he was pointing at the camera again. "Everything!"

The camera caught him standing on the dojo's room majestically, his mustache blowing in the wind. "Don't worry. We'll get to the assassinations later, but for right now, we'll start with the basics. Oh, and don't worry parents. It's super safe here at Ninja Camp."

Dan's dad appeared onscreen, the caption 'Mr. Kuso–Satisfied Dad' below him. The asterisk reading 'Paid Testimonial' didn't escape me. "It's great because you don't have to fill out long paperwork."

"No hassle!" Dan shouted, turning around quickly and fixing his fake mustache. "See, what did I tell you? Everybody loves my camp!"

The scene cut to Gus, a rebellious expression on his face, his caption stating he was a 'Ninja Camp Helper'. "This is a temporary job," he spat.

Then it was Baron, the 'Ninja Camp Graduate.' "It's great because I used to have no ninja skills"–the camera showed him, failing at a grappling technique–"and look at me now!" He was grappling again, but this time he fell and landed with an audible crack.

"I wanted to work with Master Spectra."

The scene changed to Dan running, Baron behind him, and the small ninja behind Baron, the color changing in time with the beat of the music.

"That could be you!" Dan encouraged. "Anything is possible with a kunai is your hands!"

Everyone who had been in the video, including some strangers appeared onscreen, all chanting, "Yay, Ninja Camp!"

"Well, it looks like I have to dash out of here. See you here!"

The screen faded to black, and Dan snapped it shut. I stared for longer than necessary, thinking about the best way to get rid of his half-brained idea before it was too late. The sun was barely rising, and it hit me that there had been many shots of the dojo in the video.

"Hey, when did you shoot this thing?"

Dan laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "Oh, you know..."

"No," I stated firmly. "I don't."

"Fine, so what if I suck over here a few times?" he snorted. "Big deal. The thing is that we have to get started on this. We have to be ready for the campers' arrival."

I stood up suddenly, and Dan pocketed the camcorder. "Dan, I'm not starting a camp. Grandpa wouldn't like it."

Dan sighed. "Shun, since when do you care if Grandpa likes something you do or not? Besides," he leaned in, whispering deviously, "Grandpa...is not here."

I shook my head, walking inside.

"Come on, Shun!" he whined, following. "I won't even say 'What could possibly go wrong?'"

"You just did," I pointed out in the foyer.

"Things won't go wrong, then," he answered casually, linking his hands behind his head and giving me a carefree grin.

"Fine, you win, Dan."

"Yes!" he cheered. "This is gonna be great!"

Well, this was mostly a filler chapter. More actual ninja stuff will happen in the next chapter, especially since Dan's creation of the Ninja Camp. Leave a review, if you wish :D

Cocoacharm15