The next day, Sensei was in his room mediating in front of his spirit smoke, listening to Ani train while Kai, Cole, and Jay play their video game again. These ninja never learn.
"My turn! Ah, my turn!"
"Okay, you want a little more? Take this!"
"Yeah, how 'bout a little of this!"
"YAH!"
"Monkey-bar to the head!"
"Ninja roll!"
"Dragon punch!"
"Hyah!"
Sensei got up, put a flute away, and went to the video game room, only to surprisingly see the ninja weren't there. When he entered to the courtyard, the man was surprised to see every ninja training. Jay was fending off arrows with his nun-chucks, Cole was dodging and hitting dummies, Ani was testing her flexibility, Kai was practicing his Spinjitzu, and Zane? Well… Zane was just meditating.
But then Zane got up and jumped around everywhere. Ani got hit with the flat of an axe blade when Zane flew in, an arrow hits Jay's nun-chucks, Zane grabs Cole's scythe and breaks a plank dummy, then he froze everything with Spinjitzu which made Kai lose his balance and fall on the ice. All of the ninjas walked toward each other.
"This roof isn't big enough for the four of us," Kai grumbled.
"Correction," Cole said, "This roof isn't big enough for him."
"It's like he's in his own world," Jay frowned, then directing his next words at Zane, yelled, "I bet he can't even hear us!"
"Seriously, what is up with that guy?" Ani complained.
Sensei Wu walked over to the three boys and one girl while Zane began throwing his shurikens around.
"Sensei, Zane's..." Kai paused to find the right words, "...weird."
"What is weird?" Sensei Wu asked, "Someone who is different or someone who is different than you?"
"No, Sensei," Cole explained, "He's 'weird, weird'."
Flashback:
Cole:
Cole was in the bathroom, reading a newspaper while on the toilet. Then, Zane walked in and began combing his hair.
"Do you mind?" Cole yelled.
Jay:
Jay, Nya, and Zane were watching a romantic movie. At the sad part, Jay and Nya were crying and sniffling, Zane, however, was flat-out laughing. His friends turned to him with confused expressions.
Kai:
Early in the morning, Kai, still in his PJs, yawned and stretched while heading to the fridge. He opened the fridge door, only to find it mostly empty, with a note stuck to the back.
'I'm sorry,' it read in Zane's handwriting, 'I consumed the last of the deli meat...cheese?'
Ani:
Ani was admiring a new drawing of hers. Zane walked over and looked at the piece only to give a confused groan.
"What," the girl asked.
"I don't get what the piece is about," Zane explained, "It's too random."
"It's art, there's nothing to get. It can be as random as I want it."
"But that's silly."
Ani groaned.
The elder and ninjas watched as Zane bowed to a plank dummy, only for it to whack him on the head, which the former instantly rubbed.
"We like the guy," Kai assured their mentor, "He's really smart... he's just... a little off sometimes."
"Zane is a brother. And brothers are often different," their master said, then, thinking about his own sibling, added, "I should know."
Outside the monastery, a mailman was walking tiredly up the mountain it was on. He wiped the sweat off his brow and continued walking. When he reached the top, he took off his bag and rang the doorbell, which produced a gonging sound, causing the mailman to jump back in fear.
"Mail!" Kai, Jay, Ani, and Cole shouted.
They answered the door and the man gave them their mail.
"Hah... let's see," he said, "A letter from Jay's parents... Kai has a fan letter... Ani's Drawing 4 U magazine is here… Oh! Something from Cole's father..."
"What, no package?" Cole said, "I'm expecting something from Creatures, Beasts, and Beyond!"
"No, nothing from... ah... Ah-hah! Here it is!"
"Ha! Rocky's gonna love this!"
Jay and Kai opened their letters while Ani read her magazine. Jay looked up from the paper and noticed Zane walking around, a bit somber.
"Hey, Zane," he asked, "how come you never hear anything from your parents?"
"I don't remember my parents," Zane sadly explained, "I've been an orphan all of my life."
Kai and Jay exchanged looks while Ani frowned.
"You mean you never had a home?" Kai asked.
Zane shook his head sadly.
"The monastery is your home now," Sensei Wu told him.
"And you have us," Ani added, "We're your family now."
Zane just turned around and walked away and the others watched him leave.
At the dragon stables, Cole was opening his package.
"Liver and toads, Rocky," Cole charmed, taking a dead toad out of the box, "Your favorite!"
He threw the animal to the panting dragon, which gleefully snapped it up and ate it in a few short seconds. Unfortunately for the two of them and the others, Cole still had not realized that he was hypnotized and that the snake responsible for this was watch everything through the black ninja's eyes.
In the Forest of Tranquility, all the Hypnobrai were building a treehouse while Skales and a scout named Rattla chat at the top.
"I can't believe you hypnotizzzzed one of the ninja!" Rattla said excitedly, "Does the general know?"
"Of course not!" Skales said impatiently, "He's been put under the control of Lloyd! And I plan to use it for my besssst interesssst."
Rattla looked behind Skales and walked away. Skales turned to see Slithraa.
"Everyone works while you do sssslack!" Slithraa hissed, "As my second-in-command, I expect more from you, SSSSkales!"
"Yessss, General!" Skales bowed.
Slithraa turned around and began to slither away, but Skales spoke up.
"General, you know I am most loyal, but I must question thissss childish agenda! The ninja have sssstolen our staff, yet you insssstruct your army to build this playhousssse for Lloyd? Snakes don't belong in treessss."
"You know better than to question my judgment, SSSSkales!" Slithraa threatened, "I'll pretend you didn't ask!"
"Hey!"
The two Hypnobrai looked down. Lloyd was standing on one of the lower platforms, waving.
"If we plan to rule Ninjago from here, this elevator needs to have a trap door!" Lloyd yelled, "I want more booby traps!"
"As you wish, young Garmadon!" Slithraa bowed and gestured for Skales to start working on it.
"As you wish... General," Skales growled as he bowed and walked away.
"Oh, I love it when it's Zane's night to cook!" Jay smiled.
"Hey, I didn't hear any complaints about my duck chowder last night!" Cole said.
"That's because it glued our mouths shut," Ani pointed out.
"You really thought Jay was speechless all throughout dinner?" Kai smirked.
"Yeah," Jay crossed his arms, "Please don't make that again."
"Dinner is served."
Zane set down their dinner and looked around the table. He was wearing a pink, flowered apron. Everyone's faces changed expressions rapidly before they burst out laughing, even the normally hard-nosed Ani who had some curtesy in covering her mouth.
"What's so funny?" Zane asked.
"Zane!" Nya laughed, "You're wearing a... Well, even I wouldn't wear that!
Zane walked to another end of the table and asked, "You laugh because I take steps to ensure I am clean after cooking?"
"No," Kai assured him, "We laughed because you came out wearing that ridiculous outfit!"
"What they're trying to say is that," Ani laughingly explained, "That particular pattern is something a six-year-old girl wears for her imaginary tea-parties!"
"I guess we don't share the same sense of humor," Zane observed.
"Well, how 'bout this?" Cole picked up a plate from the table and mashed it in Kai's face.
Everyone except Zane and Kai started laughing again and Sensei Wu got up from his seat and walked to Cole and Kai.
"How could you not find that funny?" Cole asked as his teacher set a bowl upside-down on his black hair.
"Waah!" Cole's face grew shocked.
The bowl's contents dripped down his face and his master laughed.
"Now you are brothers," Sensei Wu laughed as he put his hands on Zane's and Cole's shoulders and walked back to his seat.
Laughter rang around the table once again. The others began throwing food around the table while Zane watched in confusion, getting food suck to his apron and shirt.
Zane went outside to throw away the garbage, stripping off his apron and placing it into the can as well. He looked up at the stars, thinking about many things, mostly why he felt he was alone. Then, a falcon's cry broke his thoughts. He turned to a tree near him; the falcon sitting on one of the branches, looking directly at him. Zane tilted his head, and the falcon copied him. Zane shook his head, unsure if it had really done so. He looked back at the bird, only to see it shake its head as well.
He gasped at the bird, then smiled, flapped his arms and stepped up and down. It once again followed his movements exactly. Zane watched it for a moment before it hopped along the branch and took off. Zane looked inside the monastery for a second then followed the falcon and began to run down the mountain.
The bird led Zane through a forest, stopping now and then to make sure he was following. Zane paused for a moment, then kept running, only to stop again and gasp. A brightly lit treehouse building was in the process of being built. And the Serpentine were working on it.
"If I see one girl except for Ani in here," Lloyd warned from his perch atop a board of wood, "I'm gonna go ballistic."
Then, the falcon cried again and Zane looked up. It motioned for him to go back and tell his friends.
"Thank you, my mysterious friend," Zane said to it.
The next day, Zane led Cole, Jay, Ani, and Kai through the forest, taking them to the large tree house. Zane paused and looked around.
"Where are we going again?" Ani asked skeptically.
"I don't think Zane even knows where he's going," Kai responded as they caught up with the white ninja.
"So, tell us again how you stumbled upon Lloyd's secret headquarters?" Kai asked Zane.
"I followed a bird," he answered.
"A bird? Your 'mysterious informant' is a bird?" Ani glared, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," was the answer Zane gave.
"Why did you follow a bird?" Jay looked confused.
"Because it danced," was the reply.
"Oh. Okay. Was it a cuckoo bird?" Jay mocked.
Cole, Jay, and Kai started laughing while Ani facepalmed and Zane looked at them, confused.
"Of course not," Zane replied, not understanding Jay's jest, "Everyone knows cuckoo birds are not indigenous to these forests."
"Sarcasm Zane," Ani interjected.
Zane began running again. The others shrugged and followed him, until they reached the clearing where the Serpentine were.
They heard Lloyd shout, "No, bigger! Come on, we don't have all day! It's not time for a lunch break!"
"Holy cannoli," Cole exclaimed, "Frosty was right!"
"We can't let that brat and those snakes get a foothold on Ninjago," Kai said.
"Right, we gotta destroy that thing before it becomes operational," Ani supported.
"Are you sure? It such a cool looking treehouse," Jay babbled, "It's got a ropes course, ooh! A tree swing..."
"Hey! Remember whose side you're on!" Cole yelled, then turning to the others asked, "Alright team, what do we do?"
"It looks like the entire place is being supported by those four trees," Ani observed, pointed to four large trees on different sides of the tree house, "Once those ropes are severed, the whole place is gonna fall like a house of cards."
"But why would one make a house of cards?" Zane asked, "Such construction would be careless."
"Oh brother," Kai sighed.
"It's just an expression," Ani snapped.
"Travel in shadows team," Cole said.
He flipped towards the tree house and the others followed suit.
Kai flipped out from behind a tree, then took out his sword and sliced a rope, flinging himself onto the tree house.
Cole grabbed onto the wood at the bottom of an elevator and clung to it as two Serpentine were raised up to the tree house, one hitting the other.
Ani walked in pretty much in plain sight, using her own mind powers to confuse and deceive the snakes.
Jay and Zane were climbing up a tree. Jay landed on a branch and almost lost his balance, but Zane grabbed his wrist and hauled him up.
All five ninjas peered through the walls as Lloyd walked around a corner.
"It's almost finished," Lloyd laughed, "Soon, my fortress will be complete."
Ani tried to suppress a laugh.
"You!" He ordered one of the Serpentine, causing it to turned, "Hold up that sign!"
It complied, holding up a sign that said:
No
Non-Ani Girls
Ninja
Lloyd then pulled a lever. The snake laughed until the floor under him gave way and it fell to the ground below, screaming the way down.
"Booby trap!" Lloyd yelled down the hole in the floor, watching as it bumped into the wooden beams.
The ninjas jumped up through the wooden beams and boards and leaped through the doorway at the top of the tree house. Kai climbed to the very top while Cole, Jay, Ani, and Zane ran along the three ropes connecting the tree house to the supporting trees.
"Ninjaaaaa-Goooo!" Jay spun into his tornado of blue lightning and severed the first rope.
"Ninjaaaaa-Goooo!" Zane whirled into his ice tornado and sliced the second rope.
"Yah! Ninjaaaaa-Goooo!" Ani twisted into her energy tornado and split the third rope.
The tree house began to fall apart. Boards and ropes crumbled and snapped. Debris fell everywhere. A few stories down, Lloyd looked up and spotted Kai through the wooden beams of the higher levels.
"I said no ninja!" Lloyd roared, "Attack!"
"Everyone!" Skales yelled, "Retreat!"
"Cole!" Kai shouted, "Wait 'til we're off the tree house! Then cut the line!
Cole nodded and Skales looked up at the sound of Kai's voice. He recognized Cole as the ninja he had hypnotized at Jamonacai Village.
"You," he cried, capturing Cole's attention, "Will obey my every command!"
Cole's eyes turned a deep shade of red.
He bowed to Skales and said, "I will obey your every command."
"Where's Cole?" Jay asked frantically as he, Ani, and Zane jumped to the tree house roof.
"Oh, this whole place is coming down!" Kai yelled.
"Hyah!" With a flourish of his scythe, Cole leaped down from his perch on the tree and landed on the roof.
"No one goes anywhere unless they deal with me!" he yelled.
He advanced threateningly on Kai, Jay, Ani, and Zane who stepped back.
"It's the Serpentine!" Ani realized, "He's been hypnotized!"
"Yeah, well, he'd better snap out of it quick!" Jay yelled, "Because this whole place looks like it's about to go down!"
"Don't go!" Lloyd begged to Skales and the other snakes, "We have to protect my tree house fortress! And Ani's up there! We gotta save her!"
"Your tree housssse? The ninja girl?" Skales hissed, "It'ssss about we did... thissss!"
"What?" Lloyd only had time to say before Skales pulled a lever and the floor under Lloyd disappeared, forcing the boy to fall into a cage a few yards under him.
He heard the stinging ring of Serpentine laughter in his ears as he fell.
Lloyd was in good hands compared to the ninja. Cole looked like he was in for the kill.
"Okay, now, come on," Jay said nervously, "Friends don't hit friends."
Cole promptly thrust his leg up, kicking Jay in the face.
"There goes that theory," Ani retorted.
"Ow! Oooh, okay, okay, I'm going to ignore both of those."
Cole then began jumping around the tiny platform, swinging his scythe around. He yelled and struck a board next to Kai's feet, knocking the wooden plank off.
"What are we supposed to do?" Kai asked, dodging Cole's hits, "If I use my sword, this place'll go up in flames faster than a tinderbox!"
"Isn't the anti-venom in the staff?" Zane queried.
"Yeah, but we left it back home!" Ani reminded him.
Cole suddenly got in a blow to her stomach, knocking her back. She landed on the pole-like corner of the roof, slid down it, and lay there for a moment, dazed. Then, the wood broke and she fell. Zane lunged out and grabbed her by the feet.
He swung her back up, saying, "Jay, use your lightning! Try to shock him out of his trance!"
Jay obeyed and took out his nun chucks. He began swinging them around.
"Oh, sorry, Cole! This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me!"
He sent a concentrated ball of electricity at Cole, who fell back and let go of the scythe. The four hesitated as Cole struggled to get back up. Then, the black ninja opened and his eyes. They were just as red as before. Cole got up and rapidly ran to Jay. He picked him up by his shirt and threw him over the edge.
Three cries of "Jaaaay!" were heard. Jay, however, grabbed onto a dangling rope and swung on it. He landed on the outside of the broken tree house.
He then declared, "Okay, that is a serious safety hazard!"
Cole turned sharply and ran back up the last rope holding up the tree house. He raised his scythe, about to swing.
"No, Cole, don't!"
"No! No, Cole, no!"
"Cole! No!
Suddenly, the sweet music of a flute reached all of their ears. Cole hesitated for a moment, hearing the flute. He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to their normal black.
"Wha...? Where am I? What are we doing?"
"We're getting' outta here," Nya shouted down, "'Cause this whole place is coming down!"
With that, Cole leaped from his ledge and landed right behind her. Ani, Jay, Kai, and Zane followed suit. The tree house crumbled as soon as her feet left the wood. She landed in the back and wrapped her arms around whoever was in front of her. Ani looked back and saw Lloyd in a cage, being carried by a few of the snakes. Looked like the kid wasn't in charge anymore, which was both a good and bad thing.
"That flute!" Jay remarked, "It cancels their powers!"
"It's as old as the Serpentine themselves! But we must hurry! The monastery is unguarded!" Sensei said, which made Flame flap his wings harder and flew faster to their home.
They got back to the monastery, and it was in flames. Tongues of fire licked at the aged wood of the once-grand building, destroying it to ash.
"We're too late!" Kai shouted, "Those snakes!"
Below them, the four dragons that had been left behind roared and struggled in their stables.
Cole spotted his dragon, "Rocky!"
Flame touched down and everyone quickly got off. Cole hurried to his dragon. He pushed down on a lever and released all of them.
Kai looked up at the exposed inner wood of the monastery and pulled down his hood.
"Our home," he said.
"Shard!" Zane called to his dragon, "Put this out!"
Shard flew around the blazing structure and breathed ice and snow onto the flames.
"The training equipment," Zane murmured when Shard had completed his task, "Gone."
"Our video games," Jay cried hysterically, "Gone!"
"They stole back their staff," the elder observed, tinges of anger in his voice.
"What do we do now?" Cole narrowed his eyes.
Rocky put his head closer to the ground and rubbed his muzzle against Cole's cheek. The black ninja sadly stroked Rocky's nose. Ani just stared around in infuriated awe. Kai picked up a badly burnt chunk of brick and easily crushed it.
"If you hadn't followed that silly bird, none of this would've happened!" he accused Zane.
"Kai," Sensei Wu warned.
"No!" Jay stomped up to Zane. "Sensei, he's right! Because of you, my high score's been deleted!"
"This is a teaching moment," Zane glanced down, "We must learn from this."
"A teaching moment?" Cole echoed, then putting his face directly in front of Zane's and shouted, "What's wrong with you? Don't you get it? Everything is gone!"
"Zane, get this through your thick head," Ani added, "We lost everything and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"ENOUGH!" Sensei Wu ordered.
Everyone, including Nya, turned to him, "We are all at fault. Zane is your brother. Apologize at once."
Kai, Cole, Ani, and Jay lowered their heads in shame. They turned around.
"I'm sorry, Zane," Kai mumbled, "I..."
He broke off. Zane wasn't there. Everyone turned to the sky. Instead, he was flying away on Shard.
The Hypnobrai led Lloyd, who now had a rope tied around one of his wrists, down an icy corridor.
"Do something, General," Lloyd whispered to Slithraa. "You-You're still under my command, right?"
Slithraa looked at the boy for a moment, under the boy's command or not, he was still the Hypnobrai's leader.
"Enough!" He cried, then turning his attention to Skales, ordered, "I am the general! You will return my staff at once!"
Skales looked at the staff and hissed, "No."
Muttering and mumbling broke out among the Hypnobrai.
"You dare challenge my command?" Slithraa demanded.
"Slitherpit... Slitherpit..." The Hypnobrai began chanting, "Slitherpit! Slitherpit!"
Skales smiled and nodded, "I guess we'll have to fight for it, in... the Slitherpit!"
Almost everyone began cheering. Lloyd just frowned.
Mezmo took the staff and brought it to the ledge where he stood.
"Winner gets the staff and leads the tribe. You know the rules, there are none, but in the Slither Pit, what I say goes!" Mezmo annouced, the two nodded. He then shouted, "Alright, FIGHT!"
The fight began. Skales and Slithara engaged in hand to hand combat.
"TWO WEAPONS," Mezmo announced.
He pulled a lever and ice weapons were lowered into the arena. The general took a sword and shield, Skales took a staff and spear. Slithra threw his weapon to Skales, who quickly dodged it and the weapon struck the wall and caused some ice stalactites to fall and break on Slithra's shield.
Lloyd, who was now tied to a stalagmite, sighed and sat down. He then looked to his side and noticed a scroll of paper sticking out. He stood and reached out for it, only coming a few inches short.
"SIDE-WINDER," Mezmo announced again, this time making the platform tilt as the two moved.
Lloyd glanced at the fight, in which Skales seemed to be winning, and tried again, still coming up short. He reached and stretched his arm. Just when he thought he'd never be able to get it, his fingers brushed up against the paper, and he grabbed it, tucking it into his back pocket.
"Go, General, go!" He cupped his untied hand around his mouth and shouted encouragement.
Slithraa's tail began rattling and red waves pulsed from his eyes. Skales looked taken aback. He spun around and kicked Slithraa in the face. He then threw a series of blows at the general, only to have them blocked. Suddenly, his entire body began to sway. He wriggled and moved. And he lunged, sharply kicked Slithraa in the chest, and bounced back. The general collapsed onto the ice floor.
"He used fang-kwon-do!" One of the crowd said in awe.
"Get up!" Lloyd yelled, "Get up!"
The general raised his head, then lowered it again.
"We have a winner!"
The judge handed Skales back the staff, and the snake's body began to change. Slithraa's did the same. Skales' legs disappeared and were replaced with a tail, while Slithraa did the complete opposite.
Cheers of "Skales!" rang around the room.
"You will be loyal to me, now!" Skales said to Slithraa.
"I... will do as you command, Slithraa said reluctantly.
That made the boy feel very dejected.
"You!" Skales turned to Lloyd, "Leave and never return!"
That made Lloyd feel worse.
The remaining ninja, Nya, and Sensei Wu were now on a nearby mountain. Wisp, Rocky, Blast, and Flame wear huddled together only feet away. The group of six was all holding sticks with burning food on them over a fire.
"Wh-what are we eating again?" Kai asked.
"Mudnewt," Ani said thickly.
"Not bad for… something that lives underground," Cole muttered.
"Wha...!" Jay threw his stick down and spat a mouthful of mudnewt bone into his hand, tossed the bone into a can, and yelled, "Yeah! New high sc-score!"
Throwing her own stick into the fire, Ani wrapped her arms around her legs and muttered, "The monastery was the only home I've ever known, it was were my adopted family took me in and where I found my powers. There were a lot of precious memories in that building."
"Remember," the mentor reminded everyone, "We must be thankful for what we have."
"What do we have?" Cole asked, "Our home is gone."
"Y'know," Kai spoke up, "I don't miss our home. What I really miss is Zane."
"Yeah," Jay sighed, "I miss Zane!"
"He was… a nice guy," Ani murmured.
"Yeah, he was for sure," Cole agreed.
"Zane?" Nya was the one to speak this time.
"Yeah!" Jay shouted, "Zane! Y'know, white ninja? The smart, strange one?"
"No!" Nya pointed to behind them, "Zane!"
Everyone turned and saw that Zane was indeed walking towards the group.
"Zane!" The ninjas cried in unison.
The group gathered in a semicircle around him.
"We're so sorry for everything we said," Ani said, "We didn't mean a thing back there!"
Jay added, "Yeah, we're a team, and that means we're all responsible!"
"You don't need to apologize to me," Zane smiled.
"But, what about all those awful things we said?" Kai asked, "Isn't that why you left?"
"Of course not. I saw the falcon again, and I followed him."
"That's our Zane," Cole said.
Everyone, including Ani, hugged the white ninja. Then, they released him.
Nya said, "We're happy to have you back."
"Why? Is it my turn to make dinner?"
They laughed; Zane was still the same Zane.
"Yes, Zane," Sensei Wu smiled gratefully, "We would love for you to make dinner."
"But I already made it," Zane turned around, "Come, I want to show you what I have found. I think you will all be pleased."
They all walked a ways from where they were camping.
"I can't explain it," Zane said, stopping and turning to face the team, "But, I feel a strange connection with the falcon. I think he's trying to help show us the path we need to take."
Then, he led them around a corner. Sitting on the sand just a hundred or two yards away was a large ship, with a wooden dragon head on the front.
"Our new home," he declared.
His friends gasped at the magnificent sight.
"It's beautiful," Ani gazed.
"Do I smell pie?" Jay asked eagerly.
"Cobblerberry," Zane informed him, "Oh, and I made myrtleberry. And apple!"
Jay sniffed deeply and sighed, shedding a tear. Then, he, Kai, Cole, Ani, and Nya ran to the ship, yelling and shouting happily. Zane and Sensei Wu stayed behind.
"I am proud of you, Zane," the old man said, "One day, I promise, we will find your family."
"But... I've already found them, Ani was right, we are a family."
"I feel there's more to you than meets the eye. There's something special about you, Zane."
"Sensei, will I become the Green Ninja?"
"It's too early to tell. But, if it's in your path, you'll know. Come, now, it would be a shame to let them eat all that pie."
And Sensei Wu and Zane began walking to the ship.
Laughter filled the dining room. All of the team were throwing food around and having a good time. Unknown to any of the seven at the table, Lloyd was watching them, a map clutched in his hand and a hurt look on his face. He growled, turned around, and began to walk away.
A/N: in case you haven't noticed by now, I'm redoing Ani's character completely. I decided to go for a more "I'm gonna be the best ninja ever even if it makes me walk around with a stick up my butt" then her previous "I'm gonna act cool and be a jerk once in a while because it'll make people think I'm not a loser" persona. If she seems Mary-Sueish it's because she's trying to be perfect, and that is her greatest flaw.