Two in one day? Astounding. Expect another sometime this week. Now, to answer the reviews.

Elcall: Yep, the "other books"; The Defending Six, 1211 addition, at the time of that chapter. I thought it'd be a nice teaser-trailer. To be honest, I don't always know what to expect from me either. I just write and let it flow. It nearly writes itself; that's what it feels like sometimes, at least. :-)

Nomi Norisu: As you can see, more chapter! Expect another tomorrow at the earliest. I've kinda out-written myself for today.

Okay, so, this is the rest of the chapter that I didn't get the chance to add into the other one, so, I ope y'all enjoy this. :-)

Chapter 5: Lessons, Training, and Family

Randy was pulled away from the world of Grave-Punchers by the Nomicon flashing and buzzing. Howard groaned in annoyance as his friend stood and walked over to it.

"Seriously? It's nearly ten o'clock at night! What could your dumb Ninja-know-it-all book have to say now?" Howard complained loudly.

Randy rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to know? That's why I'm looking." he sat down and opened the book, getting sucked in almost immediately. The fall through the book was about that same as normal, but when he landed, it was in a dojo, and it looked a little wonky, at that. Instead of just the usual red "9" symbols covering the walls, they alternated with navy blue, circular wave ones, as well. Besides the numerous puddles all over the place, and fiery torches along the walls.

Inside, a doodle ninja was facing off with a large monster that resembled a grey Komodo Dragon with green spines and claws. After being knocked aside, his sword far out of reach, the doodle ninja scrambled back on his hands and knees. In the background, an ancient art pop-art women with light brown hair, dark brown shirt, green skirt, and tan pants underneath, grabbed up the sword, running up the Komodo's tail and onto its back.

Once on its head, she grabbed onto one of its large back spines before plunging the sword into on of its eyes. It roared in pain, rearing back from where it had the ninja pinned, clawing his shoulder, then trying to claw the women. She quickly ducked out of the way, but still got her leg scratched by one of its claws. The doodle ninja stood, put a hand to its chin with a classic "thinking of an idea" face, before raising his finger with a small doodle exclamation point appearing over his head.

Pulling out some ninja rings, he threw them at the Komodo dragon, the small, sharp weapons digging into its neck, killing it instantly. The monster collapsed, and the doodle ninja helped the women down, showing concern for her injury, ignoring the even worse one on his shoulder. He took his scarf and gave it to her, and she wrapped it quickly around her leg.

Then, she pulled on a pastel grey and navy blue marked mask over her head and hair. A suit similar to the Ninja's appeared, but with different colors and markings. Taking the belt, that was long and waved in the air like the scarf, she wrapped it around his shoulder, smiling a little as he tried to get her to stop with a flustered expression, trying to act like he wasn't hurt so bad. Some words appeared above their heads.

THE WARRIOR HAS RETURNED
TO AID THE NINJA IN COMBAT

Randy read the words aloud under his breath. "Um, Nomicon, I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me." he said uncertainly, looking at the dead Komodo dragon, then to the doodle ninja and ancient cut-out drawing lady-turned-ninja look-alike. They looked at him, the ninja doing a light face palm while the the girl rolled her eyes.

THE WARRIOR HAS RETURNED
TO AID THE NINJA IN COMBAT

"Warrior", "combat" and "Ninja" were highlighted, while "returned" and "aid" were circled a few times. Randy looked from the words to the scene in front of him, then shrugged, deciding to take a guess.

"Do you mean that there's another ninja that's supposed to help me?" he asked at last. The doodle Ninja nodded "yes", but the ancient-drawing-ninja-women shook her head "no".

THE WARRIOR IS A DIFFERENT
PERSON FROM THE NINJA
THEY ARE SIMILAR YET
HAVE DIFFERENT SKILLS

Randy read the words over in silence. "Do I have to find this 'Warrior'? Or will he -or she- find me?" he asked at last. The doodle ninja shrugged, as well as the women ninja, who must be the representation of this "Warrior", he realized.

Looking back up at the words, he frowned in thought. "Will they just. . . show up, when there's a monster or robot attack?"

The doodle ninja and ancient-drawing warrior nodded, and then Randy was sucked back out of the book. He blinked, then glanced to his left, where Howard was slowly moving a sharpie marker at his face, a look of concentration on his face, tongue sticking out. He blinked in realization and withdraw slightly as Randy gave him a look.

"You were going to draw a mustache on me, weren't you." Randy stated flatly, sitting up and putting the Nomicon on the table.

Howard snorted. "No, I wasn't!" Howard denied, then gained a mischievous look. "I wanted to see how you looked with cat whiskers . . . . and the words 'meow wow' on your forehead and chin." he chuckled to himself, capping the sharpie.

"So what'd you're stupid book say?" he continued, sitting down and fiddling around with a game controller. "'Cause, its past eleven at night." he finished, giving his biffer a bit of a look.

Randy's eyes widened. "Ah, what? It felt significantly shorter in the book." he tapped his chin in thought for a moment, then told Howard what he'd seen and been told.

Howard toyed around with the sharpie, rolling and tossing it between his hands. "So, you basically have a partner no one else knows about? Don't you realize that it sounds almost exactly like the stories?" he half asked, half demanded.

Randy, who'd by now sat cross legged on the ground across from his friend, tilted his head, a confused yet curious expression on his face. "Hm?"

Howard groaned in exaggeration. "You know! About the Ninja and the five other people who helped him protect the town? Back before it even had a name? Jeez!" he rolled his eyes dramatically. "I seriously thought you'd remember! There was a wizard guy, a dude in armor, this cowboy guy, and two girls in ninja suits. They all disappeared while the Ninja stuck around." Howard explained swiftly, counting them off on his fingers.

Randy's eyes widened with remembrance, and he nodded. "Yeah . . . can't believe I forgot," he smiled. "Thanks buddy."

"Don't mention it, Cunningham, just don't. You'll just have find her when school starts on Monday or whatever." Howard replied with fake irritation, but he was secretly pleased that he'd remembered. It was a long time ago, when they were little kids, that they had started searching for more information on the Ninja's story. What they find was both exciting and mysterious.

What they'd found detailed six people, including the Ninja, who had defended the town and surrounding area. No one else seemed to know about these five other hero's, all focusing on the Ninja himself, which, in way, made sense.

The Ninja was still around, he'd never left the town undefended, while the others had deserted. Or had they? As Randy climbed up onto his bunk, he wondered if the other five had left, or . . .or if they had been killed. He shook away his thoughts as he fell asleep.

The next day was Saturday, and Jenna was up before the sun, sneaking out of the house with her backpack, the Washira, the mask, a metal water bottle and some sandwiches. She left behind only a sticky note saying where she went, stuck to the coffee machine, where her grandfather and uncle would be sure to find it. She still didn't understand how anyone could enjoy the bitter drink.

She made her way into the nearby pine forest, she searched around for the better part of twenty minutes to make sure no one else had been there recently or was there now. After confirming that, she climbed into a tree and used a short length of brown rope to tie her backpack in place, then grabbed the mask, taking a deep breath, and and out, in and out.

"Okay, lets do this." she said aloud, pulling the mask on. Instantly, pastel grey and navy blue ribbons sprung out from the mask, wrapping around her, covering her fully, from head to boot-tips. She stared at her gloved, apparently webbed hands.

The markings were navy blue, and wavy, like water, where the Ninja's were straight, a wave-in-a-circle symbol over her heart, and blue tear/rain drop-shaped markings under the eyes, four under the left and five under the right, giving a false appearance of crying.

At her belt was a wavy navy blue strip of fabric; like the Ninja's scarf, she could use it as a grappling hook or to tie up enemies. To Jenna, it looked a bit like a tail. Another odd addition to the suit, fingers on the gloves were webbed with a see through, durable bluish material. The suit covered her all the way, even her eyes, which, where the Ninja's suit had open fabric, her's were covered by the see-through, aforementioned durable bluish material.

Jenna fumbled a little, dragging out the Washira, struggling to open it, but it wouldn't open. "Why! Won't! You! Open!" she shouted; or, tried to. All that came out of the suit were muffled grunts and trills. Putting the book back in the pack, she slowly placed her hands over her mouth.

"Hello?" she finally said, but it came out as a muffled, questioning warble. Some doodle words appeared in her line of sight.

"THE SUIT PREVENTS THE WARRIOR FROM SAYING A WORD"

She scowled a little, looking at the book. "Then how-?" more doodles flew into her line of sight.

"EXCEPT WHAT COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE HEART AND SOUL" it finished, then disappeared.

Jenna blinked, not sure exactly how to react to that, or what it might mean. She decided to leave that for later.

"'The suits bounds are limited only by my imagination'. . . . well, lets get to work." she thought to herself, deciding to get to work. She started by scrambling down the tree. On the way down, she quickly discovered that she was faster and more flexible than before, and her grip on the tree came easier. Once at the bottom, she took a few stones she had, took some leaves, and made a target to hit from far away.

Standing back at about thirty paces, she turned and threw the small stones as hard as she could at the branch she'd set up, knocking a few clean holes through the exact center. Blinking in surprise, she walked back over to the hole, peered through the leaves.

"Woah . . ." she muttered, which came out as a trilling growl. Recalling how the Ninja had pulled things out of seemingly no-where from his suit, and also how he had used his scarf, she wondered if it were the same for her, too. Deciding to start with something more akin to climbing then fighting, she took the waving belt end, then flung it onto a tree branch farther up.

Tugging to make sure it was secure, she leaped, tugging on it, then squealed sharply when she swung right into the tree. Gravity slowly peeled her off and she fell, stomach first, on the branch she'd initially aimed for, knocking the wind out of her.

"Okay . . . that hurt . . ." she gasped, her words coming out as a few wheezing growls. After laying there for a few more minutes, she pulled herself on top of the branch before tugging on the belt a little. It came off instantly, and she stood on the branch, eyeing the distance between where she was and where the next tree and branch were.

It was about twenty feet, ten being the distance between the branches ends. Taking another breath, she ran forward and leaped as far as she could. Her jump carried her farther than expected, but this time, she was prepared and managed to stop herself from face planting into the tree. She paced a little on the branch, thinking.

"Hm . . . whenever I do it as hard as I can, it's too much . . . to get this to work, I have to pull back . . . " she smiled underneath the mask, and kept practicing. For awhile, all she did was jump from branch to branch, occasionally using the belt to help her swing across the farther gaps. When she was positive that she'd got it down, she went back to her pack and sat down to have something to eat.

Deciding to experiment a little, she pulled the bottom edge of the mask up over her chin and mouth. After the suit didn't retract, she pulled it up farther, to just above her nose. Satisfied with this new development, she took a sandwich from her pack and began to eat, filling her stomach for the first time that day. Afterwards, she tried to speak again, which lead to a pretty big surprise.

Even with the mask partially up like this, she couldn't speak. The sounds that had been present before, too, were no longer present. Pulling the mask down all the way, she tried a few, quiet "Hello"'s, and got trills, but pull the mask up so her mouth was uncovered; nothing, zip, zap, zero, nada. She finally decided to let that small disappointment go in favor of seeing what sort of weapons she had.

Turns out, not a whole lot. She had some flat, sharp, four-pointed metal stars she could throw, a set of small, lightweight daggers with navy blue running along the metal, a variety of little orbs that did different things according to the color, and navy blue smoke-bombs that smelled salty with the slightest hint of dead fish. Deciding that that was enough training for one day, she scaled the tree to get her pack.

Taking off the suit and tucking it away into her pocket, she untied it from the tree and slung it on her back. After scrambling back down, she set off in the direction of her neighborhood. It was around noon by the time she stepped inside. Viceroy was on the couch, reading a book he found on the shelf. He turned when the door opened, a delighted smile on his face as she came in.

"Jenna, you're back!" he exclaimed, dog-earing the book before walking over to her.

She nodded in return, a small smile on her face. "Hi, Uncle Willem." she returned, dropping her backpack on the counter before going into the kitchen, peering into the freezer.

Willem joined her, noticing the pine needles and pitch on her pack with a small level of disdain. "Uh, it looks like you've had a busy morning." he said at last.

She nodded, pulling a home-made orange juice Popsicle from the freezing, beginning to lick it. "Yeah, I went out into the woods and practiced my tree climbing." she half-lied, flinching inwardly. She didn't like telling lies to her family, and with a bit of dread, she realized that it was probably going to become a regular thing from now on. With a quiet sigh, she sat at the counter, a look of despondency and wondering on her face.

Viceroy sat next to her, taking her look for something else. "You miss them, don't you?" he asked quietly.

Jenna only nodded, tears beginning pool in her violet eyes as she glanced away.

Viceroy sighed quietly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Look, I know it's hard, and I know you haven't wanted to talk about it much . . . but I just need you to know this; I'm here for you, I won't let anything happen to you, ever." he told her sincerely, pulling her gently into his lap, gently hugging her.

"I don't want to forget them . . ." she admitted quietly, trying to hold back her tears.

He paused, throat tightening. "You don't have to forget them." he said at last. "But bottling it all up forever won't make it feel any better. In the end, it makes it worse, honey." he held her a little tighter.

She nodded after a moment. "You're right . . . but what should I do now?" she asked, turning her head to look at him.

Viceroy struggled to find the words. "I don't know . . . it . . . it is only Saturday. You could go hang out with a few friends." he suggested, trying to put cheeriness in his tone.

Jenna looked down again, a few tears escaping her eyes. "I don't have any friends. I help people out, but no one really talks to me." she admitted, not sure what to do now.

Viceroy gently scooted her back into her own seat, but turned her so she was facing him. "Listen baby, I know its hard and you don't really like to stand out in a crowd, but sometimes, you have to if you want to find what you're looking for."

Jenna looked alarmed and a little wary at this statement. "But I . . . I don't like having people look at me . . ." she ducked her head so her bangs hid her eyes.

"I'm not saying to go have a Battle of the Bands or declare a Prank War on the whole school." he told her humorously. "What I mean is, instead of staying in the background the whole time, why don't you go up and chat with people. You know, get to them, let them know you, make some friends!" he finished with a smile, hoping he'd explained it well.

While he may be great at coming up with ingenious ideas and creations to destroy the Ninja, he wasn't half-bad at social advice, either. Plus, he knew his niece perfectly. They used to play and hang out all the time when she was younger before he was officially hired by McFist.

Jenna nodded slowly. "I'll . . . I'll try," she said at last. "But you . . . you promise you'll be there for me if something goes . . . . bad?" she said the last part hesitantly. Last time something, "went bad", her parents had gotten into the car accident just over a month ago . . . and when she tried to call her uncle, she could never reach him, no matter how many times she tried, until their home-phone number was officially blocked by the company.

Viceroy nodded. "I promise." he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder and smiling reassuringly.

I'll end it here. As you can see, they're both very close. Neither knows the others secret, though, so you can imagine the trouble this is going to lead to later on. Please review! :-)