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Sensei Wu stood in front of the ninja with his hands folded behind his back, looking far too calm for what was clearly a setup.
“I will be leaving the Monastery for the day,” he said.
The room went silent.
Kai blinked. “All day?”
“Yes.”
Jay immediately grinned. “So, like… no supervision?”
Wu raised a finger. “There is one rule.”
Everyone groaned.
“Do not,” Wu continued slowly, “touch anything in the east storage room.”
Cole frowned. “What’s in the east storage room?”
Wu smiled.
That was the first red flag.
The door shut behind Sensei Wu.
Three seconds passed.
Jay leaned toward the others. “Okay but—”
“No,” Lloyd said instantly.
Jay ignored him. “—what is in the east storage room?”
Zane tilted his head. “Statistically, when Sensei Wu forbids access to a specific location, the contents are either extremely dangerous… or extremely embarrassing.”
Kai smirked. “Worth it either way.”
“No,” Lloyd repeated, louder.
Five minutes later, they were all standing in front of the east storage room door.
“I just want to look,” Jay said, already reaching for the handle.
“That’s touching,” Lloyd argued.
Jay froze. “Okay, you look.”
“I’m the Green Ninja, not the Rule Breaker.”
Cole sighed. “I’ll do it. If something explodes, I can tank it.”
Zane scanned the door. “I see no immediate explosive runes.”
Jay brightened. “See? Zane says it’s safe.”
“That is not what I said.”
Too late.
Cole opened the door.
Silence.
Then—
A loud clang.
A crash.
And a very familiar voice yelling, “WHY IS THERE A CHICKEN IN HERE?!”
Kai staggered back as a chicken sprinted past him, wearing what looked suspiciously like a tiny ninja hood.
Jay screamed. “WHY IS IT FAST?!”
Zane calmly observed, “It appears to be enhanced.”
From inside the room came another noise—something rolling.
Then everything rolled out.
—A box labeled “DO NOT SHAKE”
—A cursed teapot screaming insults
—A training dummy that immediately attacked Kai
—And a stack of scrolls that burst into confetti
Lloyd stared. “We broke the rule.”
Jay, ducking as the chicken leapt at his face, yelled, “IN OUR DEFENSE— IT WAS A STUPID RULE!”
The door to the Monastery slid open.
Sensei Wu stepped inside, paused, and surveyed the chaos: the screaming teapot, the rampaging chicken, Kai wrestling the dummy, Cole buried in confetti, Jay standing on a table, and Lloyd with his hands in his hair.
Wu sighed.
“I was gone,” he said calmly, “for twelve minutes.”
Zane raised a hand. “To be precise, eleven minutes and forty-three seconds.”
Wu closed his eyes.
“I regret everything.”
The chicken pecked his sandal.
Wu sighed again. “Well running a hundred laps up and down the mountain seems like a good punishment, doesn't it?.”
Everyone groaned.