This is my submission for Ninjago Writer's Day on Tumblr. It's the first time I've written a proper one shot, so something new for me! The idea is to try and do something new which you have not done before, so stretching yourself, so this is not a fluff or angst based story, and no sign of Kailor!

I hope you enjoy.

Exasperated.

Cole groaned, scratched at his head with the end of his pencil and then let out a triumphant "A ha!" as he abruptly leant over, vigorously scribbling a circle onto the sheet he had at the table. The Master of Earth leant back in his chair again, holding the sheet up and farrowing his thickset eyebrows, absentmindedly chewing on the end of the long-suffering pencil. Kai looked over from his spot where he was lounging on the sofa, his interest piqued. He closed down the stupidly addictive game he had been playing on his phone, raising a brow.

"Watcha doing?" The Master of Fire stood up and stretched, shoving his BorgPhone back into his hoodie pocket before sauntering over to the kitchen table where the earth elemental was frowning and muttering, staring at the sheet intently.

"This. It's a word search. Jay gave it to me saying it was really easy." He held up the offending article to Kai whose eyes flickered over the page, noting only a couple of the words at the side had been crossed out and circled within the higgledy-piggledy mash up of letters within the grid. Cole slyly smiled; yes! He was hooked.

"You wanna have a go?" He waggled the sheet under Kai's nose, who snatched it up and sat himself down, grinning.

"Yeah, this'll be a piece of cake. Especially if Jay can do it. But I'm not using your pencil, urgh." Kai waved the offered, severally chewed up pencil, away, reaching over to the pot in the middle of the table and grabbing himself a new one.

"If you're that hungry, Cole, you should get yourself a snack or something." The fire elemental cracked his knuckles and chuckled, smirking to himself. This was going to be easy.

"Well, ok then. I'm just going to, uh, freshen myself up. I'll be back in a bit to see how you're doing." Cole exited the room, looking over his shoulder and smiling as he made his way through the door. Ha, that was too easy…

The blue and black clad ninjas peered carefully through the crack in the doorway, Jay earning a crack around the head when he nearly snorted out loud watching their red clad friend scratch his head and frown.

"It's going to keep him busy for hours!"

Cole grinned, folding his arms and smiling smugly. "I know."

They watched as Kai groaned out loud, impatiently tapping the pencil on the table as he leant closer to the sheet, muttering to himself. Jay straightened up, a curious mixture of horror and unadulterated glee on his face.

"What if he loses it and sets it on fire?" Cole put his hand over his mouth, stifling a chuckle.

"Oh, I hope he does!"

They both sighed as they heard whistling coming from the open front doorway, watching with baited breath as Zane strolled in, no doubt just having returned from the New Ninjago library judging from the pile of books he deposited onto the other end of the table.

"What are you doing, my friend?" Kai barely acknowledged the nindroid's presence, just flinging over a soft grunt and a small wave as he continued to pour over the wordsearch.

"Hmm?" Zane walked over, leaning over the red ninja's shoulder. "Oh, a wordsearch. I did not know you enjoyed these. An excellent choice for keeping the mind sharp. I must admit I am pleasantly surprised at you, Kai."

The Master of Fire looked up, leaning back in his chair and holding the puzzle up.

"Yeah, but I can't find this last one." He stabbed at the sheet with the pencil. "And hey, what do you mean you're surprised? My mind is sharp!"

"That it is, Kai. My apologies, no offense meant. Can I help?" The Master of Ice slid himself into the chair next to Kai, who sighed and pushed the sheet over.

"Sure, here you go. Just do me a favour and don't tell Cole you helped me." Zane, not taking his brilliant blue eyes off the sheet, smiled and nodded.

"Of course. Now, let's see…"

Ten minutes later and Kai was pacing, Zane staring intently at the wordsearch as he continuously scanned the sheet, the blue and black ninjas in silent creases behind the door.

"I'm telling you Zane, Jay has completed it so it must be in there!" Kai wringed his hands, snatching the wordsearch from the nindroid's hands.

Zane frowned. "Kai, it is not there. I have scanned it numerous times and checked it with several differing algorithms. That final word is not in the wordsearch."

"Urgh!" Kai slammed the sheet down, leaning over it and using his finger to simultaneously check through each letter individually, desperately hunting for the word.

"Hey guys! What's that you're doing?" The green ninja strolled in, dumping his bag down next to Zane's forgotten pile of books, heading over and looking over the red ninja's shoulder.

"Oh!" Lloyd put a hand up to his face and couldn't contain the snigger. Kai looked up sharply.

"What?" His eyes were fierce, demanding an immediate reason for the snigger.

"I found this in Wu's office the other day, it's missing a word. Now which one was it…?"

Kai straightened, head whipping round to the doorway where Cole and Jay were now howling, unable to contain themselves any longer. He strode over and pulled the door open, the two accomplices falling over into a heap of roaring laughter.

"You two!" The red ninja bellowed, causing the two to scramble up and hastily move away from their unwitting target, still laughing. Jay looked over to Cole, literally snorting, tears running down his face.

"We're going to die! But it was so worth it!" The blue ninja squealed and ran out to the training yard as the fire elemental lit up his hands.

"I'm going to roast the pair of you!" Cole turned and ran after the Master of Lightning, screaming out as he ran,

"So worth it!"

Lloyd and Zane watched the chaos unfolding in front of them, Zane standing and readying his own powers, preparing to put out the fires that Kai was no doubt about to start trying to catch his brothers. Lloyd sniggered as he picked the wordsearch up. All of the words were scribbled out from the list and neatly circled in the grid except one; the missing one. He laughed as he spoke the word out loud, turning to go and help his brothers escape from their roasting.

"Exasperated."