Gie-chan: Heeeeyyyy...there.

So...I'm not dead yet, even though my brother tried slicing me with a glowy sword on New Year and I tried stabbing him back (don't worry, they were just plastic toys that act like lightsabers). How's 2018 for you so far?

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For both the Guests: Thank You so much, glad you two enjoyed this! And don't worry, there is still more, but I can't guarantee consistency in the updates.

"Here you go. Do be careful with this box. We wouldn't want anything to happen to it now, do we?" an old woman told them as she handed the box to Zane.

Zane carefully took the box and nodded, "we promise to deliver this to Sensei Wu in one piece," he said.

The ninja were currently in a small house in the middle of a forest. Wu had the six of them pick up a package from an old acquaintance of his. It seemed rather important seeing as all of them were sent to get it.

Before they went through the door, the woman told them, "oh, and don't let it get shaken up or else it'll explode," she said n a cheery tone.

"Of course," Kai replied and the went outside.

They decided against using their dragons in fear of making it actually explode if the woman was right. And they certainly do not want another incident like what happened last year with the alarm clock.

Walking on the sandy path next to a clear stream, they had been guessing what was inside. Though, it didn't really last that long after they'd settled was probably just some magical tea. It was a package for Sensei Wu, after all.

The path was pretty long. Zane had estimated it on being about 23.14 km until they reach the nearest village. It's...a pretty long way.

They had started to settle into the silence, with only the steady flow of water next to the path. Then Jay decided to break the silence.

"Hey, it's gonna be a long way, wanna sing a song?" Jay suggested.

"Sure, why not," Cole agreed.

"I'm up for it," Kai said.

Zane simply nodded. "What shall we sing?"

"How about one of the classics?" Jay turned to face them, as he was near the front of the group.

"The Weekend Whip?" Cole suggested.

"I was thinking more along the lines of A Thousand Bottles of Tea on the Wall, but that works too," Jay stated.

For the next three minutes, they were singing the lyrics of the original Weekend Whip, each of them having their own part to sing and singing altogether during the chorus.

And then the very long song about tea started.

It went on and on and on, from a thousand bottles until the last ten.

As they reached the second bottle, they heard a low rumble. All heads turned to Cole.

"Hey, wasn't me," he told them.

Then there was the sound again.

"Jay?"

"Uh…" Jay shifted uncomfortably under their gaze.

"Why don't we take our luch break now? It's already nearing noon after all," Lloyd suggested. All of them happily complied.

They settled under the shade of a tall tree, sitting comfortably on the grass. The precious box of mystery-though-its-probably-just-tea was set right next to Zane and within sight of the ninja.

Unbeknownst to them, an unknown figure was silently watching, hidden behind the greenery.

Well, that is until she slipped on a rock and jostled the bushes nearby, almost hitting her head on another rock, but managed to catch herself before she hit it. She almost let out a yelp, but stopped herself.

Lloyd, who was nearest to the bush, threw a glance at her direction, but didn't mind it much and went back to his sushi.

The person let out a soft breath of relief as her hiding spot was left undiscovered.

Then she heard the ninja getting ready to leave and continue on the path back home.

As soon as she concluded that they were far enough, she carefully poked her head above the bush for a better view. Running behind a nearby tree, she silently hoped no one would notice her presence as she followed them.

"I sense that we are being followed," Zane whispered to his teammates, looking straight ahead, "We must keep our guard up."

Jay looked around his surroundings. Nothing seems too suspicious...until he saw something move between the bushes near the stream. The disturbance seemed too much to be a small critter. It kinda seems like a human or something similar in size.

They walked over a slightly more elevated area of the path, which rose much higher than the water level of the stream. The bushes that lined the stream so far had stopped, which gave a clearer view of the waters below, glistening under the rays of the sun.

"Did you hear that?" Lloyd asked them in a whisper. Kai, who was beside him, nodded.

Lloyd turned to look at his other teammates, and in doing so, found someone, who he assumed was who Zane sensed was following them, out in the open without the bushes covering her path right next to the stream.

They both locked eyes.

"Oh shoot, oh shoot!"

In a panic, she momentarily lost her balance and started leaning towards the stream, flailing her arms around, trying to regain balance, only to fail and completely fall backwards.

Jay, being the nearest, quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her farther from the edge.

"Alright," Kai stepped forward, "explain yourself."

Seemingly intimidated by him, she slightly shrunk back. "I...uh," she pushed back some of her black hair as she spoke and cleared her throat, mumbling something afterwards.

Nya sighed, "Come on, Kai, you're scaring her." She brushed past her brother and faced the girl, "Don't mind my brother. He's just like that sometimes. Why were you following us anyway?"

"I sort of got lost and thought I'd…" she kept looking away then down, letting her bangs cover her eyes.

Lloyd spoke up, "How about you tag along with us?" he offered.

"Uh, I'm headed to Ninjago City. Is it alright if you, you know, uh…" She trailed off.

"Sure, we are headed there after all. Oh, and by the way, what's your name?"

She contemplated on whether or not she'd tell them her name.

"Rin."

Kai was suspicious.

With the girl popping out of nowhere, and so far away from any type of civilization except for the old lady, it just seems weird.

Not to mention, she seems to be a little too wary of the other ninja, except for Lloyd. They'd usually find her keeping up a little more conversation with him than the others, just like when Jay tried to start a conversation earlier, she quickly managed to drive it to a dead end.

Kai turned his head to see that Rin looked to have been staring at him for a while. After a couple of moments, she turned to look at something else.

What's up with her?

They have been walking for a while now, already passed through a village, and pretty much only a hop skip and a jump away from Ninjago City.

By the time they had arrived, the sky was already painted in shades of magenta and blue.

"Hey," Rin lightly poked at Lloyd's arm, "Thanks for letting me tag along."

"No problem. Are you sure you're going to be fine going alone?" Lloyd asked.

"Oh I'm sure," she waved goodbye and turned on her heels.

She walked farther away from them, eventually disappearing around the corner.

"This game's gonna be a piece of cake. Hehe."

Gie-chan: If you already don't like the girl OC, you'll probably like her even less in the next few chapters, hehe.

(Or this character could totally backfire on me and you guys absolutely love her, I don't know.)

What am I even doing?

Yeah, sorry for the long lack of updates. Seriously, those contests and activities from October to December really drained my drive to write. For a while there, I thought my arm was gonna fall off with how much I've been drawing continuously.

(This kinda took me months to write. I've already written the first part out before doing chapter 3. Man…)

Anyways, Thanks for reading, and I hoped you had a good holiday and starting off 2018 with a great start!