Hidden Away || Ninjago AU

S:2; Ch:12

It's been two days since the last meeting. The ninjas were gathered at their hideout inside a dark room. Their Senseis were absent for this meeting since this was for them alone.

A light suddenly appeared from the slideshow that was about to begin. It could be seen that the ninjas were all seated except Water, who was making the presentation.

"Welcome, everyone," Water said. "As you know, we're opening a new case today. Any idea on the title?"

"Maybe, the case of the missing boy?" Red suggested.

"Don't we have a case named that already?" Wind argued.

"How about the case of a boy missing for two years?" Black said.

"Did you really say that?" Water asked with a facepalm. "Blue? You're our naming expert."

"Huh? Me?"

"Him?" Orange questioned, "All he gives us are weird names that are either too comical or don't make sense."

"Is that a bad thing?" White pined in. "Blue's names are unique, and the comical ones tend to lighten the tension of our missions."

"Yeah," Wind agreed, "Like, Operation: Rubber Ducky. I remember it was about a plastic factory that exploded a year ago near a park where ducks were fond of staying."

"But that name i-" Orange said, cut off.

"Okay, then, Blue," Black said, "What name will you give this mission?"

"Yeah, Blue?" Water asked.

"Ugh," Orange groaned. She slumped in her seat, defeated.

"Hmm..." Blue thought for a few seconds. He rubbed his chin before concluding. "Then maybe, Case of the Missing Green..."

"Huh?" Red asked, "The missing green what?"

"..." Blue sat still in thought.

"Green bean!" Black exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, what?" Water said, another facepalm underway. "Black, why do you do this to me?"

"Case of the Missing Green Bean?" Wind wondered aloud. "It doesn't sound too bad."

"Are you out of your mind?" Orange asked. "What does Green Bean even mean?"

"Green," Blue spoke up. "Because the person in question has green eyes."

"Bean because the kid looks like he finds life bland and boring, which is exactly how I feel about beans." Black finished. He had a satisfied look on his face as he smirked.

"Wow, you must be so proud of yourselves for coming up with such a name," Orange sighed sarcastically. "Let's just move on with why we're actually here."

"Okay, our first agenda is completed. Moving on to today's main issue," Water said.

The slideshow began. The first slide appeared and was titled His Details. However, there wasn't much to read.

"For some reason," Water started, "Sensei Wu wouldn't give us the name of the person we're looking for."

"So, what will we call him?" Red asked.

"We could call him Green-bean," Black suggested.

It was quiet in the room for a moment.

"Okay, whatever, fine," Water said, "We don't have time to discuss it anyway."

"As I was saying," Water continued, "We don't have that much to go on. Green bean's age is 18, he went missing when he was 16, and the only picture we have of him is from when he was 15."

"I can already sense the difficulty level of this case," Wind sighed.

"You're not alone," Red said, slumping in his seat.

"As if it couldn't get any worse, the person we're looking for is an Elemental. Sensei wasn't sure how to describe his element. He said it's powerful but takes a toll on the user's body when overused. There's also another disadvantage. The power goes out of control if not used for long."

"That's... a terrible element to have," Blue said.

"Yeah. In short, the person we're looking for is an Elemental around our age but with a sickly appearance. He'll probably look paler than in the picture Sensei showed us. We might not even recognize him when we see him."

"I knew this would be difficult," Wind said, slumped in his seat. "Where do we start looking?"

"Come on, sit up," Orange urged as she forced herself to sit up. "If it were easy, Sensei wouldn't have given us."

"Orange is right," Water stated, "Fortunately, our first location to investigate is somewhere familiar."

"Where?" The boys asked, acting as though they were tired.

"Newton Cross High School."

"Should I be happy or sad?" Black sighed.

"NCHS isn't a bad place to start," Water said. "For one, since the principal of NCHS is partners with our Senseis, we can do our investigation freely. Another thing is that Sensei suspects that the missing person from the fire incident might be who we're looking for."

"And you think he might be hanging around the school?" Red asked.

"He might be attending the school."

"What?!"

"Then this case is as easy as solved. In fact, it's already solved." Black said.

"Black's right," White agreed. "If he's returned and attending that school, we could find and kidnap him and drop him off at HQ."

It was quiet in the room. Everyone stared at White.

"Did you forget I was in the room? Again?"

The ninjas looked away from White, avoiding his gaze. White sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ahem," Water cleared her throat, "Sorry about that, White, but I must continue."

"A student was recently transferred in. However, there was no record showing that he attended the school. At first, the situation was ignored. The school assumed he didn't resume on time. The situation was later noticed after the fire incident, and the school decided to investigate. But, before the investigation could begin, the transfer documents went missing."

"And the difficulty has returned," Wind sighed.

*Bang! Clang! Bang!*

The ninjas stood up immediately.

"What are you getting all worked up for?" A voice echoed in the room.

This startled the ninjas even more than the previous sound. No one knew their hideout, and not even animals visited the area. When did someone get in there? And how did the ninjas not notice? How long has this stranger been there? How did they find this place? Are they friend or foe?