A Pure Heart

Chapter 1

  Hikari Tsukino was walking through Jamanakai Village with her best friend, Lloyd Garmadon. They were holding hands to avoid losing one another, even though the adults were giving them strange looks. Although, really, two eight-year-olds holding hands did look kind of weird, now that she considered it.

Hikari looked a bit like a porcelain doll, with her pale skin and black hair, as well as her silvery gray eyes. Hikari really liked her eyes;she thought they were pretty. But she hated her height; she was so tiny that even though Lloyd was her age he literally almost towered over her by about five inches.

"Look at all the candy!" Lloyd said, pointing at the candy stalls.

Hikari, who was in the middle of a very quiet thought, jolted slightly as Lloyd blurted out and looked in the direction he was pointing. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, pretty," she said vaguely.

Lloyd looked back at Hikari. He didn't really get her. While he usually hated girls, this one had been persistent. She had followed him around and talked to him. So finally, he had started responding because, well... he was lonely.

Hikari lost his interest and he let go of her hand.

Hikari was shaken out of her thoughts by the fact that she could no longer see that black-and-slightly-green hoodie that Lloyd wore on a daily basis, or feel the warmth of his hand, which meant he had probably run off looking for candy. "Ah! Lloyd!" she cried out, looking around in confusion before noticing a crowd of villagers, with Lloyd standing on the fountain.

Hikari began to make her way through the crowd, which was actually not too hard due to the fact that she was tiny. "Sorry, let me through please," she kept whispering shyly until she had managed to get to the front of the crowd.

"Give me all your candy, or I'll release the Serpentine on you!" yelled Lloyd, waving his 'can of snakes' prank gift at the crowd. In response, the villagers started throwing vegetables.

"I asked for candy, not vegetables! I hate vegetables!" he shouted as he opened the can.

Hikari shook her head in amusement. Oh, Lloyd...

She was slightly distracted when four, taller guys (in red, white, blue, and black) elbowed their way through the crowd. The red one actually PICKED LLOYD UP and started walking away, the black one saying, "Um, nothing to see here, folks!"

Hikari frowned as she ran after them, as they discussed Lloyd's punishment. "What do you think we should do with him? Spank him?" the red one said, as Hikari tried to run harder.

"Kai, that is rather immature to suggest and we are not spanking a small child, regardless of his behavior," the white one said. Kai... so the red one was Kai...

"Who's side are you on, Zane? His or ours?" joked the blue one. The white was Zane, then...

"I am merely stating my opinion, Jay," Zane said firmly, dubbing the blue guy Jay. "Yeah, well it's just a kid; it won't hurt if we do something just this once," said the black one.

"We could give him a wedgie," Kai mused, "how about that for an idea, Cole?"

Having heard enough, Hikari charged over to Kai. "Hey! Put him down!" she demanded, yanking hard on the red one's arm that held Lloyd. Unsurprisingly, she did not move it an inch.

Lloyd's eyes widened as he squirmed in Kai's grasp. Usually, Hikari was shy and sweet, but right now she looked mad.

"Why are you standing up for him? He's the evil son of Lord Garmadon for the First Spinjitsu Master's sake!" Jay said, smirking and crossing his arms in an 'explain yourself' way.

Hikari paused, trying to get her thoughts together as she slowly let go of Kai's arm, her silvery eyes clouding over slightly thoughtfully before she finally looked up.

"Because... when I was little, I lived alone... my mommy and daddy never were home, and I didn't have any friends. But then I left the house, and he was the first person to be my friend. He was like... the nightlight in my room at night. So where he goes, I will follow him. Even if he joins the dark side," Hikari said bravely before looking at Lloyd, a smile forming on her face. "Because when I look at him, I don't see the darkness in him... I see the light."

Jay's smirk had faded, and he was now sniffling, touched. Cole was trying hard not to smile, and Zane was smiling, not trying to hide it. Only Kai seemed at all unbothered by this.

"Well, that might be, but we still have to punish him," said Kai, and he hung Lloyd up on the sign post.

Lloyd struggled to get down as the ninja chuckled slightly, before they left. Hikari climbed up the building slowly, due to her fear of heights, and, reaching out as far as she dared, unhooked his hoodie.

This simple motion also unbalanced her, and the two kids fell towards the ground before landing in a big, cold snow bank.

Hikari popped her head out of the snow, shaking it out of her hair as she looked in Lloyd's direction- and then she giggled, because Lloyd had snow on his nose. She reached over and brushed it off, making a faint blush cross Lloyd's cheeks, although she was oblivious to it due to his hoodie covering his face.

"Thanks, Hikari," he said, as he dug himself out of the snowbank and began to walk towards the mountains, presumably to be alone. Hikari still grabbed his hand though, making him roll his eyes slightly with a grin.

X

Kai was thinking about Hikari's speech in a slight daze, a tiny smile on his face. Even though they acted like they were just friends, it was obvious Hikari loved Lloyd a bit, although she didn't seem to know it herself yet.

Since he was not paying attention, he knocked a brown satchel to the ground, the slight force also knocking an old scroll out of it. Getting back off of Flame, he picked it up and looked at it. "I didn't pack this," he said, sounding confused.

"That is Sensei's bag; you must've taken it in the confusion earlier," Cole said as Kai opened the scroll. "What are all these weird letters?" he wondered.

"Those are not 'weird letters'- this was the writing of our ancestors," Zane said thoughtfully, taking the scroll from Kai.

Kai raised his eyebrows expectantly. "Can you read it?"

"I think so... this symbol is prophecy," Zane noted, rubbing his chin.

Jay cocked his head, looking confused. "Prophecy?"

"It means something that tells the future, bonehead," Kai shot back. Jay hastily rubbed the back of his neck with a chuckle. "Oh, um, yeah! I knew that," he lied.

"Two ninjas... will rise above the others... and become the green and purple ninja... These ninja are to defeat the dark lord... and bring peace to Ninjago... but there is a catch, it is that... the purple ninja is at a bigger risk... of being corrupted, because... and if the purple ninja is corrupted, they will bring... Ninjago's demise," Zane interpreted.

Jay gave Zane a look. "Zane, I think you missed something, like, oh, I don't know, WHY IS THE PURPLE NINJA AT A BIGGER RISK OF BEING CORRUPTED?!"

Zane scratched his head. "I... do not know, the paper is smudged and the symbols are too hard to read."

As the ninja got back on their dragons and flew back towards the monastery, bantering about, they were blissfully unaware of the evil that was about to be released on Ninjago.

X

Lloyd was kicking a rock in the mountains, muttering under his breath. Hikari was having trouble keeping up, due to the bitterly cold wind that kept knocking her back so far that she could hardly see Lloyd. She was also freezing to death.

Lloyd finally noticed Hikari wasn't next to him, and looked around. He spotted a tiny silhouette trailing at least twenty feet behind him, and stopped so that she could catch up.

Hikari finally managed to struggle over to him, her teeth rattling in her skull, her mouth was chattering so much. "T-t-thanks f-f-f-for w-waiting f-for m-m-me, L-Lloyd," she chattered.

Lloyd noticed that she was actually trembling from the cold. Hesitating for only a minute, he put his arm around her and took her hand with his free hand. "C'mon, let's go," he said, leading her along. His body was warm due to the hoodie, so Hikari was definitely warmer.

She gave him a bright smile, even though she was probably going to get hypothermia from the cold. "Thanks, Lloyd," she chirped slightly, still trembling.

"No problem, what are friends for?"

They walked along in silence until Hikari stepped on something that rang with a hollow 'clang!'

Lloyd began to clear away the snow, revealing a huge, metal tomb thing. As he moved the snow, his arm hit a hidden switch, and suddenly he fell into the tomb. "Ahh!" he yelped, landing on his face. As he got up, he noticed Hikari was looking down at him from the very edge.

"C'mon, Hikari! I'll catch you!" he yelled, waving at her.

Hikari puffed a strand of black hair from her eyes, peeping into the hole. "Are you sure?"

"Sure! When have I ever let you down?" Lloyd said with a big grin.

Hikari hesitated. "Well there was that time you left me alone in the park by accident... and the time I fell down the stairs and you didn't come after me... and the time before that, when-"

Lloyd facepalmed slightly. "OK, well, this time I'll catch you, I promise!"

Hikari bit her lip before squeezing her eyes shut and jumping in. For a minute, her entire body felt weightless before a pair of arms wrapped around her. She dared to open one eye to see Lloyd had caught her bridal style. A blush crept across her cheeks, although it was hard to tell due to the fact that her cheeks were already flushed.

Quickly, she got out of Lloyd's grasp and dusted herself. "T-thanks, Lloyd," she stuttered, partially from the cold and partially from nerves.

"No problem... where are we?" he wondered, looking around. They were in an ice cavern with reflective ice around them, which was really beautiful.

"Intruderssss..." hissed a voice, making Hikari look around to see a large snake with hypnotic red eyes coming towards them, holding a golden staff.

The general... of the Hypn... Hypnob... Hypnobrai! Yes, that was it.

"Lloyd, close your eyes," she whispered to her friend, and Lloyd shut his eyes as she backed away from the giant snake. "I control you," hissed the general, continuing to advance on the two of them. As her back collided with an ice column, she ducked in terror, which made the Hypnobrai hypnotize HIMSELF by accident.

"Um, no. I control YOU now," Lloyd said, a wicked grin spreading across his face, to Hikari's dismay. Lloyd...

"What shall you have us do, master?" asked the snake in a deferential tone.

"U-us?" Hikari squeaked, as around eighty snakes emerged from the icy walls. Her hand tightened on Lloyd's, and Lloyd squeezed her hand, although now he was distracted.

"My own army of snakes!" he cackled, before letting out a wicked laugh, leaving Hikari frozen in fear...

x

"Jamanakai Village is in danger!" shouted Sensei, bursting into the training area.

"Calm down, Sensei, we were just there, some kid called Lloyd-"

Sensei was agitated, EXTREMELY agitated. "The spirit smoke does not lie! You must go now!" ordered Sensei, all of the ninja immediately running to their dragons at his order.

As they got to the village, hiding behind a few of the buildings, they could see Lloyd riding a wheelbarrow of candy being pushed by the Hypnobrai. Hikari was following when she suddenly stopped and looked in their direction; the ninja immediately ducked behind the wall, Nya catching up to them as they did.

Hikari stared at the wall, she was pretty sure she had just seen a small spot of red; maybe the ninja?

She curiously walked over to the wall and looked around the corner, the ninja stared back at her in perfect shock for a moment. Finally, though, Hikari walked closer to them, her dark eyes wide with curiosity.

"Um... the Hypnobrai general has the staff," she said shyly. "And Lloyd's eaten a ton of candy by now... maybe if one of you distract the general, you could steal the staff?"

Before the ninja could respond to this very excellent plan, Hikari turned around and began to walk away. "I didn't tell you that," she called back. "And I didn't see who's standing behind the wall."

Nya shook her head with an amused smile. "Smart kid," she remarked before turning back to the ninja, her face utterly serious. "OK, I think her plan wasn't bad, so who's going to distract the general and who's going to steal the staff?"

"I can steal the staff," Cole offered, as Kai remarked, "I could make a distraction."

"I'll handle Lloyd," Zane decided, and Jay sighed. "That leaves me with distracting the OTHER Hypnobrai..."

"Ninja-GO!" yelled the four ninja, with Nya following along.

As Zane approached Lloyd, Kai suddenly tapped the Hypnobrai general on the shoulder. As the general turned around, Cole quick-as-a-flash snatched the staff from the Hypnobrai's loosened grip. As Cole began to run off, he accidentally looked into the eyes of another Hypnobrai. His eyes began to swirl with red.

Lloyd was in the middle of a sugar high and didn't really notice Hikari, so Hikari did something daring- she picked up the nearest thing (it happened to be a rock) and threw it at the Hypnobrai that was hypnotizing Cole.

The rock smacked into the side of it's head, and it fell over. Cole began to walk away, when Nya yelled, "Cole, you have the staff!"

"By golly, you're right!" Cole exclaimed, shaking his head as he jumped into the fountain and stabbed it into the water. The antivenom began to rise up in steam clouds, making the villager's eyes return to normal.

Lloyd yelled, "Retreat!" And all of the snakes began to run. Hikari didn't even hesitate a second as she tagged along behind Lloyd.

Sensei Wu watched the two of them run off as the ninja neared him.

"...hm..."

x

Hikari walked around the cavern nervously. She had chatted to a few of the snakes so far, but beyond that nothing much had happened. They were actually somewhat nice, which surprised her.

She didn't hear the two snakes talking however, still trying to help Lloyd with his massive sugar high.

"We all know that the general is being controlled by Lloyd, Skales, and yet you do nothing! We do not mind the girl; she tends to us and talks to us like we're human, but the general being controlled is another thing and we cannot allow it!"

"I know, that is why I controlled one of the ninja," smirked Skales. The soldier snake took a step back in surprise. "Does the general know?"

"No; because my plan will fall into place soon," Skales hissed. A maniacal evil laugh rang out over the mountain, symbolizing the great evil that had befallen Ninjago.

In the monastery, Cole's dark brown eyes blinked and became a pair of swirling red pools before reverting back to brown.

A/N: Whoo! First chapter done!

Hoped you liked it; please review and leave me your thoughts!

x.X. A.L. X.x