"Okay but Sensei... Hear me out, if I-

"For the last time Kai, you can not skip training simply because you don't feel like it." Sensei Wu scolded, smacking the back of Kai's head.

Kai frowned, rubbing his head. Jay snickered at Wu's actions, getting the finger from Kai. Jay glared at Kai, feeling Zane's hand rest on his shoulder.

"I meannnnn I can. All you have to do is say yes, master Wu." Kai teased, shrugging innocently. 

"Kai we've only been training for an hour." Zane reminded Kai, the short tempered ninja chuckled.

"He says only as if the time we've been training today has been for three hours." Kai stated, pointing at Zane with his thumb, talking as if he was stupid.

Jay has never whipped his head around so fast in his life like he did right at this moment, he stared at Kai and Zane in horror.

He looked away from Cole, forgetting that he was training with Cole. Jay dramatically dropped his arms, his nunchucks hitting the ground.

"I-It hasn't?" Jay asked in disbelief, Cole took this advantage and kicked Jay's back. The blue ninja fell to the ground, immediately losing the match.

"Oh Jay." Cole said hopelessly, playfully rolling his eyes. He reached his hand out, offering it to Jay. His best friend frowned, taking Cole's hand.

"We train six hours today Jay, you know that." Cole pointed out, Jay sighed miserably.

"I know but I was hoping we already trained for at least five hours." Jay admitted, Cole shook his head.

"Nope, just one." He replied, Jay groaned in defeat.

"I can't survive anymore hours." He complained, Cole nodded. He rested a hand on Jay's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze.

"Yes you can." Cole encouraged, Jay sighed again. Too tired to even continue complaining, to disagree with his best friend.

Sensei Wu stood tall, holding his staff. He raised an eyebrow, tilting his head.

"Oh really? Well why didn't you say so?" He questioned, looking shocked. Kai blinked twice, looking at Zane, who only shrugged.

"Sooo does that mean I can go?" He asked, Sensei Wu nodded. He stroked his long, white beard, smiling at the master of fire.

"Of course." He replied, Kai stared at his Sensei suspiciously. This was too easy, Sensei usually argued with the hot headed teammate.

"Really?" He questioned, not buying it. Cole rested his elbow on Jay's head, reminding the blue ninja that the black ninja was taller than him.

"There's gotta be a catch to this." Cole whispered to Jay, Jay chuckled with a nod.

"Kai should know better by now." Jay said, agreeing with Cole.

"All that hair gel is getting to his brain." Cole joked, Jay threw his head back and laughed.

Zane walked over to the blue and black ninja, tilting his head.

"I don't get it." Zane admitted, looking confused. Cole snickered, giving Zane a side hug.

"It's just a joke, Zane." Cole assured Zane, the nindroid nodded. Sensei Wu stared at Kai, standing as if he was about to fight.

"If you beat me in a match, you can go." Wu stated, Kai nervously chuckled.

"...Like... In a video game?" He asked, hoping that he was correct. Wu shook his head, eyes still stuck on Kai.

"No, I mean in a fighting match." Wu corrected the red ninja, Kai swallowed as Jay leaned towards Kai.

"You might as well just give up." Jay whispered, Kai glared at Jay.

"What a way to support your teammate, Jay." Kai replied with sarcasm, rolling his eyes. Jay scoffed, raising his hands up in defeat.

He didn't pay attention to Cole, not noticing that the black ninja was zoning out. Cole frowned, slightly rubbing his scar that was burning.

Zane stood next to Cole, he glanced over at the master of Earth, noticing how Cole was physically here but mentally was not, Cole's eyes and mind was somewhere else.

"I'm just sayingggg, the last time you tried, you ended up spraining your ankle." Jay pointed out, defending himself against Kai.

"That's because Cole didn't pick up the swords off the floor." Kai snarled, glaring over to Cole.

Cole blinked a few times before looking over at his teammate, he looked offended. He gasped at Kai's assumption, resting a hand on his chest.

"Hey! Well excuse me but it wasn't my turn to do it!" Cole yelled, crossing his arms. Kai rolled his eyes, groaning in frustration.

"Yes it was!" Kai yelled back, Cole shook his head.

"Nooooo I did the dishes for you and you said you would pick up the swords." Cole argued, poking Kai's shoulder. Jay raised an eyebrow, looking over to Zane.

"Is no one going to ask why there was swords on the floor?" He asked, Zane shrugged.

"I assume it's from training." He replied, Jay rubbed his chin.

"That would make sense." He admitted, they did tend to forget to pick up their weapons after training, especially the swords, they had no clue why but that was them for you.

"Do you accept the challenge or not Kai?" Wu asked, taking a step back. He stood his ground, ready to attack.

Kai stared at Wu, looking back at his teammates who shook their head. Kai looked back at his Sensei, anxiously chuckling.

He shook his head, waving his hands side to side. Kai tried to smile, play it off, be cool.

"Actually you know whaaaaaat? I'm good." Kai admitted, getting back in his place of the line. Wu smirked, tapped his staff on the ground a couple of times.

"Thought so." Wu remarked, Jay snickered at Kai backing down. Kai sent a death glare towards the master of lighting.

Cole's phone was ringing, he could hear the ringtone go off, his phone was on the steps of outside with everyone else's phone, his volume barely loud for the cause of not wanting to interrupt training time.

"Cole it seems that your phone is ringing." Zane pointed out, Cole's eyebrows rose for a second before he started jogging over to his phone.

"Oh uh thanks Zane." Cole replied, picking his phone up. Cole immediately frowned, turning to look over at Wu.

"Um Sensei, I gotta go." Cole said, pointing behind him. Sensei Wu nodded, giving him the okay to leave.

"Very well Cole, I will see you when you get back." Wu replied with a small smile, Cole nodded, making his way back inside.

"Where are you going?" Kai asked, suspicious with why Wu allowed for Cole to leave but not Kai.

"Uh out." Cole responded nervously, Kai glared at him. He rested a hand on his hip, pointing at him with his sword.

"Out where?" Kai pressed, Cole opened his mouth to speak but Jay beat him to it.

"Out to a town called Nunya." Jay answered for Cole, Kai squinted his eyes.

"Nunya?" He was confused, not sure where that was at, Wu slapped his forehead as Jay wagged his finger at him as if he was some child who was misbehaving.

"None of your business, Kai." Jay scolded, shaking his head. Zane shook his head as well, looking over at Cole.

"Don't worry about him Cole, just come back home safely." Zane assured Cole, he smiled at Zane's assurance.

"I'll see you guys later." Cole said before he walked away from his teammates. As soon as Cole was out of sight, Jay smacked Kai's arm.

"What do you think you're doing playing twenty questions with Cole like that?" Jay scolded, repeatedly tapping his foot.

Kai rolled his eyes, walking away from the blue ninja. He grabbed a couple of swords, tossing one over to Zane.

"Am I the only one that is suspicious with the fact that Cole leaves training, doesn't tell us and acts like everything is fine?!" Kai asked, talking as if he was the only one who was noticing how odd it was that Cole kept leaving training early.

Zane caught the sword, using his ice powers to freeze the sword a little bit. Jay groaned with an eye roll for the millionth time, he made sure he had a good grip on his nunchucks.

"Of course we notice Kai! But it's none of your business nor is it any of our business!" Jay yelled, waving his arms all over the place.

"Yes Kai, I have to agree with Jay. We trust Cole, he'll tell us when he is ready. Or he won't, all we can do is trust that he is safe, shouldn't that be the only thing that matters?" Zane questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Kai rolled his eyes, walking away from the blue and titanium ninja, posing to get ready to start training again.

"Clearly Cole is hiding something." Kai pointed out, saying it in a "duh," tone." Wu hit his staff on the floor once, signaling the ninjas to attack one another.

"We must respect his privacy, Kai." Zane said, tossing his shurikens at the red ninja. Kai scoffed, jumping over the master of ice's weapons.

"What do you know about privacy Zane?" Kai asked, charging after Zane with his sword. Jay came at Kai from behind, hitting Kai's back with the nunchucks.

Kai hissed in pain, turning his head to glare at Jay. Zane frowned, quickly running after his shurikens.

"More than you." Zane replied, Jay smirked at Zane's comment, looking over at Kai.

"Burn." He teased, Kai groaned in frustration. He threw a punch at Jay, but he dodged it.

Jay tried to hit Kai with his nunchucks, but Kai hit it to the side with his sword. He kicked Jay, making Jay fall back.

"Why does he get to leave early while we're stuck here?" Kai questioned, raising his arms up in frustration.

It wasn't making any sense to Kai, how come Cole got "special treatment," when him and the rest of their teammates were treating differently?

What could be so important for it to have Cole leave during training hours? Cole knew better than to make plans during training hours. It has been like this for the past two months and Kai has kept his mouth shut long enough.

There were consequences, things that Kai had to worry about. Lloyd couldn't take care of everything, he could but Kai refused; he promised to look after him.

"He could be holding us back with all the training he's skipping." Kai pointed out, almost not dodging Zane's shuriken.

"Dude he trains with Wu after he comes back, as long as he keeps up with us in his own way then I don't really mind it." Jay stated, doing a flip over Kai, kicking his back.

Kai fell forward, rolling just so he doesn't hurt his face. Kai hissed in pain, scrapping his knuckles. Kai rolled over to his back, using his sword to stop Jay's nunchucks hitting his face.

"I mean yeah, there's literally no harm done here." Zane agreed, aiming his shuriken towards Kai.

The red ninja used his leg and kicked it away from him, making Zane look back at the direction his weapon flew at; immediately getting hit by Kai's foot.

"You guys are insane." Kai snarled, paying his attention back to Jay. The blue ninja frowned, pressing his nunchucks harder against Kai's sword.

"Maybe but at least we aren't nosy." Jay snarled back, Kai scoffed. He kneed Jay's stomach, making the master of lighting groan in pain.

"You're the one to talk, Jay." Kai said, rolling his eyes. Jay wrapped his weapon around Kai's weapon and pulled it away his hands.

"Oh bite me." Jay hissed, holding tight onto Kai's sword. He held it against his throat, taking a second to catch his breath.

Jay stared down at Kai, he could see the anger in his eyes. Jay sighed miserably, setting Kai's sword on the floor, to the side.

"Look Kai, I know that you have your concerns but don't you think I don't have any as well?" Jay questioned, running a hand through his hair.

"You don't think that everyone else is worried too? Of course we are but there is nothing we can do about it, it's hard to be there for someone when they don't want you to be there for them." Jay added, biting his bottom lip.

"Cole is my best friend, before our group got bigger, it was always just him and I. It's like Cole is drifting away from me and I don't know what to do about it." Jay continued, he clutched both fists as tight as he could.

This was his best friend he was talking about, Cole was strong. He has always been strong, he's the master of Earth, physically the strongest ninja in the groups, but was he mentally the strongest ninja?...

Not even Jay could answer that, he had no clue himself and it was killing him. If there was something bothering Cole, wouldn't he have told his best friend? Did he not trust Jay enough to tell him?

"Jay, come on." Zane spoke, resting a hand on his shoulder. Jay took a deep breath, taking a step away from Kai.

Zane reached his hand out for Kai, helping him up. Jay glared at Kai, watching as the master of fire walk away from him and his sword on the floor.

"Alright, that's enough training for today. You are all too distracted, go take showers and eat. We will discuss your behavior later, especially you, Kai." Sensei Wu ordered, resting his hands behind his back.

The three ninjas stood still, all share a quick glance before nodding. They all bowed their heads, showing the respect that they will always have for their teacher.

"Yes Sensei." They all said at the same time, Kai frowned. He clenched his jaw, staring at the ground.

"This is bullshit." He mumbled, Sensei Wu raised an eyebrow.

"What was that Kai?" He asked, Kai looked up at the old man, shaking his head.

"Nothing." He lied, the first one to walk back inside. Zane shook his head with a sigh, following after the hothead teammate.

Jay hesitated, he looked down at his nunchucks, looking back up at Sensei Wu, who had his back faced Jay; too busy picking up Kai's sword off the floor.

"Sensei, everything with Cole is okay... Right?" Jay questioned, Sensei Wu's eyes slightly widened.

He turned around to look at Jay, he could see how worried the blue ninja was. Sensei Wu frowned, he quickly smiled.

"Cole will be okay, Jay. Don't worry, why don't you go join the others?" Wu suggested, Jay looked as if he wanted to say something else but he didn't.

"Yeah, okay." Jay said, letting the conversation go. He rubbed the back of his neck, walking inside.

Sensei Wu sighed miserably, he walked over to put Kai's sword back. He glanced over at Cole's scythe, furrowing his eyebrows. 

Was Cole okay? He was worried about his student, Cole always kept to himself. He never allowed to let his friends or family see how he truly was feeling.

It worried Wu, he didn't even believe himself with what he had told Jay. It wasn't too hard to see that not even Jay believed Wu, he sighed again.

All Wu could do was just hope the best for his student, hope that everything really was okay with Cole... Even if everything wasn't...