Ninja Auzhai - After Physical: Education Class

As the locker room emptied, a heavy silence settled. Auzhai finished his maintenance and tucked the blade away. He adjusted his headband, the metal plate gleaming under the fluorescent lights. He glanced at the clock; he had exactly four minutes before his next briefing with the Elders.

Outside, Kaito and the others were walking across the courtyard, laughing. They didn't notice the blur of dark fabric moving across the rooftops above them, silhouetted against the orange sky.

The afternoon sun slanted through the high windows of the Shinobi Academy gymnasium, catching the dust motes kicked up by two dozen pairs of scurrying feet. For most students, the end of Physical Education meant the end of the day’s struggle. For Ninja Auzhai, it was the start of a different kind of battle: the transition back to the shadows.

"Dude, Auzhai," panted Kaito, wiping sweat from his forehead with a gym towel. "Coach Tanaka almost clipped you with that training star. How did you even see it coming?"

Auzhai stood by the wooden lockers, his chest rising and falling in a steady, controlled rhythm. While his classmates leaned against the walls, gasping for air after a grueling hour of "Wall-Running and Projectile Evasion," Auzhai looked as though he had merely taken a light stroll.