Ninja Auzhai - After Physical Education Class -

Auzhai pulled his standard-issue blue tracksuit jacket over his mesh armor. "I didn't see it," he replied, his voice calm and low. "I felt the displacement of the air."

He didn't walk toward the main exit like the others. Instead, he looked up at the narrow ventilation shaft near the ceiling. With a fluid, explosive motion that defied gravity, he leaped. His fingers caught the edge of the vent with a sound no louder than a cat’s paw hitting silk.

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. Ninja Auzhai - After Physical Education Class

Physical Education was over, but for Ninja Auzhai, the real lesson was just beginning.

"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 pulled his standard-issue blue tracksuit jacket over

He reached into his locker, but he didn't pull out a backpack. Instead, he retrieved a small, obsidian-colored whetstone. While the other boys gossiped about the upcoming spring festival or complained about the cafeteria’s ramen, Auzhai began a rhythmic, silent sharpening of a small kunai he kept tucked in his sleeve. Clink. Slide. Clink. Slide.

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. Instead, he looked up at the narrow ventilation

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.