Slowly his eyes opened and he felt himself in a strange environment. Blackness. That was what he initially saw. Then, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he glimpsed his surroundings. He was in a room that was faintly lit by the wallow moonlight shining in from a window in the large room. Looking around, he saw that there were about 50 other beds surrounding his, neatly arranged, row by row. But they were empty. That was strange, he thought as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why were all the beds empty when it was already the dead of the night? Shouldn't they all be sleeping? Furthermore, these bed had occupants; they were not unoccupied for the little belongings their occupants owned were placed on the floor beside the empty beds.  In  that case...where were the occupants? Why was he the only one in this huge room obviously made to accommodate many? Suddenly, his ears picked out a sound in a distance. Creeping out of the covers of his bed, he made his way quietly out of the room, not making a single sound, quieter than the death of night until he entered a great hall at least twice as big as the room that he had just exited. The great hall was huge, its ceiling so high above that it was even concealed from Aaron's exceptional eyesight. The colour black filled the space that surrounded him save for a pathway of light that came from an opening at the far end of the hall. Curiosity filled him and he carefully made his way over. As he stood outside the entrance to the brightly lit room, sounds of fighting entered his ears. Peering in, Aaron was greeted with and amazing sight. Ninjas. Ninjas filled that brightly lighted room, ninjas that were training. Some assailed walls while others sparred with each other. Aaron's eyes opened wide as they took in what lay before them-the grandeur display of top-level martial arts the ninjas in the room possessed.  All of them were highly skilled and all had the possibility of killing his king, if he took ambush into consideration. He watched on, amazed at the ninja way of training. The ninja arts were just so different from the samurai arts. The ninja arts emphasized on speed and agility whereas the samurai arts focused on technique. The two were just SO different. Suddenly, a voice spoke. All other noises immediately stopped as the ninjas training became aware of the voice.

'Since you are already present, come and join the class.' Aaron started. What? The voice seemed to be speaking to him. He knew that those with a certain high level of martial arts could sense a hidden person's presence but he had always thought that a myth. Confused, he looked  around , trying to see who the voice was speaking to.

'There is no need to look around. I'm talking about you.' The voice spoke again and suddenly the speaker stood in front of Aaron's very eyes. 'Follow me,' the speaker commanded. Aaron was left dumbfounded for a moment before he silently followed the speaker into the room. 'Students of the elite class, this will be your new classmate from now on.' The ninjas, who had stopped all they had been doing when Aaron stepped into the room, continued with their training as if nothing ad ever happened. 

'The person who tested you said that you have great potential and that is why you have been placed in the elite class. But I want to see how much potential you actually have. Come.' Aaron followed the speaker who he now knew to be Danson from how the ninjas had called him. making their way carefully around the many training ninjas, they stopped in front of two young girls who were sparring with each other. They fought energetically, dodging attacks and putting yp a strong display of defense and attack until one girl tripped the other with her left leg. Getting up from where she had fallen, the other girl grinned at the girl who had tripped her.

'GuiGui, GuiGui. You were always better than me.'

'Of course not!' GuiGui exclaimed, swinging her arm around Jade's shoulders in a chummy way.

' Girls,' Danson interrupted their chummy exchange. 'I know you two are good friends but keep in mind that this is the time for training. Anyway, this is Aaron and Gui, I want you to spar with Aaron. Jade, go and spar with Genie in th meantime,' Danson said, pointing to a lone girl training at the far end of the room. They nodded and Jade walked off in Genie's direction. Now facing Aaron, Guigui settled herself into a fighting position as did he.  She attacked, aiming for his chest. With the quick reflexes Aaron possessed, he managed to block her attack in time. But Aaron knew he could not attack, at least not with the samurai arts.  That would, no doubt, give him away. But what else was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to just block every single attack this woman had to offer? She continued attacking and he continued defending himself until an idea suddenly dawned on him. He could fight like the ruffians of the streets did. Recalling the many fights he had seen of the common people who knew none of the arts but instead fought as they deemed fit, the caught GuiGui's leg that had been flying towards his face a moment ago. Gripping her leg in his hand, he planned to throw her over his shoulder as he had seen many do but GuiGui was faster than he, defying gravity by bringing her other leg up to kick Aaron in the chest, freeing her leg from his hand. Somersaulting in the air, she landed on her two feet before tripping the flabbergasted Aaron with a swift and cunning trip of the leg. Aaron lay, sprawled on thee floor,t urn of events. Then, he quickly scrambled up to face Danson and GuiGui.

'Very good. You do indeed have potential and...talent. But, are you sure you have never learned martial arts before?' Danson asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

'I have not,' Aaron lied. Danson still seemed suspicious but he let his suspicions pass. 'Well I trust that you have not,' he said and suddenly he was all smiles.

'Well then, let's get started. GuiGui is one of our top fighters. She will be in charge of your training. Train hard,' Danson said, smiling before he left them to their training. Aaron looked after Danson's retreating back in dismay. He hadn't even been given a choice! GuiGui glanced at Aaron and saw the dissatisfied look on his face.

'Er...Aaron...Is there anything wrong with my being in charge of your training?' she asked nervously.

'No! Don't misunderstand! There's nothing wrong with you. In fact I'm not worthy of your teaching...'  Aaron said but he was thinking other thoughts. 'If you teach me then I will have less chance for searching for Calvin's killer...Damn...' Aaron thought to himself, gritting his teeth in slight frustration.

'Then I hope we can work well together!' GuiGui exclaimed. Aaron nodded, his dismay hidden perfectly under a mask of contention. 

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I've never seen you before. Why did you join?' Gui Gui asked after they had completed their training for that night. 

'I just want to learn the ninja arts,' Aaron replied.

'Oh.' GuiGui did not say anymore for she knew that once Aaron knew what the ninja world was really like, he would wish he had never joined it. 

'Why do we train in the night instead of during the day? Aaron asked, breaking her line of thoughts. He looked at her expectantly, curiosity  filling his every feature. 

'That's where you're wrong,' GuiGui replied. 'We don't only train at night, we train in the day as well.' Aaron's jaws dropped in shock at the flabbergasting piece of news he had just received. 'Are you kidding? When does day training start?' 

'9...So...' GuiGui said thoughtfully as she estimated the remaining time left mentally. 'We have approximately 6 hours of sleep till day training. We're actually very lucky; those not in the elite class start training at 7,' she said, trying to comfort Aaron.

'But they get to sleep the whole night...'Aaron thought gloomily before heading off to bed.

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Ps. There will be a new Guilun one-shot posted soon! Hope you people will support it!