Prologue

“Next match, Andrew Shade vs. Aku Blaze,” announced the examiner.

Andrew shadowjumped down to the arena and waited for Aku to appear in a whirlwind of flame.

“Opponents ready?” asked the examiner. Andrew and Aku nodded in agreement.

“Then begin.”

Immediately, Aku began to throw fireballs, causing Andrew to exert energy to dodge. But instead of dodging, Andrew merely descended into his own shadow, pulling Aku’s feet with him.

“What? I’m stuck!”

••••••

Andrew Shade has always been interested with shadows. While playing tag with childhood friends in ninja academy, Andrew would sit within a shadow of a tree. Just waiting for someone to pass by.

“Tag, you’re it,” he would say, appearing from within the shadow. Then he would scamper off to the next shadow, only to hide again. His friends never saw him coming. And never did his opponents.

An explosion of flame against a nearby tree brought Andrew out of his memories, and back into reality. I need to end this quickly, thought Andrew. The final exam round for the third rank of shinobi had only started twenty minutes ago and already Andrew was bored.

The opponent was using his internal life energy to throw fireballs, and he was using them to destroy the trees within the enclosed arena. This guy is energy happy.

“You can’t hide forever,” stated the pyromaniac. Little did he know, Andrew was hiding within his shadow, the same shadow that had trapped the pyro’s feet. Andrew used his own life energy to summon a clone of himself from a nearby shadow.

“I see you.” The pyro spotted the clone, and launched a fireball. The shadow clone dissipated when it was hit.

“Think again,” came Andrew’s voice from below. With that, Andrew yanked on Aku’s feet, pulling him up to his neck.

Andrew rose from the shadow, and nodded to the referee to continue.

The examiner raised his right arm, hand pointed at Andrew.

“Winner, Andrew Shade,” he declared.