Chapter 88 - 47 - Ninja Trials

Later after lunch, Ash called his two friends to meet him at the forests outside for a little surprise. His two called friends are Rico and Serena. In response, Rico and Serena answered him by joining him to the forests, along with their Pokémon. Iris and Trip, however, are still resting from the heat of the sun.

In no time, Ash, Rico, and Serena arrived at the middle of the forest and under the trees.

"Wait, Ash, what are we doing here again?" Rico asked him in not knowing what is going on. Switching to his Blue Ninja clothes, Ash turned around with his mask on, stunning Rico and Serena.

"You two will train as ninjas," Ash said to them brightly.

"What?" Rico and Serena asked in shock simultaneously. "Us?"

"Yeah, so you two will defend yourselves," Ash explained what is the purpose.

"Okay then," Rico replied with no hesitation.

"We'll do it, Ash," Serena added.

In no time, Ash trains them in long-range shooting using kunai knives and shurikens and the logs of trees as targets.

"Our first training is throwing kunai knives and shurikens," Ash said to them. He then positioned himself towards a tree, aim his shuriken towards it precisely, and, after taking a deep breath, threw it towards the tree, striking the tree perfectly, amazing the two kids a lot.

"What the...?" Rico commented.

"How did you...?" Serena commented.

"It took a lot of training for me to master it," Ash explained about that. Hearing him, the two kids snapped out.

"Okay, we get it now," Rico responded. He then walked in position towards the tree, grabbed a shuriken, and aim it for the tree; taking a deep breath, Rico swing his arm and threw the shuriken towards the tree, but it only hit the tree quickly and fell to the ground, embarrassing Rico in front of his friends. His determination fluctuates a bit.

"I think you need more training in position and aim," Ash seriously responded in examination of Rico's try-out. Turning around while scratching his head a bit in mild embarrassment, Rico replied, "You're right, Ash, I really need that." But meanwhile, another Pokémon, this time a Pidove, which turns out to be a painted robot, turns its head towards them and zoom in to see their activity, spying on them to get any information which is useful on their future plans.

So, the montage of Rico and Serena's ninja training had began. Prior to his training with Ash, Rico had been liking ninja comics a lot, considering then awesome and mysterious, and wishing to be one. Ash taught them to focus and throw shurikens towards a tree in accuracy and speed. Try after try, Rico and Serena throw shurikens and rarely, they got it perfect. They got exercises with their Pokémon, including push-ups, and meditation times for less than half an hour. These are crucial for ninja training. Lucario even started to enjoy it, as if it wanted to be a strong Pokémon. By 4:00 p.m., they all take a break and went back to the Pokémon Center to rest and eat snacks. Though it was hard, but Rico was determined to get stronger, even with all that sweat and body pain taking over him.