Sunrise casts the world in a new light, a magical light, the light of endless possibility reborn each and every day. The world rotates constantly through shadow and sunshine, spinning through the stars into the brilliant light of a new dawn. As the sun spills its radiance into every corner of the night, the pattern of the earth continues. Wind dances over the water to breathe across the land, waves roll in even as the tide ebbs, and warmth renews its promise of life and growth to a world emerging from darkness.

Standing on the shore, existing momentarily in the space between land and sea, Tori Hanson lifted her face to the light of the rising sun and squinted into its brightness. Just a brief glance, an acknowledgement of time passing, and the light glittered around her as she turned back to the ocean. She pushed her wet hair out of her face with her free hand, absently tucking it behind one ear, and hitched her board a little higher under her arm. It was time to go.

She waded out of the water reluctantly, checking her watch to confirm what her eyes had already told her. School would be starting soon, and she couldn't afford to be late to class anymore. Propping her board against the back of her van, she reached down to unfasten the ankle cuff before she pulled the doors open. She settled the surfboard in its hanging rack, hooked the leash around one of the fins, and closed the back again.

Tori shucked her wet t-shirt as soon as she climbed into the driver's seat, tossing it into the back as she started the engine. On the off chance that anyone else was on time, she might as well get there when she had said she would. So she drove in her swimsuit, rolling the windows down for maximum drying effect--and maximum chill, in the early morning air--and she wasn't surprised that the street outside Shane's house was empty when she arrived.

She took the opportunity to pull on a dry tank top while she waited. It was just for show, really--no one at school would see her in these clothes. She debated the rest of the outfit anyway, but the familiar clatter of skateboard wheels on concrete made her stick her head out the open window to watch.

Shane was flying down the road, clearly on his way back from wherever he'd been. Probably the skate park. She could have picked him up there if she'd known, but his house was closer to Dustin's than the park was. He had a bag over one shoulder, a helmet perched precariously on his head, and a wide grin on his face as he lifted his front foot and pivoted dangerously fast on the back of his board. It banged to the ground again without losing all of its momentum, but he pushed off anyway and jumped the curb, slamming one end of the skateboard down as he leapt off and caught it in his hand.

"Showoff," Tori teased, rolling her eyes as he jogged over to her window. "Is that what you've been teaching your students on all those field trips you take?"

"Ooh, is that... jealousy I hear?" Shane smirked at her, leaning on the driver's side door and giving her a roguish wink.

"Whatever!" she exclaimed, laughing. "Get in the van already; we're going to be late."

"Running behind, are we?" Shane reached out and tugged something free from her hair. "Whose fault is that?" he wanted to know, holding up the piece of seaweed for her to see.

"I was here before you were," she reminded him. As he circled the van and stowed his skateboard in the back, she added, "I can't wait until you and Dustin get an apartment. It'll be one less stop we have to make in the morning."

"That's if I can convince my parents I have a paying job." Shane threw himself into the passenger seat and reached for his seatbelt. "I don't think they're gonna buy the whole school-supported-residence thing. Not without a whole lot more information."

"You'll figure it out," Tori said confidently. "My parents think I'm working at a surfing camp. Somewhere far away."

"Yeah, your parents don't expect you to support yourself, either," Shane retorted. "Ms. Future College Student. You're totally off the hook when it comes to permanent gainful employment."

Tori just shrugged, a smile on her face as she kept her eyes on the road. "Can I help it if the logical one is also the smart one?"

"The spoiled one, you mean."

"Hey!"

They bickered good-naturedly as far as Dustin's house, where--to Tori's surprise--Dustin was already outside and waiting for them. What was less surprising was that he was slumped against the railing at the bottom of the steps, legs stretched out in front of him and his head supported by the post behind him. His eyes were closed, and he didn't so much as move when the van pulled up.

"Yo, Dustin!" Shane shouted out the window.

Tori honked the horn helpfully, and Dustin jerked awake. He scrubbed at his eyes with one hand, further tousling his hair when he tried to push it back from his face, and finally understanding seemed to sink in. He grabbed his backpack and stumbled to his feet, managing to look fairly coordinated as he trotted out to the curb.

"Hi Sleeping Beauty," Tori called, watching in the rearview mirror as Dustin followed his bag into the backseat and even remembered to close the door. "I thought ninja teachers weren't supposed to oversleep."

"That's ninja masters," Shane put in. "Totally different."

"Dude, I had the weirdest dream," Dustin mumbled, slumping against the seat and only belated looking for his seatbelt. "We were like, late again, and Sensei threatened to expel us and then the school was attacked, and Sensei totally turned into this, like, guinea pig..."

He trailed off, and Tori exchanged glances with Shane. "Dustin, that wasn't a dream," she told him, amused. "That was last year."

"No, yeah, I mean, I know that," he said, straightening up a little and frowning to himself. "But don't you think this is kind of like that? What if history, I don't know, repeats itself or something?"

"History's not going to repeat itself," Tori said firmly. "Because today we're not going to be late."

"But if we are," Shane had to add, "it'll be your fault, not Dustin's."

Tori rolled her eyes. "It will so be your fault, not mine."

"Nuh-uh," Shane disagreed cheerfully. "Definitely, all yours."

"Definitely yours!" she shot back.

They were still arguing about it by the time they'd left the van and continued on foot toward the holographic entrance that hid the existence of their school from the rest of the world. It was a hard place to study and a harder place to work, but it was worth it every time the waterfall flashed open to reveal the secret mountain training grounds. Only a tiny fraction of the population would ever even know this place existed--but for those chosen few, this place was its own reward.

Colors flashed as banners fluttered in the wind, elemental banners that represented the connection between the planet and those who inhabited it. Black uniforms, robes, and training gear wove through the careful landscaping, solemnity and focus in the midst of the pervasive rainbow... but community, too. People who had come together for a common purpose, people who had, more likely than not, shared something so intense that its effect on their lives would never truly fade. And above it all rose the symbol of their school, a massive central building wrought from ideals, a manifestation of more than just the skills they were here to master.

The Wind Ninja Academy lay spread out before them.

Stones tumbled out of the brown paper bag to land in his hand, though really, to call them stones was glorifying them. They were rocks, green rocks... well, greenish rocks. Some of them were greenish. Some of them were more bluish, or a dirty grey color. He'd seen them polished up and they were really kind of pretty, but these were the roughest chips he could find and they definitely looked like they deserved the name "rocks."

"Okay, so, here's your homework," Dustin said, lifting his hand to show the rough chips around. His students were lined up for final dismissal, and he knew they hadn't been expecting this. "I'm gonna give each one of you a stone, right?"

He walked over to the end of the line and handed the first stone to Marah. She looked at him with wide eyes, then down at the chip in her hands. She opened her mouth, then seemed to remember just in time. That was pretty good, especially considering that she'd been on an alien spaceship just a little while ago. He'd been at this school almost two years and he still interrupted senseis by accident.

"By the next class," Dustin continued, making his way down the line of students, "I want each of you to tell me where your stone came from. They're all from somewhere on campus," he added, before anyone could ask. "Just figure out exactly where, and you'll have finished the assignment."

He handed a rock to the last student, then crumpled up the brown paper bag and stuffed it into the sleeve of his teaching robe. He put his hands behind his back as he looked down the line of bewildered students, most of them furtively exchanging glances with each other to see if anyone else had understood him any better than they had. He watched with a distracted expression that hid his amusement. "Any questions?"

"Sensei?" It was Eric who raised his hand, like he was asking permission to go to the bathroom. "What if we can't, you know, do the assignment? I mean, we just started training. We're not ninjas yet."

"As long as the academy's training you, you're a ninja," Dustin told him. "I wouldn't give you an assignment you couldn't do."

Eric looked like he wanted to protest, but finally he just nodded before remembering to bow. "Yes, Sensei."

It was kind of fun being the teacher for once. Dustin waited to see if anyone else had anything to say, but of course they didn't. He had just told them they could do it. "Yeah, okay," he said at last, relaxing. "Class dismissed."

The students scattered. Marah was one of the last to turn away, and maybe it was wishful thinking, but she seemed like she was kind of dragging her feet a little. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say to her, but he was pretty sure he wanted to say something. Before he could make up his mind, though, Shane's voice interrupted him.

"Dude, giving homework already?" he teased. "That's pretty harsh."

"Nah," Dustin said absently, watching Marah drift away. He had been trying to get up the nerve to talk to her for days now. "It's not as bad as it sounds."

"What did you give them?" Shane wanted to know.

"Huh?" Dustin suddenly realized that Shane was still talking to him. "Oh, just some rocks." He pulled the bag out of his sleeve and fished out a rock chip for Shane. "I passed 'em out and told them to figure out where they'd come from."

Shane frowned. "Isn't that kind of advanced for a class that's just starting?" he asked, turning the rock over in his hand. "I mean, they're only..."

He was frowning at the stone now, and Dustin waited.

"Dude," Shane said at last. "Is this... fluorite? From Cam's lab?"

Dustin smiled the smile of the totally innocent.

"You stole Cam's rocks?" Shane demanded.

This time, Dustin shrugged. "They could have come from any of the labs in the tech wing. They don't have to guess that they're from Cam's, in particular. Just that they're not a naturally occurring thing on campus and that the tech wing is the only place that would have them."

"Cam's gonna kill you," Shane declared, handing the fluorite chip back to Dustin. "Not to mention, that's not a test of their ninja skills."

"Ah ah," Dustin chided him, "reasoning is so a ninja skill! Sensei told me so himself! 'No element in the world can substitute for your brain,' he told me. All they have to do is figure out what those rocks are and what they're used for. I didn't tell them to use their element to do it."

"Cam's still gonna kill you," Shane said with a grin.

Dustin considered asking how Shane knew he hadn't asked Cam in the first place, but he decided not to go there. "Yeah," he agreed with a solemn nod. "I know."