XY099

The Legend of the Ninja Hero! (Japanese: ようこそ忍者村へ！英雄ゲッコウガの伝説！！ Welcome to the Ninja Village! The Legend of the Heroic !!) is the 99th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, and the 898th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on December 3, 2015 and in the United States on March 26, 2016.
==Blurb==
In the middle of a lunch break, our heroes are happily surprised by the appearance of their old friend Sanpei and his Greninja. They’re heading home to Ninja Village, and our heroes are invited!
There they meet Sanpei’s brothers, Ippei and Nihei, as well as the village chief Hanzo and his assistant Shinobu. All are impressed with Sanpei’s growth as a ninja and a Trainer. Our heroes marvel at all the amazing Pokémon there...and Team Rocket, watching from above, plots to catch them all.
Out of nowhere, several Skarmory attack the village, and a group of masked ninja abducts Chief Hanzo! Who are they, and what are their intentions? The answers to come, as the journey continues!
==Plot==
Inside a cave, Kagetomo discusses his plans to invade Hanzo's Ninja Village. The Ninja Corp, with its leader Heidayu, swear their allegiance to Kagetomo. 
Elsewhere, has finished with and is preparing to have lunch. Squishy senses a foreign presence nearby, and Frogadier soon also detects that something is amiss. Frogadier then launches off his , blocking an incoming attack. It is revealed to be old friends Sanpei and his , and Sanpei compliments Frogadier on having noticed their presence. invites Sanpei for lunch and he accepts. Over lunch, he explains that he had been on his way home to the Ninja Village to be part of tomorrow's village festival. As the group express their interest in visiting the village, Sanpei happily invites them over. is particularly excited, donning a pink ninja outfit made by Serena for the occasion.
The group, along with Sanpei, enters a cave which appears to be a dead-end. Sanpei proceeds to knock on the stone at the end of the cave, with a man answering with the word "mountain". Sanpei replies with the code "river", causing the stone door to slide away, revealing a path. Sanpei is greeted by two men who tell Sanpei that everyone will be happy when they see him. The path then leads the group to Ninja Village, a town encased by cliffs on all sides. Sanpei greets the villagers, and the word eventually reaches his older brothers, Ippei and Nihei. His brothers come to greet Sanpei, and compliment Sanpei on evolving his Frogadier. Hanzo, the village chief, along with his assistant Shinobu then greet the group, admitting they have already heard a lot about them from Saizo. After laughing too hard, Hanzo begins to cough in exhaustion, and is taken care of by Shinobu. Hanzo then begins to flirt with Shinobu, though she performs ninja body switch to escape. Bonnie asks her to be Clemont's "keeper", but Shinobu reveals that she is actually 100 years old. At that, Bonnie asks Shinobu to forget the offer.
Nihei then challenges Sanpei to a to see how much he had grown. Nihei calls out , and proceeds to use after Sanpei's Greninja tries a technique. Venusaur follows on with , though Greninja counters it with a and lands a sneaky . Venusaur makes a quick recovery, however, and overpowers Greninja by concealing itself with a and finishing off with a . With the match over, Hanzo remarks that Sanpei had left too many openings and could have won with his first Night Slash. Ippei reveals that Venusaur had blocked that Night Slash within moments of impact. However, despite the loss, Hanzo and Ippei agree that Sanpei has grown since last time.
While Kagetomo’s forces have broken through the initial village defenses, Ash and the group are now exploring the caves which serve as homes for the villagers and follow Sanpei to his room. Ash's Frogadier notices a photo in the room, showing Sanpei with his Froakie before he had left on his journey. After Clemont asks Sanpei what he plans to do next, Sanpei replies he will stay in Ninja Village to train and help his brothers as Ippei will soon be made the next village chief. As Sanpei is talking, is playing around with Squishy, but accidentally falls down a hidden trapdoor in the floor. Bonnie notes their absence and Sanpei reveals the trapdoor, thinking that they may have fallen through to the secret underground passageways. Bonnie and an unwilling Clemont follow through, and the rest also decide to go through the trapdoor as well. At the other end, the falling Dedenne and Squishy are saved by Nihei, while Bonnie's fall is stopped by Ippei. The others then enter the passageway with a smooth landing, with the exception of Clemont, who falls flat on the ground, and Serena, who ends up on Clemont's back. 
Sanpei's brothers then lead the group to a monument dedicated to the hero of the village; a Greninja. Ippei informs the group that Ninja Village was once chaotic with the village ninjas having fought amongst each other. While the reason for the fight was unknown, the Pokémon of the village had defended their village, with Greninja as their leader. Ippei and Sanpei reveal that they had chosen Froakie as their first partner Pokémon in admiration of the hero. Bonnie then comments that the Greninja in the picture looks different to ones she had seen before.
Meanwhile, have been spying on the village and plan on stealing the village's Pokémon. They plan to create a ruckus to lure out all the villagers' Pokémon, and then capture them using their devices. However, before they can do so, Kagetomo's fleet closes in to attack Ninja Village. As the villagers flee, alarms alert Ash and the group underground of danger. Ippei suggests that Sanpei take Ash and the group to Hanzo while Ippei and Nihei investigate outside. Sanpei and the group arrive at Hanzo's place, however, Kagetomo and his Ninja Corp storm the vicinity and kidnap the chief with a smoke bomb as distraction. Sanpei and Ash follow, but as Serena is about to follow, Shinobu stops her since it would be too dangerous. Shinobu instead tells Serena that they will find Ippei together.
Outside, Ippei and Nihei are continuing to defend the village from the Skarmory. Team Rocket, still in their Meowth balloon, then plan to use the ruckus already made for them to steal the village Pokémon. Jessie throws a capture device at the Pokémon, but the device is knocked off-course by Skarmory's attack. It instead lands next to Shinobu and Serena who are running towards Ippei, binding the two together. Elsewhere, Ash and Sanpei continue to chase Kagetomo, but are stopped by Heidayu and his .
==Major events==
* and meet up with Sanpei again, and meet his brothers Ippei and Nihei for the first time.
===Debuts===
====Humans====
* Ippei (in person)
* Nihei (in person)
* 
* Shinobu
* Kagetomo
* Heidayu
====Pokémon debuts====
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Sanpei
* Ippei
* Nihei
* Saizo (flashback)
* 
* Shinobu
* Kagetomo
* Heidayu
* Ninjas
* Ninja army
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international) Pokémon Quiz: (Japan)
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (; photo)
* ()
* (Ippei's)
* (Nihei's)
* (Saizo's; flashback)
* (Kagetomo's)
* (Heidayu's)
* (ninja's; ×2)
* (ninja's; ×6)
* (ninja's)
* (ninja's)
* (ninja's; ×3)
* (ninja's; ×4)
* (ninja's; ×2)
* (ninja's)
* (ninja's)
* (ninja's)
* (ninja's)
* (; Squishy)
* 
* 
* 
* (Ash-Greninja; painting)
* (painting)
* (painting)
* (Poké TV segment)
* (Poké TV segment)
==Trivia==
* Poké TV: Poké Love TV focusing on "Frubbles".
* and narrate the preview for the next episode.
* wears the same ninja outfit that she wore in A Rush of Ninja Wisdom!.
* Frogadier remains outside of its for the entire episode.
* This episode marks the first main series appearance of since it appeared in Pruning a Passel of Pals!, 354 episodes ago.
** This is also the first appearance of a in the main series since Flint Sparks the Fire!, 267 episodes ago.
===Errors===
* In the village, 's tail is colored entirely yellow except the plume.
* After Ash and go through the trapdoor and walk up to the temple, Frogadier's toes are colored white instead of dark-blue.
XY099 error.png|Frogadier's toes error
===Dub edits===
==In other languages==
099
Category:Episodes in which a Legendary Pokémon appears
Category:Episodes written by Shinzō Fujita
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Kaori Higuchi
Category:Episodes directed by Fumihiro Yoshimura
Category:Episodes animated by Michinosuke Nakamura
de:Der Held der Ninja!
es:EP902
fr:XY099
it:XY099
ja:XY編第99話
zh:宝可梦 XY 第98集