Ninja Party

**Ninja Party** is the twenty-fourth Season 1 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the twenty-fourth episode overall. It is notable of the first appearance of the Ninja ability.

## Summary

An ancient scroll is Slinker’s ninja report card; Leeko must battle Swift Man, a ninja and former Star Warrior hired by Leonardo.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Slinker (*debut*)
* Manny
* King Leonardo

### Secondary

* Bubbles (*no dialogue*)
* Chef Peppermint (*no dialogue*)
* Chief Gordy
* Daisy
* Felix (*no dialogue*)
* Gamba
* Helios & Luna
* Madeline
* Mayor Bay Brittleton
* Milly
* Miss Yuubin
* Moonlight Man
* Professor Antico
* Snowdrop (*no dialogue*)
* Swift Man (*debut*)
* Tommy
* Whitehead
* Various unnamed Puffy villagers
* Various unnamed Star Warriors (*no dialogue/flashback*)

## Episode summary

The episode begins late at night in Puffy Town, as a shadowy character is sneaking around the village. He quietly infiltrates Professor Antico's museum and attempts to steal an ancient scroll, but triggers a trap set up by Antico and fails to escape with it. The next day, a crowd of Puffies gathers around the crime scene as Chief Gordy investigates. Professor Antico explains to those present that the object the criminal was trying to steal is an ancient scroll containing the secret of the ninjas. Hearing about ninjas for the first time gets Manny excited about the idea and wants to try to be one. Later on King Leonardo and Tommy drive into town in their Tank car, investigating due to all the Puffies having reportedly disappeared from the village. As they arrive in town, they are soon "attacked" by some of the Puffy kids, who are dressed up as ninjas. Soon, Mayor Bay and Yuubin show up, also dressed as ninjas, and explain the recent fad.

Seeing Madeline's ninja apparel on sale, King Leonardo acquires one of her imitation scrolls and drives off. He then arrives at Antico's museum and asks to see the scroll that the town is talking about. Against his better judgement, Antico shows them the scroll, and while Tommy distracts him, King Leonardo swaps the fake scroll for him. This didn't go unnoticed by both the kids outside and the shadowy characters from the previous night, who is still hiding in the shop. The kids pipe up about it, but King Leonardo manages to slip away with some convincing remarks. Back at the castle, King Leonardo and Tommy get to work trying out some ninja tricks from the scroll they stole. Watching this, Milly briefly rants about the fad, insisting that the ninjas aren't even around anymore, but Moonlight Man soon corrects her, explaining that ninjas fought alongside the Star Warriors in the war against Nebula Enterprises, but one in particular turned against them.

Back in town, Manny, Leeko, and the Puffy kids are still practicing their ninja skills with little success. They decide they need to get the scroll back from King Leonardo to learn how to be proper ninjas. Manny and Leeko sneak into the castle at night and grab the scroll from a snoozing Tommy, but Leeko soon notices they are being followed and spots the burglar from before with the flashlight. As everyone wakes up from the commotion, Manny explains they found a real ninja, and Leeko manages to spot him again. Slinker then drops down clumsily, but manages to get the scroll and run. In town, Slinker is soon halted in his tracks in Puffy Town by the Puffies, and falls from his hiding place in the central tree and is caught by Milly, Manny, and Leeko. He tries to defend himself, but misses with all of his throwing stars. This causes Slinker to slump to the ground in sadness over his lack of skill.

Later on, Slinker explains to the kids that the scroll in questions was not anything special; it's actually his report card from ninja school, and he wanted to retrieve it so nobody could see his bad grades. Manny resolves to help him learn how to improve his skills along with Leeko. The two begin with a throwing star practice, which Leeko doesn't take seriously. Meanwhile, at the castle, King Leonardo has called in the double-crossing ninja Swift Man through his Monster delivery system, and ordered him to retrieve the lost ninja scroll. Swift Man soon finds the kids at the target range and battles Slinker for the scroll. Helios and Luna arrive to tell the kids who the opposing ninja is. As the battle progresses, Moonlight Man attempts to intervene, but Swift Man pins him down. He then knocks the scroll out of Slinker's hand and into King Leonardo's and prepares to finish the young ninja off with a kunai, but Leeko vacuum-mouths it and transforms into Ninja Leeko.

Ninja Leeko then battles Swift Man, going at him using advanced ninja skills such as teleportation and the Air Drop move. Having defeated Swift Man, the ninja swears revenge and vanishes in a puff of smoke as King Leonardo gets away with the scroll. As he flees, Swift Man concludes that Leeko and Moonlight Man must be the last of the Star Warriors, and that he will be back to finish them off some day. Moonlight Man warns Leeko that they will surely cross paths again. That evening, Leeko and his friends bid Slinker farewell, as the young ninja promises to go back to ninja school and try again for better grades. He attempts to exit in a flashy manner, but ends up getting swept away by a river he falls into. The kids wave goodbye to him regardless as the episode ends.

## Trivia

* This is the first and only episode in *The Beginning* series to feature the Ninja Copy Ability.
* According to an official promotional image based on this episode, Ninja Leeko is seen fighting Swift Man, whose hair is black instead of brown.
* Although Swift Man says he’ll return to get his revenge in the future, he never appeared again in *The Beginning* series, so he is likely to return in a future episode in later seasons.
* During the makings of this episode, Slinker and Swift Man were originally going to be long-lost brothers, but that idea was scrapped for unknown reasons.
* Throughout the episode, while most of the villagers are still dressed as ninjas, Leeko is intermittently in and out of his costume for no reason.