A young child or adolescent who aspires to be a Ninja, but has a long way to go and a lot yet to experience before they become a real ninja. Of course, some of them can already be a ninja and kick ass.
Compare Kid Samurai, Young Gun, and Kung-Fu Kid. Contrast Child Soldiers.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Naruto:
- Naruto focuses on the adventures of the titular young ninja, his friends Sakura and Sasuke, and their class of the Hidden Leaf Village - all belonging to the same age bracket (early teens at the most). Partway through the story, there's a Time Skip that ages them to their mid-to-late teens.
- Boruto, the sequel and spin-off, features Naruto's son, Boruto. Like his father before him, the show features him in his early teens, and having adventures with the children of the previous generation of ninjas (depicted in Naruto and Shippuden).
- The Narutaki Twins from Negima! Magister Negi Magi could be this trope.
- Ninja Hattori-kun centres around a young Ninja who befriends the main character.
- Shinobu from Ninja Nonsense is a total airhead. It doesn't help that she has a terrible teacher.
- Nintama Rantarou is about the school life of playful ninja students.
- One Piece: The Wano Arc gives us Tama, a little girl who not only aspires to be a "bewitching" kunoichi, but to also join Ace's pirate crew. Sadly, by the time the plot makes it to Wano, Ace had been already killed in the Paramount War Arc. While she has no fighting ability, she does have a Devil Fruit power where she can create dango, and if an animal eats that dango they become her friends.
- Black*Star from Soul Eater isn't called a ninja In-Universe, but he fits the trope.
- In Tamagotchi, Gozarutchi is a school-going boy who comes from Gozaru Village, which has a huge population of ninjas. Gozarutchi does have quite a few ninja techniques down, such as walking on water, but he still practices with his ninja toad friend Gamanosuke and only gets the hang of the "Art of Shadow Cloning" when he has to save Kikitchi and has no other choice.
Comic Books
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in most media. Michelangelo seems to fit this trope best of them in the later incarnations. Occasionally there are also flashbacks to the turtles' childhoods, when they were small adorable ninjas-to-be.
Fan Works
- In chapter 2 of SlifofinaDragon
's Sengoku Basara fanfic Finally Home, Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's grandson Tsukitora (mothered by their son Masa and fathered by the late Oyamada Nobushige) undergoes some ninja training taught by Sarutobi Sasuke, who he looks up to.
Films — Live-Action
- All of the new students attending at Ninja Academy.
- Spritle in the film version of Speed Racer, but he doesn't pull it off very well.
- The three protagonists from the 3 Ninjas film series.
- The Filipino film, Ninja Kids.
Live-Action TV
Professional Wrestling
- El Hijo del Ninja, El Ninja Jr and Último Ninja on the Mexican circuit, the latter of whom debuted in his preteens. All three grew up to be respectable luchadors.
Tabletop Games
- In Shinobigami, shinobi from Otogi Private Academi can be as young as primary school.
Video Games
- Kay Faraday of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. As Edgeworth muses repeatedly, while she claims to be a Phantom Thief in training, she seems to actually want to be a ninja.
- Yomiko in Exit Fate, possibly.
- Hokutomaru from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy III features the Ninja job class. The protagonists are a group of fifteen-year-old kids. Do the math.note
- In Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie Kisaragi is the materia-stealing teenage ninja who is the daughter of the leader of an East Asian-esque region named Wutai.
- Sayu of Genshin Impact is trained to be a ninja, but is still a child prone to laziness and trying to sleep in hopes of growing taller.
- Izuna, from Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja.
- Kid Niki, in Kid Niki: Radical Ninja.
- Mini Ninjas - all of the playable characters are kids (preteens at the oldest)
- Ninja Master's - Hao Ninpo Cho: Kasumi is an aspiring kunoichi, and her childish mannerisms and doe-eyed appearance clearly indicate that she is young and inexperienced.
- Jajamaru, from Jaleco's Ninja Jajamaru-kun video game series.
- The Pico series and fan flashes has Hanzo, the odd person out of the Goth-Punks. Everyone else is themed after some type of goth or punk subtype, but Hanzo in particular is a Highly-Visible Ninja who on the flip side cannot be reasoned with in battle and must be slaughtered.
- The Ninja Boy trainer class from the 3rd-gen and 4th-gen Pokémon games. They are young ninjas in training who hide in the background to surprise trainer with impromptu battles.
- Ayame from Power Stone.
- Natsu, Taki's apprentice and Naruto's genderflipped Expy from Soul Calibur V.
- Ibuki from Street Fighter III is a high-school age ninja who struggles to balance her obligations to her clan and her desires for a teenage social life.
- Kat and Ana from the WarioWare series are twin ninjas-in-training who are young enough to be in kindergarten.
Web Animation
- Garu and Tobe from Pucca.
Webcomics
- In Marilith, Yulia's granddaughter Monika wants to be a ninja when she grows up.
- Robin's brother in The Wotch, due to being a Naruto fan.
- The McNinja family in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja have been trained as ninja since birth, although by the time the story begins both the Doc and his little brother Sean have aged out of this trope.
Web Original
- In Game Grumps, Ninja Brian's daughter Ninja Audrey (age two) is more powerful than he is, although unlike him she doesn't have a Ph.D.
