Kodachi thought hard about her new student. It was clear she was trained in the old Anything Goes school before it organized. Then there was her name, Ryoko Saotome. But the girl was too old to be Ranma-sama and Akane-sensei's daughter. She was twelve and ten years ago Ranma and Akane were only expecting their first child. And then there was Ryoko's descriptions of her father.
"I…I was taught by my father, K…Kodachi-sama. He is an exceptional teacher and a g…great martial artist. He w..was always there to help me and find g..great techniques for me to learn and he..he was always there to encourage me…"
That description might equate to Ranma if it weren't for both the age problem and the fact that the village elders said her father had tried to steal from the village, which would equate to Genma Saotome, of all unlikely possibilities, if it weren't for several factors.
First, Ryoko was far too versed in academic pursuits and not as sharp on her martial skills as she should have been.
Second, Kodachi had a hard time believing that Genma was brave enough to break his parole. Cowardice ran through his system with the force of an over-full bladder.
Third, the girl's attitude was all wrong for anyone trained by Genma.
Fourth, Kodachi thoroughly believed that Genma's first and only (in her mind) child had probably taken together all the potential of his wretched existence and wrung it out of him. As such, she thoroughly doubted his ability to reproduce.
Some had told Kodachi that her ability to understand people and situations sometimes had glaring blindspots, such as how long it took her to realize that Ranma had both male and female forms.
She had worked on that…to a degree.
Of course give the fact that some of her factors were still somewhat arbitrary opinions, it would have been apparent that some of her blind spots were still there.
There were some other factors as well. Though these operated unconsciously.
First, if Ryoko really were Ranma's sister, Kodachi would have to send a message to Ranma about the two girls.
That would mean Ranma would probably take over training Ryoko, which would give her nothing to bargain with in exchange for getting information about what the Musk did with her son.
And that would make it impossible to re-unite her family and get revenge on the Musk that tore them apart.
That could not be allowed.
Therefore, Ryoko cannot be Ranma's sister.
Out of these factors, passed through first Ryoko-vision and then Kodachi-vision, Kodachi came to the conclusion that Ryoko was the daughter of some student of Happosai's or Genma's that had taken Genma's name to artificially raise himself from the common herd.
Such was a common ploy for little, unexceptional people.
However, there was a way to test that.
She looked in front of her to where Ryoko sat waiting for instruction.
Kodachi finished writing her instructions out on the page in front of her, ink and paper filled with chi so that she could see it, and handed it to Mokya.
"I learned chi manipulation from my masters, Ranma and Akane Saotome," Mokya said, pausing as instructed in the writing.
"Ano…" Ryoko said, raising her hand. "Did you say Saotome?"
Kodachi nodded and gestured toward Ryoko, Mokya watching.
"Kodachi-sama wishes to know if you know her masters," the girl asked.
"No, I have n..not heard of s..such people," Ryoko said.
Kodachi gestured for Mokya to continue reading. Obviously, she was not part of the same Saotome family and Kodachi's conclusions were correct.
"Chi is not part of a person, a person is part of chi," Mokya continued reading. "It can fortify your body, extend your life and make you capable of amazing feats of physical ability. It can also drive you mad, turn you into a monster and destroy you. As you have seen. You must understand chi and understand its wants and patterns. Then you must change yourself to match them."
"Mokya-san," Ryoko said. "You read very well."
"Thank you, Ryoko-chan," Mokya said, reaching over to pat the younger girl on the head.
Kodachi tapped on the stone underneath her.
"Oh, right," Mokya said, clearing her throat. "Now, before we go much further, we need to work on your chi-blindness."
"Ano…" Ryoko said. "Chi-blindness?"
Kodachi stood up and gestured for Ryoko to do the same and for Mokya to come over. The blind woman gestured around Ryoko's head and then at Mokya with a thumb's up.
"She says your thoughts seem to be adapted clearly," Mokya said before following Kodachi pointing out several spots on the Saotome girl's body. "Oh, yes, yes. I see that. There are several places in your body where the chi is muddled. So I guess it isn't all getting to your brain."
"That's my chakra again," Ryoko said, depressed.
Kodachi seemed to consider that and then shrugged while nodding.
"She says maybe," Mokya translated still watching her mistress.
Kodachi pointed down the street toward a shopkeeper down the road from the park they were in. She held both her hands low. She pointed to herself and rose one hand higher than the other, the low one maybe five inches over where it had been for the shopkeeper. Then she covered one eye briefly and showed the hands opposite, the one going lower and the other going higher. Then she pointed at Ryoko and held both hands at a median level, one two-thirds as high as the other. And then she held one hand up and waved it indecisively
Ryoko understood that without waiting for the explanation that came from Mokya, both the shopkeeper's chi capacity and chakra coils were undeveloped and weak. Kodachi's chi capacity was high, but her chakra coils were higher than the shopkeepers, but less than a tenth of her chi-capacity. Kakashi was in the opposite situation. Ryoko meanwhile had large amounts of both chi capacity and chakra coils, and though her chi capacity was larger than her chakra coils, they were closer together than either of her two senseis.
The last gesture meant these were just estimates.
"But if it is chakra that is the problem?" Ryoko said. "How can I control the chi and the chakra at the same time?"
Kodachi whapped her lightly on the back of the head and moved to write something down for Mokya.
"Didn't you hear?" Mokya read. "We do not control chi, we channel it. We understand the circumstances that would cause chi to want the same things we do and we create those circumstances within ourselves."
"If it is all about controlling yourself," Ryoko said. "Why doesn't everybody use chi?"
Kodachi nodded and waved her hands in a circle, Mokya watched, recognizing the explanation.
"Everybody does use chi," she said, watching Kodachi move her hands to point to her own body. "Everybody uses chakra."
At this point Ryoko moved to her stack of paper and her pen again and started writing.
"Move, think, communicate," Mokya read. "Most people can do all these things, but most can't do them well."
Two dogs sat with their leashes tied to a post as three figures stood nearby.
Ryoko moved through the hand signs again, trying to follow the visualization instructions she'd gotten from Kakashi-sensei and the advice she'd gotten from her younger sister. It was incredibly different from what she was used to.
Chi was all about the world around, flowing from one state to the next and altering those flows to the best of your advantage. The chi within you was never the same, you could encourage it to swirl in greater and greater amounts through you and you could take matters to quickly replace what you just used, but you couldn't hold it long.
The Musk priestess was a perfect example of what would happen if you tried to make chi do what it didn't want to do.
Chakra was about herself and her own reserves, something she hadn't used before. At least not consciously. She had only some textual understanding of it herself. She knew that chakra was like a reservoir that built up in the body and stayed within. She knew that it was a combination of physical and spiritual energy.
Knew not understood.
All she understood for certain was that her chakra was apparently interfering with her chi. That the chakra was what made her a clumsy user of chi.
At the moment, she had closed her awareness to chi, like closing another set of eyes, so that she could focus on chakra instead. At least to try, unfortunately, she had had no luck noticing anything while concentrating on her hand signs yet.
Kakashi watched as Ryoko sat there growing more glum and frowned.
"She needs a breakthrough," Kakashi thought quietly.
Kakashi wasn't the only one watching Ryoko as she trained.
Sasuke paid very close attention to her moves.
He remembered that she'd said something about purging herself of one sort of chi or another to avoid certain effects. If he could learn how to do that much, he'd never have to worry about the problem he faced against the priestess again. Now, the question was whether or not to ask her about how to do it, or just watch her to see if he could figure out how.
"By the way," Kakashi said a bit louder. "Where's Naruto?"
The question heralded the sound of a commotion coming from around the next corner. Ryoko focused mostly on her hand signs, but Sasuke and Kakashi turned to look at the source of the noise.
Which meant that Sasuke had plenty of time to dodge out of the way before the large pack of dogs dragging along an almost airborne Naruto. Kakashi was already out of the path so he merely arched an eyebrow and watched.
"I think I felt something mov…" Ryoko thought to herself. "Ano…that is outside me…"
She turned around in time to see the dogs inches away from her.
"WAAAHHH!" she shouted as the dogs trampled over her and continued carrying Naruto into the distance.
Kakashi-sensei walked over to where Ryoko was sitting up dizzily.
"Are you okay?" he asked, thinking that she was usually much more aware of things happening around her.
"Itai," she muttered.
"I don't do much work on snakes, Anko," Hana said. "Besides, aren't your snakes summons?"
"There's a lot to be said for having a common snake around the house," Anko said. "For one thing, it makes for a lot fewer rats."
As the woman was poking around, she idly picked up a green and purple notebook and opened it up. Immediately her eyes widened and she started flipping through pages.
"Why Hana, I never knew," Anko said teasingly.
Hana turned around and noticed what was in Anko's hands.
"Oh, that's not mine," Hana said.
"'Subdued Bliss', 'Body of Serenity'," the semi-crazy special jonin read. "With notes on the differences between a male and female anatomy. Is your mother holding out on us?"
"I got that from one of the Academy Students," Hana said.
"The academy students," the snake-woman said. "This is a bit heavy stuff for eight year olds."
"It's mostly just massage techniques," Hana said defensively.
"Oh, you have read it," Anko noted. "Thinking of picking up a…significant other? Or two?"
"Anko," Hana said, flushing bright red.
"Besides, it's not the techniques," Anko said. "It's the implications written in between the lines."
"I've been meaning to talk to the girl that supposedly wrote them down," Hana said. "But as I heard she's been busy with training lately and I haven't wanted anybody else to get on her."
"Well, I can speak to her if you want," Anko said suggestively, smile wide.
"You're more likely to encourage her," Hana accused playfully.
"Come on, Hana," Anko said. "You don't think I'm the kind of woman that encourages kids going at it, do you?"
"Maybe not intentionally," Hana said, crossing her arms.
"I swear," Naruto said as the three walked back from giving their report to the hokage. "All we've done since we got back was walk dogs and weed gardens and stuff like that."
"And some of those you've messed up because you weren't paying attention," Sasuke said.
"Uzumaki-san tries very hard," Ryoko protested.
"Thank you Ryoko-chan," Naruto said.
"But you do ge…get reckless," Ryoko commented as she still tried her hand-signs, chi-senses closed as she did so.
"Ryoko-chan," Naruto said.
"How's your training with the blind woman going?" Sasuke asked, changing subjects.
"Ano…" Ryoko said. "It is going well…I think. But I feel…"
"You feel what?" Sasuke asked.
Ryoko said nothing, but Naruto thought he could guess.
When she was just taking the remedial classes in chakra generation, she had been a bit uncertain but still confident. However, ever since she'd come back from this last mission, Ryoko had been second guessing herself on a lot of her actions.
It was subtle, but Naruto had sparred against her enough to know the difference.
Naruto could guess why. That last mission, between Kodachi-sensei and that priestess, Ryoko had learned that she knew fatally little about her own set of skills and was essentially taking remedial classes in something she thought she was capable with.
In essence, she was feeling sort of like Naruto had been made to feel most of his life.
Stupid.
Naruto frowned at the problem and then something finally came to him.
"Excuse me," Naruto said. "I gotta go check something out."
Ryoko and Sasuke blinked as Naruto leaped off into the city.
"He does not want Ramen?" Ryoko asked confused as she pointed up the street toward the shop they always ate at.
"That is unusual," Sasuke agreed.
"Okay," Kurenai said to her genin. "That about covers everything then. Everybody is shaping up very well, everybody." And that last word was emphasized as she looked at Hinata.
"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said, bowing and blushing at once.
"So far there isn't anything we can't find," Kiba boasted loudly. "Isn't that right, Shino?"
"We have become quite skilled at reconnaissance," the quiet boy agreed.
"Okay, tomorrow you've got tomorrow's training regimen and you know where to meet for missions," Kurenai said. "So I guess that's…"
Naruto landed in the middle of the group.
"Ah, Hinata-chan, I need your help," Naruto declared grabbing her hand. "Kurenai-sensai do you mind if I borrow Hinata here?"
"Nee…nee…" Hinata started to say before everything turned black.
"Eh…oh, Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan!" she heard Naruto calling as all knowledge faded away.
Hinata came to sometime later with someone fanning her awake.
"Ah, Hinata," Kiba said. "Welcome back."
"Wh…what happened?" Hinata asked.
"Naruto showed up and you fainted," Kiba said. "He's talking to Kurenai-sensei now."
"What about?" Hinata asked.
"Ryoko Saotome," Shino said.
"So that's your concern," Kurenai said. "Have you talked to Kakashi about this? Or this Kodachi woman?"
"Umm, well, I just sort of thought of it now," Naruto said.
"I see," Kurenai said frowning. "I'd suggest you bring it up to them."
"Yeah, until then, can I talk to Hinata?" Naruto asked.
"Looks like she's awake and we're finished," Kurenai looked over to where Hinata was watching them. "I don't see why not. Hinata, do you mind if you help out Naruto with something?"
"Umm, no…" Hinata said shyly and pointing her fingers together. "What's going on?"
"Ryoko's having to take all this basic training," Naruto said. "And I think she's feeling kinda…weak."
"Ryoko-chan?" Hinata said. "She's amazing. Why would she feel weak?"
An image of that glowing priestess calling Ryoko "a half-apprenticed chi-adept."
"I don't know," Naruto said. "She's just not…I don't know…as enthused."
"Well," Hinata said. "I do have one idea."
She looked over at Kiba who blinked in confusion. Naruto turned to follow Hinata's gaze and found the same tattooed young Inuzuka, at which he flinched.
"No, no," he said waving his hands. "No sacrificial Kibas!"
"I need another week at least on that technique, I'm not ready for this yet," Kiba said to Akamaru, who was sitting on his head as he sat outside the Inuzuka home. "I can't believe they talked me into this."
"Who talked you into what?" Joseibi asked as she came outside to wait for her sister.
"Take a sniff, pup..err kit," Kiba said. "See if your nose can find them."
Joseibi frowned and rolled her eyes as she took a deep breath through her nose.
"I can smell…ramen?" she said. "And…medicine?"
"Naruto and Hinata, at least what's around them," Kiba said looking over at Joseibi. "Guess you can't smell them yet, but doing better, kit. Mom's got you working hard I guess."
"That still doesn't say what Naruto and Hinata talked you into," Joseibi said.
As she spoke, her sister appeared at the end of the street, working on hand-signs.
Joseibi started to stand up, but blinked as Kiba took a deep breath and beat her to it.
"Here goes," he said. "Are you ready Akamaru?"
The dog barked grimly.
Joseibi looked at him curiously wondering if he was psyching himself to ask Ryoko out or something.
Kiba stood up and started to walk forward.
"What's going on out here?" Hana asked as she walked out into the front of the house.
Joseibi merely shrugged.
"Hey, Saotome," Kiba said walking forward. "Do you still think you can beat me in a fight?"
Joseibi felt her seat slip out from under her as Kiba said that.
"Ano…" Ryoko said, eyes widening. "Is that a challenge?"
Kiba swallowed and then firmed himself up.
"Yes, that's a challenge," Kiba said.
"WAI!" Ryoko cried out cheerfully. "Wh…where's the closest training field?"
"We have one out back," Hana offered, blinking at the elder Saotome's attitude. "For the dogs, but it should be big enough. Naruto and Hinata can come in and watch too, if they want."
Two genin felt a sudden case of sweat as they stood up out of the benches and sheepishly walked over to join the group.
"Eh, heh," Naruto said. "So, shall we go watch?"
Ryoko practically danced toward the Inuzuka training areas. Kiba came behind her with Joseibi giving him a slight bow as he passed.
"What's the bow for, Joseibi-chan?" Hana asked.
"Respect for the departed," the blonde Saotome said.
"Wah!" Ryoko gasped as she dodged under Kiba's clawed swipes.
She rolled away from the other fighter coming to a standing position as the other Kiba sweeped in from behind straight into a reverse roundhouse that forced him to dodge.
The kicking hand swung downward, Ryoko's other leg arced upward into a crescent following her own line of force until it swept downward in a straightline axe directed at the Kiba that had just dodged her roundhouse.
The dog-ninja, or his clone, dodged back barely, leaving Ryoko to pound a small crater into the ground. Rising up from her landing, Ryoko snapped an elbow backwards, catching the first Kiba on the chin.
"Oh, sumimasen!" Ryoko gasped as she whirled about, another elbow catching that Kiba in the side as she did so. "Oh, I ..did not mean…"
"Why does she keep apologizing?" Hana asked.
"Haoto no Suzumebachi," Joseibi said.
"Buzzing of Hornets?" Hinata asked.
"Dad has a long lecture about keeping people off balance and unfocused," Joseibi said. "But it amounts to chattering during a fight."
"So that's a technique then?" Naruto said, confused.
"I guess," Joseibi said shrugging. "She's been trying to teach me a bit. She claims there's a lot of timing to it."
The bokken swung out, not very cleanly to the views of most of the ninja present.
"Sheesh, I don't get that stick," Naruto said. "Everytime I get rid of it she seems to get better."
Hinata and Joseibi remained suspiciously silent to that particular comment.
Ryoko twisted back carrying one of the Kibas over her head and back into the other, taking her sword with it, which dodged aside to let the one she'd thrown roll into the fall.
A look of desperation on their faces, Kiba and Akamaru looked at each other.
"Let's try it," he snapped.
As he called out, both Kibas leaped outward at Ryoko at once, spinning like a corkscrew. Ryoko leaped over the two and watched as Kiba and Akamaru landed on their hands and immediately leaped back into action, corkscrewing again.
On the sidelines, Hana shook her head. By Kiba's own admission, the Fang over Fang technique was unfinished. Now wasn't the time to be trying it out.
Ryoko blinked as the two came at her. The technique was interesting, but nothing tremendously dangerous, she set herself ready as they approached. The girl waited for them to come at her, and dodged aside. As soon as she had the pattern of their overall timing, she let the actions move from themselves to avoid her two opponents while she tried catch understanding of the chi flows about them.
Feeling the chi of an opponent was easy for her to do, something she fell back on instinctually. However, Kiba and Akamaru stayed within the range of her awareness only briefly each time they past giving her only a fragment of time to feel what was happening around them.
While waiting to get more information about their spin, unaware she was looking at a fraction of the power of the fully completed technique, she concentrated on readying herself for action, unaware that as she did so she was following recently gained habits.
One of her opponents was launching himself into the air at her when suddenly the world around seemed to awaken to host of sensations. Waves of energy all about her, like whole new spectrums of color and light. Something she had only ever seen once before, in that woman's shrine. Only this time, instead of just one glaring new color, there were whole new rainbows. Swirling about her in great currents.
Her eyes widened and body froze as she realized what she was seeing and part of what she was doing.
"Is that a hand sign?" Joseibi asked.
As for those watching were surprised to see Kiba and Akamaru plow into an unmoving Ryoko.
It was a bad hit, one which Ryoko hadn't prepared for at all.
"Ryoko-chan!" Naruto and Hinata shouted at once as they leaped to their feet.
"Oneesan!" Joseibi called out along with them.
Hana herself stood up and went inside for a first aid kit. She wasn't trained in dealing over much with the human body, but she had basic first aid knowledge.
Akamaru popped out of his transformation as Kiba stood up over the battered, unconscious form of Ryoko.
"What the hell," Kiba shouted. "It was like she just stopped fighting!"
"You were supposed to be helping cheer her up," Naruto said. "Not kill her."
"Well sorry if I don't feel like not trying to win," Kiba said.
"Her vital areas are okay," Hinata said as Hana came up to her side.
Ryoko started coming to in front of them.
"Hello, Ryoko-chan," Hana said. "Can you hear me?"
'Hai, Hana-san," Ryoko said dizzily.
Everybody blinked as the usually very formal girl used the given name of someone older than her.
"Okay, Ryoko-chan," Hana said cautiously. "Looks like you have a concussion, does anything hurt?"
Ryoko sat up woozily looked at her left arm hanging in a way that obviously spoke of being dislocated. Briefly she leaned forward and forcefully thrust her weight onto the arm before anybody could stop her. The arm snapped back into place in her joint, sending a visible shiver down her body.
"I see, control yourself," Ryoko said, smiling radiantly before passing out again.
"Okay," Hana said. "Kiba, go to the hospital."
"Right," Kiba said turning about quickly.
"I'm sorry, Joseibi-chan," Hinata said. "We didn't think this would happen."
Paradoxically, Joseibi seemed to be relaxing.
"She's been worse," she said. "She'll get better just fine."
"I was just going to say it looked like minor injuries," Hana said, eyes narrowing at Joseibi's addition that Ryoko had been injured worse.
Elsewhere, Sasuke was practicing on his own.
Sitting in meditation as he held a hand sign and focused.
It was obvious that chi was powerful with its own advantages and disadvantages. Still, it was something that his brother did not have and it could be useful.
In addition, he had a vulnerability right now. If they met another of these so called "false-masters" then they would be able incapacitate him again as that priestess had. Truly, he assumed that a similar situation could have been set up to incapacitate Naruto or Kakashi. In fact, Kodachi-Sensei had created one such effect in which he'd been free to act.
But if he could do like Ryoko did, and be able switch out one for the other, then he could avoid such problems in the future.
However, he wanted it his own secret. He didn't want to ask for direct training from either Kodachi or Ryoko, because then either of them would realize that he knew.
Instead, he had to learn how to observe them.
He already knew the physical reach of Kodachi's blind senses and the holes in her servant's awareness. That had been easy to determine on the trip back home. Now all he needed was a tool to more closely observe his two unwitting tutors.
A sound in the distance attracted his attention and he looked, opening his eyes to reveal red irises with black tear shapes within.
A moment after his eyes opened, the sharingan faded from his face.
He couldn't hold it yet, but he was getting better.
Some distance away, a nobleman was brought a message carried in on a messenger bird. Blinking he straightened himself and smiled as he took in the message.
"Chunin exams again," he said. "They're going to be in Konoha this time."
"Konoha," a woman's voice commented. "When will you be going?"
"I don't think I will be," the noble said. "I have issues I must attend to here at about the same time. Are you interested?"
"It sounds like it might be entertaining at least," the woman said. "And perhaps I can find a clue to my search."
"Then you're welcome to use my invitation," the man noted.
"Oh, thank you, Takeshi-san," the woman said with a polite bow.
"It's no problem," Takeshi said. "After all, you are part of the family, even if your name is Saotome now, Nodoka."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:23)
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